Electric Quilt 7

Btw, just in case you haven't heard, Electric Quilt is releasing EQ7. The new features are amazing. You can check it out here!

Kate's Quilt

So, a little more than two weeks ago my son Dan says to me, "Hey Mom, I want to make Kate, (his girl), a quilt for her birthday, will you help me?" I say, "Sure, when's her birthday?" He says, "April 21st!" Now, I know I might look like wonder woman, (that was supposed to be funny!), but I guess we can try to pull this off. He sends me a picture of some quilt blocks on my phone. They were stack 'n wack blocks that looked easy enough, and I thought okay this won't be so bad. I send him to the quilt shop to pick out fabric, then he came home with his bag of goodies and sketchbook. He had drawn pieced blocks to alternate with the stack 'n wack blocks. I thought, "Ummmmmmm, how is this going to look?" Well, we got busy. We worked for three nights, into the weeeee, and I mean weeee hours. The pieced blocks were two-color blocks. A white tone on tone, and a brown fabric with polka dots. The fabrics he chose for the other blocks needed a little brightening up, so I sent him to my studio to pick out some batiks, and brighter fabrics.

I wasn't pleased with the way the stack 'n wack blocks looked against the pieced blocks, so we decided to cut them down to 10 1/2", and frame them with a 1" border. That really kicked things up a notch! One of Kate's favorite characters is Tink. Dan bought an applique, so we added her to one of the blocks. I probably should have turned her to make it look like she was flying, instead of her looking all cheesecake here!!

The night before her birthday, Dan came home and we handstitched the binding on together. It was a striped fabric that I cut on the bias. I like the way that looks on a binding.

We got it done in time for the big day. She loved it. Included in the card he gave her was the story that I've always told my kids. Whenever I gave them a quilt, I told them that when mom's not around, and you need a hug, just wrap that quilt around you, and it will be as close to mom as you can get at the moment. To them a quilt is a hug. Don't you just love it!

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

Windham Fabrics has come out with a line of fabric celebrating the quilts of Gee's Bend. They are gorgeous hand dyed cotton solids featuring amazing colors. Debby Kravotil has reproduced patterns from the Gee's Bend quilts featuring these fabrics. Currently there are four kits available from various sources:

This particular quilt is named "Lazy Gal Variation".... This beauty is named "Housetop Blue"....

this one, "Housetop 4 Block Variation"....

..and Strips & Strings.

I've heard that there may be more kits/patterns available this coming fall.

I was lucky enough to sit on the board of consultants when the Gee's Bends quilts came to The Cleveland Art Museum. It was an exciting time. We were able to meet and talk with the quilters, some of who were unforgettable characters.

It was a no brainer when it came to quilting these quilts. Having the museum catalog to fall back on for design ideas, I chose to use the most simple of quilt designs, not to take anything away from the quilts themselves.

I have purchased many of the fabrics from this line. As I had previously noted, they are hand dyed cottons with minor variations in their colors. In my area, they can be purchased at Anna's Sewing Center, located in North Olmsted.

I'm looking forward to see what the new patterns will look like. These quilts are great inspiration for those improvisational quilts many of us are working on. If you can get ahold of the museum catalog, it is another source of great inspiration.

Birds and Baskets

My sweet friend Nancy could be a one woman show. Her house is so warm and cozy. It is filled with quilts. The walls, the bed, the couch, everywhere. Most of the quilts she does are primitive, and she does a wondful job. She has a spot in her kitchen that she likes to change often. Below is the newest addition.

I love the challenge of quilting a quilt of this style, and I had a lot of fun with this one. Clouds, trees, sun flowers, and holly hocks in the background.

A Wall of Quilts

This is an original design by my friend Pam. Each "quilt" in this quilt was quilted differently. Some were done custom/heirloom, and others had edge to edge patterns.
You can almost imagine the reactions on the peoples faces at the bottom of the quilt. I think she did a great job!

Sis Boom Pow!!

Sweet Victoria, is very prolific quilter. She takes on lots projects, and gets them finished. She gets involved in making charity quilts for many causes, and finds very willing people to help her. These are the latest of her endeavors. They're all quilted, and are being shipped to her this afternoon. Go check out her site, you'll be amazed!

Thimbleberries 2010 Village Green

For all of you Thimbleberries fans out there, I have quilted two of the 2010 quilts. The name of the quilt is Village Green, and it comes in three colorways, Dawn, Dusk, and Midnight. I had to opportunity to quilt Dawn & Midnight.Mary chose to piece the Dawn..........

......and Sharon made Midnight.