Blue and White

Have I ever told you my all time favorite color? Well, it's blue. I've always imagined having one of those "decorator magazine" bedrooms, with 3 or 4 blue and white quilts on the bed. Blue was Dad's favorite color too, and when he moved in with us we painted his bedroom blue. Wanted to make him feel like he was home. Well, Dad's been gone for awhile, and I'm thinking that the room is "too blue," if you know what I mean. I'm thinking that I'm going to paint the room white, and have blue accents. This way, when I get to changing my mind, as I'm prone to do, I can add some other colors. This year I've decided that I'm making a blue and white quilt for ME! I've got lots of blues in my stash, way more than are in the pic, (see below), and it's going to happen! I figure if I do a few of these units a week, by the end of the year I can make this happen.


I like using triangle papers. I have a CD called "Triangulations", and I can print out lots of different size templates for half square triangles. That's my fav way to make them. No trimming once they are cut. Accurate beyond a doubt. Yes, I have to tear away the paper, but I can do that while I'm waiting for blogger to upload my photos! :)

Maria Elkins Workshop

Maria Elkins came to our guild this week and gave a great lecture on the quilts she has done. Check out her website, I think you'll be inspired. She gave a workshop today called "Making Faces" We sent her a photo and she manipulated it in Photoshop Elements and gave us three copies. It was done in a grayscale with four layers. We were to pick four monochromatic fabrics with a high contrast. At first I thought I'd like to do some grays to blacks. Solid fabrics, you know, safe picks. I did bring them just in case.

I ended up going with blue. When the workshop started I thought to myself, what did I get myself into. I thought we were going to have to cut out tons of little pieces. It wasn't that way at all. We worked in layers. It went well. It isn't as hard as it looks.


We were all amazed at how our photos turned out. If you'd like to try this, visit Maria's site, and check out her DVD. She has also been published in "Quilting Arts" magazine.

One kid down, and four to go. Juice says she wants purple for hers!

A New Baby on the Way!

My oldest niece Jessica is having a baby!! The little bundle of joy is expected to hit the shores of Lake Erie some time in February. We are all excited for her.

At last count, this will be my mom's 7th great grandchild! Hopefully, I didn't forget anyone!

Here is a picture of the quilt that I made for her. It was an American Jane Pattern, and the fabric line was called "Punctuation", by Moda.The quilting pattern is moon and stars, which I have nicknamed, "Sweet Dreams". I've always told my children that if mom isn't near when you need her, take your quilt, and wrap it tightly around you. You will then have a hug from the momma.

So, just to make sure this new precious one has enough hugs, I've also crocheted an afghan for him. (Yes, we know it's a him. I'm bummed about that. There are so few surprises in this world, I think that the gender of a new baby should be left to find out for the special day!)

May the Lord bless you and keep you Jess, may His face shine upon you, and bring you peace!
I know the joy is on it's way!

.....and the cow jumped over the mewwwwnnnn!!!

They say that life is but a vapor, and I'm really beginning to believe it. I've known Sierra since she was a newborn. Now she's all grown and having a baby of her own. What could be more perfect for a new born than a comfy log cabin quilt. I just love the simplicity of it. They have always been one of my favorites. There's a story behind the quilting pattern. When Sierra was a toddler, she loved to recite the nursery rhyme, "Hey Diddle Diddle". When she was about to finish, she would end it saying, "...and the cow jumped over the mewwwnnn!" The facial expressions were the best. She would crunch up her whole face all the while. Just precious. When I saw this pattern from One Song Needle Arts, I knew I had to use it. It's a cow jumping over the moon!

Sierra, my the Lord bless you and keep you, may His face shine upon you, and your little one.

A Quilt from Bubba & Blogger's Quilt Festival

Welcome to Blogger's Quilt Festival. To celebrate the big show in Houston for those who can't attend, Amy has done a wonderful job of gathering together a vast number of blogger's to hold an online quilt show. Click on the link on my sidebar, and you will find all of the info there. There are lots of great prizes to be won too!! The quilt I'm featuring today was not pieced by me, but I quilted it. It was made my John's, (my DH), Bubba. She made a lot of the clothes that his dad, uncles, and aunt wore, as well as ulitarian quilts for the family. She died a little over 25 years ago, and John's aunt was holding two of these unfinished quilt tops. The quilts were made with home dec fabrics, and she even left some of the paper with fabric descriptions attached to the squares.
Since I am the only one that makes quilts in the family, John's aunt gave the two tops to me. I quilted this one up, and gave it to DH for our anniversay a few years ago. I have yet to quilt the second one. I chose a flannel for the back. I just love the softness, and warmth that flannel brings to a quilt.

Have a great time at the festival!! Thanks for your hard work Amy!!

Liberated Quiltmaking Classes

Join me on November 14th and 21st from Noon 'till four, at Anna's Sewing Center, 24357 Lorain Rd., North Olmsted, Ohio, where I will be teaching a class on Liberated Quiltmaking. This is a process oriented class, as opposed to a project oriented class. We will cover the ins and outs of free from piecing, soft curve piecing, and angeled cuts. Call 440-716-8884 to sign up.

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010

Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival is always a good place to get your creative juices flowing. She's at it again, so grab your laptop, a cup of tea, and check out all of the amazing quilts. Her list of participants is up to 486. To get started, all you need to do is click on the link on the side bar, and all of the sites are listed. This quilt is for my big, little guy. When he was nine, I made him a cozy, flannel and homespun quilt, something close to 54 X 54. A few months ago he brought the quilt to me and said, "mom, did doesn't fit anymore, I need a bigger one". (He's now 6'2") I figured I just make another cuddly quilt with the flannel, then he also adds, "I don't want one of your 'old lady' quilts, I want bright". I told him about the stack of batiks I had, blues, greens, and purples, you know, nice "guy colors", and he said, "Well add some hot pinks, and yellows too!"

In March, I went on a weekend retreat with my quilty friends to get this thing started. I took my batiks, the black fabric, and with no pattern in mind, I cut 1 1/2" strips, and 2 1/2" strips of all the colors. I started piecing them together randomly until I got a 14 1/2" block. It was easy when I started off with the 2 1/2 square. The combinations just flowed. I thought I could come up with the correct size finished block by starting with the 1 1/2" square, but it couldn't be done unless I added a 3 1/2" strip, so I made the four smaller blocks, and sewed them together to get the 14 1/2". Worked like a charm. I finished the blocks that weekend, but didn't get them sewn together until recently. I let my guy arrange the blocks to his liking, and then sewed them together. I asked him to choose the quilting pattern, and the thread. He wanted lime green, I told him the I had a reputation to uphold, so we compromised. I ended up using a varigated thread that had greens, blues and purples. I used some of the leftover strips to make the binding, and finished it up yesterday. He's a happy guy!! He has another hug from mom.

On a side note, he throws the discus for his track team at school, and took third place at district finals. He'll be going to sectionals later this week.

Another finish

I bought the fabric for this quilt approximately three years ago. Cut the quilt out, pieced part of it, but didn't finish it until last spring. (2009). In October, I went on a weekend retreat with 4 of my quilty friends.......

....and made the backing. I used all of the left overs I had from the top, and only needed to purchase another yard. Two weeks ago, oh maybe three, I finally got it on the machine to quilt it. Binding is on, and it is finished! Thought I would leave it in the living room, and put the snowman quilt away for the winter, but my little peep has already confiscated it. Guess I'll have to make another for the living room!

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!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

For Blogger's Quilt Festival, I've decided to tell you about my log cabin quilt. This is the first bed quilt that I have ever made. This quilt actually belongs to my husband, but he'd be hard pressed to find it at any given time, because one of the kids usually snatch it for their bed. It is one of the most well loved, and worn quilts in the house.

If you look closely on the bottom right side of this photo, there is a cut in the fabric. My oldest, who is now 24 decided to "help" me finish it by taking a pair of scissors and cutting it. (He was 3 at the time.) After I scolded him about playing with scissors, (I'll have to tell you the rotary cutter story some other time), I couldn't bear to hide his part in making the quilt, so I left the cut. It has never gotten bigger while being washed or used, so I guess it was meant to be! The binding is so worn, it is practically see through. Amy from Park City Girl is hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival. There you will find links to many other quilts to be inspired by. Check it out!

One Block Wonder--Cosmic Cabbage Roses

It all started with this piece of fabric. What pattern could you possible use to justify cutting this up?

Here's one block......... ...and here's another.

These are what I had at the time I took the pictures, now I'm up to 42 blocks.