Found It!

One of the projects I worked on at Cambria was, in the words of Penelope's creator, the "biggest honkin' bear paw blocks" she has ever seen.  I got help from the entire crew in creating the HST's (couldn't even make one before I got there and now I know how to abbreviate it - quick learner!).   Look at Quiltgranny's Blog for a picture of all the help I got making the HST's!  Then, during our sewing soiree, I worked on bear toenails and bear paw blocks while Sherri worked on her 4th or 5th quilt - I forget which.  That was the night we stayed up until 3:30 a.m.  Sherri - the real reason I didn't want to stay up was I ran out of the fabric  to complete the blocks.  If I'd had the fabric, I'd have worked to finish the quilt.  Oh, well - sorry about that! 

That creamy orangey batik seemed like it would be such an easy thing to find at a quilt shop - it's a great blender and I've used it in two other quilts.  But the shop in Columbus went out of business last summer so no luck there.  And I hadn't been able to find it at any of the shops I'd been in since then, including the shops in California.

And then, on my way to deliver a quilt to a quilt show, I stopped in Sharynn's Quilt Box in North Vernon, Indiana.    You can see the new fabric just above the bear toenails.  While it's not an exact match, it's so very close that it will work in the small amounts needed in the quilt.  And there will be another strip of fabric between the old and new fabrics so I'm sure it will work.  There was just over a yard on the bolt and I bought it all.  Probably more than I need but I'm sure I'll be able to use it elsewhere.  I'm so excited!  Now I can get to work on cutting out more black bears.

Thanks to those of you who combed through your stashes looking for a good match for me.

Cheers!

Panto Creator

A friend asked me to quilt a T-shirt quilt she was making for the son of a friend.  While I think T-shirt quilts are lots of fun because of the memories they carry with them, quilting them offers several challenges.  Do you quilt over the screen printing or not?  Do you do an all over design or custom design in each block?

My preference is doing custom designs in each block, giving the quilt a more personal feel.  But by the time I reach the end of the quilt my creative juices have all run out and it is sometimes a struggle to come up with unique designs for the last few blocks.

On this most recent quilt, I also struggled with what to put in the 6" wide border until I realized that a bullfrog would be the best thing to include.  The young man for whom the quilt is being made has been on the Columbus North Bullfrog Swim Team for several years and quite a few of the T-shirts were from various swimming events.

I looked for appropriate bullfrog pantos online but couldn't find anything appropriate.  So to the design board (a.k.a. kitchen table) I went.  I sketched a semblance of the bullfrog logo and did what I could to make the design continuous.  While most pantographs don't include any backtracking, there just wasn't any way around it in two instances if the integrity of the bullfrog was to remain.

What do you think??  Cute little critter, isn't it?

Cheers!

Spring is Sprung!

Yesterday was going to be yard work all day.  As bright as it was outside, I thought it would be comfortable working weather.  Was I wrong!  Cold...cold...cold.  Finally got outside around 3 p.m. and it had warmed up by then so it was comfortable working.  Got the lawnmower to start - always a big question.  Got the fertilizer spread so we'll see how quickly the weeds grow.  Lots of daffodils already out and the tulips should be out shortly.  Even saw a bunny in the yard when I got home late last evening.

Today's going to be a good day for reading, relaxing and maybe a little quilting. 

Cheers!

So Many Choices!

Got the second of two baby quilts done today.  One was a panel so lots of outlining animal figures.  Very cute but very time consuming.  So now I have to decide what to work on next - the T-shirt quilt that needs to be done next week or a smaller quilt that would be great fun to quilt.

Or do I work on sample ribbons for our quilt show in October?  In a weak moment, I volunteered to make the ribbons for our show - at least the embroidered parts.  Susan volunteered to make the quilt block that tops the ribbons using a new tool she has for quick and easy LeMoyne Stars.  Oh, boy - another tool I can investigate!

Here's another picture from my trip to California.  I spent a few days with my sister before going to the quilt retreat.  We took the architectural tour of the Getty museum - well worth the time.  It was a gorgeous day and the grounds were lovely.  I was particulary intrigued by these arbors.  The shape of the steel rods would make a great quilting design, don't you think??  Almost looks like an empty spool of thread! 

Oh, well - on to work at something.

Cheers!

Now for the Quilting!

Having gotten the suitcase unloaded, clothes washed - well almost - and quilting supplies put in their appropriate places, I can start to think about quilting that needs to be done.  On top of the Cambria projects, I now have several customer quilts to complete.  Just picked up three more this morning...one I knew about and two others that jumped out of Jeannette's UFO stash for me to quilt.  How lucky I am to have such wonderful quilting friends.

View from the Queen's Balcony at Cambria - gorgeous sunsets.

Also got the Cambria pictures uploaded to my PC so you will see my favorite above.

Now to the quilting projects!

Cheers!

On a Quilting High

I just returned from the Third Annual Seaside Stitchers retreat.  I was the Newbie this year and it was a great experience.  Wonderful location, great quilters, and lots of scenery by the sea - a slice of quilting heaven, for sure.  The view from the upper balcony is now the wallpaper for my phone

The energy in that group was enormous - or why I'm starting a blog.  There was a plethora of new tools, tips and techniques on display throughout the week.  We took time to shop the local quilt shops and I managed to buy two different sets of borders for the quilt I was working on.  The first fabric worked well with the quilt top and I was happy.  But when we got to a different quilt store, the same fabric was there in a different color that was really dynamic - that was the one!

As soon as I quilt the three customer quilts waiting for me, I'll get the Cambria project quilted and a photo on my new blog.  And as soon as my camera battery charges up, I'll add some pictures from the week.  In the meantime, I've got to quilt!

Cheers!