Catching Up…

I’ve been busy making progress on a handful of quilts but just haven’t had time to write about it! The first one is a small Hawaiian-themed quilt for my younger daughter’s bedroom wall. She helped piece the strips we used for these “Illinois road” blocks and she just loved the print, which features rainbows and Hawaiian flowers and “honu” (sea turtles). The sky blue is a batik, the only one here. I think that difference causes it to stand out, making it look like the sky on a sunny day with whispy clouds. I began to hand quilt this piece and haven’t quite finished, but every time I look at it, the bright and sweet colors cheer me up.

And I’ve carried on my “quilting in paradise” theme by layering a small quilt for my older daughter on our redwood deck. The joys of Northern California! This quilt has Valentines theme (the print fabric shows “sweet hearts” candies all over it).

That piece is now bound and finished and sitting happily at the foot of her bed as decoration and an occasional lap quilt.

I’ve put my batik stars on hold temporarily while I work with some red, white, and blue fabric that I purchased almost 2 years ago. Really adorable small prints showcase the retro look of these reproduction 1930s and 1940s fabrics. I got most of these at my local quilt shop, The Granary. Fun! I’m still playing around with more fabrics. More soon…

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Spinning pinwheels

In a patriotic mood? Sorry to say I missed posting in July, due to my house move, but to make up for it I captured a photo of a lovely red, white and blue quilt by my friend Anne T. She completed a shop hop in June and quickly produced this beauty as a gift for a friend. It’s so lively to see all these contrasty pinwheel blocks. She did free motion stars all around the borders.

My own quilting projects got packed for my move and my poor sewing machines will need a tuneup after being tossed around by the brawny guys who moved our stuff. I will be setting up a new sewing/art corner in my office soon!

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Friends’ projects… Inspiring hexagons

I had the chance to see some great projects by my friends Anne T. and Olga P., two very talented quilters. I wanted to share pictures of their work–especially the paper piecing they are doing by hand. Both are working on hexagons by the dozen! Olga created her own stars as well using freezer paper pattern pieces. Also pictured here: a gorgeous leaf bowl made by Anne and her “mystery quilt” in Amish colors. Hats off to you both!

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Holiday “mini” blocks

It’s December again. I can hardly believe that the holidays are almost upon us. In a Northern California winter, it may rain, but it never snows. This year the rain has been coming straight over the Pacific from Hawaii, so it’s really quite warm. Yesterday it was around 62 degrees and it hardly feels like December to me, but here’s an attempt to get in the spirit of the season.

Last year I bought a little kit with “mini” prints featuring winter themes–ice skates, wreaths, wrapped gifts, kids on sleds, bells, top-hatted snowmen, and so on–from Connecting Threads. I recently found a “mini” amount of time to work on starting this “mini” quilt made of little patches. I used charm squares (five-inch square pieces), which I subcut into one smaller square and two strips. Then I created sort of half-log cabin blocks (one square, two side strips), and put four of those together into scrappy sets to make these square blocks. The idea came from Three Times the Charm by Me and My Sister Designs.

Here are a few of the individual blocks. After this point, I’ll take nine of the them and put them in a sashed grid. I plan to use white fabric sashing. This mini quilt could be a table topper or rest on a chair when it’s done. Kind of makes me smile. Experiencing the fun side of a snowy day without actually digging my way out is also a plus!

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Crafty Thanksgiving (and a Dash of Halloween)

Happy Thanksgiving, belatedly! I hope you enjoyed a time of peace and joy with your family and/or friends, celebrating this most American of holidays. I was lucky enough to have 9 family members around the table. We roasted a 20.5 pound turkey that kept everyone very well-fed (for days). To liven up my holiday table I created this table runner. I wanted to focus on a single traditional block: the churn dash, or monkey wrench block. Another American standby. I loved how it looked in fall colors, on top of my leaf-tapestry tablecloth. The pretty cornucopia of flowers was selected by my father-in-law and matched perfectly.

I had a few moments of indecision about the border, initially choosing a tiny polka dot. Ultimately I used that dot for the binding and backing because I thought it was too dark for a border. I turned to a pale golden olive green instead. For me, it was a “magic color,” tying everything together. On its own, I’d call it ugly, but mingled with the rest of the colors in the quilt and tablecloth it worked really well.

I almost skipped Halloween, but I did want to share a project I did on the fly as my daughters got ready for trick-or-treat. I made a treat bag for my younger child, who just turned five, to carry her loot in.

It is reversible: the “outside” has two sides, one batik black with an orange witches fabric for its pocket and one side with just the witches fabric; the “reverse” is batik orange with a batik black stripe, and the other side is batik black with another orange-and-black witches/jack o’ lanterns/bats pattern fabric pocket. It did the job nicely for a good stretch of trick-or-treating up until a neighbor answered his door in a scary ghoul costume, sending my daughter shrieking into our arms. After trying to reassure her and hearing her own little pep talk–I heard her whispering quietly, “Self, don’t be scared, self, don’t be scared”–she was still shivering. So she went home to distribute candy to other kids, just as much fun in its own way.

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PIQF 2012, Part 3 – Japanese Quilts and Marble Quilts…

I’d like to take one more chance to document the Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) 2012. There were a couple of remarkable special exhibitions, and this one was my favorite:

These quilts were featured in a special exhibition called “Life,” by Yoshiko Katagiri of Japan. Absolutely ethereal in person. She used a handful of bright traditional Japanese fabrics against pale solid lights and rich dark blacks and navies. It really blew me away. This is the quilt I first noticed, an image of the iconic Mount Fuji:

There’s a light touch in these pieces I really admire, and they combine creativity and tradition in a unique way. I’ve always liked Japanese textiles and design style, and these are fine example of the uses of both.

Another exhibition that caught my attention was called “From Marble to Marvelous,” featuring 20 quilts inspired by marble tile floors in European cathedrals. This one was gorgeous:

I took a close look at a few by Christine Porter of the UK. I own a couple of her books, and though I have not had the chance to make one of her patterns yet, I’m hoping to do so one of these days. Her quilts are beautifully pieced.

Here is a photo of an image of the original marble tiling that this quilt is based on:

And finally, I liked this very modern take on a tile-based design:

One more quilt to share with you. I took a look at the international quilt exhibition during my last few minutes at the festival. This quilt from Israel made me stop in my tracks. It’s called “The Dead Sea,” by Gisha Wogier:

The use of the log cabin blocks for the water here was so clever and the artist chose the perfect colors:

On that note, I’ll leave you, I hope feeling inspired and not too intimidated to go create something spectacular… or just plain fun.

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Spotlight on finished quilts

My friend and colleague Anne has been busy. She’s recently finished several outstanding quilts. I couldn’t resist sharing her work. Look at this gorgeous all-flannel quilt she made for her college freshman nephew (held here by our colleague Olga):

Here’s a closeup of a neat “spinning” pinwheel quilt. These bright colors remind me of the South of France:

Another geometric quilt captured perfect circles. I love this so-modern-it-hurts pattern. Jealous of the lucky recipient of this one and all these quilts!

Last but definitely not least, Anne created a fan quilt using a technique that combined thick and thin strips into log-cabin blocks, carefully planning her color choices to make these fans appear.

Also loved the Japanese fabric that backed this quilt:

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Color-filled quilts

Color is a passion for Christine Barnes, a seasoned Sunset Books editor who has devoted herself to fabric art. Last week I went to see her speak at a quilt guild meeting and was astonished by her art.

She first displayed a color wheel made purely of fabrics. Nice idea, since the colors are much more vibrant here than in a typical book about art theory:

 

She shared numerous quilts she has made, and here’s a small sampling. Before you look, see if you can spot some “magic colors” (her term) that seem to jump off the screen. The first one’s called Black Opals & Ribbon Candy–a fun name, isn’t it?

I can picture making the quilt below. You create square blocks and then chop them up and resew. The stripes are subtle but really do add a depth here:

The third quilt, above, conveys a great sense of dimension (apologies for the wavy image; this quilt was displayed on stairs). It’s inspiring, since I’ve been wondering about making 3-D illusion quilts.

This last one showed a good use of ombre fabric. I’ve seen those for sale and generally avoided their graded colors, because I just didn’t know what to do with them. But you can see here how much dimension they, too, can add:

Christine teaches classes and seminars, and I’d like to take one sometime to learn about how exactly she tracks down and auditions these colors. Very precisely, I think!

 

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Gifted Quilt

It was nice to see my polka-dotted baby quilt, Baby Blocks, make a mom-to-be happy! Katie, my colleague who is expecting a baby boy in September, was celebrated at a lovely outdoor baby shower, and I was so pleased to see her smile when she opened the box.

Our colleague Derek really seemed to appreciate Baby Blocks too. Or maybe he was just dreaming of taking a work-day nap.

Here’s a closeup of that funky backing fabric (forgive the threads!). Thanks, Connecting Threads, for another cool print, and thanks to Ursula Reikes for the pattern. I hope that Katie’s little one will enjoy getting snuggly with this quilt…

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A Tale of Two Baby Quilts

I’ve raided my stash for some vibrant prints, and found the makings of two very different baby/kid quilts. This one I started with a few charm squares from Connecting Threads that featured a cute little print of bunnies, racooons, trees, and mushrooms and coordinating solids/tiny prints. I sewed them into stacks of “coins” and then selected an eye-burningly bright green to surround them. My daughters really liked it and I told them they could use it as a little lap quilt in our living room.

My older daughter’s holding it up in these photos (excuse the wrinkles) and my younger one wanted her picture taken right in front of it. Believe it or not, the green she’s wearing is an even more neon shade! (Reminds me of a sweatshirt I had back in the eighties that could stop traffic, color-wise.)

My other project was a baby quilt for our cousins, who are expecting a little boy in a few weeks. I decided on a more sedate look with the same coordinating fabrics, but focusing on the larger squares of small animal prints. My daughter Beth thought that these blocks looked a bit like interconnecting test tubes in a science lab. I got the idea for this simple block, turned two different ways, from a baby quilting book by Ursula Reikes.

I think it’s neat to see how much difference a few color tweaks can make using the same family of fabrics, don’t you?

One more note: this quilt was professionally quilted by Julia Curry of Menlo Park, CA. She made loopy circles to mimic the polka dots in the green fabric (using green thread). She does fantastic work. When I see how beautifully long-arm quilters finish a job like this, it makes me realize how minimalist a job I do with my own machine quilting! But then, her machine takes up a whole garage, and mine sits securely on a small desk…

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