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August 9, 2013

Sewing Machine Cover

 
Sewing Machine Cover
I decided that my desk/sewing table would not be clean clean until I made a sewing machine cover. I had been eyeing the Spool Quilt in Alexia Abegg’s Liberty Love: 25 Projects to Quilt & Sew Featuring Liberty of London Fabrics ever since I got it. While everyone was drooling over the Marcelle Quilt in that book (which is gorgeous, don’t get me wrong), the spools were always the ones that caught my eye. Not having the time to make a full quilt, I could definitely make enough blocks for a sewing machine dust cover. Each block is 4 spools/14″ x 14″, and after taking loose measurements over and across my machine, I knew I needed exactly 2 blocks. Boom…READ MORE

July 31, 2013

Cocktails On The Beach Quilt

 
Beach Quilt
Fresh from the dryer.
The Cocktails On The Beach quilt was a long time coming. Inspired by the peak season weekly cocktail meet ups on little Useppa Island, where we spend our Spring Break vacations. Actually, I’ve only attended these cocktails meet ups on the beach once, maybe twice. It’s more the idea of cocktails on the beach, that inspired this quilt.
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July 19, 2013

Friday Favorites: Deconstructed Piecing and Round Robin Quilt

I am inspired by so many things, I decided that every Friday, I will highlight a favorite person, thing, or idea. Maybe you will be inspired too! See all past Friday Favorites here.

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Round Robin Quilt

On this lovely Friday, let’s enter a world where paper piecing sharp angles, exact 1/4″ seams, and precise cuts in our quilts don’t exist. A world where you compose as you work, best laid plans (or any plans!) aren’t welcome.
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July 15, 2013

DIY Quilt or Blanket Display Ladder

 
blanket ladder
I’ve been bumping into a stack of my quilts in my studio for a few months now, that is until I asked my really nice husband to make a quilt ladder (also called a blanket ladder). Quilts that are not to be used right away, or given as a gift, what to do with them? After some thinking, I decided it would do my creative soul a lot of good to be able to have them out and see them each day.READ MORE

July 9, 2013

Toile Four Patch Quilt

 
Four Patch
After taking Joe Cunningham’s Pattern Free Quiltmaking class on Craftsy and vowing to make time, whenever possible, to “play” in the studio, I made this little quilt, based on Joe’s “Fantasy Four Patch” formula. The idea is quite simple, really just a play on the four patch, a pattern that’s been around for a bazillion years. But making a series of measured cuts and pairings, the four patch pattern is turned on its head, into something different. Without the added twists and turns this quilt is, in fact, a simple four patch pattern.READ MORE

June 3, 2013

A New Floral Quilt

floral quilt
During our April spring break trip to Florida, I read 15 Minutes of Play by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. This quilt book intrigued me because it isn’t so much about the process and precise technique of making a quilt, or recipes for specific projects. Really it’s more about the concept of quiltmaking and relating it back to the idea of play to spark creativity. Not about practicing a skill, but composing as you sew, raiding your scraps, and creatively letting go- the perfect book to read on vacation, right?READ MORE

May 1, 2013

Sliced Swoon Quilt

Swoon Quilt
My niece in North Carolina is getting married in June. It’s the first wedding in our family in quite a while, and I am plenty excited. I love weddings. And isn’t a wedding gift a great excuse to make a quilt? I think yes!
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April 12, 2013

Friday Favorites: Favorite Quilting Books

I am inspired by so many things, I decided that every Friday, I will highlight a favorite person, thing, or idea. Maybe you will be inspired too! See all past Friday Favorites here.

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I have a special bookshelf in my studio that is filled with favorite quilting books. The ones I pull out to look through when I feel in a creative rut. Each of them inspire me in different ways (some for color, some for pattern, some for symmetry of design) and they are the ones I turn to again and again. In my eyes, these books represent quiltmaking as an artform, not simply craft. I thought I’d share a few of them.
Anna Williams: Her Quilts & Their Influences by Katherine Watts
quilting book
This book was published by the American Quilter’s Society in 1995, so not really vintage, but the quilts of Anna Williams span a lifetime of instinctual, brilliant color patchwork piecing, a lifetime of honing a skill she described as “what I do to take my mind off my troubles”. The copies of this book left in circulation are not cheap, and it is shockingly thin (a mere 25 pages), but it is truly inspiring. As Denyse said in her workshop where I first learned of Anna, “you can’t fake” what Anna did with color, pattern, and quilting. Sadly, Anna passed away in June of 2012. I love having this book of her work to inspired me.
Quilts by Roderick Kiracofe.
quilting book
 
This book was a gift from Erin and I absolutely love it. Not an old book at all, quite new in fact, available as a self-published book on Blurb.The colors, the patterns, the entire collection of quilts in this book is completely inspiring on so many levels. Some of these quilts were shown at QuiltCon recently (another reason I should have gone!) and it must have been wonderful to see these in person. Great fabric and color reference on these pages. And something about seeing beautifully colored quilts on a stark white background really appeals to me.
 
Abstract Design in American Quilts: A Biography of an Exhibition by Jonathan Holstein
quilting book
 
This book is the story of an exhibition that opened in 1971 at the Whitney Museum in New York. This book reminds and inspires me to remember the art of quiltmaking. There is an entire story within the pages of this book of how the exhibit came to exist, along with full pages of the quilts themselves with information about each one. There is page after page of graphic inspiration and use of color and pattern. This is a beautiful book for any quiltmaker to have in their collection.
 
Patchwork Simplified by Alice Timmins
quilting book
 
This is a well-used old library copy with a copyright of 1973. I love the mod, geometric feel of the patchwork in this book. Look at those wonderful quilted skirts above (although I’m sure she is beating her head against the wall on the right, wondering why she didn’t just make that fabulous patchwork into a full quilt instead of a skirt).
 
Patchcraft by Elsie Svennas
quilting book
 
Another treasure, beautiful use of color and shapes within quilts. Gives great examples of applique and embroidery used in quiltmaking, although many of the images are black and white. Still…
 
The Perfect Patchwork Primer by Beth Gutcheon
quilting book
 
This book is just a great reference book for so many techniques, standards, and really just the whole idea of quilting’s place in a creative life. A must-have for any vintage quilt library.
I would love to hear what quilting books you have to inspire you!
Happy Friday!

March 20, 2013

Jewel Boxes Quilt

jewel-boxes-quilt
jewel-boxes-quilt
 
The Jewel Boxes Quilt is done! I began this quilt, or I should say, I began the scrappy improvisation blocks for this quilt, during the first workshop I took with Denyse Schmidt. You can see my blocks from that weekend more in the second part of the write-up. In the class, we randomly grabbed and pieced small strips together using her paper bag piecing method. This is just what it sounds like, grabbing little bits of fabric from brown paper bags, with absolutely no thought as to what gets paired with what, or what color combinations result. (This is exactly why so many of the blocks you see from her classes have that beautifully random, “use what you have” homespun look.)
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