Blog Book 6

This is the cover of the 6th blog book I have had printed.

I ordered it last week and I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived yesterday.

I have a book printed once a year. This one has 256 pages.

I am sharing just a few pages from the book.

It is a relatively simple process to create a book. I use Blogger for my blog.

I create the books with Blog To Print.

One reason I print the books is to have a record of all of my posts in case Blogger ever disappears from the internet.

My blog is my personal diary, although I do make it public on the internet.

I have also found guests like to page through the books and it is much faster than viewing all those pages on the internet.

An Olympic Quilt Effort

I spent time today sewing the parts of this quilt together. There were no logical seams in the entire quilt. Each piece had to be ironed to square it up, measured and trimmed to fit. The sewing had to be accurate. Sometimes seams had to be sewn corner to corner and other times it was necessary to leave one end of a seam open a little.There were many places I had to inset one piece into another.  I’m very pleased with the completed top. If it weren’t for my strong clothing  construction background I don’t think I could have made this happen.

I’ll take that Gold Medal for challenging piecing now!

I hope I also win one for quilting this!

This is the final arrangement of the quilt before I sewed it together.

You can see proportions change slightly when you sew something like  this together.

The L shaped pieces you see are really large rectangles, yet to be trimmed.

There are also others than under and overlapped each other.

The size of certain sections could not be accurately determined until the adjacent sections were sewn together.

To look at this you might not guess it would be as challenging as it was.

Now it is your turn to put this puzzle together and win a Gold medal!

What Comes Around Goes Around–The Story Of A Skirt!

This is a section of an old yellowed newspaper clipping that is almost 55 years old.

I am wearing “The Skirt”.

And here is “The Skirt” again. I am wearing it with my raccoon coat. My Mom found that coat for me for $25 at a furriers in their unclaimed storage area. I bought it for fun. Little did I know how warm it would be as the winds whipped across the lake as we walked to a 7:30 a.m. class!

This is “The Skirt” today!

It even has my label.

Where has it been for the last 55 years?

Last winter I received a message from a sorority sister and good friend who had been reading my blog.

She said she still had a red plaid pleated wool skirt she had bought from me in college. She had to be a good friend for me to sell this one to her as it was probably my favorite skirt ever. We had lost track of each other for almost 50 years at that time.

 

Marilyn said she and her husband Rich would be in Florida last winter. I invited them to visit me.

Shortly before they left I sent her an email asking her if they were driving and if they had room and if she could find it could she bring the skirt so I could see it again.

She arrived with the skirt in her hand and said I could have it! I was thrilled.

The amazing thing is she still had it after all those years even though they had moved many times, and also that she knew exactly where it was.

So thank you from the bottom of my heart Marilyn – I treasure this skirt and the memories it holds.

Black And White Potato Chip Quilt From Who Other Than……………..

Cassandra Philpot!

This is what she had to say:

“Oh, Oh, I got carried away. Enough for two quilts with fancy borders or for a front and back or for a very large front.”

I have lost track of how many Potato Chip quilts she has made from my tutorial!

It’s fun to study all the different textures you get with so many different black and white prints.

A few of the prints have a small amount of color and this works so well as an accent.

Another job well done, Cassandra!

Changing “Face”!

I admit: I do not like to have my picture taken.

I always think I really look better than those photos!

When I have a picture of myself I like I use it for a long long time.

This is the photo of myself I have been using on Facebook from day one when I started using Facebook. It was taken a “few” years ago!

 

This is the new photo I am using on Facebook. I am wearing an indigo scarf I dyed at Focus On Fiber. My girlfriends said the scarf was my new most flattering color.

 

Both of these photos were cropped out of a group photo.

I think this shows I can be more relaxed and happier and not worry about what the picture is going to look like when I am with friends or family.

I guess I am going to have to figure out how to change my blog photo now too!

Kimono Collage

It is made from authentic 14” wide cotton kimono fabrics.

It is my most recent finish.

I had forgotten I had bought this perfect hanger for this quilt. This adds so much to the quilt.

It has a light weight cotton batting and the main  quilting is done by machine with button hole twist heavy thread. The quilting is not real obvious as it follows the patterns in the fabric for the most part.

My Palette Of My Hand Dyed And Shibori Fabrics

I had arranged all the fabrics a while ago on my ironing table.

That wasn’t a good idea as I need that table for ironing.

I moved them to a shelf by the window.

That meant they were 6 layers deep and in the sun.

I finally came up with a great solution which puts them right at my fingertips to design with. It is near the design wall behind the sofa and yet somewhat hidden from view  in the main part of the studio.

I put some of the plastic drawer units I was no longer using for behind the couch. I use one drawer for the larger pieces and also some I have dyed in the past in the drawer.

The lower drawers hold a variety of things that were in the way!

There are two units and I have put the majority of the recently dyed pieces on the top of the units.

This also gave me a chance to revisit pieces I had dyed some time ago.

Crazy About Color–Another Finish

I LOVE Crazy quilts. This is probably as close as I’ll ever get to making one! This was made from only two pieces of fabric.

When I finished dye painting them I had no idea what I would do with either one of them.

I used a similar palette of colors on both of them and was able to cut 4 strips from one and keep the other as a whole cloth section.

The quilting on this was minimal which gives the quilt a soft comfortable look, yet it also will hang well on a wall. It IS a wall size quilt.

I’d love something with this combination of fabric, batting and backing to use as a blankie. Only problem, I can’t remember what I used for the fabric on the front and I really don’t need another blankie!

 

I  just winged it when I painted the sections that became the borders. I had no plan and just started painting which is how I often work. The borders were angled more than a little which also created a challenge using them. When I got the borders added to the center section I was not satisfied with the quilt. I knew it needed something, but it took me some time to come up with an idea of what to do with it.

My solution was to get out some fabric paints and add some detail work and shading to the quilt. Then it languished while I figured out how I wanted to quilt it – and also found time to finish it.

I thought you might like to see a close up of the detail work on the center section of the quilt.

Quilt Show: Ten Quilts Finished In Two Months!!!!

Of course I didn’t make these start to finish in this time period.

Some were started 15 or more years ago, while others were started in this calendar year.

I’m just going to share photos of all 10 without commenting on them on this blog post. the photos are in the order they were finished.

Secret Circles

My Elusive Dream

It’s Only Make Believe

Ramblin’ Rose

Mystic Spirit

Sea And Sand

For Never Plaid 2

Sunrise Sunset

Crystal Clear

Higher Consciousness

These quilts are not a series. I tried to figure out if they have my “signature”?

Do you see anything they all have in common?

At first I didn’t, but I think I do see it now.

Triangle Quilt Finished

I needed a little time to resolve some quilting and structural issues this quilt created.

I was able to resolve them. The quilt hangs perfectly flat.

I did almost all the quilting in the ditch through the quilt and the batting only. Because it is in the ditch it is hard to see.

I stitched 1/2 inch from the edge of the quilt and removed the batting from the seam allowance. I folded the 1/2 inch under and ironed it in place.

I cut the backing fabric the same size as the front of the quilt and fused a piece of Timtex (cut 3/4 inch smaller than the backing) to the wrong side of the fabric.

I folded the edge over the Timtex and fused the edge in place.

I put the batting and Timtex together and fused everything very securely.

This is the finished back of the quilt. I hand stitched the backing to the quilt around the edge.

I made a thread loop close to the top of the quilt on the back to hang it.

This shows the seam I created in the backing 2 inches from the bottom.

I inserted a 1” finished rod pocket in the seam.

I inserted this tent pole in the casing which just happened to be the exact length I needed. It makes the bottom hang perfectly straight.

A PERFECT finish for a unique quilt!

Another Palindromic Number

I have just had 177,771 visits to my blog.
I know - who cares!
I do as I love unique number combinations!

A View Of Works In Progress In My Studio

I have some of my works in progress stored on these quilt racks. I originally used them to display antique quilts.

I do have some pictures of a few of these I can share with you.

This is from the time I was making Amish inspired quilts. It still needs a border and quilting.

Studying Amish quilts is a fantastic way to learn about using color.

This is a section of a mystery quilt I did at a Jinny Beyer Seminar. I don’t “ever” do mystery quilts (by others) but this one intrigued me. I was extremely pleased with the outcome. The quilting will take a lot of time when I figure out what I am going to do!

This quilt was the prototype for a design class I taught. It needs borders and possibly something else.

One of the reasons I have 57 works in progress to finish is because after I designed and taught something in a class there was not time to finish it. It was time to prepare for the next class as well as other things in my life that had priority.

Of course I also have some other lists of work I started called Rework Or Abandon, Not Real Important and Questionable To Finish. I do not have to count the work from those lists.

I am making great progress on the Works In Progress list. One year ago today  there were 84 WIP’s on the list and today there are only 57!

I have finished 12 quilts in 2012 and started 7 more.

If the math doesn’t work out it may be because I can move anything I want to one of those other lists at any time I choose!!!

Secret Circles

 

Almost all the fabrics I used in this quilt are ones I hand painted. There are a few hand dyes which were needed to give the quilt some colors and values it needed.

Each of the circles was inset into a background square.

How many circles can you find? Look very closely as some of them are hard to see.

This quilt was done for almost a year except for the hand sewing required to finish the facings and rod pocket .

I even had about 8 hand sewing needles threaded. Then why did I put it off?

I was dreading sewing on the black background fabric I used on the back. I did find myself moving to a spot nearer the windows to see better. I also find when I am having difficulty seeing something I can actually work by feel, rather than sight if extreme accuracy is not necessary.

I like to use pretty fabrics on the back of my quilts that have some relationship to the front of the quilt. I also choose fabrics that have a lot going on so if the quilting is “less than perfect” it won’t be obvious when you look at the back of the quilt.

I know you have thought I have forgot about including puzzles in my blog. Unfortunately I just haven't had time to do it until today. So enjoy "Secret Ovals" with a "Circle" cut!

Triangle Quilt

I pieced this quilt about 5 years ago.

I added the borders today.

The fabrics were ones I dyed over an extended period of time. The border is that cotton/linen damask I love so well. It dyes up beautifully and adds so much texture to my work. Some of the fabrics were discharged. There is even some of the fabric that my son called the ugliest piece of fabric I’d ever created. Fabrics that are ugly as a whole can be fantastic when cut up and used in a composition.

It is about 37 inches high.

It will probably be the next quilt I quilt as I have the correct color bobbins wound!

This one will be a challenge to figure out how to finish it and hang it.