These hand-painted sunny faces are souvenirs from a trip to Taos, New Mexico that my husband and I took about 5 years ago. Finally they are out of the box and decorating the porch doorway in my quilt room. This room is the perfect place for decorations that are a little over-the-top for my husband's taste. Haha. He does like quilts decorating the rest of the house though. 
This photo was taken by Barb Vedder of NJ at the red and white quilt exhibit "Infinite Variety" 
This pretty antique cherry tree of life quilt from the Southeast USA is for sale on eBay today. The opening bid is $464. There isn't much info about the quilt and I don't know the seller. But I thought the photos were interesting. I like the cherries made from two colors. The ad says they are stuffed, but it doesn't really show in the photos.
Yesterday I went back to see the red and white quilts in NYC, this time with my Mom who also lives in CT. She's not a quilter, but she enjoyed it too. We had lunch there within view of the quilts and it was wonderful. The title "Infinite Variety" is so appropriate for this collection of quilts! We were told by a representative of the American Folk Art Museum that the book about this collection by Elizabeth V. Warren, Guest Curator will be available in a few years. Well, this will be worth waiting for. 
The American Folk Art Museum is exhibiting 650 red and white quilts. Not only are the quilts wonderful, but the way the quilts are displayed (back -to -back in huge spirals) will take your breath away! If there is any way you can get to New York City today, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of this week, please do. You will be reading about this event for years and this is your chance. This free exhibit is located at the Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue (between 66th and 67th Streets) in New York City. It's about 20 blocks due north of Grand Central Station, a $7 taxi ride. Show hours are: Sunday 11-5, Monday and Tuesday 11-7, and Wednesday 11-5. . I went to see this exhibit yesterday and I think it's the best quilt exhibit I've ever seen. It is the collection of Joanna S. Rose and titled: "Infinite Variety, Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts." A self-described treasure hunter, she's been acquiring quilts since the 1950's at tag sales and the like. To celebrate her 80th birthday she decided she'd like to see all her quilts at the same moment, and give a gift to New York City. Lucky for us, this is what she did. I took countless photos and I'll share the best ones with you soon. There will be a book about this exhibit so keep an eye out for it. You can also get a free app for your iPhone with all 650 images. Visit folkartmuseum.org/infinitevariety.
Sherri Lynn Wood made this quilt from her grandmother's clothes as part of the bereavement process. She also helps others make memorial quilts and quilts to mark life transitions as a therapeutic activity that you can read about on her website Passage Quilts. What a wonderful idea! See some amazing quilts here.
This delightful selvage quilt was made by my blogland friend Elena McDowell in Texas and it's for sale in her Etsy store for $180. It measures 30" x 37." I like the black and white striped fabric in this quilt. It looks like bold stitching from a distance. Elena makes the most amazing selvage quilts and other items, many of which (40!) have been featured here on the Selvage Blog.
This stunning applique quilt is from Stella Rubin Antiques. I wonder if the quilter started by making the four flower and vase panels, then thought of the awesome sashing later. It looks like possibly more than one person worked on this quilt because some of the shapes are neater than others. Do you think she (they) liked how it came out? I do. It was well cared for and not used much judging by it's good condition. It was found in California but probably made in the South around 1920. It measures 68" x 80." Don't you wish this quilt could talk?
Did you know that you can create your own fabric design? Visit Spoonflower and see how you can upload your design image and order any amount of fabric for $18+ per yard. The website is very easy to use. You can test you pattern before ordering. I'd like to try this. There are examples of fabrics that people have already created, like the one above. I'd like to try this.
I'm going computer shopping and will be back online as soon as possible. I'm so behind on emails and posting your selvage projects but I'll catch up.
Meet my friend Victoria of BumbleBeans in New York City. She hosted the most wonderful quilt retreat this weekend. Here she is at Rockefeller Center on Saturday. And here's our group below, from left to right: Jackie of CV Quiltworks, LeAnn of Nifty Quilts, me, Jessica of Life Under Quilts (in the blue coat), Kim of Pokeytown Kim (in the red coat), Victoria, Bonnie of The Scrappy Bee, and Helen from Long Island. (Andrea of The Little Collection wasn't in the photo.) We were in the Garment District and stopped for photos at this statue of a man working at a sewing machine.
This is Victoria's loft below, all set up for the retreat. We had plenty of space to work. She provided seven boxes of scraps for us to help ourselves to. Plus we brought more. And they were very cool scraps too! It was very interesting to see how other quilters used our scraps. 
Victoria is a wonderful cook and she pampered us with all kinds of delicious dishes. 
Here we are (above) sewing and talking and laughing. That's Jackie (below) working away.
This is Andrea above (The Little Collection) with a quilt that she made for her sister's wedding. See the quilting below. Isn't it beautiful?
LeeAnn brought her gorgeous eyelash quilt. We've seen it on her blog, so it was a real treat to see it in person. 
Victoria showed us this stunning yellow star quilt (below) that she'll be exhibiting at the Empire Quilter's Show coming up later this month. She likes her quilts nice and big.
Here is LeeAnn in front of her zig-zag quilt that she made this weekend. Her color and pattern combinations were extraordinary. I love it.
Below are Bonnie's hand applique blocks. She alternated between machine and hand work. The foundation fabric is a pale gray, very nice. Each block has one "tile" that is cut in the shape of an object like a bird or a flower. And her stitches are tiny.
Below you can see my workspace. This quilt top in progress was inspired by a quilt that Bonnie has on her blog. I made blocks by randomly arranging the darker colors, then surrounding them with sawtooth borders. It doesn't look like Bonnie's anymore; but that's what started it all. I'll show you more as it develops.
After making a huge pile of sawtooth triangles, I took a break by starting the quilt top below. I think it needs some applique vines or something more, but I like it. There are some very unique fabrics in this quilt, including some that Victoria used in a Chinese New Year quilt. 
It was so energizing and delightful to spend the weekend with talented and friendly quilters. Tomorrow I'll show you some photos from our Saturday afternoon "field trip" to see the quilts at the American Folk Art Museum. 
Remember a while back I asked for advice about wire baskets for fabric storage? Well this is what I got, an Elfa system from the Container Store. Even though each drawer is loaded pretty full, they still pull out smoothly, and the drawers come all the way out which is nice. 
The fabrics are sorted in categories like: solid red-yellow, solid green-blue, solid neutrals, Dots Stripes and Plaids, Kaffes, Pre-cuts, Novelty, Silk, Floral, Batik etc. One small drawer is just for greens and foliage prints! Some kind of jungle/garden quilt is on the horizon for me.
I still have a lot of plastic boxes though. Above you can see my selvage stash. Three boxes full and an empty one on top for new additions. I have some wire wreath frames in there that I may cover with selvages. Not sure about that; it seems like a waste of good selvages. 
Hopefully these boxes of backing and quilt tops will be processed this year, reducing the quantity of stacked boxes. We'll see. The 7 boxes on the far left are scraps like one-inch strips and orphan bits (as opposed to bigger folded pieces). 
If you've read C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia," you'll remember that for a long time it was always winter and never Christmas. When winter finally broke they knew that the power of the white witch was ending and Aslan was on the move. That's what it felt like Sunday afternoon here in Litchfield, CT. It warmed up and we could see patches of grass. This is North Street where I like to go for walks. The houses date from the 1820's and it looks like these massive trees do too.
Look at these new fabrics in the Chester Garden series for Northcott by Mark Lipinski on eQuilter. You can see all 49 fabrics right there. I really like these elegant swirls, toile-style drawings, birds, little vines, circular designs...They have a new look, but they also have a vintage feel. Beautiful job, Mark! 
Isn't this a striking string quilt? It's for sale from Pippa Patchwork for $80 on Etsy. I'm thinking about selling some quilts and I'd like your input about using Etsy. At this moment there are 33,715 quilts for sale on Etsy! A search for "new quilts" on eBay showed 18,954 listings. That's a lotta quilts! Any thoughts? Thanks.
Here's an eye-catching handbag for you! It's designed by Joao Sabino of Portugal. 
This is a clever new invention, the Nubrella which protects you from wind as well as rain.
In a bing.com search for images of antique quilts, I found this beautiful sampler quilt. Each center square is surrounded by sawtooth and solid borders. The many striped fabrics used in the sawtooth triangles gives a distinctive look. I think it would be fun to make a scrappier and "wonkier" version of this quilt.
As you know, I've been unpacking my boxes of quilt stuff and setting up my quilting room. One of the best boxes was full of quilt tops. This one is from my silk phase. I found silk dupioni (it has little nubs in it) in NYC for $7/yard a few years ago and stocked up on some pretty colors.
This photo was taken on the porch that's outside my quilt room, above our dining room. Yes, we still have over a foot of snow! 
Aren't these colors delicious? This top is improvisationally pieced; lots of fun. 
Author Gail Garber shows how to design quilts with freeform shapes and loads of flying geese in this new book from C and T Publishing. The book is full of line drawings and beautiful color photos to guide and inspire. There are also 5 paper pieced projects with full-size pull out paper foundations. I think this book offers some a-ha! moments for most quilters, even beginners.
Take a look at these fabulous quilts by art quilter Eleanor McCain in Florida. See her "Thirteen Series" too. I think my favorite is the complicated one below. Talk about "over the top!" Bravo, Eleanor!
