Wedding Quilt - Part 1

I have a customer who wants a special quilt to give to her sister for a wedding gift. The goal is: a brightly colored, fresh, Stacks quilt with some interesting little surprises in it. This quilt will be used (rather than preserved in a box). It will be presented at a wedding shower at the end of September, so I have to pour on the steam. 

Here are the photos from day #1. So far I've cut some strips and started laying them out on the wall. There will be a huge variety of fabrics. As I've said before, I love adding those little surprises: the key, the chocolate chip cookies (below the key). I'll keep you posted with the progress.

The crown and the key are from a new Michael Miller fabric called The Botanika Collection by Paula Prass, shown below. The actual fabric is prettier than the photo. 

And here's the view from my sewing table, below.

To see the pattern for "The Stacks," click here.

School Banner Quilts from Australia

Lisa Davis from Australia designs and makes some amazing quilts, including school banner quilts like the one above. Be sure to visit her gorgeous blog: Creative quilts. Nice job, Lisa!

I hope all the teachers and moms of school age kids out there, have a wonderful start to the new school year! 

Do you know about Library Thing?

 

I know many of you are avid readers so I want to tell you about a site I just found: Library Thing. 

You can join for free and keep track of books you've read, or books you want to read. You can find other readers who like the same books as you. Take a look. Here's my page. 

I seem to have been on a little non-quilting vacation recently. What's up with that? I have too much fabric to stop now. A wedding gift quilt is due asap, so no more dilly-dallying! 

Donna's Red Zinger with a Twist

Donna in Wisconsin recently finished this Red Zinger Selvage Quilt. She had some 3" x 9" red strips left over, so she added selvages and created two narrow borders that look like twists. Nice job, Donna!

Puff Quilts

Have you ever made a Puff quilt? (Also known as a Biscuit or Bubble quilt.) I haven't made one yet, but these quilts are definitely tempting me.

This pretty ruffled baby quilt above is from katielolson on Etsy.

Another baby quilt, this one is from Moonpatch in Portugal. These puffs appear to have more stuffing in them than in the pink quilt. 

This one has a very different look: a loosely filled, ruffled baby quilt from Awaiting Ada on Etsy.

I like this version with buttons from Honey Bear Lane. She calls it "Hard Candy."

And here's one in a circle shape from Pinterest. 

This crocheted version is from Andrea at Craft Disasters. She describes how to make it in her post.

This one is definitely not a disaster. It looks dreamy soft!

Here's a tutorial for making Puff quilts from About.com.

We Climbed Rattlesnake Mtn!

Quilting is taking a backseat to family fun lately. Yesterday we climbed Rattlesnake Mountain in NH and this is the view of Squam Lake from the top. It was a sparkling day. I've never seen any rattlesnakes there. You may remember the movie "On Golden Pond." It was filmed on this lake.

Then we attended a concert of Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA. We sat on the lawn under the stars munching M&M's and listening to the most beautiful music. It was a wonderful summer evening. 

Tubing - Summer Fun

Yesterday 6 of us went tubing on the Farmington River in New Hartford, CT. It was a gorgeous day and we had a wonderful time. The rapids were impressive due to the rain we had last week. I got tossed off my tube one time, but no harm done. Just water-up-the-nose. At the end of the trip we rode a school bus back to the starting point. Then we had a cook-out at our house. A perfect summertime event. 

These photos are from Google Images, but this is just what it looked like yesterday.

New Fabrics

On my recent pilgrimage to Keepsake Quilting in Center Harbor, NH, my purchase included these two fabrics. I folded them for the photo so that you can see the selvage. This is the Selvage Blog, after all. I like the realistic images on these fabrics. If you don't know what those brown things in the top photo are, they are clothes-pins!   

I could spend a whole day at Keepsake and it would feel like only 10 minutes! My sister Eileen and I had a nice lunch together in Center Harbor, then spent a long time fabric shopping. A perfect day!

The photo above (from their website) shows just a teeny bit of the fabrics at Keepsake, a very beautiful store.

Quilters' Signature Quilt - Block of the Month

The Empire Quilters Block of the Month for September is this simple, slightly wonky, 6" signature block. Quilters write their name, birth date and location on a 3" block, then sew a 2 1/2" wide strip to the sides and the top and bottom. Place a 6" square ruler on the block, perhaps in a wonky fashion, and trim.

See details here. I think this will make an interesting quilt.

Members might decide to make blocks honoring their friends and relatives who are quilters/sewists too. The way we do it is: enter your name in the drawing once for each block that you contribute. 

If you'd like to use this link for your guild BOM, please help yourself.

Blue Basket- Quilter's Tee Shirt

Here's the latest of 5 quilter's tee shirt design: a Blue Basket.  

Tee shirts are now available in my Etsy store. 

Fabric Looks Like Hand Knitting

My sister Eileen in MI sent me a yard of green fabric that looks like hand-knitting. Isn't this clever? This will add nice texture and interest in a quilt. Thanks, Eileen!

Riel's Recycle Selvage Quilt

Have you seen Canadian quilter Riel Nason's recycle symbol selvage quilt? Here's her post about it. 

Riel is also an author. Her book "The Town that Drowned" is good for young readers and adults alike. I read it and enjoyed it very much. A good story well told. Don't let the title scare you. :) 

Like Elvis and Oprah, Riel is easily recognized by her first name alone. At least among quilters. Haha.

Nice job, Riel!

Brand New Etsy Store!

This bright green necklace is the creation of Shiri from Jerusalem, Israel. She just opened her Etsy shop a month ago: TOAO Glass Jewelry. Shiri is a goldsmith and glass artist, and mom to 4 boys.

Best wishes Shiri!

Newest Tee-Shirt Designs!

I love this modern improvisational quilt design: "Flags."

And here's a classic traditional red and white "Tree of Life."

Another modern design: "Gears." I like how one block is orange.

Which one do you like best? Vote in the sidebar on the right.

Tee Shirt Experiments

As promised, here are 3 shirts that I practiced on before making the pink shirt that I showed you yesterday. I like the modern improv design repeated in 5 colorways at the bottom of the white shirts, especially the little orange sliver in there. The only actual "blooper" is the red basket, but you can't see the mistakes from this distance. The triangles are misshapen with too much paint. That's just part of the learning curve. I'll keep adding to these shirts while I experiment.

Stylish Casual Wear for Quilters!

One night recently I couldn't sleep so I looked at the tutorial videos on YouTube to see how to print tee-shirts. So this is my first design: "Pink Log Cabin." Aren't they nice? 

I browsed through my closet and picked out my favorite tee-shirts. It turns out that they were all made by the same company, Gildan Ultra Cotton. So that was easy. I ordered light pink. And some high quality fabric paint in up-to-date colors.

THE BASICS: These are 100% cotton, preshrunk, hand-painted, colorfast, machine washable and dry-able, nice quality, and available in my Etsy store for $20 in Small, Medium, Large, X Large and XX Large. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Come back tomorrow to see the bloopers. Yup, the practice shirts. Hee hee.

Collage Quilt with Selvages

This little collage quilt is the work of Bonnie Gorsuch of Cannon Beach, Oregon. I wish I'd met her when I was vacationing there recently! You can see this quilt in her Etsy shop: MyBonny. She also sells altered wearables (below), aprons, paintings, etc. Bonnie started making troll clothes in the 1960's. Aww, cute.

See this article for more about Bonnie.

Heartwarming Quilts and My Dad

Today is my wonderful Dad's birthday. He would have been 87 today. In honor of him, I'm posting a collection of truly awesome vintage quilts. The first one (above) is from Farmgirl Fare. I love the lime green in the corner of each fan.

This tree of life quilt is a real classic. Found at Vintage Quilt Shop.

This target or pine burr quilt is from Laura Fisher Quilts.

The vintage bow tie quilt above is from Tex-Made.com. Nice photo too.

This lovely pink lone star quilt is from RickRack.com.

This exquisite quilt is from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum and found on Pinterest. Look at those 22 appliqued trees! This is a major achievement in applique and piecing! I think my Dad would have liked this one best because he appreciated precision and he favored the combination of red, green, and yellow. (Yes, little girls ask what colors people like best, and they remember the answer for decades, right?)

A bit about my Dad: He was a "people" person and related warmly to all kinds of people. He was also very good at math.  He could make any ordinary event into lots of fun. When I was a toddler we used to unpack grocery bags in our kitchen and take a little bite out of each thing. Haha. I don't think my Mom appreciated this, but I thought it was a real adventure. We made a game out of throwing pennies into a muffin tin that was propped up on a bed pillow while we stood at the foot of the bed. I got to jump on the bed too. And he made the most delicious apple pie and French toast. He could sing Christmas Carols in English and Latin. He used to put a satin blanket in the wheel barrel and put me on top of it and jog around the yard giving me a ride. He made an igloo for us one year. I think you get the idea. I'm so lucky, I know. My younger two sisters and brother enjoyed all these things too. As you can see, I could write a whole book about my Dad. I love remembering all these things.

Selvage Owl

This cute little selvage owl is the creation of jltstudio from central Ohio. It's listed on Etsy for $10. 

 Also on Etsy, a bag of selvage strips for sale by zizzybob in Florida for $6.50.