Japanese Selvages

Japanese fabrics have the best selvages! The new Moda fabrics are outstanding too. These will really jazz up our selvage quilts.

Sara's Quilt

This fantastic quilt was made by Sara in Connecticut. She's a friend of Jackie's (Canton Village Quilt Works). Sara wanted this quilt to look like a painting. Take a look at Jackie's blog to see more.

Great job, Sara!

Granny Square Pillows

What a beautiful riot of color! These pillows were sold on Etsy by Dutch Sisters Corry and Heleen. To see the pillows, you have to scroll down to "Shop Info" and  click on "Sales." What a nice job they did! One of these would look great in my quilt room. (My DH wouldn't want it anyplace else! Haha.)

Quilt for Basics

This is my quilt for Victoria's Bumble Beans Inc. Basics Quilt Gather project. She's hoping to get 700 quilts for this transitional housing organization in New York City. That's thinking big! I hope this quilt warms someone's heart.

Question for Quilters

Does anyone know the name for this quilt block? I made the quilt below, but I don't know how to describe the block. Would you call it "Birds Almost in the Air?" Just kidding. This is a wall quilt, 26.5" wide x 31" long.

My Sister's Selvage Quilt from the 1960's

My sister Lynne Jakubauskas of Vermont made this quilt in the 1960's when she was a little kid in grammar school. I think she'd never heard of not using the selvages, and she just wanted to get a lot of squares out of her scraps. And these quilts are still in use at her house. That says something! So much for the idea that selvages would get all twisty and act different from the rest of the fabric.

Amazing Sept. 11 Memorial Quilt

Sherri Lynn Wood of the daintytime blog is making this Sept. 11 memorial quilt. She had help from her quilting buddies embroidering all the names. Sherri started this project in 2003. What a powerful, historic quilt this will be! I love to see somebody thinking BIG! Great job, Sherri Lynn!

Sept. 11 Ten-Year Anniversary

The television coverage of that day has been heart-wrenching.

The waterfall at the new memorial is inspirational and beautiful (below). It's even prettier at night.

See the entire National Tribute Quilt.

New Fabric by Dan Bennett in the UK

Remember the "Monkey Blues" painting that I showed you recently? Doesn't this new fabric look just like it? This is "Tribal Fantasy," part of the Premier Lord Collection by Dan Bennett for Free Spirit. Here is the ad for this fabric at eQuilter. Here are some related fabrics. And here is a link to Dan Bennett's website. And here are more of his designs (acrilyc, not fabric) shown below.

Cartoon and Vintage Dress

Also, remember the vintage patchwork dress (below) that I showed you a week ago? Victoria of Bumblebeans bought it! If she posts a photo of herself modeling it, I'll post it. That's not V in this photo; you can tell by the wrist. Heehee.

New Kind of Selvage Spider Web Quilt

Remember I showed you a selvage with spiders used for the color windows, and I said Riel Nason should use this selvage in her mummy quilt? Well, at that moment she was cooking up this very clever spider web quilt! You can see more on her blog: The Q and the U. Riel, you are amazing! (Pronounced Ree-ell.)

 Only one more month to wait until Riel's first novel is available: "The Town that Drowned."

Bird's-Eye View of Mt. Hood

I was sitting by the window on my way home from Portland, Oregon, paying attention only to my Kindle when suddenly I saw Mt. Hood right next to me! I whipped out my camera and took this photo, then I noticed two more mountains behind it! Mt. St. Helens and (to the left, on the horizon) Mt. Rainier. I don't see mountains very often, so this is a big deal. Do you ever get tired of looking at moountains?

Monkey Blues

This is my last post from the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum: "Monkey Blues" 1980 by Alden Mason (born 1919, American). Acrylic on canvas. It looks like he squeezed the paint right from the tube. It's about 50" square. I was really taken with this painting because it looks like it was so much fun to make. I love all the detail and the happy improvisational style. It reminds me of a rag rug. Isn't this "awesome?"

Tomorrow I'll show you a great photo of what I saw from the airplane window on my way home. Hehe, you'll have to wait. It's worth it though.

Northwest Indian Decorative Bags

Continuing our special quilter's tour of the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum, take a look at these decorative bags. They're about 100 years old. I thought the alien-theme bag above was interesting. Little green men. Haha.

The bag shown above is embroidered with chain stitches, unlike the others which are beaded. 

I like this graceful deer design. These bags are so well preserved. The people who made them would be happy to know that in 2011 they'd still be in such good condition.

Vintage Patchwork Dress 1950's

This vintage patchwork dress is offered for sale on Etsy by Jantiques in Tennessee.  I'm not sure but I think it's awful; I just can't look away. Haha. See how the patchwork design is symmetrical? It's funny how the white fabric with the pink and brown dots looks very 2011. I'm not going to make one of these. :)

Seminole Patchwork Outfit

This Seminole patchwork outfit made in 1900, is on exhibit at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum. It's in great condition for being over 100 years old. I'm sure it was a special occasion outfit, maybe a wedding dress?

This is an interesting twist on the idea of quilts made from clothes: clothes made from quilts. (Sort of.)

Selvages on Katell's Blog in France

Katell Renon from Toulouse, France has written about selvage quilts on her blog: La Ruche des Quilteuses.  She has lots of great quilt photos. There's a handy translation button in the upper right corner of her blog.

My "Tree of Life" quilt (above) is part of her post. To see how to make it, view my book "Quilts from the Selvage Edge." (Sidebar link.) I think it's great that quilters all over the world are enjoying their selvages. Here's a great big cyberspace hug to you from quilters in the USA!

Dinah's New Selvage Quilt, Oh My!

Dinah Snyder of Crawfordsville, IN, has just finished her second selvage quilt. Isn't it beautiful? This is a big quilt; it measures 88" x 88." She used the quilt-as-you-go method, quilting each block individually, then attaching them together. Each block is 11" x 11." The background was made using three different yellows from her stash, so this project required no new fabrics. And Dinah says that after making two big selvage quilts, her selvage stash is as big as ever. This is one of the mysteries of selvage quilting!

To see Dinah's first selvage quilt, click here.