Category Archives: quilts 2011

Finally Finished Fireworks on the Fourth

It was a picture perfect day here in Vermont. Enjoyed the great outdoors and stayed away from crowds with the exception of fireworks in the mountains. Walk, bike, read, relax, barbecue and stitch. What more could you ask for?

Kind of hazy but a great breeze and sun.

Fireworks are really hard to capture. Just when your lens focuses, they are gone.

Fireworks 2011, 17×24

This isn’t a piece I like but just a piece that needed to be finished. So, I could finally finish something! And move on. The fabric reminded me of fireworks and I had fun adding some big stitch to it. ( I am really tired of these neons so you will be as relieved as I am that I am moving on.)

And if you put the fun back into it, it sure goes quickly. Which leads me to the question, why would I be finishing things I really didn’t want to do?

Be creative, my friends and make something you enjoy doing.

Colorplay #4 : Too Much Orange

I always love what I see after I complete a piece and look at it through the camera lens and on my computer screen. With this one, I see two things: 1. The light purple line on the top left is way too distracting for me and doesn’t seem to fit. 2. I really do not like the teal green combo but wanted to try it. On a positive note, I was bold and tried the orange thread. I can see my machine quilting is slowly improving with tightly spaced quilting lines.

Colorplay #4
16 x 25

I am trying to do a better record keeping job in hard copy and in my journal. Maybe it will give me a better perspective when I can look back and see things in one place.

I seem to have lost another day with blogger issues. I know tomorrow is unlikely for a post but hope to post during my week away. I have no idea how I will be ready to go by Sunday morning at 8am. And then my father-in-law is having open heart surgery on Monday so I am leaving Marc with a real mess. I feel badly leaving but he says -go. Is everyone’s life this crazy? Maybe.

Being creative definitely keeps me sane. Try it, my friends!

Back to the Clothesline

I think it is finally spring although only 50 today. I was able to hang and photograph a completed piece on the clothesline. Amazing when you just devote 4 hours of time to one thing and focus.

L Series- # 6 , 12×18

Looks like I have another project and that’s organize this years quilts names and labels. But I finished something even though it’s a small something! small. The road to completion recovery …. hope has arrived.

Be creative, my friends!

The Last Seam

I really wanted to put this piece away. But, I kept thinking and thinking about it. I will never really know until I just finish it. It may not be good or even great but honestly, it is in the completing of the design that I actually LEARN. And the sewing together of the top.

It started here. Random blocks that looked way too clunky for me. And dark. Didn’t like it.

I had the whole piece up on the design wall and didn’t like it. So, changed it up adding another border around these “blocks”.

mmm…that didn’t feel right either. cut some more.

Realize I have driven myself and my family crazy. Now, procrastinate and make a small piece out of the scraps.

And then get brave enough to start sewing it together-sewing numerous parts several times to get it to fit together. Finally, am down to the final seam.

Big clunky part on the lower left doesn’t seam together right no matter what I try.

What a mess that I am afraid to cut in to. No -let me re-phrase that- I don’t know what to do to make it work . Better recruit a friend who is a better seamstress to give me some advice today.

This is quite the process that I am not sure I would tell anyone else but you how I got to this point. All this and I don’t even like it. Really I don’t at all. I just want to finish it. How crazy is that?

Now, maybe it just doesn’t need to be quilted but that I am not deciding today. It’s all a learning experience.

Be creative, my friends.

Making Babies

Well that woke you up this morning, didn’t it? I went on a road trip with a group of seven other women last night and we got home at one. I am too old for 5 hours of sleep. I am very punchy on little sleep. Already brought my beasty gas guzzling Yukon in for yet more work this am . Oh why- oh why- didn’t I do a trade-in when I should have? My kids told me not to talk badly about her when I am with her. Funny how attached they are to her, too. Luckily, they did tell me she has much life left yet in her. After these repairs, of course…. She might retire soon to the land of Vermont vacation mobiles. ( I haven’t told her yet though. )

Oh yes. Back to making babies. I am sitting there as I contemplate every seam I sew on this big guy quilt on my design wall and keep getting stuck. So rather than waste too much time, I pick up the scraps and just sew them together. And slowly, the solution for the next seam comes along.

leftovers from scraps

Making babies from the scraps. ( about 12 x 20) I wonder how many babies I will have to make to figure out all the seams. Not nearly as exciting as you thought this post would be, is it?

On that very tired note, have a good weekend.

Be creative, my friends!

Back To Sewing

I have finished the Color Theory class and only need to upload photos to the class group list. So, I was really excited to start sewing today. And not a bit frustrated last night when I realized my two current pieces were going to take longer than planned.

Hand stitching seemed to suit the piece better with some hand dyed floss. I want to be happy with it rather than race to the finish with this one.

And the next one has sat on my wall for the past week but I knew it wasn’t right. We went away to Traverse City this weekend and after returning, I decided to re-piece sections of it and introduce a new color. What started out small and something I wanted simple, is neither of those things.

But that’s ok.

Nice to be back sewing again and not working on homework.

Be creative, my friends!

A Little Orange

I like orange but never have really used much in any of my pieces. So, in the wonderful quest of self improvement and art improvement that I am on, I chose orange. ( Yes that was a little sarcastic but I did choose it because I wanted a little challenge.)

Colorplay #3
14×20

Funny how I go back to simple strip piecing and am happy with it.

I continue to like tight dense quilting. It just looks crisp and clean.

I had a proud mom moment this week. My son Ben won an award at the speech meet. He recited the JFK inaugural address without an one mistake-boldly and confidently. I was beaming. The pictures were all blurry so I am waiting for another mom to send me some of hers. Which led me to schedule an eye appointment for today! I kept noticing how blurry everything was I was taking. Ughh… I hate missing kid photo moments.

The sun came out after the ice storm . All my class fabric samples from the last month and it captured the sunlight so beautifully.

I am off to Connecticut this weekend for a funeral of a dear man and pastor of the church we used to attend. I haven’t been there for a visit in a long time. It will be a time of re-connecting with old friends and memories. Must pack and get the kids ready for the weekend. They are staying home with Dad.

Appreciate those you are with, my friends. And be creative.

Lemonjello

10×11

I think as I was laying in bed last night, I have a plan for the next month. As I complete the classes that I have started online, I will just work small. Now, I may tire of that and completely change my mind, but I feel relief in just giving myself permission for small. I am thinking of them as small studies and trying to use different color combinations rather than my comfort colors. Also, definitely improvisational with no plan in mind when I started. Just reacting to each piece and the pile of scraps I had . So, the first of small.

I love some of the shapes that have been made within this piece. This little quilt makes me happy. I named it after lemonjello- the coffee shop in Holland where I enjoy a cup of coffee with my daughter at college.

Painting more color swatches and another binding today.

Be creative, my friends!

Looking Through The Lens

I really refused to come back and blog until I had my quilt finished. And after more than enough hours this weekend, the binding is on and the mistakes and loose threads gone. Tonight , I will put the sleeve on the back and finish the label. Ahhh…feels so good to be this far. It should have only taken 10 days-2 weeks but here I am a month later. But the good news is, one of the machines made it through this process.

Looking Through The Lens

42 x 58

And to think I had some dream of completing twenty quilts this year. This is number four completed -if I count the two small works. Mmm…not revising goals yet. Just saying that it takes a long time to machine quilt !

Enjoy what’s left of the weekend. After the sleeve goes on, I must return to my class homework!

Be creative, my friends!

More Playing with Color

Despite the sick sewing machines from last week, I have persevered with the two classes I am taking online. I am behind as I always have that overcommitment thing going on but I am determined to finish both in the time allotted. I can do it. Fun looking at color-billboards, advertising in magazines, artwork at galleries in Stowe while on vacation and in all those quilting books I seem to collect.

I had to inventory and organize my fabrics. I have no blue-greens, violet or red-violets. I guess because I am not good at dyeing those colors. I will have to figure out why.

Leftover paint from my Color Theory class on cotton. I couldn’t let it go to waste. I have no idea what I will do with this piece of fabric. Something fun.

I also started a color journal and have been collecting all kinds of color schemes I like and analyzing what colors they are. Have you ever checked this site out- Color Schemer ?

And then I looked on my design wall and decided to finish this piece. It fit perfectly with my color lessons. It is from an exercise in Nancy Crow class from last spring on motifs.