Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Let's Book It Nov. 2016 The Final Episode

This morning Barbara called Sharon her Quilting Godmother which made me think of Sharon as one of the cute fairy Godmothers from Sleeping Beauty :)


Works for me since her idea of Let's Book It has led me to cleaning out a lot of magazines, a few books and some bookmarks, her magic wand helped me make all of these and a few others

So much fabulous color and ideas that would still be gathering dust and taking up space.

For my last "Let's Book It" project I picked a beautiful classic looking quilt from McCall's Quilting May/June 2012, it's the second quilt I've made from this issue, the scattered triangles in the bottom row was the first. 


This one is called Aunt Millie's Legacy by Gerri Robinson, this comes full circle for me since the first quilt I made for Let's Book It was by Gerri Robinson and along the way I discovered that I love her quilts and can even understand her directions. 


I left off the borders since I didn't have any fabric that would match and it seemed fitting for the final show and our fearless leader who "loves" borders so much, LOL.

Looking at the pictures I found a mistake or as I like to put it, I made it my own.

Weirdly, I had the tan fabric which I usually don't work with, but it's dog colored so that explains it, but no blue. I dyed the blue to get a nice baby blue. 

I'm a little sad to see this all end, but it's time. I'd like to think I'll continue to use up what I have, at the very least I'll grab a magazine or book for the inspiration. 

Thank you Sharon, (cue the applause) your genius idea has led me to so many happy quilts and I've enjoyed watching everyone else discover what's on their shelves. 

Later Gators,
Dana

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Forgot About This One

I've been going through my quilt pictures to see what I haven't shared and this one jumped out with a loud "well you completely forgot about me!". 

Back in July Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict had a Christmas quilt-a-long. I loved the quilt and joined in, then missed the link up, I'm so easily distracted. I assume that everyone knows Sarah, but if you don't you really need to follow her. Her blog is filled with so much inspiration, beautiful quilts and lots of tutorials. 


Sarah's quilt was gorgeous in the reds and greens, but it was July so I changed the colors, shrunk the blocks for a baby size quilt and added a few blocks. I love how it turned out and now that Christmas is right around the corner I'm probably going to make it again in those reds and greens. 

If you want to make one of your own, follow the links to the original directions. 

Later Gators,
Dana

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Scrap Quilt

Well, I've picked myself up, looked around and realized that there are still families out there that need help for their children especially with Christmas right around the corner and abused, neglected and homeless animals still needing homes, so this is not the time to let the fear, anger and frustration rocking our world influence how I live my life. I don't care which side you were on, we're all in this together. 

That said, let's talk quilts :). "Let's Book It" is coming to an end with the last link up at the end of this month, if you've been meaning to join in now's the time and all you need to do is grab a magazine, book or pattern and start it, you don't need to have a finish to join in. Wouldn't it be nice if this wonderful link up ended with a bang?

This is one of my favorite quilts, of course any quilt with stars, secondary patterns and lots of color lands on my favorite quilts list. Plus all of the colors were scraps, bonus!

Right after I made this one I was asked if I would make it again larger for a throw with black instead of white. Funny, I buy white by the bolt but I didn't even have any black fabric, but when I changed the colors in my EQ I was stunned at how pretty it looked.

I love white because of how the colors pop, but I think the black still did the trick :)

The original quilt was 45 inches square, the black one is 61" X 63", I'm not sure why there's a 2 inch difference but I suspect it's in the quilting.

To increase the size I played with extra rows, but I ended up just making the blocks larger (15") which kept the look really bold and of course with big blocks, it came together really fast.

Working with black was a learning experience, I really liked the depth it added, but it was harder to work with, I had trouble seeing the edges when sewing two blacks together (could be my aging eyes). I think you'll be seeing black pop up in more of my quilts. 

I recently read "when one door closes, just turn the handle and open the door, that's how doors work", LOL. With Let's Book It ending I'm hoping to find the time to open the door on my blog and show you more of my quilts. 

Later Gators,
Dana

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Quilt Show

When Debbie (Stitchin' Therapy) heard where Cori was moving she mentioned that they had a quilt show there and as luck would have it the show was just about the time I would be up there, I stayed extra so I could go :) When I got back and told Debbie I had gone she asked me how overwhelmed I had felt, overwhelmed doesn't even come close, I was awestruck seeing these amazing quilts in person. Here's some of the pictures I took, all blurs, crooked pictures and weird cropping are the fault of the photographer who doesn't usually use her phone as a camera. 



The cats in this one were all thread painting. 


I saw this one in person and still can't understand how it's a quilt.


This one because of the FMQ.

This quilt was huge and the cats were all applique. 



This one literally made me gasp.

I was looking at this one closely when one of the white glove ladies came up and asked if I wanted a closer look, she showed me how it's all tiny curved log cabins. I told her I loved this one, it was so cute and she told me it was her quilt and I had made her day!







So nice to see this one is person, I've seen it many times online and considered making it, but it's a lot of paper piecing. 

I also played on two longarms, which really makes me want one, but David refuses to add a room to the house so I can fit it in. I bought some fabric, but not much, the vendors section was so crowded and I much preferred to get back to the quilts.

So that's it, I've finally joined the ranks of Quilt Show Sharers, LOL. Can't wait for the next one.

Later Gators,
Dana