Catching up
Posted by: mngirltx on: December 18, 2011
- In: Cats | Christmas | International Quilt Festival | Quilts
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I have taken a bit of a break from sewing. I need to get back to it as I have 2 projects near completion that are for other people, so they DO have to be finished in a somewhat timely manner. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t have some quilt pictures for you. Though it’s almost 2 months past, here are a few of our favorite quilts from the 2011 Houston International Quilt Festival. I dragged my boyfriend along with me…though, he said he was interested to see what this “quilt stuff” was all about. And, I think he was surprised at the art. We did discover that his tastes lean more toward the traditional than mine, but there were still quite a few that we agreed on.
This 3-dimensional quilt is called “Central Park” and was created by Kathy York of Austin, TX. It was very cool!
“Dandy Lions” is a whimsical quilt by Barbara McKie of Lyme, CT.
There are always a big number of Japanese quilts. This one, “Winter Flower” is by Keiko Maeda.
“Bali Hai” by Marilyn Badger of St. George, UT, was one we both liked.
That’s it for the quilty-ness. Here is some Christmas kitty cuteness, though.
Felicity came to live with us 2 years ago this month. She likes the Christmas tree. Both she and Kiki have been very good. I was afraid they would try to climb the tree, or pull ornaments off, but they haven’t. Yay!
Merry Christmas to you all! See you in 2012.
Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Fall 2011
Posted by: mngirltx on: October 29, 2011
As of this writing, there are 232 bloggers with quilts up over at Amy’s Creative Side. Amy hosts this virtual quilt show in conjunction with Spring and Fall Market, and it’s always so much fun to look at all the beautiful quilts that people share.
Today, I’m going to share with you the very first quilt I made back around 1998. A friend of mine was having her 3rd baby, her first girl, and I wanted to make something special and girly for her. I had no idea what I was doing, but I’d been sewing since I was 10, so figured I could handle a quilt! I had seen a quilt in, I think, a pink ribbon/breast cancer awareness fundraising quilt book, but was not able to find the book again, so I went from memory. I gathered a bunch of pink fabrics and proceeded to cut a whole bunch of 2″ squares. I know…what was I thinking? I laid the squares out on my living room floor. And, just when it was perfect, my big old tom cat, Hercules, came charging right through the middle of it! Grrrrrrr!!! Back to the drawing board, so to speak.
I knew nothing about free motion quilting at that time, either, so I hand-tied the quilt. At the intersection of each little square! And, I’m pretty sure the binding was the back of the quilt wrapped around to the front. Something I would never do today! It wasn’t a perfect piece of work by any stretch of the imagination, but it was cute!
Unfortunately, my friends had a house fire a few years ago (no one was home, so no one was hurt!) and I’m fairly certain that this little quilt did not survive.
Sneak peek
Posted by: mngirltx on: October 22, 2011
Quilting the big churn dash quilt…I’m on the 3rd of 4 blocks
A little Halloween and a little sewing
Posted by: mngirltx on: October 3, 2011
- In: Crafting | Quilt-a-longs | Quilts
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I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve updated my blog! To the 2 or 3 of you who read, I’m so sorry. I’ve been a baaaaaad sewist, but it’s time to get back in the saddle.
First of all, I’d like to show you the little Halloween decoration I put together. If you frequent the blogosphere, or Pinterest, you may have noticed the Subway Art trend. I don’t really know why it’s called Subway Art…but it is kind of fun. So, I powered up Photoshop Elements, made a visit to DaFont, for some Halloween-y fonts and clip art, and away I went. I printed a background from ScrapbookScrapbook, printed my words on vellum and layered them in an inexpensive white frame from Target. Yay! And, very cute, if I do say so myself. Here is how my project turned out.
And, I’m doing a little sewing, too. Well, a little sewing and a little unsewing. I made the quilt sandwich on Saturday and started quilting on Sunday. Unfortunately, I had a little fold in the quilt back, so had to undo about an 8 inch square section. But, I’m ready to get back to it tomorrow night.
See?
This is the biggest quilt I’ve ever quilted on my home machine…it’s about 70×70. And, I’m trying to get it finished by the 2nd weekend in November, so I can deliver it in person to my friend, Mary.
And, finally, if you’re looking for some holiday sew-alongs, head over to Sew Mama Sew. There are 3 sew-along projects to choose from. I’m leaning heavily to Happy Zombie’s Christmas Tree Pants.
She may be cute, but “Grace” ain’t her middle name
Posted by: mngirltx on: July 24, 2011
- In: Cats | Quilts
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In fact, her middle name is Jane. Felicity Jane – maybe I should have named her Calamity Jane. Don’t let that “skinny head” fool you. She’s got a big butt. And, that big butt is prone to the rules of gravity. Which means, she doesn’t always hit her target when she jumps. (Believe me, I feel her pain. I still cringe at the thought of the vault during the gymnastics portion of gym class in high school.) I however, plowed straight into the vault. Fifi has claws with which to grab hold. Of the arm of sofa. The leather sofa. Which I have owned for all of 4 months.
I give you exhibits 1, 2, and 3. I need to call the furniture store and find out how much it will cost to repair as “cat claw marks” are not covered by the insurance I bought. However, should I cut myself with the rotary cutter and bleed on the couch, it will be replaced if the blood does not come out via reasonable means.
So, I used my Art Gallery half yard pack from Spring Market to make an arm protector.
I’d like to add a small border to it and then it needs to be quilted. It’s long enough that I will be able to tuck it between the arm and the cushion for stability. And, I have enough fabric to make a matcher for the other arm of the sofa. (Dang, that orange is bright! It doesn’t seem that bright in person.)
Necessity is the mother of invention…or the muse of quilting projects.
Oversize blocks and a challenge
Posted by: mngirltx on: June 29, 2011
A couple weeks ago, I had a message on Facebook from a friend from my hometown. She wanted to know if I ever sold my quilts. Since I’d still like to enter “Whole Lotta” in a show this summer, I need to keep my “amateur” status. Selling your work puts you in the “Master” category, and I’m not anywhere close to a Master quilter. Anyway, I told her I would be happy to gift her a quilt that I would make her from fabric in my stash. Luckily, for both of us, she had no color preferences and wasn’t looking for anything specific as far as a pattern. She just wants something to curl up with on the couch. We had a sew-in that same weekend and I remembered seeing the tutorial for the oversize shoo-fly block quilt at Sew Mama, Sew . Four easy 35 inch blocks…top completed in 1 afternoon. Yay! Now, it just needs to be sandwiched and quilted.
In person, it’s much cuter. The colors just seem a little off here.
In other fabric news…The Quilter’s Workshop issued a challenge. We’ve been making Kanzashi flowers at the shop and the link takes you to all the entries. I made entry #2, #4, and #5. I’m especially pleased with my Kanzashi topiary. Here’s the picture from the store’s website.
There are about 35 flowers, a couple of bees, and a dragonfly…it’s very bright and cute! Can’t wait to get it back home.
Thanks for stopping by!
Yep! It’s Friday and I was cuuute!!
Posted by: mngirltx on: June 17, 2011
This is the tsumami kanzashi headband I made last week…fabric is by Art Gallery.
Around home
Posted by: mngirltx on: June 6, 2011
- In: Cats | Quilt-a-longs | Quilts
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I actually finished the table topper I made back in October to do a free motion quilting demo. The pattern is from Heather Mulder (Anka’s Treasures)…her Livin’ Large book.
Heather appliqued flowers in the 4 corners of her table topper. The look didn’t fit my more modern fabric choice, so I free-motioned in the corners, instead.
It has Felicity’s approval.
I also chose some fabric for the Ogee QAL at Pickle Dish. I’m waaaaay behind 
.
I think the “Holiday Flourish” line by Peggy Toole for Robert Kauffman is going to be spectacular in this quilt!
And, this little guy was a little jealous of our last Girls’ Night Out…
Spring Market
Posted by: mngirltx on: June 6, 2011
- In: Market | Quilts
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I know. It’s been WEEKS since Market. And, I’m just getting around to posting my pictures and thoughts.
Salt Lake City was lovely. We were on the 7th floor of the Hyatt and woke up to a gorgeous view of the mountains every morning. Thursday night was Sample Spree. What an experience!
This was the line when Diana and I got there. We easily walked a full city block from this point, just to get to the door of the room that Spree was in! It was almost frightening! Hordes of people trying to get the newest and greatest things. I went to the Moda “table” first. The crowd was at least 4 deep all the way around. I saw a lovely bundle of Kate Spain’s “Terrain” go by. That was as close as I got to it. By the time I was able to get close to the table, all the “Terrain” was gone.
I did manage to spend my meager Spree budgeted dollars, though.
The Eiffel Tower quilt pattern (Metropolitan Quilts) and fat quarter assortment of batiks from Anthology were Spree buys. The Quilter’s Tools combo pack was a surprise from Diana!
I also got a 1/2 yard pack of “Color Splash” from Art Gallery Fabrics and a fat quarter pack of “Dandelion Dreams” from Maywood Studio.
Friday and Saturday mornings we took classes before the Market floor opened. I learned about Transfer Artist Paper (TAP) from Lesley Riley and Thread Play with Liz Kettle. Both classes were fun and educational.
What and who else did we see and do? We had a really nice conversation with thread painter Terry White. Totally enjoyed meeting her!
We met Amy Butler.
Tula Pink
Anna Maria Horner
Valori Wells
but, not Ty Pennington
All of them were super nice. Well, except for not Ty Pennington. He was fairly quiet.
We had a grand time doing make and takes at the Brewer booth. And, we especially enjoyed Imaginisce’s I-Rock tools and came home with Quilt Show “bling”.
(That’s my pudgy hand on the left )
I also came home with a new strip kit from Shannon. I’m working on making it into a large one block log cabin. Here is the sample quilt from the Shannon booth.
I also picked up a couple of patterns from Don’t Look Now, a designer of applique patterns who hails from Australia. Her work is beautiful. And, a bracelet pattern and a Halloween quilt pattern from Crabapple Hill.
We did a LOT of walking around downtown each night at dinner time. There are a ton of restaurants to choose from. We were just directionally and maply challenged. However, SLC was walker friendly.
They even provided orange flags at crosswalks to help make one more visible to drivers.
Monday before we went to the airport, we had time to walk down to Temple Square. They have beautiful flowers EVERYwhere!
And, the view from the 26th floor of the church office building was fabulous!
Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Spring 2011
Posted by: mngirltx on: May 16, 2011
My entry in the Virtual Quilt Festival sponsored by Amy’s Creative Side, is one that is made of blocks from a block swap with some friends. Several years ago, I was involved in a few different block swaps and my friend, Lori, thought it would be fun to do a swap between our “Trixie Friends”. My Trixie Friends are an on-line (and real life) group of friends that read the Trixie Belden mystery series in our youth. Fourteen of us took part…some had never made a quilt block before, but bravely stepped up to the plate. The only requirements were block size and the block had to somehow refer to something in the series.
My block is the New York Beauty in the upper right corner. (Trixie and her family and friends live in Westchester County, New York.) There are 16 blocks – 2 are illustrations from the books.
The back of the quilt is made from some discarded stack and whack blocks and pictures and names of the friends who took part in the swap.
The reason I chose to share this quilt is not because it is the most beautiful quilt ever…but it was made with so much love from friends all over the world.
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