Vegas Floor

My sister’s sweetie took her to Vegas last weekend. Here is a photo she sent me. These photos were taken of a floor at The Palace Station. This is not your typical Mariner’s Compass as we quiltmakers think of it, however, it would be a wonderful applique’ project. It makes me think of Jinny Beyer’s Soft Edge Piecing book.

The curves of this motif are really lovely. They also look like stylized hearts.

Vegas Floor Corner

My family is well trained. They know I always want to see the corner. If tile layers figured out how to get the two borders to meet, I don’t need to do the math, right? I love that rope like piece acting as an inner border.

Thanks, sis.

I decided that I would write one big long post to catch up, because I seem to have bunches of photos yet to post. I don’t want to say “oh 3 weeks ago, I made this and that.”

Another view of the Tarts

Another idea for the curvy coffee pot embellishment. My mom told me that steam goes down first and I should put the hearts below the exit to the spout. I tried it, took a picture and above is the result. I prefer the other view, Fluttering Hearts, regardless of whether or not steamreally  goes up or down. I think I am really getting sick of this obsessing about the Tarts. I got home from my week away, saw the Tarts on my design wall and just sighed. I thought to myself “oh brother, just make a decision about the &*(^%$ hearts and move on already!” Perhaps it is time to just applique’ the hearts on the curvy coffee pot and move on. Perhaps I will start on the back and that will give me renewed energy around this project?

Mosaic Mirror #1

TFQ has these wonderful mirrors at her house. They are made by an artist named Kathe. I love the glass beads and blobs and shards she uses to create her designs.

Mosaic Mirror #2

I like the sun at the top of the one above. Notice the two different color schemes?

FOTY 2009 Blocks, Nov. 2009

Above are the most recent FOTY blocks. I made them before I left on my travels. I have a month and a half to wash, press and cut pieces from my new fabrics. As I have mentioned, I want to be ready to make the FOTY 2009 at the CQFA retreat in January. I had better not buy anymore fabric.

3 Columns, Nov. 2009

Here is another Sorbet block. I made it in between trips. I call it 3 Columns, for obvious reasons. It may have another name. I don’t think it is really that easy to make up new blocks, but I also haven’t looked it up in Barbara Brackman’s block book. I will sometime. Let me know if you know the real name. I still have not looked at the fabrics again to see what other colors I need to add. I am limping along with this project.

Green for Ornaments

I have been cutting green strips since about July as I press fabric. I have also been saving shards in order to make ornaments. I usually make a few every year, but don’t seem to have taken any photos to show you. I’ll have to put that on my list of things to do.

clipped from disdressed.blogspot.com

Liesl + Co is the parent company of Oliver + S. The former is the company that put out The Day in the Park Backpack tote that I bought last year at PIQF

Tile water fountain

A few days ago, I showed you the inside of this water fountain. the outside is just as great.

Rose Tile

Dowtown Santa Barbara has a building that is sort of Spanish style, but has a twist. It has many different, useful tile structures outside. This is part of the wall surrounding that building.

Flower Tile Fountain

Wouldn’t the world be great if everything was beautiful like this. I would love to drink out of a fountain every day that looked like this.

This could be a response to last week’s prompt as well!

I really liked this tile bench. It was very cheerful.

Tile Circle, detail

clipped from www.kaffefassett.com Kaffe’s Mosaic

Thanks for reading in 2008! Happy New Year!

*German for “ever closer” (approximate translation)

These tiles are on the stairs of a house on 21st Avenue in San Francisco.

After Thanksgiving, I took my cousin, who was visiting from Arizona, and a bunch of other kids downtown to look at the recently Christmas lights. In a recently renovated mall, I followed the strings of lights with my eyes up to the ceiling and was rewarded with this view.

This is a floor at the Westin St. Francis.

This is the corner of the mosaic work. I would love to use this as a design for the border of a quilt. I think it would probably have to be machine appliqued.

Here is some carpet at the Grand Hyatt. I like the way the spirals curl around each other as well as the way they are echoed with some additional curves a few inches away. Definitely inspiration for a quilting design.

Borders have been on my mind lately,especially as I work through my Crazy Test quilt. I think about the value of borders when the self bordering technique does not work.

Here is another Ferry Building mosaic. The thing that struck me about this mosaic was the two different (large) borders. They are distinctly separate, but close enough in value to go together and look like they were planned. I don’t actually like the peachy hue, but it works on this mosaic. I think a couple of aquas or an aqua and turquoise would look great on a watery quilt.

This is another one of the nature related mosaics that decorate the Ferry Building. I have walked past this particular mosaic numerous times. It wasn’t until this week when I happened to standing near a newly moved table that I noticed the border. I really like the way the border sets off the center. I also like it that it isn’t a traditional checkerboard border. I think the classic checkerboard pattern makes a wonderful element in a quilt, but the rectangular tiles (aka patches) in this piece really give the work something extra.

I hope to get a picture of each of the mosaics.

The Ferry Building has some nice mosaics. At the FB 5 year mark some of the businesses are moving out and revealing some of the mosaics which have been hidden.