Month: March 2009

Inspiration Monday (Rachel’s Cherry Tree)

This photo was taken by TFQ on December 22, 2008 at 9am during Seattle’s December snowstorm. I know it was cold and nasty to be in, but the photo is so gorgeously inspiring.

I sorted a lot of photos this weekend from 1981/82. In the process of sorting, I came across a number of tree pictures. Remember those 3×5″ photos that used to come back from the drugstore? I have lots of them and a multitude of them are trees. Since the 1981/82 photos have not yet been scanned, and I have trees on the mind, I picked this out of my favorite Flickr photos. I think you will be seeing trees in future inspiration postings. Hopefully, I will have a tree inspired quilt in my future.

Random Projects Progress

Quick post with mostly pics. Hope you enjoy the progress.

Flowering Snowball (Cross Block)
Flowering Snowball (Cross Block)

I have only three blocks left to make for the center of this quilt. I need to cut some more prints, though, as I am tired of the reusing the ones I already cut. I can use them in the border.

Cathy Blocks #3
Cathy Blocks #3

I made these last weekend and cut some fabric for two more tonight. Progress!

More FOTY 2009

FOTY 2009 blocks
FOTY 2009 blocks

Here are the latest FOTY 2009 blocks. These blocks are so easy to make that they are like candy. You can’t make just one.

I am thinking that I will use these fabrics, except the bright white circles fabric, for a Yellow Brick Road type quilt. I wrote about these fabrics on January 17, 2009 and on February 23, 2009.

Creative Prompt #6: Air

Create a piece of art of craft, a doodle or an oil painting on the thoughts evoked by the word ‘air.’

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted in the comments area of this post. It is a good way to keep all the artwork together.

The Creative Prompt Page, which has been updated, has a lot of information about resources, past prompts (all in one place!!!), and reviews of other creative sites.

Swap Block

SIL and I are doing a swap with blue and white fabrics.

First Always Quilting Block
First Always Quilting Block

This is the block we are using. We didn’t have time to really organize ourselves while she was out for a brief visit a few weeks ago, so we did some organizing via email. I finally felt organized enough to make some blocks. The above block is one of the first group that I did. I plan to make two of each fabric and send one to SIL, in little batches.

Three Always Quilting Blocks
Three Always Quilting Blocks

I made the two batik ones later and will send SIL one.

The motif that the squares and rectangles make looks like some kind of knot. Since I didn’t know the name of this block, and I didn’t want to call it the Always Quilting block, I looked up the design in Barbara Brackman’s book, The Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. I couldn’t find this particular block (Barbara, won’t you please update your book with newer blocks??? Thanks.), so I found a couple that looked like they were related.

Tam's Patch, BB:1117
Tam's Patch, BB:1117

BB:1117 is called Tam’s Patch. It has two corners with the rectangle/two squares combination, but the other two corners are just plain square patches.

Squares upon Squares, BB:1104
Squares upon Squares, BB:1104

BB:1104 (page 156-157) is called Squares upon Squares from Farm Journal.

I’ll look through some other block dictionaries to see if I can find a name for it.The reality is that you change one line and you have a new block. New blocks are invented every day.

I’d love to hear if you know the name of this block, or have a creative name for it.

What’s on the Design Wall

Design Wall, 3-22-2009
Design Wall, 3-22-2009

I thought I would give you a view of my design wall. It is packed to the gills right now and I may have to drag out the portable design wall. You can see the Tarts.

In the bottom middle are the swap/friendship blocks I am starting to work on with my SIL.

On the left side are patches for the FOTY 2009  quilt, which is in its infancy.

I am thrilled with how much I am sewing! I never have enough time to do as much as I want, but I feel like I am accomplishing a lot and that feels good. Quiltmaking is actually taking over time that I usually spend doing other stuff, so my time management skills, in general, appear o the outside world to be deteriorating. I blame it all on podcasts, which allow me to immerse myself in quilting when I can’t even be at the machine.

More Progress on the Tarts

Tarts, full
Tarts, full

Most of what you can see is the Tarts Come to Tea, but some are other projects, which I will talk about later. Progress is being made, despite seeming to make only very tiny amounts of progress every weekend.

Cupcake,detail
Cupcake,detail

I thought of putting a cupcake in the line of cups instead of another cup for a couple of reasons:

  1. I couldn’t find another cup that I liked immediately.
  2. I thought I had made plenty of cups already; all over the piece there are a total of 11 cups.
  3. If the title of the Piece is the Tarts Come to Tea, then there should be some blocks showing items that could be construed as ‘tarts’. I am not up for creating sexy women in machine applique’ right at the moment. 😉
Frothy Drink, detail
Frothy Drink, detail

Here is the new frothy drink. The one with the background plaid is gone. I have it in my scrap pile and it may be reborn as a teacher pillow or something. We will see.

PamDora’s Sketchbooks

I am in awe of the number of sketchbooks that Pam RuBert has. I think this is a great picture and it makes me wonder if I would have that many sketchbooks and journals if I dug out all of them. Take a look at her blog to see the entire post and her questions about organizing sketchbooks.
clipped from pamdora.com

March 20, 2009

sketchbook_mania.jpg
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Small Treasures

I listened to an interview with Mary Lou Weidman on Annie Smith’s podcast this morning. I listened to and wrote about it before. You can find the podcast and show notes at Simple Arts and the podcast on iTunes. It is the 4/17/2008 episode and well worth your time. Mary Lou is a really positive person and what I noticed about this podcast was her discussion of small blessings. I know that blessings can be a loaded word for some. I think of her concept as small treasures anyway.

Mary Lou talked about enjoying the small things in life: a special pear with a wonderful slice of cheese on it, a nice cup of tea, a wonderful bar of soap or bottle of lotion. While I have been trying to, generally, think positive, this comment gave me a little shove in the right direction. I also realized that there were a few recent things that I have really been enjoy.  I recently received some apricot vanilla bars of soap and some of my favorite chocolates from a very special person in honor of a very special anniversary. Times are tight financially right now and these were in lieu of the  wished for trip to Hawaii. I find, however, that I am not too disappointed and that I think about these gifts very often. I really am enjoying them.

Fabric Closet, Working
Fabric Closet, Working

Also, I have been rummaging through my stash quite a bit lately for fabric for the Tarts and other projects. I do this pretty regularly, but am not buying as much new fabric, so I am paying more attention to the fabric I have. It is really fun!

Crazy Test, Complete
Crazy Test, Complete

Finally, I also finished the Crazy Test on Thursday. It is ready for…something. I don’t know what it will end up as or who it will end up with.

In general, all is well!

Sew4Home Website

As I have a Janome machine, I get emails from them talking about new products. Mostly, I can’t use what they send because either I am too lazy to teach myself to use a new foot, I have no interest, I have no time or I am just not interested. Still, I like to see what is going on so when I buy that new machine, I will have something they can teach me at the class.

I was thrilled to see this site, sew4home, which Janome is sponsoring. I really think the layout makes sense and they seem to have a range of projects. I only looked at the cushion area because Teacher Pillow time is coming. I found the plethora of projects to be very appealing.

clipped from sew4home.com

Sew4Home - Transform your space.


Basic Rectangle Pillow in Purple & Chocolate Floral

Click to Read MoreThis simple pillow proves that a home dec item can be very stylish and still easy to make.




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Square Button-Tucked Toss Pillow

Click to Read MoreThe button-tucked or tufted pillow is a classic design. A middle button accent, front and back, is what creates the wonderful plump and puffy look.


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Creative Prompt #5: Spring

Spring has sprung! Spring is the creative prompt of the week.

The season of spring.

Grass can be springy.

Little coils of metal are also called springs.

Spring green.

See the Creative Prompt page if you have questions about this project.

Post the URL where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted in the comments area of this post. It is a good way to keep all the artwork together.

There is more information on the Creative Prompt Page.

Color Theory by Vicki Welsh

Vicki is one of my blog readers and a wonderful colorist. If you are familar with  the Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop by Kerr and Ringle (review), then you would enjoy Vicki’s blog, Field Trips in Fiber, and especially her work on color theory.

Her color theory work was done a couple of years ago, but she has some very astute comments about the different color theory systems and color wheels. Lately she has been dyeing groups of related colors. I think that this current work must come out of her color theory studies. She posts the groups of colors next to each other (as Kerr and Ringle do in their book, above) as she dyes them, including, occasionally, the inspirational picture. Her postings illustrates perfectly the Kerr/Ringle “Big Idea.”

An English Artist in Britany

Periodically I peruse the various that comprise Urban Sketchers. Yesterday I found Caroline of the Artist’s Smock. Her drawings remind me of Seattle Sketcher, but with a European Twist. I like her descriptive bio as well. I can’t insert the drawing I like, but you can see it at http://tinyurl.com/artistsmock.