Welcome 2011

My Happy New Year exploding fireworks quilt....a Karen K. stone pattern.






Each of the 4 blocks is composed of identical quadrants. Each of the 16 quadrants has the same general color scheme. And a lot of those spiky points...all made easy and exact by paper piecing.





Here's the same pattern but done with different color placement.






Hope you have a happy new year filled with lots of fun, fabric, and finished quilts!

simple mathematics

The whole really is equal to more than the sum of it's parts.

One bunch of green fabrics from my stash, mostly Lizzy House Castle Peeps and Deynse Schmidt Hope Valley.


Plus
A few hours of sewing

Plus
the fantastic New Wave Quilt pattern by Elizabeth Hartman

Plus
the New Wave template from Jill's Tabslot Etsy store

Plus
great machine quilting by Christina, the Sometimes Crafter

Equals one Christmas quilt and



One happy, happy kid !

What to do, what to do....

What to do, what to do.......

It's a long drive from my sister's house in eastern Washington to my house in Portland, Oregon.
I am easily bored.

What to do, what to do.......

I decided to make a colored pencil quilt.


This cover of American Patchwork and Quilting was my inspiration. The quilt is by one of my favorite designers, Sandy Klop of American Jane fame.


I only had the on line picture of the cover, but I figured out the pattern, and came up with this drawing.



It's a beautiful, graphic yet charming quilt and could be made with cut up jelly roll strips. But after counting all those 2 1/2 inch rows and corresponding corner intersections that would need to be matched, I decided to try a different approach.

What to do, what to do......

Think of the quilt as a 2 block quilt composed of one 6 and 1/2 inch square sewn to a nine patch block that would also measure 6 and 1/2 inches. Here's the drawing for this new construction method.




Block one is simply a 6 1/2 inch square.
Block two is a nine patch made of 2 1/2 inch squares. Color placement is crucial here.
The overall effect will be the same, I think, as the marvelous cover on the Feb issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.

What to do, what to do.....

Guess I will clear off the table in my studio and try this out as soon as I get home.
Only 85 miles to go.

Late night shopping

Something happens late at night.
The keys on my computer morph into something mysterious and all knowing.
New buttons are added to the keyboard.
One of these is the BUY IT NOW button.
This button is located where the delete key used to be.
And it definitely has a mind of it's own.
It is curious.
This new key has unusual and delayed side effects.
In a week, a package arrives on my doorstep.
I have absolutely no idea how it got here. None.
A case in point. This arrived today.



These are Alexander Henry fabrics from the Larkspur collection.
Fresh and springy birds, dots, wiggly stripes.

Later tonight I hope to locate the keyboard button entitled KONA SOLID COLORS.
In a week, I will have all the fabrics for a new quilt.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Quilt Love

Tokyo Subway Map

I love the design created by Elizabeth Hartman.
I love the inspiration is a real map.
I love the whimsy, the blocks of color.
I love each and every fussy cut 2 inch square.
I love the swirly quilting done by Nancy Stovall.
I love that is is all done.
I love that it is in the mail to some very special people.

I am a blog virgin

I am from the colored pencil generation.
Not the electronic computer graphic generation.
But I am willing to give this blog thing a try.
Even tho it hurts to type while clutching a bunch of Prismacolors.

Welcome, welcome to a few of my ramblings, rantings, and ravings.
Mostly quilt related.
Mostly true.
Mostly inspired by my free annual trip around the sun.

And sew on and sew on....