fast fix for quilters

Moda has come out with wonderful collections of precision cut squares or as Wendy at Quilter's Cupboard says 'fast food for quilters'. All ready to go & sew.Hey, that's kind of catchy!
I'm not a big kit person. I've never bought a kit for its designed purpose. I have picked up the odd kit on sale for the individual contents only. BUT....
this I couldn't resist ... a delicious collection designed by April Cornell of stripes, polka dots, large scale botanical, small vintage motifs all in a fresh colour pallette of coral, teal, olive green and chocolate brown.
So what to do with them? They would look wonderful just sewn together with narrow borders but that's not my style.
To me one of the pleasures of buying fabric is bringing it home & introducing its cousins already in the stash. I've pulled fabrics for many quilts that I have no intention of actually making. Just an exercise in playing with fabric. This is especially fun and easy to do now that my fabrics are organized in the closet. This also helps me evaluate the stash. I don't have any great browns to go with these squares. I'll pick a brown for the border and the dark stripe for the binding.

I did pick the pattern before these fabrics. A modern pallette needs a modern pattern and obviously something that starts with squares. I settled on The Spin from Karla Alexander's book New Cuts for New Quilts More ways to Stack the Deck.
These are just sample blocks to work out the measurements but you can see how the square is surrounded with the other pieces that are stacked & cut. The squares end up in alternating directions to make the spin.
Now go & sew!

finished in 1 day!!

A record has been set. I started and FINISHED this wallhanging TODAY. (insert roaring crowd here)

The turquoise and black are actually 3D tucks that stand out from the background fabric by Paula Nadelstern. The tucks are then folded to form the wave of black across the piece. This is a technique by Caryl Byer Fallert called High Tech Tucks. It was featured in Fons & Porter magazine Sept/Oct 06.

It is sewn onto the batting to prevent any linger UFO labels.

New Toy

I got a new toy. the Janome Xpression needle felting/embellishing machine. 5 barbed needle basically jab fabric together. Hubby got it for $100 less than the going price so we are both happy!
It appeals to me because I love texture and the gleaner in me saves every little bit of stuff so I can use it all now. can hardly wait to play

fabric collage part 2

The collage is stitched, there were a couple of sections that stand out more than I want but they were eliminated after slicing & dicing. I find, like printed fabric, you really don't know a fabric until you take scissors or a rotary cutter to it.It was easier than I thought to cut it up into 2" squares. Made me realize how small those 1" charms really are.
I like how the squares look on black. Now to figure out what to do with them.

fabric collage

While going through my stack of Quilting Arts magazine for the billionth time I put in post-its of all the techniques I want to try. Tried a few on Friday. I'm really pleased with the painting with pattern stitches by Carole Redlich (issue 19 fall 2005 pg72) I tried. I prefer to call it fabric collage with my fancy pants sewing machine!
I'm working on a piece about 11" square. may cut it into smaller pieces for a journal quilt or it would be perfect for the fabric charms that have everyones attention at the moment.

look at me sew!!

Yet another UFO bits the dust. Yup another finished piece, another watercolour. my own design with 11 assorted fish.

another UFO done!!!!

I'm on a roll now. After a wonderful lesson on free motion quilting by M at the guild workshop day, I was ready to tackle a real piece. A strip-pieced watercolour wallhanging made oh at least 10 years ago!
Done, Finished, Finito Yah !!!!
for someone plaqued by UFO's it feels great. I had the big box out and have plans for many more UFO's to become WIP and ultimately finished.
what a great start to the year.

2nd finished project

yup two finished in 1 week!! I'f I keep up this rate I may run out of UFO's by, say August!!
I don't really know if I like the binding colour but TOO BAD. its on & is staying on. maybe some blue thread blanket stitch ??

first finished project of 2007

I finished a small journal quilt today January 1, 2007! I hope its a good sign for the year ahead. more finished than unfinished.
It is the opposite of the other which was for a fabric book round robin

Happy New Year

How do you celebrate the New Year? Remember the Old? I like to list all the things I did, I made, planned,place I travelled to, friends I made, letters I wrote or received, special days, meals I ate, new techniques I tried and lessons I learned.
Then I list all the wishes, dreams, desires, plans for the next year.

shades of green continued

a finished page for a fabric book - the best part of using a positive & negative image is I get the leftovers for an almost identical quilt for myself and it is journal size to fulfill another obligation!

scarves

with gorgeous yarns, delicious thread, one brilliant sewing machine, a magic ingredient and you too can have lovely delicate scarves.

more totes

In total I made 4 large totes & 2 small ones. love them all. have sent them out to be sold and enjoyed.

totes for sale

I have my very own sweatshop. trying to produce stuff for a Christmas craft sale. and I decided on a tote bag, a very cool but definitely spring/summer tote. Or maybe I should call it a winter cruise/March break tote.
Pattern is Screen Play by Nancy Ota and is very well designed. I loved picking out the various colour combos.
Have made 2 sizes DH likes the small one but he has no concept of what might need to go into a ladies tote especially for lounging in the sun. water,sunscreen, chick-lit novel, magazines, cell phone, hat,hair clips,sunglasses, towel and those are just the basics. Add a whole other set of stuff if there are little ones involved.

shades of green

what a wonderful colour. a cool technique from this book by Elli Woodsford. no seams because the pieces are just butted against each other on a piece of totally stable, zigzag over edges slice & rotate & repeat.
sort of like 'shampoo, rinse & repeat'!! then stich over the whole think with a fancy stitch I used one I call chicken scratch.

sewing tour continues

books. I love books. they have a special place in the sewing room. My father caught the rainbow trout & I like having it keep an eye on me.

more storage

Some people has a hidden home for everything. not me
I like to see my stuff especially when I'm on a roll creating - so I've all my sewing accessories on a peg board. So no lossing the scissors anymore!! that's the plan anyway!

I pick door # 1

what's in your closet? Do you have a little door for a big space? I DID! Blew that door off & look what I found. Tons of storage space outfitted with Ikea wire shelves.
now when I want fabric I can pull out a drawer find what I want and push it back. no more stacks of plastic bins to pull from under the sewing table. I am thrilled with my new storage systems.the plastic tower in between the wire shelves hold thread, fabric paint, crayons, markers, pastels, pencils with room to spare. Remember H. when you & your sister thought going to a store called Solutions was soooooo lame?!! who loves Ikea now?!!!!
The only problem now is I have empty drawers to fill!!!
!

elements-fire

I had the perfect dyed fabric for this element so no painting. It is built up of layers of fabric coloured with marker & funky glitzy bits like angelina. many more layers to go.

painted fabrics

.
I can see how this can be addictive - to create your own fabric - to slap some paint on a damp piece of fabric - put it aside to dry & see what colours have mixed & migrated.
The blue/green piece is for quilt U element class - water. beside it are batiks destined to be rocks. It has wonderful fine irridescent paint on it to give it some reflection.
The other piece is quartered & bagged & headed to NYC for a sunset fabric swap hosted by Alma The colours are a littled blurred and light - too much water but not bad for second attempt.