Sunday, September 29, 2013

Swoon Top Finished!

I started this quilt over a year ago. No problem. Piece of cake. It's only nine blocks, right? I'll have it finished in no time.

Or, a year.

Anyway, I'm really happy with it. I used a Amy Butler Soul Blossoms and Moda cross weaves for the centers. Now, off to the quilter. (I sent my quilt for the book to a long arm quilter, and got spoiled! With a quilt this large, no way I'm going to tackle it myself.) As for quilting, any ideas? Maybe I should ask Karen. I think she's made 5 of these!

This quilt has always been for Katie. At first for her (July) birthday. Christmas present? Speaking of Christmas, I think this would make an awesome Christmas quilt. I'm hoarding a stack of Blitzen fat quarters. For Christmas 2014, of course.



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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A Tale of Two Cabins, Final Chapter

You may have read this post, about two log cabins that I just wasn't feeling.

As I suspected, I just need to keep going. And I'm feeling them now!




For the vintage sheet quilt, when I put all the blocks together, it just looked like a whole lot of mush. Pretty, vintage mush, but mush all the same. I tried the gray sashing but it wasn't doing it for me. So I pawed through my stash and found the pink heart herringbone from BasicGrey. Perfect! I find sashing to be so tedious, (and don’t even mention corner stones)but I really didn’t mind with this quilt. It really perked things up and I love the final quilt. I’m so happy that a sweet little girl will cuddle up in it very soon.


For my modern log improv, I just kept plugging along, making more blocks. The more I made, the better I liked it. For someone like me who doesn't do a lot of improv, I think I could actually see my improv improve (my spell check is going crazy over that last phrase!) Whenever  I would see improv quilting classes I would think, “how do you teach improv?” but I do think there is a method to it. Or at least, for me, I found what I liked and didn't like. Another thing I liked about this quilt was the restricted color palette, and the fact that they were all scraps from other projects. I will definitely revisit the grey/red/black/neutral scheme again.  And in the end, I don’t think it’s too modern for a little boy. I think it will be just right for a very cool little dude.


All told, the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild made 21 log cabin quilts for the kids of the South East Early Head Start program! The quilts will hang in the gallery of the Kennedy Kreiger Family Center before going to their permanent home in the arms of the babies and toddlers of the center. Way to go, guild!


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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Um, I'm in a Book!


Not much blogging these days. I wish I had a great excuse: on safari, building schools for underprivileged children, working on my novel.  Alas, I just run out of time.

“Ah” they say, “if it was important to you, you’d make time for it.” So, here’s me, making time for it!

And I actually have something very exciting to share! Way back in the spring, I was invited to participate in a new venture by the Kansas City Star people. It’s their new modern quilt offshoot, My Stars. I’m one of ten quilters who will have projects featured in their first book, Classic Modern Quilts! I’m so excited about this, and in such awesome company. Just look at the other quilters (oh, and look, my name is right there with them!)





The whole process was a bit surreal: designing a quilt, actually turning a sketch into a real life quilt, writing a pattern ~ all with the requisite deadlines.  My editor, Jenifer Dick, is great to work with and an awesome guide for a newbie like me. (I giggle every time I say “my editor”!) She kept me on track and provided endless encouragement.

The book is due out in time for Quilt Market.  Oh, yeah, and I’m going to quilt market! I can’t believe it. Another thing to cross off the Quilting Bucket List (which is so long, it needs its own bucket list!) Going to room with my friend Tammie, who got me involved in the project to start with.

So, here’s the My Stars Blog. Here’s my interview on theblog. And here’s a picture from the photo shoot from the book. See that quilt on top? That’s mine!


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