Karla Alexander: Trunk Show

During the Red Onion Class, Karla Alexander gave us a mini - trunk show. Her work is beautiful and I wish I would have taken a picture of every quilt she showed us.

This first quilt is a variation of the quilt we worked on in class. It also hung in the show.

Below is the variation we worked from, they don't look like the same quilt do they?

Most of the rest of these were from her book Stack a New Deck: More Great Quilts in 4 Easy Steps

I like this one, it's done in black and white and greens. Do you see the little lady bugs?

Cheers,

Dionne

Red Onion Class with Karla Alexander

I'm back from my trip to Sisters, Oregon.

It was a marvelous family vacation actually, we stayed at a golf resort in a nearby town and there was plenty to do for my husband, my teenage daughter as well as for my younger children. And of course, I was in hog heaven!

On Monday I had the only class I took during the week. It was with Karla Alexander. Although she has written many wonderful books, the one that we worked from was Stack a New Deck: More Great Quilts in 4 Easy Steps

Her example was done in Batiks of deep purples, taupes and light greens. My photograph really doesn't do this quilt justice at all!

Karla had so many helpful examples and handouts, that this class turned out to be one of my most successful classes ever! I was really excited about all the great tips and tricks I learned in addition to the actual technique she was teaching.

Not only that, she was a real

interactive teacher. She even took her shoes off and got on the floor with one attendees blocks and really worked one on one with us! It was a brilliant class.

I also wanted to give you a little taste of how different all our work was.

Everyone in the class chose to work with batiks, but I think this quilt would look just as nice in a variety of different fabrics.

I chose all teals and chocolate browns. I was the only one of all the students who worked in a light/dark pattern, similair to the way the example quilt was designed. My

squares are in the first photo of the student work, lower left corner. I only have five squares up at this point. I later took all my squares off the design wall to give other students more space. I knew I wouldn't be finishing my top that day.

Cheers,

Dionne

PS - Kristen you'll have to wait for your pics!

Yes, still more Pre-school Quilts!

It seems there is no end to these little guys! But I assure you I am almost at the end.

I love how unique all of them are. Also, I find the kids fabric choices facinating! Even the boys picked some interesting fabrics.

My next post will be in a few days after I return from SISTERS OUTDOOR QUILT SHOW!

Yahoo!

Cheers,

Dionne

Antwerp Train Station

I saw this online, I don't know how they managed it, but it's pretty amazing.

When I stayed in Antwerp ~ a beautiful town in Belgium, I can assure you there was no singing and dancing!







I spent a great deal of time in Antwerp some time ago and this is a really busy train terminal ~ I can't imagine how they pulled this off!

Cheers,

Dionne

Spice Market Batik Quilt

I started a quilt that I am making for a woman I work with.

The colors she chose are beautiful batiks. The Spice Market pattern uses thirteen fabric choices all in a very distinct placement, so this isn't going to be a quick chain sew quilt!

But the result will be stunning. I've actually already started to cut the fabrics, but I haven't had a chance to take the picture yet!

Cheers,

Dionne

One Quarter of the Way Done?

Here are the latest blocks on the ATWQS quilts I'm working on.

The first one has a bunch of "state" blocks, done in several locally inspired fabrics.

I did one of the trees in a fabric that has Washington postcards in greens and blues against an apple tree background. Then I bordered it with fabric from last years Western Washington Shop Hop. It has subtle images ~ the state bird, the state flower, year we were granted statehood etc.

I think these blocks look nice together. The overall quilt will have a nice eclectic look to it!

The next block is a 'liberated cottage' in the style of Gwen Marsten. I like this house on a hill, with flowers in the garden and butterflies in the sky.

Don't you think the neighborhood is coming along nicely?

It looks like my house on the hill block is WAY too big, but really it's not. I had to make it a little larger to get the effect of the hill and then chose not to trim it!

Cheers,

Dionne

The Queen of Quilting

Yes, it's true! I have officially been named the Queen of Quilting by none other than Pat Sloan herself! I was even bequeathed a CROWN!

My crown also came with a wonderful box of goodies! FOUR cuts of fabric (I think I was only supposed to get one ~ how awesome is that!) PLUS an autographed book by Pat Sloan, my crown (of course) AND a wonderfully summery and festive hawaiian centerpiece, which we are keeping on the table in our kitchen so we can see it when we have our family meals!

You may remember, I was participating in one of Pat's Quilty Games (hosted at www.DeathByQuilting.com) Death By Quilting: The Cabana Boy Challenge.

And I was planning on posting an elaborate death scene, where I was killed by a lethal but beautiful 'quilty' weapon.

However, wonder of wonders, I actually WON!! (so you will all be spared my very amateur and dramatic video efforts)

First I completed my first "weapon" and mailed it on to an "Agent" in Alaska. We had a pattern and a kit, to which we added both fabric and creativity. In this first weapon, I adhered strictly to the pattern guidelines and used both the supplied fabrics as much as possible.

I used the 'Cabana' panel as my label. I thought the label turned out really cute. It's a great and summery panel and very fitting for the challenge.

Then I finished a second "weapon", that was mailed to me in-progress. This is also a very fun and summery "interpretation"

The pattern is followed closely, but the fabrics were used minimally. I love how the original 'Agent' used the Cabana panel on the front of the quilt. I mailed this finished 'weapon' on to my second "kill" in Florida.

And finally, after a glorious win, and the obligatory victory dance in which my entire family chanted "Queen of Quilting" to me, I received my final "weapon" this one also is in-progress and I show it to you here in the state I received it. ALMOST completed, basting still in place. I can't wait to finish this one as well, as this one I get to keep. The original 'Agent' on this 'weapon' had a really fun interpretation of the pattern and also used the cabana panel on the front of the quilt. I love that. She also used the beautiful blue fabric supplied in the kit, very liberally.

This was such a fun challenge, I hope I'll be able to play along in the next round.

Also, I wanted to make a full-size version of the 'Cabana' pattern as a beach blanket, or a summery picnic blanket and what did Pat Sloan do? In between the taping of a segment of 'Quilt Out Loud' she found the fabrics, and made them available to me on her website!

THANK YOU!

Cheers,

Dionne

A Few of the Pre-School Quilts

I've only finished a few of the quilts for the pre-school class.

It was a lot of fun working in the classroom. I started out during circle time, and showed several small examples of different types of quilts ~ they were all lap sized quilts that belong to my son.

Then I sat in the corner and became one of the "centers." Two to three kids at a time, they picked out their strips, and two corner squares per block.

They watched me sew their squares together. I wanted each one to see the top of one of their squares get finished.

Despite the fact that it's taking a little longer than I expected, this is a REALLY fun project for me. I really enjoy working with kids and doing these types of projects.

I know I came across rather 'whiny' in my last post and I didn't mean to. I think I was just a little stressed, I didn't have enough fabric and was running out of money. I don't have a huge stash, and I really wanted as many of the fabrics to be 'kid friendly' as possible.

These are small little quilts, about 14 inches by 28 inches. I told the kids they would be making 'Car Quilts'. Just the perfect size to cover a child's lap on a chilly winter day.

On one square I had the child write their name and draw a picture with fabric pens. On the other square I had the children choose shapes for me to applique on the fabric of their choice.

Oh yeah, also, I've got my first commissioned project. I've been commissioned to make a lady in Seattle a Queen sized quilt. I'll take some pictures of the fabrics I'm using for that soon. I promised her she would be able to follow along with the construction of the quilt on my blog.

Cheers,

Dionne

My Crazy Pre-School Project!

So I got a little carried away recently and volunteered/agreed to make little lap sized car quilts for all the kids in my son's pre-school class.

They have a split class room, two teachers and with the two-day a week kids, all told it's 27 kids.

And, get this... only ONE parent offered to donate some fabrics. I was expected to come up with the rest! If the children hadn't gotten so jazzed about it I would have backed out. But the kids are really excited and so I bought as much fabric as I could afford and the project went from:

• four 12" squares (24" by 24") to
• three 12" squares (12" by 36") to
• two squares (12" by 24")

Well, that's not too bad. Afterall it's supposed to be sized to fit on their laps, in the back seat of a chilly car.

So right now it's all just cut fabric!

I'm going to do one of the two blocks by having the kids pick out a background square and then arrange shapes on it which I will applique down. Then I'll add a frame made with strips they've all chosen.

I have one example, artfully arranged by my son, partially completed.

Cheers,

Dionne

Hello? Are you still there?

Well, yes. As a matter of fact I am. But I've been keeping a pretty low profile I guess.

It seems if you get out of the habit... well, you just aren't in the habit. And I had some family issues (a while ago) and just plain got out of the habit of posting.

So here is the video of me assembling my 'Weapon' for the DBQ (Death by Quilting) game.

It's been a lot of fun and amazingly enough... I'm still alive!

But for how long, nobody knows!




And in other news, I'm still sewing like a mad woman and I'll post pictures soon.

Cheers,

Dionne

Death by Quilting: Cabana Boy Challenge, Part I

You may have noticed that I have been absent for a few days. And I have a very good reason for that.

Pat Sloan is hosting her 2nd Death by Quilting Extreme Game: The Cabana Boy Challenge.

Needless to say, between that and the normal family activities, I have been completely consumed.

Below you will find my second webcast and my first installment of the Cabana Boy Challenge!




My children were very involved in this one. Credits are as follows:

Agent DG: Dionne Gordon
Boss Agent: Cricket
The Exterminator: Cameron
Camera Girl: Kayleigh
Music: Spy Theme by Podcast Troubadour
Fire Master: Dad

Cheers,

Dionne

Hoooowwwwllllll

or rather,

This is for Tonya if you haven't seen the wonderful things she does with words, check out her blog. Right now, she's gathering pieced blocks from her bloggie friends for two wonderful quilts in the making!!

And because my children served as photographers, here are a few more pictures:

Cheers,

Dionne

Lucky, Lucky Me!

Well over these last few days the postman has left some wonderful goodies for me!

Rhonda  has sent me a BEAUTIFUL apron!

I absolutely LOVE it! The fabrics are wonderfully cheerful and bright!

I had asked my husband where my daughter was, I wanted her to model the apron for me, when he kindly obliged. (I did warn him that the picture would be posted)

And only one short day later this lovely box arrived from SummerSadie

I was completely overwhelmed when I opened the box, it was stuffed to the brim with fabrics and pre-cuts and stationary and more!

Cheers,

Dionne

Milk Weed Skirt GIVEAWAY! (at Grosgrain)

Milk Weed Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Follow the link to the GROSGRAIN website to enter.

Cheers,

Dionne

House Block Tutorial

I am taking part in an 'Around the World' swap of sorts. It's actually more like a 'Round Robin' swap, but with blocks instead of a center medallion and borders.

You might have heard me mention this swap, it's being hosted by SummerSadie.

I've created a cottage block, actually I wanted a block a little bigger than the wonderful cottage that Nanette made on her tutorial at Freda's Hive. So it's really more of a House block, than a cottage.

Now, everyone will be creating their own blocks for me, so they won't all be cottages, or houses or anything like that. It will be a mishmash of squares from.... around the world!

Anyhow, here is how I made my 12.5 inch (12 inch finished) house block:

• First I selected fabrics for the Sky, house, windows, ground, door, roof, chimney and cut them into the following pieces
  
• Sky: (a) 10.5 inches by 1.5 inches, cut 2; (b) 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, cut 1; (c) 2.5 inches by 6.5 inches, cut 1; (d) 2.5 inches by 1.5 inches, cut 1
  
• House: (e) 4.5 inches by 1.5 inches, cut 2; (f) 2.5 inches by 1.5 inches, cut 4; (g) 4.5 inches by 2.5 inches, cut 2; (h) 2.5 inches by 2.5 inches, cut 1


• Windows: (i) 2.5 inches by 2.5 inches, cut 2


• Ground:(j) 12.5 inches by 2.5 inches, cut 1


• Door: (k) 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, cut 1


• Roof: (l) 3.5 inches by 10.5 inches, cut 1


• Chimney: (m) 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches, cut 1

• Begin by sewing the house together. Sew 2 window blocks (i) to 4 house blocks (f)
  
  



• Next sew House blocks (e) and (h) to the top and bottom of the window bricks.




• Next sew the last house block (g) to the door block (k)


• Then sew the door brick to the window bricks. Now you have the main house brick assembled. You just need to attach the roof, sky and ground.
  



• Sew the roof (l) block to the newly assembled house brick


• Now to assemble the sky units. Sew the chimney mini-block (m) to the sky mini-block (d)
  


• Then sew blocks (b) and (c) to either side of the chimney brick


• Next sew the sky brick to the house brick.
  
  


• Now sew the last two sky pieces (a) to the house brick.


• Lastly sew on the ground piece (j)
  

This is a fun block, you could get particularly fun with the window fabrics.

Cheers,

Dionne

Howl - has begun.

Well, my kids have been a bit careless this week and we've had a few near misses and thankfully minor injuries.

My middle child burned her eye with splattering grease ~ but we were thankful that the grease hit the white part of her eye. It was right next to the cornea and it was a seriously close call, but her vision was completely spared.

Then only a day and a half later my oldest daughter slammed her finger in the car door and although she will lose her entire fingernail, her finger wasn't broken.

And just a few days earlier my son was kicked in the mouth, puncturing and 'de-gloving' the roof of his mouth! Two of these injuries were very bloody, and I don't do well with blood.

In all that I only managed a bit of sewing and even less blogging (less as in NONE).

Well, I started my 'Howl' block for Tonya. Actually, its quite a bit further than my picture, but for some reason I took a picture when I started to work on it, but not when I finished!



I apologize for the tilted picture. Blogger has an intermittent bug, and sometimes it will only load pictures vertically.

This picture shows the beginnings of the 'H' and also my planning page. Here you can see I'm not nearly as thoughtful and organized as some of the other ladies in this project.

I really like how it's turning out and I hope Tonya will like it as well. I promise to show more pictures this week!

Cheers,

Dionne

My Matisse Challenge is finally Finished!

Well, when I say finished, what I really mean is that the top is finished.

It took me more than 3 minutes, but less than any time I've ever spent on a top. That being said, it measures only a little bigger than a fat quarter.

Here is my quilt top:


Here is my Inspiration:



For more beautiful finishes, check out Victorias Blog, BumbleBeans.

Cheers,

Dionne

Another Sewing Machine Song

Opening scene from a 40s musical starring Betty Hutton. Hutton's most notable film role was the part of Annie Oakley in the 1950 musical of "Annie Get Your Gun."

Happy Mothers Day!

Breakfast in Bed:



Two Poems:

ME: Most of the time? ~ SHE: Mom, I had to be honest!

That's my Cricket!

A homemade stuffed butterfly and a beautiful flower statue:


And finally a masterpiece made by my young son:

Who could ask for more lovely gifts!

Cheers,

Dionne

Quilting is Everywhere!

The other day the local Children's Museum hosted a special event, and my family was fortunate enough to be invited. This museum is located in Seattle, but we are really just across the bridge from Seattle so its a quick 20 min drive.

There in one of the newly remodeled rooms was a large wooden display of the book The Quilt Isn't this wonderful!

I couldn't go, but my DH went with our children and he sent me this picture from his phone.


The display and painting is so brilliantly colorful, and in real life, it drapes wonderfully.


I also was able to dedicate a few more minutes to my Matisse Challenge piece hosted by Victoria at BumbleBeans. I had hoped to finish the top, but family matters took me away from sewing this week yet again.




I've divided the painting into roughly 3 parts and now I just have the center panel to complete. I'm telling you, free-form piecing is really much harder than I expected.

This weekend I'll be doing 'Howl' for Tonya's Holloween Sounds quilt. She has a listing with links of all the work everyone else has done for her and it's really spectacular! Check it out if you have a chance.

Cheers,

Dionne

Matisse Challenge

Victoria at Bumble Beans had a 3 minute challenge to make a free form, free style quilt inspired by a Matisse painting. Well, I'm a pretty average quilter, and I haven't 'honed' my free-style skills yet.

So I first, I completely forgot to do anything except the first step ~ pull fabrics. But when Victoria mentioned she was going to post the results, I sprung into action! 30 to 45 minutes later I had accomplished this:



Hardly a 3-minute activity. I ended up trying some weird fabric folding technique to get the shutters on the window to actually look like shutters! Then I spent another chunk of time fretting over the scenery in the window. Clearly I have missed the spirit of this challenge.

I am going to try again tonight to finish it. Maybe I'll use a timer to keep myself in line: set the timer for 5 minutes and do the bed bit of the painting. Then set the timer again to do the table, etc.

On another note, here are the first seven 9-patch blocks I did this week. Those were easy breezy! Doing a simple task like that reminds me that I really can sew.

Cheers,

Dionne

Weekend Mish-Mash

I didn't get much sewing done this last weekend. I finally added a label to baby Gabriella's quilt and mailed it off to my cousin.



We did drop some items off to goodwill and I found several XXL Mens shirts for SUPER-CHEAP ~ there is yards of 100% cotton fabric there!



But I really wanted to get some sewing in, so sunday night I decided to play catch-up. I started by starting something completely different... a Christmas runner.



Heh, heh... started by starting ~ great english!

I also got a wonderful bit of mail from Patricia at Bumble Beans. Isn't this fabric BEAUTIFUL!



I finished a couple of nine-patch units, which look very nice. I'm quite pleased with them. Forgot to snap a picture though, I'll try to post some more pics tomorrow.

I also worked a little more on my Sweet Star Gazing Quilt.

Only problem is that come 2:30 sunday night, or make that Monday morning I was still awake. When I woke up around 5am I was REALLY tired. I drove all the way into work, only to discover I had forgotten my laptop at home. Then I had to turn around and head home (in all the Microsoft traffic). What a bother that was!

Cheers,

Dionne

Spring to Finish is Sprung!

Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio hosted a Spring to Finish challenge. During this challenge I finished eight items:

• Three Little Ugly Bunny Dolls




• One Baby blanket for Gabriella Rose




• One Mini-Cupcake Applique quilt




• Disappearing 9-Patch Quilt




• One Little personal purse




• Botanical Shop Hop Top ~ it's off to the Long-Arm quilter

My Botanical Shop Hop Quilt top is also one of the largest quilts I've made, it's just a little bigger than Queen size! So I'm sending this top off to the long-arm quilter.

Cheers,

Dionne

April UFO Report

Another month has come and gone!

My tally Overall




-Quilt tops ready to quilt: 2
-Quilts ALMOST ready: 3
-Quilts in progress: 12
-Quilts Not Yet Started: 7 (I really still want to do all of them!)
-non quilt projects: 4 (Just a few little somethings!)








My April Numbers

-Quilt projects added: 1
-Quilt projects finished: 3





My Stats

-Beginning Projects: 24
-Current Projects: 24
-Projects Finished overall: 8
-Projects Added overall: 8
-Progress Made? Definitely!

Okay, now that we've done the numbers, lets take a look at the Whys and the Whats

Why am I busting my bum (well, at least taking notice anyway) over all these unfinished projects? Because I still want to get them all done. And because I promised myself, as soon as I work through my backlog, I will allow myself to quilt with abandon!

Oh, tra la la la la! Doesn't that sound like a happy-go-lucky dream full of singing birds and sunshine flowers! I am absolutely positive that when I get through my entire 'backlog' list of projects, my list will NEVER fill up again! I mean, really, why would it??

Now lets get down to the Whats!

What am I busting my bum over? Well here it is, in all it's glory!

• Nothing Done this Month







• Quillow Project, so old I barely recognize the fabric




• Flannel Crazy Quilt, it's CRAZY MAN!




• ALMOST DONE Christmas wall hanging ~ it was almost done 10 years ago!




• Really Big Kaleidescope Quilt ~ Does buying a ruler count as progress? Maybe it should be in a different list! (I'll take progress where I can get it) Also, the blocks above are not sewn together yet, I just put them next to each other for the picture!




• Road to California (pictured) ~ perhaps the theme song for this quilt should be the Talking Heads: "I'm on the Road to Nowhere!" But I do like these scrap blocks done in greens and orange!




• '07-'08 Thangles BOM - I made a small error in math on this one and haven't recovered yet!




• Cinder's Best Day ~ poor cinder, I started this quilt when he was still alive. My fluffy little Cinder deserves his best day!




• Garden Path Mosaic Pictorial - Aaaaahhhh, can we say ugly! But my little 2 year old fell in love with it and carried the top around for ever until it started to fall apart and I promised to turn the top into a finished piece ~ she turned 10 this year!





• Ok, seven more that I didn't work on at all, but really why list them all. It's kind of like taking off a bandage really slowly. And do you really want to hear about all those projects anyway? Nah, me either! Let's get onto the fun stuff, the stuff I DID work on!






• Something Done this Month







• Botanical Shop Hop Quilt ~ Top done! Off to the long-arm!




• Old Tobacco Road ~ I did 6 of the 388 2 inch Half Square Triangles I need (progress is progress right?)




• Marissa Pinwheels ~ this is one of those layout nightmares! It looked so easy when Roxanne Carter just whipped it out! I did two more pinwheels.




• 08'-'09 Thangles BOM - I'm doing two colorways, so I did two more blocks. Right on time Woo Hoo~!




• Friendship Star - Yet another monthly swap for me! I did one block and dutifully sent it away! Such a good girl!




• Disappearing 9-Patch - DONE, DONE, DONE! This started out as (another) swap and now its DONE (did you catch that???)




• Lap Quilt Swap IV ~ Finished the top, just have the back to finish. Another BRILLIANT swap that is turning out BEAUTIFUL! Really like this one....




• Gabriella's Baby Quilt - Done, and mailed off!




• Postage Stamp Quilt - I cut a few more itsy bitsy teeny tiny squares. So few, I didn't even bother counting them!




• Cam's Calendar Quilt ~ We finished a few more bricks here. Such a fun project to work on with my little guy!




• Star Gazing ~ This beauty is for my daughter who picked out MODA's Sweet fabric. I'm going to do this Quilt-As-You-Go and so I did a few more blocks and cut out 100 8" batting squares!




• Mini-Cupcake Quilt - This was an inpromtu mini little mini that was a fun intro to applique. Gonna have to do more applique!

Sadie's Hosting an Around the World Swap

SummerSadie is hosting an Around the World Quilt Swap. It's going to be similair to a 'Round Robin' type of swap and I think it could be a lot of fun. If you'd like to join in, just check out the blog at: Around the World Quilt Swap



Now, I'm a bonafide Swap-aholic. If you haven't participated in a lot of swaps before, let me just give you one warning. Unless a swap is specifically organized otherwise, there are usually a variety of skill-levels involved, be prepared for that. I, personally find it really fun to encourage new quilters and find inspiration from those more experienced! So if you think you might be interested, come swap-a-long!


I'm so happy that Amazon.com is now offering Movies and Shows on Demand. I so rarely have the opportunity to watch television these days, that I only want to watch the shows I like. I am now actively using Tivo to record the shows I like onto my Hard Drive, but that still only allows me to watch the ones that come on that week. Now Amazon.com has even the back shows that I missed. And if you have HD tv, you're in luck, because they have that too!


Technology is so cool! I remember the bad old days of my youth, one tiny little black and white with bunny ears and three channels. I rarely watched TV back then too, but when I did, it was usually not something I would have chosen. I think the only thing I watched regularly was 60 Minutes with my Parents.

Cheers,

Dionne

A Little Personal Purse

My daughter who is twelve, had a sudden need to carry personal items in her backpack at school. Looking around the house, I didn't have anything that was suitable. So I made her this little personal purse.

I started with Three layers of fabric, wrong sides IN. The middle layer was just a piece of flannel to act as the batting.

Next, I stitched a few straight lines across, sandwiching the middle layer.

Then I added some decorative stitches to add some interest. Had I of had more time, some beautiful ribbons or decorative threads here would have been nice. I have a DVD I haven't watched yet called Ann Fahl Teaches You Coloring with Thread This might have been a good resource, should've busted it out!


This gave me a rectangle with unfinished edges. I folded the bottom up to create a pocket, then did a satin stitch along the bottom and sides. This is where a serger would have come in handy!

Lastly I added a button hole and put a button on. It's a bit rough, but it does the trick. I think next time, since I know what I'm doing, I could make something far more lovely.

But in this situation she has something very utilitarian, with all the items she needs, plus room to keep a change if she needs it. Twelve is a fun time, but I wouldn't want to do it again!

Cheers,

Dionne

D9P

First of all, I must print a correction. I had erroneously ASSUMED that Diane Gaudynski did her brilliant quilting on a Long-Arm machine.


Kathie at Inspired by Antique Quilts pointed out to me that she (Diane) actually does her fabulous work on a Bernina. This makes her work even more impressive (to me) than it already was.

Also, I find this error rather ironic on two counts. At my Day Job, I never ASSUME anything ~ as a software quality assurance engineer. It's my job to catch the mistakes other people make because THEY'VE made false assumptions!

And I actually provided a link to Diane Gaudynski's website which clearly states that she uses a Bernina. When I went to the website, I got so distracted by all the pretty pictures, I didn't actually read the text. Silly Didi!

Ok, now on to other stuff.

I took a short break from my forray into the world of Applique to finish another lap quilt. It's yet another quilt built from swap blocks. Yes, I am forever swapping!

This swap consisted of 12" Nine patch blocks. I'm not sure what the other participants did with their blocks, but I knew I wan't to do a Disappearing 9-Patch. I like how the black border and binding framed the deep predominantly jewel toned colors.

And because I didn't ~ and still don't (poor me) have a lovely Bernina capable of super cool embroidery, I went over to my LQS (Quiltworks Northwest) and had them make this beautiful label for me. I think it's really fabulous.

I put the label on the back before I did the quilting, and I realize that I didn't even think about placement. Oh well!

Cheers,

Dionne

3 Liberated Minutes

So Victoria at Bumble Bee issued a three minute challenge.


Actually the challenge is a bit more involved. And it's very 'liberated'


It's a very interesting challenge and Victoria has listed some wonderful optional steps.


After looking at the painting, I took three minutes or perhaps a little less, and placed some scraps on my design wall.


I'm only going to spend quick slices of time on this challenge.

Cheers,

Dionne

The snow was falling heavily outside...

The snow was falling heavily outside. I sat before a blank page for close to ten hours. I refused to get up; instead attempted with great pains to coerce stubborn thoughts from my noodle. Useless it seemed until the 11th hour and then all I'd seen and felt and heard, arrived, and was transcribed effortlessly like the tune of chirping birds.

Greg Evans
American Writer 1978-
more famous quotes

Wow! Now that is commitment! I guess if you have writers block, it might work. Wouldn't it be funny if someone had Quilters Block.... just sitting at their machine for ten hours then to have the masterpiece just flow from them effortlessly. I wonder if that's what Diane Gaudynski does. She sits at her long arm machine for ten hours, then channels the spirits of quilty brilliance. Somehow, I think not!

As for me, I have the opposite problem of Quilters Block. It's a condition that you may be well aware of: Quilters ADD! Yes, that brain of mine is over-flowing with ideas and projects.

By the way, the photograph is from my front yard, but clear back at Christmas time. Our current cold spell hasn't brought weather quite that severe.

Cheers,

Dionne

PS - I tried to Google Greg Evans, Author but had no luck. Then I tried Amazon.com and as near as I can tell, Greg Evans is a Cartoonist who does a character called Luann.

Mini-Cupcake Quilt

I spent my Saturday evening reading through Learn To Applique With Pat Sloan and Teapots 2 to Applique by Kay Mackenzie.

Have you ever listened to a lecture, or begun a project only to realize that you don't even know enough to know where to begin or what questions you need to ask?

That's how I felt after all my watching and reading. All that information was a bit overwhelming so I decided dump all the directions and jump right in and mess about with a practice quilt ~ a Mini Cupcake Quilt.

I started with a framed background of black with white dots. I was going for something rather freeform and organic.



I added some simple quilting and a few cupcake shapes.

I used raw edge shapes with a satin stitch. I also did a small bit of decorative stitching on the cupcake cup.


Finally, I topped the cupcake with a red button cherry. I did a very simple self binding, I wasn't really sure I would finish off the quilt at all actually.





The back shows my applique outline. I'm not sure if machine applique is supposed to show the outline on the back or not. The whole Mini-Quilt is approx. 5 inches square.

Now that I've done a bit on my own, next I'll follow the directions, and work on technique.

Cheers,

Dionne