Thursday, March 31, 2011

Superstars! American Folk Art Museum

While in NYC I took the opportunity to see the other quilts from the Folk Art Museum. This exhibit was called Superstars and was at the Lincoln Branch.


My favorite. It was only one block. I wonder if the quiltmaker made one and said "That's enough!" LOL
The Prussian blues were so bright and vivid.
This broderie perse is in the center of the quilt above. Amazing tiny stitches!
I loved everything about this quilt.
                 What made my trip extra special was my daughter went with me. I only have goofy photos of just the two of us together. My DD, Rene,  is on the left, our friend Susan in the center and me on the right. Rene was a great NYC guide and was always up to do something fun or eat somewhere adventurous! And even meet up with 20 other quilters! She was a good sport!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Amazing Time in NYC

I got home late last night. I had a heck of time driving 2 1/2 hours home after a long flight but I did make it!

Amazing friends:


Amazing quilts:


Amazing city:


This vacation has been tops as far as making wonderful memories. 

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Lotsa Lovelies

Here's the start of a wool pincushion by Hatched and Patched. I've loved their designs and found a little kit at the quilt show last week.

Do you recognize a partridge in a pear tree? I'm prepping this to take with me on my trip. I'm not sure how much I'll actually get done but I'll have it just in case. The pattern is by Cheri called
I've been wanting to get this book since it came out and found this at the quilt show last week too.
Here are two more blocks of Beyond the Cherry Tree. I still love the quirkiness!


Judy Hansen sent me a photo of her lovely Midnight Stars quilt. I love seeing the results of the quiltalongs!!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Here's a little red and white ditty I finished this week. I plan on making a bigger red and white quilt this year. It's on the list - For sure!!



Isn't Sunday the first day of spring? I can do without the snow!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Amish Sunflower Revisited

After a quilt show I attended this past fall and made this post, Libby from Paper Napkin Poetry got it in her mind that we should make a version. She hand dyed the fabric and a friend helped me figure out the assembly. I think I did a blog post about that too!
Here is my, close to completion, Amish Sunflower one block quilt. This is my first quilt  done in all solids.
I was wishy washy for quite some time trying to figure out the quilting. I wanted it somewhat similar to the original and wasn't sure about  thread color. It looked like on the original they may have used different colors depending on what fabric they were quilting. I was afraid to use black because my hand quilting is not that good. I have long stitches I have small stitches, crooked stitches, straight stitches......Libby told me something like this, "Lori, hand quilting is like your fingerprint, it is what makes the quilt unique." Something really struck a chord and I dove straight in on the quilting with black thread no less!!
I just started the border last night. I wish I would have made it a little wider, but I'm started now and there's no stopping me!!  Please go check out Libby's blog for her version. She is still being a little secretive.....

The three photos below are from the original quilt.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Quilty Weekend- Updated

I didn't put any stitches in this weekend but still managed to have a fun quilty weekend.
I went shopping with a friend who has an account at a quilt warehouse in Portland. I would have loved to pick up a bunch of bolts of fabric, but I'll leave that to the quilt stores. It was a lot of fun to "help" her shop!
Our next stop was Fabric Depot. They had 35% off fabric and 25% off of everything else. 1 1/2 acres of bliss!
The next morning we went to the Northwest Quilters Annual quilt show at the expo center. 
I thought this was an unusual way to put together the Salinda Rupp (Nearly Insane) blocks.

These next few quilts were all made from a nine patch swap. This first one is my favorite setting of this group.






This red one looks old but it isn't! This was one of my favorites. The circles were off just a bit to make it more interesting.
I found the info in the quilt show booklet. The quilt was made by Mary Glassmeyer. "My 12 year old grandson sent a picture to me of a quilt he wanted me to make for him. There was no pattern name so I drafted my own. It was not easy because the "circles" were not true circles."
You can see the original one at this link: Museum of Florida History
 I'm gearing up to see the red and White quilt exhibit in NYC and that may be why I liked this one so much.
 There was also a room with vintage quilts. This beauty, belonging to Bill,  caught my eye. I love the zig zag border only on two sides.

I forgot to take a picture of this whole quilt but was quite thrilled to see this little block was pieced! I would have thought the diamonds and the circle were appliqued. Pretty amazing!!

Bill was also working with the Oregon Quilt Project. I saw a few beauties getting documented too.

After the quilt show we made a jaunt to the country.
It is still as full as ever!!!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

It has been one of those weeks that it feels like I haven't accomplished much sewing. This is Jan Patek's Bible quilt block 3. It isn't quite finished and if you look close you can see my pencil marks that I need to stitch over in the second row. I should be able to finish it tonight.


Here are two stars I made for Moda's Just One Star Program. I don't think they'll have any problem getting 1800 stars. I encourage you to be a part of it!
Ok, so two days ago I thought I'd had enough winter and thought I would take down my Country Threads quilt. I love "Let it Snow" but only for so long. I'm so over it!
The next day look what I saw outside my front door! Woo-hoo! Signs of spring!!


Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Red & White

In honor of this exhibit:
Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts  in New York City
Taryn is having her own red and white online quilt exhibit. (What a fantastic idea!)
Here's my contribution.



This little quilt is about 12" x13" and copied from an old doll quilt. I put the finishing stitches in the binding while out of town for business this weekend.


This is a quilt put together in 1999. It was a group quilt where I chose the block and the turkey red color and other quilters made the blocks and sent them to me. On their month they could choose what block and colors they wanted. I really adore this quilt and I think it's because it is red and white. One of the center blocks has a darker shade of background and I love that variance.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Handwork Rotation

The idea for rotating handwork seems to be working for me. I had to take a little time out to do some commission work, but I got that done pretty fast. Sorry, no photos of that, but it wasn't all that exciting.

I'm back to hand quilting my Jane Stickle quilt.


I was working on this the other night and thought to myself, "Wow, that's a cool triangle, I wonder how I made that." I hope you can click on to enlarge it a little and see the center pinwheel thingy is reverse appliqued. The last time I showed you some of the blocks that weren't made too well, so this time I thought I'd try and impress you! hahahaha. That circle is really round too. Hmmm, I wonder if I really made this block!

I don't ever remember making hexagons, but I guess I have made at least 7 of them!
This yellow and red has always been one of my favorite reproduction fabrics. I love the pink cabbage next to it too.
Here's one more block of Beyond the Cherry Trees. Kathie, I think you shared that basket fabric with me some time ago. I love it, so thank you again!