Sunday, December 25, 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS


This is just a "little taste" of my latest project.  It's paper pieced.  I stare at it constantly on my design wall - so many possibilities...  The strip on the top right will be in the next layer.  I haven't blogged since Thanksgiving (thanks for the reminder Jeff) because I've been swamped making samples for a fabric company's catalog.  Everything should be completed this week and then back to quilting and blogging on a regular basis.  I have many exciting things planned for 2012. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!  Hope you got everything you truly wanted. 

Love and light,
p

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

In spite of all of the commercialism, this is a great day to stop and count your blessings.  To open your heart and do something for someone else.   A small gesture (like a smile or a hello) can make someone happy.

Yesterday at the market the checkout line was long so I started a conversation with the person behind me.  We talked about how large the yams were this year and how good they are for you.  She said her grandmother used to bake them whole and put butter and sugar on them right out of the oven - which is how we used to eat them!  We shared a few more childhood food memories and it made me realize how much we all have in common.  The market requires that you bring your own bags (no more plastic bags) and she had forgotten hers.  They were giving away free bags with purchase so I gave her mine.  Pay it forward - booyah!

I follow Pat Bravo of Art Gallery's blog and she shared photos of her overflowing scrap bins.  She wanted to used them to make quilts to donate to Project Linus.  I make quilts for Quilts for Kids a few times a year so I offered to make one for her.  Here are the scraps I received:




So pretty all starched and ironed and sorted by size.  This was my first time working with her fabrics.  Thought I would have to add lots of solids to break up the scrapiness but only a few cream triangles were needed.  The collections are so well coordinated that it went together like magic!  This is the front.



This is the back.



So cute and so much fun!  I know that it will bring a smile to a child.  Well I have to wrap this up and do a little cooking.  My large and in charge family is gathering for a potluck at my oldest sister's house and I was assigned vegetables...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Love and light,
Patsy

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

I'm Back - Sort of...



Haven't posted in a while - just wasn't much in the sharing mood.  Our weather, along with the rest of the world, has been strange.  The photo above is a rose and some lavender that is starting to bloom in my garden today.  It's currently 73 degrees and they think it's spring - supposed to be 78 degrees tomorrow!  I'm wearing shorts, a tank top and flip flops in November for pete's sake!
 




This is a mess!  The president of our quilt guild is a wizard at making circles - not applique, inset!  She's an engineer and says it's easy.  She makes big ones, little ones, patchwork ones, ovals, etc.- she's amazing!  I sat down one Sunday morning and decided to teach myself.  Pulled some scraps leftover from our Habitat challenge and managed to inset 3 circles.  It ain't easy folks...  two snaps, a circle, and props to Latifah!!!  Can't let anything go to waste (waste not, want not), so I patched them together using the quilt as you go method (QAYG) so that I could squeeze in some free motion quilting (FMQ) practice.  The result in a small 18x24 quilt.  All of my practice pieces are quilted and bound and I use them around the house for my 2 cats to sleep on.  They keep them warm, catches the shedding, and adds an interesting artsy flavor to the room.

Speaking of Habitat - that Jay McCarroll is a hoot!  He skypped into our challenge meeting Monday night and we were able to share our items with him.  He must have enjoyed it because he kept cussing and telling each of us to bring our items "closer, closer" to the screen so that he could see the details.  Very funny, very talented guy.   Oh, I made pillows which I haven't photoed, so I'll have to post them another time.




This is one of the things I'm working on this week.  The fabric designer had barrels of scraps and wanted to make them into quilts to donate to charity.  I'm always up for making quilts for charity, so I volunteered.  This is my bag of scraps all ironed and sorted by size.  The top is almost complete and I'll share it with you later.   




Lastly, this is a quilt I made a few months ago.  Decided to start posting some of my earlier quilts to show my range.  This is my $.83 quilt.  YES, I SAID 83 CENTS.  The animal print was a remnant of just under a yard which I purchased for 83 cents.  The solids were from my stash.  The design is make with prarie points.  It is hand quilted with natural perle cotton.  My goal is to show that quilting is a craft that doesn't require a lot of money - just practice, practice.  I like it!  Take care and see ya later aligator!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Welcome Home




I have always wanted to create quilts that reflect my travels, so I decided to start with Africa.  This quilt was inspired by the slave house on Goree Island in Senegal, Africa.  Below is a photograph that I took of the “doorway of no return” which opened to shark infested waters where African captives were loaded into the bottom of ships headed to the New World.  After my group entered the house, the curator bolted the door and said “Welcome home my brothers and sisters”.  There I was standing in the slave house - full circle. 





I wanted to build the quilt like the walls of the house, so I cut the blocks (bricks) free hand and layered them as if I were building a wall.  It was a challenge not to use a ruler, and I was surprised how straight some of the blocks came out.  I cut and sewed for three days with only a photo and my instincts for guidance.  The back side of the fabric was used on some of the blocks to add texture and I incorporated small pieces of fabrics that I had purchased at the marketplace in Senegal.  Each block is hand quilted with natural perle cotton which lends to the old, primitive look and gives the quilt a softer hand.  It tooks many days and nights to quilt and my sore fingers were worth it.  It is well made and utilitarian – to be wrapped around me to keep me warm and remind me of home.





My quilting experience started with my elders making quilts by hand from used cloth and they passed the craft on to me.  I lost interest, but returned when I saw the Gees Bend quilts.  I feel honored to continue this tradition and pay it forward.  I have visited many countries and I always managed to find handcrafting and textiles (go figure!).  When I left Africa, all of the others in our group had suitcases filled with artwork, trinkets, and custom made clothing.  Mine were filled with fabric!

My next project is what I saw in Rio de Janiero during carnival! 

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

And so it continues...


Monday night Ramona gave me an envelope of tribbles that she no longer wanted.  Her only request was that I return the papers.  Here they are.


I sorted them out.


They were great vintage prints.  What I find interesting is that so many of the new fabrics contain vintage designs so these fit right in.  I couldn't sleep, so I stitched a few of them together and added them to my wall.


Can you spot them - where Waldo?  See how well they work.  There were 2 remaining panels to fill in so now I'm done with the center part of the quilt.  It's 64x64 and I want to make it a full or queen, so I spent the last 2 days planning borders.  One of the border will be filled with tribbles, so I have many more to make.  I can practically make them in my sleep!   My plan was to hand quilt it, but the thought of that stresses me out right now so I'll decide on the quilting later.

At the meeting Monday night we exchanged goodies from the scrap swap.  My partner said she loves coffee and warm browns.  Her baggie of scraps contained 3 or 4 coffee prints and lot of browns.  As you can see, I love color but I'm up for any challenge.


I fussy cut the cups of coffee and hand appliqued everything to chocolate brown Kona (we were allowed to add one fabric).  The back was pieced from 2 large dark brown scraps.  I took the photo in a hurry, so it's hard to see the machine quilting which I did over and around the tribbles to give the pillow extra strength.  The little zipper pouch was made from leftovers.  What fun! 







Friday, September 30, 2011

Trouble with Tribbles

Remember the tribbles in Star Trek?  They were these irresistible cute, furry critters that purred like kittens.  They multiplied like bunnies and ate the grain that the Starship Enterprise was storing for a trade deal.  Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock... I digress.  My point is that hexies are like tribbles.  They are not furry and don't purr but they are cute, they multiple like bunnies, and you just can't get enough of them!  Here is the progress on my tribble project.  Decided to applique them onto ash cotton (thanks for the advice Kathy) and although it is tedious, it's coming along.  There are three more panels to complete, borders, quilting, etc.






Had to stop working on it for a while to complete my project for the LAMQG anniversary scrap swap.  Made it with tribbles (of course!) and will post it after the meeting.  It's pretty cute and I hope she likes it!  I'm back onto this project and pulled a stack of fabrics last night so that I can get busy and complete this project.  I think some of these will work.





I've exceeded my fabric budget for the year and this will help me clear some of my stash out to make room for some of the new and exciting lines coming out this Fall and next Spring.  Have seen some amazing prints and can't wait to get my hands on some of them.  So... back to my tribbles.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Hexies




My favorite blog these days is Material Obsession.  It is creative, insightful and filled with wonderment and joy.  The quilts created by Kathy and the ladies are remarkable - so colorful and beautiful.  Lately they have been working with hexies.  I have seen them in old quilts, and some of the ladies in my guild work on them - but never anything as wild and colorful as theirs.

Inspired, I decided to experiment so I made my own templates from plastic and printer paper.  I've made hundreds of hexies from old fat quarters and scraps - some I even fussy cut.  Then I stitch them together instinctively, without any plan on what to do with them.  Here are a few.  I have 3 sizes going - I'm lovin' the big ole Amy Butler one in the middle! 

Still have no idea what to do with them.  See those grey ones on the bottom?  Thought a light grey background would balance the color, so I came up with the bright idea to make grey connectors.  Maybe use different shades of grey in the connectors.  Bad idea... so these 2 guys will probably get wrapped in color.  I'll sort it out.

Lately I've been working on a quilt for a challenge which is mostly solid greys and browns.  I'm a girl who loves color, so I make hexies in between to satisfy my color cravings.  I'm addicted to these things and sometimes I'm up 'til 2 in the morning wrapping and hand stitching.  I get this deja vu and for whatever reason it relaxes me.

I'm binding my challenge quilt today, so this weekend I get to play with hexies - yipee!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011


I love this mini quilt which is now hanging in my studio.  It was my first attempt at making a Lone Star.  It was supposed to be the center medallion of a larger quilt, but the diamonds started to pucker badly.  After ripping stitches out over and over again, I gave up.  I started to toss it and start over (I don't throw anything out, so I was pretty frustrated) but didn't - I spent way too many hours cutting and sewing this puppy!

I machine quilted it, outlining the diamonds and echo stitching the outside of the star.  The more I quilted, the more attached I became to this little guy.  The quilting flattened out some of the puckering and covered up a lot of the holes made from ripping out so many seams. 

The prints are all Westminster and the grey is Kona Ash.  I learned that with diamonds, you must cut accurately and mark all points before sewing - no eyeballing...  Lone Stars are one of my favorite blocks and I will tackle another one... some day.

Friday, September 9, 2011


I'm a member of the LAMQG and we are participating in the Jay McCarroll Habitat challenge.  I spread the fabrics on top of a current project (with lots of hand quilting to be done) and spent the day staring at them.  What kind of quilted project can I make out of these prints???  We can only add solids and/or more prints from the line.  My favorite is the one on top - pixels...  hmmm.  I'm getting a bold, edgy, hip, urban vibe from the line.  OK - that's enough thinking about it.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

This is my first post and oddly, I'm a little nervous...

This quilt of Frida Kahlo is called "Adelante de su tiempo".  That translates to "ahead of her time".  My sister suggested  I name it in spanish, so I did.  My sis has a lot of good ideas, and I try to follow them as much as I possible. 


The quilt is made from a dress that I purchased in Cancun quite a few years ago.  It was a really cool sundress but it got buried after the trip and I when I found it years later, there was a little hole on her face.  I couldn't throw it out, so I cut her face out and appliqued it to a piece of Kona cotton.  Then I cut the petals from some Kaffe jellyroll strips (which I always keep on hand!) and appliqued a flower over the hole.  Added two more flowers and cut strips into 21/2 squares and pieced them around the edges.  I hand quilted it with perle cotton and it looks great!