Yes ... A good day at the LQS

Compared to so many of the amazing quilters out there ... I am not really a big fabric purchaser ... my entire stash fits in a cabinet that his 33"W x 30"T x 16"D.  So it's a pretty big day for me when I come home with 22 cuts of fabric ... even if all but one are 1/4 yard cuts ...

But even more exciting is the Color Class that I am taking from Rachel at Stitched in Color.  As one of our first assignments, she taught us how to turn a Kona color chart into this ...

Which may not look terribly exciting, until you realize that the pieces are attached with velcro and come off so that you can compare them like this ...

Or this ...

Oh yes ... and the rest of the class is pretty interesting as well!!!

Hope you're having a great weekend.

All the best,

Lisa

Scrappy blocks

I want to say thank you for some help from a friend.  She has a 2 year old daughter that has just graduated to a big bed ... e.g. a crib that has had the side pulled off ... I want to make her a small quilt for her daughters bed.

It's been a fun start ...

In the meantime ... look who discovered that the dark room that no one ever goes into actually has some cool things in it (e.g. a bed with pillows).

Have a GREAT weekend!

All the best,
Lisa

Playing with Chevrons ...

Have been fiddling with chevrons over the past month ...

I love how something so simple ... can be so vibrant ...

This one was my first ... pieced all the sashing individually -- boy that took a long time ... but am pretty pleased with how well I was able to match all the seams despite all the piecing.

Horizontal Chevrons

With the second one ... I sewed the sashing to the strip before I cut the chevrons.  That meant that I had to flip the chevrons 90 degrees which made a wider quilt.  But it also came together a heck of a lot quicker.  I need to figure out how to adjust my template so I can flip them back 90 degrees.  The piece at the top of the quilt top is odds and ends left over which I will use on the back.

Vertical Chevrons

Every day I am surprised at how little I know about the process of quilting ... self taught with no quilting friends (outside of the internet) ... means I probably take 2X the time to pull together a quilt top than those of you who actually know what you're doing ;-).

But I do enjoy the process of learning how ... this past week I saw a :30 minute show on PBS about quilting flying geese ... it was a little boring ... but wow ... who knew that they were so easy to make?  And how simple it was to make them the same size so that they line up ...

Flying Geese with white space

I made the quilt above, not knowing how to make the flying geese the same size ... which meant they didn't line up well ... hence I used white space to hide my challenges ... it worked, and I'm happy with how it came out ... but I continue to learn everyday ... and that's what keeps me coming back.

I'm curious ... how did you learn to quilt?

All the best,
Lisa

Playing around ...

Played around a little tonight while watching the Olympics ... Not sure where I am headed yet, but have a baby boy quilt on the list ... 

Some mixed up chevrons

I played around with a few ideas ... This is the part of quilting I love most!!!  

Hope you had a great weekend ... Lots of rain in the soggy northwest right now !!!

All the best,

Lisa

It's a bird theme ...

Sarah rides my van ... and her second daughter arrived a little early (November) so I am a little late (February) in getting this quilt out the door.

Sarah wanted greens and yellows and said they had a bird theme going on from her first daughter, so would likely continue it with the second.

I saw this great quilt at Modern Quilting by B (based on a block design by Quilt Dad).  Quilt Dad designed the blocks to resemble starlings.  I tried to make mine more random and had 3 size of starlings on the quilt ... in the end, not thrilled, but it's a warm cuddly quilt and I know that mom will appreciate what I've made.

The back is some simple piecing.

And I powered through some extra JoAnn's fabric that I had left on hand for the binding.

We got snow here last night ... kind of unusual for Seattle, but apparently pretty predictable for this winter in general!

Backyard wonderland

Hope you're having a great weekend and pausing to catch a little Olympics along the way ... don't you just LOVE the backdrops they are using in Sochi ... they look a LOT like a quilt!

All the best
Lisa

Flying Geese

Simple can often be best ...

I initially had bigger visions ... then reality set it ... I'm actually pretty cool with where it ended up.

Particularly the back (my favorite part).

It's a wedding present (belated) for my cousin's daughter and her new husband ...

All the best.
Lisa

On the design wall #2

It's not always about pretty quilts ... 

Seriously ... how much time do we spend with a finished quilt (unless of course it lands on your couch or on your bed ;-).

So much of our time is spent with work-in-process ... where we are busy imagining what it will ultimately looking like ... half-confident, half-hopeful, that our creation will support our inspiration or imagination.

Sometimes, it's not until we're finished ... that we can see whether we were successful or not.  

I am thrilled with my new design wall ... and now that I have one ... I'm gonna dedicate Tuesdays to sharing what's up on it ... 

What's on your design wall (or floor ... or bed ;-).

All the best

Lisa

Well done Seahawks !!!

The 12th man turned on strong this past week ...

12th Man

We were representing all over Seattle ... 

This morning's run

and then ... then they upset all conventional wisdom ... 

Congrats to a team that played an awesome season and an awesome game ... and congrats to a community that supported them so well ...

GO HAWKS!!!

All the best

Lisa