Granny's Garden

Early in my quilting career I took a hand quilting, sampler class from Susan Bradford at the College of Marin. I made many 12" patches for the quilt. The center panel of "Granny's Garden" was one of the patches but it was larger than 12" and so didn't fit in the sampler quilt (which is one of my UFO's - top and back done, not quilted!).


At the time I was a member of MNAG in San Rafael. One of the projects put forth was a round robin. I had this ready to go so put it in and this is what I got back. I just loved it! Because of the name, I gave it to my mom.

Last week, when I was visiting my mom, I got to sit under it. I found it comforting to use a quilt I had had a hand in making.


Snails, snail's trail, and starry nights make a nice design. I was lucky, some of the final results of the other projects did not turn out so well.

At the farm and other quilting musings

"At the Farm" is my first wonky quilt done at a MNAG seminal with Gwen Marsten. It is small, about 20"x20". It was quilted by Colleen Granger of So Little Time Quilting in San Rafael. Colleen did a great job on this quilt. She quilted a cow jumping over the moon (I drew the cow), a farmer and family, the farm pick-up truck, a horse, pig and other farmy things. It is great fun to look at.

I worked at a Real Estate Office for a while and this little quilt hung in the office there.


Then I worked at another place and had my own office so I hanged it behind me on the wall. The first quilt I ever quilted was pieced by my Daly City daughter. It is on the left in the above photo. I quilted all the patches and entered it in a show.

The judges commented that the border should have been quilted, too. So I started doing that, got really carried away and then pretty bored with the quilting and put it away. I guess that I should add it to my list of UFO's!

The vest I have on is the first of only two wearable art pieces I have done. It is a tribute to my late cat, Bear. It, too was entered in a show. The judges hated the rick-rack on it. I started collecting rick-rack after that and have always intended to make a rick-rack quilt or piece of wearable art. Does that count as a UFO? Another to add to the list!

Another Story Quilt

Here is a very bad photo of another story quilt I did for my nephew. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona and this quilt reflects that. I had family members draw on several of the patches. His mom, my late sister, drew one. That was one of the last things she did.

The state flag of AZ is portrayed as well as a rattlesnake of my own design. The snake can actually be seen in this photo - it looks like horizontal brown triangles on a white field.

When I visited my nephew after giving him the quilt I didn't see it in his room. When I asked about it his dad said it was too nice to use! I make my quilts to be used so helped him clean his room and remade his bed with the quilt as bedspread. Hope it is still on his bed.

Baby Quilt

Last Thursday I rode down to LALA land with SBdtr. She dropped me at Mom's Friday morning.

We had a full agenda on Friday - lunch at Chili's - which is never good as the service is slower than the proverbial molasses in January! The food was good, however. We aretrying to use up a gift card Mom got for Christmas. That visit on Friday would have done it IF we had remembered the card! Then we ran a bunch of errands Mom needed help with and ended up at St. Clare's (Mom's church) for the last Friday fish fry of Lent. the food and service there were excellent! And I got to meet many of Mom's friends.

We went home and rested for a while, then pulled out Upwords (by Milton Bradley games) and proceeded to play three games - Mom two, me one. Upwords is a really fun variation of Scrabble where one builds words up instead of over a board. Ill take a picture next time I go down so you can see. Haven't seen the game being sold anywhere in a while. If it isn't made anymore that is a shame because it is fun and fairly fast.

So what does that have to do with the baby quilt and the baby's mama pictured above? Well, on Saturday we rose early and got all 'gussied' up and drove 78 miles to Yorba Linda (Mom navigated so I still don't know where it is!) for the baby shower.

It was a great shower, some new games I hadn't played before which were a lot of fun, great food (my cousin's husband is a gourmet chef), and about 70 very nice people! It took two hours for Little Mama to open all the presents.

Mom and I had a very nice time. It was lovely to see how well loved Little Mama is and how much everyone id looking forward to the new baby. Grandpa is rubbing his hands in anticipation! I gave Little Mama and daddy a lifetime guarantee on the quilt. When it starts to wear out, all they have to do is let me know and I'll make another! I have the next on percolating in my brain already!

Sunflower quilt

This little quilt is one of two hanging in my home so I look at it every day, without really seeing it anymore.

Sunflowers is a small quilt I did in one day at a class with EBHQ. It is three dimensional with some fusing and overstitching. I find it interesting to look at it in a photo and analyze what I would change if I were doing another one like it.

First of all, there is not enough contrast, the only real dark is the vase. The lizard and other reds come across, to me, as mediums and everything else is light. I would make the sunflower leaves and stems darker or at least outline them with satin stitch so they show up. Now one can't really see what they are.

I love the way the flowers turned out and wouldn't change anything in them.

The borders are kind of wonky which is OK as I am the princess of wonky (Gwen Marsten is the Queen of wonky) but the binding is really bad. Next time I will make a bias binding. I did my first bias binding on the baby raggedy quilt (see a previous blog entry) and it was easy and looked nice.

I'm pretty happy with the yellow leaves and their background of green. The look of floating, falling leaves comes through well.

Next time the lizard will be climbing on something rather than ephemeral sky floating! It was supposed to be a window but that can't be seen in this rendition.

So next time you do a quilt photograph it and do an impartial analysis to see if it could be made better.

Willow Wood Quilting

Last month my quilting buddy, Judy, fell and broke the pinkie finger of her left hand. Since she is right handed she thought it would not slow her down too much. As it turned out she needed to have pins put in the bone (OUCH!) the following week and things went down from there. We met for coffee the Sunday before the surgery and I volunteered to help her get ready for "Voices in Cloth", the show in Oakland put on by EBHQ every other April. It is to be held April 10 and 11. The quilt pictured is an Amish style using Cherrywood Fabrics hand dyes which Judy quilted on her long arm. We started sewing the binding this morning as she has to deliver it Saturday by 4 p.m.



The center of the quilt is plain with only "X" quilting on the patches. But the outside border (pictured above) is beautiful! We got about one-third of the quilt bound. If Judy sews every spare minute it will get done before Saturday at 4!


Above is pictured a silk doll quilt in the process of being bound (by me). Judy scaled down her quilting to fit the small size of the quilt.

If you need a local long arm quilter, contact Willow Wood Quilting at 510.835.2536 or 510.381.3392 and talk to Judy who can still use her long arm in spite of her broken pinkie.

Panel from class with Jeanette Meyer at EBHQ

One of the advantages of membership in a quilt guild is the availability of reasonably priced, interesting classes with excellent teachers. The class I took at EBHQ taught by Jeanette Meyer is a perfect example of that. The class, name of which I have forgotten, was about cutting and sewing curves without templates. It involved sewing fabric together and then cutting it apart and sewing it together again until a panel was completed. In reviewing my pictures I find this piece more interesting than I did when I finished it. For 2010 my New Year resolution is to finish all my UFOs before starting anything new. I did start a new quilt on Dec. 31st! My mother thought that was crazy! But it is a quilt I want to give as a gift this year so I had to start it last year so it fell into the UFO category! The panel I completed in the Jeanette Meyer class just jumped into the UFO list, too. Don't know yet what I will do with it but that will come to me in a streak of lightning at 2 a.m when I am sound asleep! The big guy and I went on a road trip around the holidays. We (I) drove 1125 miles between the Bay Area where we live and So. Cal. We visited friends and family and had a very relaxing time. I think I am just recovering now from all the relaxing! Hopefully, I will blog more regularly from now on. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What does it take to grow tomatoes?

In October I posted this quilt in its UFO state. Today, digging through my fabric, I found the finished product! So here it is. As I mentioned in the Oct. post, this was done in a class with Susan Shie at EBHQ. I loved watercoloring the fabric. I have a full complement of fabric watercolors and PFD fabric now. Used once! Plan to do another painted quilt. It is the prefect medium to both paint and quilt - both crafts I love to do. I even have a quilt designed in my mind. Since I have to do this technique outside I can leave it until next summer!

I have been thinking about a New Years resolution. Didn't make one this year. Last year it was to use only reusable bags for shopping. I have pretty much kept that up and am the proud owner of about sixty bags! Bought a new one every timeI forgot my bags. One of my girlfriends brought me a bag from Australia earlier this year. It is made of a fabric that looks like heavy duty stockings or maybe lightweight fishnet stockings. Anyway, it can be rolled up and carried in my purse, which I do. So I always have a bag now. Want to make some like it but haven't found a good fabric for it yet.

Sunflowers

This is a small quilt, about 12"x18", which I completed in one day at an EBHQ class last year. I started out to make a quilt from the drawing posted on October 11, 2009, called Three O'clock Cat. As you can see, it ended up being just the flowers from the original drawing. This piece is three dimensional and was easy and a lot of fun to make. I did a rather sloppy job on the quilting and the binding in my hurry to complete it. In editing this post I realized that looking at the quilt via a photo would be a good idea. I notice that there is not much value change, especially in the stems of the sunflowers. But The Big Guy at home loved it and so I gave it to him. It only one of two quilts I have hanging in our home. The other one was made by my daughter and is the Coffee Goddess. It is framed so that it stays clean (I don't clean house anymore - it just gets dirty again) so I can't take a good picture of it. I didn't make it anyway so it probably doesn't belong on my blog! I haven't been doing any art, just a little bit of knitting and a whole lot of reading! Was recently laid (layed?) off my two day a week job and haven't managed to get used to being home and unstructured. I stay up til very late at night and wake up mid-day. Then read voraciously with just a little bit of cooking in between. The Big Guy does the dishes. We both either read or sit at the computer most of our time. I am also spending a lot of my time playing "Bookworm". I just moved from the classic game to the action game. It is more stimulating and I keep beating my record. I think I will soon have to get another game as I can see that I will get bored with this version, too.
Well, I certainly got off on a tangent!
Did you see the Big Game yesterday? What a lot of fun. We went to a family party and had a great time, especially since Cal won. Go Bears!

Pineapple Quilt

 

I started this quilt in a class at Black Cat Fabric, which, unfortunately is no longer in business, in 2007 and finished it in 2008. It was for my great niece to celebrate her wedding. When I asked her what colors she wanted she said just to make it bright colors! I am happy with how it turned out! My niece and her husband liked it too. That is always a plus. As with the hexagon flower garden quilt I made, this is another pattern I will probably never do again. Very high boredom factor because of the repetitiveness of color and pattern. Actually, I don't much like following a pattern (see the twisted scarf blog from yesterday to verify this small fact about me!) and am happier designing my own. So far in my quilting experience the ones I have enjoyed most are the story quilts. I take into consideration all aspects of the lives of the recipients, their job, hobbies, color likes and dislikes, where they live and have lived and their relationships. And then I design original blocks, put in a few pattern blocks, like the state patterns, and go through a fat little book I love by Maggi McCormick Gordon called "1000 Great Quilt Blocks" for patterns that fit with the story of the quilt. I've made at least five story quilts so far and liked doing all of them. Another top I made that was interesting for me was a sampler quilt made in a class at the College of Marin. That top is all put together and the back is made, I just need to baste it and quilt it. It has actually moved out of the shed and into the wardrobe closet where I keep current projects. So it is closer to being finished. There are only four quilts in line there!

Another Story Quilt

This is another story quilt - one I made for my Phoenix nephew. I gave it to him at Christmas, 2007 which explains Santa in the background! Unfortunately, I don't have detail pictures of the individual patches. For this one I had family members draw pictures for many of the patches. The balance were original designs and traditional blocks. My nephew and I shopped for the fabric together. We are a great shopping team. Neither of us likes to shop so we went in, found several fabrics in about ten minutes and left. It was great! I wish I had been able to finish the quilt that quickly. I also wish I had taken a better picture of it and of its details.

Summer Tomatoes

Here is another panel from the Susan Shie class I took at EBHQ. It celebrates the great crop of tomatoes my friend Margo had. I did finish it the soon after the class was over but can't find the picture of the finished piece! I didn't write on it as heavily as Susan does but am happy with the way it turned out. I really enjoyed the watercolor paints and drawing on fabric as drawing is my first love but fabric is a very close second. This combination of drawing and painting is perfect. If I could just get off the computer and do more of these!

Love Catcher

Earlier this year I took a class with Susan Shie. She does story quilts using watercolor painted images and lots of writing. This piece is the painting. I haven't decided if I want to write on it yet. It is called Love Catcher because, as the story Susan told goes, one sees love coming and catches it in the left hand. Initially I had planned to fold it and make a purse. But changed my mind after looking at it a while. So this panel has been relegated to my UFO pile! I still have tons of paint and PFD fabric and plans to do more of this. I did finish one panel but haven't photographed it yet. Maybe that will be my next blog..........

Story Quilt - Little Rooster

Little Rooster is what the recipient of this quilt called his son. They lived near the beach and surfing lessons were a summer activity. Motorcycle riding was also a favorite past time. So Little Rooster is surfing against a skullish sky! I love the checkerboard feet!

Red Dog

Here is another patch from the story quilt. This one, called "Red Dog" is an image of my granddog, Red. He is actually a fawn colored Boxer/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. If you know the RR breed then you know they were bred to hunt big cats like lions and cheetahs. The only cats Red chases are domestic ones he doesn't know. That is why his eyes are fussy cut from the cat fabric border of this patch. Red is a sweetheart of a BIG dog -he must weigh at least 100 pounds and is probably 30" at the shoulder. For all of that he is gentle and loving and one of my favorite animals. He and his late step-brother, Truman, stayed with us for several months right after we moved to the rural area where we live on 80 acres. He sure loved to run! Once he escaped the property and went over to the ranch on the next ridge where they breed miniature horses. Boy were they fun to chase. The rancher, however didn't think that was such a hot idea and fired a gun over Red and Truman's heads to scare them off (it did)! Truman was much older than Red and the big adventure wore him out. He climbed into our bed and wouldn't move. Truman was an Akita - papered - who was too big to show. He was bigger than red by 30 lbs and six inches at least. That night we had a cozy sleep with our furry friend.

Raggedy Quilt

Have all of you made a raggedy quilt? It is fast, easy and fun. I made this one for one of my children in just two days! The picture is a detail but shows all the colors. The back is a solid color. A nice thing about raggedy quilts is that they don't need batting and each square is quilted before the squares are assembled. The most difficult part is clipping the edges after putting the squares together.

"Motorcycle Angel"

This is Motorcycle Angel from the story quilt I posted the other day (the really bad photo!). She is one of my favorite patches and she is an original design of mine. I put a Laurel Birch cat under her arm because the recipient of the quilt had several cats (and dogs) at the time I made this. I intended 'Angel' to protect him when he is on his motorcycle. Again, this quilt was machine quilted by Colleen Granger of 'Sew Little Time Quilting" in San Rafael, CA.

Grand Baby's flower garden

This is a detail of a baby quilt I made for my great nephew in law - one of my grandchild's favorite cousins. It is the 'Grandmother's Flower Garden' design. Talk about a tough quilt to put together. At the baby shower all the quests, male and female, drew on hex patches, I added hex patches made from conversationals. The thing grew and grew! It turned out to be big enough for a queen size bed. Probably a good thing as the babe was half grown by the time I got it done!

My new blog!! AND a couple of old quilts.

Hi, everyone. Here I am, getting into the 21st century! I am a 64 y.o. woman, grandmother, mom and wife who loves to quilt, draw and paint.

The above quilt was started in a class with Gwen Marsten at the Marin Needle Arts Guild seminar several years ago. Gwen's style really clicked with me and I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt. It was exceptionally quilted by Colleen Granger of Sew Little Time Quilting in San Rafael. At my request she put a flying cow in the sky and then had fun with the design. There is a horse, pick-up truck, family of farmers and many other unique motifs.



The mom part of me wanted to make a quilt for my eldest daughter so I asked her what she wanted. She said a red and white star quilt. Well, I was still in the Gwen Marsten mode and this is what she got! I call it "O Holy Night". In addition to Gwen's stars I used my dress making skills to inset seams and piece it. It is an original design that I am afraid will never be able to be reproduced!