Block Tool Review

I reviewed the C&T Quilt Block Tool iPhone App over at Craft Critique.

I liked this app, and I made these simple blocks with it:
Go ahead and check it out! HERE

Since my kids are back in school and I am still not working (although I would like for that to change), I've been playing with crocheting borders onto our pillowcases. I love them They are totally durable and washable! The patterns are in a book I purchased and this project will be part of my next Craft Critique review.

Fabric Heaven

For Mothers Day, my mom and I planned our own trip to the Indiana Amish Country. We had a great time! This area is a quilters heaven, so I wrote about our adventures for Craft Critique HERE.

2010 Chicago International Quilt Festival

Last weekend was the 2010 International Quit Festival/Chicago. I did a review article for Craft Critique. Read it HERE. Go to that Craft Critique post to see my photos of some of the winning quilts.

Because I went as a reporter, I had a press pass! Which means all my photos this year are totally kosher. Everyone takes pictures, though.. I am supposed to disable any way that you can steal my photos to use them on items for purchase...okay, readers, please don't do that.

I take nice, but slightly blurry pictures some of the time, but you really have to come and see a quilt show in person. The details are amazing..


"Foxy Sisters" by Ann Horton


"Emerald Treasures" by Barb Forrister


The following photos were from an amazingly detailed quilt from Japan:




This is "My Quilt Room" by Yasuko Ito and Oharibako. Every detail is done by hand including the quilting. The quilt shows their quilt group members enjoying making a quilt in each member's room.

The show has a section of beautiful vintage traditional quilts. I love this graphic one. This is "Sunburst" by Unknown Quiltmaker c. 1800:


I will share more photos in another post later, but you can see my set from the 2010 International Quilt Festival/Chicago on Flickr HERE.

Scarf and Hearts

I saw this project on Craft Hope. It's a part of the Orphan Foundation of America's Red Scarf Project . I'm sharing my scarf late, because it was sent out before Valentines Day. My scarf isn't red, but I am sure I read on the instructions that other collegiate style colors were welcome...

I handstitched a cute little red felt heart tag for my package. It was fun to knit again! I used some of Vanna's Choice Yarn which is a squishy wool/acrylic blend.



I'm also finishing up one of my quilts. I sewed on the binding last week, and my Olympics project is to cuddle up under it and handstitch it down on the backside whle watching various events. We find that we really enjoy curling! Go Canada! I like the Winter Olympics better than the Summer Olympics, because I think the events are more fun to watch. How about you?



Most of the fabrics on this quilt are from the Katie Jump Rope collection by Denyse Schmidt. I liked that little red floral so much I found an etsy seller who still had it in stock and I bought two extra yards to do the binding and to gaze at lovingly.

________________

My friend Sarah Moore, from Craft Critique, is organizing a professional crafters convention taking place here in Chicago this October called CraftyCon

It will be a great opportunity for crafters to network with other crafters, and to get hands on training with industry experts. Sign up to get on the CraftyCon email list or follow them on Facebook or Twitter. Its going to be a great event!

Professional Quilting

Finally! It's quilted!



I went over to the professional quilters house a couple weeks ago to drop off this quilt top I've had finished for at least a year.

Alice has a ton of space to give over to her hobby in her basement. Here we laid out the quilt on the floor to be sure our backing and batting would be sufficient:



Look at how gigantic her machine is!



It's a Gammil Optimum which is a top of the line model. Her husband is a carpenter so he understands about nice tools. They bought this for a retirement hobby.



She's like me in that she likes to make things for the joy of it and not so much to sell. Marketing and selling takes some of the fun out of creating for us. I feel lucky that I found her one summer at a booth at our local Farmer's Market. Our local quilt shop also has connections to professional quilters, but they take longer and have a far more limited selection of stitching patterns.

She let me take a few photos of her house which is full of quilts by Alice and handmade wooden things created by her husband.

Look at the cute spindle idea they came up with:

It's a spool of thread with a bobbin on the end! She has a lovely quilt collection:

I still need to do the binding on my quilt, but look at the swirly back:

Hooray!

More of Quilts from the Village

These are quilts shown at the Lake County Fairgrounds by the Village Quilters of Lake Bluff/Lake Forest, IL.

"Stars in the Night Garden" by Kathy Stuart. This one was one of several of my favorites. She has crystals adhered here and there adding to the beauty.





"Sisterly Flower Celebration Quilt" by Ginny Moore. These are watercolor quilt bocks.


A whole wall of Sudoku quilts:




Three Roman Stripe quilts:



Another wall of quilts done in the same pattern. I don't know what pattern this is!


Amazing! I still have more photos from this show, so stay tuned! It's an icky rainy day here, perfect for cutting up fabric and making something new of my own.

Edit: I never got to that quilt, although I am planning it in my head. Instead, I have a migraine and am going to nap.

Quilts from the Village 2009 Show

There was a great quilt show right here in my town! This one was put on by a local(ish) guild: Quilts from the Village XI by the Village Quilters of Lake Bluff/Lake Forest, IL. That guild is a little bit far for me, but I think I really should join a local quilt guild.

"Stephanie's Quilt" by Sandra Lewis

"Museum Rose Sampler" by Caren Pfaff. Hand quilted by Nancy Pederson. This quilt was a finalist at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. It was on the cover of Quilters Newsletter Magazine and it made their 2004 calendar too.

"Savannah Sunshine" by Linda Warren

"Dreamcatchers...A New Beginning" by Wayne Sneath. This pattern is called "Montana Cartwheel"

"Erica's Snuggle Quilt" by Kris Johnston. It's all flannels and I think the border was that very soft snuggley stuff. My daughter and I really had to restrain ourselves from handling it.

I have more pictures that I will share later. It's a good thing I am not a professional photographer, I always come home from these shows with blurry photos. I take the pictures really quickly because I don't want to get in anyone's way and I don't want to draw attention to myself, although I did check and photos were okay at this show. Once my mom told a booth operator at a quilt show that I have a blog and the woman got very pissed off about bloggers. I calmed her down, but I don't like confrontations when I'm just trying to look at pretty things. I was going to buy stuff from her, but I hightailed it away after making nice-nice. Attention Bloggers! Make every effort to credit artists! Also, that lady needs to get with the times...

Also, What what the heck, Safari? Why do you always mess up my font sizes in Blogger. This is super irritating.

Unfinished Object

This week is all about unfinished projects. This one really makes me feel bad. I had it out for a long time hoping that viewing it would make me work on it, but instead, viewing it made me feel a pang of failure and I still didn't pick up my quilting threads. Finally, I stuffed it way under my bed and allowed the kids to play with my Q-snap quilting frame. The Q-snap pulls apart into sword like sections and my son preferred this to his actual toys.

I started it a long time ago and it was meant to be a simple, quick quilt. I hoped to bring it to the family that graciously hosts us at their summer cabin every year. I even considered the colors of the living room at the cabin. It's more of a lake house really. They've also redecorated since I selected this pattern. This pattern is called "Sticks and Stones". The blue and yellow squares are the stones and the other squares are (obviously) the sticks. If I had to do it again, I would probably not select this pattern and I would not use so much yellow.



My excuse at the time I quit working on it was that I was having an uncomfortable pregnancy. My daughter turned 9 this summer, so that had to be 10 years ago. Next summer will be our 25th year visiting the cabin, so maybe I will finish it for that milestone.



I successfully hand quilted five quilts before this one. Most of those were small wall sizes. On this project, I don't know why I didn't just quilt in the ditch, but I decided to do traditional quilting 1/4 inch away from every seam. At some point in this project, I realized that I hate hand quilting. My grandma and I used to have conversations about what a slog it is to hand quilt things. Gram used to love traditional hand piecing, but she could never deal with the hand quilting part.

So anyway, I know you all have projects like this that you have never finished. People who don't craft will ask, "Why don't you just finish it?" There is no good answer to this question. Often, I don't finish small projects and I just toss them out and forget about them completely. I can't do that with this project, there is too much fabric and time invested in it. Several of these fabrics were given to me out of grandma's stash. All my cabin friends know how much I sew and I really do want to make a project for The Cabin. Alas..

This past weekend was our annual trip. My husband and I got to sleep in what we refer to as The Love Shack. The family refers to this as The Honeymoon Cottage. I think I remember the story that this was the original cabin on the lake property. Other sleeping accommodations include The Dorm, The Sofa, The Master Bedroom, Danny's Room, The Loft, and sometimes The Inflatable Mattress on the Floor. As I recall, some years the sleeping arrangements included Under the Stairs in the Hallway, and Nick reports that once he slept out on The Pontoon. 20 to 25 of us attend each year, often with babies and sometimes with kids, so sleeping arrangements have to be creative.

Summer is more than half over already! I hope you are enjoying yours! I think I'm going to get outside and forget about today's to-do list and just enjoy!

Blue Bedroom

At my parents house, Mom has a napping nook previously referred to as "The Little Red Bedroom". I didn't get a picture of it when it was all vintage reds and whites, but it was very welcoming and comfy. There wasn't anything dated about the Little Red Bedroom, but Mom had it that way for at least 15 years and was finally tired of the red and wanted a change.

We used my sewing and quilting skills to makeover the room. We kept flashes of red, but changed the color scheme to this rich blue, pink, and hints of chartreuse. It isn't finished yet, but I did all the main sewing of this quilt, a set of pillowcases, and the curtains.

On the blank angled wall above the bed we picked out some fabric swatches to display in some embroidery hoops. You've seen this. It's the Swatch Portraits idea from The Purl Bee. Our swatches are laying on the floor under the window.

There are plenty of opportunities for us to add colorful funky things to this room. It is my daughter's room choice when she sleeps overnight with her grandma and grandpa.

I didn't photograph them, but Mom has dresser drawers full of hand embroidered pillowcases that she uses here and in another guest room. She needs a new lamp, but we temporarily gave this one a makeover with this fabric skirt. With a little rick-rack, this lamp might get to stay!

I'm off for the weekend in Wisconsin at the lake! I usually come back exhausted, but rested and renewed It's the best weekend of the whole year!