More Inspiration from "Down Under"

Wagga  60 x 72"

I've admired the Australian Waggas for a long time.  

So, with Making Quilts...the Promise of Joy in hand, it was time to make my own!  

Kathy Doughty shows her beautiful Wagga in the book, made with wool suitings and heavy cottons.  

Keeping with the "thrifty" nature of these quilts, I used only five fabrics.  

The red and camel plaids are wool blend scraps.

The center panel is an old pillow cover made of heavy upholstery cotton.  

The blue plaid is cotton flannel.  The floral patches are cut from an old linen tablecloth.  

It's kind of an ugly duckling, but I like it.  

Just right for sending with my man when he goes out to the bush.  

This will get wool batting, a flannel back and lots of perle cotton.  

Wishing you all good health, great inspiration and lots of time to create in 2013!

Material Obsession Inspiration

Wahoo!  Look what I got for Christmas.  It's Kathy Doughty's new book!  

A dear friend travelled to Australia last month to visit friends in Sydney.  

She's not a quilter, but I suggested she visit Material Obsession.   

Well, she did!  AND she bought the book!  AND she had Kathy sign it!

AND she gave it to me for Christmas!

Of course, I spent Christmas night reading it, cover to cover.  

The book is generous, courageous and absolutely inspiring--

just like Kathy herself.  

The next morning I walked into my sewing room and found this on the wall.  Blah.

So I grabbed the Dresdens I had made in a class with Kathy in Sisters, Oregon, a few summers ago.  

Wa-la!  Thank you, Kathy!

Santa Claus has Come to Town!

Santa Claus  63" x 50"

I pieced this top last year at this time.

This year Santa came out of the cupboard and gave me a whole new attitude about free motion quilting!

He told me to just PLAY with different designs in each block.

No pressure.  Just have fun.  Ho ho ho!

Best holiday wishes to you and yours! 

Obsession

I spent the week working on a "little challenge" over at 15 minutes play.

Victoria sent a 12" square of the floral and plaid fabric, and asked us to make something "small."

So here's what happened on my design wall last week.  It became an obsession!

Done!

  "Obsession"  61 x 61"  

The Cure for a Rainy Day

"Contentment"  48 x 52"

It's dark and dreary outside, but inside I played with blocks from my "parts department."  

This quilt practically jumped onto the wall!

The words are from Tonya Ricucci's book, Word Play Quilts.  

The hst's are from the lovely gals over at Two's Company.

The other blocks are leftovers from various quilts.  

OK, now back to holiday gift-making.

Tea and New Studio

This weekend I hosted a tea for Victoria.

Of course, the occasion called for new tea cozies made from Ikea fabric.  

We were celebrating her new book and her visit to Seattle.  

You can read more about the event here.

The gals got a tour of my new sewing studio.  

It's about 1/3 the size of my old space.

But I'm not complaining!  

I feel very fortunate to have a room of my own.

Malti kept me company while I reorganized my fabrics.

So I had plenty of oldies to give to the gals.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am grateful to all of you for your constant encouragement and inspiration!

Wishing you a warm and cozy holiday with friends and family.

Wordless Wednesday

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Pine Burr Quilt!

"Flower Power"  48 x 48"

This quilt is rockin' the 70's, with polyester "burrs," denim sashing, and an old home dec print for the border.  

Reminds me of my hippie girl days.  

Many of you asked how much these blocks weigh.  So I put one on a postal scale.  Looks like about 5 ounces each.  I'm sure it would be more if the "burrs" were made of cotton.

You also asked how on earth I was going to put these blocks together.  Here's a photo of how the original one was done.  (See last post.)   I tried this, but it made the points stick out around the edges.

Here's another close-up of the original.  I can't imagine getting all that fabric through my machine!  

 Looks like she stitched around and around, to keep the points from curling too much.  

Since mine's a wall hanging, I don't think I'll need to do that.  

I will put a back on it, maybe some light batting, and stitch in the ditch around each block for stability.  

Yes, the quilt is heavy!  These quilts would definitely keep you warm!

Doin' the Pine Burr

I've become a little obsessed with making Pine Burr blocks.

This is my first.  I thought I'd make only one.

But then I couldn't stop!

I've made one each evening for the last four nights.  

Talk about a stash buster!  Each one has at least 144 three inch squares.

It all started with this quilt at the Bold Expressions show.

Did you know that the Pine Burr is the official state quilt of Alabama?

Em's mom, Marian, sent me this wonderful box of 1970's fabrics cut in 3" squares.  And Mary sent some lovely small scale gingham.  What's a girl to do?

Want to make one yourself?   

You can go here, for instructions from Loretta Pettway Bennett of Gee's Bend, Alabama.  

 Geesh, I discovered these instructions AFTER I made the blocks!

Or you can just wing it like I did.  My method is below.

  First you need a ton of 3" squares and a 12.5"square of muslin or other fabric.

Put a square of in the middle.  The color should match your middle "burrs."

Fold 4 - 6 squares diagonally twice and iron them.  Then pin them on.  

Sew a ring of stitching.  This could be done by hand too.

Then do another ring.  I lined mine up just so they would just cover the raw edges of the prior ring.

I think of the raw edges as the little triangles' "privates."

Keep goin'.  You get the picture.

It took 8 rings to cover the square.  You could do yours thicker and it may take more.  

If you end up with not enough to cover the fabric on one side, just add some more triangles.  You can see I had to do this at the top of this one.  

Then you fill in the corners.

You end up with this.

Get out your 12.5" ruler and cut off the extra.  Wa-la!

Betcha can't make just one!

If you do make one--or more--you can post them on the "Inspired by African American Quilts" Flickr group!