"Spare Parts"

"Spare Parts"  87" x 87"

I finished this quilt top recently.  It's all made from "orphan" blocks,

(meaning parts that didn't make it into other quilts.) 

It was on my design wall for three solid months, finding it's way to completion.

It all started out as an attempt to use all my orphan blocks that fit into 

 this color range.  

The baskets are from Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran's book,

Collaborate Again.

They seemed to need a border, so I pulled out some sawtooth strips from

a block exchange I participated in years ago.  

What next?  I had some words I'd made from Tonya Ricucci's book,

Word Play Quilts.  

"Moderation" fit the color scheme, but I saved it for another day.  

Besides, the word "moderation" in this mess seemed a little TOO ironic!

I loved those green and white fans all lined up, and the Freddy chickens. 

But something wasn't right.

The fans are extras from my "Eyelashes" quilt. 

So I took them out, and added more spools and simple log cabin blocks.

You can find the spools and basket quilts here.

Better, but...

Still, something was not quite right.

At least I found a home for some of the fans.

I realized it needed a little calming down, so I added solid red.

I had lots of string pieced leaves, cut out years ago, 

and some extra basket handles for the vines.

A couple of weekend road trips, and the leaves were appliqued on.

Now, if I just made it a little bigger, it would fit nicely on a queen size bed.

Ah-hah!  I had lots of leftover blocks from the

"Organized Chaos" quilt.

Ta da!

And I still have plenty of spare parts leftover for a rainy day.

Good thing.  We're having lots of rainy days around here.  

Another Finish!

"Contentment"  49" x 49"

I've been going through my pile of flimsies, thinking about the ones I want to quilt.

This one cried out to me recently.  

I put it together a year or two ago, with leftover blocks from five different projects.

The words came from instructions in Tonya Ricucci's excellent book, Word Play Quilts.

On second look, the original house block seemed a bit muddy.

So I decided to do a little "home improvement."

Hmm, not exactly what I was looking for.

The third time was the charm.  Now for the quilting.

After stitching in every ditch, I sewed thin matchsticks around all the letters.

Then I added easy back and forth designs and small stippling.

I used puffy wool batting so the letters would pop out.

The half-square triangles got their own simple flower shapes.

Dark binding popped the colors.

Wa-la!

Don't you just love finishing?

I surely do!

Gwen Marston on Lopez Island

I've just returned from four days with Gwen Marston and friends on Lopez Island, Washington.

This was one of several workshops I've taken from her.  

She never fails to be witty, good natured, helpful, talented and SO much fun.  

This retreat was all about making medallion quilts.
Here's Gwen with the flimsy I made during the first two days.

This is the start of one I worked on the last two days.

Photo by Sharon Risedorph, shown with permission from Roderick Kiracofe.

The inspiration is this quilt in Roderick Kiracofe's book, QUILTS, at Blurb.com.

It's made between 1950-1975 in New Orleans by an African American quilt maker.

  

Here's Gwen showing the book, while everyone took notes about how to order it.

If you like quirky quilts like I do, you're going to want this book!

The retreat took place at this historic one room school house, set in an idyllic field. 

One day, I heard a "baa" and looked out the door to find a herd of sheep passing by!  

If you look closely, you can see a black border collie working the herd.

Our hosts were two lovely women who did everything to make sure we were all relaxed and happy.  

One has a great little quilt shop on the island.  Isn't this a fun sign?

Each day started and ended with a ferry ride from and to a friend's place on a nearby island.

And a drive past driftwood sculpture.

One morning I spotted these deer outside my bedroom window.

The last night, we all made a scarecrow for our friend's garden.  

Ah, the island life!

Sharon and Anita were also at the retreat.  It was a real treat to sew with them.  

Check their posts for photos of the participants' quilts and thoughts from Gwen.