"Every Stinkin' Seam"

Yup, I'm stitching in the ditch, "every stinkin' seam."  

While spending about 8 hours unpicking my crummy attempts at fmq this weekend, I watched Cindy Needham's EXCELLENT Craftsy class on free-motion quilting. 

She makes a great case for stitching in the ditch, and you remember it with her mantra,

"every stinkin' seam."  

So, that's what I'll be doing every stinkin' evening this week!

Scrappy Trip!

Here she is, all 64 blocks and 96" square!  She's the largest quilt I've ever made.

It's made from Bonnie Hunter's excellent tutorial.

These blocks are SO much fun to make.

Someone said they're like eating potato chips--addictive!

Since this quilt can include "everything," it's a great way to survey your stash.

I found that I have plenty of dotty fabrics, but I'm short on graphics.  

I'm also short on light lights and dark darks.  So now I've got reasons to shop!

There are plenty of bloopers and things I could change, 

but I'm happy with it and can't wait to get it quilted and on the bed!  

There's a Flickr group where you can see many more of these quilts here.

It's National Polka Dot Day!

According to quilt historian, Barbara Brackman, January 22 is National Polka Dot Day!

So I went digging in the cupboard for a few polka dot flimsies to celebrate the day.  

This one was made a few years ago in a class with Freddy Moran.  

It's the "Liberated Wedding Ring" pattern in the book, Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again.

This one was made around 2007 in a class with Kaffe Fassett.  

Both of these quilts are made of all dots or dot-like prints.

I'd be hard-pressed to find a quilt in my house that doesn't include a number of dotty fabrics! 

Here's a block from my design wall today.

And here's a sneak peek of Scrappy Trip--half sewn together!

(Excuse the crummy photos.  I took the flimsies outside to photograph.  

It's so cold, my lens fogged up!)

Happy Scrappy Trips

I know, I know, you've seen plenty of these out here in Blogland.   

But these blocks are SO much fun to make with this tutorial from Bonnie Hunter!

I'm going to make about twice this many blocks, and I'm playing around with layout.

I've been making the blocks in batches of four.  A batch takes less than two hours.  

This actually eats up stash!

Next one:  RED!

Tiki Room

"Tiki Room"  70" x 54"

There was a bar called the "Tiki Room" where I grew up in Oregon.  I remember longing to go inside, but I was too young.  Once I became of age, the attraction had faded, and I never entered the place.  It's gone now.  But my childhood fantasy is still alive.  

I imagined it all beaded curtains,

Hula girls,

Tiki statues and surfer boys.

It's made with this "Crumbler" template, which I won in a drawing from Kathy.  She's making a really lovely quilt with the same template and her reproduction fabrics.   

I've been checking out my designs with the black and white function in iPhoto.  It helps me achieve light/dark balance and see where I've got "muddy" places that need to be corrected.  Really helpful!

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"