Sunday, August 5, 2012

FInished 2012: Baby Gift

I know it's been a while.

Between teaching and wedding gifts, I'm under some type of quilting project. And more than likely behind :)

Anyway, here are pictures of the most recent baby gift I have shipped off to the proud parents.






It's a combination of fabric from one of my favorite quilting designers -- French General-- and pattern -- skewed nine patch or puss in boots. I love how it comes together with about 2 yards of background fabric and two charm packs.

Here is the view of the front:


And here is the back where you can see the quilting:
Detail of the hand quilting:

It is hand-quilted with platinum-coloured size 8 perle cotton.





Thursday, May 31, 2012

So If You Are In Fort Worth during July or August...

And have always wanted to learn how to make this:

Check out Cabbage Rose Quilting where I will be teaching this summer.

It's a two and a half hour class where we will go over how to make the block as well as various ways to do the hand work on the pinwheels itself.

I will have this quilt as well as a couple of other variations to show all the fun you can have with the block, depending on how adventurous you feel. This is a great project for people learning how to quilt as well as those who have been at it for years.

Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

My Memorial Weekend Project

This weekend was a quiet weekend at home for me and the husband. And though I should have been cutting and sewing on binding on the two quilts I finished last week. I just couldn't bring myself to unearth my sewing machine area from the collection of fabric that has piled up.

Instead, I went to work on this:

Grandma Sue's Garden

I have a reputation for throwing myself into a project completely when I set my mind to it; however, even the husband and I were surprised how committed I was to this project. I just couldn't leave it alone and if I did, it wasn't for fairly long.

Every spare moment that I had this weekend, I was at my quilt frame stitching away -- probably close to twenty hours over the course of three days.

In fact, every hexagon you see above is now quilted.

This is one of the last photos I took of my progress last night:

 
And this flower is at the top of the frame in the earlier photo.

My goal is to see if I can't finish this by the time my mum comes to visit. Since I can't remember how to load my frame. It's only been three years since I put this on the frame.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Photography and Quilts

One of the hardest things I do as a quilter is photographing my quilts.

The art historian in me just wants to photograph the quilt as is. Nothing fancy. Nothing special. Just the quilt hung up against a white wall so I can easily crop the image in GIMP or Photoshop or whatever image-manipulation I'm tinkering with at the moment.

And obviously, the art historian in me never wins because I don't have an example of this.

The theatre professional in me demands that I take the necessary pictures as quickly as possible. Frankly because I'm typically late with a wedding gift or a baby gift or a "Cheer up and I love you" gift. Again nothing fancy. And nothing special. Just the quilt on my pale wood floors in my music room/library, with whatever light is available at that time of the day and the camera on my phone. Followed by way too much tinkering with the colour through the image-manipulation software.


And sometimes, its just the quilt folded on my ironing board (see above).

It's not that I don't want to shoot beautiful photos of the pieces of art I have complete; it's just that I don't have the time.

When I do, there are days, few and way too far between, that I have time to be the photographer and photo editor I once was. I take out my film-based cameras, pack up all the quilts I still have in my possession, and head out to a local park in an attempt to capture my quilts in natural lighting.

Because my skills are so rusty, I often shudder at what I produce. But other times, I find myself re-learning photography all over again and enjoying every minute of it as I lug around my cameras and quilts. So many of my skills in photography are based in photojournalism -- does this tell a story? It is my main focus If a picture doesn't speak 1000 words to me in a matter of seconds, I'm likely to toss it out. But one item I have learned is that quilts don't often tell a story in of themselves through photography -- they are more likely able to tell us a visual story of beauty -- than anything else.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Finished 2012: Wool Eater Baby Afghan

A lovely little baby gift I made for some friends of ours who just had their first baby -- a little boy. The pattern is Sarah London's Wool Eater Afghan and is made from a collection of Naturally Caron yarns from their Spa and Country Lines. This was a dream to hook after I got the hang of working from the back to the front (which created the wonderful edgings). I have plans to make another one for myself 0:)

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Nearly Wordless WIP



Have I ever mentioned that I am addicted to over-quilting?

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

WIP Wednesday: March 7

I don't have much going on at the moment --thankfully :) In fact, it's about time that I got my projects back under control; thanks to trying to link up on a regular basis with Lee over at Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesdays.

My main project at the moment is the quilting on this



It's about 30% done. And sadly, the quilting isn't taking to long to execute -for a change- I just haven't had the time to work on it.

Hopefully, I will get to do some this weekend.

If I don't get distracted by a crochet project.