All Things Quilty

Look what I saw when I came back from the mailbox today! This bright little burst of sunshine was peeking out amid last year's brown chrysanthemum stalks! The first crocuses! (Croci?)So, I started looking around the yard for other signs of spring. Yes, the camellias are...

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First, let me say thank you to all who have visited my blog and left lovely comments since I posted about my fabric give-away. I have been trying to reply to each commenter by e-mail, but have found that I do not have the e-mail addresses for quite a few....

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I entered the world of blogging three years and more than 600 posts ago! When I began, I did not even know there was such a thing as a blog comment. What a delightful discovery that other people not only are actually looking at my blog, but...

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What a day...getting up at 5:00 AM ( a real shocker for me these days) and heading north to travel to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival with a car full of women. We had an amazing day. The show was mind-boggling, with the number of quilt, special exhibits, and vendors from...

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I got the okay from Teacher for yesterday's class project, although she suggested I lighten the turbine housing on top of the dam, and move the little boy figure farther back. Like so: The part that I thought needed help, the water, she liked! So, a very easy...

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This is the last week of my "About Style" online art quilt class with Pamela Allen. This week we have done a critique of a painting of our choice, and then it was on to the last assignment: a narrative quilt. I have a lot of ideas for quilts that...

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Here is a baby quilt for a little boy. My new customer, Melissa, made this top for her baby nephew. It is only her second quilt! I think this will be a lovely gift for the little fellow. She was not sure of the pattern, but...

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Yesterday I finished another Quilt on Wheels to be given to a rest home resident. Carolyn made this top from a kit I made using donated fabric. When I was at the Flower Cottage where the Capital Quilters Guild keeps its boxes of donated fabric, I found lots...

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First, here is a little announcement...my blog is featured this week on We All Sew. Check out this interesting site that includes tutorials, videos, links to Free Stuff, charity projects, and lots more.Speaking of charity projects, here is the latest Quilt on Wheels that I finished last Thursday. It was...

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Last night was the monthly meeting of the Capital Quilters Guild in Raleigh. Several of my bee members and I drove downtown to Peace College, our temporary meeting place. It is not ideal for a large group. We have so many charity committees, special projects, library, etc. that need special...

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I have found a fabulous blog for those who love traditional applique- I mean the turned under edge, hand-stitched kind.Check out One Piece at a Time, written by Erin Russek.Erin has beautifully photographed tutorials of her template drawn, running stitched, brush-starched, perfect applique techniques.Oh, yeah---and she can piece pretty well....

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Picasso...what images do you think of? Crazy heads with eyes in different planes going in all directions? People who are goofy-looking rectangles?I admit, that's what I think of...and women with breasts pointing in directions Mother Nature never intended... But we have been exploring Cubism in this week's lesson, with Pamela...

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So, last weekend, we had another little snow event. Our area near Raleigh, NC is usually just a little too far south, east, west, or north for whichever direction the snow is coming from. We were not predicted to get any on Thursday. Friday night, it snowed and we had...

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Here is an update on one of my Pamela Allen online class projects. The subject of Lesson 2 in About Style was gardens and foliage. We were to try to create new shapes, imaginative flowers, a variety of foliage, as in the flower/tree sketches I posted here.Then, the...

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Happy Valentine's Day! To celebrate, here are some fabric postcards featuring hearts and flowers. The first two are brand-new, and are made with some of my "mixed media techniques" altered lace and ribbons and non-traditional patchwork. The others are various needle-felted, embroidered, patchwork, machine-quilted postcards from the past. Some...

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Last night was the February meeting of the CyberBee, a group of forty-some quilters from the Raleigh area. Not many members ventured out into the cold evening, but for the ten of us there, it was so much fun!We all went crazy over a little change purse made by Julie...

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I have been making fabric postcards today for Valentine surprises. Can't show most of them, but here is an unlikely Valentine I made for my soon-to-be-six years old grandson. (He does not read my blog yet, as far as I know!) Nothing too icky and pink...

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I interrupted my art quilt "flower gardening" yesterday to quilt a lovely baby quilt for my friend Carolyn. It is one of my favorite patterns, Yellow Brick Road. The fabrics are soft pinks, creams, tans, and browns. It seems many new moms are choosing more non-traditional palettes...

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Yesterday, I devoted the whole day to my "homework" for Pamela Allen's online art quilt workshop, "About Style." This week's lesson is about creating flowers, leaves, and trees that are not generic daisies, elliptical leaves, or "lollipop trees." So much good advice about composition and creativity goes into these lessons!...

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I decided to tackle the squaring up of this old quilt this weekend. I knew it was going to be a hatchet job because the quilt was so dreadfully uneven, despite the additional strip of muslin I added to each side. Thank goodness for that, or the...

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Snowy again today...but we are not getting the two plus feet of snow that has dumped on parts a little farther north, like the Washington, D.C. area. Perfect afternoon to stay in and sew.Here is a web application that someone in our guild posted. I think it is a fabulous...

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We had a great bee meeting last night at Irene's house. Lots of good show-and-tell...I was not the only one sewing during the snow days!Here is our hostess, Irene, with a fabulous stars quilt that was from a Bernina Saturday Sampler. The stars really pop on the blue background. Kathy...

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My bee, The Whacky Ladies, meets tonight, so I finished two more of the charity quilts that the ladies made at our sew-in meeting in January.The first one is made from a kit that I put together with homespun, flannels, and a novelty fabric that has a camping theme. I...

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I never would have guessed that this old quilt top would turn out so pretty! It is off the machine now, waiting to have the thread tails trimmed, the binding put on, and, oh, yes, it needs a bath after spending the last forty years or so in a...

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The gorgeous blue skies are only a memory...the snow is still on the ground, but it is precipitating some kind of frozen stuff again today, making for a rather gray and dismal day. To top it off, I have been working like crazy to finish the blazing stars antique quilt,...

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