Landscape Quilts

I really like landscape/pictorial quilts. Probably comes from being a frustrated artist - I do stick figures really well! I admire anyone who can draw, be it with paper or with thread & fabric. I have these great pictorial quilts in my head and have great plans for when I retire to actually get some out of my head & onto fabric!

In the meantime, I take pictures of those I like, with closeups of how the quilter/artist achieved a look. Here are a few that were hung at the NJ state quilt show last weekend.

This beach scene had the neatest waves. A shiny, organze fabric was couched on for the foam on the crests of the waves.

Another was this clipper ship with fuzzy yarn for foam & great details on the ship itself.

I love sunflowers so this one caught my eye just because of what it was. The center of the sunflower was completely beaded and looked just like seeds.

Then I noticed the dragonflies! They were beaded and their wings made out of a shiny tulle. Very neat!

The turtle was cool too and I think it's the one that won Viewer's Choice.

This lighthouse quilt has a story behind it - a poster of the painting was divided into four sections. Each section went to one quilter who copied that section in fabric, pieced, appliuqed and QUILTED it. THEN the top was put together! Really neat! I liked the wall hanging before Karen Dever told me the story, I liked it even better after the story!

NJ's State Show

We sponsor the state quilt guild's annual show and it's this weekend. Here are a couple of pictures of our booth. Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the quilts - there are some GORGEOUS ones here!

If you're in the Edison, NJ area tomorrow - stop in!

Roses

My roses were gorgeous before the rain littered the driveway with the petals . . .

The pink ones on the right smell HEAVENLY! Just like roses are supposed to smell.

The peonies were even more gorgeous than last week - the rain has them dragging in the mud now.

Purses

Having spent all of Tuesday on the computer doing the summer class schedule, I revolted & spent most of Thursday in my sewing room. Ok, ok, that meant I was up till 11pm - WAY past my bed time! - getting the email ready to send Friday morning but there's a price for everything.

I made this purse from Pink Sand Beach Designs.

And now I'll tell you the rest of the story . . .

About a month & a half ago, I brought home two projects to do - a big weekender bag from batiks and a purse to make from Krakow. Somehow, they just never got done & slowly got buried in my sewing room under more recent "stuff".

Note to family - tomorrow is my birthday & the butler I didn't get for Christmas would come in real handy now . . . .

So, I took this pattern home Wed night and thought I'd use the Krakow fabrics to make a sample for the store. I looked "everywhere" - no fabric. Did I bring it back to the shop? Was it buried in a pile I hadn't looked in yet? I found the pattern I was originally going to use with that fabric but finally gave up finding the Krakow and used the batiks I was going to make the weekender bag out of. (See, a butler would have not only organized my sewing room, but would remember EXACTLY where the Krakow fabric was.)

I like the sample. I was a little stunned when I opened the pattern & saw 28 steps . . . but it went quickly and the pictures were helpful. It has inside pockets - one zippers shut - an outside pocket & a top zippered closure for security. Sara's significant other told me it looked like someone spilled bleach on it & made his eyes hurt - that's it, that kid is out of the will!

I'm making another sample, with the Krakow fabrics. I found them in a pile I hadn't seen . . .

Peonies!

About 15 or 16 years ago I saw these gorgeous bushes of flowers in Jim's sister Esther's yard. When I asked her hubby Tim what they were, he said Peonies - I never remembered seeing them before. They were GORGEOUS and three bushes totally hid their air conditioner.

Four years ago I found some in BJ's, stuck them in the front garden and expected great things. First year, bushes and no flowers. I read up on them & learned they don't usually bloom for three years - so I bought more and put them in the back garden. The next year, we had one bloom. It was gorgeous but gone too soon and the second bush still did nothing. Third year, we had two blooms and 10,000 ants on each one.

This year!

Patience is a virtue in gardening! The ones in the back garden from three years ago still haven't bloomed, I think I planted them too deep and need to dig them up. Two of the four bushes I planted last fall bloomed this year - white!

Star Quilt Update

While I don't have it finished . . . I do have the star quilt mostly quilted. If I finished the last 13 stars, all I would have left is the binding. I need two hours to myself - step away from the computer!

Sometimes you just need quick & done projects

I think they fate of all quilt shop owners who have websites is to either pay someone to maintain theirs or spend a good majority of their sewing time updating the website. Since I take care of our site, it's really cut into my sewing time. Somehow you just can't get into a zone with the computer like you can the sewing machine - if you don't keep your eyes peeled on the computer, gremlins take it over and your whole day's work goes off into cyberspace somewhere - never to be seen again!

And there are times when you just need to sew, you just need to feel like you've accomplished something. None of these projects took me longer than two hours to complete but I FEEL like I actually did something tangible - unlike the website where I kindof know what I'm doing but sometimes don't . . . .

So, last week I revolted, ignored the website & stitched samples. Quick, easy samples mind you but I want points from the quilt goddesses that all are FINISHED EVEN THE BINDINGS! You can see all of these projects & others by going to www.quiltingpossibilities.net & clicking on the bouncing beach ball on the right hand side.

This is one of Karen Montgomery's pillow patterns that I made into a small wall hanging. As one of my customers told me - the sample "looks a whole lot better in person than that picture you've got up on the website!" I hate to admit it, but she's right - I'm a much better quilter than I am photographer. You can't see the shiny silver braid I couched as the firecracker's streamers - take my word for it, they're really neat! And if you look close, you can see the quilted stars in the border.

I saw this pattern at market and loved it! It's a perfect table runner for the Jersey Shore anytime during the year but especially during the summer. I had fun with the quilting on this making the fish look like they had scales. It's a pretty simple table runner but SO cute!

This is another of Karen's pillow patterns -

it's nice to have talented friends! We had the perfect watermelon fabric for the border, but sorry to say, we cut the last of it up for the kits.

This table runner isn't done in my colors - mine tend to be of the more Easter egg colors according to my children - but I love the line of fabric and eventually this will be a Christmas present for my sister-in-law.

So, feeling virtuous about the four samples I completed, today I brought home a lap size star quilt I designed. My grand plan is to baste & quilt it tomorrow. I'd orginally thought to do it on the HandiQuilter but since I've only mastered stippling on the HQ so far and this is a star quilt done in reproductions crying for straight line, utilitarian quilting - the home machine it is. Remember, the goal is to get this done tomorrow . . . . I'll let you know how far I get.

Until next time.