I did another ribbon Dance panto on Diane's quilt.
She made it for her daughter Kerry. It is a BQ pattern from Maple Island Quilts and Cathy from Heart N' Soul (Grand Forks) helped to pick out the fabrics.
Again, I just love red, black and white! And the oriental flavour! Adore the keyboard backing!
Well I've finally figured out which quilts I haven't posted since this spring, so I will start to show them off. This one on the left side is by Sharon, and it is split nine-patch.
Sharon also made the "Strippy Diamonds" quilt (on the right) and I did a ribbon design across it.
It is going to take me a few posts to figure out how to put the photos where I want them!
For awhile now, I 've been following Geta Grama on her blog. I just love her work! Her designs are so unique, of do-able size, and she has alot of free tutorials, which are well-written. I purchased her on-line book, and look forward to trying out her techniques, as well as learning how to come up with my own designs using EQ6 software, which she also offers. Now, if I could only catch up on my customer quilts, and free up some time for me!
I've added a button to my blog, on the right, so you can easily check her out and enter her free monthly giveaway. I hope to win one some day!
I was lucky enough to get to go to the Spokane quilt Show this year!
It just so happened that my in-laws needed someone to pick them up from the Airport on the 18th, so I got to take in the quilt show and do abit of shopping, YES!!! In their luxury car, too! Too bad I couldn't take anyone with me, Mom & Dad's flight got in at 10:45 PM, and we didn't get home till 3:00 AM! And I had to go to work the same morning!
It was an amazing show. The theme was Carousel Centennial, celebrating the 100th birthday of the Looff Carousel that has its home in Spokane. So there were alot of carousel-inspired quilts, quite a few t-shirt quilts, and just something for everyone to appreciate and enjoy! Lots of machine-quilted quilts, too. So much inspiration! I know I have a few more ideas up my sleeve!
Anyways, I have posted a couple of more slideshows for you to enjoy from my Picasa Web Album, just click on the photo-link on the album. There are 2 Spokane QS albums, Part 1 and Part 2 so be sure to check them both out!
I know this is not quilt-related, but I had to share what I did today.
We recently purchased a new swiffer wet-jet for ourselves, and one for the boys, but were quite disgusted with their marketing ploy to sell you more cleaning pads. They are filled with those jelly crystals that absorb water, sure, it makes the pad nice and fluffy, but it is not easy to clean or re-use!
So, I decided to make up a few of my own, using terry cloth towelling on one side and a microfibre cloth on the other, with a layer of heavy (stiff) interfacing in the middle. It was serged around all 4 sides, then I sewed 2 strips of Velcro (loop side) to the "wrong side", to stick to the wet jet tool. I haven't tried them out yet, but we should be able to toss them in the wash and use them again! I made one to scrub with the towelling side, and one to wash on the Microfibre side, so we'll see which works better.
Anyways, hope that inspires you to sew something that you can re-use and not fill up our garbages!
Since the boys have left, I've had spaces to fill in their rooms, and it's been pretty exciting to put together a matching bedroom set, and switch around other odd bits of furniture. It's nest-building at it's best. So much fun deciding what will go where.
I had purchased a big, 2nd hand desk back in the spring, but neither of the boys wanted it in their condo, so it sat in the garage all summer, in the way, till I was able to decide what to do with it. Well, I had this great brainwave that I would set up a sewing area in the family room, where my hubby has his computer, so we could spend time "together". He has often complained to me that he never sees me, so now we can both do what we want, but together in the same room! Not to mention, my sewing room is a disaster, and it was much easier to just set myself up in another area of the house!
So, in my great wisdom, I decided that evenings were going to be "mine", that is, I would sew to my heart's content, as long as I was in the same room as Dan. I would spent the better part of 2 days on customer quilts, in my quilting room, but hopefully not much more. And in my new sewing corner, I would work on fast and easy projects that required as little concentration as possible. Right now I am really into the split 9-patch, or hidden 9-patch pattern, where you construct 9-patch blocks, then slice them into quarters. They look more complex that they really are. And I have a closet full of fabric that I must use up, so I can justify buying new stuff! I am so proud of myself, just this weekend, I put together 2 lap-sized quilt tops. I just want to get some quilts together for "just in case", or if I'm really successful, I would like to sell some at a Christmas craft fair. I'm on a roll!
So, in my photos, you can see my new desk, it is 6' x 3', better than my sewing room desks! I've set up an old sewing machine, it used to be Dan's grandmother's, and in it's day it was pretty fancy, with cams that enabled you to have embroidery stitches. It is a wonderful old machine that just seems to keep going. I love it! My ironing area is set upon some plastic drawers, that some day will organize and house different widths of scrappy strips, to make a scrap quilt from. Somehow I can't see myself collecting those right away, as it is much easier to give my scraps to Aunt Molly. I'd rather use up my big pieces of fabric!
I can't believe that it's been 5 months since I last posted! It just seemed that once Spring hit, I was just too busy to keep it up.
There was gardening, and preparing for and moving our 2 sons out of the house, more gardening, spending time at the cottage, hiking, travelling, and of course, trying to catch up on all the quilting I had stacked up while doing everything else. Life just seems to get busier. I seem to have many things to do, but don't do anything very well. It has been a summer of reflection, for sure, because life is just passing us by so fast, and it's important to figure out what activities we want to devote our time to, and which ones aren't that important. And through it all, my husband has been contemplating retirement, and going through all the questions that come along with that... Can we afford to? How much work do we want (regarding where we live). Should we downsize? Where would we go? How do we want to spend the rest of our lives? It's been a soul-searching kind of summer!
For now, Dan has decided to keep his job at least one more year, we will probably down-size in a few years, and until then, we will try to purge "stuff" slowly, so we won't have to do it all at once. I have given away my pet ducks, and have learned to "let go" of them, and quit rescuing them if they've escaped their new homes! And I will try to cut down on the garden, to keep it manageable. I will also continue to quilt for others as long as the quilts keep coming, but I am not going to try to "grow" my business, I am content with how it is now, and hope to squeeze in more time for "me". We will just take one day at a time!
So, I just wanted to bring to your attention that I've added 2 new slideshows to the blog. The Innovations Machine Quilting Conference from 2008, sorry it took me so long, girls! Plus, our guild just had their bi-annual quilt show, entitled Quilters Without Borders. Hope you enjoy them!
I'll be trying to keep in touch and posting the quilts I did since April.
