Quilt Show Photos

Today was the annual local outdoor quilt show. There's always a breeze blowing and the sky is blue. I took photos of quilts at the show that I hadn't seen before.

This is my friend Tara's quilt. To see the whole show of quilt photos go to my Webshots album.

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Cherry & Lime Bags

I made 2 drawstring bags out of the leftover fabric that I had from making this blouse. Each bag has a different lining.

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Our Yucca Has Flowered

One of our yuccas started getting a flower, so I took a photo of it. These grow fast too. The Yucca flower is the state flower here in New Mexico. The flower kind of looks like a huge asparagus growing in this stage.

A few days later the flower started opening.

The flower is fully opened now. The flower will stay like this for a short while and then it's downhill from there as it will dry up and die. There are several yucca's flowering this spring around here. This is the first flower we've had on our yucca in the 10 years we've been in this house.

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Another Collapsible Thread Catcher

Last month I showed my applique group the collapsible thread catcher I made. They wanted to make one too, so I taught the group how to make one. This is the one I made while I demonstrated the steps involved. For this one I sewed strips onto a muslin foundation and used it as my fabric.

Since the fabric strips I used were sewn on a diagonal, you can see the fabrics on this side of the thread catcher. (That black fabric was a scrap of some paint stick rubbings I had leftover from another project). I also used a metal ring on this one instead of a wooden embroidery hoop. It is the kind of metal ring typically used for macrame (I used to macrame back in the 70's...am I dating myself?)

This is the same thread catcher that I turned so you can see the other side.

Looking down into the thread catcher you can see the other fabrics that didn't end up on the outside of the thread catcher.

In it's collapsible position.

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New Mexico Quilt

I finished this New Mexico quilt, which I started several months ago. I did a lot of quilting on it and each section is quilted differently. I like how black makes the bright colors pop. The orange, green and purple fabrics are actually Southwest fabrics, but read as solid from a distance. This is an adaptation of a Michelle Watts pattern, which she calls Midnight in Santa Fe.

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Birdhouse Applique Block

My applique group is doing a Garden Theme this year and each month we work on a different block. This is my birdhouse block with the flowers. I will be adding hand embroidery details to this, but I wanted to show how it looked right now. I'm having fun working on the different blocks. This is actually a double sized block and all the blocks are different sizes. I am also working on a bird bath, a tree with fruit and the center block is a little garden scene. There are more blocks to come in the months ahead too. The ladies in the group are each adding their own touches to the blocks and so they will all be very different in the end.

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New Project: Knit Socks

I started a new knitting project and am knitting some socks on 2 circular needles. This beautiful yarn I received as a gift from my friend Susan. It's Regia brand yarn in "Random Stripe" by Kaffe Fassett. This is a right twist cable pattern I am knitting.

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Fabric Postcards 2012 Series

I made a few fabric postcards that are for sale. They are $10.00 each. All are hand embroidered and machine quilted. Email me if interested.

Number 2.

Number 3.

Number 1. No longer available. I sent this one to my Mother.

Number 4.

Back of postcards.

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My Quilt is Featured on Artfabrik!

Oh I'm so excited to have my Gardener's Cottage Quilt featured today on Laura Wasilowski's Artfabrik blog. It's the quilt from the cover of her book Fanciful Stitches, Colorful Quilts. You can see my quilt and the lovely things Laura had to say here. Also, you can visit her blog on Friday for chance at winning that book. I feel like a celebrity today.


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Another Bag

This bag was fast and easy to make. It's from the book entitled, Sew What You Love: the easiest, prettiest projects ever, by Tanya Whelan.
My local library has this book and it's the bag on the cover of the book. I found a couple things in the book I liked, but for me personally there wasn't enough projects for me to want to buy the book, so I am glad my library had it. If you have young children, you might like making all the clothes and toys for children that she has in this book. It is a nice looking book with spiral binding to keep it flat when it's opened and a nice pocket in the back of the book where the pages of patterns are kept.

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Bags, Bags, Bags

I made this bag for my son's girlfriend. She works at UNM Hospital and is studying to get her nursing degree. She was recently in the hospital herself as a patient, so I filled the bag with....

...dark chocolates from Trader Joe's. To help her get better, don't you know.

Remember the bags I made for holding my scraps of fabrics? (See here and the tutorial is here.) I made one for my blue scraps, red scraps, brown/tan scraps. Well I finally finished this one for my green fabric scraps and below are the turquoise and black/gray bags.

Back of the green bag.

These 2 are smaller bags.

Back of turquoise and black/gray bag.

This is one of those drawstring origami-style bags. I added stacked buttons on the front and back. I chose this bright spring fabric print I had.

Here it is with the drawstring pulled closed.

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Golf Tee Pincushion Tutorial

Go here to Craftsy for the free pdf tutorial.

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Quilted Wall Pockets

It rained here all last night and I woke up to snow falling. It's 11:00 and the snow is still coming down. Tomorrow the temperatures are supposed to be in the 70's...New Mexico weather is so strange.

These little pockets I made have a feeling of Spring.

My applique group made quilted wall pockets. I used scraps of mostly batik fabrics for mine.

I made another one, but I didn't have enough of the top fabric, so I made this one a bit taller and not as wide.

Closer look at applique.

Closer look at the other applique.

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Scrappy Quilt-As-You-Go Table Runner Tutorial

Go here to Craftsy to get this tutorial as a free pdf.

 

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