2009 Quilting Workspace - I need an updated picture for 2011

This was where I worked and made my quilts in 2009 and half-through 2010. Then, we moved. I still have a bedroom to work in and it isn't much different.

Much of the stuff on the left is for working on the miniatures/dollhouses.
But that will be another blog!

My first trip to the Paducah quilt show - the fabric buys

April of 2009 I went on a Turner Travel bus trip to the big Paducah, KY quilt show. What a day it was, one which I have in memory to treasure the rest of my life.
I bought a bunch of fabric, of course, and took photos of it all.

In the background is the yellow dollhouse I built which is called Slothaven.

Some more pics of that crazy quilt - found old photos....

Having found my jump key with the photos taken before the great computer crash last fall, I have pictures of some of the other blocks from my crazy quilt.

It is a UFO and MUST be finished this year, I vow to!

This square is called Big Red Dot.

This square is called Bumble Bee.

This square is named the Dragonfly Square.

This one is called the Lady Bug Square.

Here is the Monarch Butterfly Square.

This one was just called "Plain Old Square"

The Red Heart Square.

And the Spiderweb Square.

This one is the finished version of the one shown at the end of this post, I call it the Rajah square. Rajah was my favorite cat who died in 1994 and whom I got as tiny kitten in 1979.

This is called the SAC block, for Strategic Air Command.

Here is the early version of the Rajah block. There will be 4 more squares all them surrounding the center medallion.

The Sanity Color Wheels quilt

This quilt was started in the fall of 2008 and at a very difficult time in my life. It kept me sane and so I call it my Sanity Color Wheels. There are fabrics from all of my life in it and a bunch from a scrap bag a friend gave me. I hand-quilted it in black thread.

The work in progress:

It here looks positively like a happy time, and the working on it was. I'm glad I took these pictures.
In the background you can see some of the dollhouses I've made. We've moved but my quilting space is still surrounded by "the town".

Yes, that is my foot.

Triangles

Yes, I just want to post about my "dear little Triangles". This quilt came about quite by chance. Some left-overs from my 2009 Block-of-the-Month quilt (which is currently being hand-quilted) and I made a 6" 9-patch out of them. I thought at first I'd make a pot-holder or two but somehow it evolved into this quilt.

I had three blocks done when I had my hysterectomy and they were put in my Bible and taken to the hospital with me where I could look at them and think about my quilting. That's why this quilt means so much to me.

It is hand-quilted with the "hanging diamond" pattern and with a leaf design I made up in each of the non-pieced blocks.

January 17, 2011

Some work done today.
My pink and brown quilt got it's borders cut out. I couldn't resist a picture as the whole thing is emerging - and I love it.

And this little bit, an extra block, will be quilted for my desk at work.

It was a good day!

The Crazy Quilt, the Key to it all

How I really got started quilting was thanks to a Crazy Quilt block which is now part of a "nearly finished" crazy quilt that, darn it, I intend to finish THIS YEAR.

It began in 2008 while I was trying to reduce my bins of material. I found a crazy quilt block and a bundle of fabric I had been carting around since 1979. The block was made possibly in the 1990's but I really can't remember when I made it.

In 2008 I looked at it and decided I had some time to commence on a quilt something I have been saying I wanted to do all my life. I got some books on crazy quilting from the library and set to work.

Here is a picture of the center medallion which I got the bright idea for thanks to a book.

This quilt celebrates the years 1979-1981 and the positive and happy influences in my life during those years.

Some detail pictures of this center:

Things I'm Working On

Some pics of projects underway:

First is a picture of a sampler our quilt guild is doing which via permission of Konda Luckau and her Moose on the Porch blog.

I'm making 2 of these exactly alike, one for Quilts of Valor and one for myself.

Also, here is one of my "Chiclets" blocks (a pattern you can find online under that name).

And last, here is 2/3 of the center of the top of my 2010 Saturday Sampler quilt based on the "Rocky Road Sampler". I'm machine quilting it, stitching in the ditch.

My first blog entry

"Begin at the beginning, go on till you get to the end, then stop."

 This was sage advice from Alice-In-Wonderland which is my first remembered read-to-me book and one on which I hope to base a quilt one of these days.

Let me begin with a picture of My First Quilt:   It is a "Disappearing 9-Patch" made with a Civil War Crossings Charm Pack to which I added stuff from my own stash.  It is machine-pieced and hand quilted.

Although my first pieced top which was made into a comforter for my husband was this, a basic 9 patch made of pinwhale corduroy and velveteens and some raw slubby silk: 

Here is a picture of the early stages, squares laid out.