tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66900647974691226482012-01-30T14:42:27.092-05:00the design blog for quilter, illustrator and jack-of-all-trades Wendy S.Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.comBlogger741100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-74302959815200898762012-01-30T14:42:00.000-05:002012-01-30T14:42:27.105-05:00

I just pledged the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge (the badge for the challenge is further down the page in the blogroll). We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I'm working on the Harvest Quilters' guild challenge quilt for the March show. The challenge is to make a bi-color quilt, with white and another fabric that "reads" as a solid color. I'm using a white-on-white print and a black

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-45983832218465313442012-01-15T14:42:00.001-05:002012-01-15T14:43:39.083-05:00

It wasn't terribly easy to part with my mug rug at the swap last Monday, but I was consoled by the fact that I had to cut through a stack of 5 squares of fabric to make the one block. This meant that I had enough fabric to make 4 additional blocks that are nearly identical (but with the fabrics swapped in each piece). I also needed something to carry my Wacom Intuous 4 drawing tablet back and

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-6859328296163629192012-01-11T08:48:00.001-05:002012-01-11T08:48:06.427-05:00

I sent in my information to be considered as a contestant on the Ultimate Craft Throwdown.  Having watched Cupcake Wars and Halloween Wars more than a few times, I sort of know what to expect if I get picked to be on the show. I am sort of hoping they do pick me. Then I'd have to think about who to take as my assistant...

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-65186579632835500012012-01-08T14:50:00.000-05:002012-01-08T14:50:07.839-05:00

Tomorrow is the Mug Rug Swap at Garden State Quilters' Guild. So I did some curved piecing and spme spiral quilting. The fabric is from Connecting Threads; a "layer cake" pack. I stacked 5 fabrics on top of each other and went to town with my rotary cutter. So I actually have enough cut out for 5 different "blocks" in the same design (but the fabrics will alternate in the patches). I'm not

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-23474813950544252572012-01-04T23:13:00.003-05:002012-01-04T23:13:59.120-05:00

I haven't posted here since the last workshop... Because of personal stuff, I haven't really been in the sewing room too much since October. That will change with the new year. There are a lot of projects on the back burner that need to get done and I'll be posting about it here.

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-22226351886736233772011-10-23T20:33:00.000-04:002011-10-23T20:33:30.837-04:00

Last Tuesday, the Garden State Quilters' Guild, to which I belong, sponsored a workshop with RaNae Merril on her Spiral Mandala quilts. These intricate and beautiful quilts are foundation-pieced, and based on twisted log cabin blocks. So, conceptually, they aren't terribly difficult for my engineer's brain to latch onto very quickly. The complexity arises in how you choose to color the patches in

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-42672253596935436932011-09-26T15:54:00.001-04:002011-09-26T16:15:25.539-04:00

I had been working on this earlier this month, and actually finished it probably over 2 weeks ago, but I had hoped that my dining room would be put back together by now so I could "stage" this table runner on my mother's beautiful dining table. However, the contractors are not done in our bathroom, and it looks like we just moved into the house. So I had to go outside to take the pictures.

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-69623940305225171362011-09-12T16:54:00.000-04:002011-09-12T16:54:24.079-04:00

I was experimenting this morning and made some quick doll patterns and then made up some prototypes out of muslin. These went together very fast, but I can see myself spending a lot of time with embellishments. I will likely be selling the "real" versions in my Etsy shop next month. All this started because I am donating this finished UFO to the April's Army charity shop for September. I

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-19765022134577709062011-09-11T12:37:00.004-04:002011-09-11T12:38:12.333-04:00

My 9-11 post is on my music blog, since it contains a song. I invite you to listen and read. http://mftgoddess.blogspot.com/2011/09/tuedays-lament.html

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-91104574186034190332011-07-17T17:44:00.000-04:002011-07-17T17:44:35.108-04:00

Now that the submission deadline is past, I feel comfortable showing the rest of this quilt. We had left off with the central yin/yang circle in its fabric frame. I took the challenge fabric (and some other Hoffman fabric from my stash - an alternate colorway of the 2008 challenge - a bit of a private joke for me) and fussy cut the fish parts, and positioned them on the background: The fusible

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-89153396668633881162011-07-07T08:26:00.000-04:002011-07-07T08:26:57.269-04:00

I am very pleased to announce that I have an entry for this year's Hoffman Challenge in a Priority Mail box waiting to be taken to the Post Office today. I had been stuck on what to do with the gorgeous oriental print that is this year's challenge fabric for months on end. I knew I wanted to do something with applique; and to turn the print "on its head", so to speak. I didn't want flowers

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-30171441472918847422011-06-21T09:52:00.000-04:002011-06-21T09:52:10.494-04:00

Today is the summer solstice and I just received a big box of sale batting from Connecting Threads.  I purchased one or 2 pieces of a few different types of batting to experiment with and see what I will be using as my "go-to" batting going forward. I got several packages of these:  Hobbs Heirloom Wool Batting  Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Batting  Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Fusible Batting I've heard

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-35954058702277327532011-06-13T11:42:00.001-04:002011-06-13T11:42:34.969-04:00

This weekend was the wedding for one of my good friends, someone I've known for almost 30 years, and like a good quilter, I decided to make him a quilt for a wedding present. I was completely unsure about the color scheme in his residence, so I kept it to neutral colors. The Quilt was designed in EQ7, modifying one of their foundation-pieced block patterns, and doing a lot of redesigning on the

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-19835898196164019322011-06-04T22:41:00.000-04:002011-06-04T22:41:19.685-04:00

It's a bit small for a grownup, but should work really nicely for a child between 5-12. I had a lot of fun quilting the solid borders - so much so that I may do some more solid color quilts in the future. Used 8 bobbins for this. The quilting took twice as long as the piecing, and the binding about as long as the quilting. I did stitch-in-the-ditch in the center. I hope whoever receives this in

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-89182535216362082472011-06-03T07:28:00.000-04:002011-06-03T07:28:35.655-04:00

Quilt for Joplin, MO, and part of the 30 Days of Creativity challenge. Still needs some wide borders to make it large enough for a teen/adult. I'm not sure who this is going to - our guild is collecting quilts on Monday to send/bring to Joplin.

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-60431852782523956872011-05-25T23:04:00.003-04:002011-05-26T14:54:06.035-04:00

Picture Purr-fect, a crib-sized beginner quilt that will teach you how to make half and quarter-square triangles and sew on the bias, and also make a lovely on-point baby quilt. The top goes together very fast, and is fun and easy. More advanced quilters can quickly adapt the piecing techniques to larger quilts. You can order hard copy or digital editions (or both -  if you order hard copy, the

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-67628267671129559752011-05-03T17:36:00.000-04:002011-05-03T17:36:54.861-04:00

I The weekend is loong over after 2 days back at the office. We (well I) had a great time - it was the first convention in years where I went to panels and workshops all day long. I will have some more photos of great costumes to show you, but until then, you'll just have to make do with this awesome hat I purchased in the dealer's room. Oh, and t his costume that won a bunch of prizes in the

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-79553504708155884012011-04-28T22:16:00.000-04:002011-04-28T22:16:41.704-04:00

Haven't done much quilting in the past week or so - waiting for my last entry in the show to come back from the long-armer, and starting to build a Steampunk costume. I got the pants done in time for Costume Con this weekend (which I am attending), but it really needs a blouse and a jacket (and a hat and proper shoes) before I'll be happy satisfied with it. The pants are from  Folkwear's Big Sky

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-84098067507203343532011-04-06T20:17:00.000-04:002011-04-06T20:17:54.989-04:00

As you may have noticed, I'm not quite so "Iron" in my Iron Crafting, as I've missed a few weeks here and there. It seems I can get one or 2 a month done, what with everything else that's going on in my life. This week's challenge is called "Wish You Were Here" and it was to create an postcard-sized Artist's card. Since I've been seeing a lot of fabric postcards online, and have been vicariously

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-16394449184800731832011-03-28T07:49:00.000-04:002011-03-28T07:49:36.727-04:00

I'm invited to a number of weddings this spring, and when I heard that one of the bride's bedrooms is decorated in "blue and beige", I knew I was going to make her an "Hours in the Garden" quilt. This one is done entirely with batiks, and is not quite as large as the first one, because I wanted to use the wholecloth quilt backing I purchased on my Wisconsin trip in October 2009, and that's "only"

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-26174090324350652912011-03-11T21:45:00.000-05:002011-03-11T21:45:04.993-05:00

About two-and-a-half years ago I had my first commissioned quilt. By the end, I had named the pattern "Hours in the Garden" since it used the Hourglass block and a Garden Patch variation block as a base. Here is the original quilt, staged on a bed (it's too big to hang anywhere  in my house to get a decent photo: Now, I'm starting another one and this one will be heading off to another owner

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-18405749122607807502011-03-09T07:56:00.000-05:002011-03-09T07:56:55.652-05:00

What's a quilter to do with one fat quarter? Well, I desperately needed some padding on the chair I use in the office at work, as the solid plastic is very hard on my elbows (I'm a leaner when I'm sitting at the computer and I'm at the computer all day long at work). So I whipped up these arm rests using stash fabric and leftover upholstery batting from a failed attempt at reupholstering a sofa.

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-73704712470190111252011-03-06T11:58:00.000-05:002011-03-06T11:58:15.480-05:00

I have never been a :"white glove" volunteer at a quilt show before, but I had a good time doing it, and I'll probably volunteer again in the future, because you get to touch the quilts!  The Garden State Quilters had a booth at the Mancuso show this weekend, and I volunteered for a white glove shift. I got there a couple of hours early so I could see the show and do a little shopping. I now

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-33189235713455515072011-02-12T13:04:00.000-05:002011-02-12T13:04:03.554-05:00

This past week, we were asked to create anything around the theme of "Winter". And this week is a voting challenge, where the winner gets bragging rights and a nifty badge to display on their blog and some actual physical prizes. Winter Tree by Voxwoman If you are so inclined, you can go vote here. And be fair, and vote for the entry you think best represents the theme of "Winter". Of course,

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-40827851950193706502011-02-08T23:09:00.000-05:002011-02-08T23:09:24.676-05:00

I think that's what I'm calling my latest finished quilt - it's a challenge quilt for the Harvest Quilters of NJ guild challenge, and will be shown at their show next month. My quilting is getting better, and I'm proud of it. There is still room for improvement - probably if I mark my quilts first and then quilt them... Anyway, here are spme photos - Enjoy! After show season, I will

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-38851058326564350852011-02-07T08:59:00.000-05:002011-02-07T08:59:43.751-05:00

The Harvest Quilters, the local guild to which I belong, was contacted last week about a fabric stash. A woman in a nearby town was being moved into assisted living and her descendants had the unenviable task of getting her house ready for sale - which means cleaning out a lifetime of collected items. Long story short, I loaded up my car with 8 or 9 very heavy garbage bags full of fabric and 

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-47473625967651772852011-02-01T21:01:00.000-05:002011-02-01T21:01:20.889-05:00

The Iron Craft challenge this week is to create a Valentine's Day card. I made mine for my daughter, who was having a really tough day today, so I gave it to here a bit early, like as soon as the glue had dried. I started with an idea to do some pen and watercolor motifs. First the India ink pen Then, the watercolor. I love using a thin black wash to add depth and texture to an image. I also

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-1189660611924458412011-01-29T15:41:00.000-05:002011-01-29T15:41:53.190-05:00

One of our guild members is transitioning into making beaded jewelry, and he taught a beading class at our winter workshop day. We set a cabochon onto a backing, held in place with peyote stitched beads. (and yes, I need a camera with a macro lens to take proper photos of work this small). This is an in-progress project. I plan to put a backing on it and add some fringe at the bottom and it

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-60001086068225330262011-01-23T13:35:00.000-05:002011-01-23T13:35:47.958-05:00

The quilt that I designed last June for the Woodbridge Heritage Quilters' challenge is finally finished! I still have to put a label on it, and I'm debating whether to print a double label using fabric and my laser printer (for this quilt and the Harvest Quilters challenge quilt which I will start quilting next), or use the alphabet function on my sewing machine and "embroider" a label. Chaos

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-4094613031412542202011-01-20T22:25:00.000-05:002011-01-20T22:25:09.011-05:00

Well, I don't drink coffee, and I especially don't drink it from paper cups from Starbucks. So when this week's challenge permitted mug cozys, I knew I could get this going. Mine is pieced from selvages and quilted, with a vintage button (that means I went into my button stash, and the button is likely from some garment of my mother's, because after she passed, my button stash grew by about

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-11950071794204746042011-01-18T16:43:00.000-05:002011-01-18T16:43:54.421-05:00

I actually finished this wall hanging last night. This is the piece we did at the Anna Faustino workshop back in October, I think. I have decided that I don't like working with fabric that's been treated with fusible web, at least not for doing heavy quilting. It was an exercize in frustration and patience. But it's done. The gray bits around the rainbow circle was created by rubbing silver

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-84924807365321219292011-01-17T15:32:00.000-05:002011-01-17T15:32:06.687-05:00

I've been sketching a lot this weekend, because I can sit next to the woodburning stove and sketch. I've done a couple of pen and ink sketches and then a couple of watercolors. This one is the first one I did to get away from my constantly breaking thread. The next day, I did this one with pen and watercolor pencils that I "activated" with water and a brush- the paper's not watercolor paper, so

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-5927315606451574872011-01-15T17:53:00.000-05:002011-01-15T17:53:59.800-05:00

Remember last week, when I breezed through quilting a small quilt with nary a snag? Well, this week, I am wrestling with my fusible applique quilt from the Faustino workshop, and I've got breaking threads every few minutes and it's driving me NUTS. There are no photos as yet, it will have to wait until the quilt's finished. The only difference is that the entire quilt top is backed with fusible

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-1577745824683697592011-01-11T10:57:00.000-05:002011-01-11T10:57:43.698-05:00

To prove my utter insanity, I am taking the Iron Craft challenge for 2011, which is to create a craft every week (or as many as humanly possible) for the entire year. I've already missed the first one, since I found out about it just a couple of days ago, and we'll see how I do with this week's challenge, which is to make a door jamb draft blocking device. We really need these. So much so that

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-2245151900959418552011-01-10T17:11:00.001-05:002011-01-11T10:53:52.523-05:00

Before I tackle any of my pieced quilts, I wanted to practice my free-motion quilting. So I cut out a couple of 20" diameter circles and "sketched with thread". I think I'm improving - the machine was acting great with no snags or bad stitches on the underside. One of the things that I paid attention to was slowing down - that made a big difference. I also tried out the water-soluble marker,

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-79958270793749416092011-01-01T22:30:00.000-05:002011-01-01T22:30:07.879-05:00

I've been remiss recently. I've had some good excuses - I was in costume-mode for a couple of months this fall, making outfits for a full production of Romeo & Juliet, where my output was at least as prolific as a contestant on Project Runway with the added excitement of holding a full-time job at the same time. I only returned to the sewing machine last week, where I banged out a quilt top for

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-16303348175079229832010-10-09T22:47:00.000-04:002010-10-09T22:47:34.353-04:00

Shirley, my mother-in-law handed me this heavy wooden case probably 7 years ago, when they were packing up their house to downsize into an apartment in a Senior building. I had opened it, and I knew it was an old sewing machine. It wasn't a treadle machine which I had been desiring for a while, and the wiring frankly looked terrifying, so I put it away in the basement and basically forgot about

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-9373069743064216372010-10-03T21:50:00.001-04:002010-10-03T21:51:36.935-04:00

I had an opportunity to take a much-needed break from the recovery (reorganizing) from all the renovations, and attended the Anna Faustino workshop that one of my guilds held yesterday. She taught us her "no sew" fabric weaving techniques. It took me about 5 hours to make this: Of course all the prep work was done ahead of time by Ms Faustino; which consisted of a whole lot of accurate drawings

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-81060388152422536642010-09-28T08:01:00.000-04:002010-09-28T08:01:58.995-04:00

They are shutting down tomorrow, so I am trying to move it over here. It was effortless to move it to a TypePad blog: Quiltiliciousjourney.blogspot.com's typepad blog aka thevoxwoman.typepad.com but I'm having a heckuva time trying to import it over here. It's rather annoying, actually. Anyway, this other blog has posts from 2007-2009. I don't think it's going to import here. Not with a couple

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-22237082188408773172010-08-30T10:14:00.000-04:002010-08-30T10:14:29.936-04:00

I haven't been keeping up with my self-imposed schedule of a weekly post on Sundays, and I apologize to  those of you who expect that from me. Home office renovations, work and back-to-school preparations have been keeping me out of my sewing room for the past month. It's been bothering me, but I will be very happy once my house is back in order (or in as much "order" as it ever is), and even

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-45909101118199539702010-08-08T23:38:00.000-04:002010-08-08T23:38:45.488-04:00

This is taken from a thread that I started on www.quiltingboard.com It's from the contributions of a lot of the quilters there, and some additions from the quilting group at LiveJournal. If you distribute, please mention quiltingboard.com as the source. You have no idea how much it would tickle me to get this in my inbox 10 years from now... You know you're a quilter when... 1. You pay more

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-9758042293248415152010-08-04T10:16:00.000-04:002010-08-04T10:16:03.494-04:00

Of course, I have a great idea for a quilt, and I"m at work and nowhere near my EQ7 software. Sigh.

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-42525591381814297072010-07-25T21:33:00.000-04:002010-07-25T21:33:12.187-04:00

I haven't been in my sewing room much at all this week, as other things have been demanding my time and attention: there have been plays to attend, and most pressing, two rooms to pack and clear out so that the contractors can start work tomorrow on renovating my home office space. A wall is coming down and 2 rooms will be combined into one which  will finally allow me to unpack all my  books,

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-34770035580615392512010-07-23T10:41:00.000-04:002010-07-23T10:41:38.084-04:00

This post is inspired by this post and subsequent discussion thread at the Hands In Delight blog. Hands' observation that the women in her mother's generation (late 50's to early 60's) do not know how to crochet or knit or embroider may be true for her mother and her mother's peer group for some reason (I suspect that it has more to do with women clubbing together from other mutual interests),

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-67392464916339801922010-07-18T19:38:00.000-04:002010-07-18T19:38:33.033-04:00

I started quilting Chaos Theory, which is the name I've given to the quilt formerly known as the Challenge Quilt, that I discussed in these earlier posts. I decided to do all the dark purple thread first, and I've completed the center section and the large sashing sections surrounding the tortured 9-patch blocks. I recently purchased an 80/20 low loft batting, and I'm not really liking it too

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-11833427265518982132010-07-12T21:29:00.000-04:002010-07-12T21:29:35.611-04:00

We will return shortly to our regularly scheduled quilting, but for now, here is a lunchbag that I made for my daughter to take her copious food allocation and water bottles to camp in (she's in a theater camp for 8 hours a day in an unairconditioned theater, and they require the kids to use reusable water bottles and she takes a lot of food and snacks with her). I used the "seat of your pants"

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-56440171018395345272010-07-08T09:20:00.000-04:002010-07-08T09:20:28.202-04:00

Since I seem to be spending my time during this heat wave finishing up a knitting project (because I can sit in front of the air conditioner and knit, rather than be in my hot sewing room), I thought I'd post a retrospective about some work I did a few years ago. Back in 2006, I religiously watched Simply Quilts when it was aired on the HGTV network. One episode featured Lura Schwarz Smith and

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-41164000221736086412010-06-27T00:31:00.000-04:002010-06-27T00:31:35.577-04:00

And I didn't get any quilting done! What I did do was make a huge dent into sorting and organizing my scraps and thinking about returning the larger pieces left over from the last 2 quilt tops back into the stash and how I'm going to manage that and keep the stash neat. Going through the scraps was fun and nostalgic - seeing fabric from quilts that have been gifted to people years ago, and

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-9288476424819483802010-06-20T17:17:00.001-04:002010-06-20T17:19:10.566-04:00

THE TOP IS DONE. WHEW. I am not going to quilt this thing for tomorrow - I don't want to rush through it. I need to "live" with it a bit and figure out a quilting pattern that will enhance the design and not detract from it. It's a rather BUSY quilt (as many of my designs seem to be these days... what's up with that?). And had I bothered to notice the patch count before I started, I don't think

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-10804295958209292462010-06-17T21:54:00.000-04:002010-06-17T21:54:51.196-04:00

After 90 minutes of doing things wrong I'm giving up for the night. I managed to get one right-triangle piece done - I have 7 more to do. I am having second thoughts about one of my fabric choices - the value is too close to the challenge fabric - I made the same "mistake" on the quilt I just finished. Those half-rectangular pieces will drive me insane. I just know it. But if things go like for

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-67455924276751353062010-06-15T21:37:00.002-04:002010-06-16T08:18:57.946-04:00

I received my challenge fabric this past September at our first meeting of the year, and it's due at the meeting next Monday, so in typical "leave things for the last minute" fashion, I started on it today. Lucky for me I got my EQ7 Upgrade yesterday and I had some time to install it and poke around in it a bit. So far, it's running much more smoothly than my EQ6, which seemed to have issues

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-39348743366016334032010-06-01T19:02:00.000-04:002010-06-01T19:02:12.116-04:00

The top is assembled except for the 2 outer borders. Things took longer than I had thought they would. Part of that is because I did a lot more ripping of seams that in the past I would have just let go, and another part was because each NY Beauty block had 29 individual pieces of fabric in them! The paper piecing went very slowly. It took an entire day to piece the 4 corner blocks. I

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-13497014392775282702010-05-30T21:35:00.001-04:002010-05-30T21:36:35.520-04:00

Progress is being made, and I may have all the components completed by the time I have to go back to the office on Wednesday. I have all the pieced  borders done, with the exception of the NY Beauty blocks, which I will tackle tomorrow. I have a good reason for the delay: we discovered a stray kitten trapped in our woodpile on Thursday evening, trapped it on Friday, got it to the vet on Saturday

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-87089675135331482552010-05-23T20:43:00.001-04:002010-05-23T20:44:03.847-04:00

My latest WIP is a bed quilt for our bed. We've needed a summer weight quilt for a few years now, and I finally have a chance to make something for us. I came up with this design close to 18 months ago, around the time I was working on "Hours In The Garden" because it was hard for me to let that quilt go to its owner after I finished it. There are some similarities in this new quilt with the

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-86292025470745104382010-05-18T18:10:00.002-04:002010-05-18T18:12:05.609-04:00

I never thought I could get so much satisfaction out of reorganizing my thread. I relegated all my old polyester thread to a box, because I will probably only use those threads for garment sewing and not quilting. These are all 100% cotton threads, most of which are from the Connecting Threads sale a few months ago. I could pose these spools all day long. Stay tuned for some attempts at

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-9548194164583286352010-05-16T19:50:00.002-04:002010-05-16T19:52:54.955-04:00

I seem to be in a knitting mood ever since I returned to the Wisteria sweater when I had to be backstage for a couple of day-long rehearsals. I guess these are my "production sweaters" - I made one during the Shakespeare "medley" last year, and this one is the "Arsenic & Old Lace" sweater. Since I haven't started cutting fabric for my next project (a king-sized bed quilt for us for the "warm

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-68301438101026591782010-05-12T13:10:00.001-04:002010-05-12T13:19:38.714-04:00

Only 58 dollars for an upgrade. I love EQ6 and I've been using it for almost all my designs, and I can't wait to try out the new version. Check it out! And Panzi still needs more pictures for catsonquilts.com - help her out!

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-7232045685498941732010-05-09T21:46:00.000-04:002010-05-09T21:46:13.798-04:00

I have a deadline of tomorrow for a quilt block for a  Garden State Quilters guild group quilt (for our show next year) with the theme "New Jersey, Then and Now". I whipped this up over the weekend, in just a few hours. It's only one block and fusible applique goes very quickly. I chose for my theme the old RCA Victor logo, also called "His Master's Voice", since RCA was a huge employer in the

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-55504299403697068892010-05-04T21:31:00.001-04:002010-05-05T15:29:04.527-04:00

It's a strange feeling to be done with both of these projects all in the same week. I was really lucky at the thrift stores this month, and I got a lot of items that needed little to no work. I did have to spend time building the aunties' costumes and the policewomen's costumes, but I saw the uniforms on the girls yesterday for a final fitting and they looked so official! The production is having

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-7027228297801843332010-05-02T21:51:00.002-04:002010-05-05T15:27:05.587-04:00

I subscribe to two print quilting magazines at this moment; Quilt and Quilting (probably because I got them confused when filling out the cards). I have been pretty happy with both of them (The latest Quilt contained a bag pattern that I'm modifying for a commissioned bag I'm working on, and was a very timely arrival). What I didn't expect to get in the mail last week was an unsolicited DVD from

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-587686065646630992010-04-29T13:10:00.000-04:002010-04-29T13:10:49.547-04:00

I just wanted to let y'all know that I started a photo blog featuring cats (and other pets) on quilts. www.catsonquilts.com.

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-52326706753047924562010-04-26T20:13:00.002-04:002010-04-26T20:13:48.842-04:00

Because I've been making costumes for an upcoming High School production of Arsenic & Old Lace. There will be photos, but not yet.

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-16835598037084399742010-04-21T17:01:00.000-04:002010-04-21T17:01:24.486-04:00

This is also a donation quilt, but for my daughter's High School parent group's Tricky Tray (a "raffle auction" to those of you who don't live in New Jersey and have never heard that phrase before). It's basically a really cute kids' panel with some pieced borders: A close-up of the center panel: As you may or may not see, I quilted around all the animals and the leaves (and toys and larger

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-48805415143424835052010-04-11T23:19:00.001-04:002010-04-11T23:23:40.007-04:00

I decided to do a cat-themed quilt for the stash quilt, and I used some of my coveted Laurel Burch cat fabric. I think it came out really nice, and I suppose I'm going to have to make another one for the house. I am also planning to publish instructions for this quilt, so keep an eye out for that over the next couple of weeks.  I think the total time from start-to-finish for this quilt was

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-51219189017219684992010-04-04T22:00:00.001-04:002010-04-04T22:04:51.475-04:00

http://www.quiltsforkids.org/Threw an awesome sweet 16 party for my daughter friday: check! Pieced & quilted the Quilts for Kids quilt Saturday: Check! Putting a quilt kit together is a breeze! This is my first kit, and the fact that I didn't have to measure or cut was really a pleasant experience. There were only a few scraps left over, too - and I'm glad there was something left over, because I

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-57777632158656426122010-03-28T17:11:00.002-04:002010-03-28T17:16:32.881-04:00

There were no speeches at the Harvest Quilter's 27th annual guild show yesterday, but I did get a blue ribbon for Portrait of My Mother as a Young Woman. I got completely choked up about the whole thing, too. I am hoping this is the start of something good in my "quilting career," and I'm really trying not to get a swelled head about it. I'm going to have to do at least one more portrait quilt,

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-55783808665669283342010-03-21T21:03:00.000-04:002010-03-21T21:09:12.079-04:00

As you may recall in this post, I was attempting to re-create a doll from my childhood. I got the fabric samples back from Spoonflower, and they looked just like I designed them. I tried 2 different fabric weights: their quilting cotton and their upholstery-grade cotton. I constructed a prototype doll from the quilting-weight cotton (even though my daughter and I both thought the heavier fabric

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-46531739691683505602010-03-14T17:20:00.000-04:002010-03-14T17:21:59.639-04:00

I finished the binding, hanging sleeve and quilt label yesterday. It turned out slightly larger than I expected it to, and I'm going to have an interesting time finding a permanent hanging spot for this after it's returned from the show. Here are some inadequate photos of the finished piece. I will have better pictures at the show, where I can (hopefully)  back up far enough to get the entire

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-64111876069012875982010-03-07T21:55:00.000-05:002010-03-21T21:16:02.610-04:00

I'm now quilting "Sunrise: Winter Solstice" and it's the first time I've used the new threads I purchased online from Connecting Threads a few months ago. These are their "Essential" brand threads, and on-sale (and in the thread collections) they came to about $1.50 per 1200 yard spool. I bought one of each of these color collections, plus 2 of the gray scale packs in that purchase. They are 50-

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-13552137797523083942010-02-28T18:09:00.000-05:002010-03-21T21:16:42.055-04:00

I received my Quilts for Kids kit this week (very quickly from when I ordered it), and it contained some really cute dog fabric, all pre-cut and ready to sew, along with a label for the back of the quilt. I remembered I had been fooling around with a dalmation strip scrap and some other doggie-themed scraps that I got in a "scraps by the pound" sale over at eQuilter.com (my favorite online

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-37889878824811094172010-02-21T17:21:00.000-05:002010-02-21T17:21:07.942-05:00

I have a much-loved doll (á là the Velveteen Rabbit) that was given to me, new, almost 50 years ago, and that was given to my own daughter about 12 or so years ago. It's been through quite a lot, including a re-inking of the face by my mother after a traumatic laundry incident where my doll was returned to me, clean, but faceless. The interesting thing about this particular stuffed fabric doll

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-71718446708264413752010-02-20T16:52:00.000-05:002010-03-21T21:17:13.845-04:00

Quilts for Kids is an organization that supplies quilts to hospitals for the comfort of children confined there. I've just requested a quilt kit from them, and I'll be making at least one quilt to donate to them. From their press release: Quilts for Kids, Inc. transforms discontinued, unwanted and other fabrics into quilts that comfort children in need.  These children are fighting a life battle

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-70250079737483973142010-02-12T15:36:00.001-05:002010-05-05T15:28:16.652-04:00

I will admit that I love to collect things. Fabric, books, music, action figures,  beach rocks, shells, and other things that pique my interest. Today, one of the latest two quilting books that I ordered was waiting for me when I got home from work today: Ruth B McDowell's Piecing Workshop. This book was recommended to me by Elettaria, a member of the Quilting group over at LiveJournal, and I'm

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6690064797469122648.post-78430407062364437282010-02-07T22:38:00.001-05:002010-02-07T22:56:07.602-05:00

If you are new to quilting, a design wall is something that is very helpful. It's a place for you to lay out pieces or quilt blocks and try out arrangements before you sew them together.A design wall is usually hung vertically on the wall. This works better than the floor for a few reasons: You don't need to clean it first before you put fabric on it Your pets can't "help" you with your small

Quiltilicioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12496827663647388930noreply@blogger.com0