Many of you may remember my passion for quilting from before the medical hassles of the last few years. I'm so ready to get back to it and think my strength is almost there. You can see my quilt adventures here and here. My first quilt was a grandmother's flower garden Christmas tree skirt that I made for my cousin. It was all done by hand and even won awards at the LA County Fair. I never got a good picture of it but am hoping she'll get me one this year. One of my favorites is an Island Batik quilt I designed for her and I. We each have a sister quilt that go together.
About 10 years ago I met a woman who would become a kindred spirit. It was like we'd always known each other. Dawna just happened to own a quilt shop and I feel in love all over again with quilting when I took her beginning machine quilting class at Bolts in the Bathtub. She now also has a blog, Stitches from the Tub.
It was there that I met Tiffany from Needle in a Hayes Stack.
Tiffany is a gifted pattern maker and has an eye for color and design
that is unbelievable. Both Tiffany and I adore batiks. Adore is
actually a tame word for the love we have. Our stashes are huge.
This is the first one I want to finish. I was working on it when I got sick.
A few years ago I taught my niece Amber to quilt and that memory brings a special smile to my face as today is her 21st birthday. Here she is with her first quilt. One of the things I taught her about was choosing patterns and colors to match. Below is an excerpt from a post I did about that subject.
~WORKS EVERY TIME~
I
just had a conversation with a friend about not being able to choose
colors for a quilt pattern. She's having a tough time with knowing when
and how colors go together. So here's a quick, easy and inexpensive
trick that I learned at a quilt show.
Do you know what these are?
They're those little prism toys you can get in Cracker Jacks or as a
party favor at a children's birthday party. I got the lady bug at a
quilt show, but the megaphone was from a girl scout carnival.
What
you do is put all the fabrics you are thinking of choosing into a stack
(bolts work really well) then step back and use this little toy as a kaleidoscope.
If any one fabric stands out, remove it and start again. Keep this up
until you have the fabrics you need and they make a continuous kaleidoscope pattern where no one color or fabric stands out by itself.
3 comments:
That's awesome! I would love to learn how to quilt but I guess I would also have to know how to sew - it's probably not going to happen in this lifetime!
I love quilts but have never really quilted. My grand mother left me some quilt tops that she had pieced together and I haphazardly put two of them together. I still have two to do. As she got older she spent a lot of time piecing quilts together and had planned to send them off to be machine quilted but there were many that were never finished. I feel blessed to have just a few of them.
Hope you can get back to your quilting. Glad you are getting your strength back and feeling better.
Martha if we lived closer together you would.:) I taught Amber and she can't sew.
Thanks MA - you are blessed to have them - any quilt takes a lot of time and effort not to mention the heart, love, blood, sweat and tears that go into each one. :)
Post a Comment