Crazy Baby

I've been looking at his pile of crazy 1 1/2" strips for a while. My niece is having a baby soon so I decided to see what I could do with them.

I cut the 1 1/2" strips into various lengths. Added a blue 1 1/2" square to one end, and sewed all the strips together end to end. Now there is one strip yards and yards long. I folded this strip in half and sewed the long edge together. Repeating this step until I got the size I needed.

It just made sense to add a 1 1/2" blue inner border.

 Now comes the fun part. Up until now I had a vision. I'll need to audition border ideas.

The wild print seems too much, and the blue boring.

I tried nine patches mixing the two fabrics. Like this better, but it's not quilt right either.

Here we go, I like this mix.

Crazy Baby

Next, on to the back!

Taking rubbing to the next level or three!

I've been playing around with my paint sticks again. Using freezer paper and rubbing plates. I can see more of this in my future!

This years For the Cure Quilt

Let's face it, I make quilts. Lots of quilts. My friend Merry walks in the Susan G. Koman 3 Day every year. And every year I make a quilt to raise funds for this important cause. This years For the Cure quilt is yellow, blue and white.

I chose to quilt in with my favorite flowers in the white strips and straight lines in the blue strips. Simple but effective!

A Sunny Spring Day in Seattle

Sun and spring, means a trip to the The Arboretum. It is a hidden gem on the shores of Lake Washington. Jointly managed by University of Washington and the City of Seattle, its 230 acres are a dynamic assortment of plants found nowhere else.

Enlarging & Reducing Photocopy Chart

I am working on a quilting design for my latest quilt. I drew the design just the way I wanted it. But wouldn't you know that it was too small. Here is the chart I use to make it just the right size!

	1”	2”	3”	4”	5”	6”	7”	8”	9”
1”	100%	200%	300%	400%	500%	600%	700%	800%	900%
2”	50%	100%	150%	200%	250%	300%	350%	400%	450%
3”	33%	66%	100%	133%	166%	200%	233%	266%	300%
4”	25%	50%	75%	100%	125%	150%	175%	200%	250%
5”	20%	40%	60%	80%	100%	120%	140%	160%	180%
6”	17%	33%	50%	67%	83%	100%	117%	133%	150%
7”	14%	28%	43%	52%	71%	86%	100%	114%	128%
8”	12%	25%	37%	50%	62%	75%	87%	100%	112%
9”	11%	22%	33%	443%	55%	66%	77%	88%	100%

Locate your current block size down the left hand column and then across the top find the size that you want your new block to be. Follow the column down and the row across till they meet and this will give you the amount you either need to enlarge or reduce your original pattern.

Example
To enlarge from 5" to 7", from the left column find 5", look across to 7". The percentage is 140% .
To reduce from 6" to 5", from the left column find 6" and across to 5". The percentage is 85%.

UFO's

I think about UFO's and how I don't like having them clutter my brain. I have used unconventional ways to deal with them for years. Pieces I don't want to finish do not remain in my studio for long. I might cut them up and put them on the back of something else. Give them to Community Service at my guild and sometime I even through them in the trash!

I found a new way to deal with them; I cut them up, saving the parts I like and use my Quilt-as-you-go method to sew the pieces back together again.

Calamity

The Quilting-Stitching Through the Layers

I'm working on my next competition piece. Looking for quilting design ideas. And thought you might like to see some of my picture collection. I haven't found just the right idea yet, so the search continues!

Florida

Eastern Washington

South Beach, Miami

Friends

 One of the best things about friends is the memories we share. My friend Linda recently shared a very special one, her Mother's red purse from the fifties. I LOVE it! Thank you Linda.

Great Tip!

I don't spend a lot of time cruising blogs, but occasionally I see one that I just have to share. This tip is GREAT!

Watch Ricky as he cleans his design wall with freezer paper and an iron!

Thank You For Making Quilting Day A Success

Dear Melody

International Quilting Weekend at TheQuiltShow.com was wild. We had over 90,000 visits and showed over 30,000 hours of video. These people came to see your shows and learn more about the art they love. Alex and I want to say a big "Thank You". 

We have a short video that is going out April 1 that we hope will make you smile. 
Ricky

Parisienne Rose, My Favorite Garment

 



        This garment is my favorite of all of them. Yours too, it was voted by the viewers as one of the top ten favorites! 

Parisienne Rose, captures the romance and excitement you would expect to see at a glittering ball in one of Europe’s capital cities, or perhaps gracing a shop window along the Champs d’Elise, enticing delighted passers-by to take a closer look.

Constructed of heavy silk taffeta hand-selected and imported directly from China, the brilliant red woven jacquard fabric is a delightful panorama of delicate roses in red and black. The fabric itself served as inspiration for the ultimate design. The close-fitting strapless gown has a darted dropped waist bodice and a double gathered skirt trimmed in lace Melody herself created using software, 15,000 yards of fuchsia-colored thread Her Bernina worked furiously for over 100 hours on just the lace motifs, alone. 

The long evening shawl, an original design, is made of shocking pink polyester lined with red Chinese silk taffeta to match the gown. The beautiful dimension you see is achieved with pin tucks stitched with a 2.5 double needle and red thread just a few shades darker than the fabric. Each of the 86 small lace motif along the shawl’s edges took 30 minutes to stitch, and the 14 larger ones each required over an hour.

Both gown and shawl are embellished with 5,000 Swarovski crystals, ranging in size from 3 to 5 mm. Their brilliant colors – fuchsia, ruby, rose, Siam, light Siam, and light Siam Aurora Borealis – twinkle and flash, just like the eyes of the beautiful woman fortunate enough to wear this chic and stunning ensemble.

 

Time to Play Tourist in San Antonio

Originally named Mission San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. More than 2.5 million people a year visit the 4.2 acre complex known worldwide as "The Alamo." Most come to see the old mission where a small band of Texans held out for thirteen days against the Centralist army of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. Although the Alamo fell in the early morning hours of March 6, 1836, the death of the Alamo Defenders has come to symbolize courage and sacrifice for the cause of Liberty.  The Alamo has been managed by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas since 1905. Located on Alamo Plaza in downtown San Antonio, Texas, the Alamo represents nearly 300 years of history. Three buildings - the Shrine, Long Barrack Museum and Gift Museum - house exhibits on the Texas Revolution and Texas History. 

Mission Conception

Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purisima Concepción de Acuña This handsome stone church was dedicated in 1755, and appears very much as it did over two centuries ago. It stands proudly as the oldest un-restored stone church in America. In its heyday, colorful geometric designs covered its surface, but the patterns have long since faded or been worn away.

Mission San José

Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo

Known as the "Queen of the Missions", this is the largest of the missions and was almost fully restored to its original design in the 1930s by the WPA (Works Projects Administration). Spanish missions were not churches, but communities, with the church the focus. Mission San José shows the visitor how all the missions might have looked over 250 years ago.

A Workshop with Hill Country Quilt Guild

PAINTED SURFACES;        

A Two day workshop

The joy of painting onto fabric is that there are so many possibilities and so few rules. This is a time to set free your imagination, pick up brush and play. Apply the same techniques you use in creating the quilt top,—visual trial and error. Play with fabric paints to enrich your fabrics before you begin sewing—or at any time during the process. Use paints to add new designs or dimension to portions of your quilts, making the fabrics uniquely your own. The choices are yours and the magic is waiting to happen.

 

Creations

Creations is located in the cutest Victorian house

Creations has great stuff for the quilter and sewing enthusiast! They special in sewing and quilting fabrics,  Located in Kerrville, in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, they carry a wide range of fabrics, patterns and books for quilting, clothing, and stitchery .

Welcome to Kerrville Texas

A room full of happy quilters!

Great show and tell

In the summer of 1984 ten women met to discuss a common interest - their love of quilting.  From this first meeting evolved the Hill Country Quilt Guild.  The guild’s first project was a Sesquicentennial quilt presented  to the City of Kerrville. It now hangs on the second floor of the Butt-Holdsworth Library. They support and participate in those activities which encourage appreciation of fine quilts and quilt making.  This includes displaying quilts in windows of businesses, the downtown visitors’ center, and the Kerr Arts & Cultural Center.  Members made quilts for organizations in need.

Welcome to Fredricksburg Texas

Guild Show and Share

Home of the Vereins Quilt Guild of Fredericksburg. In 1996, the city of Fredericksburg, Texas held a week long celebration commemorating its 150th birthday.  As a part of that celebration, a quilt show was held.  The show was put together by volunteers who had a love for quilts and quilting.  During the course of planning and executing that show, it was evident that a number of women in Fredericksburg were interested in having a guild  where quilters could meet on a regular basis. 

Fredericksburg was founded in 1846 and named after Prince Frederick of Prussia. The Fredericksburg Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in Texas.