Vote for Me!

Two posts in one month - what's up with that?! Well, I'm glad you asked! Over at The Quilting Gallery there's a contest going on for Memory Quilts. I submitted one I did a few years back for the family of Sean Canavan, a man that died on 9/11 at the World Trade Center.

The quilt was commissioned by his sister-in-law Jean, for her husband, Sean's brother Cieran. She asked that I use a photo of Sean skiing and that somehow, I represent different areas in his life in the fabric choices, blocks and design. A tall order to say the least. I submitted several designs for her to choose from, and this is the one she liked the best. It's green for his being Irish, with shamrocks in the corners, made from shamrock fabric I had in my stash. The blocks around the center medallion are Irish Chains as well as the tools of his trade: carpentry.

The back was made up of fabric that represented his interests in music, skiing, fishing, woodworking and especially his love for his country. I lucked out with the patriotic fabric having mainly blue and green rather than all red, white and blue, as it went better with the quilt.

I printed the label through my ink jet printer and surrounded it with the shamrock fabric.

Sean Canavan 1962-2001 Voting opens today and closes on Monday at The Quilting Gallery Thanks for your vote!

July 2012 Desktop Calendar

Happy 236th Birthday, America!

Click on the calendar to expand the image to full size, then right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - or do like I do, and set your background color to black. It goes with everything and really makes the colors pop! And when your friends say, "Where did you get that?" Send them to see me!

Toot, Toot!

Even though the monthly desktop calendar post is due to be posted in 1.5 days, I couldn't wait to toot my own (and my customer's) horn! Mary Lane Brown, of The Tulip Patch, has a quilt showcasing Moda's "Flora" by Lauren & Jessi Jung, in Moda's upcoming book, "Sweet Celebrations with the Moda Bake Shop Chefs," by C&T Publishing. Out in time for Fall Quilt Market.

Mary's done several projects for Moda Bake Shop

You can get the skinny on Mary's blog, so I'll just cut to the chase for my part. Mary called me a few months ago and said she needed to get a quilt done poste haste, and could I do it? I was swamped with quilts waiting to beat the deadline for our guild's show, but I squeezed it in anyway. I'm a soft-touch, and hate saying no. Back in the old days, because I was constantly being asked to make brownies, drive carpool, be a room mother, etc., I actually taped a piece of paper on my phone that said, "I'm sorry, I can't talk right now. I'll need to call you back." That would give me a little time to think about the request and formulate a plausible reason why it would be absolutely impossible for me to...whatever-it-was. Then when I'd call them back, they'd beg and plead til I gave in. I tore up that note and wrote another one: "I'll have to ask my husband." (Not politically correct, but it served its purpose.) Unfortunately, that landed me back into the same loop: I still had to talk to them again, and I'd end up giving in. Again and again. Then, it hit me: they weren't asking me because I was me - they were asking me because my name was Anderson. There were only a couple of other "A-named" families in our church and school. My name was just up at the top of the list. I was crushed. They didn't actually want me, they just wanted someone to answer the phone and say yes! That's when I realized that this was good news! I ripped that note up and wrote another. Just one word. (No, not that. That would be two words!) It was NO! Feel free to use my technique...it's kid-tested and husband-approved. So where was I? Oh yeah. "Of course I can do your quilt!" So I did.

Congratulations, Mary - it looks terrific!

June 2012 Desktop Calendar

Ok, the year's almost half over - how are you coming with your UFO's? That bad, huh? Me too. I can get these virtual quilts done a whole lot quicker than the real thing, so I don't feel like a total slacker...

Click on the calendar to expand the image to full size, then right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - or do like I do, and set your background color to black. It goes with everything and really makes the colors pop! And when your friends say, "Where did you get that?" Send them to see me!

May 2012 Desktop Calendar

Because we've opened the Cabin Too retreat this year, I'm making all of this year's calendars log cabins or log cabin variations. This one uses a Twisted Log Cabin block that I found in Electric Quilt's EQ7 program...my ONLY design tool since they came out with EQ as a DOS program about 15 years ago. This particular block can be paper pieced with foundation patterns printed directly from the program. But I'm SO not tempted to do it.

Click on the calendar to expand the image to full size, then right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - or do like I do, and set your background color to black. It goes with everything and really makes the colors pop! And when your friends say, "Where did you get that?" Send them to see me!

The Finish Line - April 2012

O.M.G. Has it really been over a year since I've finished one of my own projects? Apparently. And the only reason I finished these two is because I'd entered them into our guild's quilt show last month. I had aimed for four entries but only finished two. Small. Ones. The first one was made for a border workshop I took a few years ago and never finished. I know. Surprise. I'll go ahead and mention that the whole idea of the workshop was to make different borders fit the center, and the highlight was to show how to miter the outside border so the stripes would turn the corners perfectly. "What stripes," you ask?? Yeah. I brought all solids. Typical. Everyone else brought the appropriate fabrics. Big fat eye roll.

Plain & Fancy 28"x28" 2nd Place, Wallhanging, 2012 Tri-County Quilt Guild Show

Then I had a miniature quilt that I quilted with clamshells, (which totally sucked), so two days before I had to turn it in, I ripped it all out and re-quilted the whole damn thing. Ok, so it's only 16" square, so really, it took way longer to rip than it did to re-quilt. I still wasn't happy with my quilting choices (too much fiddly-feather-foo-foo in the center which you can't even see), and it might have gotten a ribbon if I'd quilted it differently. I may rip it out again and re-re-quilt it. Maybe - maybe not. It's not like I don't have better things to do with my time...

Shiloh 16"x16"

Click on it. Go ahead, click on it! Even that big you can't see the 4 feathered wreaths in the center!

I do like the 1/4" chevron border though...So let that be a lesson to you...don't wait til the very last minute before a deadline til you start quilting, and don't waste time quilting intricate patterns when they won't even be seen.

April 2012 Desktop Calendar

I'm at a retreat at Sky-Vue Lodge in Winslow Arkansas, and I've had puh-lenty of time to get some of the things on my To Do List checked off. This is the view from the porch off my room

My friend Peggy took these photos with her phone - aren't they gorgeous?

That's a Luna Moth - before the bird got him. Below was all that was left of him this morning. Damn bird.

Anyway - here's the April calendar - Click on it to expand the image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - you'll be the envy of your cubicle!

March 2012 Desktop Calendar

Wow. This month has been absolutely insane! And even though I had an "extra" day to get this calendar done, it's still 1 or 2 days shorter than every other month. So crud - here I am sitting here just minutes before March begins, scrambling to get this posted on time. I may have to start my St. Patrick's Day imbibing a little early just to recover from February.
At any rate - here's the March calendar, with a subtle nod to the Irish and Irish-wannabees.

Click on the calendar to expand image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - you'll be the envy of your cubicle!

Connect the Blocks - Now!

My good friend (and fellow Sew Ho) Peggy has finally opened her online quilt shop called Connect the Blocks!

Last fall at Quilt Market in Houston, I had the privilege of touring all the fabric vendor booths with her and "helping" her choose fabrics for her store. Peggy's got a great eye for color and is an expert at working with batiks. Which is good, because she just happens to be specializing in them - along with cute notions and quilty/gifty stuff that you won't find anywhere else. And right now, she's got the neatest BOM - very unusual and colorful!
Hang on - you know how Weston, Missouri is the Home of the Largest Ball of String? Or how Austin, TX is the Home of the Largest Urban Bat Colony? Or how Murphys, CA is the Home of the World's Largest Gold Nugget?*
Well guess what Connect the Blocks is home of: the 40" yard! Apparently Peggy's mathematics education was lacking in content, or she, like me, was busy ditching class with the girl who liked stuffing half a dozen Fizzies in her mouth til they foamed out of her nose. But either way, Peggy thinks a yard is 40" and that's how she's selling fabric! Which means a half yard is 20" long instead of 18" and a FQ is 20" x 22" instead of 18" x 22!" Do you think I should tell her? Nah...she should have paid more attention in school!
And guess what? I was her first customer! As soon as she told me her website was up, I placed an order. And this is what I found in my mailbox 3 days later:

And inside...wrapped up all pretty like with a thank you note...

And in the round fabric Bali Box...

Gorgeous 1/2yd cuts of Bali Batiks. I can tell that just from the folded edges. I don't think I can bear to un-spiral these.
And in the pink tissue paper:

More batiks! And some bling for a shirt or tote! Cute cute cute!
I highly recommend Connect the Blocks!
*Oh. And if you didn't know about the Homes of... you're not spending enough time Here!

February 2012 Desktop Calendar

Month two in the year of the log cabin!
Valentine's Day - need something to remind me to eat more chocolate. With some strawberries. Or raspberries. Or maybe just chocolate. All that roughage just takes up valuable internal space that could be filled with more chocolate!
And don't forget - it's Leap Year! We've got a whole extra 24 hours to finish up those Valentine chocolates this month!

Click on the calendar to expand image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - you'll be the envy of your cubicle!