Inspiration Abounds

Last night I went to a meeting of my small design group, the 3-D's in Lewiston. I am DeepPurple Designing Diva, we all have a different D name for the first D. There is a lot of originality and creativity in this group and we are focusing on learning new techniques for non-traditional pieces. As usual, I came away from there wanting to do something fun, instead of the traditional stuff I have been stuck doing for a long time. At the same time, I picked up 9 quilt tops to machine quilt for a friend however. Machine quilting helps support my habit, so they are hard to turn down.

This morning I took time to make 7 Artist Trading Cards (ATC's). I made them in a sheet and I will have to try again on a picture. The flash is really washing out the color in the cards, they are only 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" and it felt great to do something fun. This afternoon I had another group of Deva's (spelled differently) to attend and it was also a lot of fun. My quilt guild has Joyce Becker (author of Luscious Landscapes) coming to do a class in June and we have been going over the supply list. I don't have paints, pens, etc., but will be ordering some.

A new book I got recently that is very inspirational is Quilt Toppings by Melody Crust. I can hardly wait to try some of the ideas in the book. Again, I need more supplies! To that end I ordered a Dharma Trading Company catalog today!

My daughter is on her trip to D.C. that her government class won (see an earlier post) and called three times today. She had never flown before and was thrilled with the experience. Their trip is interspersed with sight seeing and competing in "We the People".

Graduation quilt top

This is the quilt top I made for my daughter's high school graduation. Now I need to get it quilted before May 27th! She designed the quilt in EQ5 and helped pick out the fabrics. She is thrilled with this quilt and this is the kid who has two blue walls, 2 yellow walls and with a blue on yellow polka dot ceiling in her room! I'm sure she will have a bright college dorm room next fall.

Her sister's room is VERY country oriented!

Finally Finished!

My Tropical Flowers is unofficially finished, I still have to add a label, but I finally have it this far! I started this quilt (using a Judy Niemeyer pattern)http://quiltworx.com/index.html .

I did the paper piecing at a quilting retreat in Feb. 2005, in Oct. 2005 I did the fusible applique (without stitching it down) and I quilted most of it at a retreat in March 2006. I used techniques from the book "Coloring with Thread" to quilt the applique pieces down .

This is the quilt I was working on when my Janome 6500 died, completely froze up with the needle down. The machine was less than a year old and has been a nightmare to have fixed do to the lack of dealers in my area and some other problems with the dealer I did take it to. The machine is ready but I have not had time to make the six hour round trip to pick it up!

Music Challenge

This is a small challenge quilt I made in response to a group's music challenge. I had the help of my family with ideas and it was my 17 yo daughter's idea for the shape. I found some novelty fabrics to fit my song idea and made this 16" roundish quilt in an evening using fusible batting and fusible web binding. It will be displayed in the Seaport Quilters show in Clarkston, WA this coming weekend.

Now for the question, what is the name of the song I based this quilt on?

Spud's Excellent Quilting Adventure

Trying to get into blogging
I started this blog and then promptly abandoned it. I finally remembered my password to get back in and I'm going to really try to learn how to do things with it now (she says hopefully). I still haven't figured out how to add a picture, that is next on my agenda. I have some quilting pictures to share.

This week I managed to set together my local guild's raffle quilt for next year. It is an Outdoor Idaho theme and all the blocks were different sizes so it was left to me to set it together since I have presented programs on how to accomplish that. The group loved it last night, so I was thrilled about that.

I have two kids in track and I have made it to all their meets but one so far. The team lost a lot of fast seniors last year and there are only about 10 girls total on the team so it's pretty slim for them to have relays. My daughter has won the triple jump twice this season so far.

I have two of my machines in Spokane for repair and it's slow going on machine quilting without them. I do my piecing on a Pfaff 2040, and my quilting on a Janome 6500, with a 23 year old Pfaff 1214 for backup. At a retreat in March the Janome just totally died, stalled out, froze up, etc with the needle down. It was less than a year old and I have yet to get the machine back and the store lost the foot control and cord but said it wasn't brought it. Big mess, so we going halves on a new set. In the meantime, thinking I was getting the Janome back I took the 1214 in for a checkup and to have some worn out parts replaced. It's kind of like sending your kids away from home from the first time, my machines are special to me and it's been hard to focus without them!

So this doesn't get too long I will stop now and go clean my house! Oh yeah, that sounds exciting!