It's Saturday!

Another work week behind me, and I closed the book on another quiz for my African Art class (which, by the way is so far pretty damn fascinating). So, what can I do at 9:24 in the morning?  How about I introduce you to quilts I've already made?  Yes, that sounds lovely!  Plus, I need to hang the out on the line to air out anyway.  (It is now 8:33 in the evening.  My day got busy. What can I say?)



This is my first quilt.  I made it in a quilt making class not far from my office over the course of two months worth of Thursday nights, minus one week that I was cavorting about in NYC.  The fabric was picked out in advance.  There were patriotic fabric bundles, earthy, traditional bundles, and then there was this obnoxious, bright bundle.  I, of course, was pulled to the bright bundle.  I don't really care for drab, demure, country casual as I call them, colors.  I like bright!

It probably is one of my neatest quilts, as the instructor would make you redo the block if it wasn't perfect.  I'm not quite that picky.  It is backed in a pink based, multicolored stripe. 



Somewhere, somehow, I got the idea to make a larger quilt.  This isn't my second quilt, really.  I've lost track of where it was in the line up.  But, it was based on two montly quilt-a-longs over at www.freshlemonsquilts.com, The Summer Sampler and the Solstice Stars.  To get the whole operation where I wanted it size wise, I had to dig up some some extra block patterns.  The swirling geese block was one I found, as were some of the half square triangle blocks.  I used Art Gallery Pure Elements solids here, mostly because I loved the original quilt on the website so much.



This one here is just the quilt top, and my boyfriend's leg. He asked me to make a little quilt for his nephew, who was born about a year and change ago.  For some reason I didn't take a picture of the finished product.  Dumb me.  I used a Moda Bakeshop pattern and matching Moda fabric.  It's quilted with an anchor motif.   



Another one I don't have a picture of the finished quilt.  This started out because I jumped on the Scrappy Trip Around the World band wagon and made this thing HUGE. Somwhere in the past two years I told my a friend of mine if she moved to Boston I'd make her a quilt.  Well, she did.  So she got this one.  It will fit a queen sized bed with quilt to spare.  Also, the largest quilt I've done completely by myself (lie, Mom quilted a few lines for me, as it has all straight line quilting.  If she didn't I might have thrown the machine out the window.  This was a BEAST to quilt).  Fabric from every project I'd worked on up till then.  Plus some Liberty of London Tawna Lawn I bought just for it (and for myself, because I love me some Liberty).



See the quilt up there?  This one was made for the same friend.  Except she came to me with shirts.  Let me tell you about t-shirt quilts.  They are a pain.  Tee material is a pain in the ass to sew. The next T-shirt quilt I make, because I'm sure I'll do one again, I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm going to use interfacing and stiffen the whole operation up.  Again, not quilted, but that's how it went to Boston.  Her sister up there quilts too, so I'm looking forward to see how it gets finished. 



This little guy was sewn and quilted for Free Art Friday.  It's a movement where artists drop art off for anyone to pick up.  I happen to know who picked this one up, and his little girl loves it.   Yay!  It made someone happy!  This one here is my first attempt, ever, at quilting.  If I was to repete the pattern, I'd go with white thread, not beige for the quilting and maybe matched colored thread for the triangles, which are not quilted here. 



A mini quilt after my own heart, this one.  I picked up a NY Beauty pattern and this is what came out of that.  Essex linen, Tula Pink binding and kinda, sorta geometrical quilting.  This bad boy lives in my office at work. 



Speaking of Tula Pink, yeah, I like her stuff.  Seriously.  The Salt Water collection rocked my dive booties.  This pattern was free for the fabric collection, so I jumped on it.  The back is the wonderful octopus print in pink.   



This guy is Tula Pink, too.  The blocks are made from left overs from the Salt Water quilt.  I call them sister quilts, since I was able to make half square triangles from all my scraps with very little trimming.  paired with Essex linen, it shows off the quilting rather nicely.  I've got the blue submarine backing on this one. 

Also in existance is a quilt made from the Winterkist Gnoma fabric collection (also from the free pattern that appeared when the line debuted) that I made for my mom.  She's a gnome freak, so it suited her well.  There is also a quilt on my office chair, made from white charm squares and a Moda scrap bag of Good Fortune that I sewed together then cut into charm squares which eventually wound up as half square triangles. 

That's the bulk of what I've made in the past two years.  I've also got a years worth of the Lucky Stars BOM going, and by this time next year I'll have two years worth.  What to do with those blocks, what to do....

And it begins

I've decided to begin blogging again.  Once upon a time, over a decade ago, I kept both a Deadjournal and a Livejournal.  I remember a time when LJ wouldn't take new members unless you had a code from someone else already on LJ, so I wandered over to DJ, which in name, suits me far better.  No, I'm not formerly undead, a ghost, or any other no longer living terms you can think of.  I just happen to have a darker sense of humor than most.  Oh, and as a kid there was a time when I wanted to be a forensic pathologist.  But, I digress.  High school and its surrounding social drama gave me much to post about and much for my small circle of followers to read and comment on.  It caused some trouble with a then boyfriend's parental units, but that is ancient history.

Now, I'm back to blogging.  Instead of life in general, I thought I'd focus on some of my hobbies: modern quilting, photography, art, and, occasionally, my toy collection.  Yes, I'm a grown woman, but  as such I am free to collect what I want. And, amount other things (squished pennies, shot glasses) I collect American Girl dolls and generation 4 My Little Pony merchandise.  The occasional Monster High ghoul finds its way here too.

But, back to quilting. I'm not terribly fabulous at it.  I doubt I'll ever be invited to write a book or design fabric, but I enjoy it.  Picking fabric is my favorite part, followed closely by finishing a quilt top and seeing it all come together.  I'm not a fan of the quilting part, mainly because I don't have free motion quilting skills or space large enough to really get into it.  As such, large things go to a long-armist and I pay dearly for that convience.  I bind quilts myself though. I've gotten better at that!