birthday celebrations and butterflies

Today's Quote:

"The butterflies are free."
Charles Dickens

Remember that saying and the movie, "Butterflies Are Free", starring Goldie Hawn from the 1970's? Did you have any idea that Charles Dickens is the first one to be credited with the saying. In the 70's, we thought that our clever generation had thought it up. Well, we didn't, we just borrowed it from several generations back. The thought behind the saying is that so many wonderful and beautiful things are free and present in our lives if we just take the time and effort to discover them. Often, discovery comes in a still and quiet place where our minds can be free to fly like the butterflies in free association with the world around us.

Yesterday was Charles Dickens' 200th birthday. It was celebrated in England with Prince Charles laying a wreath on Charles Dickens' grave in a solemn ceremony.

This is the quilt I designed a butterfly quilt a couple of years ago for Ellen Medlock. The pattern can be ordered from her website:

http://ellenmedlockstudio.com/qpafordo.html

failures

Before I start making a quilt I plot it out in my mind. I get visual pictures of what I think the quilt will look like, rearranging colors, etc. So, I had this great visual picture of a quilt using some particular fabrics and I couldn't wait to get started. For this quilt I had to make 4 sample blocks to see how my idea would work. 

It didn't work. I have decided to set this collection of fabric aside and abandon the project for the time being. I have to totally rethink it and start over.

Today's Quote:

Success usuallly comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Henry David Thoreau

Every quilter, even professional quilters like myself, have ideas that just don't work when put to fabric. I will put the images of the fabric back in the brain and start sewing something else. I have a lot of not so complicated ideas that I can stitch up while I am waiting. I have found that waiting for a design when I am busy doing something else is a solution is just as important as forging ahead. 

Here is a quilt I made a couple of years ago that uses a particular collection of fabric. I had this fabric pinned up and contemplated it for weeks before I came up with this design. The wavy nine patch blocks have the outside edges cut with a wavy edge rotary blade and they are top stitched to the actual blocks in the quilt. The quilt is called "Sound Waves" because of the musical theme of the fabric and the wavy edges in the nine patch blocks.

another log cabin

I am so addicted to making log cabin blocks using my new Log Cabin Trim Tool. I have a prototype and I just keep sewing and sewing. The blocks go together perfectly and SO FAST! Here is one I made with my original prototype last fall for Blue Hill Fabrics for Quilt Market.

Lest you think I am lost in a maze of log cabin blocks, I am also getting the first new Sunbonnet Sleuth mystery ready. I will post to lists when it starts.

"Continuous effort--not strength or intelligence--is the key to unlocking our potential."

Winston Churchill

That is what I am up to, is continuous effort with these log cabin blocks...the effort of sewing is not like an effort at all, it is a real pleasure, and it is what is really working for me right now. It doesn't take a lot of smarts to make the blocks, that's for sure, but it sure is fun. I think I said that!

What gives you pleasure in your quilting? Is there a special color, a block, a size, a purpose. Share, please.

quilting webinar

I only just heard about webinars at Thanksgiving when I visited my daughter in Dallas and discovered she has a part time job for a webinar company as customer service rep and that her husband is a webiner professor for a consulting firm he works for part time. Webinar? What is a webinar. I am about to find out. I am attending an online quilting webinar later today. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I have been up since 4 am making log cabin quilt blocks. When insomnia rears its ugly little head, the best remedy is quilting. Fortunately I am mostly a stranger to insomnia.

Here is today's quote - fitting for someone who sews the night away

The heights by great ones reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night.

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

And here is my Roses at Midnight quilt

 

The roses in the picture window blocks are cut out of the border fabric and appliqued in place using a raw edge applique technique. I hot glued lots of diamond like crystals in the center of the roses to make them sparkle like the dew at dawn. It is a really stunning quilt. The pattern is available for download at: www.patternspot.com

Fried Egg Day

Fried egg day is what my dad always called Friday. So today I had a fried egg for breakfast in honor of his memory. Daddy had lots of silly little sayings that always made the four of us little girls giggle. It's good to start the day with a giggle, or better yet a hearty laugh (it's good for your heart too).

Here is my quote for today.

A good laugh is sunshine in a house.
Anonymous

Here is my quilt, Sunny Side Up. The pattern for it is in my book, Circle of Nine, by Landauer and available at your quilt shop or Amazon. It fits both my memories of my dad and today's quote. There is a quote in the border that I really love, it reads: "if we were meant to pop out of bed we would all be toasters". If you want to do loads of piecing, the quilt is patterned in the book.

2012 - All about Log Cabin quilts

I am on a designing marathon this week...after a quiet holiday fabric companies and magazines are gearing up for the next quilt market and for spring and summer releases. I am finishing a log cabin quilt for The  Quilter today. In fact I have been on a log cabin whirlwind since I received my prototype of the Log Cabin Trim Tool I designed from Creative Grids. My tool will be available to the public in April so I have to make lots of samples to go with it. I am also writing a book with my sister with lots of log cabin quilt designs. I also have to do a YouTube video, something I am not looking forward to...fortunately I know a young person who is quite good a filming and editing videos for YouTube. An announce will be forthcoming in March with a link.

Here is a log cabin quilt I made for Quilter's World magazine a couple of years back. It will give you an idea of how the creative a log cabin quilt can be.

Today's quote:
People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.
Dale Carnegie

Quilting is such fun, and finding success while quilting is the most fun! This quote really works for me.

bits to beauty

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.
William Morris


Did you know that in England they speak of "bits" when we speak of scraps. They have bits of fabric to sew into a quilt and we have scraps of fabric. We speak the same language, but do we? One thing both British and American quilters can agree on is the importance of a quilt in our homes and in our lives.

When we make a quilt we are making something that is both useful and beautiful. Let's fill our houses with both usefulness and beauty by making stacks and stacks of quilts. We can display them, use them, and share them. "Bits to beauty" is a good motto to live by as we sew our lives into quilts we love.

I made this quilt using the Comfort block and Amy Butler fabrics. It was on my bed for awhile, then I gave it to my daughter when she and her husband bought their first home in Washington DC. Of my 3 daughters she is the artist although as an architect she designs exhibits for the Air and Space Museum, not quilts for the home.