July Color Palette

I'll say it again, I'm LOVING this color palette challenge on Judy's blog.

Above is my block for July to go with the other month's blocks (right) which I'll be making into a quilt when it's all over.

Happy quilting, everyone!

Vintage to Wearable

Although I have a lot of quilts in progress, I made a garment this week. Lately I've been trying something new--making garments out of old tablecloths and such. I took a stamped, 60s California tablecloth and made this blouse/jacket out of it. Because the cloth was only 36" X 42", it was quite a puzzle to make the top big enough to fit me while getting the images on to the pattern to form a pleasing design. I scoured the fabric stores to find modern fabric similar enough to the vintage fabric of the tablecloth to make the transition and include facings.


Fusible web was used on cut-outs of the small amount of leftover tablecloth fabric and sewn on, raw-edged, to the back. I couple this top with light blue crop pants for a vintage, summary outfit.

I can see this becoming an obsession! I've bid on and won several interesting vintage linens from eBay to try some more garment-making.

Look for more traditional quilting than this on Design Wall Monday on Judy's new and improved blog!

Productive Week!

I made all sorts of things this week. The one on the right is a 16 X 20 wall hanging I'll be bringing to a friend who's invited us to the "Tiki Hut" in his backyard. I thought this funny saying would add to the ambiance of all the kitchy stuff hanging in there.

 These rows of flying geese are the start of the "Blooming Tale" pattern below right. It's an all paper-pieced pattern that is one of those epic projects that will be on-going for a long, long time!




Below are the 4 placemats I made Friday to bring to friends who've just moved into their new house. We don't know them very well and wondered if this would be a gift they'd use. They invited us for dinner tonight (Saturday) and after some nice conversation, the husband offered to set the table. "Do we have any placemats?" he asked his wife of only 2 years? Umm, not really. It was then I suggested they open the gift I'd brought. They were thrilled with them--and I was tickled that I'd picked something they could really use!

Check out all the other great projects on Judy's Design Wall Monday! (Isn't her newly remodeled blog great?!)

Have a great quilting week!

Quilt Trail--Barn Blocks

Have you ever seen those big (8 foot square) quilt blocks hanging on the sides of barns or other buildings around? I was happily surprised by just that in Lake County, California this weekend--Clear Lake to be exact--where I was giving a lecture on antique quilts.  I've seen these colorful displays on trips to the east coast but I didn't know we had them in California anywhere!

Driving to the local State Park for a little hike, I glanced over and shouted to my husband, "LOOK!!" He knew to stop for a photo! A few miles further and there was another one! I hightailed it to the local quilt shop (Kerri's in Lakeport, delightful!) and she had a map  of 3 dozen quilt blocks around the lake! We saw about 10 of them on our trip.



I've always wanted a quilt block on the side of our house and we have a great place for one. I even know the block I'd use--Bear's Paw. See, my husband is the 4th generation graduate of Cal Berkeley and they are The Bears. You can only imagine how many bears in the form of t-shirts, welcome mats, car stickers, yard carvings, ball caps, etc there are in our house and my FIL's house! What block would YOU choose to hang on your house or barn?



I know this is not exactly design wall stuff but I thought you'd find it interesting. And I didn't think Judy would mind. Head on over to the other talented quilters who've followed the rules an actually photographed their design walls!

Make A Block

Every year for the past several years at our local County Fair, our quilt guild has hosted a quilt block contest. Our guild is in charge of the "Home Arts" building at the fair and we design it and set up in a very attractive way, all the quilts, jellies, pies, clothing, beadwork, and all the other hand-work and food that is entered in your typical county fair. The block contest rules are: make a 12" finished block created with the theme of the fair. This year's theme is "Summer Fun". This is my entry--Sunbonnet Sue at the Seashore. (yes, she does have feet but they're very close to the same color as the 'sand' fabric. It looks better in person. . . .)

What happens to the blocks that are created and entered? Well, first you need to know that the makers don't get them back. They are made into a quilt that at the following year's fair, is raffled off with the proceeds going to pay for the room where we have our quilt show--which is at the fairgrounds! Nicely symbiotic, don't you think?

And, there are monetary prizes for these block entries! Starting at $35 for 1st place and going down by $5 through 6th place--you BET we get a lot of entries! And the quilts we make with these blocks are fantastic!

June Color Challenge

I'm really loving this color challenge Judy offered to us for many reasons: 1) it makes me proud of my extensive stash which I've pulled all fabric from all these months, 2) it forces me to use colors I'm not necessarily comfortable with, 3) it gives me a BOM that will turn into a nice quilt at the end of the year 4) it makes me look at color palettes differently than I might have. (June's block is in the upper right.)

Along the same lines, I've also been enjoying my daily color inspiration email from Design Seeds at www.inspiration@design-seeds.com. No sales pitch, no pop-ups, just 4 lovely, colorful photos each with 5 colors that can be used as a wonderful quilt palette. They're inspiring and make me smile every time!

I think this is going to be the configuration I use for the quilt at the end of the year when I have 12 of these blocks made. Maybe I'll put a star border all around it too. Better yet, I might use one of the great borders from Judy's newest book, "60 Pieced Quilt Borders"!

Have a great quilt-y month!!

Retreat Time!

Just returned from a 3-day retreat to the cool mountains of northern California! The high was 70 degrees and when I tell you that it was 93 degrees when I got home, you'll know how welcome the 40 degree chill at night up there was!

This was a mystery class with Linda Ballard and it was the 12th retreat I've gone on with her along with my dozen quilting buddies. Of course, we bring other projects along and stay up late and get up early to work on them while enjoying WAY too much food and fun !

I really love this mystery quilt and only had to do a little border work after I got home to complete the top. This, I vow, will NOT become a UFO!

One of the many fun things Linda asks us to do on a retreat is make a 9" block for a drawing. This time it was to be "any color batik on a white background". I was the lucky winner of 11 of these blocks! Watch what I do with them in a future DWM post!


Have fun looking at all the other design walls on Judy's blog!