Here is the finished quilt I teased you all with in last week's blog.  I was given about 50 ties to make this quilt with.   I was told that I could do whatever I wanted as long as it was masculine and large enough to fit on a bed top.  I settled on the Windmill patter which is a variation of the pinwheel.  Do you see the signed Cal Ripkin Jr tie in the lower corner hiding behind the aloe plant?  I choose to showcase several of the ties with character or importance.
In order to get it large enough for a bed spread, I went to my silk stash.  This is a bag of silk fabrics I inherited when I was a teenager from a rather famous Taos,NM artist.  So, 20 years later, some gorgeous brown silks from the bag made their way into this quilt as sashing.  The windmills were actually kind of static so I arranged the sashing in step-ladder style to move the eye across the quilt.  
Once it was all quilted with free motion pinwheels and ribbon-cable sashing, it looked better than I had envisioned.  This is pretty rare for me.  I love this quilt!  Now comes the time I hope the client loves what I did too.
It's another windy day here in the mountains.  The boys are out blacksmithing anyway.  They haven't built a shop yet so last time I looked, they had hooked up a steel plate in the vice on several logs to create a wind block for the forge.  Hmmmm, those boys.  I suppose I should make them stew for lunch if I want to be really nice.  At the moment, I should be doing my sales taxes for the year.  I might just enjoy a day off in between quilt projects though.  COOKING AND CLEANING, HERE I COME!
HAVE A QUILTERIFIC AND CRAFTASTIC WEEK!

Remebrance Quilts

Quilts almost always tell some type of story.  Sometimes, however, the story makes the quilt.  It is really quite special for me when I get asked to create these "Remembrance Quilts".  They are so unique as well, they would have to be as they tell the story of someone or event that should be remembered.
The quilt pictured to the right here --------------> was the Christmas gift I created for an accomplished runner.  For this quilt, I was given her cross-country and track or marathon t-shirts.  All the teams she she called hers and all the competitions she ran are here in this quilt for her to remember.  They aren't in a box somewhere at the bottom of the closet anymore.  This quilt in now in her college dorm room screaming to world that this girl loves to run!
   

Another silk tie quilt is about to be born.  In this photo, you can see how I am chain-piecing these Windmill blocks.  My awesome husband once again fused the interfacing to the ties and cut all pieces for me.
(Note:  Choose the lightest weight non-woven fusible interfacing that is made for sewing into clothing.)  This quilt is going to the grandson the Johns Hopkins graduate.  This was a great tie collection with a lot of character and what I started dorkily calling "NovelTies".  I did some special pieced blocks out of some of the ties and then we made 56 windmill blocks.  It was a touch small for a bed so I added sashing strips in beautiful brown silks and then borders.  I finished the top yesterday and am going to quilt today.  I must say, I think this quilt is gorgeous! It turned out so much better than I had imagined and that is really rare!  I am so excited to quilt it today.  Here is the Hopkins Block, tune in next week for photos of the finished quilt.

We have a lot of tree clean up to do this week.  They came through and cleared 5' each side of the power lines on our property last Wed.  Now, I know this was a necessary thing and we kept all the logs to make furniture or such out of.  The Lorax in me though is so very sad at this tree death.  These were even healthy trees without signs of pine beetle. So, while I quilt today, I think Sid and friends will be cleaning up all this mess.  At least the professionals took down the giant tree with a rotten core that was going to fall on my studio and long-arm!

That's all of a catch up for now, I have to get to quilting.  Happy New Year and Happy Quilting!

Twas the Week Before Christmas...

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house, no one is safe, especially that louse!  Just kidding!  After last weeks blog, my mood this week is shameful.  I have been busier than usual though as I picked up a babysitting gig.  I have been discovering that how one uses words really affects how they make you feel.  Last year, I didn't "have to go to work", I "got to go to work".  You see how one makes it feel like a problem and one makes it feel like a privilege?
Therefore, I am not babysitting, I get to hang out with my new friend Miles twice a week.  He is a really great kid and I think he will help me remember how to just play.  The ability to play is something I completely forgot how to do.  All the stuff I did for play/hobbies have become my means of work.  And I do a lot of work but am very stressed.  Crawling on the floor and playing ball or cars or just making noise laughing is so good for my soul!!!!  When I got home after the second day, a jealous husband asked if he could pay me $10/hr to play ball with him.  Maybe I should, it was fun when he taught me to play lacrosse a few years ago.  Later though, right now he is template cutting pinwheel pieces out of silk ties for me.  Isn't he great?
What a great week we have:  Happy Channukah, Solstice, and Merry Christmas!
Let light, love, and laughter abound!

Silk Tie Project Update

Here are photos of the silk tie quilt.
Photo below is before quilting.
This one is after quilting. ----------->
I am very pleased with how this quilt came out even if it still contains a "humility block" I might have put it on purpose as the client wanted a traditional piece.
This quilt crosses and blends traditional quilt design with modern technologies. I stated it was the most traditional quilt I'd ever made and people are willing to argue with me about that. The log cabin is a traditional design yet my use of the colors is not. The quilting design I used was the very traditional feather motif. Yet the way I did free-forming feathers in the diamonds is ultra modern. It all came together wonderfully and I created a quilt that is beautiful. I believe it will truly please the client I created it for.
I also got this quilt done in record time for me - only two months! On occasion, I can really pump some quilts out. I've also been known to take my time with some quilts too. ( Like my brother and sister-in-law's wedding quilt. I finally finished it after they had their 2nd child.)
Now, I just have to bind the quilt. I will be doing hand blindstitching to continue the traditional look. I prefer the look of hand blindstitched to machine stitched anyway. Besides, I can't finish a masterpiece like this with a below-par binding. It is a beautiful snowing spring day here in the mountains which is perfect for that cup of hot cocoa and about 4 movies. It usually takes the Lord of the Rings series and then one more movie to bind a queen size so I best get working.
I hope everyone else enjoys their day too.

Wind in the Pines

It has been so windy for a few days now. No snow in the wind today but my goodness the damage it's done is amazing. The first thing I saw when I got off the bus in Ned was a poor VW bus whose roof had been blown off. It was really quite sad. Heavily-weighted mailboxes were down everywhere. The Pine trees are all being whipped into frenzies every which way as I right this blog. We are used to wind up here, but this is pretty impressive! I wish I had a web-cam to share it with y'all.
I have been happy lately. It's because I've returned to work at the iris farm and Spring is approaching. I finished another 16 blocks for the silk tie quilt. So that leaves me with 20 left, and I've even gotten up to Strip 5 on all 20 of them. One of the reasons I chose to back the ties with interfacing was so that I could chain piece them. It's worked out really well for me. I can just zip through them with ease, knowing the strips are stable and behaving themselves. I always knew silk was tricky fabric, but it is nothing compared to velvet. I did a crazy quilt for a client once and discovered just what a squirmy, runaway, do anything but what you want it to fabric.
Okay, that's for all now. Keep quilting, dreaming, creating, and loving!