Banner Blocks

Happy Monday, folks! I had a busy weekend with the gallery opening for the Last Exit to Springfield show where my Krusty quilt was included and then a wedding and the Dartmouth Comic Arts Festival on Sunday. Phew! Between all that I managed to actually get some sewing done. Not much...but some!

Here are my blocks to be included in the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild banner. The one on the bottom left will be signed and included on the back. The other two will go on the front. They are all 6.5" sq (ish). Now, off they go in the mail to be added to the others!

"If this is anyone other than Steve Allen, you're stealing my bit!"

 There's another theme art show coming up this weekend at the Dart Gallery in Dartmouth, NS. This one is Simpsons themed!! I'm so very excited to see what everyone else is contributing.

 

Here's my Krusty the Clown quilt. I just finished it last night as I was having machine problems. So I ran out this morning before work to grab this picture. Tonight, it's off to the gallery so I thought it might be the last chance to get a picture (no matter how bad the pic is, it's better than nothing). I love the crinkle in this quilt. If my washing machine wasn't broken, I would have thrown it in to make it even better.

 

A close up so you can see the quilting around Krusty. I'm pretty sure Eric is keeping this one unless it sells.

 

And the back using red, orange and yellow scraps. Love it! Again, sorry for the poor picture quality. I'll try to get some better ones.

Well, back to work on a commission and a few squares for the Guild banner! Hopefully will have more to show you soon!

 

Megaman and Roll

Check out this adorable couple that I just finished up. Megaman and his girlfriend, Roll made into pillows. As usual, these ended up larger than I had planned but they look great (if I do say so myself!).

 

 

These pillows were a commission from The Last Gamestore in Clayton Park. They will be prizes as part of a raffle as part of their annual "Megamanathon" which benefits Childs Play. For more info, check out their facebook event page.

 

It was such a nice sunny day, I decided to photograph them on my deck. I managed to do this without any doggy photobombs - which I think may be a first.

 

Here's a pic of my boys playing in the tub in case you missed them. Jack is the black lab, Darwin is the Australian Shepherd with his face under the tap.

Spring Chevrons

Another post so soon? I know, I'm getting crazy over here. I have a finish to show off. I have been wanting to do a chevron quilt for quite a while and finally had a chance. I did this cute little baby quilt for a friend of Eric's who recently had a baby. I think I finally found someone who would appreciate the Berenstain Bears fabric on the back so I chose the colors on the front to go along with it. It seems a bit backwards but I often find it easier that way. There are so many colors of Kona that you can usually find something that will go with your backing.

The green, blue and yellow remind me of spring too so that's a nice bonus until we get some colors other than brown going on outside.



The backing!

It's making me want to do a more adult chevron. I love those colors but feels a bit kidd-y. 

Quilting Confessional

I have a confession to make: I am not a good fabric purchaser. I have a really hard problem with buying fabric unless I have a specific quilt in mind. Perhaps it's my accounting background that causes the serious cheapness. I know that to you fabric hoarders, this probably doesn't seem like an issue but a lot of times I end up talking myself out of buying cute fabric and then missing out on it. Or, if I actually do buy fabric, I keep it in a drawer and refuse to use it on something unless I think the receiver will have a proper appreciation for it. I bought some of the Berenstain Bears fabric a while back and only just used it because I didn't want to waste it on someone who didn't care about the BBs.

Another issue is that I really can't seem to figure out how to use patterned fabrics. You may have noticed that my quilts tend to be all solids - except sometimes on the back. I swear I'm going to get this thing licked. So, with that in mind, I made a purchase!

Allow me to introduce you to Echino Birds in Black and Natural. 

And Echino Bees in Blue/Green and Pink/Purple.

I'm thinking that these will combine into a super quilt called the Birds and the Bees. We'll see if that actually happens but for now I'm just awaiting their arrival in the mail! I should also mention that these are my first Echino fabrics and I'm pretty excited about that too. It's possible that I would have bought all 4 colorways of the bees if they had been in stock.

I have a question for my fellow quilters: When you buy fabric for no quilt in particular, how much do you buy? My cheapness says to go for a fat quarter but my inner quilter says go for at least a metre so it could be used on the back of something small.

Gone Hunting

Just kidding, the only hunting I'd do is with the orange gun that came with the Nintendo I had when I was 5. I have been wanting to do this quilt for some time. I remember my sister and I playing this and Super Mario Bros after we got them for Christmas. Of course we fell for all of the stupid things our friends told us - including that you have to spastically move the controller to the right if you want mario to jump farther. Duck Hunt was amazing for its time. I didn't understand the magic of how it worked (and still don't for that matter) but it kept us entertained for hours! But, oh how I hated this smug dog! I'm sure there are quite a few other 80's kids who share my hatred.

Binding!

I had originally hoped to add the ducks to this but it would've been gigantic so maybe I'll just make some pillows to go along with it. This quilt will be going in the Dart Gallery NEStalgia show starting on March 21. I'm quite excited to see it up in the gallery - especially since my Shredder quilt didn't get finished in time for the last show. If you're in the area, feel free to stop by. There will be lots of different items in the show including posters, this quilt and other mediums as well.  

Quilt As You Go

Hi All, just wanted to give you a final picture of the Quilt As You Go pillow I made following our last Maritime Modern Quilt Guild meeting. As you may recall me saying, we had a little tutorial during the meeting so I decided to give it a shot when I got home. I think it was fun but probably next time, I would use a more limited color palette and possibly make all of the strips the same size. There's just something about balance that I need in quilts. It was really nice doing a quick project for once as my quilts tend to be quite time-consuming. I should have a pixel quilt to show you soon but until then, here is my QAYG pillow. I showed it to my husband who told me he didn't like it because it looked like I just used scraps. "Uh, I did use scraps...just pretend you like it."