Quilting Modern...Introducing....The Cover Girls!

Cover girls...not me or Katie, but some of the quilts in the book are the cover girls of the Spring 2012 Interweave Books catalog!

Katie and I are so happy...there is dancing in the streets in Chicago and Seattle.  Interweave has also posted more info on the book on their website.  You can see the table of contents and also get a peek inside the book.  We are chomping at the bit to show you the whole thing.  April can't get here soon enough for me...a little over 4 months and counting!

The design folks at Interweave did a stellar job on the book.  They must have an on staff mind reader because they created our vision for the book to a tee! I have to say, it's simply beautiful.  It's bursting with color and they used the quilts to design the art for the book.  As an author, it's amazing how little things make a difference.

Sorry to gush, but I can't help myself.

Building Bridges

It was great to have most of my family around for a few days.  Nothing makes you feel better than family!  I actually felt like sewing yesterday.  My migraines have prevented me from doing much around here, but I'd rather not even go there.  So, let's talk quilts.

I have two more bridge sections to share.

This is the largest section so far.  My biggest challenge with these blocks is not to overcomplicate them.  I have to hold back from adding too much.  This one makes me want to climb it!

This one is pretty different from the rest, but I think its elegant in its simplicity.

I made this bridge harder than it had to be.  All those white strips were cut on the bias...yikes and some were over 40" long.  Keeping skinny, really long bias strips straight as an arrow is challenging.  They didn't have to be done on the bias, but sometimes my design as I go process doesn't result in the most efficient construction methods.  Eventually, I do seem to get where I want to go.

Here are all five of the bridge blocks randomly on the design wall.  My hubby was pushing me to make 5 individual quilts, but I really want these blocks to come together into one quilt.  I think I've decided on a final layout, but a little time on the design wall will tell.  This quilt is becoming quite a meaningful process as I continue building bridges.

PS
Thanks for all the "likes" on facebook!

Thank goodness...

for good kids... (one was gone on tour so he escaped the Thanksgiving photo shoot)

Jon wasn't quite so lucky.

Kids who work hard...

Along with my hubby and my Bruno...my world overflows with handsome, talented, hardworking men!

Tomorrow...more peeks at the bridges quilt.

I Love a Parade!

It pays to get up early on Thanksgiving morning in Chicago. We crammed onto a jam packed train full of other parade goers, staked out a good viewing spot and enjoyed the bands, the horses, the dancers, the floats and best of all...the giant balloons.

Oh, and I saw the Clydesdales too. Two things to check off my bucket list today.
X Clydesdales and Spot the dog
X Giant parade balloons

Tallgrass Prairie Studio 2.0

So, I drank the facebook kool-aid. My youngest son is in Chicago for a few days over Thanksgiving and I have built in tech support, so I took the plunge and created a page for Tallgrass Prairie Studio. I have a personal facebook page, but I haven't been there since I started it. I'm more interesting as a business than I am as a person. I'm going to try to keep it up to date and actually use it.

I understand the facebook protocol is that you're supposed to ask people to like you. To make it easier for you, there's a button on the sidebar that when you click, magically tells facebook that you like me. Doesn't everybody want to be liked?

In other news, I received the latest catalog from C&T and I'm a cover girl! That's my quilt on the cover of We Love Color which is all about using Robert Kaufman's kona solids.  I do love konas and all those luscious colors!  I'm so excited to see inside and I have to say it's simply thrilling to be in the company of the other 15 designers in this book.

For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving this week, have a happy day.  I'm thinking about where I was three and a half years ago, having never made a quilt before.  I am more than blessed and thankful for what quilting has added to my life.

Advice from a Wise Dog

The holiday is near...

Kick back, enjoy your favorite beverage, and spend some time with those you love.

Photo disclosure: No staging was done in the taking of this picture. He's cute and naturally talented!

Back to the Seventies

Finally had time to tweak this a bit...added a block and moved one of the orange strips. I'm not sure if it's where I want it to be.

I do hate to tear it apart again, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Digital Quilt Portfolio

I make a lot of quilts.  Sometimes I even forget what I've made.  I made the Storm Windows quilt years ago.  It's still one of my favorites.  I sold it in the gallery show and I miss it.

Last week I had a furniture design store owner ask me to see a portfolio of my work.  I hung my head a little and gave her my card knowing that she really didn't want to see pictures of Bruno or my kids and I didn't have what she wanted. While I love this blog, it's not just about finished work.  It's about process, and family, and screw ups and making lots of things. My flickr is more like a dumping ground for pictures than a place to go to see quilts.

I'm going to show her my quilts in person next week, so maybe she'll forgive the gratuitous cute dog photos that she had to wade through to get to the quilts, but that experience motivated me to create something new.

I wanted a place where all my finished quilts would be in one place with just a few words to remind me how or why I made them.  I've barely started putting this together.  It's not in the right order or even close to complete, but it's a start.  I have loads of pictures to go through, more pictures to take and quilts to find.  Bottom line, I think it's a great idea and I'm excited to work on it some more.

It's times like this when I wish I took better pictures.

Even though I don't have many of these quilts any longer, my digital portfolio will be a place where I can drop by, visit them and remember.

Everyone Needs a Friend

Thanks for being a friend of this blog.  Have a great weekend everyone!

PS..Kim from CA with a Janome...I still haven't heard from you.  Do you still need to cover your sewing machine?  If I don't hear from you by Saturday, I'll have to give it to someone else.  Does anyone know Kim?  Help a gal out and let her know.

Sprout and Bloom

Added a couple of pillows to my sofa. Every new place needs new pillows. These are done in 4 tints/shades of orange with an ash gray background.

I love how the quilting makes veins in the leaves!

I have two more versions made, but not quilted yet.  They're on the list.

These have definitely inspired a couple of quilt designs!

Now for the winners.  Who knew there were so many naked sewing machines out there!
Sonia B
EG
Kim from CA with a Janome
Terri
Sharon T in Huntley IL
Hollymade
LizA
Sarah in Denver
Congrats!  If I could find your email, you should have gotten an email from me.  Sharon T and Kim, if you would drop me an email with your contact info, I'll get these little presents in the mail ASAP!  Congratulations!!
The pattern for this cover will be available on the Sew It All TV website when my episode airs.  I'll let you all know.  It's fast and soooo simple.  Hopefully all those machines out there can stop choking on dust and snuggle under cute covers!

Cover It Up!

Give me a hammer, a screwdriver and a mission and you never know what might happen! I dismantled one of the metal shelving units in the studio and with a herculean push to separate two of the rails, not only did I slice the tips of three fingers, I also sent a couple of metal rails flying across the room. The fingertips are healing, there's a slice in the wall, and one of the rails hit the back of my chair and left a nasty scratch.  This is what I ended up with.  I made the unit shorter, shrunk the space between shelves and made the top into an ironing surface so I don't have to have the ironing board up at all times. It's a bit less claustrophobic without that tall shelf.  As Nate Berkus says, in a small space things need to do double duty.

Of course I created a new problem, the chair needed something to cover that scratch.

No problem! I grabbed a bit of fabric, traced a pattern and made a chair cover to hide the scratch and you know what? I think I'm going to make a couple of covers for the balcony chairs and maybe even for the metal chairs in the dining room. What a great way to decorate for the holidays!

Speaking of cover ups...I cover my sewing machines religiously.  Sewing rooms are notoriously dusty and I try to protect my machines whenever they're not sewing.

One of the projects I did on Sew It All TV was a quick, easy sewing machine cover.  Well, for TV there are loads of step outs that need to be made.  I only have two sewing machines, but now, thanks to the magic of television I have EIGHT extra sewing machine covers.

I made all the step outs into finished covers, but I can't use them, so I decided to share them with you. Do you need a cover for your machine?  Want to give one as a gift?  They're made to fit a Bernina 156 not my giant 820, so they should fit most sewing machines.

I'll draw eight random winners on Wednesday...that is if there are more than 8 of you who want them.
Finished two quilt tops this weekend.  Now to clean the floor so I can baste!
Comments are now closed....choosing the winners!

Eeek!

My last post got hijacked....evil spam doers.  Can't let that nasty junk show up.  Maybe it was the word "hell" in the title....nothing crazy, just in hell with pins.  I was complaining about having to use pins....that's what I get for complaining at all.
Desist evil spam goers or hijackers or whatever you are!

Inspired Quilting

Between work and family and day to day things, I'm trying to finish what's hanging in the closet. I can't even remember when I pieced this, but it's a Christmas gift so it needed to get done. The quilting was inspired by a dream catcher.

It has a large center of circular quilting...

...points that extend from the circles

...fans that open out and divide the center medallion diagonally, vertically and horizontally.

I'm still not sure if more quilting needs to be added.  I'm going to live with it a little while before I decide.  I struggled a bit with thread, needle combinations and tension with this one.  The mix of quilting cotton and home dec is a challenge.  I hope to have it bound and ready to show in the next post.  I always have hope!

It was so great to hear about all the holiday sewing plans!  You all charged me up and I made a list.  Nicke and Katie are the winners of the copies of Stitch.  You should have received an email from me. Congrats ladies!!  Send me your info and I'll get them in the mail to you.