A Walking Foot Will Change Your Life

I’m a believer that a walking foot will change your life! Tonight I proved that to my mom by helping her via iphone install one on her 1911 Singer Sewing Machine.  If you’ve never tried one, get online right now and order one to fit your machine!  Your sewing experience will never be the same.  The walking foot has top-side feed dogs that work in tandem with the lower feed dogs on your machine.  Together they feed the fabric, top and bottom layers, through the machine evenly.  Life Changing!  If you have a walking foot, you know what I’m talking about.  Some quilters, once they start sewing with a walking foot, never go back to their standard foot, but me, I still use my ¼” foot for piecing, though for thicker fabrics and all straight-line quilting, it’s the walking foot all the way!  Above is a photo of my “Made in Japan” generic walking foot for my vintage Kenmore machine (the Stitch Witch). Happy Sewing!

Life Changes and Quiltcon Highlights

For more years than I would like to admit, I have let my life control me rather than me controlling my life, but things are about to change!  I’ve been making small steps over the past few months with this goal in mind and although it won’t be an overnight transformation, I’m already starting to feel like I’m in a better zone.

One of my goals is to dedicate more time to the things that make me happy, which includes this blog.  I love having a blog and being part of the blogging community, but I have let life get in the way of putting dedicated energy toward it.  This blog highlights my true passion for quilt design, but I hope to expand it a little so that you, my readers (all four of you), can get to know more about me and this life changing journey I’m embarking on. 

Now, to change topics, but only slightly…

To say that Quilcon was life changing is an overstated understatement spread across the interwebs long before now!  The inaugural conference of the Modern Quilt Guild took place back in February at the Austin Convention Center and I was lucky enough to attend all four days along with some of my best gals from the San Antonio Chapter of the MQG, also known as the Hot Tamales!  Not only was I able to take a class each day from some of my favorite sew-lebrities, view some of the most creative quilt designs up close, and hang out with my girls, but I also got to experience a community of gifted, caring, and generous quilters willing to share their knowledge and love of the craft with others.  I left so inspired and luckily that inspiration has stayed with me and is one of the driving forces for taking control of my life again. 

Quiltcon also marked a milestone in my own creative journey because it was the first time one of my quilts was on display.  Zigzigzag was featured in the piecing category and I got a lot of positive feedback.  Jay McCarroll of Project Runway fame even told me he loved it and took a picture of it!  Amazing!  I would definitely recommend that if you have been contemplating submitting a quilt to a show, do it!  It’s not about the judging, it’s about sharing your creative journey with others.

Some of the Hot Tamales met  for lunch between classes.

Hot Tamales tore up the dance floor at the 80's Dance Party.

Here are just a few of my favorite quilts from the show.  I wish I could post them all because each one I saw made an impact in one way or another:

Best in Show – Double Edged Love by Victoria Findlay Wolfe, quilted by Lisa Sipes.

 RGB Modern by Sherri Lynn Wood

Ash Transition in Fiber by Lavialle Campbell

Intersections by Alissa Haight Carlton

Untitled by Lindsay Stead

Hot and cold by Krista Fleckenstein

Neutral and Neon by Latifah Saafir

Honey in Space by Elizabeth Hartman

Log Pyramids by Liz Harvatine

Frost Bank by Claire Jain

RonQuilt: The Ron Swanson Quilt by Monica Solorio-Snow


P.S. After tracking down the websites for each of these quilters to link in this post, I realized although I did not know many of these ladies by their real name, their blogs have been a major source of inspiration for me, further proof of the importance of the blogging community in the modern quilt movement.

Quiltcon Entry #1: zigzigzag

Well now that the deadline for Quiltcon has passed, I can get back to blogging.  I am so happy with how this quilt turned out, and I have been dying to share it with the interwebs, but I could not risk it before the deadline.  So without further ado, I present my first Quiltcon entry entitled zigzigzag:

My dear friend, fellow Hot Tamale, and sister wife (just kidding), Danielle of NachoMama's Quilt did the amazing quilting that completed my vision and enhanced the design ten fold!  I am so lucky to get to collaborate with her on my large quilts.  She always offers great suggestions for design and thread colors!

Here is the 100 word statement I submitted with my entry:

My design was inspired by the recent popularity of chevron patterns in modern quilting, but I wanted to break-up the rhythm of the pattern by splashing a chaotic zig zag across the quilt. This king-sized quilt includes 324 half-square triangle blocks that I laid out on the design wall and then began to add the lime green zig zag until I came up with a design I was happy with.  Even the quilting of a floral vine in the lime green zig zag goes against the grain of the rhythmic quilting chosen for the rest of the quilt.  

Later this week I'll post about my second Quiltcon entry.

Magnolia

This sweet little quilt is for the daughter of a very special high school friend.  Magnolia is the most beautiful little red head and she's about to turn 2 years old.  I've had this quilt finished since she was born, but it took forever to photograph it just right and I never go to the post office, but tomorrow that changes!  It's true that my friends in San Antonio have received their baby quilts much faster; it's the ones I have to mail that pose a problem for me.  Maybe Magnolia will still snuggle with it.

When I found this japanese import fabric, I just couldn't resist it and I knew it would be perfect for Magnolia.  The little pink flowers are very shabby chic, which as it turns out is the style of Magnolia's nursery, total coincidence.

The photo shoot took place at the San Antonio Botanical Garden with two of my favorite Hot Tamales from the SA Modern Quilt Guild.  I think they turned out great, and the butterfly was an added bonus!

I know this blog has been in hibernation for a long time, but I've still been quilting, so over the next few days and weeks I'll be highlighting all the finished projects you've missed.  Stay tuned...

My New Assistants

Two new assistants have joined my studio!  They promise to make production easier!  Meet folding table and table top ironing board!  My full sized ironing board had to be retired after an on the job accident left him crippled.  And we're all awaiting the arrival of Nanny's antique folding leaf table that will double as a cutting table and a dining room table.  Expected around Thanksgiving.

It's been raining cats and dogs here since last night, which is the perfect weather for doing a little stitching!    I've got the screen door open and it smells wonderful!  Happy Sunday!

Stella is not impressed by folding table.

Project Modern Challenge #4

Ok, it's done!  I hit the send button and submitted my entry for Project Modern's Challenge #4.  Project Modern is put together by the Modern Quilt Guild for members from all over the world to submit quilts based on the challenge theme.  The prize is fame and fortune, well maybe not, but it is a bundle of quilting goodies, and all entries are posted on flickr.  Here's my entry, description first:

I’ve been searching for my own voice in modern quilting for the last several years and I can finally say that I’ve found it.  This 49" x 46" quilt entitled “Linda’s Roses” expresses my love of bold colors and my affinity for designing free-styled quilts.  I’ve had the concept for this quilt floating around in my head for several months and this challenge gave me the push to execute it.  The women in my family love the color purple and so when my cousin recently gave birth to a little girl, I wanted to make her a purple baby quilt.  My cousin had purple roses in her wedding bouquet, so I decided I would create abstracted purple roses for her new baby. 

The roses were created by piecing random strips of various shades of purple around a lighter shade of violet, which formed the center of each rose.  I tried not to think too much when piecing the strips so the roses would develop naturally.  I chose a gray background so that the roses would really stand out and then quilted random spirals on top of each rose and straight lines in the gray background.  Everything about this quilt is random, even the way I pieced the gray background created a random shape that I fell in love with.  I will definitely be making more roses in the future because the process is so freeing and the end result is so wonderful.

And then a couple of in-process photos, and yes, I forgot my walking foot, what was I thinking?? I guess I wasn't!  How could I forget one of my favorite attachments?!

San Antonio Quilt Show Re-cap

Mom came to town last weekend and we headed to the Greater San Antonio Quilt Guild Bi-Yearly Show. The theme was "Call to Colors," so there were red white and blue quilts everywhere!  Overall we enjoyed ourselves and were inspired by some of the quilts we saw.  It didn't seem like there were as many quilts as two years ago and the vendors didn't have much to offer.  There was really only one booth offering modern fabric for sale and my favorite local quilt shop didn't even bring any fabric to the show!  I was so looking forward to raiding their booth.  I only took a few photos of the more interesting quilts, but I didn't take down names, so if you know who the artists are, please let me know and I will give them credit.  My favorite is the first one below!  

In other related news, I'm planning to attend the Houston International Quilt Festival for the first time this year!  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

This was my favorite in the art quilt category, which probably has something to do with my desire to get a tattoo, but I'm too chicken to really go through with it!

I thought this was a fun pattern!  Reminds me of a basket weave tile floor.

It's a given that the preservation architect would love the quilt featuring the adobe churches of New Mexico!  

And the cat quilt!  I've been wanting to do a mini portrait quilt of Stella for a long time.

Turtle Watching

Stella and I are turtle sitting for the next door neighbor while she's on vacation.  It's been fun watching him swim and sunbathe on his floating rock, and last night I let Stella onto the counter to check him out (normally she is not allowed on the kitchen cabinets).  I have caught her staring at him several times from the ground, so I thought I would let her get a better view.  Those rocks on the counter are what I have been using for added security on top of the lid just in case she somehow finds her way onto the counter, but it is a little too tall for her to jump onto.

On Sunday I made a couple of drool bibs for my new baby cousin who I get to see this weekend!!  One is made from a cute Asian print I have been saving for something special and the other is a purple patchwork I whipped up really quick.  I actually made a second out of the Asian print for Ruby Jane, which I hope to give to her this week when Rachel brings her to the office.  I really had an assembly line going, a baby bib sweat shop!

My most exciting news is my new thread storage container!  (I know...I am a big nerd who gets excited about organization!)  I got it on sale at JoAnn's and I am in love!  Most of the thread I have in my stash is borrowed (stolen) from my mom, sorry mom!  When I do have to purchase thread, I like to work with Gutterman 100% cotton unless there is a specific color they do not have.  I am in the process of slowly organizing my studio as the funds permit and I have my eye on some additional containers to store works in progress, but I'm waiting for them to go on sale.

Other weekend fun included going a little shoe crazy at DSW.  I went in for the flip flops and came out with the red Michael Kors and the Steve Madden's!  I love me some Steve Madden!

I hope your week is off to a good start, mine can only get better as my vacation gets closer!!

Hello World

Remember me?!  Maybe not, but I remember you.  I've been busy, quilting, traveling, and there's that day job that gets in the way of all my fun!

I finished Rachel's baby quilt just in time for the shower along with the cutest bib and booties!   I have the quilt back in my possession to put the label on and to take some proper photographs, but in the mean time I've included a picture of the top before I quilted it.  Rachel even cried when she opened my gift, so sweet. I love her dearly.  The baby was born on June 14th and they named her Ruby Jane.  I love the name!

I finally finished organizing my stash into my Granny's chest of drawers and I am so happy with it all in one place.

I have big plans for this weekend, quilting, cleaning, and studying for my next registration exam, four more to go.  Tonight, I plan to watch Friday Night Lights and get some long over due hand sewing done.

Sunday Stash: Weeks 11, 12, & 13

Finally, I know, an update.  I've been busy ok, so quit looking at me like that!  I did complete Rachel's baby quilt top, but of course I can't show that for a few more weeks.  Let's just say I love it and when it's quilted I know it's going to be even better!  Instead, you get to see all the beautiful things I've purchased over the last couple of weeks.  Above, Stella decided this fabric made a good seat while I was photographing it.  And below, a Dream On Jelly Roll and some yardage for a Quilt Retreat Challenge.  I've been wanting to use this line for something, and we plan on doing the Jelly Roll 1600 challenge, which should highlight this fabric perfectly.

Also, JoAnn's had their solid's on 40% off, so I stocked up on a color scheme I've been admiring, along with some remnants I had to have.

Now for the Stash Report, I'm not doing as well as I'd like.  If only I had more time for the things I truly want to invest my energy in...

Weeks 11, 12, & 13:

In this Week:
 -16.5 yards

Out this Week: 0 yards

In year to Date: 
-92.25 yards

Out Year to Date:
 8.75 yards

Net for 2011: -83.5 yards