All Colours are of God

2014 Bloggers' Quilt Festival entry in the ROYGBIV category:

Quilt is 18.5"x18.5", a miniaturized version of a Jacqueline de Jongg design, Circle of Life.

Backlink to Amy's Creative Side:  Linking to Amy's Creative Side

When you get to Amy's site, please scroll down to the link for ROYBGIV quilts, and vote.  Your vote for All Colours are of God is greatly appreciated... Thank you! 

Woodland Creatures reprise

2014 Bloggers' Quilt Festival entry in the Applique category

The quilt is 80x100 and is all fused and machine appliqued with hand embroidered details.

Here are a few detail shots:

Visit here to see all the quilts in the 'contest' and vote:
Amy's Creative Side

When you get to Amy's site, please scroll down to the link to Applique entries and vote.. Your vote for Woodland Creatures is greatly appreciated.  Thanks!!!

"Social Tote"

I saw a cute little tote on Facebook and decided I just HAD to make one.  I bought the pattern, by Carolyn Friedlander, collected some fabrics and got to it.  Now, you have to understand that making totes and bags is NOT my forte...  I usually have trouble with anything three dimensional... I'm much better working in two dimensions, which is maybe why I'm a quilter and not, say, a sculptor?  Anyway... I did manage to make sense of the directions and made this adorable little tote for my hand sewing projects.  In fact, the little hexagon tote I made (see the link to tutorial at the top of this page, it's the 'English paper piecing travel kit') fits perfectly in the Social Tote, so I can take it anywhere.  (By the way, I didn't DESIGN the hexagon tote, I just made one and posted the link to the site I got the pattern from).

Anyway - here are some pics of my little "social tote."  It even included a pattern for a matching pincushion, so I made that too... fits perfectly in one of the small pockets!

Hope you are having a lovely day - It's beautiful here in So. Calif. today - comfortably cool and 'autumn-y".  Leaves are green (since we don't have much of a seasonal change here), but it still feels like fall.  Tomorrow is Halloween and we might even get some rain!

I am getting ready for my guild's biannual retreat to Saylor's Sandcastle at the beach.  SO looking forward to 4 days with fellow quilters.  Prepping for the stay is always a busy time here at serial quilter headquarters.  I am dithering between which projects to take with me.  Not that I lack for UFOs, just a question of which ones to bring.  I am planning on bringing a lot of applique projects, and doing all the edge-stitching on them, as well as one quilting project and a saturday sampler block if I feel the need to do some piecing.  My problem?  - Will those be enough, or should I bring more?  I don't want to end up twiddling my thumbs the last day or two, while projects languish at home.  Otoh, I don't want to overwhelm myself with projects packed in the car and never needing to be unpacked even.  Where is that balance of 'just right?'  Well, I have one week to figure it out...

WAYWO?

Escher in Bali

Here is the finished top:

Can't wait to see it quilted and done, but I'm happy with how it came out.  Love the tessellation.  Got the rows sewn together this morning before company came over.  

Escher Meets Bali

I am currently working on a quilt of tesselating houses...

It still needs more work - the rows need to be sewn together but this is essentially it.  It's not quite this pink - that pink background is actually a grey flannel, so the lavendar sky triangles should be bluer.  Still, I'm having a ball making it - keeping all the houses in line with their roofs and eaves has been a puzzle and a challenge to say the least. 

The pattern came from Craftsy and had so many errors in it that I found myself re-sewing many parts.  If you like it and go to Craftsy and look for it (it's called 'A Rainy Day in Mr. Escher's Neighborhood'), DO look at how half the houses are reversed, and so you need to sew the siding on the wide windows on the opposite side from the directions on those half the houses.  A design wall is ESSENTIAL for this quilt!!!

What are YOU working on?

At the Quilt Show

I attended two quilt shows last weekend.   On October 3rd, I went to Quilt Fest Palm Springs, a fun trip with a couple of girlfriends.  We drove down Thursday night, saw the show on Friday and drove home Friday afternoon.

I was VERY impressed with the quilts I saw there.  There were some amazing pieces of quilt artistry and craftsmanship.  I think my favorite was this Frazetta-esque quilt depicting a warrior protecting a lady from a dragon.  It was just stunning!

Also among my favorites was this hand-painted triptych of China:

Other beauties included:

I wish I had pictures of everyquilt there.... there were so many too beautiful not to include.  A fascinating collection of quilts from around the world were included.  It was fascinating to see the differences culture and available fabrics made to quilt design and 'look'. 

I came home Friday evening and took Saturday off to relax with friends.  On Sunday, I attended the Simi Valley Quilt Show, my guild's biennnial show.  Not as many vendors as Palm Springs of course, and not as many quilts, but no less beautiful for being smaller.  I got three ribbons at the show - Spotlight Awards given by the show's committee members on their favorite quilts.

What was more exciting even was that I got a call to bring one of my quilts back for the Weds. nite guild meeting.  I did, and was surprised and shocked to learn this quilt had won Best of Show (an award given based on viewer votes!)

I am just thrilled that people liked my quilt enough to vote for it as Best of Show... I was overwhelmed on Weds. night at the meeting.  I had to get up and talk about the quilt a bit, but I was so flustered, I'm not even sure I made a lot of sense.  Of course in hindsight, I thought of all sorts of things I should have and could have said. 

I think I'm done with quilt shows for a while... Pacific International Quilt show is coming up soon in Santa Clara, CA, but I think I'm gonna miss that one.  Much as I'd love to attend my first PIQS, I've been visiting a lot of shows of late and it I can tell you with much   surety that they are SO worth the time and money!

I would like to thank Chris P. for the photos of the Palm Springs show shown here.