Trying to Play Catchup

Life has a way of throwing obstacles in your path, creating all types of setbacks as has been the case with my temporary absence in posting on this blog.   I  lost my Mom in April after a long and painful illness.  Her life transition has been a difficult one filled with much sadness and hurt.  But, I am slowly working my way back to some aspect of normalcy.

I had completely stopped sewing.  I just couldn't find the energy or brain power to work on anything much, but I have started to recover some and I am doing better each day.  I have a huge collection of Aboriginal and tribal-inspired fabrics mostly with large prints.  Like a lot of quilters, I can't stand to cut into my large prints because they get so chopped up that you can't see the intricate detail.  I have recently taken an interest in finding patterns that lend themselves to large prints.

In the first picture, I used Aboriginal prints.  It was hard to cut into them.  They are so beautiful and expressive.  Each Aboriginal print or drawing tells a story and this particular pattern allows you to see the design work.  It is based on the Intersection Quilt pattern from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.

My oldest grandgirl is turning 13 in a couple of weeks.  I wanted her to have a new quilt with lots of bright colors in celebration of her bright future.  I think the last one that I made for her was with the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" themed fabric.  Babies grow up so fast!  So I made the intersection quilt again with a couple of changes.  Actually, I think I sewed the rows together backwards...so much for creativity.  I really like this one, especially with the shades of lime green.  I am going to add a couple of coordinating borders to make it a bit larger.  I love this fabric and I think Smooch will too.

I also had a lot of black and white 2-1/2" strips so I whipped up this variation of the log cabin quilt. It turned out very nice.  It wasn't made for any particular person.  I just saw a quilt similar to this one at a show.  Liked it.  Had a thousand black and white strips along with all shades of lime green.  So, I just cut them up and made it from memory.  It was super easy to put together.  Now I need to find a nice backing for it.

These quilts are not on my WIP list.  They just happened.  I have much more to share, and I will post again soon.  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  

It "Has" Been a While...

But I haven't been laying around like a lazy couch potato.  I have been mostly shoveling snow from the walkway and scraping ice from the car windows.  But in between that time, I have been able to do a little sewing along with some other fun experiences.  First up - I participated in a Facebook group to create a mystery quilt by Gyleen Fitzgerald.  It was a five-part mystery using my existing scrap stash.  The mystery has ended and the final quilt revealed.  It is called, Odds, Ends, and Leftovers. The pattern can be found on Gyleen's website.  It was a lot of fun to make and instructions were easy to follow along.  While I used my scrap stash, I basically kept the color scheme to varying shades of the Mardi Gras colors,  purple, green and gold. I was surprised that I had soooo much of each color.  I didn't have to sneak and buy not one thing.  I renamed the quilt "Home for Mardi Gras."  The top is done.  I found a piece of backing fabric large enough to complete the back and it will soon be off to my friend Carrie for quilting.

Last week, my quilt buddies and I made our annual trek to Hampton, VA for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival.  Now, if you are a weather junkie, you know that we have been experiencing some rather strange weather on the east coast as well as in the Washington, DC area.  We usually look forward to getting away to Hampton because it gives us a break from the February cold.  But not this time.  While the forecast in Washington, DC called for a dusting to possibly 3 inches of snow, the Hampton Roads area got almost 12 inches of snow.  This was an anomaly for them and they were a bit overwhelmed.  But we persevered and made it through the weekend with late night sewing sessions, lots of eats and good friends.  I always look forward to this event.  Seeing all of the wonderful and creative quilts usually gives me encouragement, a jolt of creativity, and a sense of inspiration.  Here are a few photos of quilts at the show that were snapped by my friend Michelle Perkins.  She is a wonderful quilt artist and so inspiring.  Plus, she keeps me in line when I try to wimp out or have one of my moments.  She has created a line of patterns and I am proud of her.  Take a look at her website here.  I took the picture of the quilt inspired by Judy Niemeyer's Marine Compass.  It was made by Susie Jacobs from Lynchburg, VA.  This quilt is definitely on my quilt bucket list.

I wish the producers would create a CD of all of the quilts.  You just can't see everything.   A lot of the smaller shows have them and it just makes enjoying the quilts so much nicer.  I keep making the suggestion.  Maybe one day they will actually read them.  Thanks for hanging in there with me.