Some of the other quilts I've finished....

Thanks for all the great suggestions of flower trails (see my post about tulips ).  A Maidenhair Fern asked me about the quilt in the header of my blog.   I thought I'd share some of the quilts I've made over the last couple of years.  (and check out her blog...she has some beautiful quilts and posts).

I made this one back in 2011

This quilt was my entry (and winner!!) to the 2015 Pantone Color of the Year - Marsala 

So many quilts....

This was made for a dear friend who had a crazy accident...but healed up perfectly (it was probably the gift of the quilt that magically healed her...)

And then babies were born...

This was for my niece who loves giraffes - and her gorgeous new daughter.

This was for a friend who is battling a terrible disease...but she's a warrior!

This was my Riley Blake fabric challenge entry in 2015.

But wait ...there were more...

This was for my daughter - I give her a pillow each year.  Can't you just hear the Christmas carols...

And still more............

This was another challenge.  It has writing on the bright green sashing that is a quote from Salvador Dali'.  "Never fear perfection, you'll never reach it."  What it meant to me was don't sweat the small stuff - enjoy the process and you'll get better at it as you practice.  So I quilt a lot....

This is a really snuggly quilt I made on which I finally attempted matchstick quilting.  I love that type of design for quilting - but it takes f o r e v e r to finish...

 

And I liked the style of applying the fabric to the quilt blocks so much - I made another one.

The blocks are made by appliquéing the tiny fabric bits down WHEN YOU QUILT IT!!!   That's like skipping a whole step!!!

I baste (just barely) the tiny pieces on and then while matchstick quilting - they magically get sewn on permanently.  I love the texture of the quilting and the raw edge of the fabric pieces.

What have you worked on that you haven't shown us?

I love LOBSTAH!

So here's my latest project.  I wanted to create something modern looking and using three colors.  I'm in this quilt gang... the Quilt Sluts (southern ladies under tremendous stress) and each year we meet for a week at the ocean.  We have a theme (Mardi Gras this year) and some quilty challenges.  

The Paint Chip Challenge is what I'm focused on right now.  One of us went to the local big box hardware store  and nabbed a boat load of paint chip samples. At our monthly soiree, a ceremonial paper bag was passed around and each person pulled 3 chips out.  You could toss one chip and reselect - but then you had to live with that choice.  I was INCREDIBLY lucky...I got turquoise, aqua, and orange.  They have no idea the creature of creativity they unleashed....

This is the back side of the lobster - he still has the fusible web silicone sheet attached.

I had to let the ideas and colors simmer for a couple of months and just as I suspected.... the inspiration was found!  Some random thing I saw made me think - Orange +Lobster.  And then of course, the blues took care of water.  

I drew out the lobster on paper (many, many times) and then transferred that onto clear plastic.  I picked up an old school projector many years ago (quilting tools come from many sources) so then I projected that onto my wall.  I was able to enlarge it to a size I thought I'd like (he's about 36 inches tall).  

From there I sewed 1.5 inch strips of orange fabric and recut and resewed.  I wound up with gorgeous tiny little squares of scrappy orange fabric to use for my lobster.

After that...I struggled with how to create a background that wouldn't be terribly distracting.  Even though I wound up making 4.5 inch HST's, I think it doesn't read too busy.  I added the strips of solid to the side and bottom to create a more modern look.

I've only got him pinned on right now but I've got fusible web on the orange so I"ll fuse all of that down next.  I think I have my quilting design in my head...but I am a pretty organic quilter so that may all change by the time the needle hits the fabric.  Hoping to start quilting in a day or two...  

And for the record, how do you pronounce lobster?  I'm from the south - so "lob - stir" is how I say it.

Linking up with several fabulous Linky parties  - check them all out!  Here are some of the quilts in progress I loved this week:

Valentine quilt with no name

Gooseberry Secret Garden

Rowing along

No more bunny ears

Maryse Makes Things

Quilty Habit

So did I tell you I won this year?

For the past few years, two fabulous bloggers have hosted an on-line quilt challenge inspired by the Pantone Color of the Year.  2015 was the year of Marsala.  It's kind of a deep wine with some brown elements.   http://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year 

It wasn't a color I've used before but my competitive spirit didn't let that get in the way.  I purchased a nice variety of solids (Kona Cotton, Michael Miller Cotton Couture, Oakshott Cottons) and started laying them out.  I had a simple design in mind but kept feeling like it needed a shot in the arm of color.  After auditioning TONS of options...  I landed on Kaffe Fassett Stripes.  The perfect compliment.

I loved the texture of the marsala blocks and the brightness the stripes added.  My quilting was fairly simple but dense on the marsala parts - just linear bits on the stripes.  Of course, I had to make sure Ping approved...  She did - and then I felt satisfied. 

 Anne Sullivan, @playcrafts on IG and Adrianne ,http://www.onthewindyside.co.nz and @adrianneonthewindyside on IG, are the lovely ladies that host the event.  Check them out on their websites /IG - they are extremely talented and equally as inspiring.  

The past colors were Emerald Green (my all time favorite), Radiant Orchid, and Tangerine.  The new color of the year is announced in December.  I can hardly wait....

I'm going to start this like you know what I'm talking about...

This is something that drives my dear husband crazy. I finish telling a story I started the day before...another chapter comes to mind and I start rattling it off. After 37 years of marriage - he should be used to this by now. I think I make perfect sense and he should be able to catch the drift quickly and go with it... So that's how I'm starting with you... Don't worry, I have FULL confidence that you'll go with the flow and understand. completely.

I'll be posting to the blog about once a week but you'll find more frequent posting on IG or Flickr.  I love Flickr...and while I love IG, too, Flickr is where I made so many new friends in such far away places.  IG is a little more fast paced and I think the friendship part is just a tad harder to maintain.

My blog roll is the list of quilters that have made an impact on my quilt evolution.  If I'm not obsessively pinning on Pinterest....I'm stalking IG, Flickr, or these blogs.  Check them out - they are spectacular artists.

So I start this little beauty back in June - kind of thinking about how nice it would be to have a patriotic themed quilt for the living room. I used a very cheerful Kona cotton background (Bahama Blue) and a very tangy red (Pomegranate) for the sashing. The colorful bits were tons of scraps I obsessively collect (seriously - I've had to show strenuous restraint from keeping scraps smaller than 1" x 1"...). I chose bright colors, mostly in the blue family.

This is just the cool bucket.  The warm color bucket was on my table...

I cut 16 inch blocks, laid scraps in a pleasing order, then basted them on to the block.  And by basting...I just barely caught the edge of some of these.  I just wanted them on there well enough not be knocked off by my devilish cat or blown off when the ceiling fan was in airplane mode.  Once I was happy with the order, I put together the top.  I could NOT wait to start quilting it.

And then...I saw the ad for the Handi Quilter feet.  Well....let's just scream SOLD on that!  I've been using a Handi Quilter Sweet 16 for a few years and can't say enough good things about it (my other car is a Bernina 440 - which you can't rip from my cold, dead, kung fu grip).  The addition of their new Echo feet and the Glide foot was a huge thrill for me and I couldn't WAIT till they arrived.  In fact, I halted production on this quilt until I had that Glide foot in my hot little hands...  I just knew it would make a difference in the ease of sewing this particular quilt.

Ohhh - I was so right.  Got the foot at the beginning of October and finished this quilt up in about 3 hours.  The Glide foot allowed me to smoothly fly right over all the edges of the scraps with such ease.  I machine bind my quilts for the most part so onto binding I went.

Finished it last week and tossed it into the washer and dryer.  The detail of this quilt is in my blog photo above.  I LOVE the crinkle and am always waiting anxiously for it to come out of the dryer....   And Waaa -la.... here it is.  It's VERY snuggly.