Thanks

I so appreciate all the comments about my black and white liberated quilt.  I have been very busy this week.  My son and his wife went on a cruise so we have the grandsons.  I have been able to sew a little bit but not much.  This weekend I am going to devote myself to making more liberated sawtooth and see what happens from there.  I got some more of the black from my local quilt shop,  Cottonfields.

I ordered this cool book.  I found it on some other blog and honestly I can't remember what blog.  It is a great book with tons of ideas for modern quilting.

 

I like making log cabin blocks and it seems like I am in sort of a black and white period.

I made this little star the other day.  My aunt is really into 9 patches and stars are a great combination for 9 patches.

Liberated Confusion

One finish this week. For a friend of mine whose daughter is expecting her first child.


























Last Friday a friend of my cousin called and said Hancock had a dollar table. WOOHOO!! Elvis fabric for a dollar a yard. Notice I didn't tell anyone until I had gotten all I wanted!













I have discovered this last week that being liberated at times is confusing and definitely not easy. I put together this black and white quilt top last winter but never finished. I was imagining a sort of piano key border. My cousin's friend has a long arm machine and offered to do a quilt for me. I started thinking, how about spiky sawtooth. What do you think?


















I thought spiky sawtooth at the bottom and top and then make a border of stripes. I cut some strips and put them together. This DID NOT speak to me at all.

















At this point I am very frustrated and feel like I have wasted time putting together a border that I am not going to use. I decided to go to the master of liberated quilting (Gwen Marston). I had been using her Liberated Quilting 2 as a guide for the spiky sawtooth. I randomly turned to a page and saw this sampler!

















Talk about a AHA moment! This is it. I will make more spiky sawtooth and put a star at the corners. This is just a random block at the corner. Really another idea I tried.
What do you think?


















I love liberated quilting but honestly following a pattern and knowing what you are going to do is easier at times. I also feel like I wasted a couple of afternoons of precious sewing time looking at options that didn't work. I also don't have quite enough of the black and white print so

Rainy Afternoon

Mother Nature played a trick on us! She made us get excited and think it was spring. This week it has turned back to winter. We had cold rain today and it is predicted for tomorrow and maybe Friday. What a good excuse to hide away in the sewing room. My grandsons were very cooperative today and I got to spend a couple of hours sewing. I am in a very liberated mood.

I am always interested in how others work so I thought I would show the progression of this project. I am thinking it will be a wall hanging. I have not done a wall hanging before. Do you have quilts hanging all over your house?

This was sort of the beginning. I pulled out some scraps that I had sewn together and some houses that I made and some that I made over the weekend.



















I added a little bit to the left side.




















I added my little star that I did over the weekend.




















I realized I would need something to fill in so I used one of Gwen Marston's suggestions and made some sawtooth. I like to use similar colors for a subtle combination.





















Somehow I did not like the house on the bottom right so I exchanged it for some stars and sort of flipped the right side.





















So what do you think? What ever you think it was tons of fun to do. I love love working in the liberated style. As Gwen says you just work it out as you go along. That is truly what I did with this piece.

One, Two, Three, Flow

Flow! What is Flow? Here is a wonderful article on creative flow: http://zenhabits.net/creative-flow/. I love the blog Zen Habits. This article has wonderful suggestions for encouraging creative flow. One suggestion is setting a time limit. Victoria at Bumble Beans started a group called 15 Minutes of Play which goes right along with these ideas.

I was definitely in the Flow this weekend. I sewed a binding on three, yes three quilts. Including the quilt I made in Texas last year in the workshop with Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran. I hand quilted in with liberated fans!
















This is a disappearing nine patch that is off to a friend in Indiana. I love the back.
















This is my Rhymes in the Cabin quilt made for my daughters manager.
















I am going to finish these bindings tonight during the Carolina-Kentucky game. Maybe I won't be as nervous if I have something to do with my hands!! We love those Tarheels!!!

I finished putting this one together. I love the way it turned out.

























Here is a close up and the fabric for the back.





























My creative juices were really flowing. Here are some houses I put together out of scraps. I love putting scraps together but I am not sure what to do with them. How do you use your scrap blocks? Wall hangings, in a bigger quilt, what do you do with them?
















I made this tiny star. I really enjoy making them and they make a big impact but they can be tedious because you are working with such tiny pieces. Sometimes my hands don't work as well as they used to.

One more thing GO HEELS!!!

Moving On

We had a great time in Chicago. We visited the Field Museum and my grandson got to see the skeleton of the big dinosaur Sue. It is very interesting flying with a 4 year old. He was very good but you sure have to be patient.



















I am getting back into the swing of things. I am working on a quilt for the grandson of a friend of mine. He is due in May, so hopefully I will get it done. My inspiration is from Lady Havratine. Go look at her tutorial. It is great, goes fast and I love the way it looks.
































I finished hand quilting my Texas quilt last night and I have started on quilting my other grandsons quilt. I am doing the big stitch. Lori at the closest quilt shop to me quilts this way. It goes faster and looks pretty good.



















Please visit Lori's website. She has a great quilt shop and an online shop. She does it herself so the service is very personal.

I also have a very good friend who is doing children's clothes. You have to look at this site. She is a very talented young woman. The dress is so so cute! She is trying to get started so please go look. We drop the kids off at preschool and walk in the mornings. Well, as many as we can. The weather is finally cooperating.

We are all into basketball this time of year. Cheering on our beloved Tarheels. If you don't know who to pull for then pull for them. They have overcome some adversity this year and are really playing as a team.

Thanks so much for all the kind words from my blog friends.

Off to the Windy City.

Off to the Windy City in the morning. I am taking my 4 year old grandson. I love to see people's expression when I tell them that just the two of us are going. It is either "Have you lost your mind?" or " That will be great fun!"

My daughter lives in Valparasio, Indiana. We are going to visit her.





















This is what we saw when we went in June! What kind of city lets dinosaurs walk around everywhere!! We are going into the city to the Field Museum on Saturday. My grandson is very excited about seeing Sue the Tyrannosaurus Rex.


















Does anyone know of any wonderful quilt shops in that area? I might be able to persuade my daughter to let me have a few minutes in one.

Thanks also for the condolences on my mother's death.

Changes

I haven't posted in a long time because my mother died in late January. After Christmas her health declined and she stopped eating. We had Hospice and they were so helpful.



















She was a beautiful person.
















The last months were difficult for mother but Hospice made it so much easier for all of us. I am comforted by a song that my aunt told me about. The Far Side Banks of Jordan by Alison Krauss.

And I'll be waiting on the far side banks of Jordan
I'll be waiting drawing pictures in the sand
And when I see you coming I will rise up with a shout
And come running through he shallow waters reaching for your hand.

As I was at my mothers bedside I am certain that my father was waiting for her and came running when he saw her.