Twins?!

Hello Everyone,

I have been a little delinquent on blogging lately, as I was away in sunny Arizona visiting Mom and Dad.  Although, I have been keeping up on your posts! 

Anyway, before I left I finished the second in my series of two quilts. Some of you might remember this quilt pictured below from this post.

Well, I finished the second quilt and gave it to her sister! She was delighted. The quilts are sort of like twins, fraternal ones. They look alike, but are not. Different colors and quilting. They are unique. Here is a close up of the quilting on the second.  I used a pattern called A-mazing.

Here are two views of it on her bed. It looks like another PB Teen catalog photo shoot.

I really love the results and I think the girls are pleased. My friend (their mom) was also pleased.

Since I have been home it has been a little difficult to get back into the groove. Vacation really can tire you out. It is fun not doing the normal daily things, then you have to come home and get back into the normal routine, difficult.

I have been working on some other quilty things. They will be in my next post. I have also updated my gallery here. Check it out some great inspiration. For those of you who are involved in the Black and White Quilt Challenge, don't forget I created this Flickr group. So you can post your pictures there too!

Oh, one last thing, if you haven't checked this out, please do. I was a guest blogger on the Quilting Gallery, you can read the whole post here.  Who knows you might find out something about me that you didn't know already!

Until next time,

Twins?!

Guest Blogging

Hello Everyone,

Just checking in, I am on my way home from sunny AZ today and found out that my Guest Blogging Post, on the Quilting Gallery site, is posted today. So go check it out if you would like to learn a little more about me and my quilting!

See you all when I return! Until then, have a great day and

Guest Blogging

Just Playin'

Hello Everyone,

I hope that you are all having a great week! I do want to say that all my thoughts and prayers go out to all of you in Australia. Please stay safe.

I know many of you are getting ready for Valentine's Day and so am I. A little more low key here though. Cards and gifts were made. All done! 

I have also been playing with a new die that I received for my AccuQuilt. I just love this one, it has nice gentle curves and gives a fantastic result. Here is what I have done.

First, I chose black and white fabric that both had wonderful, brightly colored dots all over them. I have an extensive "dot" collection. I collect this fabric wherever I go. Then I cut equal amounts of each of the fabrics into the two shapes, shown below.

Great so far! Love them! You can see the shapes, when cut, have little notches to match the centers of each. This is fantastic when you are ready to sew.

Once I had them all cut, it took about 10 minutes, I started to sew the units together then placed them on the design wall. This was the first mix I had. I lived with it for a few days, tweaking it here and there. 

Then finally settled on this design. These are all sewn together! It is now a quilt top waiting for me to quilt it! I love it!

This one is for a friend, but I think I will be making one for myself too!

In other news, you can now view my February Newsletter online here. I have some wonderful links in the newsletter, so go check it out.  Also, my gallery has been updated again.  Check in the sidebar, on my site, under recent additions.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Until next time,

Just Playin'

Outside My Box

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday I had a fantastic day. I took a class from Louisa Smith. She has several books out, here most popular being Strips and Curves. She was also on Simply Quilts and now has also been seen on The Quilt Show. 

I found her to be an excellent teacher. I learned a lot about color and composition and the way they can affect the quilt. It was a wonderful learning experience and if you ever have the chance to take a class with her, you should.

Anyway, now for the out of my box portion. I normally don't work with the colors in the following pictures, but for the benefit of my hubby, I did. He doesn't seem to like brights or 30's. Even though I don't work with these colors normally, I do like how it is turning out. So onto the pictures.

 I had to do pre-class work. I had to make more strata. They had to go from darks to lights. I chose batiks. Here are some of the darks.

A little punch of color, also dark.

The lights.

Here is a picture of one repeat of the strata. This is all completely sewn.  We had to make it at least 54" wide.

Here is the strata with two repeats and it is about 60" wide.

After laboriously cutting, designing, redesigning, etc., this is what I had ended up with at the end of the day. 

It is still on the design wall, all rolled up. I think it will need a little more tweaking. I know it definitely needs more lights at the bottom.  I am one of those people who has to live with it on the design wall for a while before I sew it together. I have to love it.

Anyway, I have also been busy with customer quilts and have added some to my gallery. Go check them out, you can find the most recent in the right sidebar (recent additions). My newsletter, should be out this week as well. Then we are hoping to be off to some warmer weather. Cross your fingers!

Until next time,

Outside My Box