Wednesday, December 29, 2010

"Shoji Garden"



I finally finished this last week. I saw a similar quilt when I was visiting my family in Sacramento in January/February. Went to a quilt show and fell in love with the quilt so I had to come home and make it. Wish I knew the designer of the quilt. I didn't use a pattern, just copied the visual.

I'd been collecting oriental fabrics forever....an affinity probably because my mother is Japanese. I made my mother a Grandmother's Fan quilt using orientals and the cream in the borders and sashing is left over from that quilt. This quilt is going to be a gift for my older sister.

I really disappointed myself with the quilting on this. I learned a valuable lesson...or shall I say lessons. One...don't be in a hurry (which I was) and two...stretch yourself and experiment. Being a relatively new longarm quilter I was afraid to mess up the quilt with stitching. I feel like I messed up the quilt anyway because I made the overall meander too large. I had the opportunity to make this quilt a spectacular quilt with custom stitching but was in too much of a hurry and afraid. Next time I "mess" up a quilt I want it to be because I didn't get the effect I wanted but knowing I tried to learn and do something new. Don't get me wrong, I still love the quilt and I know it will be greatly appreciated, but I also know what it could have been.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Has it been that long?

I knew it's been awhile since I blogged but when I looked at the date I couldn't believe almost a month has gone by! I won't go into all that's transpired since November. I'll just start with today. I ran an errand down to Salt Lake City and stopped by a great quilt store today (Quilts, Etc. in Sandy), one I hadn't been to before. Lo and behold they were having a sale on their fall and Christmas prints....60% off! Now tell me you could let that one go by?


This fabric wasn't on sale but I had to buy a few fat quarters for a project I'm working on. Will fill you in later once it's completed.



Had to buy some of this fabric. That diagonal will look great as a binding and the Fa la la...how great for a backing!

I have no idea what I'll do with this fabric but it was just too beautiful to pass. I'm a sucker for fabric with touches of metallic gold in it.



So...I decided I needed a tree skirt so I got to playing with some fat quarters I've had for a number of years. This photo was taken before I completed the round. For more photos go to the 15 minutes to play blog on my sidebar. It needs to be quilted and bound but I doubt that will happen before Christmas. It'll have to do for now! Wish the photo did justice to the fabric...I love the olive greens in some of the prints.




Just wanted to add this photo of one of my favorite ornaments. I bought it when I lived near Spokane, WA. It was made especially for a quilt store there, Pacific Crescent Quilt Shop. Sad to say I found it had gone out of business when I was in Spokane earlier this summer. I found my passion for quilting when I lived there due to some dear friends.