Wednesday, September 25, 2013

What's Cooking Here?

Just as I was about to post this my husband stopped by the house and I was cleaning the living room and he asked me "what quilt are you basting?" because he knows that I usually only ever clean so that I can use the floor or space for quilting! We laughed a bunch about that just now. I figured you'd relate.

I free-motion quilted for the first time on the long arm and this is the result so far. I completely went into it without any attachment to the outcome and so far and I can't believe how nice it looks! Since its a bear's claw quilt, my husband suggested leaves and berries cause its what they eat. Really cool to learn to quilt on the long arm. I didn't finish which is a bummer to have to take it off the frame but I am going to do some walking foot quilting on the bear's claws themselves, then go back down and reload it upside own and go through the whole thing one more time to be done. How fun is quilting?!

 


 This is the result of the scrap busting I did last week. I ended up with 50 12 1/2 inch slabs and used most for this full size top. I used a cool green chambray for the sashing. (Thanks to a blog inspiration for this design, which I cannot now find- If you have an idea, pls lmk cause I'd love to credit) I think this one might get basted with wool batting and get given to my 20 year old who has chosen to rent out a basement for his room this winter!


 Another little top I made with some scrap slabs that I made last week.

And last but not least... I am having a Jackie Gering week! I took her hexie class a few weeks ago and this is the result of that class. A very cute hexie baby quilt with some Healther Ross prints which always melt me cause they're so cute.

 And a close up of the quilting that I did with the walking foot.
I also started doing Jackie's Craftsy class and ended up with this Love Knot top made with "stitch and flip" triangles. I guess now with these new tops I really need to get basting!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Arts in the Schools!

I just got home from my fourth full day in the last two weeks teaching lower and upper elementary kids! Something I have not done for a very long time. And this time I get to bring my sewing machine! I was invited by the Arts Director to be a teaching artist this year for Moving Arts EspaƱola and La Tierra Charter School. I have known many amazing folks to have this honor over the years and now it is my turn! How cool is that?

I can't really post pics of all the kids cause their folks might not like that without permission but here are some pics of some of us and our piles of fabric that we played with. Each child is making a personal flag with cotton fabric and thread to represent who they are. What an amazing experience this has been so far. Thank you La Tierra Charter School!


 I brought some quilts in to show the kids. I showed them diamonds, squares, rectangles, half-square triangles, 60 degree triangles, and hexagons!


Miss Josphine, Seemstress and fellow school mom sewing away





My neighbor and her flag



My guy is on the far right - they're choosing their background colors



I will most definitely update with some flag finishes cause these kids and their flags are beautiful!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

What's going on in this sewing room?

Phew. Wednesday. First off I have to show off the finished Morning Star Quilt for the La Tierra Charter School Raffle. This is my second FMQ and for this one I did all over swirls. I am getting the hang of it. My stitches are finally looking regular! It feels SO liberating to FMQ at home.

I rented the long arm at a LQS a few weeks ago for the first time and this is my practice piece.


 I am going back down to use the long arm next week to do the Bear Grease Quilt that has been waiting to be quilted for many many months and it is most certainly time.



Lots of things going on here in my corner of the world. I LOVE both the Material Obsession books and have done several quilts from them. Here is a 60 degree triangle quilt from the second book getting ready for piecing. The top and back are done and ready to be basted. I put my favorite grasshopper print on the back. Yummy cute for snuggling. :)


 I have made almost 40 peace cranes this week and did my first crazy pieced scrap crane for Mateo who of course loves it. Doing all these cranes this month really made my think a lot about old friends, hard work, and relentless prayers. No Nukes.



Here's what the floor looks like. SO much fun to play with scraps of fabric.

87 peace cranes sewn so far. When I'm sewing cranes I am thinking of the Hibakusha (survivors and decedents of survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and I think of my dear friend and mentor, Corbin Harney.  I also think about my dear big hearted husband. <3

A complete scrap bust happened here this week because of some rearranging that happened. Here's what the floor looked like for a while.

I ended up building over 50 12 1/2 slabs that are ready to be pieced with some solid sashing etc. Feels so good to use up all those little precious and not cheap pieces of fabric!


Last but not least is a celebratory photo of the birth room that we built. As a midwife a birth center is something I always wish we had in our community here like they have in Taos. Anyway- we don't have money to build a birth center right now but we all rallied together and renovated a room in the clinic of a local midwifery practice. It turned out so beautiful and I put morning star quilts on the wall and on the bed. I am so excited for mamas to use the space and so proud!


K. Well. That was my 20 minutes on-line today. Nice to see all your beautiful work out there. Please keep the inspiration coming. Happy quilting!