SPRING GARDENS

The Chattanooga Modern Quilt Guild had a Design Series for programs in 2015.  One of the blocks we were introduced to was a quarter log cabin.  The leader/designer called it the "L" block.

I had yards of Kona Green Apple fabric and some wonderful text fabric, Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda.  These two together made a big statement.

I am a gardener of sorts . . .  I do like raised beds.

Here is "Spring Gardens" using the quarter log cabin and LOTS of negative space.  These are my raised beds.

Some details that you might like:

Must have sun rays to get the garden growing.

Different size and shapes of the raised beds with paths around.

Lots of straight line quilting gives texture and emphasizes the "beds".

And a little binding surprise!

This piece measures approximately 36" square.

-sandi

FOR THE NURSERY

I don't use panels much in my quilting, but a friend asked me to do a wall hanging for her new baby's nursery.  She bought all the supplies on line and brought them to me.  

It all started with a Carousel panel. 

 I used three layers of batting under the carousel and the horses and one layer of batting under the whole piece.  That made the carousel and horses really stand out.

These pictures do not do it justice.





I added more borders and some quilting.

The finishing touch was adding eyelet to the outside edges.

It was a big hit!!  Mom is thrilled!

-sandi

QUILTING AT RETREAT

I love fall retreat.  This year the weather was great!!  It was very cold and crisp.  Just the kind of weather to keep you inside sewing with some wonderful friends.  

Most retreats I take way too many projects to work on and then I get very little finished.  This time I took a few projects and hoped to finish all of them.

Even though I took this project to retreat to quilt, that did not happen.  I had so much trouble with my thread.  My machine did not like the thread I chose so I brought it home and finished it.

This is a collaborative piece made with my buddies of SLKS.  We started with a block of our choosing.

I saw this pattern online and loved it.  So I took out my paper and pencil and began to draw what I saw.

We passed our blocks around our group each month and each time a new element was added until it was completed.

Finally I have it quilted and bound.

This is the second project I took to Retreat. I started with these scraps that I found in the trash bin:

There were enough of them to make some improv blocks that turned into this pillow.  I will surprise my friend by giving these to her and remind her that they are "trash to treasure".

My friend sent me a picture of the pillow on her bed with the matching quilt!

Other projects that I worked on included this Convergence by another friend of mine.  She wasn't happy with the block so I worked on it a little and then quilted it for her.  She can now bind it.

I did some other blocks, but I cannot show them yet.  Will blog them later.

                             -sandi

NEW CURTAIN

I like to make home dec items using my quilting skills.  Recently we were discussing Gwen Marston's technique at my Modern Quilt Guild.  Gwen makes these small pieces of works that she calls sketches.  Sometimes they are complete in themselves and at other times they lead to a larger piece of work.

I love the rainbow colors and I use Kona solids a great deal.  I love how the quilting shows up so well on the solid fabric.

I decided to make a sketch piece using Kona medium grey for the background.  I called this little piece:  Roy G. Biv #1

This was a piece to practice on and then I increased the size and changed the design a little bit and made a larger piece called Roy G. Biv #2.

This became the curtain for the small window (24" x 36") in my Powder Room.

The two pieces hang together.

The room is so small it makes it difficult to get a really good picture.

I love how this looks in the daytime with the sun shining through it.

The recycled stained glass window pane hanging above it has the same colors.  The yellow in the ellipse does not photograph very well.

My DH and I found a stack of these windows about 25 years ago on Factor's Walk in Savannah, GA.  We bought several and have enjoyed them in our homes over the years.

-sandi

CLAMSHELLS

Today should have been spent cleaning up my studio and organizing the projects that need to be ready when I go to Retreat next week, but, instead, I got a little sidetracked.

A while back I made some clam shells.  They were cut on the Accu Go machine at my local quilt shop.  I put them up on the design wall.  After looking at them for a few days I decided to make a pillow.

It was easier to applique the clam shells on the pillow top so I faced the clam shells with the same fabric as the background.  This made them a little thicker and the background blended better.

So the top was made and I made the quilt sandwich and pin basted it.  That has been lying on my worktable for several weeks...

 

Today I was trying to get projects ready to take to Retreat.  I thought I would finish this pillow top at the retreat so I set out to get the back pieces cut so I could sew it all together next week.

One thing led to another and voila! I had a pillow top made.

Organic straight line quilting in the top part of the pillow:

Serpentine quilting in the lower part;

After assembling it into a pillow top I tossed it in the washer and dryer to get the "crinkle" look.

I really love this!!

-sandi