Maybe I Need an Intervention...

My husband and I collect quite a few things... antique clocks, pottery, postcards, thimbles, majolica... to name a few.  It's something we have enjoyed since before we were married.  

 I also happen to love pincushions.  I never really thought of this as a obsession collection because I use them everyday.  As quilters, we know that stitching involves a lot of pins and needles.  And we also know that we need to have a receptacle for these items at our fingertips at all times.  So have pincushions in several locations throughout my studio and also other places throughout the house. 

It wasn't until I gathered them together for this post that I thought.. well maybe I have the teensy tiniest obsession....

Most of my pincushions I have made myself.  Here are the wool ones.  The strawberry on the lower right is one of my favorites and sits next to my sewing machine. 

Some have been given to me by friends.  Love the shoe fabric in the one on the left.  The one on the right was given to me by a girlfriend who went to England.  It is designed after an antique cushion from Cornwall and has a beautiful brocade fabric covering it. 

These two wonky patterns use bright modern fabrics.  The long narrow one on the right is great for small applique pins. (See, I really can justify having so many pincushions!)

Some are made with reproduction fabrics and vintage lace.  I hand quilted the mini hexagon cushion, it seemed appropriate.  The little courthouse steps cushion is great to tuck into a travel stitching bag since it is so small. 

This little chicken pincushion was made from batiks.  Her little tail has seen better days!

I even have a small collection of antique pin cushions.  That little red dog pin cushion was my maternal grandmother's.  She was an amazing seamstress, but not a quilter. 

So after seeing a beautiful dresden plate pincushion on Instagram made by Hilda at Every Stitch...well what do you think happened? 

By the way, Hilda is a phenomenal quilter from Australia.  You really should stop by her blog, her work is amazing. 

And when I couldn't decide on what color to make my dresden plate pincushion... I made a red one too...

Okay maybe an intervention is needed...

I will be slow stitching today on this sweet dresden plate which will eventually become another pin cushion... what can I say?  Send in the intervention team. 

So what do you collect?

If you would also like to make this little beauty you can find a tutorial over at Sunny Day Supply blog. 

Happy Stitching!

Deb

Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL - Round 3

I am so happy that I was able to catch up with the third round of the Gwennie Inspired Medallion QuiltAlong.  Yay!  

Round 3 was Log Cabins.  I thought.. heck, this should be fairly easy...  After all I had made a liberated log cabin quilt.  Uh-Huh.. then the design gremlins decided to mess with me.  

 Here is a photo of my design wall at one point in this process.  It seems the more I tried, the harder it got to reach a decision.  There are about 6 or 7 different options being contemplated here.  At this point I was thinking of naming this quilt "A Hot Mess" because that is what it was looking like.  

This is my sewing table when I was trying to decide on what kind of log cabin block to make.  I have a lot of orphan blocks... LOL.

I finally decided on a block with a traditional black and cream toile in the center, surrounded with some brighter modern and traditional fabrics. The toile seems to calm it down and adds a element of sophistication to the design.  At least that is what my gut was telling me. So I went with it!

 Here is my Gwennie Inspired Medallion quilt thus far.  I decided to set the blocks on point with a gray and pink polka dot fabric.  Measures 36" square. 

The blocks were made with the liberated log cabin design.

Love these color combinations. Such fun!

Last weekend my girlfriend Dawn and I want to the Quilt Odyssey quilt show in Hershey, PA.  We decided to make it a 'girls weekend' since her husband was away.  Here are some of the fabrics I couldn't resist. A mix of modern and traditional, of course. 

I also picked up these beauties.  Aren't they luscious??  Larger prints.  Can't wait to use them.

So now I am waiting to see what Round 4 will be in the Gwennie Inspired Medallion QAL.  I will be linking up with everyone to show off Round 3!  Check out the other quilts here.

Happy Stitching!

Deb

Under My Needle Lately

I feel like I have really been so far out of the quilting and blogging loop lately.  

We have been focused on other things: planning, preparing, family visiting, etc. for my father-in-law's funeral.  It was a beautiful service where both of my in-laws were finally buried together. It was so nice to have our family together since we all live so far from each other, while sad circumstances brought us together, it was really hard to see them leave.  

In between, I have been doing some stitching....

I decided it was time to work on some bindings for quilts that are almost done!

This is the binding going on the Liberated Log Cabin quilt. The machine quilter did a great job.  I love all the colors in this one!  It was a lot of fun to make.. but even better to git 'er done!

Since I had cleared off my work table to square up the Stacks quilt. I thought it was a good opportunity to do some more trimming and bindings.

This is the Cake Stand or Lil' Baskets quilt.  Another great job by the machine quilter. This quilt measures 70" x 70".  It will look great on our family room couch this winter!

Finally, this quilt, called French Roses, was started in... ummm.. almost embarrassed to say... 2008.  Don't you think it's time to get this one done!!??  It was machine quilted about a year ago. The flower shapes are all raw edges.  It should add a nice dimension when it is washed and those edges fray a bit. 

A bias cut pink and green stripe for the binding will look great.  It definitely needs to be finished and on a bed. 

I definitely have plenty of binding to sew down now...  I wonder how long it takes to hand stitch down 848 inches of binding? :-)

Happy Stitching,

Deb

Summer Break

I have taken a bit of a break from blogging the last few weeks.  In fact I have been staying off the computer at home (no such luck at work!!) pretty much.  But I wanted to get back into the swing of things and show you one of the projects I have been working on in my 'blog silence'. LOL

So...... what is this you ask?

Here is the start of some liberated star blocks I have been making out of  Anna Maria Horner fabrics.. along with others in my stash.

The liberated star blocks are fun!  They come from Liberated Quiltmaking II by Gwen Marston.  No templates, no matching points - just FUN!

What is really exciting is that with the large funky Horner prints it is hard to tell exactly what the blocks will look like until they are done. In a few cases I realized that there was not enough contrast.... but no worries!  It's all good!!

This is a little table topper I made out of just four of the blocks.  Not sure what I will do with all the others......  but they are addictive!!!  Like chocolates... you never know what you are going to get!

 

 

On a more serious note.  Thoughts and prayers to the people of The Netherlands and their recent loss.  The world mourns with you.

 

Deb

Liberated Log Cabin Update

I  have not been blogging much lately.. just way too busy at work.  Work just gets in the way of  quilting - way too much! LOL.  But I have made some progress on my Liberated Log Cabin quilt that I wanted to share!

So I started out by laying out the rows to get the best balance of color, pattern, etc. I was trying not to 'overthink' this... Lucy helped to distract me. :-)

She helped ALOT.....

We finally decided on a layout that she was happy with...

Here is the completed top on the guest room bed.  (note the little ears at the top of the bed.... that's Gracie!)  I have been trying to decide if I need to add a border.  Border? No Border? Border? YES!  I think I am going to add a scrappy border of some of the same fabrics in the top.

Gracie finally got bored with my decision process and just went back to sleep!

 

Now, wait until you see what I did with all those scraps I trimmed off those blocks.....

 

Next time!

 

Happy Stitching,

 

Deb