Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

For Kaite

because she said "pretty please"!

These blocks will be sent to Australia for Kaite's flood relief quilts.  I have been itching to be involved ever since the horrible news of the devastating floods.  Once I got started, it was hard to stop.  I got 14 blocks done in 4 hours on Friday night.  I finished 11 more yesterday.  These are so much fun and fast to make.  I'm using up fabric that has been in the stash for a very long time!  Do you see the Debbie Mumm chickens and crows above?  I'm sure they've been in the stash for at least 10 years.  It feels good to pass it along and this block pattern is just wonderful for mixing up the scraps.  

Why would I send blocks half way around the world?  Our visit to Sydney two years ago was so amazing that I can't wait to see the country again.  We didn't make it to Queensland last time, but hope to next time.  I also have relatives living on the Gold Coast.  While they were not directly affected by the floods, I'm sure they have many friends and neighbors who are.  Two years ago I sent Project Improv blocks to Australia after the devastating fires near Melbourne.  It just feels right to do this.  

Contemporary Woven Boro

I'm taking a new class with Jude Hill right now, called Contemporary Woven Boro.  We are learning new ways to weave cloth, including some tricks you see here.  How did the hand dyed green get in there?  It's called mosaic weaving and is lots of fun.  More to come.  I'm late getting started, but have some more things to try, including a woven heart. 

AAQI in the Spotlight

Well, this is my third AAQI quilt of the year all ready to go.  I noticed that there aren't a whole lot of quilts on the site that would appeal to young boys.  I've had this vehicle fabric for a long time and have been itching to use it.  I love this one a lot.  It's going to be hard to send it away, but I'm committed!

I also said I'd show photos of the two I bought.  The one above has such pretty stitching and will be a really nice autumn accent.  The one below just caught my eye immediately.  It has a little story.  It's called Pine for Jim and was made by Jim's wife in memory of him.  You see, they owned a Christmas tree farm in Maryland before he was taken by Alzheimer's.  This one will be a perfect addition to our holiday decorations this year.

Once again, I urge you to contribute to this great organization by making or buying a quilt this year.  It would really be something to wipe out this dreadful disease!

Can't Help Myself!

I'm using up every last scrap of this fabric.  I hardly ever buy several fabrics from a collection to use together, but this one has inspired me to keep going.  After this there is one last project with it and it will be almost all gone.  The postcard is for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show's Wish Upon a Card fundraiser and the Love quilt is for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  I've added a button for AAQI in the sidebar and a category for it as well.  Just recently the AAQI has launched a Quilt-A-Month club, which I'm a part of.  It starts in February and members pledge to make or buy a quilt for/from AAQI once a month for 6 months.  I'm well on my way with the three I've made already.  The third will be a post for another day!  I'd love to have some of you join me in this endeavor.

Quilt!

Once I got going with those fabrics, I guess I couldn't stop!  This little quilt will be donated to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show's Small Wonders Challenge.  There are prizes for this challenge, but mostly it's a fundraiser for the quilt show and the Sisters Park and Rec District.

I had a lot of fun picking through the bits and pieces left over from the previous quilts.  There are still a couple of other works in progress with this fabric.

More words too.  I've been trying all sorts of letters and I think the Q is the most difficult so far.  This is the second one I did.  It took some concentration to get the corners to match up right on the x part.  More later!

Fun and Funky Vest #2

I like vest #2 even better than the first.  I like the fabrics more, but also I used a lightweight thread to stitch over the patches and it's just a bit softer as a result.  I also altered the shape of the front corners, making a style that looks a bit better on me.

The main fabric comes in a panel style print with that design in a square shape.  I had to jigger the fabric a bit to make it work as the back of the vest  but you'd never know there's a seam along one side.

My machine quilting skills have improved a lot lately and it's partly due to the quilting on this vest.  I enjoyed following along with the print which is good practice.  More soon.  I've got so many projects going, just need to stop working on them long enough for a photo!

Hope and Joy

This is my shop sample for my class I will teach in April at QuiltWorks.  I'll be teaching from Tonya's Ricucci's new book, Word Play Quilts.  This is an idea directly from her projects and seems a great way to introduce folks to making letters.  It actually took quite a lot of concentration to make my letters so straight!  I am much better at the wonky.  I do love this collection from Alexander Henry though- called Larkspur.  Love these birds!

While I was at it, I took the leftover letter strips and made a mini HOPE quilt.  This one will also be a shop sample, but will eventually be donated to the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative.  Tonya mentions this organization in her book and I plan to talk it up in my class.  By the way, I just found two gorgeous quilts to buy from the AAQI and will show them here when they come.

This one is just made from all the leftovers from the one above, including that little strip with the birdie.

I'll let you know when this is for sale on the AAQI website!  I also just finished Fun and Funky Vest #2.  Photos coming soon.  It's been a fabulously quilty weekend here due to lots of rain.  Today it's sunny and in the 50's, just right for a walk.  I know it won't last, but I also look forward to the next snowstorm.   It's nice to have a little bit of everything here.

More

The little winter cloth continues.  I guess for me more is more.  It's hard to stop the stitching once you start and you just want to keep going until every available space is filled.  Thanks for your thoughts on the previous post.

For the curious, here's the back.  I will be adding a backing to it for finishing and adding some quilting stitches to hold it all together.  Jude's next (and I think, maybe, final) class starts next week.  I'm looking forward to that a lot.  Meanwhile I've started a new cloth and got out some of the old bases to play with.  Maybe more trees!

Bah!

I had to join Tonya's latest challenge!  Bah! Humbug will be part of a quilt that she will put together someday.  I missed the boat on getting in a word for the quilt on the cover of her new book.  I'll always regret not participating in that one.  This one was fun to do though and only took about 2 hours.  While you're there at Tonya's blog take a look at this post.  My name is in the name quilt and a couple of orphan R's ended up in the letters quilt.  Too much fun going on over there!  Meanwhile, I'm preparing to teach a class based on Word Play Quilts.  More on that later!

A little winter cloth

Thanks to Jude's holiday cloth series, I started this several weeks ago.  As usual, other items caught my attention in the weeks leading up to Christmas, but I finally got back to it after New Year's.

I love the ragged edge trees and that moon!  It's a shibori moon from Glennis.  My intention was to celebrate the winter solstice lunar eclipse. 

More snowflakes need to be sewn, not sure what to do after that?  Any thoughts?

On another note, Chloe just got her second college acceptance- to her preferred college and again with a hefty scholarship.  Yay- way to go Chloe!