Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

Blue and Orange

Blue and orange seem to be taking over the studio.  I was just standing in my studio, looking at my table and realized that this is quite a coincidence.

First there was the liberated cat quilt that I got out and started making more blocks for over the weekend.  

Then there were the piles of fabric I just pulled for a liberated star quilt for Ryan.  You see, his graduation is coming up and I just realized that he'd be due a quilt!  Hurray, another quilt to add to the growing list.  Fortunately, I know I will love to make this one and I think it will do double duty and be in the show this July too.

For the past two days I've been obsessed with trying to make a plan for my next Novel Idea piece.  This year the book that has been chosen is The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.  If you haven't read it, you must!  It is a marvelous book, universally liked by everyone I've talked to and very quilt friendly.  After two days of poring over books, illustrations and re-reading passages in the book, I've chosen a simple folk arty design with a fox, some trees, and a hand dyed moon.  Nearly all the fabrics are ones that I hand dyed and they also include several vintage linens, including the marvelous background piece with the attached lace.  I'm looking forward to this one!

So, I guess I'm all about the blue and orange.  I just looked back at some older posts and realized this is not a first for me.  Both of my quilts in the Sisters Quilt Show flyer are blue and orange and that January AAQI quilt, Dandy Lion, is blue and orange.  Hmmmmm..  Wonder what that says about me?

Done: Little Tree in the Big Snowy Woods

Alright, it's done except for the label and sleeve, but that's pretty good for me!  Quilting this went quickly and it was a good thing I chose to do the free motion quilting.  All that turning would have killed me if I had used the walking foot.

I was concerned about the quilting obscuring the lovely textural background fabrics, but I don't think it's a problem. 

The light is horrible for photos today. Not horrible for sewing though.  I love sunny afternoons in the studio!

So, I had to use the flash to try to get something decent.  Of course, it's not the same as seeing it in person.

I think the back is pretty cool. I don't usually want my stitches to show up on the back and so will do a highly patterned novelty or something that relates to the front. On this quilt I didn't want to have show through when the quilt is hung outdoors, so I used an off white Kona.  I'm not sure which one this is, but I love the Kona off whites.

So, one down, ? to go!  The countdown clock is ticking....

Quilting

I ended up making three small machine quilting samples.  These were created from all the little scraps I had left over and are wonderful little mini quilts themselves.  I tried free motion quilting straight lines.

I tried various free motion loop de loops and straight lines and some with contrasting thread.

Then I tried using my walking foot to make very straight lines.  It turned out, much to my surprise, that I liked this one the least.

So I decided to free motion the whole thing with a little patterning on the trees.

Then lots of free motion straight lines on the background.  Very nice indeed!  

Little Tree in the Big Snowy Woods

So, this week I got to work with the pile of fabrics destined to be my Modern Quilt Guild challenge.  The challenge is to use Kona Lime and Kona Coal in any amount, plus one other color.  Prints could be used in the same color shades.  White or black could be used in small amounts or as the other color.  When I looked at the green and grey I started to see trees and it was snowy outside and I was reading several books featuring winter environs.  It seemed natural to put my trees in a field of snow.  When I remembered these textured fabrics in my stash, I knew they were perfect.  I got them at the Stitchin' Post and I don't remember the fabric company, but they are awesome to work with!

I tried several arrangements of trees, but since I didn't make the blocks any particular size, I just had to get started fitting the pieces together, adding coping strips and trimming here and there.  The top is done and now, I just need to figure out how to quilt it.  Ha!  

I think I'll make a little mini sample to try some stuff out on.  These quilts will be displayed at the Sisters Quilt Show this summer.

Happy New Year!

I think I will take a few more days to relax and enjoy the season.  Happy New Year to you and yours.  See you next year!

Christmas Tree Lighting & Owls

A bit of Holiday bokeh for you.  I went up to the Christmas tree lighting tonight, but mostly walked around downtown taking photos as I went and trying lots of different camera settings.  There was even a Santa sighting outside of Starbucks.  Sorry for the blur~ Santa moves fast!

Oh, and a few more owls moved into the shop.

Goose Time

Sorry for all the photography lately, but this seems to be where my creativity is going right now.  I'm so inspired by fall color and the autumn light.  I continue with Ryan's baby book (I'm past his first birthday!) and I started a little project the other day that I hope to show soon.  Oh, and the November AAQI quilt. I forgot to get a photo before sending it, but I can show an earlier version of it.  That will come in a later post!

Still Green

I took this photo the other day and just had to share.  We still have some green nearby, though our street has mostly gone to gold.  We had a nice Halloween, though not too many trick-or-treaters.  Now that we're into November, it's really time to think about the holidays.  I've got some knitted goodies that I'm working on.  I'm also finally (seriously!) doing Ryan's' baby book.  Yes- he's an adult now, yes- he just voted for the first time, and yes- I think it's really time to get the thing done.  

My studio is a disaster with piles from where I've dumped stuff after the classes I had in October.  I now have scrapbooking supplies spread all over.  I have so much to do, but this has to take priority.  I think I'll be catching up after the whirlwind October I've had for a while longer!

Boy am I a lucky gal!

When we decided to move to Central Oregon 8 years ago, I had no idea how living here would change my life.  We are so lucky to be in this place that draws quilters from all over the world!  This past weekend I was in quilter's heaven when Gwen Marston came to town.  Gwen did a presentation for the Sisters Guild on Wednesday evening.  Here she talked about her medallion quilts in solids and her folk art applique.

I was especially pleased to see some of her series of tree quilts.  These minis are quite wonderul with their variations, many of which were inspired by antique quilts.

On Thursday I had a full day workshop with Gwen on making the Medallions in solids.  This is my piece which will be added to soon.

My leftovers ended up in this little piece which I will finish off for my November AAQI quilt.

On Friday, I was so excited to take part in the second annual Folk Art Retreat held at the Five Pine Conference Center.  Sue Spargo joined us for 3 days of folk art, wool and stitching goodness.

I had come prepared to do a Halloween inspired quilt and made good progress on it.  By the second day I had lots of fun shapes to add to my growing piece.  This will be finished off with a couple of borders and lots more applique and stitching.  On the last day I spent much of the time some learning new embroidery stitches.  I am all ready for a winter of stitching!

It is always good to catch up with Gwen.  She is just as cute and funny as always.  She is so supportive and would really like to see me start teaching some liberated quiltmaking techniques.  That is a goal of mine and so I have begun to write up a class proposal.  In the meantime, I have considered getting myself a Singer Featherweight for a travel machine.  Any thoughts or considerations you would have for me are very welcome!

Camp Sherman Holiday

For Labor Day weekend we took out the new Airstream to try her out.  We headed to the beautiful Central Oregon destination of Camp Sherman, on the Metolius River.  This is a beautiful, wild and scenic river with a very small community of mostly small National Forest cabins and campgrounds.  It was idyllic!

You can get a lot of different stuff at the Camp Sherman General Store.  Lots of gourmet food items and fly fishing paraphernalia.  

The trailer was a dream to use!  I just love the classic look, modern indoor style and that hatchback which makes for great airflow.  

We have been to Camp Sherman before, but had never toured the Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery so that was first on our list.

We also had to make a trip to see the Head of the Metolius.  The river bubbles out of the ground here, but the view is truly stunning!  That's Mt. Jefferson in the background.

We also took several river walks from the campground.

We had a very dirty dog for the whole trip, but Scrabble got one bath the day he decided to take a cool dip in the river.  

The weather was perfect and we did a lot of relaxing.  What a lovely end to summer vacation!