Sewing with the Nuts

Needle-punch tool that Linda used to felt her pincushion.

It's that time of the month again -- Sew Day with the Twisted Nut Stitchers. It was cold and blustery and gray outside, typical November weather for the Pacific Northwest. Maybe that's why warm felt was everywhere.

These two photos above show how Linda P. needle-punched a felted pincushion, from start to finish in one day. She made up the design as she went along. Sure looks like she has enough felt to keep everyone warm!

The other Linda made a felt needle case and is shown here working on the embroidery.

Nancy didn't use felt, but she stuck with the cozy winter theme with this embroidery kit called "String in the Lights." Nancy hosted and fixed a delicious breakfast and lunch, but I didn't wake up enough until midafternoon to take photos. This time of year I'm pretty sluggish until later in the day. It's almost 10 p.m. now and I'm finally hitting my creative stride.

Carolynn carried through the warm, red theme with her quilt featuring panels of Northwest art. She's  working on the binding here.

And yours truly reacts to the cold and gray by using sizzling summery prints in yet another Jelly Roll 1600 quilt, although the backing is a warm comfy green flannel. Love that chartreuse. I think this Christmas my colors are going to be apple green, turquoise, chartreuse and cherry red.

Here's a link to one of my posts explaining the Jelly Roll 1600:  http://sherriequilt.blogspot.com/2013/03/rolling-out-color.html

Instead of the beautiful table setting, which I forgot to get, I'll end with our messy sewing table.

Have a colorful day

STITCH: Finish something challenge

This month our STITCH challenge was simply to finish something. So Andrea started and finished a tuffet! The colors make my mouth water. She also made the crocheted scarf draped over it.

Here's the bottom and the pattern. I was really lazy at our meeting on Tuesday and didn't take notes, so I can't remember where she took the class. I think somewhere in Bellevue, WA.

Anne makes wonderful abstract pieces, and instead of using batting she uses various materials to stiffen her wall pieces. For this one she tried crinoline on the back and it really made it stiff. Again, because of my laziness I didn't get pictures of her other pieces or of those by a few others at the meeting.

Delaine made the beautiful quilt above (that's just a detail) and is calling it "Pollution" because the fish have their mouths open like they're gasping. And that's Delaine below showing off two scarfs that she just learned how to crochet. She's our glitter queen, so she used glittery yarn.

Barbara's quilt above isn't finished, but she's done a lot of work on it since our last meeting. The pastel colored rectangles are actually filled with text. Again, laziness precludes me from trudging upstairs to get my notebook where I wrote down the story behind it. But it's spectacular and I'm sure you'll be seeing it again here and I'll give the full story.
  

Linda finished this complicated purse full of zippers and pockets and straps and color. The pattern is "The Professional Tote" by Creative Thimble.

Linda also taught a class for our guild on making coiled fabric bowls last week, and Judi shows off the bowl, below, that she made in class. Linda is the friend who showed me how to make the bowls years ago and I've blogged about them a lot.

Lois worked on a tote bag that she had started earlier, and this shows her great hand stitching. She and Linda are our bag ladies!
 

I told you a few posts ago about what I finished -- binding a Jelly Roll 1600 quilt and finishing "House On the Water." You can see them here under "Color to the Rescue":  http://sherriequilt.blogspot.com/2013/11/color-to-rescue.html

It was another truly inspiring meeting that I so look forward to every month. The 12 of us have been together almost two years now! I encourage any of you who want a similar group to start one. We've sadly been having to turn away a lot of quilters who have asked to join because we don't want to get so big that we can't meet in each others homes, and 12 is pushing it. It's also about as many as you would want so that show-and-tell and discussion doesn't go on too long. It's one of the highlights of my month!

Have a colorful day

New Gig Harbor quilt shop!

Harbor Quilts recently closed, but a new quilt store has opened in the same location. Yeah for Quilt Revolution at 7716-C Pioneer Way!

Owners Diane Shropshire, left, and Nancy Altman.

Grand opening 10/11/12/13

(10 a.m. Nov. 12, 2013)

Owners Diane and Nancy have been filling it with goodies in preparation for the official grand opening on Tuesday, at 10/11/12/13. That's 10 a.m., Nov. 12, 2013. Stop by and buy! Let's keep the store in business, quilters.

Nancy, by the way, just got back from Houston where she had a gorgeous quilt in the International Quilt Festival.

This cute bed layered with beautiful quilts greets you as you enter, and the rest of the shop is arranged nicely with seasonal displays and luscious, colorful fabric and threads.

The display above of the Grunge fabric line by Basic Grey for Moda caught my eye and I just had to buy a pile of quarter yards. This only shows a portion of the colors. Nancy and Diane pointed out that this line is perfect for blenders.

As I was checking out, I overheard Nancy talking with this quilter and I found out that this is only her second quilt ... what an amazing start! Her name is Rachael Odom, and I love her style with its modern look.

More info at www.quiltrevolution.com

Rachael Odom, left, and her second quilt.

Have a colorful day

Color to the rescue

 

I needed a big shot of color today because rain poured, wind howled, and sky and bay were gray. I also needed to finish some quilt projects that have been hanging around too long, so I spent the day in the studio (finally) surrounded by bright colors.

View from our back deck early this afternoon.

First, I put the binding on this batik jelly roll quilt. It's been so long since I've done a traditional binding that I accidentally sewed it on backwards and didn't realize it until I was almost done. Instead of ripping it out (something else I rarely do), I just wrapped it to the front and held it down with a quick zigzag. I like it!

Our gutters were gushing, forming this little lake by the front porch, which segues into the next quilt I finished ...

 "House On the Water"

I started this one YEARS ago and was never happy with it, but now that I've pulled it out again I do like it. The only thing I added was some gold with this Krylon gold leaf pen:

It has a lot of hand embroidery, and I painted every inch of the fabric other than the gold mesh. I used layers of silk organza to create more depth. A lot of roofs out here in the Northwest are green from moss (or lichen? anyone know for sure?) where the sun never shines.

For some reason I didn't put a backing on it before I did the quilting -- maybe I was thinking I would wrap it around stretcher bars? So I did a pillowcase backing and slapped a label over the hole where I turned it right side out. Done! And now I feel a lot better.
 

I just linked this to Nina Marie's Off-the-Wall Fridays, where you can see what's been going on this week in other fiber artists' studios:  http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-november-blues-off-wall-friday.html

Have a colorful day

Heeeere's Freddy!

At Island Quilter with Kristin, me, Freddy, Janet and Karen.

I mentioned in my last post that I was on Vashon Island for a special event, and here it is -- meeting quilter and author extraordinaire FREDDY MORAN in person at the Island Quilter shop!

She was wearing her trademark big red glasses and had a big red tote and red nail polish, but otherwise she was dressed all in black and white. Her quilts were being exhibited through October, and it was one of the most colorful exhibits I've ever seen.

The most surprising thing I heard her say is that she didn't start quilting until she was 60 and she's now 83.

 

Freddy was there last week for a book signing and tea. I bought "Freddy & Gwen Collaborate Again," written with Gwen Marston, and naturally she signed it in RED. Her other two books are "Collaborative Quilts," also written with Gwen, and "Freddy's Houses."
 

Her quilting mantra is

RED IS A NEUTRAL.

She said she uses black and white to give the eye a place to rest.

Here are some examples:

Another tidbit she offered about her freewheeling style is: "If it's too big, cut it down. If it's too small, add something." You can see that in this lively basket quilt, with the detail below showing how some basket bottoms are cut off and others float on the background. 

She also uses a lot of polka dots, and she spent a lot of time at Island Quilter's excellent polka dot shelf:

She said this next quilt, "Little House In Big Woods" represents Gwen Marston's house, which is all by itself surrounded by woods on an island in a lake.


"Little House In Big Woods" by Freddy Moran

The backs are almost as much fun as the fronts. I'm showing the detail of this sun quilting on a backside because the fabric is called "Madison WI," which is where my son lives. (Not that he ever reads my blog.)

The rest of the photos are just eye candy. You can see more of the exhibit on my earlier post: http://sherriequilt.blogspot.com/2013/10/red-is-neutral-freddy-says.html
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

The cash register was a busy place during the event.

Have a colorful day