Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Art Quilts


Amazing quilts. Amazing Art quilts. I am blown away by the beauty of these quilts.


This all started with reading an article about Philippa Naylor. One of her quilts brought tears to my eyes. You can see a snippet of it here:


I haven't found a full picture of it, and don't want to run the risk of copyright issues by posting a scan of it or anything. You just have to imagine it. If you want to try to find the whole picture, it is called "The Daisy Quilt". Come in the shop and I will show you the picture.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Finding my way...


Finding my way
I love fabrics. I love the feel of the fabrics, the beauty of the colors. A really great fabric is almost huggable. In the past, I created clothes with fabrics. I made my clothes starting in High School, and continued right up until I started to have children-- and then switched to making tons of T shirts and shorts. Occasionally my daughter and I would have matching dresses, and once I made matching T shirts for everyone. Unfortunately, we never took a picture of all of us dressed in our T shirt best.

At some time I quit sewing. Instead of being thrifty to sew, it started costing more than buying in a store. Patterns cost $10 or more, instead of the $2.49 I was used to. I had less time. Because I was a stay at home mom, I had no more need for dressy clothes. A couple dresses for going to church, but T shirts and shorts in the summer and sweaters and jeans became my Uniform. All I was making was the occasional purse-- I can never find just the right one and usually end up making one.

Then I had the opportunity to start working at Quilter's Friend. It has sparked my interest again. I am no longer that interested in making clothes, although I did buy a beautiful knit piece a couple months ago when I visited Stretch and Sew in Stockton. It is still waiting. Patterns are back down in price. No reason not to sew.

The first thing I did for Quilter's Friend was an apron with three matching potholders. Fun! On to something more challenging, I picked out some batiks to make a wall hanging. It took me nearly a YEAR from start to finish. Finally, it's hanging in the shop.

I've been enjoying the challenge of free motion quilting. I don't think I want to progress to all those matched stars and delicate appliques, but at least I understand the process. Maybe some day, when I get the stack of projects that I have acquired under control.

So, finding my way. Quilting and piecing takes a lot of practice. Maybe someday my descendants will find my quilt creation packed away with great-grandma's and grandma's quilts. Maybe someday I will be a famous quilt designer. Maybe someday I will have my own longarm quilting business. Maybe someday.....

So although I am not starting to quilt early, there's adventure ahead.

About Me

My photo
just a crafty grandma experimenting with all sorts of things. My main interests are paper craft of any kind and quilting/sewing. But I've done leatherwork, polymer clay, on-the-wheel pottery, painted molded ceramics, papier mache, stained glass, plaster casting, linoleum printing, paper making... you name it, I've probably tried it. A few I actually stuck with. :)