Altstadt (Old City)

Altstadt (Old City), originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Made by Karen Eckmeier; from the exhibit "Tactile Architecture" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

(Click on the picture to see the bigger version - you can't tell too much from this small one!)

I was fascinated with this quilt when I saw it last fall (so much that I took two detail pictures: here and here) and just now I stumbled on Karen Eckmeier's website and learned that she has a book out, Happy Villages, which appears to show how to make a quilt like this one. I can't wait to get a look at the book!

New York Garden

New York Garden, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Made by Anja Townrow of Walsall, UK; shown in the judged show (category: Traditional Pieced) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Ever Vigilant

Ever Vigilant, originally uploaded by Bob & Barb's World.

Quilt above by Barbara Baume.

A while back I posted a picture of a quilt of my mother's which at the time I called "Eagle Medallion" since I didn't know its correct name. Later I found out that it was called "Ever Vigilant", and that the pattern was by Barbara Baume, and was published in Quilters Newsletter in July 2002, so I went back and added that info to the original post. And apparently Barbara found that entry, and she wrote me a very nice e-mail about it. I love it when people do things like that. (She said, among other things, that the eagle's wings are so short because that was all the fabric she had!) And she sent me the link to her version, which is the one above. Click over and look at my mother's quilt - they are very, very similar. It's interesting to compare.

Fun with log cabins

Sisters quilt show, year unknown, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

This picture is out of my mom's photo album - she and my aunt went to the Sisters quilt show, maybe 5 years or so ago. (I was too broke to go, it wasn't that I wasn't invited or wasn't interested!) This is really a great quilt. Do you think it was paper-pieced, or what? That seems like the easiest way to do something like this, but it might not be. No real way to tell.

Purchases

Pink fabric purchases, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

So here is all the pink fabric I've been buying lately. (I include the one piece of Freshcut with the ivory background because it is the pink colorway, even though it's not terribly pink overall.) Three pieces are Freshcut, several are batiks, and... I frankly don't even remember what the rest of them are. Mostly they are half-yards, so this is a LOT of fabric.

Whispering Waters, Night Waves

Whispering Waters, Night Waves, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Made by Kristen Bryson & Karen Watts. From Mayfest 2002.

What's on my mind

Free Spirit "Freshcut" by Heather Bailey, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

One thing that's (still) on my mind is pink fabric. Somebody linked to this Freshcut fabric - which I've been eyeing for ages, anyway - at On the Farm Quilting for $7.49/yard. Which is, what, about a dollar cheaper than it is most places? So of course I bought several.

Another thing on my mind is jelly rolls:



like this one from the Fat Quarter Shop.

The thing is, I have yet to buy a jelly roll. Thirty dollars seems awfully expensive - that's 75 cents a strip! was what I kept thinking. Then I did the math. 40 strips - I'm assuming they're selvage to selvage, can somebody confirm that that's actually used one? at 2-1/2 inches a strip means you're getting 100 inches of fabric, or a little over 2-3/4 yards. And that comes out to $10.80 a yard, which isn't at all outrageous. (Bearing in mind, for one thing, that the going price for fat quarters comes out to $10 a yard.) I don't know about you, but I can't cut selvage-to-selvage strips with absolutely no waste. And of course you're getting all these different fabrics, too! So I have changed my tune about jelly rolls, a bit.

The other quilting thing that's on my mind is a little sensitive - I'm afraid of hurting the feelings of somebody that's made one of these quilts. But I'm going to say it anyway. I just don't get the popularity of patterns like Yellow Brick Road and Turning 20. They're not all that incredibly cute. And I'm thinking, why spend money on a pattern for something that... random? I would rather just come up with it on my own. But then I'm not really a pattern-oriented (or for that matter, direction-oriented) person anyway, and I know a lot of people are. And some people aren't comfortable coming up with their own pattern. I guess it's just one of those things you have to chalk up to differences in the way people's brains work!

Bouganvillae

Bouganvillae, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Barbara Swinea, North Carolina. From IQF 2004.

If I ever make that pink quilt I keep talking about, I think it will be like this one - that is, not the pattern (I have no idea about that yet) but that it will use all different shades of pink, from light to dark. I like this quilt a lot.

Moondance

Moondance, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Made by Michelle Hardy of Louisiana; from IQF 2002.

Crazy

Constellation Casket Cover (detail), originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I found hard copies of some of my pictures from 2002, and when I scanned them the picture quality seemed to be better than what I had, so I went in and replaced some of them, like this one - the picture above is a detail shot from it. In 2002, I was into crazy quilts, so my pictures that year leaned heavily towards that. It was also the first year that I did this crazy thing where I put my pictures online and gave people the link to go look at them - which proved very popular and I've done it ever since. (I remember that I felt very silly writing down the names of the quilts. Sometimes I still do.)

Above is a detail of "Constellation Consternation Casket Cover" by Martha Green of Oklahoma; from IQF 2002.

Celebration

Celebration, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Jean Hiltenbrand; shown at the 2003 International Quilt Festival.

Gulls in the Heat Haze

Gulls in the Heat Haze, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Inge Mardal & Steen Hougs; from the exhibit "Hands All Around XXI" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

A wedding, 1987

A wedding, 1987, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

This is not a quilt, but it is a sewing thing - I finally got around to scanning a wedding picture. This one has a pretty good view of the top of my dress, which I made. Whenever I have told people over the years that I made my own wedding dress, they have tended to be very impressed - but it really wasn't that hard. Time-consuming, yes, but not hard. Lace is easier to deal with than you would think. (You can't see most of the skirt, but I didn't do anything fancy with it, anyway - it's just satin.)

And I can't believe this was 20 years ago. My hairdo hasn't aged all that well, but trust me, it was very fashionable at the time!

Expanding Star (detail)

Expanding Star (detail), originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Judy Mathieson of Sebastopol CA; shown in the judged show (category: Innovative Pieced, Large) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

(The picture of the whole thing is blurry - that usually means I bumped the camera by accident and messed up that settings - and actually I'm not even sure if that is the whole thing. It's the closest I've got, in any case.)