Field of Flowers

Made by Julie Hirota of California; entered in the category Innovative Applique, Small at the 2005 International Quilt Festival.

Fancy Iris

Quilt above made by Doris Teixeira of Brazil; entered in the category Art-Naturescapes at the 2005 International Quilt Festival.

Buttercup

Made by Holly Knott of Marcellus New York; shown in the judged show (category: Art-Pictorial) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Signs

Hmm, well, flickr's "blog this" feature doesn't seem to be working today!! So let's try this manually.



Made by John Flynn. From the 2004 Dallas Quilt Celebration.

Happy green day, or something like that

Here's a couple more quilts with a lot of green in them for your St. Patrick's Day edification:



Quilt above, "Rhubarb", made by by Karen Hampton of Indiana; entered in the category Art-Abstract, Small at the 2005 International Quilt Festival.



Quilt above, "Nebraska's Rising Sun", made by Sandi McMillan and Laura Franchini of Albion, Nebraska; winner of 1st prize in the category Two Person at IQF 2006.

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I went to the one-day version of the quilt retreat a couple of weeks ago - that is, other people stayed longer, but I just went for the one day. I was really glad I went at least for that long, because instead of taking those same blocks I've been stalled on, I took the not-quite-finished quilt of my mother's that I've been meaning to put the binding on for ages. I got that all cut and pressed and sewn on, and now I'm doing the hand-sewing on it, and it should be finished soon. (I'm usually quite good about doing the hand-sewing once I get to that point.) And then I got finished with that around lunchtime, and I spent the rest of the day cutting pink fabric. Remember that pink quilt I've been saying I'm going to make? Well, it's no longer a pile of uncut fabric; now I have a pile of squares instead, which should eventually become a pile of triangles. We'll see how long it takes me to get to that point.

I wish I'd stayed longer at the retreat, really, because a lot of people were there that I hadn't seen in ages and I didn't feel like I got to talk to all of them for very long. (Oh, and also? You ought to see what Cynthia England is working on. It's a long way from being finished, but what she has finished is absolutely gorgeous.)

Ooh, a contest!

Dana of Old Red Barn Co is giving away a quilt. A really cute quilt, too, made with Denyse Schmidt's Katie Jump Rope fabric. You have until Wednesday to enter, I believe, so go put your name in!

Green

It's sort of funny that I'm not a huge fan of St. Patrick's Day, because I love green. Of course the green color associated with St. Patrick's Day is, well, bland - that plain old kelly green, you only ever see that one exact shade, for the most part. Bland and boring. The greens I like are the million variations of nature, sort of like the quilt above.

(Unfinished quilt above made by me and unofficially named "Monochromatic #1" - based on designs in the book "Spectacular Scraps.")


I haven't been doing much quilting lately, partly because I've been spending all my time making jewelry instead. And - surprise! - this has included an awful lot of greens.




(This pair is made with lampworked beads from Erica, incidentally.)

I have a lovely pile of green Czech beads of various shades and finishes - I should take a picture cause they're gorgeous. I just happened to throw a few together and they looked so good I just kept adding more, and the more I added the more beautiful they got. I suspect that that encapsulates my whole attitude toward color, right there.

Fabric rhapsody

Yike! How has it been 10 days since I updated? There has been some actual quilting going on in the interim, too, and clearly I just need to make myself sit down and write about it, don't I?

Well, anyway, that will have to wait a bit (although I promise to work on it today) - meanwhile I just wanted to point out a great sale - Ricky Tims' hand-dyed fabric is half-price - $12.50, for the ones I looked at, instead of $25/yard. And he's changing his formula, not discontinuing the fabric, so we don't even have to be sad about the reason for this! I splurged on a yard of this stuff at full price, back when I took a class from him a few years ago, and it's lovely fabric. So go! shop!

Strata Garden

Strata Garden, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Scott Murkin of North Carolina; winner of third prize in the category Mixed Technique in the judged show at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.

The Calico Cat brought home a picture of a (very) different quilt by this same guy from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show a couple of weeks ago - this one. Man, oh, man. (I like the one above better, though.)

Breeze from the Stage

Breeze from the Stage, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Miwako Miyamoto; from the exhibit "Culture of my Country" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Churn Dash

Maker unknown. But isn't it cute?