Pictorial Quilts

I love pictorial quilts. I love the detail, the story they tell . I love how fabric and thread make a beautiful and textured picture. A pictorial quilt inspired me to make this quilt of my families reunion at Bear Lake. It reminds me of the wonderful time I had with aunts, uncles, cousins, brother, sisters, children, mom and dad. Pretty much the whole family. It is a reminder of how blessed I am to have so many caring people in my life. The Dutchmen's Puzzle reminds me of my heritage. I guess it is true what they say a picture is worth a million words. I don't think a million words would ever be enough to express what all this quilt means to me.

So imagine my delight when I found this amazing book at the library. I had gone looking for a biography for my daughter. She needed it for a school assignment.

Each picture in this book is a picture of fiber art collage made by the author's aunt. The detail is awesome. You can learn more about it here. And also see more of the art. This lady, Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, is truly talented. What a beautiful way to remember something that must have been so horrible for her.

Oh the strength and perseverance she must have had. I admire her on so many levels.

Fat Quarter Monday/ Fickle Spring

The winner of this weeks fat quarter Monday is Karen Diane. Congrats to you my dear friend. Let me know which fat quarter you would like and I will get it on it's way to you. Thanks to everyone that left words of encouragement to me this past week. Little by little I'm going to make my goal. Once again if you would like a chance at a fat quarter you know what to do. I really appreciate your help.

This weekend spring went on vacation or something. I know spring is a fickle girl but really. We woke up Sunday to a major snowstorm. I had to go out and help N cover his newly finished half pipe. He had taken apart the last one. He felt it was too steep. I had told him and his brothers last year when they built it that is seemed awful steep. But what does a mom know? A year later he agrees. Go figure. So we shoveled it off the best we could in the blizzard. Kinda like putting beads on a string with no knot in the end. And threw tarps over it. The robins are all fluffed up trying to stay warm in this chilly weather. Poor things.Played Clue last night with DD. Do you know what she did. Her first turn trying to guess who done it where and with what. She got them all right. That was the quickest game of clue I have ever played. I had told her before the game we didn't have much time because it was almost bed time. Turns out we had time. She was amazed she had done it. But sad the game went so fast.

Quiet Day Quilting

I made bread so the kids would have something for sandwiches.

And to go with the pot of stew I let simmer on the stove for dinner.

I loaded the washing machine.

And while the oven baked, the stew simmered, and the washing machine whirled...

I had a quiet day sewing.

I made my Friday Block party block. Needed to get that done since there would be a new one today.

Then I sat and bond 'Bing Zing'
Happy to say it is all done!

YEAH!!

Have a great weekend!

Em

Bing Zing and Quick Quilting Templets

What have I been up to while I have been showing you all my friends lovely work? I have been working on this displaly for a local shop. It is my Strawberry Zing pattern done in Moda's Berry Delight.
I quilted Cherries in the outside border. I learned this quick and easy trick to make quilting templets a few years ago. You just need some contact paper or shelf liner. I use white but you can use anything as long as it shows up well on your quilt.
Draw your template on the contact paper. If you feel your not that good of an artist use a simple picture from a coloring book. Cut it out.Peel off the back and place it on your quilt where you want it quilted. Quilt around your shape. Then you can peel it off and move it to another spot. One templet can used be at least a dozen times.It was hard to see my quilting on the the green so I did one on muslin. Its a quick and easy way to do a uniform shape throughout your quilt.

More From My Talented Friends

I really like this quilt by Sherri. It is from a class she took at Bryce last month. This is her first quilt on point. She did a beautiful job. This one is from Denise. It uses two Jelly Rolls.

This one also from Denise used a layer cake.

If you remember Denise is a prolific quilter. She went to Bryce last month so besides the two I have already shown you by Denise she also made this one.

And this one. She says she has seven more ready for next month. Isn't she amazing?

I love this one by Sue. The brights and black are another favorite combo of mine.

And look at her cute, cute mini. She says this is her scrap quilt. She is not making a very big dent in her scraps.

I'm just guessing.

From the Scrap Bag

Don't you just love scrap quilts? They never go out of style. They make such great eye candy. The comfort food of quilting. There is just so much for the eye to savor and enjoy. They are my favorite flavor of quilt. Here are a few from my quilt guild meeting. This one from Denise has been added to my to do list. As has this amazing one by Nancy. Oh that there were more quilty hours in the day.Look at this lovely one by Delores. She is the queen of scrap quilting at our guild.
Here is another by the queen herself.

Don't they make you want to dive into your scrap bag head first and just start sewing?

Fat Quarter Happy Dance

I did it. I have broken through the plateau. Yippee!!! Finally!!!! The lucky winner is Shari. Congrats to you Shari. If you will send me your snail mail and which fat quarter you would like I'll get it off to you. Thanks for all your support. Once again if you leave encouragement. I still have 9 fat quarters to go.

I have more good news. The idiopathic terminator of platelets (my brother in laws name for my ITP) seems to be done with it's carnage. My count almost doubled in the last two weeks. My counts are so close to normal the Dr is letting me wait a whole month before I have to go back. I could have done the happy dance all the way home. I had a smile on my face all day Friday! Just letting you know my good news. Hope you all have a great day!
Em

My Talented Friends

Yesterday was my quilt guild meeting. This is a charity quilt Michelle made. Isn't it so fun.Look at this sweet paper pieced table topper Vivian made.
This is a cute little bag Joan made.
Modeled by our dear friend, Lori, who came back to visit us from Kansas.

Mary Jo made this one. She is camera shy and hiding behind the quilt. It is from a class I taught a few years back. Didn't she do a lovely job?

This is a fun roman shade she made for your home.

I simply love how fun this is.

This little baby quilt mady by Suzy is for a friend of her's great, great grandbaby.

How neat is that?

She also made this cute charity quilt.

And this beautiful embroidery.

Sue made this simply lovely quilt. She got the center block at our summer sale, where we bring quilt related items to sell for money for the quild.

This sweet little quilt was also made by Sue.

It is her design. She is getting ready to start selling her designs as patterns.

She is very talented.

That's all for now. More to come latter.

A Tisket A Tasket

I joined Jane's Rainbow quilt swap. I choose the color red. And decided to to a basket block. At first I didn't like my red baskets. I like lots of color so it was hard for me to get used to just one color. But they are growing on me.After I finished my baskets I pulled these fabrics out of my stash. You'll have to stay tuned to see what they become. I once took a class about scrap quilting from Kaye England. I learned so much from her. She said that when making a scrap quilt color does not matter as much as value. A trick she said to use to check value was to put your fabric on a copy machine and make a black and white copy. I figured the black and white setting on my camera would do the same thing. So here is my value test.
What do you think?

Do I have a good range?

Inspire to Aspire

Jacquie has inspired me to aspire for more flexibility and creativity in my quilting.

Donna has inspired me to aspire for better piecing.How do I inspire a certain seventeen year old to aspire for greater things? I know I can't force him. One he is bigger than me. Two it only makes him want to rebel more. I'm not saying he is a bad kid. He is far from that. He is hard working and kind. If someone needs something done in the neighborhood they call this kid. They know he will do a good job. He helps my dad when he asks and is very good to my grandma and the widow in the neighborhood. Maybe my expectations are too high. But he has been hanging with some friends that are not encouraging the best behavior. He has not been being honest with me. And sometimes he is rebellious and defiant. I know these can be normal teenage behavior. Darn, kids don't come with instruction manuals and even if you could find one how would you know you had the right one each kid is so different. Do any of you experienced mother have some words of wisdom you would like to share on how to inspire a child to aspire?

Fat Quarter Plateau

I have hit a plateau. I run and run on the elliptical. I did it everyday last week and although my clothes are fitting better the scale shows no change. Where does this plateau end? How much further must I run before I find the edge and descend once more? Hubby keeps telling me it will happen. Just be patient, not my strong point. GRRRR this is so frustrating. On to happier things, DD made me a surprise this weekend. She told me to stay in my sewing room, not a hard thing to do, she was working on a surprise for me and didn't want me to come out and spoil it. So joyously I fulfilled her request. Her and her friends made me a cake. Wasn't that so sweet of them. Now these kind girls are ages 6-8. And have not had a lot of baking experience. Big brother J helped them with the oven. They did all the mixing. They got the amount of eggs right but DD was not sure how much oil or water she put in. The cake is much appreciated but not even the brothers would eat it. DD even admitted it did not taste good. But I so love how she tried. I told her I use to make things for my mom, and they did not always turn out. I promised to show her pictures when we went to visit grandma next month.

DD also thought this was pretty neat and thought I should share it with you. We cracked an egg this weekend and found a double yoke. So for the joy of a sweet little girl I am sharing it with you.

Hope you have a great day!