New Header& New Pattern: Shadowboxer!

I was inspired to make this quilt & pattern by a 70's purse seen at at thrift store.  The thrift store purse was a little ugly and made of different colors but I wanted to do a monochrome version as a quilt using Moda Crossweaves (love them!) as the hex fabrics.  That week the Modern Quilt Guild came out with the Monochrome Quilt Challenge.  I knew I had to enter.  Wish me luck!

This was a fun pattern for me..I figured out a shortcut during construction that saved a yard of fabric and made the quilt very fun to make.  There are only 12 Half Square Triangles and no bias edges so this was a pretty easy pattern to make.  In fact, I want to make it again in honeycomb colors.  I think this pattern would work well as a rainbow (perhaps gray and black shadows) or even using feature fabrics in the hexes.  It measures 54"x54" but because of the geometric design it looks very rectangular to me.

If you notice my header, I've changed things up a bit.  I found THE picture of my mom and me in front of the real life tulip patch that inspired the blog name.  It was so hard for me to wait to put up the new header until the newest pattern on it came out.  I was so excited! 

This pattern is available in my etsy shop as a PDF and will be available as a hard copy to quilt shops.  If you are interested in ordering this or my other patterns for a shop, contact me at marylane_brown at yahoo dot com. 

My son's first quilt!

I asked on the blog a while back if you guys had any tips for me with my 7 year old son who is dying to learn to quilt.  We started off small with a ticker tape snack mat.  I sewed up a small mat of Kona Ash and a light colored denim (back) and made a pillowcase style mat.  I then let the boys do tickertape with some of my favorite scraps.  I was surprised when my 7 year old did this:

And I will be honest that I *almost* said "that's not how you do it" when I realized he made letters of his name instead of the regular way but then I thought "What is wrong with me...his way is better!"  I love how he "kicked it up a notch" and made it his own.  How many ticker tape quilts have you seen with words written on it?  None, that's how many! The entire reason I read blogs is for inspiration...not just so I can copy something- that is just not fun for me.  He had exactly the right idea. I had him pin the pieces into place and then I went around them with the machine.  He is not much for tedious tasks yet.

One of the twins did this one (and I do need to trim them up, I know).  He is a train fanatic and he immediately went to the American Jane punctuation tickets.  He told me they are his tickets to ride a train.  Melted my heart...  He calls it a "Snack Mack."  Once again, I like his version better.  Snack Mack it is!

Fueled by his success, the oldest became more insistent about starting his own quilt.  I decided to just go for it.  I also told myself to tell him to do a good job and take breaks when I saw him getting sloppy instead of getting frustrated.  You know what, it worked.  If I saw him getting tired I'd call break time.  I had to rip a seam or two where he sewed things backwards but for the most part he was very diligent about keeping close to 1/4" seam as you can see by the finished product:

He did a great job!  He picked out 4 layer cake pieces left over from my MBS project with Deb Strain's Java.  He told me he needed more brown to balance out all the blues.  I had a couple of 5" squares left from Lily&Will2 that were brown (quilt forthcoming on that one) so we threw those in.  Here is how we divided the task:

Me: Rotary cutting (scary!), pinning, sewing edges "pillowcase style" then turning out and top stitching the edge shut
Him: Ironing, Sewing the quilt top, quilting, receiving kudos.

He wanted me to share on facebook and I am sharing with you guys as well.  The night he made it I put it over my legs because I was cold and he got a big smirk and said "hey mom, this is coming in handy, isn't it??"  He is already on me for quilt number 2.  Any pattern suggestions???

Thank you for helping Team Lucky Duck!

Thanks so much for helping Colleen with Quilt Blocks for Team Lucky Duck. As I write this she has received 9 blocks. Thank you so much! See them here on her blog.  I can't wait to see these all sewn up!

 

Finish: Turtle Cheesecake baby quilt

 Our neighbor is going to be a grandma very soon and I decided to make a baby quilt for them.  I had this beautiful Lily & Will 2 layer cake (well, remnants of one!) from another project and I knew it would find a nice home with a baby some day.  The fabric looks like a yummy cheesecake with chocolate drizzled on top.  This is the softest quilt I've ever pulled out of a drier.  Turtle Cheesecake seemed like a great name idea.  I staggered 5" squares so I didn't have to worry about matching points.  I needed a project like that.

 On the back, I used the leftover prints plus some Moda Bella Jelly Roll strips I had hanging around from an MBS project.  I know everybody loves the bunnies but I put those on the back.  I have a feeling this is going to be a manly little man and I didn't know how the bunnies would go over.

 I took quilting inspiration from this little vine print.  I had done this quilting motif before so it was a no brainer to do it for this quilt when I saw that print.

I actually don't make a lot of quilts for babies.  I could be wrong, but I get the feeling a lot of people would just prefer diapers or cash.  Let's just say I speak from personal experience on this one.  Now I will only make baby quilts when I feel that is something they would prefer over a store bought gift.  This grandma-to-has done a lot of nice things for us as a family from a cream cheese roll for Thanksgiving breakfast to cookies at Christmas and the occasional child-watching in a pinch. My husband had her come over for 30 minutes during my monthly craft night so he could make an emergency supply run (aka: he could not find the toilet paper in my messy garage).  When he returned she told him how much she loved all the quilts in the house.  It is people like that who get me excited about gifting a quilt. 

How do you decide whom to make a quilt for?

Team Lucky Ducks...reminder!

Remember this post ? If you agreed to make blocks for Colleen, they are due March 31.  I am going to show mine.

The top one was a little shy and the bottom one was a little less shy.  I sent them both...Colleen beat stage 4 cancer so I know a 12.25" block is not gonna get her down :)

Houston Rodeo Quilt Show: Part 4

Alright, cowpokes...we are wrappin' it up.  Here are the last of the pictures from the Rodeo Quilt Show. I can't wait to hear your favorites from the series.

Christmas Quilt.

This was called "King James Would Be Pleased."  I think it was for the anniversary of the translation of the King James Bible.  I really like that weaving red and black section and I thought "I could make a quilt out of that" but guess what...I already did!  That looks like Helix!  Here I thought I was so original.  Nothing new under the quilting sun...

My mother in law noticed these "twin quilts. 

It seems the judges preferred the lighter colored one and I have to say I agree.  They are both well made but I am just not a purple person.

I hope y'all have enjoyed your peek into the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show.  If you have one chance to go to Houston, go in October to the International Quilt Festival!  If you have two chances, come to Rodeo Houston, too!

Did you have a favorite quilt in all that I've shown or did you see something that inspired you?  Leave a comment, I'd love to hear!

Houston Rodeo Quilt Show Part 3

Some more eye candy!

Double Wedding Ring

Kaleidescope

Grandmother's Flower Garden

Triple(?) Irish Chain

Bear Paw on point.
I love that one blue star!

Houston Rodeo Quilt Show: Part 2

We're back to the Rodeo quilts and today I am showing some of my personal favorites and what I like about them.

I suppose this is a  Sunbonnet Sue type month by month quilt.  It was not fully displayed which is a shame.  I love the August block with the quilt hanging on the line to dry in the sun!  I have never made a quilt like this which tons of embellishments and goodies, but I really should.  I am so drawn to them.  Most people have a problem with self editing but I think I do the opposite...I miss out on a lot of wow factor by playing it safe.

I thought this would be a fun way to display scraps.  It was not fully displayed either, so this is all of this quilt I could capture.  Once again, why don't I make fun quilts like this???

This is more like a quilt I would make.  I'd machine quilt it because I don't have the patience or skill for all of that beautiful hand quilting.  This quilt won big as you can see by the tri color ribbon.  I really love this quilt because as beautiful as it is, it looks like one I'd love to snuggle up in.

For me, this quilt was THE showstopper.  Those cottages...OH THOSE COTTAGES!  I just want to go live in one.  I'm pretty sure there is a sewing machine inside waiting for me.   My favorite block from this quilt is not a cottage though- it's...

A shoe!  The pine needles are all embroidery stitches.  The flowers are also embroidery work.  I love the ribbon shoelace.  I  am a gingham girl so I'd love a roof like this. 

My mother in law was visiting and she was with me when we were looking at these.  I kept telling her this was my favorite and asking for her favorite.  She could not decide.  When I left I was halfway between "I am not worthy to call myself a quilter" and "Let's go quilt RIGHT NOW and get better!"

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Houston Rodeo Quilt Show: Part 1

I have a real treat planned for you guys over the next few days. I was able to attend the Houston Rodeo & Livestock Show which for me is basically "the Rodeo Quilt Show". These are all traditional quilts made by Texans. Some are very do-able...one winner was just a Half-Square Triangle quilt! Others are what I would call "Ten Year Quilts" because they appear to be so detailed it would take 10 years to do them. I keep trying to figure out how I could enter a quilt in the "doable" category. If you know, let me know!  The following quilts are what my bestie Amie would simply call "BEYOND".  They are beyond my skill, beyond my imagination, and beyond all expectation!

 

First up is Cactus Roundup.  This is a very "Texas" quilt.  The thing I loved was all the varieties of cacti around the border.  They are hand appliqued and embellished with various embroidery for flowers and needles.  

I love the background fabric.  It looks like they are riding off into a sunset.  I like that they chose to use a shadow of the cowboys instead of trying to be realistic.  It could have ruined this quilt.  They did a great job.

This is a wall hanging which one best of division.  The most genius thing on this quilt for me was the pleated red flange between the pieced section and border.  It is hand quilted but my husband thought it had been done by a machine because it was so perfect and even.

This quilt had a lot of different trapunto flowers and applique.  It was stunning in person.

Here are the tulips.  I think that is a little ladybut on the leaf.  The detail work in this one is amazing.  I wish I had a good photo of the poinsettias...they used a fabric covered button for the flower centers.

The judges were as impressed as I was, obviously.

Here is another quilt that amazed me.  These are mums, I think...each petal is folded fabric.  It is extremely 3 dimensional.  

This is the same quilt but I loved the rose and forget-me-nots.  This is a talented quilter.

This is the same quilt but I had to show you EACH grape is hand applique'd.  I love the stitched vines as well.  One again, the judges and I were in agreement!  This was a wedding quilt for a couple that got married in 2007.  I sure hope they appreciate this beauty! 

I have a lot more quilts to share but I am going to break this up into several installments.  I took soooo many photos.  I apologize for the poor quality of some/most of the photos.  They were behind glass in  weird lighting and it was hard to get a good shot.

Layer Cake Giveaway Winner is...

Tiffaney said... 50


Beautiful design. There are so many wonderful designs and I have so little time that I haven't remade a pattern yet.
March 5, 2011 8:34 AM


Thanks to all who played along!

Feelin' Grooooovy...

My church is full of talented women but among my favorites are three sisters- Vicki, Alisa, and Luanne. I just call them "the sisters".  The sisters are excellent applique quilters and they have been such a resource and encouragement to me on my quilting journey. They went to preview night at market and hunted down Angela Yosten at the Moda Bakeshop booth to tell Angela "WE KNOW HER!!!" They are sweet & encouraging and incredibly funny. Friday night they were teaching applique at church and Vicki brought her stash for people to use. She sorted her stash by decades! She had her 80s fabrics and her 90s/current fabrics in baskets. She told us she had 60's 70's at home but it was too ugly so she left it at home. My friend Cynthia piped up and begged her to go get it so she did.

I am SO GLAD she did!  Do you see all the awesome vintage loveliness???  I told Vicki it reminded me of a quilt my mother made for me when she was pregnant with me.  It was a raw edge leaf applique made from various 70s fabrics.   Alisa told me to take all the fabric (don't you love how she felt free to give her sister's stash away) and Vicki told me I could take whatever I wanted...so I did.  I wanted to just throw it all in my car and run but I was so very good and got a little off of each piece.  I have a nice sized stack.  I need your help to figure out what kind of quilt to make, though!

The cool thing is when I got home I found the very quilt I had told Vicki about and it featured the very fabric I had picked out for my first applique lesson! 

I have been looking for fabric like this in thrift stores, yard sales, and even on craigslist.  I wanted to make a quilt that reminded me of my childhood quilts and growing up.  Now it will be extra special because it will remind me of Vicki, too.  She is an amazing person (and it's not just because she offered her vintage stash to me!).

So y'all...I need help!  I'd love to hear your thoughts on the best way to showcase this once in a lifetime fabric haul.  I'm half tempted to do simple sqaures.  I've thought about raw edge daisy appliques.  I just don't know!  What would you do?