Triple Nine Patch

This is made with my own hand dyed fabrics, machine quilted and mounted on strips of black fabric.........no fancy pieced letters, tho.
It won a ribbon at the 2010 Sauder Village Quilt Fair for Innovative Piecing.

a finish

I wanted to share the finished quilt with you. There's no picture of the whole quilt, but a few more in my post, here.

Thank you, Tonya, for an inspiring challenge! And thank you all for joining in and sharing so many creative and beautiful quilts!!

; )

A perfect storm

I have completed my quilt top! Between the constant meals in the kitchen and the road trips to Maryland and Virginia during the weekend, I managed to sew up last rows of my quilt. 

This quilt top has been screaming hand quilting since last week when I began cutting the pieces. I will take my sweet time and enjoy that process just like I enjoyed puttign it together. 

You can read more about it at "The Root Connection" 

Tonya, I apologize for not putting any words on the quilt. I felt that it says too many things to me and I might restrict the true meaning of it to me by putting few words at this point. Between now and when I start to quilt, I may change my mind and come up with something true! 

Besides,  I am running out of time! REALLY!

 I started out with this layout. I still love this one and plan to make another very soon.

 

But this one drew my attention. I studied calligraphy in art school and this reminded me of strong and powerful brush strokes resembling lightning in the stormy dark skies.

 

It reminded me of  ocean waves once rotated the zigzag..

  The gray background fabric is woven fabric form India called Khadee. It is made from hand spun cotton fibers. The various solids are from my stash which also include scraps of my husband's old shirt.

Tonya, thanks you for this fabulous journey!

Loved every minute of it.

 

Top is done

Here is my top all done - yeah! I couldn't think of any words I wanted on it so I just pieced the year and put that in one of the skinny accent strips. I really like how the little touch of purple looks. I didn't think the hand dyes I had done would look so good together! I am very happy the way this turned out. Now I just need to concentrate on getting it quilted. Sorry about the shadow of my bicycle wheel across the lower right corner.


Here is the pearl cotton I dyed to compliment the colors in the quilt. I want to do both machine and hand quilting on this - I just have not figured out what I want to do yet.

Ocean Waves

Here's a picture of my quilt top. I didn't want to miss the challenge deadline!

I know this may not look very liberated to most of you (it's definitely not very Gwenny), but if you knew me, you'd know this is about as liberated as I get. The top measures 76" square.

Now to get it quilted!

Kathy in FL

Finally getting it together!

The fabric has been pinned to the design wall for several weeks and I have just gotten to piecing the fabric together. I am using my own hand dyed fabrics in neutrals. I am going back and re-reading the "rules" because I think I already broken several! If you would ask my quilting friend, P, she would tell you how I don't follow "rules" in quilting well! This is just a peek at what I am doing and I plan on having the top at least done by Monday to post.

The Eleventh Hour Quilt

It's the eleventh hour quilt! 

I could have started this quilt a while ago but we all know how it goes! Well, I guess you will see couple of more posts during this coming week and I truly hope to complete the top.

I chose to work with " Broken Dishes" pattern. I had a large piece of  a gray Indian woven fabric and added some bright solids to get the contrast.  These days, my primary goal has been to limit buying new fabrics so I am sticking with what's in the sewing room.

I made the blocks with freehand cutting and curved piecing.

Not sure what the words are going to be at this point.  Realistically, it will be something short and simple.

I have been very inspired by all of your quilts.  

It has been really fun watching everyone's quilts evolve and read the stories behind them.

 Definitely a fun experience!

Stay tuned for more pictures soon!

Oh Baby - Quilting Arts

Oh Baby - Quilting Arts

A Flimsy Finish

Snuggle

54" x 68"

I finally got this finished and I love it!!! I'm so happy with this quilt top. It was painful at times, and I sometimes had to force myself to work on it, but I love it now. I can't wait until it's quilted!

I think I'll be putting my intials and the year pieced into the back. Just a last finishing touch.

You can read all about this and see more photos here.

Thank you, Tonya! This was the biggest bit of free-piecing I've ever done, and I learned that it's not as hard or as scary as I thought it would be. As a matter of fact, I think I may have trouble "following the rules" now!

I Couldn't Stop!

So I'm finally done. Wow, does this feel good. There have been so many creative and beautiful quilts posted here and I think that held me back, thinking I couldn't make mine look nearly as creative and individual as you all did. But I am very happy with how mine turned out. I took a break and came back to things and this is the final result.

It finished at approx 30 x 42. I want to hand quilt this one, maybe feathered cables up the black bars, I've never hand quilted feathers before so it would be another first....or I might "big stitch".
Background on this project/design:
My husband passed away in Dec 2007, a few months after we moved to a new town. I spent 2008 with lawyers and bankers and creditors trying to settle his estate (no will). Dec 08 came along and I thought I best take care of myself so I did all the dr check ups and everything was great. I'm thinking, 2009 has got to get better, this has got to settle and I have got to move forward. During this year, I was basically paralyzed with fear. Fear to spend a penny, fear that I was going to loose everything, fear that I would have to leave the U.S. (I was initially denied my green card right after my husband passed), fear that I was not going to be able to get up out of bed and go to work and function. 2009 rolls in and in April I found a lump in my breast. Yes, it was cancer, and yes, I had a mammo in Dec 08, so I spent the next 6 months dealing with that. And the estate did settle, in June 2009.
Anyways, people keep using the word "survivor" and I have never felt comfortable with that word. I was surviving when I couldn't function the year before. With cancer the doctors have a plan and you follow along and hope for the best. But I think the word survivor sounds like you are barely getting by. Thriving is how I like to think I am doing. I'm living, I'm thriving, I'm gardening, I'm quilting, I bought a home and I'm doing great. So this quilt has quite a bit of "recovery" in it, I'll treasure it and I THANK everyone for participating and making this a great project.
May you all be "thriving"
Best,
Sharon

My First Attempt at Letters

It's been quite some time since I finished the center of this project. I am a procrastinator to the Nth degree when I have a task ahead of me that I'm not sure how to tackle. So yesterday I had a bit of time after putting in my garden and I cleaned off my cutting table, pulled out my scraps of black and brights and got to work.

This is my first attempt at these letters, the 2 was a challenge. Now that I'm into them, I want to put one word along the top, I've got one letter made so far. None are sewn together yet, but it looks like I may meet the deadline of having the top finished in June. I still have a few more weekends!
Sharon

I've liberated my project into a flimsy

So I finally sewed on the last borders of this project, bringing it up to 56 by 68 and now I'm wondering if I should put on top and bottom borders to get it to a single size, or just stick to my original plan of a throw size. I had great plans of hand quilting elaborate Amish-style motifs on this, but I am going to back it with navy microfleece and tie it so it is done sooner. This isn't the greatest photo -- I need to pick off millions of thread and give it another good pressing.

All Quilted

I've had my small Bars top done for some time, and now the simple quilting is finished too. I washed the quilt, because this deep dark Kona indigo simply grabbed every little fuzzy in the air-and I like the washed appearance. Wish I had made this a bit larger for a small lap quilt (I am a rather small person!).
The best part of this Get Together has been seeing how everyone has interpreted their choice of pattern, the colors they have used, the words they have chosen for their quilts--and reading the great stories that go along with each quilt. I definitely want to work more with solids. Thanks, Tonya!

not done yet

I'm not the only one enjoying this quilt....

HI All!
Not done yet! But I am working on it!!

I finally have the letters the way I wanted...
now I have a full set of the others ones from m y first attempt.. what will become of those!
scratching my head....

Am going to try to finish this top tonight...
I'm so inspired by all everyone's finishes!

now what to do with my borders....
(she wanders off to ponder that)

have a good day!