Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Color Inspiration

Two different color palettes for two different feelings--a summer's day and misty mountains (the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee). These were made using Big Huge Lab's Mosaic Maker as part of the Color Intensive course offered by Rachel of Stitched in Color.

 


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Concentration Waining

I really, really thought that getting back into quilting would help me recover from my grief. While I enjoy reading about quilting on the blogs I follow and reading about color in my color course and watching Craftsy videos. I have taken ALL day to cut out 3.5 inch squares for my monochromatic napkin. We are talking about 36 squares here--not 336.

Because my stash was not monochromatic--all my fabrics seem to have more than one color and I don't have a good stash of solids--have to work on that--, I spent time in my LQS yesterday picking out monochromatic fabrics in colors I really like. Now, at home, however, I find that my enthusiasm for the colors has disappeared. This has become a project to get through, not one I am enjoying. Maybe I needed to start with warm colors, like yellow/orange instead of the cool colors.

I know time will help me heal from the fire and death of my mother, but thoughts of her pop into my head regularly. One of the last things we discussed was how she didn't quite see me as a quilter. My next project is going to be the quilt we decided at Christmas that I would make for her. She helped me pick the fabric and the design. I wish she were here to watch it come to life.

Below is the aqua napkin pre-sewing. 


Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Monday, February 17, 2014

Life Update

I am terribly sorry that I have been missing in action since Feb. 1. Shortly after I posted my fabric stash post, I found out that my mother had passed away in a house fire in our house in Arkansas. I am not sure when I will post another quilt post, but I will get back to quilting soon. There is just a lot to do right now in terms of taking care of my dad, salvaging items from the house, and working with insurance and construction people. We are still searching for my parents' wedding album, but so far no luck.

They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last year and we were all there to celebrate with them. Below are photos from their wedding and their 60th anniversary remake. I am glad I took a photo of at least one photo from the album.



Saturday, February 1, 2014

Fabric Sale: Oh No!

Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh no! Dorothy I am not, but I am afraid of fabric sales--I buy too much! Today is the last day of Textile Fabrics' (Nashville, TN) annual sale. ALL fabric is 40% off! I managed to avoid going for a month--telling myself I have enough fabric--but who can ever have enough beautiful fabric? Yesterday I caved and walked away with a massive, massive addition to my stash and no room to store it!

My favorites, random as they are, include
  • Acacia by Tula Pink print (the purple flowers below) 
  • Collage by Carrie Bloomston for Such Designs (the red with print stripes)
  • In My Room by Jeanean Morrison for FreeSpirit (the orange/gray flowers)
  • Gypsy Bandana by Pillows & Maxfield, Michael Miller fabrics (the red with green flowers) 
  • Bon Appetit by Whistler Studios for Windham (black and white print).
I limited myself to five, but I love all the others too. Truthfully, that is not exactly true. Some I bought because I never buy light hues and needed some in my stash and I could see them as fillers. I like the fillers, don't love them.  You have to have some contrast in your quilts!


Here are the rest. To get the 40% off, I had to buy a yard each, so I have fabric for awhile. I usually buy fat quarters or 1/2 yards.

Even though you cannot see it, the black polka dot has yellow in it too. It actually looks good with the red stripe/print at the other end of the table. The brown/orangish polka dot is prettier "in person," but is more of a like than a love.

I am a huge fan of gray, but in completing a project noticed I didn't have any black in my stash, so added this printed black. Got 3 yards of the gray with circles because I can so see that as part of an interesting back to a quilt.

Anna Marie Horner, Tula Pink, and a cool modern backing type of fabric.

 Truthfully, the beigy one in the middle is the another one I just like.