Inspiration

I read the Design*Sponge blog pretty much every day,  and I'm constantly finding inspiration there- usually for re-upholstering furniture, or redecorating my room.. The other day I came across the most beautiful gallery of quilts:

http://counterpanehandmade.com/free-hand-quilts/

I've never seen quilts like this, most of the quilt blogs I've read are all about traditional patterns, paper piecing, precision techniques...but these are completely different. I love her style, the color combinations, the vintage fabrics she used...it all looks so comfortable. I feel like after a hot summer day, I'd want to wrap up in one of her quilts and sit in a hammock by a lake as the evening cools off...

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The internet is full of awesome things. Have you ever found a picture of something you'd like to make, saved it for inspiration, and then never again been able to find the site you found it on? I have dozens of folders of pictures just like that, and I'm finding it incredibly annoying that I didn't keep track of my sources.
I'm slowwwly going through all of them, trying to re-locate each picture, each tutorial.. so I can keep track of them all on Pinterest.
So if you need some inspiration, or just want to look at pretty quilts, check out what inspires me:

I'm back!

It's been almost two years since I updated this page... hard to believe! Which  means this is about to be the longest post EVER.
Ready?
Go.

I started two quilts last fall, one was a Christmas present for my dad, the other for myself. I worked in my usual style- not planning anything (or if I did, not sticking to the plan), not using patterns, just letting the quilt build itself. And I branched out from my usual cotton and started to experiment with velvet, satin, and even metallic lycra.
I woke up one morning in September with a crazy inspiration to start a new quilt (after having a pretty severe creative dry spell for most of 2011) I finally brought all my fabric from my mom's to my new apartment and dove in headfirst- materials and colors that I've never used before in quilts, had the entire quilt planned out, and finished the first 8 or 9 rows in one weekend.

Once I started, I decided to stick with yellow, rather than fading out to orange and red like I had originally planned.. But then I ran out of yellow. I got stuck for about six months, and only recently started working on it again. Turns out it's difficult to find a yellow cotton with an orange pattern in the wintertime! So I packed it away for a while, figuring I'd pull it out again in the summer when I could find more bright prints to choose from. I found exactly the right fabric during an impromptu visit to a thrift store last month, and I'm thrilled to see this quilt get closer to being finished!

It still needs another foot or so in each direction, then it will fit a queen sized bed. And then the hardest question of all....what to use for the back? I'm thinking black, and maybe a little row of yellow/orange strips, or squares.

I started my Dad's quilt in October, right after I got stuck with the yellow quilt. I went out looking for inspiration to start the quilt, and found a blue velvet bathrobe from the company "Jasmine Rose'...so obviously I took that as a sign to base the quilt around that fabric. After getting stuck a few times, and taking out more than a few rows, I finished the quilt in December (okay..so I didn't finished the edges until March, but it was put together in time for Christmas morning!)

My sister made two of the matching pillows (center and left), incorporating some of the same velvets that I used in the quilt. I made the pillow on the right last summer as a birthday present. I hadn't started the quilt yet, but it ended up matching the style and color pretty perfectly.


Last week I started a new quilt with a similar style the yellow quilt, but haven't taken any photos yet. (I will once it's a little bigger.) These two are a little different from my usual style: none of the little strips, or squares, like in my early projects. I'm not really sure how to describe what I do- I don't think there's a name for the technique..and I've never come across anything like my quilts (except my sister's..but even she has her own style). I think that's pretty awesome.

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I've moved into (and out of) half a dozen apartments since I started this blog, lived in three different states, and graduated college.. It's been an amazing few years, filled with countless projects and adventures, and I wish I'd documented more of the projects as I completed them (rather than going back now and filling in all at once).

Two years ago I came across this link: http://blairpeter.typepad.com/weblog/2009/08/stash-value-quilt.html.  I fell in love with the bright, happy colors, the style so different from what I usually made..and I welcomed the opportunity to use all my fabrics with bold patterns. This quilt was fun to make.. a little time consuming, but very easy.
I completed mine during the summer of 2010.

A wonderful tutorial showed me the easiest/ most efficient way to get all those triangles cut and paired: http://sewkatiedid.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/value-quilts-tutorial/


I just started four new quilts, three are commission pieces, and I'm beyond excited to have all these projects to work on. To date I've finished eight quilts: five as gifts, two for myself, and the last (the triangle value quilt, above) lives on my mom's couch...but I have yet to sell one. I've wanted to for years, but haven't really know how to start. Until now.

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A few of my other recent projects. 2012 has been a busy year so far!
New pillowcases to match the new room (the old cases had neon polka dots..didn't quite fit with the teal walls!)

A little zip-up pouch for my headphones and iphone charger. It took less than an hour from start to finish, and the directions couldn't be easier to follow. The (fantastic) tutorial I followed can be found here:

http://erinerickson.com/2011/11/circle-zip-earbud-pouch-tutorial/

And today I finished a new case for my Kindle, to protect the screen from getting scratched up. I didn't use a tutorial or anything, just started piecing scraps together, then traced the outline of the Kindle to make the sleeve.

This made me giggle.

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

A new quilt!

I started a new quilt a couple weeks ago. Same style as my others, but a totally different color scheme. I usually go for bright, spunky colors and prints (especially the batiks) but this one was inspired by a blue silk bathrobe that I've been dying to cut up and a whole bunch of blue and brown vintage floral prints. The silk is proving to be difficult to work with, especially since I've only worked with cotton before, but I like the challenge. And I love how it looks.

I've been messing around with the layout of this for a few weeks and finally ended up with one I liked. So for my first official Project Thursday, last week I finally unpacked all of my sewing stuff (which had been untouched since the move home) and got to work. It's been over a year since I made one of these quilts- the last one I made was a baby quilt for my best friend, last summer. Pictures of that will be up soon.

I was a little intimidated about starting another big, crazy quilt, because I was having such a hard time picking fabrics and laying it all out, but it got easier once I started sewing. Unfortunately, it is 10pm and this Thursday has been fairly uncreative. (Not to say that it hasn't been productive, though.) I guess I'll have to have Project Friday this week, instead.

In other news, I think I've finally got everything unpacked from the move. And almost all of it is organized. (I'm such a Virgo.) It's been so satisfying to go through everything, again. I'm up to 8 full trash bags of things to sell at the family yard sale this summer. It looks like my entire family is going to be contributing to the sale- it's going to be huge. We're aiming for Saturday of Memorial Day weekend...more on that as it gets closer.

New favorite song: When I'm With You, by Best Coast. Check it out.

Three Quilts for Christmas.

For Christmas gifts in 2008, my sister and I made a total of five quilts. We finished three of them on Christmas eve. My sister made one for her boyfriend and we each helped out to make one for our mom, one for mom's boyfriend, and one for our dad. I also made one in the fall, for my boyfriend. It was the most awesome feeling to watch as they all opened their presents and know that we had made them. I'm really looking forward to giving more of these as gifts.

I chose the colors for my mom's quilt based on the six chakras: Root (red), Sacrum (orange), Solar Plexus (yellow), Heart (green), Throat (blue), Third Eye (purple), Crown (white). I really didn't want a bright rainbow quilt, though, so I used more earthy, muted colors, and I love the result. It's backed in maroon flannel and filled with all natural cotton batting.

I made this quilt as a present for my boyfriend, using his favorite colors. It is queen sized and backed with soft flannel, a new idea because it was made when the weather was turning chilly. I unfortunately never got a better picture of the finished quilt. I hope he kept it.

Pictures of Rose's quilt for Tyler can be found on our other quilt blog, here:

http://mrejdecrazyquilts.blogspot.com/

As of right now we seem to be missing pictures of the quilts we made for Rick and our Dad. If I come across them though, I'll be sure to post them.

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New music recommendation: Shpongle.

Blue crazy quilt

This is the second quilt I made, which is twin sized. It took a considerable amount of time to make the front because of the sheer number of 6" long strips of material that had to be cut. It was worth the effort though- I really like the busy look of all the strips. I made this the summer after my first year at college and took this picture before the edging was done. Unfortunately, two years later, the edging is still not done. My only UFO... maybe this will be the summer that I finish it?

Crazy quilt.

Finally! A post about quilts! Here is a picture of the very first quilt I made. I just put it back on my bed this week and it instantly felt like summer (despite the un-summerlike weather).

I made this quilt during my senior year of high school, about three years ago. I got the idea after I found a quilt that I had helped my mom make when I was really little. The color was obviously inspired by the orange wall in my room, and I really love how the green contrasts with it. It brightens up the room instantly.

I worked without a pattern, and found that I really liked not planning it all out first. It took several months to make the front, a few days to make the back and assemble the layers, and then another few weeks to get through handstitching all the edges.