A Few Good Turkey's

To all of our stateside friends a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I made this middle turkey several years ago, like maybe 18. Over the years I have found patterns on ebay and various other outlets. They crack me up! The pheasant was an especially great find, I think.

The turkey on the right I picked up at a small guild quilt show in the boutique. It went un-noticed and unloved until it was tucked under my arm, then everyone wondered where I found it. The early bird catches the turkey?

How is this for vintage kitch. I surmise that they were made circa late 50's or 60's, it hard to date a thing this precious. My small group friend, Jane, actually gave me these popsickle sticks decorated with fabric and felt to make a lovely, and do mean lovely centerpiece, or in this case stoop decoration. Thanks, Jane!

And lastly, this is a little quilt I made a long time ago. I used patterns from a much larger quilt, and then hand quilted it. I'm happy to see this old friend every year.

Wishing you all a happy gobble day!

Cupcake Update

November's Cupcake meeting was at Jill's lovely home.

Here is her fall decorated hutch. Does she have the best way with display, or what?

We were trying out a new product for our hat box quilt project. Misty Fuse, it's light, soft and hard to get. We liked the way it worked and we're working on getting some.


Lunchtime - Jill always sets a beautiful table.


We enjoyed Pumpkin Soup and Quiche -oh my!

Look at these cutest ever little mushroom cookies. Short bread stems and chocolate tops, dark and milk chocolate. Wouldn't these be cute with a Yule Log, or a Gingerbread House display?


Poor Riley, wasn't feeling his usual bouncy self. He is the sweetest labradoodle I know.

I'm always thankful for the Cupcake Club - but we're still missing Mary and her ray sunshine.

All About Bill

Hi all-

I'm behind on my posting and I do have a few to catch up on. The recent fabric shortage had me in a design frenzy, but I endeaver to catch up now.

Recently Bill Kerr of Fun Quilts came to pay a visit at the Garden State Quilters.

His presentation was on the theory of "luminosity" in quilting. It was very interesting and enlightening (rrr).

I attended his workshop the next day. Here are some quilts that display luminosity that Bill brought to share with us:





Such serious students....


Here is my friend, Lori's, quilt. I love this quilt. See the luminosity the light yellow created? cool...This is a quilt I made a few years ago, and it has luminosity also. It has to do with color and contrast. It's a formula of sorts and that is what we were trying to identify and create.


Bill's such a nice person. I may be biased, but aren't most mid-westerners?


Bill gave us each a photo copy of a painting that showed luminosity. Our assignment was to create a color block that represented the proportion of color.

Here is mine:

Susan's:
Lori's:Darn - don't remember who's, sorry!

Bill suggested that we make a little quilt using just half square trianges in a broken dishes setting with this study. So here is my work in progress:

And finished. Rich suggested that I place the trianges to really represent the painting, so I did. He also called "dibs" on this piece, as he really liked it.



here is a close up of the quilting. I just did waves in brown thread.

and finally, the back, left over really broken dishes....
It was a great creative exercise. One that I really thought about, as opposed to my intuitive way of working.

Selvages:
This is my quilt project so far: (sorry, forgot to crop - nice vent)


And these are little pin cushions that I'm making to thank friends who have been extra generous with selvages.

I hope to post again tomorrow -

Fabric APB

Help! this is an All Points Bulletin

I've started an applique' project and I've run out fabric :(

Normally, I would see this as an "opportunity" but not this time. I've tried several replacement fabrics and they are not cooperating.

Do you have any BENARTEX DOCUMENTARIES pink fabric like this:

I would trade any kind of fabric you'd like for it. Even a fat quarter would help me tremendously! I've been through the on-line avenues and haven't come up with anything.

desperate in NJ
barb

I'm on Pins and Needles

I'm so excited about my new Selvage Edge project! I was inspired by the Selvage Edge Blog and Karen Griska's wonderful book, Quilts from the Selvage Edge available through Amazon.

So, here is my first official finished project:



I have labeled each page of the book with the corresponding needle. I've also put them in the order of most use for me.

Why did I not do this sooner? 20 years into quilting and I just now thought of it? Duh.

These were my needle books until today. They are cute, and both of them were gifts from quilt friends, but what are these needles? What are their purpose?


This is the "stock room" for the needles, I had no less that 5 packs of the same size quilting needle.....
I sorted the selvages into long and short, doesn't this look neat and pretty? Well it isn't now....it's a mess up there with cuttings all over that work space.


Mid afternoon I received 2 wonderful packages in the mail full, and I mean, stuffed with an incredible array of selvages. Thanks Carmella and Kathie!!


Here is a sneak peak at what is next. I have made many more of these blocks, but I am unhappy with the way the color thing is going and think I will change that up today.


Hi Mary - hope the moving in and getting settled is going well!

Quilt Show Finale

This is the last post of the recent Brownstone Quilters show.

Here is my quilt "There's No Place Like Oz". I was so excited when this fabric came out because I love the Wizard of Oz. I used to love the delicious frightened feeling of seeing Miss Gulch and the tornado. As you may remember, I went as Dorothy this year for Halloween.

I decided to take a different approach when designing this quilt. I used inspiration from an antique quilt at the NYC Folk Art Museum. It's a simple puss in the corner quilt set strippy style.


I did a lot of fussy cutting to center elements of the fabric that I wished to highlight.

The real party is on the back where I let loose and used all the fabrics in the sepia line.What a tremendous surprise when it was selected for Judges Choice by Lorry Chwazik. It also received an Honorable Mention in the category.

This is Pauline's quilt. It won for Best Use of Color.


Nice quilting.






This is my flag quilt. I used mostly americana shirtings and prints. I overdyed the entire quilt after it was completed and it gave it a nice aged look.



Here are a group of quilts (sorry I missed a couple!) that were inspired by or reproduced from the New Jersey Heritage Book.





This is my Sumptuous Stars, which I've posted before.


This is my flying geese; Elegant Migration.



And last (but not least) my Asian Flower Garden.


Whew - It was a wonderful show. Of course, I didn't take photos of all the quilts because sometimes I get busy looking and admiring and thinking about them, then I blow it on the photography -- but I think it's a good overview. Hope you enjoyed it!