Finding Inspiration

I’ve not been posting many projects lately because I am working like a dog on my book. Do dogs work hard? Most dogs I know don’t, but maybe if you’re a sled dog in Alaska or something. Anyway, since I can’t give you many details about the book, I thought I’d share a couple of  things that have been inspiring me lately.

Quilts of Gee’s Bend: I can’t remember what year I first laid eyes on these amazing quilts, but the power that these women put in their work is amazing. I think these quilts speak volumes about the beauty of necessity. Pictured below is Mary Lee Bendolph’s Blocks and Strips of 2002.

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Children’s art: As always, I’m influenced and inspired by my children’s art. There’s something about the simplicity and directness in the work of a child that can’t be imitated. My seven-year-old’s apple drawing is pictured below. She was working on a cardboard box, which created those great textural lines.

apple-drawing

Liberty of London: Always an inspiration. And I will definitely be making a trip to Target on March 15 when their new line arrives. Look at this adorable girl’s dress. You can see a few other images on the Oprah website. Thanks to Laura for sending me that link!

liberty-of-london-for-targe

Oh, and one more thing that I wanted to mention. The very talented Kristal of The Rikrak Studio is holding a fun competition called the Handmade Olympics and I was nominated in the category of Favourite Blog with a Handmaking Focus. So I wanted to say thanks to Kristal and to Tara of Scoutie Girl for putting me on the list of finalists. If you’d like to vote for me here, I would be grateful.

handmade-olympics

Quilt Contest Winners

Check out the winners from the baby quilt contest at Make Baby Stuff.  There were some great entries and I was thrilled to be a judge.  Take a look for some quilty inspiration.  The winning entry (pictured above) is called Counting Sheep, made by Gina from Kansas.  I love the sweet little embroidered sheep.

A Quilted Throw

I’ve been thinking about why I can never complete a quilting project.   I find that I get sick of the fabric patterns before I’m even done with the top!  So here it is — my attempt at a solids quilt.  I think I will use this taupe linen and give it lots of negative space.  Although I love quilts with great pattern and color, living with them is another thing for me.  Of course I’m already second guessing my color choices here.  Seems sort of Charlie Brown seventies.  Oh well, if I can just press on we’ll see how it looks.

Baby Quilt Contest

It’s pretty exciting and somewhat hilarious that I have been asked to help judge this Baby Quilt Contest over at Make Baby Stuff, a fabulous site filled with creative ideas for…you guessed it – stuff to make for babies! I’m thrilled to be in the company of some of my favorite bloggers.

So, if you love to make quilts or have always wanted to try one, now is the time! In addition to basking in the glory of being a winner, the top three quilters will receive gift certificates to Superbuzzy! So get stitching and submit your entry here.

Pinwheel Quilted Coasters

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Here are some pinwheel quilted coasters for summertime entertaining. I used Amy Butler’s Lotus dots available here mixed with a linen/cotton solid. I think this design would be nice with striped or gingham fabrics as well. This project took me about 2 hours to make four coasters.

Since I don’t really quilt, I found a couple of challenges. Be sure to cut all of your fabric perfectly and make sure the seams line up so that your pinwheel points will meet.  I got this fine when I started actually paying attention.  I also had a little trouble sewing in the ditch, but I think I’ll get better with practice. Quilting seems to require a level of precision that I don’t possess. Still, this is a pretty straight-forward project and I think it would be a good introduction to quilting for beginners (like me).

Supplies:

  • Fabric Scraps
  • Matching thread
  • Bamboo quilt batting (four small pieces)
  • Iron

NOTE: Seam allowance is 1/4″.
Step #1: Cut fabrics according to template: pinwheel-coasters-template.pdf

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Step #2: Press all fabrics and begin to sew triangles together to form squares. Then press back seam towards darker fabric and trim edges. Make sure that each section is a true square and should be about 3″.

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Step #3: Lay out squares for each coaster to make the pinwheel pattern. Sew two squares together to make a rectangle. Repeat.

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Step #4: Align mid-point of each half of the pinwheel and press one side of each new seam to opposite sides so that the seams won’t be too bulky for your machine to sew (see picture below). Sew these two rectangles together to form the full square of the top of the coaster.

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Step #5: Press open the middle seam as shown below. Place patchwork top and cut bottom fabric, right sides together, and sew around three sides. Trim any excess fabric, particularly around the corners. Turn right sides out and punch corners out with a pointed (but not sharp) object.

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Step #6: Cut your batting just a bit smaller than your finished coaster and insert into the opening, being sure that it gets into the corners and lays flat. Turn in the unfinished seam and press.

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Step #7: Sew a stitch all around the coaster 1/4″ from the edge (pictured above). Then quilt on the seams of the pinwheel design. Add one last row of stitching between the edge of the coaster and the first edge stitching to make a double row, as shown below. All done!

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As always, projects from the long thread are for personal use only. If you make these coasters, be sure to post a photo to the Make it Monday Flickr group. For more summer pinwheel excitement that the kids can enjoy, try making this paper pinwheel.