Memory Quilt #4 and My Not Quite Formal Flowers

Here is memory quilt #4.  I  actually did what I set out to do - make 4 different patterns.  

What's really funny is that I thought I knew which one would be my favorite, but as I made each one, they all became special.  My favorite changed four times!!

We'll see which one ends up in my house.....

Last year I was obsessed with making these bright leaves, it was my car project several times.  When it was all said and done, I had over 400 and needed to think about what to make with them.  

My Dahlia Revisited was the first project to use a bunch of them.  Since I had to make more purple and green to make the colors work it didn't go very far in trying to use up my 400 plus leaves.

 I needed another car project last month and decided to start a vase of flowers with bright blue stems to go with the bright leaves.

I knew I didn't want it formal like "Vintage Blooms" below, so it's quite modern I think :).  I like the B&W vase with the colored leaves.

So instead of Baltimore Album like this.....

I got this!  And did you notice there are no flowers - just leaves?  They are not in their final places yet, but it's pretty close.  The yellow dot for the background will work for this once I get another border around it to set it off.

I've started the applique but it's now become a lunch time project at work, so it might take a while.

And since this is the year of green and purple for me, I'm getting ready to start a new green and purple quilt.  This time I'm adding black and white.  I've drawn it out in EQ7 so we'll see how things go.

After the sadness lately, there's a lot of  happy color therapy going on :).

Happy stitching today,

Karen

A Little Package of Happiness

I had a little box waiting at my door - my prize package from Quilters Newsletter from the 45 year challenge.  It's so much fun to get goodies in the mail :).

These 12 spools of Aurifil thread are so beautiful.   I can't wait until I have time to play with all these different colors in some very pretty projects.

There were 2 fun looking patterns from Pre-Furred Quilts. 

There were 3 rulers from Omnigrid.

This "On Point" ruler looks really interesting - I'll open it and try it soon.

These 2 books offer a lot of inspiration.  I have never tried dyeing my own fabric, but this book sure has a lot of information.

These blues and creams are so beautiful.  I'm not sure what I'm going to make yet, but they are scrumptious!

On a personal note, we had the estate sale yesterday at my brother-in-law's house.  It's quite overwhelming to empty an entire house and try and sell it.  My brain needs a little break, but I will be ready to start creating soon, I'm sure.

Karen

Momoe's Star from a New Friend

I got an email last month from someone who lives in Ottawa, Canada.  She was looking for information about Momoe's Star and had found my blog after doing a search.  I've made 3 of these quilts, have taught several workshops on the pattern and blogged about it here, so my blog came up when she did a search.  We communicated back and forth several times, and then a few days ago.......

I received these pictures.  In about 5 weeks time, Anita Brazeau completed her first Momoe's Star as a gift for her sister.  And this is NOT a small quilt either.

I am completely blown away by the beauty of the quilt and the speed by which she made it.  She told me she machine pieced the blocks and hand pieced the quilt.  Anita, you are amazing and your quilt is too.  I hope your next Momoe's Star is for you :)!

Happy Stitching,

Karen

Green and Purple - The End of the Story

I can now tell the complete story of my little green and purple quilt.  First of all, it has a name, "Dahlia Revisited".  And it was created for a very special reason.  I made this quilt for the contest that Quilters Newsletter was having to celebrate their 45th Anniversay.  The rules were simple, create a quilt that celebrates 45 years of quilting, make it 45"x45" and attach an artist statement explaining why the quilt represents 45 years of quilting.  I found out a few days ago that I was chosen as a finalist and that my quilt placed in the top 5! I've won a great prize package and I found out my quilt will hang as part of a special exhibit for QN at the Quilting Live event in Atlanta next month!

I didn't even know anything about the contest until after our quilt show in April when I was catching up on some reading.  The grand prize was a Bernina - which kind of caught my eye.  I've never owned a Bernina and thought that would be fun.  But I didn't know what to do that would represent 45 years until I did the math.  I made my very first quilt 45 years ago - 1969!!

Here is my very first quilt - simply named "Dahlia".  It's a Lemoyne Star with a gathered star flower in the center. Not a typical pattern for a first quilt - but it must have seemed like a good idea in 1969.  There are 30 blocks, it's a generous queen size, and it's completely hand pieced!  Not only are the blocks hand pieced, but all the sashings are hand pieced.

Lest you think that was easy, you can see here that I had a little bit of trouble.  To make things more interesting, all the white fabric is a sheet.  I guess I thought since the sheet worked so well on the front, I would use another one on the back!!  True story - but remember it was the 70's and I had no clue what I was doing.  (The quilting speaks for itself.)

In addition to having trouble doing the hand piecing,  it seems I also had trouble with the applique.  I wish someone would have told me to match the thread.  Guess I had a lot of white thread lying around LOL!!  

But back to the challenge....  What led to my idea for "Dahlia Revisited" was when I realized that somewhere in my stash there were scraps from this quilt and I was pretty sure I knew where they were.  Yes, I've been saving my scraps for 45 years!  

I searched EQ7 for a pattern and couldn't find anything close.  I also couldn't find anything similar on  the internet.  So I made a Leymone Star block out of my original 1969 fabric and tried to create my original block.  After 45 years, I didn't have a clue how I'd made them so I had to just kind of make it up as I went along.  It's not exact, but it's close enough.  This block does look a lot like a block I found called Amish Dahlia.  Does anyone know anything more about this block?

Well I eventually got the block made and then found lots of fabric from my stash that I could use.  If you remember from previous posts, I agonized quite a while on the quilting, but in the end, I was pleased. 

It's such a happy quilt.  The colors were a little hard to match exactly, and I didn't know what to use for the vine.  Suprisingly, what looked best was the original fabric.  I found a long piece cut on the bias that I had used for the binding.  It was perfect.  

So here they are together.  I am so thrilled that QN thought enough of my quilt to award me a finalist prize (even if it wasn't the machine LOL).  When they told me that these quilts would hang as a special exhibit in Atlanta next month, I realized that "Organic Pink Pickles" will also be hanging as a special exhibit for the NYC MQG DWR Challenge at the same event.  Two of my quilts hanging at Quilting Live!!  It really doesn't seem real.  Needless to say, I am planning a trip to Atlanta next month to see both my babies :)!!

It will be Sept. 11-13 if anyone is interested in going.  I'll be there :).

Thanks for sharing in my joy,

Karen