Have you noticed all the quilt bloggers who show little bits of this and little bits of that and never show their quilt room unless they cleaned it all first? Come on! You cannot quilt and be a perfect neat freak at the same time.  Here is photo of my quilt room with my sweet little round table stacked high with quilt books, baskets of doo-dads, and other crap.  One thing you can do with your festive summer bunting, is bring it in from the patio and hang it in your quilt room.  The blue baby quilt top laying on the buffet on the right, is covering my violin case.  Violin? What violin?  Yes. I have neglected my violin in the name of quilting, like some maniac.  I love the pellet stove; it keeps my sweet room of bliss nice and toasty all winter long!



Zebra Quilt layout for Zebra II Quilt

Zebra Dreams quilt: First quilt I made in 2012, has plenty of unused yardage left over.  My adult daughter has wanted me to quilt her zebra wall hanging or quilt for sometime.  She picked out a couple fabrics two years ago, and I found some other fabrics last summer to go with it.  I started it in November 2011 and completed in February 2012.  I did some zebra research and decided on Zebra Dreams as the name. I actually began sewing the sun part first and grew it from there.  I really am satisfied with how it came out and Mary really likes it. She has moved to a cooler climate since I made it, and I am now progressing on a quilt to go with it.  I used my curved piecing skills to piece the landscape and the night sky to the edge of the sun.  The center of the sun and the moon are appliqued, as are the vulture, trees, dreamy fish, and zebra.       The quilt I am working on now is not curvy and does not have applique.  It is going to go on her bed and I have decided on a block pattern.  See preliminary layout above.



Zebra Dreams quilt





Cherries Jubalee

 I first long-arm quilted last Columbus Day at the Blue Bird Quilt Studio in downtown Nampa, Idaho.  This is my Cherry's Jubalee Quilt. I purchased the pattern at the Quilt Crossing in Boise and took the class there, from Nancy Doan.  That was in October 2009.  You can be really creative with these circles.  I actually finished another quilt with circled between starting this one and getting it finished. I had to let it age or something. But it was good timing, because then I was ready to do the long-arm quilting. I noticed I was having a run of baby quilt photos on my blog, and thought I should include one of the larger ones I have done.  Pete's "Moose and Squirrel" quilt is the largest I have done this year. A photo of it is in the June postings. Good night!



for baby James



At last, I am posting a photo of baby James quilt.  It is in blue and white, with a "ship" theme; sailing ships, rocket ships, and little white anchors all around the border.  Approximately 33X33 inches.  I did the cheaty binding I learned at the Hen House Quilting Retreat, but sewed it with the back facing up, so I could sew close to the edge of the binding strip, so there is no flapping about. I used dark blue thread so it matches and the top looks crisp and clean.

Today we went to the Nick Cave exhibit at the Boise Art Museum (BAM).  WOW! I have to rethink cleaning out and giving my sweaters to Goodwill. I have this stack of doilies that I could not part with, but do not use. I have an entirely new sewing project in my not too distant future.  My pet peeve with BAM is they do not allow photos to be taken in their museum.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, lets you take photos, and so does that fancy art museum in North Carolina, but not BAM. So, I went on-line, after we got back from our gluten-free lunch at Five Guys and an eye-opening time at the art museum, and found a ton of photos of Nick Cave's creations.  So, I have picked one, to put on my blog, so you can see what fantastic textile artistry is going on here. Although he also reuses found materials from thrift stores, including ceramic bird nic-nacs, old metal toys, metal sculptures, afghans, bags, hats, doilies, buttons, etc.  His costume creations are fantastic. They are stunning from a distance, and the tiny details are fabulous.  Part of the sleeve on one of the costumes had reverse applique on it that made the design.  I so wished I could take a photo.  Here is a photo I found on-line that shows some of the yarn and button detail on one of the costumes.