How about some Boise quilt show pics?

Riddle me this -- when you accidentally load the same pic twice it is really difficult to find the right key combination to delete it. But when you want a picture it is soooooooooooo easy to do whatever it is that deletes it. Grrr.

But I digress before I even get started. Since it is only a week away from the Kuna show I figured we better start looking at pics from the Boise show held at the end of June.

This first one is blue, I know, but it is really pretty. And you know I love this block. And I love the scalloped border. I will have to try that I guess. (And yes, it adds insult to injury that the pic that I accidentally deleted and had to reload was blue!) I am not a fan of batiks but I really like the block in this quilt. Besides it is Boise State colours.

Here is the whole thing.

And here is another block close up. Isn't it interesting? And actually, now that I stare at this block, the quilt is not really batiks is it? Just has that look. And lots of those taupe Japanese fabrics or Japanese like fabrics. I stand corrected.

Here is a bright one. I love the way the wheels on the bus go round and round. Well, you know what I mean -- lots of movement in these circles.

Here is a closer look at part of it. Bright colours, black and white so it has reverse colours, and lots of curved sewing. Eek on the curved sewing part.

I guess I am in a blue phase. I love the way the blocks form the pattern in this one. So simple yet so effective.

It does contain at least half a bazillion HSTs though, doesn't it? Nice quilting, too. I am getting to like solids more and more.

A more traditional quilt.

And nice reds and greens. I like the use of the stripe as a border and I love the all the fabrics used in the block. Checks, stripes, and a nice star variation.

This one was in the featured quilter area on a table so the shot is kind of funny. I like that it uses purple.

More next time. I will try to be back sooner rather than later. Life keeps getting in the way of personal blogging. You know how that goes. Hope no one melts out there.

Mid Year's Resolutions

You can make them mid-year, can't you, not just at New Year's? I think I need to resolve to stop buying fabric until I use more up. The stash is definitely getting out of control. The shelves are stuffed to overflowing. What brought this on you ask? Well, if you must know, digging in my scrap bin. Which is also overflowing.

I am working on several projects at once and they require digging in scraps and in the stash and this has brought cold hard reality to the fore. I really have a lot of fabric! I bet you are not surprised. But such cool stuff keeps coming out. And it can make some of the things in my stash look a little tired and forlorn.

Plus sometimes when you are digging in your stash don't you just wonder how you ended up with some of it? I think our tastes change a bit over time plus there is always the stuff that gets bought when you just have to have another red or green for some project. Or blue. Yesterday I bought some blue at Joann's with my 50% off coupon because I really did need some blue. You know I did.

One of the other things that affects tastes is blogging don't you think? I have been reading lots of "modern" quilt blogs. In general I love the bright colours. While primitives is my style the brights attract me and I want to some of those, too.

Oh, well, we will see how long I can keep this resolution.

Meanwhile, what have I been up to? Well, going to quilt shows as you know, and yes there are still lots of pictures from the Boise show to share. But I thought I would let you know what little I have been doing.

First up is a panel a friend sent me. One day an unexpected package came in the mail. It was soft an squishy and you know what that means. This was inside. From Whimsicals. Isn't it cute? I have cut it up but that is as far as I have gotten so far.

This was in the package also. It is a tall house. And there is a tall house in the panel, too, see it? Now this friend knows the secret about my tall house but these reminded her of me and she got them for me. Isn't that just the greatest? I found a chain so I can wear this tall house. I love the autumnal colours in this, too.

So on to what I have been working on. I found a new blog, "Live a Colorful Life" which I read all the way back to the beginning. I found it during the online spring market quilt show. This was the quilt she showed. I fell in love. I think she will ultimately do a tutorial -- at least she mentioned she might. Anyway, even though I had never worked with selvedges before and just had the picture to go by I copied her quilt shamelessly. But hers is way better because she uses pieces of the selvedges that say something meaningful. And hers is finished with cute quilting.

I learned a lot and now I think I know how to work with selvedges. I am leaving this one alone though because I like it anyway and thank you, thank, you, thank you to Cindy for creating such a cool quilt. Go look at her blog and her really cute pincushions she makes with selvedges.

And I finally finished this top. I wasn't really happy with any of the choices I had for sashing and the voting was mixed. I found a new lighter green Susan Winget fabric that is almost like the acid green and it looks terrific I think. So now this top is finished. Boy do I have a lot of pinning and quilting to do. The box of tops and backs really runneth over. (Yes, you noticed, another new fabric purchase here.)

And then I made this little top. I love, love, love it too, now. It is a free pattern on Sew Mama Sew.
You do go there, don't you? It had a couple more rows around it but I didn't like it as much when they were there so I took them off and left it like this. I really like the different widths of the logs. The outside ones were fatter and they just seemed too big to me. Here is the link to the pattern: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2011/04/free-fish-baby-log-cabin-pdf-pattern-malka-from-a-stitch-in-dye/ It's called Fish Baby Log Cabin. I like it so much I am going to make more like it in different colours. I have a bunch of fat quarter bottoms from making Buggy Barn quilts that will work for this I think. I found them and thought of it when I was digging in the scrap bin.

Then, speaking of "modern" quilts, which I was, I made this top, too. It is from the warm/cool quilt a long at the "In Colour Order" blog. Here is the link to the QAL: http://incolororder.blogspot.com/p/warm-cool-quilt-along.html

I thought it was fun because I got to use some of the newer and my older (from when the grand kids were little) BRIGHT fabrics. I do not have a clue where I will put it in my house but it is fun, don't you think? Well, yes, I do have a clue -- on the guest room bed under the comforter where lots of quilts go to hang out. One of these days it will be so tall you will need a ladder to get up onto that bed!

So, this post probably should have been entitled something about links since I have added so many. It's kind of an all over the place post. Just catching up and matching up to my all over the place life right now. Keepin' it real, you know.

The rest of the Council show

Remember, I told you I didn't take a lot of pictures so we can finish up today. This one is an interesting log cabin-ish quilt I think. It makes me think of watermelon because of the colours I guess but not really. You can see just the edge of this one peeking out of the previous pic so here is the whole thing. Signature block pattern I think. Interesting colours. Probably the most modern quilt at the show. I have started reading lots of modern quilt blogs when I have time to read blogs, which, unfortunately has not been often lately and I think this one would fit in, especially with the kind of aqua.

More traditional with lots of stitchery. I worry about that poor sheep who swallowed a house... Interesting wool and stitchery. I don't think I have seen anything quite like it before.

I love this sunflower block. It is part of a great quilt but it certainly is my favourite block. I don't know that I have a favourite flower but sunflower would certainly be in the running.

Here is the entire thing. I love the dark background. Oh, and it has sunflower yellow sashing hasn't it?

I have this pattern. Actually it was a kit. I got it out one day and decided it looked like too much trouble and I didn't really have a place for it to go if I were to finish it so I used some of the fabrics for something else. My kit was Christmas red and green. Here are two interesting colour and fabric takes on the pattern. Incredibly different and different still from what my kit contained.

Obviously there are others in this pattern -- it was a group challenge. But I only took the pics of the ones I liked the best.

Here is another applique quilt. with my more favourite country prim colours. I love all the different baskets.

So there we go. Yes, I have been doing a bit on my own and I also have a lot of pics from the Boise show so plenty more to share, just need to get to it along with everything else that is going on.

Council Quilt Show Pics

Let's have a look at the Council quilt show, shall we? I didn't take lots of pictures so probably two posts will do it. The Emmett show didn't have a chicken quilt but Council came through. I really like this one. Kind of bright prim colours. I love that they face different directions and that there is that one upside down one. I always feel like the upside down one -- out of synch with everyone else... This is one of the theme quilts. I really like the tree and the basket on the bottom right.

Love the colours on this one. Lots of different bits and pieces of applique and piecing. Even embroidery.

I love, love, love this one. Sweet. Lot's of stitchery. Not something I am ever likely to do but I like to look at it. It looks like some of the Australian designs I see all over the web.

I liked the use of stitchery in this one, too. Interesting colours.

This is an unusual border I think. I don't know that I have seen the long strip and little square treatment before but I like it a lot. I hope I can remember it when I am thinking about borders and edge treatments. Love the diagonal stripe binding, too. I never think of that but It always looks absolutely terrific.

Here is the rest of the quilt. Kind of deep bright pastels. I imagine this is paper pieced. Did you catch the quarter circles/suns in the borders? Neat ideas all the way around on borders on this one.

It's funny that I have decided to make 2 quilts after this show that I didn't take pictures of. Both Buggy Barn -- one hearts and one stars. I already had the patterns and have pics of them buried somewhere on the camera that I will share later on. Both of the quilts at the show were done in batiks which is not my favourite fabric style. But also there was not much contrast on them so it was hard to discern the stars and hearts. But I still got to thinking a lot about them and want to get them made. Isn't that funny -- that you would be inspired by something you didn't particularly think worked?