It's all about the quilts.

Better late than never? That about sums up my crazy life at the present time. I'm opening up a working/ teaching studio in approximately two weeks and life is in fast forward.  Learning Creative Studio on the Statler, setting up a classroom, working on the class schedules and individual class lessons, plus quilting, plus designing..... The list is endless.  Sometimes I feel like I'm spinning in circles and lose sight of the big picture. Every road has led to this and it is finally happening.

If anyone is in town on March 14 from 5pm till 9 pm, stop by the new studio. The address is 1660 Ord Way, Oceanside, CA. We will be serving wine and Hors d'oeuvres.

And if you want to be kept up to date on all the upcoming events and classes I'll be offering, you can sign up for my email list right here.

So on with the projects that I have completed and not had time to share.

Week 4

Learning the Statler Stitcher with Creative Studio. I had some quilt tops hanging around and thought "good, I have something to practice on". These two quilts were doing E2E (edge to edge). Not perfect but I learned lots and forgot lots. The one on the left is one of the very first quilt tops that I ever made, from inexpensive fabric, but I still like it.  The one on the right was made several years ago with charm squares. The quilting is the star here, no so much the tops.

Week 5

Another two quilts using E2E. Improving but still not to the place I need to be. Steep learning curve for the technologic challenged, but with time and practice, I'm going to be awesome. 

The quilt on the left is made from charm squares. The quilt on the right was a cute little quilt kit with panels. I'm loving the butterfly quilting but it could look better resized with tighter quilting. Live and learn.

Week 6

Making my own fabric photo paper. I have been commissioned to made a lady a quilt for her daughter from pictures from a month long trip to Africa, and even though I live in a big city, I ran out of my favorite go to fabric photo paper. The bulk of another brand was too thick for my printer, so I ended up taking off the backing on some and using freezer paper to make it work but still needed more. So when you want to stay home and still get your projects done in a timely fashion, you riffle through your stash and do one of the projects you always said you were going to try.  I pulled out the freezer paper sheets, Bubble Jet Set 2000 and Bubble Jet Rinse by C. Jenkins. I've long forgotten which quilt show I bought them from but I'm sure you can purchase them online. I used good muslin and then tried some tone on tone and was impressed with the results. It was not very time consuming (although it did take more time than just purchasing it on your trip to the store) and it allowed me to choose whatever fabric I wanted to use. 

Week 7

I needed a quilt top so that I could work on boundaries and blocks in Creative Studio- so I came home right before Valentine's Day, remembering that I had some blocks partially constructed for a quilt that I had long abandoned, pulled out the bags and went to town with them. They just happened to be red and white. I finished the top on Valentine's day and started learning this new technique. I felt this actually was easier than E2E and I really liked the results. I am actually binding it to give to a lovely lady in memory of her son.

Week 8

Back to the African project. I made all my blocks divisible by 4 inches and worked my designing magic. The girl loves zebras (btw) and although it's a little busy, I liked the results. If you come on the grand opening of my studio, you will see it hanging on the wall to surprise the one it is intended for. 

So now I am just on track.. I am going to really try harder in the coming weeks to keep on top of this weekly project thing. Just bear with me and keep on quilting...