Mountain Meadows Quilt Top

This is Mountain Meadows. A loverly quilt top finally finished. I had to go in the Way, Way Back machine to figure out when I started it. My initial sketch and images were made 3 years ago. And I collected the fabric over 2 years ago to make a few blocks. Then it sat and sat and sat. We had the great fortune of a handful of mountain trips this spring and summer and the original inspiration of the mountain meadows was on my mind.

When

The Modern Quilt Guild

asked me to do a Webinar this quilt popped into my head. Pulling it out and working on it helped me formulate the presentation: Improv With Intention. So I worked hard to get it done in time for the Webinar. It was well worth the effort.

(It measures roughly 55'' x 75''.)

These were my original inspiration images. Hikes in the mountains on sunny days. Meadows filled with small, colourful flowers. Expanses of grass and weeds and plants in varying shades of green. Vistas so beautiful but little tiny bits of life stealing attention. Just how to capture that in a quilt?

In the Webinar I discuss the process of making the quilt - from inspiration to the final top. It isn't as straightforward as one might think. If you are a Modern Quilt Guild Member you can access the Webinar for free now, even if you didn't join me last week. To access it make sure you log in and join the Community site. Then click under Resources and there it is. Not only do you get to see more images and learn about my process, you get to hear my awesome Canadian accent.

It was actually quite appropriate that this quilt was revealed through The Modern Quilt Guild. All of the green fabric in this quilt was generously given to me by quilters, readers of this blog. I knew I wanted green solid scraps and I had absolutely no green solids. To buy them all would have been impossible. So, thanks to the internet I just asked if anyone was willing to share, and boy did you! Packages arrived for weeks and I had a lot of fun sorting through and organizing by value. Some of you sent pieces larger than 1/2 yard cuts! It was so generous and shows exactly how the spirit and kindness of quilters, not to mention the creativity, is fuelled on line. Exactly what comes to mind, for me, when I think of the Modern Quilt Guild.

Thank you to everyone who contributed. I truly appreciate it.

Friday Favourites - Scrappy Fabric Rug

It's awesome when friends just get you. They know what you need, when you need it, or anticipate the joy they can give you. After the last few weeks it was so perfect to have this awesome rug arrive in the mail.

Amanda Jean made it for me. She is such a generous person and I'm really quite lucky to consider her a friend. Now, she may have finally got tired of me talking about how much I wanted one of her scrap rugs. Or maybe each of her showers had their own already? I'm going to go with she was just being her awesome self. It was quite a surprising birthday present.

Right now I'm not sure where to put it. I actually just did some spring cleaning and rearranging in my living/dining room. So it sits in the now dining room, hosting an up cycled table. It sits, rather like its own piece of art, in front of the picture window. Seems like a pretty good spot for now. That way I get to see it every day and think of my dear friend.

Now, I am no expert in knitting or crochet. That means I don't know exactly which technique she used to make this one (I think it is crochet?). But she has provided tutorials for both crochet and knitting one of these rugs. What an amazing use of scraps!

One Day - A Quilt

One Day

40'' x 50''

Made for Hubby's best friend's new baby boy. As soon as they announced they were expecting my Hubby informed - not asked - me that I would be making a quilt. Rather than take offence I gave myself a pat on the back that he appreciates this gift as much as a recipient. And this little quilt is now in the baby boy's hands.

The whole quilt came together quite fortuitously. I used the map fabric I had left from this quilt. The couple who are parents of this baby boy are world travellers. In my imagination I live vicariously through the adventures they've had. Hubby actually picked that fabric when I decided I would use this block as the basis of the quilt. In addition to the map fabric I used a variety of low volume prints in blue, green, yellow, gray, and orange. Some of the prints were even from the couple's wedding quilt!

The map fabric is a little odd as it isn't exactly geographically correct. This is not what Canada and the US look like! But the outside borders are there. If I cared to research things in the history books I'm sure I could find a year to associate with this geography. For now, we all get the idea.

The quilting is done with Aurifil 50W in white, as was the piecing. It is a combination of grid work and dot to dot curves around the map sections of each block. Together, it creates a wonderful texture.

This is Hubby's other contribution to the quilt. He insisted that one block with Australia be placed upside down. Sure, whatever.

Finally, when it came to selecting backing fabric Hubby stepped in. He and his best friend have always bonded over cars. And indeed, this guy works at a car dealership now. So the car print was the only choice! I guess it really is a travel themed kind of quilt.

One day the world will be his to explore.

For One Day

Selvages.

Because I use a lot of fabric, I seem to hoard a lot of fabric, I have a lot of selvages. A few years ago I started saving them (instead of... GASP! throwing them away). They filled my giant jar slowly and steadily. Then they ended up all over my basement as the kids got their hands in the jars. Recently I cleaned up my jars - strings were donated for charity quilts, snippets got sewn together a bit, and the selvages were sent away.

You see, I may keep the selvages. I may admire the selvage quilts you find, but I have no real interest in making one. I've got enough want-to-dos on my list that a selvage quilt will never find its way to the top of the list. So I packed them up and sent them off to quilty friends who would make very good use of them.

It is easy to get caught up in making every single cool idea you see. So easy to think you need to keep everything for one day. I just saved my stuff for someone else's one day.

And now my jar is empty, all ready to be filled as I play with fabric again.