recycled quilt

I think I learned how to post videos again.  https://youtu.be/kkCgXjjYBok . Enjoy learning how to strip piece!

I found a picture of a quilt I liked and decided to try to recreate it. I made the 9 patch interior of the vintage quilt I saw but, got tired of making a copy and decided to go out into my own design world. I added some borders. Two turquoise strips and two pieced. One of the pieced borders used a method I saw on a modern quilting site. The other border is a simple postage stamp. The last pic is one of the back of the quilt

I have been making some hour + long videos and posting them on youtube. I mostly just sew and blather. Some people like that sort of thing. If you think you might like watching me sew - feel free to check out the videos. In this video I strip piece for an hour.

I have been working on a "Trip around the world" pattern. I saw the pattern on the cover of a magazine and thought it was the best new quilt pattern. After I got about 15 hours into making the quilt - I started searching for border ideas and discovered that the pattern was the old "trip around the world" pattern. I get frustrated with magazines and authors selling recycled patterns as new. I think many people would be happy to jump in and make old patterns. Why lie and pretend something is your personal design when its not? I made my quilt with 2 inch pieces. No strip piecing for the inside of my quilt. (There is some strip piecing in the border.) Here are some pics of me doing the "Drag queen quilter" thing. I know Im tacky. Its my look. My finished quilt. My dog, George. I need to add a binding. I think it will be bright turquoise.

Hi everyone -  Im back with a new video and a new machine.  Its been a long cold winter for all of us! I got myself a new job and have not had time to do much quilting. But - Im getting settled into my new routine and have had some time to make some movies and quilts. My facebook quilting page. Im still scrap quilting like crazy. But, I also have been working through a few commissions. The above quilt is a adorable little table top quilt i made for a client. She sent me tons of fabrics to make quilts from. Every week for months I got a box of fabric from her - and now Im slowly plugging through some quilt orders she asked me to make. I also got a new machine - it is a Viking Sapphire 930. Great little machine.  And George is still healthy and lazy. Things are all good here. In addition to starting work again ive been doing a drag show every week for a few months. Ive still been really busty and enjoying life. Im posting all of t...

Ive been piecing together scraps without a foundation to make larger pieces for as long as I have been quilting.  I love how this sort of fabric building does not require a foundation - -and it also does not build the directional lines that traditional string piecing does. Im sure many people do this - but, here is how I do it.  I love making fabric because, I can use the fabric as new yardage and cut new sizes out of it.  See how these scraps remain scrappy and do not go together in strings to make a new directional pattern on the quilt top?  Here is a video on how I do it -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl9vRQCVbq8 (Im not happy that blogger.com will not find my youtube videos in the tools sections anymore - but youtube is loading all comments to google+)

Ive been busy! I just finished this little 70 inch square quilt. It is to me a pick nick quilt. I love the border and the different colors around the binding. It photographs very nicely outside -- but, look at it inside! Mess!    I got a new couch and tall shelf in my house and no longer have that great long wall to hang finished quilts for pictures. Im going to miss it Im positive!

               I have made this block a lot - but, never have used this arrangement. I love the way it worked out. I made the quilt as a gift for the runner up of a drag show I was a judge in.                I made this quilt from recycled fabrics!

            Someone is filming a movie locally and, I got to be in it. They had heard about me from different people and decided that Taffy would be the perfect addition to their cast. I got to play a guidance Councillor. I got paid and everything. This is the costume I wore. The scene was all improve and I put all my years of therapy to use! I must have said every ignorant pop psycho-babel line Ive ever heard!            We had hoot of a time.  

That is my kitchen - It got taken over with fabrics.  That is a baby quilt I made. I used some of the extra blocks from a past quilt to finish it off.

I made a quilt from a pattern in the book "Material Objects 2" Here are some pics of how mine came out -

I got the top finished -- it is ready to get quilted. I did a little big of stitch in the ditch already. It is stitched down but I think I am going to go nuts and quilt it like crazy!

Ive never made a white quilt before. This one is a commission. I used a bit of every white fabric I could find. I have made the pattern before. Just never a white quilt. This one will end up a king size at the end. I have what I think Is all of the blocks made for it -- it will have a border and then it will be quilted. The back is also going to be white. I think it will be stunning. When its finished.

Im half way to the goal!  save my house link I am going to make a signature quilt with the names of everyone who helps me out on it. Im excited to be a part of that quilt making tradition. Any amount from $5. - $50. will get a signature on the signature quilt. For $100 Im making people baby quilt size quilts - about 36 by 36. Ill make it as a baby quilt, wall art quilt or table top quilt.  For $300 Ill make a queen size quilt - Ill make any style in any colorway - or make an original.  save my house link Im surprised and humbled that Ive had so much help doing this.  Thank you. 

Well, I started with best intentions .. and fell behind pretty fast. I only got the first step done. I picked out the fabrics. I love the "barn raising" pattern and decided to make my mystery quilt fabrics into a barn raising style quilt. Here are some pics. I really love the way the quilt came out - I love love the Free Motion Quilting. I used about 5 different kinds of threads. I doubled some threads up and used Some thick deco threads, too.

This is a picture of a signature quilt my aunt made about 20 years ago.             Every year at thanksgiving the quilt comes out (after we eat) and everyone signs it.            Signature quilts are a historical part of quilting, too  Quilters have been making signature quilts for weddings, birthdays, celebrations, people  moving away and fund raising for events. People could pay some money and have their names put on a quilt - the more money they paid the closer to the center their name got.             I am doing a fund raiser to help me pay some back payments on my house. I fell behind and need to catch up again. I have income to stay in the house. I had some of my own medical problems and had both of my dogs get sick and that messed up my money.             Im fine now - but, I cant catch up. I cant get overtime anymor...

The fleece quilted fine - no problems.  Ill wash it and let you know how it goes.  I woke up George and took a pic of him. Of course now he thinks he needs to go outside.  Those recycled tee shirt quilt go together well - I really love dots. Quilters dont like the way they finish because they ripple LOTS! Its frustrating to me, too --- but, after they get washed they get so comfortable the ripples dont show up the way they do on pieces quilts.

I got a new accuquilt machine that makes 2.5 inch strips. Ive been hearing for 2 years how great it is to work with 2.5 inch strips. So, all day today I cut pieces for a new quilt - I got the pattern from quiltville.com  you can see the pattern for free on the website  here  - Im crazy in love with Bonnie Hunters quilts and scrap quilting ideas. Here is my stack of pieces for the quilt -- And here is my test block - Where she used white blocks Im using red ones - left overs from my last red quilt. Ive got my whole station set up to do some SERIOUS manufacturing of quilt blocks. Starting NOW!

I worked this pattern out -- doing light and dark. Ive not been that good at doing the whole quilt thing of light and dark -- but, this quilt really shows it off.