Studio Kit

*hee*

Initially, I was going to call this quilt, "monkeying around" (because I do love those little monkeys)

But, though there are a lot of those little monkeys in this quilt, there aren't enough to make it obvious why the quilt would be called "monkeying around". In fact, there's a lot of not-so-obvious fabric in this quilt, a lot of which fell under the category of "Now why did I buy that"?

On one of my very rare visits to a quilt shop (the quilt shop in question, was in fact, going out of business and was on its third last day!), I found and fell in love with the monkeys. So then, I needed to get something to go with the monkeys, namely these palm trees.

Nice. But, uhm, what'll I do with those? Which is not what happened when I bought these little lovelies.

I actually bought this fabric for a very specific project (my very first commission quilt, which was in fact, only my second quilt ever), but my client decided that he wanted red only rather than the autumnal shades we had discussed, so I ended up making him Saucy Divo, and then had this orange and gold dragonfly fabric. And thought, "So, uhm, what am I going to do with that?" Which was not the case with this fabric.

This fabric, I bought for a very specific purpose. It was going to be in the quilt I finally finished up just recently - Man's Fans". But I didn't like it as much as I thought I did (in that quilt, anyway) so ended up with quite a bit of yardage left. I tried to put some of it in "Autumn Steals In", but used only tiny bits of it, so once again. That question came up - "What am I going to do with that"?

Well, one day I was thinking to myself "I need to make something quick and easy" and decided to make a half triangle quilt, using all of those lost and now found fabrics. Turned out, that though it was indeed easy, it wasn't fast at all. (Why did I think true-ing up 500 blocks would be fast????!!!! I should have made a baby size quilt!) So, after they were sewn, I trued them up 20 or so at a time, and did other things concurrently.

Today I'm home because my youngest is sick - but a 14 year old boy with a tv and a Playstation in his room is very easy to take care of (!), so I decided to work on another top I started on the weekend. I finished it and was going to start quilting it, but found I didn't have the right backing fabric for it. So I decided to finally finish up my half triangles and show it to you.

(The wind accounts for the wonky borders.)

I won't be quilting it tonight - BSP reminded me we have a dinner date tonight with friends, and tomorrow night, I have a night out with my best girlfriend - so on Friday, I'll have to show you the other top I made today.

And then I guess I'm going to be busy quilting all weekend. Do you think I can quilt two queen sized quilts over one weekend? We're going to find out!

For this one, I've been thinking about free motion monkeys and palm trees, or perhaps I could try (once more) to make straight lines, or maybe some simple x's across the squares or....? I don't know!
What do you think?

In any case, I'm glad to finally use up some of those "What am I going to do with that?" fabrics, and though I bored myself to tears with this quilt (*laughs*), I'm happy to prove that I can so too make something traditional! (In fact, when its done, I'm going to bring it to my guild just to show those ladies that I can!)

*blows a raspberry* ;)

In the meantime, happy quilting to you all!

Well, this quilt won't be much of a surprise, since you got a sneak peek on Friday. Originally intentioned as a baby quilt, at 45 x 48, it would work just as well as a couch throw.

I finished up the quilting on Sunday morning, and went back to another project I've had on the go, but thought I'd post the results of the sneak peek. Here's the full back:

(pics are clickable for more detail, as usual.)

(As usual, pics are clickable to "embiggen" which I really suggest you do for the art quilt. Amazing!)

Today when I got home, I said to BSP "I have to make a baby quilt or a cat quilt or something tonight - it's been ages since I posted something to my blog!"

Of course, then I checked my blog and realized it's only been a couple of days, but I try to post Monday, Wednesday and Friday so that there’ll be something new on the blog over the weekend. But I hadn’t worked on anything that I can show (I want Barb’s quilt to be a surprise).

But then I remembered, that this past weekend, I went to a quilt exhibition of a man from Kashmir, India. I went planning to look, not buy, and I hadn’t saved any money to make purchases, a decision, I greatly regretted. However, I did find one small art quilt that I loved, and could afford.

I love the intense colours and amazing embellishments in this lovely, although finding the face staring at me was a surprise - I didn't notice it at his exhibition - but I think it’s because I was too overwhelmed by my burning desire for a turquoise blue and silver bed quilt he’d made – I’d fallen head over heels for it, but just could *not* afford it. (*Pulls knife out of chest*)

But every time I look at it, I find more to see! I've hung it on a wall in my sewing room to inspire me daily. I love looking up at it in different kinds of light and seeing it in different ways.

But it being me, I decided to try and come up with something of my own to show you, so, after dinner, I went off to my sewing room, where I shopped my stash, and finally decided on something to make. I finished the top in a couple of hours, pieced a back and then batted and pinned, and started quilting.

And that's where I got into trouble! My quilting ended up being more time consuming than I intended (what can I say - the quilt called for it!) but here’s a sneak peek at a little of the quilting on the back...

But no peeking at the front until it's done!

Have a good weekend, everyone! :)

I was a very spoiled wife for my birthday and one of the gifts I got was a sum to spend on increasing my stash.

This is just a small portion of what I bought (I got a very generous sum!), but I think I'm going to be putting these particular fabrics to use very soon.

Stay tuned...

:)

A UFO that came in from the cold. I originally blogged about this WIP/UFO back in January, before most of you even knew I existed, but here's my original post if you're interested. It's a quilt I called Man's Fans. The top was done, I just had to do the quilting, already!

I had a very busy weekend, so busy, I didn't even have time to reply to your birthday wishes (which I thank you for), so I thought I'd pull out this old one.

It was made out of the leftover scraps from Autumn Steals In, as well as a luscious chocolate stretch satin for the borders and back, saffron yellow upholstery weight silk for the binding and some bits and pieces of African cottons. I said in my original post that I thought I was going to regret the choice of stretch satin when I started quilting, and boy-oh-boy, was that a prophetic statement!

So in my last post, I mentioned that on my birthday, I would give a present to my followers, to thank you for your support and enouragement as I navigate my quilting path. It's really been so very appreciated!

All of my followers will get an automatic entry, and if you'd like to get an extra entry, just comment to this post, telling me which prize you'd like to win, which are as follows:

A round tote bag, about 16 inches across, in your favourite colours

a rectangular tote, made in your favourite colours

(will not be exactly as shown), or a small art quilt,

in this case, definitely not exactly as shown. I plan to do an autumn scene, if an art quilt is requested by the winner.

So, that's it!

All of you will automatically be entered into the giveaway, but if you'd like an extra entry, comment to this post, saying what you would like to win.

I'll make the draw and announce the winner on Monday.

Good luck!

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