Saving Dinner

Odd title for a quilting blog??  Yep, it is. However, after cooking this way for the past month, I have to share.  First thing you should know is that I enjoy cooking, but, like quilting, I'm easily bored. What this translates to is that I'm not one of those people that cooks the same thing over and over.

A good friend of mine told me about this cookbook: "Saving Dinner the Low-Carb Way."  (Sorry, I stole the picture from Amazon, so you can't 'Look inside'.)

I love this cookbook!!  Inside are menus for a week, along with side dish suggestions and shopping lists. Often, during the week, there is at least one crockpot option. Cooking the dinners rarely takes more than a half-hour. This book totally addresses my "what's for dinner?" dilemma and my issues with cooking the same thing over and over. Its a win/win. There are several versions of the cookbook, including vegetarian and holiday ideas. 

And now, back to our regularly scheduled quilting content!!

Dory

Black, White and Red All Over

Okay, not exactly. But seriously, thinking of blog titles is challenging. I don't even name my quilts--I have no imagination!!!

This quilt is for Alex, Julie's nephew. Julie was the winner of the QAL quilting that I donated. She like that quilting so much that she sent this one all the way from Florida for me to play on.  As you can see by the photo....its a BIG quilt!

Her plan with this quilt, since she made it for her nephew, was to give him options. He can use the side with the color, or turn it over for a solid black quilt. Being male, who knows what he'll choose!

My challenge was thread color. When we talked on the phone, Julie wanted blue thread so that it would show. When the quilt arrived, I didn't think that would look good as you'd only see it in the black and it would disappear in the blue section of the quilt. I felt the thread needed to bring all the quilt parts together, so we went with variegated Mauna Loa (purple & blue) by Superior. I use Superior Thread almost exclusively; I love their thread! For the back, I used a Navy pre-wound from Fil-Tec--those are the best bobbins. They're magnetic and my tension is flawless when I use them.

I did a geometric pattern in the background, which you can see above. Below, you can see that I used Ribbon Candy in the outside of the squares and a swirl for the inner portion. I wanted to add some curves to the squares, just for contrast.

And the back. The Navy thread contrasted just enough to add a bit of color with the texture. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a clear shot of the whole back. The quilting did show up on the shots I could get though.

Now I'll just be waiting to see what Alex thinks. Julie loved it!!

Dory

Border/Wide Sashing Tute

I posted a picture of this border on my Facebook Crazy Horse Quilting page and was asked to provide instructions. So, here goes:

To get this:

Do this:

Measure the distance from one corner to the other and decide on the size of the diagonals. I believe mine were approximately 5"

Sew down one side and then...

Come back down the other side, making diamonds as you go. As you can see I stitched a line along the edge. It was necessary to make a complete demarcation to show where the diamonds stopped so that the corner design would be separate.

Below is a shot of the ruler I used and the placement to make the interior angled lines of the diamond. I didn't mark anything, I just used the marks on the ruler to make my lines end approximately 1/4" from the diamond points.

After making the angled inner diamond, I filled in the outside triangle with the lines. Again, I didn't measure and they aren't all the same; however, when you look at the overall effect, your eye will "self-correct" and you don't notice.

At the point of the next diamond, I filled in the inner lines and then continuedon with the vertical lines in the triangle.

This is what it looked like after completing the inner diamonds and the vertical lines on one side.

I was then able to come back, without starting/stopping, to finish the vertical lines on the opposite side. The best part about this was that if I got carried away and forgot to do an inner diamond (this happens when I daydream), I could fill it in on my way back and no one would ever know!

When you're finished, you have this:  

I was able to complete this design with four passes and didn't have to stop/start. I do think part of the reason this turned out looking so cool was the batting (wool) and the way the gold thread matched so well with the gold in the fabric. 

And that concludes today's tutorial. Hope it made sense!!!

Dory

A Beautiful Wedding Gift

One of my customers from Nevada contacted me with a huge project that she's undertaking: She's making wedding quilts for each of her nieces and nephews. Luckily, none of them has a wedding date scheduled yet, so she has time.

This is the first quilt in her project...a lovely log cabin. This one has an Asian flair to it.

 Initially, I was going to do the traditional feathers in the gold, but after doing the outside border, I was in geometric mode and kept it up with the line work.  

I loved how the gold thread really gave such great definition to the gold fabric.

This is how the center gold bits turned out. In all the purple, I did a design called heatwave, but it didn't show up well in the photos, so the gold took center stage.

Thanks for having a look!

Dory

A Birthday Gift

My neighbor and good friend, Annie, had a birthday last week and i made her this quilt. I'm happy to report that she loved it. See what you think.

This is the back of the quilt:

And a close up of the simple leaves I quilted to go with the floral fabric on the front. 

The pattern is called "Five Yard Quilt." Its free from Mill End Textiles and can be found by clicking HERE.  It really does take only five yards, less actually, of the focus fabric if you don't fussy cut it. 

Happy Quilting!

Dory