Rainbows and a Blooming Nine Patch

I understand that the blooming Nine Patch Quilt Pattern is an easy pattern to accomplish - but one that looks utterly beautiful. Well the next quilt in the pile from Andrea just brought rays of sunshine and spring to my world.

My new years resolution was to be braver with color. I meant this more of being brave with my thread colors when quilting as I have typically only used white or invisible threads in my early quilts.

Andrea's quilts are so full of color - I wanted to take a serious plunge into color. I decided to use Rainbows thread by Superior. These are an absolutely stunning selection of threads. They have a color change every 1 inch. I do have the Superior color charts at home so I was able to select threads that blended perfectly. The actual colors of the thread do differ from the photos online quite a bit - so the color charts are well worth their small investment. 

WIP: Kids Art Quilt: Turning Your Kids Paintings into Unique Fabric

Here is my 5 year old's first fabric line. We couldn't be more excited!!

Longarm Quilting Services

It seems that I have inadvertently started a Longarm Quilting service! I got Freddie to help me with the charity I am trying to set up 'Quilting A Memory' - so that I could quilt my memorial and memory quilts in an easier, more effective way and to a better quality.

It is true that Freddie lives in my bedroom. It is true that we are now deeply in love.

So I have decided to post some information about the cost of my longarm quilting services in the sidebar - and if you feel moved to do so - please contact me and I would love to quilt for you. 50% of all quilting costs go to Quilting A Memory. Quilting A Memory is a charity that provides free quilting services to the families of fallen/lost service men & women - making memorial & memory quilts filled with love from their clothes and or uniforms.

So to celebrate posting this - here is a quilt I just finished for a client Maria Gualdoni. Maria was so pleased with the the result of this quilt - she proudly showed it off at a recent guild meeting - which I have to admit felt really good.  I hope you enjoy the quilting eye candy that follows.

Kids Art Quilt: Fabric Building Blocks

This quilt has been finished for a while but I was trying to find a hanging solution for my larger quilts to make photographing them a little easier. (I should of used more quilt hangers but I only had 3 picture hooks at this time.)

This was such a fun quilt to make. I loved that I didn't have to do any designing and my two girls laid it all out for me. To learn about how they designed this quilt you can read more here.

Kids Art Quilt: Sharpie Art Quilt

This is an easy project to do with your little ones. You could make a simple quilt or jazz it up with free motion quilting, embroidery add notions etc. We went with something down the middle of these options.

A Quick Quilt

The church contacted me to let me know there was a baptism coming up for 7 year old boy. Thinking that a 7 year old boy would not appreciate a playmat - I decided to make  a quick Twin sized quilt to welcome him into the church community.

Diary of a Longarm: Month 3 - Black & White Blindness

I've working with another of Andrea's quilt tops. I was excited about this quilt because Andrea said she was over it and didn't like it anymore. All I saw was lovely white negative space and I was hopeful I could do something that might make her love this piece of work again.

Quilt Hanging Solution

My husband humors my quilting quite well and how much it takes over our home. Fabric is everywhere in heaps. Snipped threads trail after me around the house like I'm Hansel & Gretel. My 12ft longarm currently lives in our bedroom (on his side of the bed!)

When I try and take photographs of my quilts I have recently found myself constructing more and more bizarre and dangerous ways to get high enough to be able to take a picture of them flat on the floor. Worried that I might end my existance by falling off a tower of stacked furniture - splat onto the quilt below. I've been trying to come up with a way that I can hang my quilts up to take pictures of them - without having to put a hanging sleeve on the back of every quilt and without wrecking the house anymore in order to preserve my marriage!

So I was looking for a way to hang quilts that was semi permenant, does not mark the walls, does not require death defying feats that even circus contortionists and jugglers would be proud of. I have been thinking about this solution for about some 6 months now - determined to find the ideal solution.  Here is what I have come up with.

These are wooden Quilt Hangers (packet of 2) that I found on ebay.  These quilt hangers hang on a nail or screw that you can put into the wall. (They come with screws & drywall anchors.) You can see the YouTube video here. They measure 3" high by 1" wide - but they are surprisingly sturdy. They come in a variety of colors - they look attractive AND they do not mark your finished quilt.

We have picture rails in our house - so I purchased some white picture rail hooks and hooked them into the hole where your nail or screw might go.

And voila - I was able to hang my quilt, take pictures - without making a single hole or mark in or on the wall & without stitching a hanging sleeve in. The kids had a riot running behind the quilt and back out again - so they really held the quilt well.

I am so thrilled to have discovered this solution. I really hope it helps someone else too.

Here would be my suggested number of hangers for common quilt sizes. Note: 1 packet comes with 2 hangers. I would put at least 1 hanger to every 30" or less. Small - 2 hangers, Baby or Crib - 3 hangers, Twin or Full - 4 hangers, Queen or King - 5 or 6 hangers.

My Sewing/Craft Room

I've seen so many things recently about sewing rooms & creative spaces. And is it awful of me that I can't imagine many of them are really used. Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE SO CLEAN!!!

Is it just me who ends up with a sewing room that looks like this by the end of a busy week? Am I a sewing slob?

My husband despairs of my 'creative mess' - which I like to think of as an organized chaos. (Believe it or not it is rare that I ever lose anything - even in this deep mess!)

After a morning of tidying the space can look a little bit better. (My eldest walked in and stated 'it looks so different - it is so clean')

Storage shelves line the walls with various bins in them. Storage bins are everywhere. On the table at the back you can see bins on bins. When a project begins it is designated a bin and there all the bits stay when I am not working on it until it is completed and then the bin moves on to house the next project. The shelves are Billy Bookcases from Ikea, the tables (which are on wheels - I can move them around easily if need be) are just plain white tops on Krille leg casters - the chairs are surprisingly comfortable at $20 a chair - it couldn't be better value.

It is a pretty small space in our attic - but it is my private little room. "Mummy's Room" as it is referred to often.

When we first moved it it used to be a storage space ....

 

... so you can see it has always been a space that was supposed to filled with organized chaos!