Paisley Pavane goes to Ohio

Posted by Nadine

Paisley Pavane is on it’s way to Columbus, Ohio, and will be on display at the National Quilt Association Quilt show June 19-21, 2008. At one point, I was planning on going to the show with the quilt, and with my girlfriend Dawn, but ITMan’s new job and the move got in the way. 🙁

That’s okay, since that means I have some more time to finish up something really grand to enter in the show when I’m going to be able to be there too. Not that Paisley Pavane isn’t grand, it is, but I have some other things waiting in the wings that might be even better.

The funny thing right now is that in the midst of the pre-move craziness, I entered this quilt into two other shows as well, only one of which I can remember! So I’ll probably be getting a couple of envelopes at some point, with what I hope is good news inside, but I have no idea where one of them will be coming from or when to look for it. 🙂 This is a great argument for photocopying entry forms before sending them in!

I haven’t entered anything in a show for a while, and I’m really looking forward to some feedback from the judges on this quilt. Paisley Pavane was the Third Place winner in the New Quilts from an Old Favorite contest from MAQS, but even though the quilt gets published in the book and goes on tour and all, you don’t get any feedback in the form of critique or judging sheets from the judges at all. It will also be interesting to see how the quilt fares in a much larger venue than the MAQS contest, where it will be shown with and compared to so many more quilts.

If you’re headed to Columbus for the show, keep an eye out for Paisley Pavane. It’ll be the one sparkling at you from across the room, with it’s 3,000 Swarovski crystals!

Paisley Pavane arrives home safely!

Posted by Nadine

I had a nice surprise in the mail last night: a box from the Museum of the American Quilter’s Society with my quilt inside! Paisley Pavane has been on tour or at the Museum since late 2005, so it’s good to have it home again.

(Click on the photo for a larger pic and detail shots.)

I made this quilt for the MAQS New Quilts from an Old Favorites Contest at MAQS; the block theme for the 2006 contest was Dresden Plate. The purpose of the contest is to showcase innovative interpretations of traditional blocks. I’d had two other quilts accepted to the contest in prior years and I really wanted to enter, but couldn’t come up with a design I was happy with until really late in the game.

I’d really sort of given up on entering, and then I was digging through my stacks of in progress work looking for something else entirely, and I came across the pieces for the medallions that were made using a 9° wedge ruler. The idea took shape and I managed to complete the quilt in time for the contest, and the quilt was awarded a Third Place ribbon. Continue reading →

Off the Bookshelf: Puzzle Quilts by Paula Nadelstern

Posted by Nadine

Puzzle Quilts,
by Paula Nadelstern

Actually, this book hasn’t even been on the bookshelf yet, since I just got it! I finished devouring it yesterday while I waited for my daughter at her flute lesson. I love it! It’s just so yummy that devouring is the perfect word!

This new book by Paula Nadelstern is the first new quilt book I’ve purchased in a long while, and I’m happy to report that it was a completely satisfying purchase. I have her other two books, Kaleidoscopes & Quilts and Snowflakes & Quilts, and to be honest, while the books are stunning visually, and her methods and techniques are interesting and produce exciting quilts, I’m just not sure I’d ever really make a quilt like that. I’ve looked at those two books a lot, but I’ve never been inspired enough to go there (yet).

Puzzle Quilts, however, may just be a different story altogether. I know I read the other two books (I mean really read them, not just perused them), and they just didn’t strike the same chord of inspiration, the “I want to make something with this method NOW” burn. Continue reading →

A new quilt!!

Posted by Nadine

And it’s even mostly finished! This is the new project that I started so that I would have a quilt to use for the Swarovski crystals demo at the guild in March, and I do love the way it turned out. I think if I had to do it again, I would use a different batting, probably a very low loft cotton or something like that. I used a chunk of polyester that I had around, and it’s kinda over-puffy, which I usually like, but for an artsy quilt like this it’s not quite right. I think I discovered this once before, maybe, but as I usually don’t do these types of quilts, it didn’t stick in my head. Live and learn, again. That’s what I love about quilting: there’s always more to learn, and sometimes you even get more than one opportunity to learn something!!

My mom liked it so much, she said “Oooooo – I LOVE that one!” and “As a matter of fact, it would be perfect on a wall in the new house…” Since I had thought that I would eventually ask if my Mom and Dad liked it enough to have it, I took the “hitting you over the head with a brickbat” hint (as she put it!) and told her it was hers!

It really needed to be their quilt anyway, since it made me think of the aspen trees in Pine Valley, Utah, where my parents and I used to camp and hike when I was a kid. I do have some fond memories of those camping trips when I was little, even though camping wasn’t (and isn’t) my thing, and I’m positive that I was a complete pain about it all back then (and oh, am I getting paid back in spades by my own daughter now!).

I could hear the breeze in the aspen trees in my head when I looked at this piece, so I quilted tree trunks in the left border area, waving lines in the middle for wind, and aspen leaves in the right border. I will add a few Swarovski crystals to it before it becomes part of Mom and Dad’s collection. I named the quilt Aspens on my Mind. See bigger pics in the Gallery and let me know what you think!

We interrupt this UFO for a new project!

Posted by Nadine

I spent part of the morning yesterday trying to figure out what to do with the sashing on the UFO Dresden Plate quilt, with no success. I finally started thinking about other projects that I need to do shortly here, and reluctantly put the big quilt aside for a bit. This is why UFO’s are what they are, obviously. I don’t think the UFO will be finished in time for its 11th birthday. 🙁 No guilt, though, that’s just the way it goes.

Convergence Quilts,
by Ricky Tims

I needed to pitch something together (or decide to finish some other UFO) for a demo that I’m supposed to give at the Black Forest Quilt Guild meeting in February. I’m supposed to show everyone how to embellish with the Swarovski crystals, but at the moment I don’t have anything around that needs crystalizing! I spent some time thinking and digging through other projects in progress, and didn’t really see any that I thought needed crystals in the end (or that I could finish quickly enough to matter), so I grabbed Convergence Quilts by Ricky Tims, and decided to see how quick and easy that process is. I’ve had the book for at least a year, and haven’t gotten around to doing anything with it. Continue reading →

Beginning to look like Christmas

Posted by Nadine

We did finally get the tree up last week, and the rest of the house decorated. I didn’t put up as many decorations this year, partly lack of time, and partly because Shadow is still in his idiot kitten phase. We put all the Disney ornaments on the tree since the kids love those, and then we added all of the Christborn, Radko and other glass ornaments that we have. I just love all my bird ornaments! They’re so cool since they have a little clip instead of feet so they sit on top of the branches instead of hanging.

Last year, Dawn and I took a trip to the Christborn factory (they also make Radko ornaments), and bought ~~some~~ many ornaments. We bought so many (and were there so long!) that the owners took us in the back and gave us coffee and cookies, and then brought out the really good stuff! We got to see (and buy) the ornaments that were being manufactured for the next year’s season, the ones that are only just now available in the States. We called them the “bling” ornaments, because they were glass like all the rest, but then they were absolutely encrusted with Swarovski Crystals and beads! I bought a Bling Frog for each of my girls:

He was just so ugly he was cute. I told them to kiss the frog every year when we put up the tree and someday, their prince will come. Then of course I had to have a Bling Bird: Continue reading →