Sweet Winner

 

The winner of the subscription to the Sugar Block Club is #12.  Congratulations to Caitlin T.!  I know you are going to enjoy what Amy has in store for us!

A Sweet Deal

Y'all are in for a treat today!  My sweet friend Amy of Stitchery Dickory Dock, has put together a fantastic block-of-the-month plan to start in the new year that includes both a fun, fresh quilting block AND she's paired it with a recipe for a sweet treat.  Quilting and baking - ahhhh, two of my favorite things!  Something to feed your creative heart and tickle your taste buds all wrapped in one sunny package that will arrive in your inbox each month.


Amy is so full of enthusiasm and encouragement and I just know you'll get a kick out of her.  She's set all this up while parenting 4 little ones - including newborn twins.  I didn't even know my own name for the first 6 months after my twins were born!  I think this is a fantastic deal, and would make a great stocking-stuffer gift for the quilter in your life.  Click the button below to sign up!

                                                     
Of course, you could just win one!  Amy has generously offered to give one of my readers a year long subscription to the club.  To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post - as always, my followers can leave an extra comment for an extra chance to win.  I'll randomly pick a winner this Friday.  Good luck!
ETA:  Comments now closed.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

                                           

Sneaking in under the wire here to participate in Amy's awesome online quilt show that she hosts twice a year.  I thought I'd share a mini-quilt I made for the Post Sewing Summit Swap last fall.

Rainbow Spotlight 

Measures 24" x 24"

Quilted by Valerie Luberecki 

Special Technique:  Inset Circle

"Best Category" :  ROY G BIV, Mini Quilt, Scrap Quilt

Here's a close-up of the scrappy strip piecing:

Enjoy the rest of the quilts on display over at Amy's Creative Side!

Have You Heard???

Check this out! My friend Jennifer has planned an amazing event that you won't want to miss!

Sew South is a modern sewing retreat where you will sew, create, learn, play and connect with other modern sewists and bloggers. 

Sew South is a boutique retreat, big on substance and style but small in size for a wonderful, personal experience. 

It's a place to be inspired, relax and learn something new. Come spend a weekend sewing, laughing, and creating. A spring weekend in the South sewing with friends, taking time for yourself, finding your inspiration- that's the Sew South Retreat.

What's included?

• 4 Make & Take workshops including quilting and paper piecing, bag making and garment sewing taught by experienced sewists and bloggers
• plenty of open sewing time
• a fabric field trip to The Little General in Winston Salem, NC
• a cocktail reception
• breakfasts, lunches and snacks during the retreat
• fabric and goodie swaps
• opportunities to connect with other modern sewists and bloggers
• a swanky swag bag

Sew South is March 21-24, 2013 in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Come be a part of our inaugural year! I hope you'll join us! 

Tickets  are $275 and go on sale on Wednesday, October 24 at noon, EST. 

This retreat is limited to 50 people so don't miss out!

Are you going???

THROW

Remember this quilt??

Well, it's currently hanging in Union Art Gallery in Wisconsin!  I was contacted over the summer by the gallery manager asking if Racing Stripes could be included in a show for their fall line-up.  The exhibit is called, Throw: Great Lengths of Innovation in Modern Quilting.  So, I slapped on a label...

...then packed it in a bunch of bubble wrap... (thanks for the tip, Jacquie! - less wrinkled when it's unpacked from the box - brilliant!)

                                               

...And then prayed like crazy it would arrive where it was supposed to!  I emailed the gallery manager when I shipped it and said I felt like I had just packed up my baby in a box and handed it over to a complete stranger!  I even dreamed that it got laid down in a puddle of bleach right before the show and had these big splotches all over it.  Can you imagine?!  But the folks over at Union Art Gallery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, have been so wonderful to work with, and have really handled everything so professionally.  If you'd like to take a look at what else is in the gallery, click on this link for a 360 view of the exhibit.  As you can see, Racing Stripes is in good company, including Quilt Con instructor Sherri Lynn Wood's curved masterpiece. Her work AMAZES me, and I so hope I get the chance to meet her at the conference in February.  

And in case you are interested, here is a copy of the press release they sent out about the exhibit:

     

_______________________________________________

            Throw: Great Lengths of Innovation in Modern Quilting

UWM Union Art Gallery shows work by 7 national quilt and mixed media artists

MILWAUKEE, WI (September 7, 2012)—The UWM Union Art Gallery will show a collection of 7 fiber and mixed media artists in their 2^nd fall exhibition Throw: Great Lengths of Innovation in Modern Quilting. The exhibition will run from September 21st through October 12th. The opening reception will take place on Friday, September 21st from 5-8pm, with a lecture given by Maura Ambrose, founder of Austin-based quilting company Folk Fibers, at 7pm.

The artwork represented will range from traditional quilts with a dye-farm-to-sewing-table modern twist (Maura Ambrose, Austin TX), to mixed media masterpieces of aluminum and steel with quilt aesthetic references (Greely Myatt, Memphis TN) and everything in between. The group exhibition includes artists from across the map: Maura Ambrose (Austin, TX), Sherri Lynn Wood (Oakland, CA), Julie Floersch (Oakland, CA), Greely Myatt (Memphis, TN), Cindy Friedman (Merion, PA), Kit Lang (Toronto, ON), and Valerie Luberecki (Raleigh, NC).

Throw seeks to expose the Milwaukee design audience to the forefront of innovation in modern quilt composition. As the resurgence of craft continues in the US, design aficionados are fortunate to witness the inspired movement of modern quilting. Innovative piecing and quilting methods, collaborative interpretations of the medium, and a sublime deviation from the shackles of tradition all inform the modern quilter. The works included in Throw are true graphic design triumphs with tangibility. These modern quilt designs will wake the sleeping memory of your favorite bedclothes with vivid style in form and function.

“It is truly an exciting time to be a quilter,” says Molly Evans, manager for the Union Art Gallery. “Innovation and the exchange of ideas and quilting methods is becoming widespread thanks to the ease of communication channels of our time. Challenges to the ‘traditional’ means of the medium are becoming celebrated rather than disregarded. We are beyond thrilled to host 25 examples of the modern quilting medium.”

Throw will be shown through Friday, October 12^th at the Union Art Gallery. For private group tours outside of gallery hours, or to arrange a quilting bee inside the gallery contact Molly Evans @ evans44@uwm.edu for more information. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

I feel so thankful to be included with this talented group and organization, and once again am reminded of the thrill of how form and function unite in modern quilting.  Makes me wanna go cut up a bunch of fabric and sew it back together again...

On Color

Let's chat about color, shall we??  I love color - all of it.  Really, I do.  I love the brights, the softs, the subtles, the neutrals - which kind of makes it hard to narrow it down to one palette when I'm, say, decorating a room in a house.  I fall in love with one group of colors, but then feel locked in.  But with quilts - quilts! - I can make them again and again and again in limitless color groupings.  It never gets boring!  And, like most quilters, I see quilt inspirations wherever I go, in all kinds of everyday objects.  I thought I'd just share a couple of things that caught my eye lately and pull fabric from my stash that would make a quilt in that palette.
First up, my daughter (quite the little 4 yr. old artist herself) loves to play with my supplies while I'm sewing.  She arranged these buttons the other day and I had to snap a picture.  Love!

 And here are the fabrics I thought went well with the buttons...

 

Next up, we have my son's hackey sac, also doubling as an indoor soccer ball these days: 

(Look at that dark green!  I never would have thought to have added that with the orange and teals, but it looks great !)

And here is the fabric stack it inspired:

 There's color combinations everywhere you look.  Here are just a couple more from around my house, all just begging to be used in quilts.  I'm only happy to oblige :).

So tell me, where do you get your color inspiration???

Homemade

Did you know you can make ricotta cheese???  I didn't.  But now I do, thanks to The Homemade Pantry, by Alana Chernila.  It's easy, too - just milk and lemon juice - who knew?!  

 And let me tell you, it is a creamy, fresh, smooth, delicious concoction and you can't help but steal little tastes.  Alana suggest drizzling it with honey and eating it straight - kind of like greek yogurt.

I thought they would be great in calzones, so using PW's pizza crust recipe (love!), some fresh roasted tomatoes, and basil from the garden,

I made these yummy pockets of goodness.  

Sometimes, it's so fun to put in a little extra effort in the kitchen...
OK, in quilty news, I've actually been quite busy in the sewing room, but not with a lot of finishes.  Lots of little progress on several different projects.  But I'm having fun!  Like, deciding just the right shade of red...

It's Tomato, by the way, at least for this particular project.
Does anyone else still have to buy a bunch of yardage even though you have a Kona Color Card because the squares are too small to really tell???  Maybe it's just me...looking for an excuse to buy fabric...