Inspiration Comes From Many Places

I went into Bellamia for a haircut a month or so ago. On the way out, I spotted a really pretty crawlspace cover with a sweet flower on it. This is what it looked like.

And this is where I put it. I drew the flower on paper and when I had it continuous, I recorded it on my Intelliquilter computer. Then I played that sweet flower back into the alternating rows of a king size flower basket quilt.

Red Silk In and Out

This 48 x 48 wall hanging is made of Dupioni silk, Quilter's Dream wool batt, and silk thread in a square in a square pattern called In and Out. I got this kit from Brewer Sewing. I am hoping that the bright red will draw people to my booth during the upcoming Ramona Quilt show Oct 16 and 17th.

I wanted to showcase my freehand quilting in diagonal stripes using feathers, ribbons, molars, ferns and feather with circle. This left some gaps between the diagonal quilting so I decided to try some background fill that I have seen on Machine Quilter's Resource highlighting several background fills. It's way beyond micro-stipple. So I tried orange peel; that definitely needs more. The fans were fun and very dimensional; the tornados were harder than I thought. I used Rebecca Segura's 3's and E's fill; this is becoming my favorite fill. And then I did checkerboard in the corner. Wow, I loved that one.

I used the clover white pen (lines go away with a shot of steam) to mark my quilt line 1 inch apart for the orange peel and checkboard.

The quilt still needs a binding. Oh, and lesson learned: piecing with silk is not easy. Maybe next time I'll use silk on a whole cloth.

Here are some photos.

Patrick Swayze August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009

How many of you watched your Dirty Dancing DVD today? I did. I loved his energy and the way he moved. He was born to dance. He will be missed.

Patrick Swayze lost his battle to pancreatic cancer after a 20-month long fight. I think that Jennifer Grey (his co-star in Dirty Dancing) said it better than I can.

She said: "Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace. Gorgeous and strong, he was a real cowboy with a tender heart. He was fearless and insisted on always doing his own stunts, so it was not surprising to me that the war he waged on his cancer was so courageous and dignified.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oKUTOLSeMM&feature=related