Kaleidograph

Have you guys seen this new Kaleidograph Toy?  It was new to me, but once I started playing around with it, I'm hooked.  Basically you have different cards, all with different shapes and colors, and you stack them to create patterns.  (it also comes in black and white, which would be very cool too).

I love this sort of toy.  My daughter and I started playing around with them and we couldn't wait to share our creations.   We took pictures of some of our favorites.

  So, I had to make one into a quilt block...I sat down with my graphing notebook and started sketching and calculating, and honestly it made my brain hurt.  I put it aside for a few days and decided to just go for it.  Improv-style.  No planning--and it worked!  It's not an exact match, but I like it that way.  I'm not good enough for an exact match.  

Here's my block:

 Here's my inspiration:  

 What do you think?  I can see a few places I wish I would've used green...but I love that it got my juices flowing.  I would love to do a whole sampler quilt from these creations.

find it here.

glimma

I almost forgot about this quilt, but my cotton and steel quilt (the 16 patches), reminded me of it.  I started this one almost a year ago, finished all the 16 patches and laid them out and did NOT like it.  (It's beginning to sound like I dislike all the quilts I make...not true, just the ones I put away for a long time.) I quickly snatched them up and put them away--out of sight, out of mind.  Which is pretty much what happened.  I forgot about them, which is a good thing because I just wasn't feeling it. 

Then I stumbled on this quilt (I LOVE that quilt), and felt like my glimma quilt could be saved!  SASHING!  So I played around with a few colors, and I think this essex linen (flax) will make it work!  Yay.  I'm actually feeling pretty excited about this quilt now, which is a miracle, because I was not happy with it before.

granny square

My granny square quilt is finished.  I posted the quilt top a while ago, and actually finished the quilting a while ago, so we have been enjoying this quilt through this COLD winter (yes, I know, cold in Texas isn't really that cold).

I fell in love with Jolene's quilt first and couldn't resist.  I did start and then come back to this quilt, because it just wasn't coming together for me.  I talk about my modification here--once I got that figured out it went together fast, and these blocks are fun to make.

I made mine pretty big, 6 blocks by 7 blocks, and I used low volume fabrics for my background, which I think I like.  I used up a ton of scraps, and overall I like it, but I think I might be over the low volume business.  I'm kinda missing the vibrancy of color on white.  I do like how the low volume makes it a bit more subdued and muted.

I guess I didn't take a full picture of the backing... I pieced together some fabrics from my stash, but the majority of it is this pretty purple plaid I picked up at JoAnns.  I like it as backing, and it would also make a great binding fabric.

bound in this fun stripe, I love the color combo on this stripe and how each stripe is about an inch.  Adds some variety to my striped binding obsession.

I ended up hand stitching the binding because my machine was in the shop, and I have to confess...I am a long time machine binder, but I kinda really love the look of hand-sewn binding.  I'll probably be doing it more often, maybe.  It definitely takes longer.

for quilting, I did straight line quilting down the x's of each block.  It worked out well because those x's all line up.  I quilted a quarter inch from each side of the seam.  Tedious and a little boring to do, but I love the overall effect, plaid-like.

I'm keeping this quilt, I just don't want to part with it.  It's one of my favorites.

WIP Wednesday--bee imaginative

 Linking up with freshly pieced again today, sharing my works in progress.  I can hardly contain my excitement over this project.  All these blocks were made by my bee friends from bee imaginative, and I am just drooling over each block individually.  I couldn't be happier about this quilt.

I'm missing some blocks, but couldn't resist sharing what I do have.  

My inspiration came from this image first seen here.

new project

my bowls are working for me again. i fell in love with this color combo (especially the dark green and aqua), and then saw this quilt, and a new project was born.

my own version of this quilt.

block party quilt top

a (sloppy) peek at my block party quilting bee quilt. this one will be for my sons bed, so it's bigger than normal and i'm totally dreading quilting it. i really like it though!

inspired by this great quilt.

color

i don't know where most of you get your color inspiration, but mine often comes while unloading the dishwasher.

i think this combo will make a lovely baby boy quilt.