Garden Time Inspiration!

This week I want to share with you my garden inspiration instead of quilty inspiration. I hope that's okay with you! :-)

 

Flowers in a pot to greet you

Lupine and Poppies for Spring

Here is SE Portland gardening is an art form. It is the fourth summer of veggie gardening in my fenced off 30'x30' garden plot and something amazing has happened. My dirt has turned to soil, my paths are all broken in and each year I do a little less prep work to get everything going.

My garden helper is growing too!

I also came to a realization about my garden. No more growing veggies that don't work for me. I always tried to grow egg plant, broccoli, cabbage and others that I never found much success with. This year I will grow vegetables I like to eat and cook.

Tomatoes under plastic and peas on the trellis

On the menu for summer and fall (and probably into winter!) 2013: Tomatoes, snap peas, sweet onion,

Peppers, onions and row cover

bunching green onion, lettuce, kale, spinach, lotsa hot peppers, beets,

Baby Beets

carrots, yellow crookneck squash, Japanese squash, beans,

Raspberries, can you hear the bees buzzing?

strawberries, raspberries, parsley, cilantro, rosemerry, basil and a few other herbs.

Mustard going to seed and up in the top a bird house full of birds

What does your garden grow?
I think that's it! And YUM.

Cheers,
Kelly

Bloggers Quilt Festival 2013: Color Play Applique

Hello, hello! Welcome! It is that time of year again when hundreds of quilters gather on line for the best virtual quilt show there is. Thanks to Amy for hosting and the sponsors for kicking in some quilting booty! It is so hard to pick a favorite to share with you and luckily this year we could enter 2 quilts! Sorry to my readers who just saw this super color driven quilt recently but I just gotta enter it! : )
(you can see my other quilt here: http://bluebirdsews.blogspot.com/2013/05/bloggers-quilt-festival-2013-vintage.html)

You know what -- I thought wouldn't like hand quilting. When I first started the blocks for this mini quilt I knew it was going to be hand quilted in white; it just fit. But having never tried it before and having no technique what-so-ever I just wasn't expecting to enjoy the process.

And then once I started on the background of the color wheel block - in little tiny 'popcorn' stitches I thought I was going to go insane before I finished. Instead of going crazy, I fell in love. Isn't life funny like that. 

It began with my need for a color wheel. I wanted something I could hang on the wall and reference each time I needed to know what color comes after green. It's like singing the whole alphabet to know what comes after Q. 

This quilt is all raw edge applique. And I didn't feel like a cheater at all! ; ) I used scraps in all colors and designs emphasizing color contrast, hue and order. It was a blast auditioning colors to their places on the wheel and in the 'star'.

Once I finished the color wheel more blocks started coming to me. A crazy 8 point applique  star contraption. Another color inspired block, this one more complementary. Once I had 4 blocks done the black and white sashing came. Then the need to finish it and hang it on a wall. That part took longer than expected. 

But now what bliss, that it is finished. I really did enjoy the slow process and the texture of the quilting. I miss having something to work on that does not chain me to the sewing machine in the craft cave. Just relaxing in bed with my son and stitching was really nice. 

Each sewing space should have a color wheel of some sort! Playing with fabric leads to a greater understanding of the basics of design. Quilting lessons at its best!

Also, I still really do enjoy a good rainbow. I don't think these scrappy rainbows are done with me yet.

Quilt Details

Fabric: quilting cotton in scraps

Batting: Nature's Touch Pellon 100% cotton

Backing: white cotton

Pieced: Viking Sapphire 830

Quilted: hand quilted with white embroidery thread

Measures: 26"x26"

Thanks so much for reading about quilt and clicking over to Blue Bird Sews! I appreciate each click and comment! Hope you enjoy the rest of the show!

Cheers!
Kelly 

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2013: Vintage Reworked Softely

Hello, hello! Welcome! It is that time of year again when hundreds of quilters gather on line for the best virtual quilt show there is. Thanks to Amy for hosting and the sponsors for kicking in some quilting booty! (This year we can each enter 2 quilts! find my other quilt here, thanks!: http://bluebirdsews.blogspot.com/2013/05/bloggers-quilt-festival-2013-color-play.html)

The quilt I want to share with you has a story, like all quilts do. Usually it starts with fabric and a design idea but instead this quilt started as a quilt. Let me explain....

In my family and friends I am the quilt lady. Quilts and fabric magically come to me ; ) The story of this new quilt began with a monster quilt top that was vintage scrappy but a bit misguided. The colors were jumbled and the setting unimaginative. It was a quilt top with nothing to lose. So I cut. I hacked. I even threw out a couple blocks. And in the end it became more...three more to be exact. This version is the softer colors of blues, pinks, violet. 

I cut the individual blocks out along the muslin sashing and then cut the blocks again into four differently shaped pieces. The design that came about was organic and improv and oh so right.

 Here is the free motion in all her quilted glory. Because that is the true star of this quilt; the quilting. Quilted in an all over petal in petal design, almost like candle flames. Once I opened up the design and kept attention to the points matching up at the base it was heaven.

I got lost in the free motion movement and quilted this in just over 4 hours. The method I think works best, especially for larger quilts, is Elizabeth Hartman's basting and quadrant quilting. It made the bulk of the quilt manageable to maneuver.

The fabrics used for the back and binding are also vintage found in a box of grandma's attic fabric and in my stacks from the stash. No fabric was bought in the making of this quilt. :-)
A proud first finish of 2013; because I feel like my skills can now match my style.

Quilt Details

Fabric: Vintage quilt top blocks in cotton fabrics

Batting: Nature's Touch Pellon 100% cotton

Backing: Vintage fabric in pink flowers and violet stripe

Pieced: Viking Sapphire 830

Quilted: Free Motion Quilted on Viking Sapphire 830

Measures: 62"x60"

Thanks for stopping by Blue Bird Sew! I always enjoy a visit and a comment. Have fun checking out all the wonderful quilts. 

Cheers!
Kelly

This Week...

This week I am...

feeling the sun on my back.

Hiking in the woods with my family.

Sewing down the binding on two quilts.

Feeling accomplished that the WIP progress list is dwindling.
Watching the veggie garden grow.

Successfully potty training my three year old son.
Planning a bunch of new quilt show off posts.

Dreaming of clothes sewing but not without making a muslin first.
Healing my heart and body after a disappointing loss.

What is your week like?

Cheers,
Kelly

Color Play Applique Mini Quilt Finish

Hello there you! You know what -- I thought wouldn't like hand quilting. When I first started the blocks for this mini quilt I knew it was going to be hand quilted in white; it just fit. But having never tried it before and having no technique what-so-ever I just wasn't expecting to enjoy the process.

And then once I started on the background of the color wheel block - in little tiny 'popcorn' stitches I thought I was going to go insane before I finished. Instead of going crazy, I fell in love. Isn't life funny like that. 

It began with my need for a color wheel. I wanted something I could hang on the wall and reference each time I needed to know what color comes after green. It's like singing the whole alphabet to know what comes after Q. 

Once I finished the color wheel more blocks started coming to me. A crazy 8 point applique contraption. Another color inspired block, this one more complementary. And then the need to finish it and hang it on a wall. That part took longer than expected. 

But now what bliss, that it is finished. I really did enjoy the slow process and the texture of the quilting. I miss having something to work on that does not chain me to the sewing machine in the craft cave. Just relaxing in bed with my son and stitching was really nice.  

Also, I still really do enjoy a good rainbow. I don't think these scrappy rainbows are done with me yet.

Cheers!
Kelly 

All I want to do is sew clothes!

What is it about spring that gets my clothes sewing mojo going? I don't know what it is but I must invest some time to this soon before I go nuts!

I have a bunch of clothes sewing plans. Lots and lots of tops, knit and cotton, vintage and new. Fancy tee-shirt patterns, sew simple JoAnn's patterns and a Wiksten Tova that has been languishing since October!

Even though I've been sewing clothes since I was a little girl I have little real knowledge about fabric types and what to do with them. Or which fabric goes best with what pattern.

I am slowly learning more about this and to aid in my quest for knowledge I took a t-shirt sewing class and have been reading up on sewing blogs that are not quilting related.

There is a wealth of information out there and I feel I am finally getting a handle on what makes a hand made item less Home Made and more Tailor Made.

There are still lessons to be learned. One I made on the linen tunic pictured above. Wait until you have a quiet sewing room to put the finishing on a garment. The faults don't easily show in the picture but wearing it tells the tale. Oh, well. Live and sew.

Cheers,
Kelly

Stitches in Bloom quilt show 2013

(photos taken by me at the quilt show 1/26/2013 at the Oregon Gardens)

1. Pinwheel Scrappy, 2. Wheels in Wheels, 3. Terry Grant of High Fiber Diet, 4. scrappy stars, 5. Nine Patch Detail, 6. Houses in trees Quilt, 7. Interesting boarder sampler, 8. HIgh Fiber Diet Crosses, 9. HIgh Fiber Diet UFO

These are some of my favorite quilts from the show earlier this year. The Stitches in Bloom quilt show was in January in Silverton, Oregon hosted by The Oregon Gardens. The highlight of the show is the special exhibit by the High Fiber Diet group out of Clackamas, Oregon. Each year they bring such amazing interpretations of fabric!

To be frank and honest I was a bit disappointed at the show for a couple of reasons. There was a serious lack of high quality quilting, I saw lots of computer long arm but not a lot of custom quilting that gave me inspiration. There wasn't much in the way of modern quilts or traditional modernism represented either, something I was hoping to see more of this year.
I think though my lack of enthusiasm might have more to do with my changing quilt palette than the overall show. This is a show my sister and I have been attending for 3 years and there was always good quilty eye candy.
But that said, I should put up or shut up right...and enter my own traditional modern quilt next year perhaps.

What quilt shows do you keep going back too?

Cheers,
Kelly