Happy Halloween!

I work in ag research so this is a busy time of the year for me, so not much quilting happening. In my free time I have been watching old scary movies. My favorite ones are the Vincent Price movies. I am not sure that they are that scary but they are fun. He was just a creepy guy. Last nights choice was The House on Haunted Hill, the night before was The Raven and tonight I plan on watching House of Wax. What fun, a good way to wind down at the end of the day. I found and taped these off of Turner Classic Movies so I would have them waiting the week before Halloween. I have crazy little traditions and this is one of them. And for some inspiration another wonderful Amish quilt. Love the strings. I can’t stop looking at this one. Always believe in God because there are some questions that cannot be answered by Google.

Sometimes karma can be bad. I was sitting on my couch trying to draw out a spider for a quilt I am working on when my phone dings and I get the above picture from my son. He and his brother are on a month long driving/backpacking trip out west. He came across this tarantula somewhere near where the following picture was taken. I gave up long ago trying to keep track of where they are.

When this trip finishes up my youngest son will be starting a job in Colorado and my oldest son is headed to Peru until the middle of January. I am so glad they are getting this time together. Talking about drawing, how do you plan out your quilts?? Do you only work from patterns? Do you draw out a small drawing and go from there or do you draft it out according to size? Do you make blocks and lay it out as you go? I would love to get your input as to what works best for you. I tend to make a small drawing and then usually draft a small area out by size and once I have that area done I wing it from there. Let me know how you work. Be bold. Be confident. Be alive. A gallery of possibilities awaits for you when you make change your friend. - Bob Bone

Inspiration

If you haven’t went through your stash of books lately, I would highly recommend doing it. My quilting stuff has been packed up for the past 4 years and in re-visiting it I have been inspired in a whole different way. Let me explain. I have a love of words and things a little bit on the wacky side. I also love large shapes so my more recent quilts have included the wacky, the strange and a whole lot of me getting my 2 cents in. So you can only imagine my surprise while going through my things I kept getting pulled away by those bright amish quilts. The large geometric shapes, the color, and best of all the quilting I started scanning pictures like crazy. The sense of color just amazes me and the no math pattern is right up my alley. Then there is the quilting. I love hand quilting heavily on a quilt. Free form fans would be so much fun to do and so easy.

Well the first thing I had to find was my tub of solids so off to the garage I went, found said tub and pulled it in the house. Okay lets hope the choices in solids has gotten a little better since I last purchased some as mine are not inspiring in the least. I am sharing a few of my pictures I scanned. Let me know what you think.

Trying and Doing are two different things. When you try, you hope. When you do, you succeed.

Back in Business

I have obviously taken some time off from blogging but it has been time well spent as I have a beautiful granddaughter – Kallie. I love her to pieces and lucky me she lives on the street behind me. I just have to walk through my backyard to see her. Let’s just say grandma has a hard time staying away. My son in law put a lock on the gate, I got the message, Lol and have been trying to do better. In the midst of grandbaby, son graduating from college, etc, etc I have become an empty nester. I love it! No meals to cook, no cleaning up after anyone, it is a wonderful life! I spent my summer going through boxes of quilting stuff that had came here with me almost 4 years ago in my move. I have thrown a lot out, re-visited a lot of fabulous fabrics and patterns and fell in love all over again with quilting. I now have a sewing room again. It is so nice and clean and pretty that I am having a hard time getting to work in it. I have a few fun things going on in this head of mine and I am ready to get busy again. First I am tackling some finishes up from old projects that are new again it has been so long since I have worked on them. So keep an eye out for pictures as I get them finished! Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with direction.