Usable Art Quilts

I want my quilts to be ART, but I still want my ART to be a quilt.  A real life, touch, hold, throw in the wash, type quilt......to be snuggled under, hung on the wall or draped artistically on some ladder or chair, making a lovely statement in a room. 

This means, I like choosing methods of construction, that will allow the quilt, 

to be used in daily life.

The back is looking rather interesting.

Hmm, just how many colours can I add in there?

Look at the interesting scraps I am accumulating....I have a plan, sort of.

Take the Fear Out of Improvising.....I Have the Book For you

Does the thought of improvisational quilting and design sends shivers of anticipation and fear up your spine? 


Are you scared of cutting into your most precious fabrics? 


Are you blocked, with no idea, of what you want to create...... but want to create something?


I discovered a number of years ago, that just cutting strips and improvising, can be very liberating.  Just going into your stash and cutting a number of strips, at various lengths, can be very freeing.


 After all you are only taking a strip or two...what could possibly go wrong? Not to much, I promise....you will probably find the experience very freeing.

 A little free form log cabin partnered with QAYG........ is my first improvisational quilt of this type (2007).

Block Detail

I woke up this morning, to find this fabulous book, create your own free-form quilts by Rayna Gillman in my mail box. It made my day!! 

 If improvisational is something you long to try, this book is for you. Rayna's book is fun, inspirational and very well laid out....and not intimidating in the least.

I have a number of books on liberated or improvisational quilting, but this particular one, really strikes a chord with me. I highly recommend it...my fingers are itching to start sewing.

 Rayna also incorporates the use of scraps....does anyone have a shortage of those?? 

Not Me!!

My bins are overflowing!

It's Like Pulling Teeth.....getting started

It's been snowing and blowing all day long. I've been away from the sewing machine for a few weeks and I've been anxious to get back to it, but I sort of had to force myself, down to the cold basement. 

Funny how that works.....when I should be doing other things I'm down there quilting up a storm and when I finally have some time it's like pulling teeth getting started. Often, when I'm feeling like that, I just go down and play with some ideas that have been sitting there for a while. That's probably why I have so many projects on the go.

Back in Snow Country

I said goodbye....
 to one last sunrise on  Saturday morning

to my lovely vase of tulips

to my sun drenched little corner....in my west coast home.

We arrived back in Alberta yesterday, after a two day drive.  We usually fly but my husband took an innocent trip to the hardware store, last week, and came home with a new car and there was no guilt.  

I don't understand......if a woman goes out to buy a sewing machine needle and comes home with a new sewing machine she would be guilt smitten. But a man goes out for a battery charger and comes home with a new car....well enough said, the car brought us safely through the snowy mountains.

Now to switch gears, from island life, to snow country......sigh.

Inspired by the View??

I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a strong correlation between my paint choices and the view outside my window!! What do you think?

I rest my case.

I Really Am Married to a Saint/ One Big, Scary, Yellow Wall

I really am married to a saint, with the exception of the Baguette Incident, of course.  All my friends will verify the fact.....some might even tell you the marriage is still in tact, after all these years, due to his sainthood.  Oh the pressure being married to the perfect man.........

 So what is his latest act of sacrifice you might ask?? He has agreed to me taking the largest bedroom, in our west coast apartment, to use as my studio..Yippee!!!!!! It is the bedroom with the view!!!! We have decided to use the smaller bedroom to sleep in and the larger room as a sewing room/TV room...with a sofa bed.

The left half, of the photo, is the soon to be studio and the right half is the living room. The views out of these two windows are breathtaking.

 We are in a bit of a holding mode out here, on the coast, because a good portion, of our furniture, is in the apartment we are trying to sell. Believe it or not the old apartment is right across the street......I can see all the things I want, over here, right  through the window. Patience has never been one of my virtues. As a result, the new apartment lacks pizazz, for the time being.

We are quite surprised, that the empty, white walls are getting to us (being the colour junkie that I am, it really shouldn't be such a surprise. The solution.....a little paint.

The result....one really BIG, SCARY, YELLOW, WALL!!!!

A lovely, little, grey wall....to the left.

 ....and would you look at the cool mirror I found at Homesense. It's so weird...I love it.

If you put a little art, in front of the wall, it doesn't look quite as scary. Did I mention we also bought a can of RED PAINT. I'll keep you posted.

Strips on Stripes 2011.....an unexpected surprise.

There are so many beautiful quilts entered in this fall's Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side. This is a wonderful opportunity for all of us, to share our work and celebrate each others creativity. Take the opportunity to enjoy....you won't be disappointed.

Thank you Amy, for all the work you do, to make this happen.

The quilt I would like to share with you has been.... a bit of an unexpected surprise for me. It started with a few fat quarters and me wanting to make a sample, for joining blocks, in a QAYG tutorial........I got a little carried away.

Also, there were quite a few Ticker Tape quilts, in the blog world, last January and I was trying to come up, with some way of avoiding, all those little pieces and all the stitching around each side. My first idea was strips...rather than little pieces. I then realized I preferred a cleaner finish....so I appliqued the strips to accomplish that.

I was rather surprised, by the lovely texture, in the finished quilt.

Quilt Back

I wanted to join the quilted blocks, in a more random manner, to avoid the look of the typical QAYG grid.

Also, right around this time Chawne knit a blanket that blew my socks off......I know, I was still dreaming about this blanket, as I made this quilt.

What did I learn throughout this process.....keep experimenting with new ideas and realize inspiration comes, in many different forms.

The quilt now resides, in Montreal, with my twenty-eight year old daughter.....she was visiting, took one look... and you know the rest of the story....