Author Archives: mkreative

Labor of Love

Posted on by
Reply

Another Autumn Retreat in Marin brings the saga of my ‘Labor of Love’ Heart quilt closer AND (sigh) further from completion.

Heart Quilt BackingLet me start by saying that I almost finished the backing Saturday. Seems I only had a 24” x 95” piece of the burgundy left, so I split it for the two outside borders and pieced the middle with all the leftover 3-6” strips. It looks so nifty and could be a quilt on its own. Other quilters would say I was crazy to be putting so much work into a backing, so I decided this would be reversible! It’s a traditionally pieced design on one side and the modern stripes on the other. Yeah, I’m crazy.

Continue reading →

Quilty UFOs

Posted on by
Reply

Late March, I took a ‘create fabric using curved piecing’ workshop at the last minute. I’ve never tried to sew curves (intentionally) before and this seemed like it might be new and exciting.

There were 4 techniques for ‘creating fabric’ and we started right in with the curved piecing. Choose 4 fabrics; layer them and freehand cut 3 curves. Shuffle them and sew your blocks. Stack and repeat cutting 3 more freehand curves the opposite direction; then shuffle and piece together. So here’s my first block. Oops! It came out perfect. I don’t think I could have matched the corners so well if I tried! Weird; I was supposed to offset the pieces and to make it more interesting. To remedy this, it was suggested that I add in a fifth fabric. Hmm, the other three blocks are slightly more fun with their blue/with stripes. Now do I make a throw quilt or 4 pillows? The peanut gallery says pillows!

Continue reading →

Have a rootin’ tootin’ shoot-em-up kinda day!

Posted on by
Reply

Birthdays can be low-key and surprisingly nice.

A colleague returned from Hawaii and brought me chocolate covered macadamia nuts for helping her out while she was away.  (mm, what a tasty birthday treat!)

Upon finishing my grocery shopping, when the cashier innocently asked how my day was, I said, ‘Fabulous, it’s my birthday!’ He decided not to charge me for the $4 mini rose bush. It was unexpected and appreciated.

Continue reading →

Lucky 13

Posted on by
Reply

Thirteen years ago, I embarked on a ‘Labor of Love’ as it were.

As the story goes, in 1998, I wanted to make a nifty Holiday quilt, but I wanted some practice first. So I planned a quilt-a-month project for 1999 to get warmed up. My Heart Quilt was only the second quilt on the list. [Insert heavy sigh here] It was a great start, sewing and piecing the hearts together that February. Unfortunately, the corner blocks stumped me and nothing I tried looked right. I shelved the project momentarily, but between travel, distractions and moving to another house, the better part of the decade zipped by with little more than a passing glance in 2003 & 2005 as I still had no better idea about how to finish those corners.

Then, I started going to March & September quilting retreats in 2009 and soaking up the knowledge and inspiration of my quilting collective. After my ‘Tie-land hiatus,’ I worked out the corner quandary and was emboldened in the home stretch to declare a brilliant decision to use Prairie Points around the border.

Continue reading →

My ‘Crazy’ Start

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a while since I just threw caution to the wind and tried something new.

I recently took a Crazy Quilt Workshop and started on an 8″ square design that, once embellished, will fold into a nifty little tri-fold case for my needles & embroidery scissors.

This is my pre-sewn design consisting of scraps of velvety, satiny, bold fabrics. It starts with the nubby floral in the center and spirals around. It’s challenging for me to ‘just let it go’ with no squares or triangles, but that’s part of the fun. And I kinda understand a few reason why they call them Crazy Quilts. It took me 5 hours just to place the fabrics for this square. (And I haven’t even started any embroidery stitches.) Yup, I’m certifiable!

Continue reading →

Remember October 1st, 2011

Posted on by
Reply

Today I was reminded why I’m here.

Generally, I come across as a smiling, positive person, however there are moments when even I define myself by all of the things I haven’t accomplished or have done badly. As I spend more time on this planet, I have more mistakes and ill-chosen directions to focus on, so it really doesn’t take long for me to swirl down the negativity drain.

That’s usually when little things start to go awry; pipes leak, cats throw up on the rug, and my car is vandalized… and worse.

Continue reading →

Photo Albums: Canyon done, on to Eggplant!

Posted on by
Reply

Another realm for my creativity is scrapbooking.

I’m a prolific photographer when I travel and there are thousands of pictures locked away on my laptop. My current challenge has been to print recent trips and assemble albums. Last month, I completed a double album project I’ve been working on for four years that covered three vacations I took with my dear friend. Making two identical albums was rather challenging, but I love the Canyon Album (so named because our travels were to points in the Southwest US & Mexico).

So, I’m on to our trip to France in 2010. I plan to design and print out digital pages, not just individual pictures. Hopefully, this will make assembly easier and we can enjoy our albums soon!

Continue reading →