The Off-Kilter Quilt

I'm having a lot of (mis)adventures as a free motion quilter, but I must tell you: it's pretty addictive!

Is it really so bad, this little quilt?

I started to make a podcast last week, but didn't quite finish ... One day life will get back to normal, but not right this very second! Want to know more about the Transition Town movement? Go here: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/ And here's where you can find info on Mark Lipinski's Fabric Trends: http://www.fabrictrends.com/

What's your quilting personality? Right now, I've only come up with two types, overwhelmed and overly-anal, but I'm sure there are more!

Here's my mom's Redskin quilt--isn't it lovely?

If you want to learn more about cutting on the grain, check out what Leah Day has to say.

Nonnie sent a link to the Ugliest Quilts Ever page on About Quilting.com: http://quilting.about.com/od/picturesofquilts/ig/Ugly-Quilts-Photo-Gallery/index.01.htm

If you want to read about African American Quilts, the facts, the fictions, go here for an interesting article by noted quilt scholar Shelly Zegart. Thanks to Jeanne for the link!

@font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }

She Just Wants to Dance by Ife Grady

Profile in Red by Marjorie Diggs Freeman

Lady in Red by Marjorie Diggs Freeman

Asian Autumn by Marjorie Diggs Freeman

Guardian of Generations by Selena Sullivan

Mildred before she was 'ma' by Ife Grady

Sometimes to make a quilt, you have to break a few eggs. Or at least mess up your dining room table.

Check out Creative Spaces on Flickr:

Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/689856@N22/

For more sewing room fun, go over to Real Sewing Rooms web site.

Because quite frankly, I don't have much to offer this week. We've been painting!

The Cornmeal walls DEBBY SICCARDI'S FABULOUS QUILT

Here's what she has to say:

"My quilt came from a pattern out of the Cotton Theory ll book & it was a lot of work only because each block included 5 machine embroidered quilt designs & LOTS of straight line quilting. BUT the actual Cotton Theory construction process can be done with just about any quilt block. I really like the folded techniques & the use of decorative stitches to hold the folds together. This is my favorite quilt. It has won a 3rd place ribbon, a 2nd place ribbon, it was accepted in a juried state-wide show (no ribbon though) & in one show it won the overall show award of  Best Use of Machine Quilting (& I was even competing with some fancy log-arm quilters). It is also entered in a show later this month. The only con to this process is that if you are making a large quilt it is a little tricky to reach into the middle areas of the quilt to fold the sections and pin them as needed before stitching (because you have so much fabric around the outside it's hard to bunch it up in your hands & be able to pin the inner sections - but definitely doable). I highly suggest giving the method a try. Try a wall-hanging or lap size quilt first." Some sites to visit: *Join a free-motion quilt-along! (Thanks to Diane for this site): A Few Scraps @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } *More free-motion (thanks, AJ): 365 Days of Free-Motion Quilting Fill-in Designs *Patchwork Schoolhouse DVDs: http://www.patchworkschoolhouse.com/

Thanks for all the suggestions about DVDs, picking up new skills, and free motion quilting. Here's some of the great resources people have alerted me to in the last week: Want to practice your machine quilting on somebody else's quilt? Check out Downy's Quilts for Kids program. Quilt, then assemble! Who ever thought of such a thing? The book I looked at is Cotton Theory Quilting. Check it out on Amazon.com. The book I got my mom is Jelly Roll Quilts: The Perfect Guide to Making the Most of the Latest Strip Rolls by Pam and Nicky Lintott. Several people suggested DVDs from the  Patchwork Schoolhouse. Nonnie recommended checking out stuff by Mary Mashuta. Jane recommended Jinny Beyer's Quiltmaking by Hand: Simple Stitches Exquisite Quilts.

The charm quilt.

The room it will be hanging in (maybe), which doesn't look so insanely green in this picture, but trust me--when the light is right, this is a seriously florescent green room.

I was just reading Jean's show notes over at The Quilted Cupcake. Her notes are so thorough! I'm lazy, lazy, lazy. Sorry. One of these days I'll have all sorts of interesting things posted here. But not today. Here are links to some of the things I mention in this week's podcast: Fat Quarterly American Patchwork and Quilting Patsy Thompson Designs (machine quilting) Cloth, Paper Scissor's Studios Magazine Sharon Schamber Network (machine quilting)

At last: The Abigail Quilt! It's wonky, but it's done!

I'm waiting for my darning foot to arrive so I can start my machine quilting career. In the meantime I'm watching videos of how it's done. Check them out-- Here's a neat stippling video on the Threads site: http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/tvt035.asp Here's a good video at YouTube. It's by DayStyle Designs. I think she does a lot of good instructional videos.