Thursday, December 30, 2010

Some quilt show photos

 
I've been lazy about posting. I was away the whole of last week at my daughter up north taking care of my three month old grandson and spending time with his 2 1/2 yo sister. My daughter went back to work, so this was a good chance to spend some time with them. She goes to gan (nursery school) and he's going to a babysitter now.


When I went to visit my grandson (and daughter and son in law) in Miami Beach in November, I managed to choose a great week to be there. The World Quilt show was in West Palm Beach that weekend and I was thrilled to be able to get there on Friday.

I took photos of a lot of the quilts that appealed to me and here are some of them. Remember, click on any photo to enlarge.

This one was Best of Show. Just look at that quilting and the tiny stippling!




Best Use of Color:



Best Machine Workmanship:

 

Best of Country, Australia. You have to look at that detail in the closeup!




The next three did not get any awards, I just really like them.








Enjoy!

Debbie

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Perfect timing! Jackie's giveaway

 
I just got through telling you about the Kona solids that I bought from Jackie at Canton Village Quilt Works and today she announced a giveaway of a gorgeous Fat quarter bundle of Kona solids! The giveaway is being hosted by Rachel of P.S. I Quilt. Check it out. You have until the end of the week to enter!


The next day - Part 2

 
On that day I took the train into Manhattan. I had big plans, a list of places to go. Didn't get to do it all. Got tired part way through and didn't have time to rest and then continue because I had to be back by a certain time in order to go to my sister in the evening. Knowing that might happen, I started with the most important place first! The American Folk Art Museum

They are having a two part special exhibit, of the quilts in their collection. Wow, this is some exhibit. Many skillfully executed quilts from long ago. Some more recent ones, too, including the one that Paula Nadelstern donated to the museum from her exhibit last year. I wasn't sure if photography was allowed, so I didn't take out my camera. Sorry. You can see some photos on their site. It looks like the special exhibit they're having at the Lincoln Square branch is very interesting, but I just didn't have time to get up there. If you're going to be anywhere near NYC during the time of these exhibits, I urge you to make time to go to the museum and/or it's branch. You won't be sorry.

Next stop was M&J Trimmings. There are two shops that I make sure to get to on each and every one of the trips I make to the U.S. M&J is one of them and City Quilter is the other. And, I never leave either one of them without making a purchase. So, here's what I bought at M&J. Such a fun place!


Next stop was Butterfly Fabrics. They have a lot of fancy fabrics, including all kinds of different silks. I went, on recommendation, specifically to see the dupioni silks. There were so many wonderful colors. But, they would only cut a minimum of a yard each. That's a lot for me and I wanted to get a bunch of different colors. I couldn't decide what to do, so I told myself I'll come back a different time. Maybe find out if I could find someone to share it with me. So, I did go back at the end of the next week and this is what I bought. Aren't they gorgeous? I'm going to try to sell some small pieces to help defray the cost.


Yes, I did manage to do lunch somewhere in between. I do all this by foot and I love, love, walking on the streets of Manhattan, but, here is where I got tired, and it's a good thing, because this post is getting too long!

One more thing. A few weeks before I went to the states, I placed an order with Jackie at Canton Village Quilt Works, for a bunch of Kona solids. She usually has them at a good price and they were on sale. Don't they all go great together? You can learn about the sales by subscribing to the newsletter or from Jackie's blog.


Are you noticing a color trend here? I have yet to decide what I'm doing with all this stuff.

To be continued...

Enjoy!

Debbie

Friday, December 10, 2010

Trip - Part 1

 
I just went to look at my photos of the trip I took to the U.S. last month and, would you believe, I have no photos of anything where I went the first few days! I do have a photo of something I took in my parents house, but that's for later.

For those who don't know, my parents live in New Jersey close to NYC. The first day I was there I took a ride into Brooklyn to do some shopping. It was raining, which is something we're, unfortunately, not used to here in Israel these days. Although it is supposed to be stormy this weekend here. Anyway, on my way into Brooklyn, there was sleet! Hadn't seen that in a while.

Of course, one of my stops was to a quilt shop. I think I may have been to this shop several years ago when it was in a different location. Sew Materialistic is a nice little shop with a nice selection. It's a very busy place! There were a lot of women at a big table in the back and walking around there. It looked like they were there for some one on one instruction and help with works in progress. I had met the owner, Malke, online a few months ago and it was fun to meet her in person. But, I forgot to get a photo! :(  The shop also has a blog, and Malke has a blog, Quilting with Malke.

Early last month Thearica of Pigtails and Quilts wrote a post about an item she found at a yard sale. When I saw it, I was excited because a similar item was on a little shelf in my mother's kitchen right near me! I know it as a holder for thread for tatting or crochet lace. It's also called a string holder. My mother's has a hole in the base. In the old days they used to secure it with a screw to the counter in a store and use the string for wrapping up people's purchases. I asked my mother if I could have it, but she said she's not ready just yet to give it up! Thearica asked to see photos of the one my mother has, so here they are.


Have a good weekend,

Debbie

Monday, December 6, 2010

I'm still here! Happy Chanukah!

 
Sorry to seemingly have ignored you all. Thanks for those who expressed concern. I sure do have a lot of catching up to do. I spent a few weeks in the states during the month of November. I'm slowly straightening life up since I came back. I have a whole bunch of experiences to share from when I was there, with photos, and will start posting them very soon. Meanwhile, check out G6's blog to see the lights at my home here in Jerusalem on the fourth night of Chanukah. Yes, it is a quilty post!

Enjoy!

Debbie

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Win a Book!


The winner is: Emillie Rose! I have sent an email to Emillie, awaiting her address.

This is a quick post to offer a book that I won and am now passing on. Back in June, my friend Quiltgranny Sharon had a giveaway of the recent novel of Sandra Dallas. Sharon gave away the book she was sent for review and the copy that she finished reading. I was one of the lucky winners! 

While Sandra Dallas has written books with something sewing related in them, this one is not so much one of those, but it was an easy read and I couldn't put it down! Be sure to read what Sharon posted about Sandra Dallas and go to the Sandra Dallas site to read about her other books.

Now one of you will be a winner of the book Whiter Than Snow by Sandra Dallas!

Just leave a comment here, on this post only, by midnight U.S. EST, Tuesday, November 9th, and I will use the Random guy to draw a winner. As usual, anyone who is a no-reply commenter, with no other way to be reached, will be disqualified.


Enjoy!

Debbie

Friday, October 29, 2010

It's the 4th Blogger's Quilt Festival!

  
We've made it to the 4th Bi-annual Blogger's Quilt Festival. Thanks to Amy of Amy's Creative Side for gathering hundreds of quilters together to show some of their favorite quilts all in one place.

I don't know if any of my regular readers noticed, but I tend to work with mostly brights (the basic colors of the rainbow) in combination with usually black and sometimes white. This time I was going to show you my first crazy quilt piece that I made probably about 15 years ago. It actually looks like an antique because it's dark and dreary and faded. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe some other time. 

So here is what I decided to share this time. The first four pieces pieces are minis, with the fifth being a little larger scale.The sizes are noted below each photo. I use a few of them as mats. I consider all of these together as a set or a series. They are all made of components of Carol Doak's foundation paper piecing blocks. Don't forget, you can click on any photo to enlarge.

8 inches square

7" x 8"

nine inches

 seven inches square

14 1/2"

Important Note: I like to reply to as many of everyone's nice comments that I can fit in, but some of you are no-reply commenters. This means that your email address is not enabled in the profile of your google account, so it does not show up in the header of your comment. If any of you are wondering why you never get any replies to your comments on blogspot blogs, then check your google profile and enable your email address. Or, you can put your email address in the body of your comment.

Here are links to my posts in the past Festivals:

Blogger's Quilt Festival #1  April, 2009

Blogger's Quilt Festival #2  October, 2009

Blogger's Quilt Festival #3  May, 2010

Enjoy!

Debbie

Saturday, October 16, 2010

And the winners are...!



Paulette! 


 


Congratulations, Paulette, on winning the batik squares!


 


paulette said...


Wonderful give away!! Thanks for the chance to win!!
Paulette 

and

pippirose!

Congratulations, pippirose, on winning the lengths of yarn for embellishment. 



pippirose said...




Thanks for the chance to enter your wonderful giveaway.
:o)

I have sent emails to Paulette and pippirose. If either of them does not reply within 48 hours, I will go back to random.org and draw another winner.

Thanks for all the lovely comments. I'm sorry that I did not have a chance to reply to everyone. I still hope to get to reply to some of you. Hope you all had fun in the Fall into Fall Giveaway.

Enjoy!

Debbie




Friday, October 1, 2010

Fall into Fall Quilt Bloggers Giveaway

 
October 16 - The winners are Paulette and Piroska. See more details in the Winners post.  

In January 2009, I saw a posting on someone's blog that they were participating in something called the Whirl into Winter Giveaway. So, I went to Debi's blog and that's when I decided that I needed to start a blog because I just had to participate. I joined a little late, but was happy to receive as many comments that I did. That's how I met some of the wonderful bloggers that I keep in touch with still today.  

So, here we are again, with Debi's Fall into Fall Giveaway. I'm looking forward to meeting more new bloggers while I go down the list of participants and enter their giveaways. I've held various giveaways over time and it's one of the most fun parts of blogging.

My offering this time is modest, but it is something that I would love to win from someone else. I cut squares from most of my batik fabric collection and added a few more from some of the commercial hand-dyes that I have. Altogether, there are 50 (fifty) 5" squares of colorful fabric. 

 
All you need to do is leave one (and only one) comment on this post (and only on this post), telling me anything you want, in order to be entered into the drawing.

Sometime on October 16th, I will be using the random number generator to choose the winner. If there are more than 100 comments on this giveaway post, I will draw a second winner. The second winner will receive a set of over 30 one yard lengths of different colorful yarns that are great for embellishments on quilts or even for scrapbooking. 


There is one important catch. For your entry to be eligible for the drawing, and in order for me to get in touch with you, you must have your email address enabled in your blogger profile OR place your email address within your entry comment. All no-reply bloggers that do not provide their email address will be disqualified before I do the drawing.

You have until October 15th to visit all the participating blogs listed on the sidebar of the Fall into Fall Quilt Bloggers Giveaway site to leave comments to enter their giveaways.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Help me to quilt this wallhanging, please.

 
I'm sure this is the longest I've ever gone without writing. Such a busy month. We're in the middle of the Sukkot holiday and have a big bunch of relatives coming for a BBQ today.

On September 5th, my daughter was ready to go to work in the morning at the hospital she works in, but changed directions and decided to go to the delivery room instead! My third grandchild, second grandson, was born that day. I was supposed to be at the delivery, as I was last time, but they called me too late and I couldn't get there in time. It's a two hour ride. From the hospital, I took home my granddaughter and the others followed two days later. Rosh Hashana followed the next day after that. Then the brit milah and festive meal to celebrate it. The next day they went home and I went with them, until Yom Kippur. A few days after that, they came back for the beginning of the Sukkot holiday. Holiday still going on until the end of this week. Busy enough for you?


I was going to wait until I had quilted this hexagon selvage wallhanging to show it to you, but it's still hanging on my design wall, waiting for me to figure out how to quilt it. I'm really stumped, so would welcome any ideas you have.


Stay tuned for the Fall into Fall Quilters Blog Giveaway being hosted by Debi. I'll be participating and it starts on Friday, October 1st. Please do stop by. Maybe you would like to participate, too. Deadline to join is Wednesday, September 29th. There's a button on my sidebar.

Enjoy!

Debbie

Monday, August 30, 2010

Quilting Corner came to visit

A bunch of the ladies from Quilting Corner came this morning to my home, moving their weekly gathering at my invitation. While I am considered a member of the group, I have not had a chance to attend but a few of the gatherings. I was thrilled when they all agreed to travel here. We had a lovely morning of show and tell (all mine!) and it was a pleasure to explain the stories behind many of the pieces that I've made since I started quilting. We also had a very nice time at the bagel shop down the block for lunch.


The gatherings are almost always hosted by Etty in her home in Beitar. The highlight of today's gathering was the presentation to Etty of a quilt initiated by Susan of Scrap Happy. We all made signed blocks, but the quilt was organized, put together, and tied by Susan! Thank you, Susan! It's also Etty's birthday in about a week, so it was perfect timing.

 
Check the Quilting Corner blog for more photos, probably later today.

Enjoy!

Debbie

Monday, August 9, 2010

Shawl progress

  
Yes, I have been lazy about writing on the blog. Be sure you read to the end to find out about Sue's cute giveaway.

I have made some progress on the shawl I mentioned that I bought yarn for a few months ago. It is a bit further along than in the photo below I took a few weeks ago. The pattern doesn't show up as much in the variegated yarn, but I'm still OK with the way it's coming out.


I searched and searched the web for free shawl patterns. I've been collecting back issues of Piecework Magazine and found a PDF of the index of the magazine. I found quite a few shawls there and looked them up, but most of them were using charts. I don't like to knit or crochet with charts. I like the k1 p2 type of instructions.

Another link I found was a directory of tons of knitted shawl patterns. I only managed to get through the first column. Somewhere in the middle I found the one that I decided to make. It's this version of the Candle Flame pattern. In a google search, I also found a small correction to the pattern. It may have been on Ravelry.

I also liked this shawl pattern site. The patterns are sorted according to how much yarn you need for the shawl.

Henya had suggested: "Have you thought about making "Pi are square", by EZ? You can keep on going until the yarn runs out." That was very interesting to me, but, I couldn't find a free version of the pattern that I liked. Now, Wendy of Wendy Knits is showing her progress on a pi shawl she is making. This week she announced that next week she will be starting a knit along of another pi shawl! Wendy Johnson is also the author of Socks From the Toe Up, the book that I got the pattern for the first (and only) pair of socks I made!

BTW, I finally decided to subscribe to Piecework Magazine, but there are still some back issues that I am missing. If any of you have any that you would be willing to sell to me, I would appreciate it. Here are the ones that I need: July/August 2006, July/August 2007, September/October 2007, November/December 2007, September/October 2008 and January/February 2009.

Sue of Alderwood Quilts has announced her August giveaway. It's a really cute set of Quilter's Magnets by That Patchwork Place. You have until the end of August to enter.


Enjoy!

Debbie

Friday, July 16, 2010

Trying out embroidery with felt

  
A couple of weeks ago I received a gift of a beautiful applique pattern. After spending some time examining it, I decided that I would like to make it with felt. I have a collection of different colors of felt and thought it would be a good idea to make a practice piece, as I don't remember ever having appliqued with felt before.


Around that time, Jenny of Elefantz started her current BOM, Daisy-Do (see button on my sidebar). The first thing I thought was that it would look good in felt! It was fun to work with and I think it looks great. The rainbow variegated thread I used for the blanket stitch was dyed by me for the big stitch quilting I did on Michael's quilt nine years ago. I also dyed the fabrics for that quilt.



 

Have a great weekend,

Debbie


Friday, July 9, 2010

YTRR, Top finished

 
Last week I finished the top of the YTRR miniquilt. It now measures 14 inches. I plan to take the quilting on this very seriously and very slowly. I'm hoping it will be good for entering into shows.

 


One of my quilting groups, the Zahava Quilters group in Beitar, is having a giveaway on its Quilting Corner blog to celebrate reaching 100 posts! Up for grabs is a vintage quilt book from 1979. Check it out and enter with three different chances. You have until August 2!

Have a good weekend,

Debbie

Monday, July 5, 2010

Using leftovers


Time to do some catching up!

I've previously written about the Block Lotto that I've been entering over the past year and a half. This year I haven't participated in most of them, but intend to make the cool blocks for the July Block Lotto. One of the months I did participate in was January. Here are the Tic-tac-toe blocks I made for January. 

 

Because the style of the blocks are wonky, they are usually made larger and then trimmed down to size. When I made the January blocks, I saved all the trimmings. Last week I decided it's time to make something with them. I trimmed all those pieces, to straighten them out, and tried out several different layouts. This is what I finally came up with.

 

or



I ironed the strips to a piece of fusible pellon. What I'm going to do with it now, I don't know, but it's hanging on the design wall with a bunch of other small tops. It measures about 7" x 20".

Enjoy!
Debbie