A good place to rest weary heads

I spent an hour or so over the long weekend finishing pillowcases

from novelty fabrics.

From left: Superman comics for DS2, chess print for DS1,  retro patio chairs for me,

and a fish/shell print in reserve for the next time I need a quick gift.

All are made according to the burrito method, which you can find on various tutorials.

I also got some quilty gifts this week. My friend Terry mailed me two text fabrics -- thanks for thinking of me.

And Mr. Scraps came home from Pennsylvania with four set of DS Quilts fat quarters from JoAnn's.

I asked him if he would buy me one set, but he came home with all four. Lovely.

Bringing home other people's quilty goodness

I have to admit I like shopping at quilt shows

and not always just for fabric.

This mini string star quilt measuring 10.5 inches

came home with me and now hangs in my sewing space.

I bought a set of cards featuing the lovely applique work

and handquilting by Manitoba quiltmaker Katie Friesen

who is also a fabulous long arm quilter.

She's designed several quilts inspired by William Morris

and now I can admire them on the cards,

although I intend to use them to send greetings to other quilters.

This quilt, Expressions of Morris, won in the applique category

in the $100,000 quilting challenge in 2007.

Here's my whole haul, including a bit of text fabric on sale, some needles and thread,

and that windmill template, a secondhand but new in package item that's was mine for $1.

A sparkly and long overdue finish for Friday

Faith Seeking Understanding

free pieced letters

hand quilted and hand beaded, machine quilting

24 by 42 inches

This quote from St. Anselm of Canterbury dates back to medieval times

so I used the idea of an illuminated letter

(large, decorated first letter)

The capital F is hand beaded with seed beads,

outlined with a double line of big stitches

and then again in gold bugle beads.

I also included the English version of the Latin quote

in free motion machine quilting

Here's the back where you can see the density of hand stitching

and the machine handwriting

This quilt also incorporates a huge variety of text prints

in the background and the letters.

Fides quaerens intellectum

which translates to faith seeking understanding.

If you want a more theological understanding, leave me a comment and we'll talk.

I'm linking up to Amanda's last week of Finish Up Fridays

and Sarah's Can I get a whoop whoop?
and Sew Many Ways' Find a Friend Friday

Lucky me!

I love collaborative quilting. Thanks to everyone who weighed in about what to do with my four patches. I went with option #1, and started sewing blocks together, alternating the hourglass with the little four-patches. This is 30 blocks, measuring 15 by 18, and I have lots more to sew. Since this is a scrappy quilt, I decided to make some of the hourglass patches scrappy as well -- see the top row. After I took this picture, I saw the hourglass on the left that needs a 90 degree twist.Other than that, I'm quite liking this arrangement. Stay tuned.
I was rummaging (ah....looking) through mom's stash during a visit yesterday and I came up with this little picture of collaborative quilting in blue and white. She paid 49 cents for it, and I thought I would collaborate with her by taking it home to live with my fabrics for a bit.

Here's another reason I'm lucky. Look what Tonya sent me from her great collection of fabrics! Lots of strips from a jellyroll, and some charm squares and some 10 inch square and some fun scraps. Thanks so much! I'm going to have fun with these.
My mother added to my luck with these black and white half yard cuts (she was in Arizona recently, so she bought American measurements). Isn't that sewing/dressmaking/fashion one a hoot! Thanks, Mom!
And there's more. When I was nicely asking for a few hand dyed fabrics (she's also a hand dyer, and very generous, lucky me again) to match the blocks I'm making for the Friday block party, she offered me this stack of pastel hand dyes. Of course, I had to be polite and say yes. Yes!
And then I made her happy by taking some fabric from the "ugly"bin underneath the worktable. I'm looking for stuff that will match the four-patch quilt made from older fabrics, as well as stuff I can cut up for the scrap bin. That green/white/red print second from the left was one I bought 15 or so years ago and made us each a camp shirt. I'm going to make bags from it, put some in the ever-growing I Spy collection, and use the rest of it inside tea cozies.
I should have taken a picture of the lovely applique quilt my mother is making, but I forgot my camera at home. Next time. Thanks again.

What's on my cutting table

Here's what's left of my word fabric. There's still lots, and I'm not sure how I'll use it once the words for my Words Fail Me project are done. Background for the quilt? Piano key border? I've certainly learned what works and what doesn't for making words from words. It has to read as a solid or not have too much value contrast, especially for the background fabric. I've already culled some of them and integrated them into the rest of my stash, and I used several of my Dick and Jane fabrics for my Advice from Home project.

Shopping in Saskatchewan

Here's some eye candy from a recent shopping expedition in four shops in rural and urban Saskatchewan. I found some $5/metre lipstick fabric for a cool pillowcase, and some more word and letter fabric for my word quilt. Here are my real finds from a thrift store, all for less than $5 total -- four embroidered blocks, a purse closure for 20 cents, a vintage quilt pattern book, and a tote crocheted from wool yarns, perfect for carrying small projects, and trendy in a retro sort of way.
These blocks are cross-stitched, and each are slightly different.
I stopped at Shirley's Sewing Room in Moosomin on the way home and found some 1930s prints to coordinate with the blocks. Maybe I'll make a small tablecloth. Anyone have some other ideas?

more letters and more lettered fabric

Greenmare at Mare's Nest sent me some word fabric last week, and I've started making letters with it. Thanks so much for sharing! I tried it as the main fabric in the word "guide" and the background in the word "soothe" in the bottom pix.

Here's the words I've got so far, and I have plans for another dozen. I'm having some issues around contrast with "soothe" and "calm", partly because the letter fabric is quite busy. Many letter fabrics don't read as solids, so that will be a challenge as I move forward.

I'm overrun with letters and words

I've been sewing letters and words like a woman possessed...by letters and words. Yesterday I added some verbs to my word quilt made from word fabric. Here's what's on my desigh wall: my word project and my 2 B project. I've hit a wall with the bees and b's and be's. I think I've made enough, but now I don't know what to do with them.
I've used white and black backgrounds for the letters, plus pink floral for the bumble bees. The next challenge will be to pull it all together somehow. Or maybe I just keep making letters.

it's only words

I've been collecting fabrics with words for several years. Since I'm a writer who quilts, I've always though this was a great convergence for me.
But then there's the problem of what to do with it. Some of it is busy, other stuff is muted, and I didn't have a real plan until I found Tonya's free pieced letters a few months back, and the light bulb went on. So yesterday, after months of practicing letters on other projects, I finally started cutting up darks and lights to make some letters.
Does it bother anyone that the words go up and down and across? That's the problem of cross-cut strips used vertically. I'm thinking I'm going to have too much waste if I cut both ways.
Here's the first two words of what promises to be a quilt of many words. The theme is "Words ( insert verb) me." "Fail" is just one of the verbs I'll be using. These are quite big letters -- four inches tall, and I'm planning to make most of them in the 2 to 3 inch range, mainly in lower case.