More Flattery - Gnome Homes

More copies of the blocks from Bee Imaginative. Today's blocks are by one of my favorite bloggers in the whole blogosphere, Elizabeth at Oh Fransson. Love them! They are bigger houses than the others.

And here are my attempts at copying them with no directions! I actually think they turned out great! The colors are right.

Here's another Bee Imaginative block from my other favorite blogger in the world, Alissa from Handmade by Alissa. She reports that the gnome is bringing mushrooms back to the deer and bird.

And here's my copy below. I like how it looks like the gnome put a flower on top for a chimney!

More gnome homes tomorrow!

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Ever since I saw the red and aqua gnome houses coming out of the Bee Imaginative bee, I've been dying to make some! I just decided, since this is my year of trying things that scare me, that I would just go ahead and try to make them with no patterns or measurements. I'm not imaginative enough to think up my own designs right off the bat, so I just copied the ones the bee members were producing as best I could.

Here's the first one I made. The one on the left below was made by John at QuiltDad and the one on the right was made by me. Hmmm...it appears that not all whites read as white! Oh well, let's try another block.


The block on the left this time is by Jacquie of Tallgrassprairie Studio and the block on the right is by me. Not bad! But my overhang leaves a little to be desired. This block also taught me that to make a red and aqua quilt you have to use the exact right fabrics. They have to be bright saturated reds and super bright aquas. If you vary from those, it just doesn't have the right look. See how hers is very crisp and mine is little less crisp?

I'll post a few more tomorrow, tune in then!

Food for Thought

"The morning kicked off with Daniel Kahneman, Nobelist in behavioural economics, who argued that we need to give up the word "happiness". It's too vague to be useful, he said, and fails to make a fundamental distinction between being happy in your life and being happy with your life. The experiencing self - the you that lives in the moment - is a very different entity than your remembering self - the storyteller who lives to make memories. We are living under the "tyranny of the remembering self", Kahneman said. "We don't choose experiences, we choose memories." I guiltily put down my note-taking pen and tried to experience the moment."

I totally do that! I'm usually so busy trying to capture the moment on film or video that the capturing of it becomes more important than actually experiencing it. Do you do that too? I think that's part of why I hand piece, I'm trying to slow down and enjoy the moment.

There is an amazing group of intellectuals called TED which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. These really smart and thoughtful people present cutting edge ideas and experiments from all areas of science, giving us regular people a lot of food for thought! The quote above is from the TED conference and the video is the author of Eat Pray Love speaking on creativity.

I double dog dare you to click on this link to see the list of TED Talks and NOT find something that interests you! Leave a comment here telling me which video sounded the most interesting to you.

Thoughts?

Insight into Heather Ross' Creative Process

Featuring the Owl and the Pussycat now coming out in her new line!

She posted it last year but I just found it. Read the whole post and see her original sketches here.

This Thing is Enormous! Questions I'm Pondering

Why, one asks oneself rhetorically, would an all-by-hand quilter keep making such freaking huge quilts??? It just doesn't make good sense.


This is the half and half quilt I am making for my and my husband's bed that I started back in November. It was on hold waiting for backing while I made the Japanese wonky squares quilt. Here is my 25 year old daughter for scale. It's 10 feet by 11 feet! What the heck was I thinking? I must have just gotten carried away.


I planned to use a king size sheet for the backing (yeah, I know you're not supposed to use sheets but I like 'em). The one I had was too small so I measured the quilt carefully and bought a different king size sheet set that the measurements said would fit. Well, if you'll look carefully at the photo above, you'll see the corner of the sheet taped to the floor. What do you notice?

I just decided to take a row of blocks off the bottom and have it be 9 blocks by 9 blocks. I felt like the quilt was telling me that if it was 8 inches bigger than a king sized sheet (that gets tucked in!) then it just plain did not NEED to be that big. King sized beds are kind of square anyway. Another question: If one king size sheet did not fit my quilt, why did I think a new one would???

A final question: who wants nine 12-inch blocks? As an extra bonus, they are already sashed together! If you'd like to see which ones they are, click on the above photos to enlarge, they are the bottom row across. I will send them to the person with the best use for them in the comments by tomorrow lunch. Ok, Go!

A Tiny Baby Quilt

After I finished Amber's commission quilt I wanted to make a small present for the baby using up some scraps. To make this tiny quilt I took a cue from my sister who makes these for babies to use while strapped into baby seats, like this baby below.

They are just the right size to fit over their laps and keep them warm while providing a satin edge and minkee backing to feel. Then when they are older, they can use them to put dollies night-nights like my daughter does.


I found the perfect green minkee for the back to match the green in the fabrics. I'm not usually fond of animal prints but the green matched perfectly! I got the minkee at the most FABULOUS quilt store in all of Central Texas. It's called the Quilt Haus in New Braunfels and they have probably 500 bolts or more of exclusively designer fabric! When I walked in and saw the ENTIRE collection of Nicey Jane in every single colorway and print I just froze. My brain said 'turn around and walk out before you spend the rent!' Anyway, I digress.


Here's the back, I just quilted it very simply.


And here it is next to the one my sister gave me that I patterned it after. I LOVE the Heather Ross one, you should click the photo to see it bigger!

Enjoy!

A Finish! Wonky Japanese Squares

It's finally done! The commission quilt for Amber which is a copy of this one where I used Heather Ross fabrics. On this one Amber chose a bunch of Japanese and organic fabrics. I like how it turned out! It's unisex, as her sister doesn't know the sex of the baby yet. Do you likee? Click any photo to see it large!


I just quilted around all the squares inside and outside.


And put little surprise faces in the cornerstones.


Oh! Here's the back!





Edited April 2010: Here is a photo of the recipient, John William, with his new quilt!
Enjoy!