More Quilting-Liberated Style

I have been very busy this holiday season. I have challenged myself to, wherever possible, draw from my already rich craft cabinet to create many of this season's gifts. Over the next couple of weeks, I will feature some of my gifts here. My family rarely, if ever visits me here in blogland so I believe there won't be any spoilers.

A couple of weeks ago I mail-ordered (yes, there is still such a thing) two quilting books:
Liberated String Quilts and Abstract Quilts in Solids by Gwen Marston.

They're autographed too.

The colors are so vibrant and feature both vintage and newly created quilts. I love Gwen's eye for color and her willingness to go wherever the creative process takes her. The book inspired my participation in one of the several swaps this season.

Complimentary postcards! I've already mailed one off.

The quilters of the African American Quilters (yahoo group link), are holding a Kwanzaa block swap. The rules are, using traditional Kwanzaa colors and using any piecing method you like, produce five 9 1/2" squares. Drawing on inspiration from Gwen's books and other great quilting bloggers, I bellied up to the table and produced these two quilt squares.



It took me some time to adjust to flying without a net, and at least one of these squares was subsequently cannibalized for other squares. Any guesses which one? By the time I had produced my requisite number of squares I had gotten a flow for my process. Alas, I didn't take pictures of them all. When I get my swap squares back I will plan to make them into a table runner for my brother for his Kwanzaa table. ~ksp

Insomnia Is Good For Something

The up-side is that I have time plus energy to post, the down-side is I am wide-awake and am scheduled for an all-day training Tuesday. Pray for me.

I hope everyone in the US had a great Thanksgiving last week. I had several "dinners" throughout the week. I was invited to a dinner with a group of guys I work with. They cooked the entire meal.

This is Hector (don't ask) before...


And this was him after...he didn't stand a chance. The food was delish and they are a very entertaining group of young men. I was actually referred to as "an old head"...as I am in my early 30's, I'm not really sure what to do with that.

***

On the knitting front, I felted a pumpkin to serve as a centerpiece for the pre-turkey Thanksgiving table. Let's just say it didn't go very well and I threw it out the back door and into the rain... Let's hope the squirrels get it.

I also participated in 2 quilt swaps this season. The first is a sawtooth pattern in creams, beiges, golds and silvers... Can't wait to see what I get back. I'll show the second batch next time...

...a close-up

Must. Get. Sleep. ~ksp

Silver and Gold

Make new friends, but keep the old.

One is silver and the other's gold.

My last post got me to thinking of my time in the Girl Scouts. We used to sing that song all the time. In the spirit of my Girl Scout training, I am working to make friends in the quilting community. In the fall, I plan to join the Nubian Heritage Quilting Guild, a local group of quilters of African descent.

I am also participating my first quilt square swap as a member of the African American Quilters group on yahoo. The swap challenge: using cream, beige, silver and gold fabrics, create a 12" sawtooth square pattern. I bought a lot of fabrics from one of my favorite online fabric stores. Now's the hard part, how to put it all together.

Here is the shape of the square. Some group members mentioned that they may like to embroider in the center square so I am tempted to keep that fabric simple and uncomplicated. My tendency, however, is to go bold...

I am struggling on how to combine some of the silvers with the golds without it looking garish and still be pleasing to women of varying tastes. Any suggestions? ~ksp