Quilt with no name...

hmm... this is a somewhat ADD prone story (just warning you ahead of time) - it all goes back to September. I quilted a quilt for Margy of the JaM Patch. It was made up of the most beautiful neutral batiks ever, okay, maybe not ever, but the most beautiful neutrals that I had seen in a very long time. Margy's quilt turned out beautiful (see the detail pic) and had me thinking about all those beautiful batiks... and thinking, and thinking, and then WHAM it hit me... a JaM Patch field trip!

So now it is October. I ran to the patch for a somewhat planned field trip... purchased a lovely "Vanilla Latte" Strip-tease bun by Island Batiks. Yes, I now had my fingers wrapped around these neutral beauties. Then, I decided on the border fabric... Khaki in the Gee's Bend fabric line by Windham Fabrics. Now they call it khaki, I call it the most wonderful light grey. It looks almost like suede. I can add in that since then I have purchased this same grey fabric two more times (three in total) -- at this point I should have just purchased an entire bolt. So I spent the day piecing away... the result - a finished quilt made from the strip bun and Gee's Bend solid. Looks like a simple, every-day quilt -- which is what I had intended for its use. Well, this quilt hung in my studio for a little over a month. In that time I had numerous compliments on it, so a little voice started humming in the back of my mind that perhaps this quilt should go on to bigger and better things. Yep, it did, it got folded up and put on the notorious back burner.

Well, last week rolled around -- I pulled it out and marked it up in preparation for quilting at the end of the month. I posted pictures of it on my facebook account hoping for some help with names, because as of right now this is the quilt with no name. So, it is all marked up and ready to be quilted as soon as I'm ready -- well, we all know the best laid plans often go awry, and they did! My favorite thread company, Fil-Tec, emailed me and asked if I had any quilts showcasing their threads that they could possibly use in their booth during shows. I told them they were more than welcome to use the same quilt from last year, and I was scheduling myself for quilting at the end of the month so I might be able to squeeze another quilt in there. Well, it just happened I had also left Friday, Saturday, and Sunday open for my own quilting. Now remember, I have already marked the no-name quilt up, and I already had a name request thrown out there on facebook. So what do I do... grab a piece of fabric and mark it up using a modified version of the mark-up on the no-name quilt. So I spent the weekend quilting what is now know as Fil-Tecian Feathers, a beautiful wholecloth for Fil-Tec to use for this years show season. Here are the front and back views of this awesome quilt (Glide Thread with magna-glide bobbins):

So... instead of loading my no-name quilt on the 24th, it went up yesterday. If it turns out as well as I see it in my head, life will be good and it will go on to show land. If not, it was an interesting story and will go on to live as an amazing every-day quilt! Oh, any and all name suggestions are more than welcome because quilt with no name just doesn't sound so great (hint hint)!

About a week or so ago, Margy from the JaM Patch called me. She let me know that the store just received brochures for Mancuso's 2011 World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach. She was excited to tell me that Oliver was on the brochures and that I was once again famous... I listened to this message laughing because I don't feel famous, but in truth, in my little world this is BIG!

Anyway, I thought I would share the brochure with all of you -- if you are in the area definitely stop at the show, it is an awesome one! And hopefully, I'll have another winner hanging! A girl can always hope, can't she?

even more catch up...

Here is a Kasuri Sampler made by Susan K. of New York (brought to me by Michele - a little confusing I know).

The pattern is by Susan Briscoe and here is what Ms. Briscoe posted on my facebook page -- I thought I would share with all of you as she includes additional information:

"Wow! It is gorgeous. Your client has made a wonderful job of the patchwork and sashiko and it looks lovey with the longarm quilting.Yep, it's my book. The USA edition is published by Kodansha International and its called "Japanese Quilt ...Blocks to Mix and Match". There's also a follow up on a taupes theme, with another 126 blocks based on traditional Japanese designs (same size blocks as the first book, so you can mix and match).Could I feature this beautiful quilt on my blog? I love the chance to have blog entries showing the terrific work readers do. I like the different direction to the striped border on this version - looks so good. BTW, there's a link to my blog at the bottom of my homepage www.susanbriscoe.co.uk - if you use the blog search feature with "Japanese Quilt Blocks" you'll turn up some earlier posts featuring reader's sampler quilts, including a few more versions of the kasuri sampler. :-)"

Another quilt by Susan K. of NY (Michele) was the pattern Bamboo & Pinwheels by Diana McClun & Laura Nownes (From Me to You Quilts). This one turned out super cute!

And, remember a few years ago when Watercolor quilts were all the rage. Well, Denise made one (almost 10 years ago). When you see how beautiful this quilt is you will see why watercolor quilts were so popular! Denise said my most favorite words... "do your thing" and I did!

Okay, I think you are all caught up in the quilting department. There will be a few more goodies to follow though, in a day or two! Stay tuned...

Ketchup -- oh I mean catch up...

LOL... really because if not I'd be crying! I just spent an hour remembering everything I forgot to tell you all, typing it up, inserting pictures, tweeking, perking and gosh-darn-it... laptop freezes up -- again! That's okay right, autosave will save me... I finally get the laptop back up and running, pull up my drafts and no, nothing, no even a first sentence! Ahhhhh... it should really be LOLWCMEO... laughing out loud while crying my eyes out! So anyway, here we go again, and no, it will not be as good as the first one, it never is!

I'll start way back at the end of January with Ruth's beautiful dresden plate. This quilt was just screaming spring and I wanted it to scream WOW beautiful spring when I was done. I'm seriously hoping I accomplished that - I think so (oh and Ruth really like it so that's all that matters)!

Onward to FUN (not that quilting isn't) - the family spent an evening at the Palm Beach Int'l Raceway for Nitro Jam! We had a blast even though it was super chilly out and we spent the next two days coughing up jet fuel, it was still up there with major fun! Here are just a couple of pictures of monster truck versus jet truck (way cool):

Most people left before this... the jet truck had a fuel leak earlier (could you imagine with all those flames) in the evening and they weren't sure it would be able to run. They held a few other races and after almost an hour delay "Shockwave" was awesome! Thank goodness for earplugs!

So, after all this I decided I needed some true "domestic" time. A few weeks earlier my husband and I were watching Food Network. The Barefoot Contessa was whipping up this amazing looking coconut cake and we thought, wow that really looks good. Well, I rounded up all the ingredients and went to town. Six hours later... yes, it took all freakin' day -- this is what we ended up with. Yes, it was a beautiful cake. The raw batter was delicious (I know, I know, so bad), the icing was to die for, but as my darling husband cut into this beautiful masterpiece I thought he was going to need the sawzall! It turned out to be a heavy (OMG) cake. Indeed, it tasted very good, but it was a thick, heavy cake. In no way was it up there with light and fluffy. Perhaps I goofed, it is possible, especially with my ADD, but I don't think so, I checked off each step as I went so as to prevent any goofs. Anyway, we tried it and sorry to say it is not going in the favorites book. :(


I'll have a few more beautiful quilts coming up soon. I don't want to overwhelm and put everything in this post.