The Fog is Lifting. (we think!)

As soon as Thanksgiving hits at Quilting Headquarters, two things occur:

*we panic, because we know Christmas is almost here!
*we can't see past our faces because it gets so foggy out here.

But despite the unpleasant weather we are warming our hearts. My personal favorite artist came in to the shop today to quilt and I was delighted. Lora Wheeler is an altered artist from Merced. She has inspired many of my creations and I'm always excited to bounce ideas off of her. So today's post is dedicated to Lora, her amazing quilts, and her altered attitude.

I'm not exactly sure when she started stitching and altering but as long as I've known her (six years) she has been making works of art. Here's one of her latest creations, a mini dressmaker's bust:

in fact, she surprised me with a bust of my own to alter!

She really impressed me with the cd case. This was done on her home sewing machine. She quilted it and added embellishments like ribbon and buttons. Check out the vintage brooch!



and the back:



It says "be in the moment". Great sentiment.

She also shared some of her latest altered books, which are in the process of being finished. Her half-done is still better than my finished product! To me, it's really important to have people that inspire you. Whenever I see Lora she just sets me on a path of creativity!

The latest altered book:






It's all in the details for me.




Look at the tiny dancer!


Inspiration can come from anywhere. When she was little, Lora had cupcake toppers like this.

Like us, she was also getting her Christmas quilting finished. Her Christmas quilts were astounding- I loved that she mixed non-Christmas-style green and red fabrics in with the traditional Ho-Ho-Ho jolly stuff.


Leopard and poinsettia?! Are you kidding me? Delicious!



She made this quilt using the pattern Simple Day at the Lake (available on our website!) but she altered it (of course!) and did twenty blocks instead of twelve. Ladies you can do this too. One block is equivalent to a fat quarter, so twenty fats instead of twelve.

And she made a label for the back out of a Christmas panel she bought but never used.




Today was a great day. I encourage you, reader, to seek inspiration, step outside the box, meet new friends, eat dessert, and most of all....

KEEP QUILTING!