Sunday, November 30, 2008

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!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Whew! Time to catch up!

Hi Quilters!
Things have been crazy at CQ! Between customers rushing to rent our machines before the shop changes hands and the 300 quilts that we still have to finish before December 15, you could say we're pretty busy!

But NEVER TOO BUSY for opening up new fabric lines that have come in the store!! We have debuted a couple new kits on the website too- you should be checking us out! click here to see our newest kits and our specials!

Yes MoMo, this is me using YOUR SCISSORS to cut open our fabric box! A haha....I love to break the rules.



our newest kit has this-Anna Griffin's Sierra Collection. We love the earthy tones and soothing prints. For the earth mother in all of us.

Tina Givens' line came in last week too. We are still in the process of designing kits but keep your eyes peeled!



and of course I jumped for joy when Amy Butler's new collection, Daisy Chain, hit the store! We can't wait to show you what we've come up with for this one.

Last and certainly not least....


New Asians From Kona Bay!!


Those are Pat's picks- her favorites from the new bolts.

From Valori Wells' Sole Line



Anna Griffin's Maime Collection has these great large prints. Pat shared with me that when she was a girl, her mom had rattan furniture and Grandma Pam's house was green. Everything in the house was green. (Grandma Pam's favorite color, obviously, is green : ) )This piece provided a little bit of nostalgia for Mama P and I loved the visualization of Grandma's green house.


And another print from Amy Butler. We love her so much! Amy, we just want you to know that we love you, Midwest Modern rocks and Daisy Chain is off the chain!



Before I head off to bed tonite I had one more thing I wanted to share with you. This is a purse that my good friend Fran Barret made. She took a pair of jeans and instead of cutting out the whole front and back panel, she focused on one leg and made an awesome one-front-pocket jean purse. Fran, keep on making such wonderful things.




Wednesday, November 5, 2008

We've Got Everybody Going Crazy.

The rumors are true. We have sold the business. Part of it is going to the gals next door at Cloth and Quilts, the other part is going to Dea from our store. She's going to be doing some beautiful freehand quilting and the gals from Cloth and Quilts will be doing computerized quilting. But don't fret, both are great places to get your quilting done and we highly recommend them both. And if you're really trippin out about this, just call us. We'll be happy to answer any questions for ya.

Alas, we will still have kits, fabric and patterns! We are moving on to a new chapter in our lives. Keep checking both the blog and the website for more details on the upcoming changes we'll be making.

So my mom got me this mustard colored hoodie shirt and I've been dying to wear it. But it just seemed really plain. So look at what Baby Girl cooked up two days ago....I posed in front of my favorite "backdrop"- our Amy Butler Triple Treat Quilt (available in a kit!!)


Here's a closeup on the shirt itself:

just a little fusible webbing, some imagination, and a kangaroo pocket!!

Remember how I was talking about people following the creative energy to my house? Two nites ago Danielle showed up and hung out. It had been FOREVER since we have hung out, probably since before Market. So I let her pick out her Christmas present. : ) I originally had started this quilt for one of my sisters. She was getting married. Well, to be perfectly honest we're not the closest of sisters and I think I got mad at her and stopped making it. Well, I hated the quilt because of the negative connotations so I never finished it. Danielle saw the blocks, fell in love with them, and suddenly my selfish heart was transformed. So I started cutting the blocks down and sewing them and came up with the center of the quilt:



Then I'm going to piece more squares around the zebra border, border it up again, and just play with it. What I love about my friends is that no matter what the rhyme or reason they will rock whatever I make. They don't see mistakes, only character. They see the love that I fused to the quilt with my hands.

I was supposed to keep going on her quilt last nite but I was just too dang tired. I did finish piecing together the blocks last nite, but didn't cut them down or anything. I DID clean up my stash though- that was a relief! The parentals are coming to visit and I rent my home from them. If it's not spick and span I feel like a bum, and they won't hesitate to point out my messy house anyway! : ) So last nite was dedicated to cleaning and a desperate longing to quilt.

But lucky me, my desires will be fulfilled when I go to work today. I am so blessed to be able to be surrounded by these beautiful quilts that you send in everyday. That's what I will miss the most.

Oh yeah, how could I forget to tell you???? I FINISHED ALEX'S QUILT!! I'm going to quilt it and bind it tonite....I think...




spin spin, spin around like she does in my heart.



I hope your day is full of love and threads hanging from your shirt everywhere. Be creative.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

I love finishing up old projects.

This week I have been going thru a creative renaissance. I can hardly wait to get home from work to sew some quilts!! My house is insane, there is fabric everywhere. I am lucky enough to live alone. I don't mind being surrounded by scraps of goodness.

Whenever I start sewing I am blessed enough to have people come calling at my door. Friends must sense that there are creative juices flowing and they just gotta get in on that action. So I took a break from quilting to make a dress for my best friend Kara.

Kara doesn't care if it's got raw edges, or even if it's pinned together. She will rock it with pride! So she insisted upon sewing her own dress, with a little help from me.
please excuse my messy house!


We gathered the dress at the bottom. Kara's more simple than me, I would have put two huge jeweled pins on the sides of the dress where the gathering stitch is.

I thought it was primitive. She thought it was high fashion.

Sometimes it's great to be inspired by someone that doesn't normally sew or quilt- it gives me a whole new design prospective. Non-sewers know no boundaries with designs or limitations of the fabric. Their ignorance is creative bliss! I try to channel her when I'm creating- I mean this dress was so simple to make it was delicious. Great job Kar, i love it.

Tomorrow I will be posting a montage of my greatest un(finished!!) projects from the past couple years. It is funny to see how much I've changed! One's style is sure to change. I can't wait to see the evolution of Jessica.

TODAY!! Vote. Then stop talking about it. : )