Fabric and quilting inspiration from the road

Across the miles in my southeast territory, the quilt shops and independent sewing centers are doing and making fabulous things with fabric, thread and stitch. After I do a double-take, marvel at the creativity, skills and talent, I try to remember to snap a few photos of the glut of inspiration I encounter. Check out a few of the sights... from the road!

Ruffle up the Little Darlings Safari panel from P&B Textiles to make this adorable pillow
at The Sewing Bee, Johnson City, TN.

Little Darlings Safari quilt and pillowcase [P&B Textiles] at The Sewing Bee, Johnson City, TN.

Children's clothes with Festive Fauna [FIGO Fabrics] at The Sewing House, Collierville, TN.

Here's a clever idea using fabric, a heavy stabilizer, and the serger.

Fabric vase covers with Etno from Art Gallery Fabrics (left) and Wild Beans from M&S Textiles (right) 
at Thomas Sewing Center, Lexington, KY.

Triangle scrap quilt featuring M&S Textiles with Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Solids
at Thomas Sewing Center, Lexington, KY.

This quilt is a free-motion quilting sampler quilt. Check out the myriad of quilting designs!

Wonderful machine quilting on this quilting sampler
at Thomas Sewing Center, Lexington, KY. 

The jam and jelly jars from the Season and Spice collection align the border of this quilt.

Quilt featuring Season and Spice from Art Gallery Fabrics 
at Bernina in Stitches, Johnson City, TN.

A palette of soft neutrals from the Rural Life collection from Paintbrush Studio creates this baby quilt.

A baby quilt with Rural Life from Paintbrush Studio
at Kentucky Quilt Co, Bowling Green, KY.

A Tribute to Ukraine made with the Little Matryoshka collection from Lewis & Irene
at Stitchers Garden, Brentwood, TN 

Stitchers Garden, Brentwood, TN has the full collection of Little Matryoshka.

East Tennessee Shop Hop quilt with Meriwether from Art Gallery Fabrics
at Tennessee Quilts, Jonesborough, TN.

Everybody knows your name...

Once you get over the fact that the TV in your room knows who you are... sometimes you can find good art and pattern inspiration at the hotels. 

How does the television know my name???

There is inspiration on the walls, on the wallpaper, and elsewhere.

Hotel art on the wall.

Just keep your eyes open...

Pattern inspiration in the hotel carpeting.

2021 Stitching Success Tracker and My Year in Review

2021 has come to an end and my Stitching Success Tracker was 100% colored in—meaning I did some kind of stitching, patchwork, quilting or related fiber art each and every day in 2021. Some days could be as little as a few embroidery stitches on a sampler or basting one 3/4" hexagon to the free-motion quilting marathon for this year's guild Challenge entry. 

December 31, 2021: Stitching Success Tracker.

I'm feeling good about the projects that were completed this year—some new, some unexpected and a few that were languishing in the UFO pile for quite some time (4 decades for one of them). The photo montages below tell about my year in fabrics and stitching.

Online Challenges keep me motivated

Motivation throughout the year was provided by several online Challenges I participated in. The 100 Day Project (I did two different practices), September Textile Love, 100 Days 100 Blocks, the Dropcloth Picnic Sampler stitch-along, Make Nine 2021 and a Quilting Success Bingo game issued by my local quilt guild.

Online Challenges: The 100 Day Project, Picnic Sampler stitch along, 100 Days 100 Blocks,
September Textile Love and Quilting Bingo

One of the successes from the September Textile Love Challenge was documenting a garment I'd made in 2015. The prompt was "repurpose" and my Tablecloth Jacket was the epitome of upcycling and repurposing. I'm glad to have this special garment documented.

Useful items for family, friends and community

The practical side of me likes to make things that someone not only appreciates, but uses. I made several sets of pillowcases for family and friends, charity quilts and kitty quilts for our pack of tuxedo kitties.

Pillow cases and charity quilts.

Shop samples serve as inspiration to others

For my job as a fabric strategist and sales representative, I support my clients by providing ideas, projects and patterns that can be made with the fabrics I rep. Surprisingly, I made six quilts showcasing one of my favorite fabric lines, M&S Textiles Australia. 

Quilts and projects made with fabrics from M&S Textiles Australia.

I collaborated with a few longarm quilters to get some of these finishind and they are traveling around to quilt shops and independent sewing centers helping to inspire quilters, sewers and makers.

My Guild Challenge entry

A two-year project that I'm quite proud of is my entry for the 2020-21 Choo Choo Quilters Guild Challenge. The turn-out for the Challenge was exceptional and my quilt, "Alone Together," got the first place ribbon. One of the principles of a guild Challenge is to push oneself and try new things. I did and was very pleased with the results. My experiments and discoveries are documented here.

"Alone Together"
My entry in the 2020-21 Choo Choo Quilters Guild Challenge.

I was also on the hosting committee for the Challenge and made the four award ribbons for the winning entries.

Guild Challenge ribbons.

Guild Challenge ribbons (backs).

Garments

It must have been the year for my Australia fabrics because two of my makes—my Kangaroo Nine Lives top and my new Berwick St. tunic—were made from this fabric line (top photos).

Garment highlights from 2021.

The bottom two garments were both made during a Shakerag workshop. The Porcupine shirt was shibori dyed this year (a Make Nine project) and the Tablecloth Jacket was made in 2015 (a response to one of the prompts of the September Textile Love challenge this year).

A UFO quilt was finished!

My final Make Nine finish for the year was a UFO [unfinishing object] string quilt than spanned two centuries. It was happily gifted for Christmas.

"All Together Now" completed December 2021.

Small projects are big successes

Small projects are very satisfying to me. The time investment can be less or more than a bigger project. You never know. Three of these were made in response to the Make Nine challenge, the zipper pouch was a gift for a friend who retired, and the exposed spine artist book was from a workshop I took this year with Doug Baulos. The fabric twine was a new technique I learned and it was rewarding to find a use for skinny fabric scraps and trimmings.

Top row: needle book, fabric twine, crochet cat bed.
Bottom row: boro and rag drawstring bag, artist book, zipper pouch.

All and all, I think 2021 was a productive and well-documented year.

Good night, and Happy New Year.

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For those that asked about the Stitching Success Tracker and where to get this cool, creative project management tool, here is my original blog post and where I found this calendar.

Happy Christmas

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Lucy settles in for a long winter's nap.

A slideshow of my quilts that I put out for the holidays is below...

Still shots (if this code doesn't work on your tablet, etc.) are here:

Holiday wreath with yo-yo berries.

I rescued 4-5 quilted "blocks" from a quilt that was cut apart. It was too amazing to ignore so I cobbled it together (thus the wacky edges) and hang it every Christmas.

Antique rescue quilt.

Here is a detail of the amazing hand quilted and hand appliquéd pinwheel.

Hand quilted by anonymous quilter.

Here is one of my first patchwork pieces. Scrappy fabrics and sawtooth stars.

This one was made early in my quilting career.

 This one is called "Christmas Geese."

Made from vintage Dresden Plate blocks and pieces. The original hand piecing was preserved. "From her ScrapBasket to Mine."

A scrappy pieced binding.

Another one of my beginning projects. It was all about scrappy quilts--which I still love! Early on, I had to "make scraps." Now, I already have them.

This little nine-patch was also hand quilted.

 A mini quilt: hand stencilled wreaths with fabric paint.

 I even did some hand quilting on this one.

(Before I fell in love with free-motion.)

Batter's Box: another Baseball Quilt

For the baseball fanatics out there, here is "Batter's Box." This quilt went to one of our very good friends who moved into his new house last month. Although he is quite the "colorful character" (and I say that with the utmost affection!), the tan and cream interior of his house needed representation from other areas of the color spectrum. I think it was my duty to help fulfill that need.

The liberated log cabin block design surrounds a Robert Kaufman baseball-themed black-and-white print (center chimney). There are 9 blocks—coincidentally, one for each inning. [Think that was planned??  ;-)] It was fun to free-motion quilt it with a variegated red-yellow gold-blue-green-brown cotton thread. The quilting motifs were geometric in nature: wacky squares, rectangles, zigzags and free-form baptist fans.

You can tell he is a colorful individual. Look at the tie-dyed T-shirt he's wearing (which most likely either has a MLB team logo or a Grateful Dead band motif on it).

Above is the label, backing, and a closer look at the free-motion quilting. This is the cousin-quilt to my husband's "Strike Zone" quilt. Finished size: 47" x 62" [4 bobbins]. It wants to sit on the back of his leather couch, but it kinda wants to slide off [note to self about leather furniture].

Click! Great books on liberated quiltmaking and block designs: