Everything old is new again....

It's Quilt Guild Challenge season here, and I am 1 for 2.  At least the Pending Projects pile is no larger this year.  At one point in time, I had a plan to enter one quilt into two challenges - which is still a bucket list item for me. Although I was pleased that I had been able to figure out how to do that, I was never inspired.

If you don't have the inspiration to make a 'challenge' quilt, then the exercise becomes pointless.  I was a little sad when I saw where my entry might have been at challenge reveal #1, but there's always next year.

So, I moved onto Challenge #2, taking a look at the challenge prompt with fresh eyes, and threw the first idea out the window.  Ditto with idea #3, 4 and 5 - #2 kept calling me back with a siren's call. The prompt was to make a piece based on your birthday month, and May has a lot to work with.  I kept turning it over and over in my head, and the phrase "April Showers bring May flowers"  kept coming back to me.

Everything Old is New Again
Linda Pearl, 2013

Well, when inspiration finally arrives, it's not nice to ignore it- and I will say that this piece came together in less than a week.   What's really funny to me about this piece is that I didn't set out to use blues and yellows in this quilt - but I have been working on a kitchen remodel using those exact colors.  That combo must have been marinating in my brain while I was working on the project.  The yellow background was originally supposed to be the backing fabric, but when I put the basket against it, I knew I had my quilt.  And I know that it makes me smile when I look at it.

What is it about challenge deadlines that gives one (me) the idea that you have oodles and oodles of time?  My only consolation is that a post on the guild's Facebook page revealed that there were several of us still working at the 11th hour...and I love the company I found myself in.

This photo shows the project in the "I'd better get my butt in gear phase'... The Basket Garden pattern is one that my husband bought me for Christmas sometime in the '90's, but it had just the basket pattern I wanted - add some batiks, some mistyfuse - and you have the updated basket. And the name.




The flowers were made using the Leaves Galore Template from Sue Pelland Designs - a much improved technique for making realistic petals. I originally cut the leaves much too larger in scale for the piece, but using the smallest petal template on her ruler,  I was able to bring the scale much more into balance.

Here's the quilt that I made from that book...it's hanging in my living room.  The flowers in this  piece were part of the pattern.

The second anniversary is for cotton...

Quilts have long been used to mark life's celebrations - whether they be births, weddings, anniversaries or birthdays.  The form those quilts take can run the complete design spectrum, from traditional to modern, with everything in between.  Sometimes, as a quilter you have the freedom to select the quilt that you want to make  -  and sometimes you are working with someone who has some very definite ideas as to what he wants.  Many of us have been approached at one time or another to do something with  a wedding gown.  That's how I met a customer recently, who I have always referred to as   "Wedding Gown Guy".

This is the final product - I incorporated not only the actual gown, but also photos of the couple, their adorable son, and I personalized it further by incorporating their initials and names into the quilt - with their anniversary date matching up with Family. 

Rick contacted me through my website to ask me to help create an anniversary gift for his wife - they were coming up on their 2 year milestone, and since the two year traditional gift involved cotton, he wanted me to surprise her by using her wedding gown to make her a quilt.  He was quite definite about the surprise part - and I was equally as definite about it was going to take more than 10 days to make this I had until the actual anniversary.   We had a few phone consultations, and I finally agreed to take the project on when he promised to make it right with his bride.   I gave him a nice certificate and a sample board to present to her on the actual date, and I set out to take a look at the gown to determine what would meet the requirements.  That's the picture of the skirt above, high lighting the applique I actually used. 

I'll stop here and tell you that every single one of my girlfriends who heard about this thought I was crazy - and probably would kill their husbands if they tried this.  No problem - I assured them. He had a very specific clause in the contract which covered me - and I timed it so that no actual cutting took place until I knew she had the certificate and knew what I was going to do.  I worked on it, but I worked around the actual scissors part. 

In the end, I used the lace appliques from the skirt to frame a traditional medallion portrait of the bride, and backed those appliques with traditional quilter's cotton.  The picture above shows me positioning the squares under the applique to make sure that the pieces were centered. 

The gown itself remained in tact - and although this couple had no interest in recycling it for another wedding, it actually can be salvaged - all that would need to happen is to have another piece of lace reattached to the skirt of the gown.  I didn't deconstruct any of the actual dress. 

Hmmm...I wonder where my wedding gown is? I can go and play with that (70's) design). 

Customizing Celebration quilts is an expanding part of my business; for more information about how to incorporate your design ideas into a special piece, please email me at Linda@thepatchworkpearl.com. 

I celebrated National Quilting Day - by buying new underwear!

I had a chance to do a road trip this week with my friend Kate - it was our chance to explore unexplored quilt shops before the bus returned at 3. At the first shop, I was 'fondling' a basket of white on whites (who hasn't), and she gave me a look...I mumbled "underwear" and walked away.

 

She caught up with me outside and asked me what was up with the underwear comment.  I laughed and explained what I meant.  Back in the day, when I was a little girl, underwear was white, white or white. The sixties, you know.  My 'underwear drawer' was the top drawer of the dresser, and it looked something like this.

 

 

Fast forward a couple of decades, and I originally kept my fabric (when I outgrew the bins under the bed) in an old dresser, sorted by color. Without realizing it, the whites/creams/neutrals wound up in the top drawer, and at some point, I realized it was because of the underwear drawer syndrome. It's still there, but in a different dresser.

 

Kate just looked at me, and understanding dawned. So then she asked me if I had bought any 'underwear'.  I said yes, but not everyday underwear - I bought the fancy stuff. I got another look.  Stay with me...

 

The store was having a sale on all cotton if you wore green to shop, including the batiks.  So I looked at this as a chance to stock up (since I know I'm running a little low on it) in the fancy undies department - the kind you might buy at Victoria's Secret.

 

 

Wishing you all a great National Quilting Day....now that you know one way I've celebrated, how are you celebrating?

More on the results of the giveaway next week - as well as April's block of the month.

Talk soon

 

And the winner is...

Hello!  Thank you all so much for the thoughtful responses (98 by the current count) to my question "What makes a quilt retreat special for you?".
It's been fun seeing them come in, and reading them. I heard from readers as close as New Hampshire (it's so nice to meet a new neighbor!) and as far away as Australia.  This is something I'll be doing again, and thanks to Quilting Gallery for inviting me.

I didn't pick Sue Pelland's book randomly - I've had the privilege of knowing Sue for a few years, and I'm very excited about her new book.  I love the detail and the work that she's put into this book, and it's going to give us more milage out of our sets.  She put a note on one of the posts asking for information as to where you bought her  templates...so if you have them, if you can drop me (or Sue directly at info@suepellanddesigns.com) a note as to where you picked them up, we'd both appreciate it.

The winner of the giveaway is SueAnnW (you should have an email from me) - her comment was that she tends to pack her whole sewing room. I always knew I had a doppleganger out there...I do too!.

There's a lot of information to digest in the various responses, and I'll have plenty of time to sift through that next week.  So hopefully, many of you who have come by once will come by again - and see what the consensus is.

Blogger is not cooperating with the rest of the post...so stay tuned tomorrow to find out what your underwear drawer has to do with Fabric shopping. How else would one celebrate National Quilting Day?

Welcome, Quilter's Blog Hop Party!

Good morning,

I'm shaking things up a lot this year over at The Patchwork Pearl, and decided to join The Quilting Gallery's Blog Hop Party as one way of doing so!  I'm hoping to welcome new readers here - and on my Facebook page - to come along on the quilting adventure with me.

 My blog giveaway is a copy of Sue Pelland Designs new book on Rotary Cut Applique with the Leaves Galore Templates

Sue is a tremedously talented quilter, and I'm very excited about this newest book. I've played around with the templates a lot over the last couple of years, and so I've been waiting to see what she would come up with next.  I'll be keeping you posted on the progress...and yes, I will ship internationally if you win.

The Patchwork Pearl is online only - I don't have a shop, although I'm based here in beautiful (snowy) southern New Hampshire.  I help quilters connect with one another through retreats, trips and classes. I'm also working on a group of patterns designed around memories - whether they be weddings, birthdays, family reunioins or a event...I have some neat twists in the mix.
My pattern line is evolving slowly...but it is coming.

To enter the giveaway for the book, please leave a note telling me what makes a quilt retreat special for you. I have some ideas in the works - and some wonderful locations in mind.

A special Valentine for you all!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I decided to celebrate one of my favorite holidays with something special and new - just for you. Let me know if this is the kind of thing you'd like to see more of.  This will also get today's DaGMT challenge requirement taken care of for today.

Let's start with what it is - a mug-rug that I came up with using the bin of fusible scraps that I have - and that is growing way too fast. If it has any kind of fusible backing on it - it goes in the bin. I had the idea that if I made a fusible crazy quilt and sandwiched it with a heart, you'd have a holiday mug rug. So let's get started.

These were all the pink and purple scraps I pulled out with one hand.  I started making free form snips and placing them on the applique pressing sheet.

I found a pile of more when I moved my foot under the ironing board - which is probably more than you wanted to know - so I took the chance to add it to the pile (and move said pile to the bin).  Once I began to artistically arrange the scraps - and fuse them together, this is what it looked like.

Next, I took a 4 and a half inch square of red fabric (the back), a piece of batting, and a piece of white fabric for the front. Fold the white fabric in front and free form cut a heart from it. Before you sew the layers together, put the white 'frame' over the scraps and make sure that you have all the scraps covered - if you're missing any, now is the time to add. You now have all the pieces you need...

 

Layer the batting, the scrap (centered), and the red backing fabric (wrong side up) and sew around all 4 sides.  Cut a small slit in the back and turn all the sides out pillowcase style. Stay with me - this is what mine looked like -

 

A little time with the iron, and it should flatten out nicely. I took it to the Horizon and went around it with a decorative stitch, and then played with the free motion quilt foot a bit.  It fits your beverage of choice...coffee, tea or something else.

Enjoy!  And tell me what you think of this. I'm thinking of Lions and Lambs for March...

Switching it up...

Hello - from soon to be snow buried NH. I thought that you might like to take a listen to a recent interview I did on the New Hampshire Women In Business Radio Show. I've been a guest on her show before, in her Friday segments where she highlights local entrepreneurs in short bursts, but this was my first hour long interview.  I was worried about how I could fill an hour - mee? - but it went by quite quickly.  It might be something different for you to listen to as you are hunkered down this weekend.

Seriously, snowmageddon...how did we survive in the old days.

Off to meet some great ladies in the coastal region today - enjoy!

I'd love to hear the feedback.