Nectar, Inspiration, and Creative Fuel

Last weekend I had the opportunity to take a lecture and workshop with Weeks Ringle of Modern Quilt Studio. This presentation was put on by the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild, of which I am a new member. To be completely honest I had no idea who Weeks Ringle was prior to this event. I have a limited knowledge of sewlebrities beyond Angela Walters and that because I have taken her Craftsy class. I can say now, that this weekend with Weeks will have forever changed me.

On Friday we attended a lecture called Creativity and Quilts: The Power of Cross Pollination. Weeks has a great metaphor for creativity and finding inspiration in your daily life. She talked about the honey bee and how the honey bee goes to an average of 17 flowers to find the right nectar to make his honey.

17 flowers.

17 FLOWERS

This really hit me. What a beautiful way of explaining what it takes to come up with original ideas!

All night Friday and all day Saturday my mind was whirling. It's the collective power of your life's experiences that make your thoughts and ideas and actions. Not just as good life advice, but for understanding your creativity too. Saturday I had to pull fabric for Sunday's workshop on piecing curves.  We were going to make her quilt, Eclipse, and the pattern called for 10 medium to dark fabrics and 10 lighter value corresponding fabrics. They should be small scale prints, tone on tone, or solids. Sounds easy right?

Not so much if you are me! Lol. I love big prints and until Saturday I thought I loved color. As it turns out I love one color, blue.  I wanted to shop my own stash for this workshop and really struggled getting a variety of colors and tones. I had to run to the fabric shop to get a darker purple and a medium blue.  I could have made the quilt three times over in shades of Aqua and teal though. 

This is the 

pattern "Eclipse " by  

Modern Quilt Studio. 

During the workshop on Sunday I learned how to cut and piece a curve. It's much easier than it seems. Much like zippers it can be intimidating until you do it and then you wonder what you were ever so scared for. The real issue with mine became my color palette. I explained that I was trying to use what I had etc and since we were learning color value it became a bit of a secondary challenge for me. My selections ran a variety of a few colors, not a variety of colors across the spectrum. 

Here is one of each block made from my selection of colors. I added the mango to my colors for a little bit of variation, but once it was made I knew it had to go. It looks like The Lorax

But taking out the mango color brought me back to the same question : Why do I like blue so much?

Here is where I really want to go with this blog. Why do we like what we like? No matter what your creative medium, have you ever thought about why you do things the way you do? I have spent the better part of the last 4 days thinking about this. I talked with my friend and my husband and after we thought about it we were able to pin point some key things that shape the way we do things, creatively and otherwise. 

I mentioned previously that I am originally from Washington state. I wasn't raised so much in one town as I was an entire county, Kitsap County. Kitsap County is the little peninsula you see across from Seattle on a map of Washington. It's surrounded by water and it's full of lakes. You can't really get anywhere without driving over a bridge. It's home to a naval base and a submarine base. It's blue and green and wet and it's where my family is and I miss it too pieces. This is where all my nectar comes from. Homesickness, comfort, and familiarity. I knew I was drawn to prints with raindrops but now it's become even more clear to me why I like the things I like.

In the end I chose to go with my preferred palette and swapped out the mango for a light green. I finished the quilt top today and I'm hoping I can get it quilted before I road trip home for the Mother's Day holiday.  Yep, it's blues, greens, Aqua,and it has my signature raindrop prints in it. But to me it looks comforting and calming. It's what I like and now that I know why I like it so much, I'm even more okay with it. At first I was so concerned that I had a very small window of likes. But I'm less concerned now that I know I had 30 years of nectar making all this honey! 

I hope this makes sense to all of you. Do you ever think about why you like the things you like? What is it about certain fabrics/colors/designers that makes it speak to you? Do you feel like you should challenge yourselves more to branch out or  are you content with where you are? I think I need to figure out what my California style is and how I can mesh the two together. 

I'll be back this weekend with a blog about learning to long arm quilt! Follow my at @52quilters on Instagram for more updates.

-Angelina 

Post by Angelina - Week #17:   I'm Angelina, 33, and living in sunny California but I'm a Pacific Northwest girl at heart. I grew up sewing with my Mother and Grandmother but really started focusing on sewing a year ago. When I'm not sewing I like traveling, a nice glass of Barbera, and thinking about sewing some more. You can find me shamelessly overgramming at @weenchaweena on Instagram.

Week #17, Angelina McKenna

Hey everyone!

I'm Angelina and I'll be your hostess this week on 52 quilters. Can I start by saying how excited I am to be a part of this project? I am super excited to be a part of it. I hope I can keep you interested in my little corner of the world.

My little corner of the world is currently Northern California. Sacramento to be exact. I've lived here for nearly 3 years and I love exploring this area and learning about the ways of Californians. (California could really be its own country, let's just put that out there.) I'm from Washington state originally and am truly a Pacific Northwest girl at heart. You can keep your 90 degree days, I like my sunshine around 70 degrees with a side of Mount Rainier thank you very much.

So who am I? I'm a woman, a creative, an over-thinker, a dreamer, a wife, a sister, a friend, and an oldest daughter. I'm the person who drives really slow everywhere because I'm distracted looking at the patterns of birds in flight. I eat chocolate whenever I crave it because duh, that chocolate isn't going to enjoy itself. I love traveling because I love seeing how other people live. It makes me consider my own footprint on this Earth. I am a quoter of silly movies and a terrible singer of songs but I do it anyway. I'm a giver, not a taker. I am curious. I get ideas in my head and I have to make them...like right now! I like learning how things are made. I like making things myself.

What do I do? I do a little of everything. I grew up with a family who makes. My mother made clothes, my grandmother quilts, my grandfather does woodworking. I learned to do crochet and basic sewing at an early age. I went to college to be an "artist" and left after a year. I later finished 2 Associates degrees in Art and Digital Media. I have dabbled in drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture,  and graphic design. My big creative outlet now is sewing and quilting. After a lay off last year I decided I needed to recommit to learning to sew. That I would learn it with more patience and apply my art/design skills in this new media. It has been quite an adventure and I couldn't have done it without Instagram. Being active on IG is like a having an instant quilt guild. In fact I have theorized that IG actually stands for "insta-guild".

I quilt because I can. I enjoy the process of making things. I like having a "final product". In my past life (pre-layoff)  I was a Baker and I took a lot of satisfaction in having these beautiful finished cakes that made people smile. I love that aspect of quilting too! I like taking a bunch of pieces and making them a whole. I like seeing what my brain, my eyes, my hands, and feet are capable of. I live with a chronic illness that has disabled me before and will likely disable me again. That threat is always in my mind and I am determined to enjoy as many things as possible with whatever time I have and the abilities I have.

You can find me normally on Instagram as @weenchaweena. I constantly post about what sewing projects I'm working on, what I'm drinking, and what the weather is like. It's really become a micro-blog about my creative life.  You can catch more of me on @52quilters and @weenchaweena this week as well as this blog where I will be talking about finding inspiration and learning to long arm quilt later this week.

Post by Angelina - Week #17:   I'm Angelina, 33, and living in sunny California but I'm a Pacific Northwest girl at heart. I grew up sewing with my Mother and Grandmother but really started focusing on sewing a year ago. When I'm not sewing I like traveling, a nice glass of Barbera, and thinking about sewing some more. You can find me shamelessly overgramming at @weenchaweena on Instagram.

Foundation Paper Piecing

What a week! Where did it go so quickly? In my final post I would like to chat a bit about my favorite technique for piecing, foundation paper piecing. I love how precise you can follow a pattern by sewing over the lines. I have to admit, I'm a kind of a lazy quilter. With paper piecing, you don't have to measure every piece of fabric, as long as fits, it sits. How wonderful. So the cutting process if quite fast, the sewing is easy (just follow the lines) and the result is very crisp and precise. Just love it!

The things you need for foundation paper piecing are: fabric, paper piecing paper, scissors, a ruler a sewing machine (or just needle and thread) and of course a nice pattern. 

In case you've not joined the paper piecing fun yet, a few nice tutorials to get you started:

- Turorial by Jackie Kunkel

- Tutorial by Crol Doak

- Video tutorial by ConnectionThreads

- Video tutorial by Jennifer Mathis

There is paper piecing paper that you can put in your printer, to save time tracing all the patterns. I like the 'fun-dation' paper to work on. Or just normal (brand-less) 'theezakjespapier' as we call it, the paper used to make tea bags. It is a bit transparent and you can easily rip it away after sewing. The transparency helps me to put the pieces of fabric in place, since the fabric is on the other side of where you're sewing. 

One tool that I use a lot while paper piecing is the 'Add a quarter' ruler. It's the yellow ruler, also used in above tutorials. You use it to add a quarter inch from your reference line. First I worked without it, that also possible, but it makes the process to much easier. (And faster, haha I told you I'm a bit lazy didn't I?) The fact that I work with centimeters in stead of inches is not a problem at all. 

The only think I don't really like about paper piecing is removing the paper. With a big project it can take a while before all the tiny pieces are gone. There is paper available which you can leave on, but it does make your quilt a bit stiff. What helps making the ripping easier is using a smaller stitch length while sewing. The more holes in the paper, the easier it will rip. 

It was so nice to read all the lovely comments on the pencil quilt block on Instagram, thank you so much! I decided to turn the pencil block into a pattern to put in my Etsy shop. My very first quilt block created during my 52quilters week, how cool is that! As a thank to you all there is a 30% discount when using the code '52quilters' at sugaridoo.etsy.com, only until the end of april.

This week had been so much fun! I can't believe it's already over. Thank you so much for the opportunity Chris, it was a wonderful experience. Good luck to all the 36 quilters that will follow! 

Love Irene

Things we love - a quilt for my mom

This is the quilt that really made me fall in love with quilting. The quilt is called 'Things we love', I made it last year for my mom. The idea for this quilt came because my mom quilts a lot, but mostly for other people. So I wanted to make something, special just for her. The idea was to combine all things we love into one big quilt.

"Things we love", made for my mom.

Making the quilt was quite a challenge. I couldn't ask my mom for any advice on the process, since it was a surprise. Also was it January '14 when I started, and I wanted to give the quilt as a present for her birthday, end of May '14. (Still wonder how I managed.) I would love to share the process of designing and making this quilt with you today.

It started with drawing a layout. I decided to make paper pieced blocks in different sizes with 2.5cm sashing in between them. Because I didn't want all blocks to be just squared or all the same size, it was quite a puzzle to make the layout.
After I had drawn the layout I started sketching ideas for the blocks. After sketching on paper I would make a straight line drawing on the computer for each block. Block for block I filled the layout until I had the design below. Fitting everything I wanted into blocks was the most difficult part of the design I think. It involved quite some moving blocks around, scaling, swapping places and adding and deleting blocks. Even when I finally started sewing I kept changing parts of the design.

The layout and initial design for the quilt.

After the design above was finished, all blocks needed to be translated into paper piecing designs. So each block needed to be cut in 'sew-able' pieces. For me this was a fun thing to do, and felt like a big accomplishment for every block that was ready for sewing. Let me show you with the birdy block below. On the left the birdy as I drew is on the computer, in the middle I cut it up in pieces I thought would work for paper piecing and on the right the numbered pattern. Sometimes I would find out during sewing that the pattern wasn't working. Then I had to go back to changing the design and making a new pattern for it.

While drawing the blocks, I needed to pick fabrics for the quilt. I found picking fabrics quite hard (I still find that difficult). So I went for the easy option of using fabrics from one designer, which would all go together nicely. I chose Tilda fabrics in different greens, turquoises, reds, pinks and blues and solid white for the sashings.

So then, finally, the sewing could begin. One night I would sit down and cut all pieces for a few blocks, and another day I would go to my sewing machine and sew all those blocks together. Alternating those tasks felt the most efficient, since I had only 6 months to complete the quilt (6 months, what was I thinking?) It was so lovely to see the blocks come to life in fabric! Let me show you some up close.

Having all blocks finished it was time to put the sashing in between. In the layout I already made a design for that. I didn't had a design wall back then, so I just occupied the floor of our small living room until it was all finished. Haha, didn't want to loose the order of sewing everything in place. This is the quilt top before I started quilting:

Oh the borders, almost forgot. I got the idea for the small blocks somewhere on the internet. Such a clever way to use all the scraps in the a border! Since there was a lot of white in the quilt the colorful border worked really well I think.

With the top finished, it way time to sandwich and quilt it.. So scary to put the quilt under the machine and just go for it! The idea was to quilt all the white spaced, so the figures would pop out more. Hand quilting isn't really my thing (and would really take to long), so I chose to do stippling free motion quilting. After watching some Lea Day movies on Youtube and practicing on small sandwiched pieces of fabric I just did it.

My little machine and I had some tough moments, but as we went along it went better and better. Keeping in mind that my mom would probably still love it, even if the stippling wasn't perfect really helped. I am super happy that I just went for it. It seamed scary to free motion quilt on a small machine, but after some practice it's really no biggie.

The best thing of all was just handing it to my mom. The beauty behind quilting for me is definitely making something with lots of love for the people you love.

What is your most special quilt? And who did you make it for?

Love,
Irene

Post by Irene - Week #16:   
I'm Irene, 27, I live in The Hague, The Netherlands with my boyfriend, cat and bunny. I've been quilting for a bit more than a year now, inspired by my mom (who has been a quilter since I can remember). When I'm not quilting, I work as an R&D engineer in the offshore industry. Visit Irene on instagram or her website at  http://www.sugaridoo.com/

Week #16: Quilter #16: Irene from Sugaridoo

Hi there! I'm super excited that it's my turn this week as quilter #16 in the 52 quilters adventure. This is such an awesome project, meeting these quilters from all over the world. I hope you join the fun with me this week.

Let me first introduce myself. My name is Irene Staal and I'm from The Hague in The Netherlands. While growing up my mom and grandma exposed me to all kinds of crafts. Including knitting, cross stitching, making Waldorf dolls, friendship bracelets and small sewing projects. I always loved creating things. But I haven't always loved fabrics. My mom made many dresses and other clothes for me when I was little. That was great, but it also included buying a lot of fabric. And as a child I just couldn't see the fun in strolling around for hours at a fabric market. So it took a while before I joined my mom in quilting ;)

From living at my parents I moved to a student home for five years. In those years I didn't really do much with my crafty genes. I did start baking and discovered the fun in cake decoration. In those years I baked a lot and started giving cake decoration classes. Such fun! Then I met my boyfriend (soon to be husband), and finished my bachelors. We moved to The Hague together where I started my masters in Mechanical Engineering. In those years I rediscovered my love for yarn. I started crocheting and designing my own amigurumi patterns. For which I opened an Etsy shop, so scary at the time, but I did it anyway.

One of my amigurumi friends and my first sewing machine

My love for quilting originated shortly after that, mainly by an old sewing machine I got from my parents neighbor. Such a pretty machine isn't it? After I got the machine I visited a fabric market. And guess what? I loved it :) Ha! Who would have thought? I loved all the different colors and fabric designs and all kinds of ideas popped in to my head. So that was it, I was hooked. I started off with a simple baby blanket with help of my mom for choosing the right materials and techniques.

In January 2014 I started my first big paper piecing project. My mom has been a quilter for many many years. And she always makes quilts for other people. I decided to design and make a quilt specially for her. What a journey that was, it was so much fun! I'd like to tell you more about that in my next post.

The quilt I made for my mom

Well, through that quilt I really fell in love with quilting. It makes me so happy working with pretty materials, all those happy colors. Sharing this passion with my mom makes it even more special. Although I've only been quilting for two years I would love to share some of my quilting journey with you this week.

Love,
Irene

You'll find me on instagram, twitter and pinterest as @sugaridoo.
And my little Etsy shop: sugaridoo.etsy.com

Post by Irene - Week #16:   
Irene is 27 and lives in The Hague, The Netherlands with her boyfriend, cat and bunny. She has been quilting for almost two years now, inspired by her mom. When Irene is not quilting, she works as an R&D engineer in the offshore industry. Visit Irene on instagram or her website at  http://www.sugaridoo.com/

Thoughts on Child Sponsorship

I've been sponsoring with Compassion International since 2006, and can honestly say it was the best decision ever. As many of you know, I spent the last week in Ecuador meeting some of my sponsored children. The love and joy I experienced these last few days has forever changed me for the better. It's hard for me to put into words what sponsorship means for me, but I can assure you that I am far more blessed by my kids than my kids are blessed by me.

So, before I say bye for the week, I'd love to take this last opportunity to share a video from Compassion, and encourage you to check out the organization, and perhaps, sponsor a child - I guarantee you won't regret it.

Want to sponsor? Click here for more information.

You can also follow my personal blog for more posts on my sponsorship journey.

Thank you all for joining me this week, I've had a great time hosting. I can't wait to see who's up next, and what great information they have in store - so, until next time, 

Happy Quilting!

A Look at My Modern Elephant Block

One of the first quilt blocks I ever made was an elephant that I hobbled together from a pattern in my head (pictured below).

I've loved this block for years, but never had and idea as to what I could turn it into. Originally, I was hoping to make a full-sized quilt of elephants - but, as you can probably guess, that didn't happen. When I finished the block, the beginner quilter in me said - heh, yeah, that's too much work for a large bed quilt. So a single block, she remained. 

Then, when I signed up for to host a week here at 52 Quilters, Chris asked for an 8" block to commemorate my time, and, almost from the beginning, I knew I wanted to revisit this elephant. I dug out the older block, did some quick math, and realized that I had enough scrap fabric from the quilts I brought to Ecuador to complete a cute little block. So, without further adieu, I'd like to present to you my modern elephant quilt block:

She's a little more abstract that the original, and reminds me of a more cubist elephant, but she's a perfect representation of my style and sentiment. The pink and dark blue fabric are from my sponsored girl, Emily's, quilt. The white and teal dot are from Valeria's quilt, and the the solid blue is from Josué's quilt. 

I used a small, found button for the eye, and embroidered on a tail. All in all, I really love how this block turned out, and now that I've made another, I could easily see the original becoming part of a larger pillow sham or table runner. I still think it would be too much to make any kind of large quilt out of them, but a smaller wall-hanging could be cool. If anyone is interested in the pattern, please let me know. I'd be happy to share it. 

And so, while I'm blogging from Ecuador and bringing quilts to each of my kids here, I'm also using the same fabrics to remember my time hosting this blog. It has a sort of beautiful symmetry, no?

Post by Emily - Week #15:   Emily shares her love for sewing, gardening, and children’s ministry on her blog, With Elephant Grace. When she’s not picking numerous loose threads off her lap, Emily likes to post about encouraging Compassion International Sponsors, straw-bale gardening, and crafting. You can find out more about Emily by following her on Instagram.

Welcome to Week 15: Emily

I am super excited to grab the baton from Kerry and carry the torch this week - I hope you'll enjoy our time together as much I as do. But, before we get too far into it, let me start with the basics:

Quilter #15

Name: Emily

Location: Northeastern Arkansas, United States but blogging from Quito, Ecuador

Who I am and what I do: I'm a Grant Administrator for a Planning and Development District. I write grant proposals for cities, counties, and non-profit organizations and, if awarded, I manage and administer those grant funds. I've been doing this for nearly 4 1/2 years. Prior to grant writing, I worked in drug prevention, and as a librarian. I'm also a Compassion International Sponsor. I currently sponsor 3 kids with Compassion (Emily-10, Josué-16, and Helen Angela -15), and am presently in Ecuador visiting 2 of them (Emily & Josué). It's amazing how much these kids bless me, and I am honored to share in a small part of their life.

Why I quilt: Quilting has been a passion of mine for nearly 6 years. I started out sewing costumes for Halloween - I was the Children's Director at my church and constantly looking for modest and appropriate costumes. It was easier just to make my own. From there, I slowly transitioned into quilting, dipping my toe in completely on a whim wanting to make a special gift for a friend who loved penguins. But, like any quilter will tell you, it's overwhelmingly addictive. Over the years I've gotten bolder with my quilting, trying out new techniques and honing my skills. Yet, through it all, it's the gift giving that keeps me quilting. I love sharing a bit of my love in the form of fabric and stitches. After all, there is no better sleep than that which happens under a quilt.

My favorite quilt: This is a tough one, but for the sheer accomplishment of it, I'm going with my Scrappy Trip Around the World. The quilt itself is not that pretty and wasn't that hard to make, but sums up a year's worth of work and the completion of one of my first large-scale quilting projects. From April 2013 to April of 2014 I set out to make 26 quilts (26 quilts in my 26th year - it was a birthday project). The Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt was #26 and was made with fabric from the 25 previous quilts. I love how it turned out, and how it's a record of each quilt that I made. Many of the quilts from that project were gifted and this quilt lets me remember them in a way that photos alone don't. 

Why I’m doing this: You know, in the few days leading up to me taking over this account, I asked myself that very question. Why, amid packing and preparing to leave the country - Emily, why did you decide that this would be the perfect time to guest post on a variety of social media accounts?? Clearly it's because I'm a bit crazy. But moreover, I felt like this would be a fun week to share about myself and my life - and to get a great look at why I quilt (to show and share love) and why I write (to tell the story). And, if I'm being completely honest, it's been a goal of mine for the last few years to increase my own guest posts on other platforms - so really it just boils down to this: I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Where you can find me:

Instagram: @elephantgrace

Twitter: @elefantgrace

Blog: elephantgrace.com 

And that's me, I'll be posting a couple more times this week, though I can't guarantee a specific time (Wifi in Ecuador is limited to my hotel), but I hope you'll check back in - and be sure to follow along on instagram and twitter! I can't wait to hear from you all.

Happy Quilting!
~ Emily

Post by Emily - Week #15:   Emily shares her love for sewing, gardening, and children’s ministry on her blog, With Elephant Grace. When she’s not picking numerous loose threads off her lap, Emily likes to post about encouraging Compassion International Sponsors, straw-bale gardening, and crafting. You can find out more about Emily by following her on Instagram.

Building a pictorial quilt

Someone asked me on Instagram how I go about putting together my applique quilts.
So here's what I do!

After I draw out my design and where I want the patches of different shades and colours to go on tracing paper, I scan it in, enlarge it in Photoshop and adjust the levels to make the lines as dark and visible as possible and to get out as much murk from the background. I then print it out over several pages and tape them together...

Once taped I overlay the design with freezer paper, taped together with washi tape, magic tape or something that doesn't melt with heat. Then I trace over it with anything but a Frixion pen!!

Once traced, I mark on the colours by name referring to my original photograph, and also mark joins with crosses and dashes to make it easier to match up later.

But then I do a fabric pull and cut out some of the patches, a small section at a time.

I usually get interrupted at this point...

These get pressed onto the right side of fabrics and trimmed around leaving a seam allowance.

Whilst sat on the sofa with a magazine on my knee, I then clip into some seam allowances (leaving the adjoining edge of the next patch), fold to the back and stick together.

Once a patch is completely surrounded I can then take off the freezer paper which is my favourite bit!

I keep building it up until its completed. Sometimes I stitch it down, other times I baste it and quilt it to hold the pieces in place.

Still a long way to go but it's good fun.

Thanks for following along with me this week!
@pennydog
Blog

Week and Quilter #14: Kerry Foster

So I'm a bit late at introducing myself! My day job has really taken it out of me this week so all my activity has been on Instagram of what little sewing I've felt like I could do! Don't worry I hear you get someone good taking over the account next week, so please stick with me... ;)

Who am I?
I'm Kerry, and I'm often called Penny, because my username for most things is @pennydog. I'm cool with being called either! I live in nearly the most central place in the UK that you can get, so I miss the sea as I grew up near the Yorkshire coast. I live here with my husband Alex, (newlywed still technically but we've been together 11 years so I think it's working out OK) and our two dogs. I love dogs. There's Gwen (#gwenstagram) who is a 10 year old greyhound from Wales and she is the spitting image of our first dog, Penny and is pretty much as interactive as her (read: not very). We also have the notorious #instahank- Hank the English Pointer, and he is coming up to 18 months old. It was a love/hate relationship for many months but I could just squish his stupid baggy face all day now.

I work full time in b2b marketing and as mentioned earlier it's a crazy busy time for me right now. I'm also a part time writer for a few quilting publications here and there. I'm also a member of East Midlands Modern Quilt Guild and I will be Instagramming from there on Saturday this week, you lucky people!

Why did I start quilting?
I've always made stuff. I cross stitched when I was about seven years old upwards and moved on to beadweaving at secondary school and resin jewellery making and a ton of stuff in between after that. I settled on quilting after I got disenamoured with jewellery making and chocolatiering. I used to have a business around both of those things but I had a moment of realisation that I didn't enjoy the things that were businesses and no longer just a hobby. So I decided to try quilting as I'd thought about it for a while but couldn't see any business potential in such a slow craft!

I used to edit a craft magazine back-in-the-day and a sister publication was Popular Patchwork, so it was the sample copies of that magazine that got me interested and I've not looked back. Except I've sort of made it a micro business.... Yep, that wasn't meant to happen but it's still a lovely slow process and I don't have to churn out more quilts than I actually want to, so it works.

My favourite quilt....
It changes all the time, and I have two designs I'm dying to work on that I know will take over so I will have to say for now that it is my Moose quilt, Hoots Mon, that hangs in the living room.

I think my musical Billy Bass quilt is pretty cool though too.

My style is...

I am not shy about my hatred of the quilt police, that is both traditional AND modern- because they exist in both camps most definitely! My style is creating what I want, how I want, using whatever fabrics and colours I like at the time and so if I feel like I need to put a name to it, I call it postmodern quilting. Usually I create in one of two styles. I have a commercial side where I design and make quilts that will appeal to publications and their readers. Sometimes I love them, sometimes I just like them. My most favourite style though is machine turned-edge pictorial quilts using solids, blenders, batiks, prints, whatever to get the job done. These turn out looking less classic than other pictorial quilts you may see in shows because of my crowbarring in of contemporary fabrics but they are definitely a representation of me! Hopefully I will be showing you the process a bit before my week is up as I have a Hank in progress...

Find me here!
Instagram: @pennydog
Twitter: @pennydog
Blog: http://blog.pennydog.com