Background fill

This is a friend's quilt.  It has large negative space.  I have been putting framed squares in and I am happy with the look, but I am not sure how I will do the background around the frames.

I opened the pic in Microsoft Paint to try out some ideas.  - very rough sketches with a mouse, but I am still undecided.  Off to consult with a friend....

Choosing Colors For Quilts - Good Fortune

Someone recently posted on Quiltingboard Forum asking how people choose colors for their quilts.  I thought I would share my response here.  Of course there are many ways to select colors and at one time I thought about making a few videos on the subject. 

What I used for the Good Fortune quilt (Bonnie Hunter Mystery 2018) was a focus fabric but not used in the quilt.  Bonnie's scrappy quilts use color families - several shades of one color.  She gives out the colors for the next mystery around the end of Oct.   She chose red, orange, blue, green and neutrals.  I didn't want to use orange so I went shopping for a fabric that combined 4 fabrics that I liked because I couldn't think of what I wanted.

This had several colors

I took this fat quarter around the shop and picked out fat quarters in 4 colors from it until I found four I liked together. then I pulled fabric from stash and shopping that went with my color choices.

 The final quilt didn't use the focus fabric.

Free Motion quilting on tshirt quilt

I quilted a friend's tshirt quilt.  Free motion - flowers, hearts, curls.  Sometimes on the shirts the thread sinks in so much it looks like there are skipped stitches.

Allen Quilt Guild Silent Auction

This is a small guild in a town northeast of Dallas. http://allenquilters.org/   There are very friendly and welcoming. 

Last Thursday was their silent auction and sale.  The fat quarters were on sale for $.50.  I restrained myself because I really have lots of fabric.  They sold preowned notions and panels also.  Then there were items in the auction. 

Here are my treasures:

I am going to save one of the desktop organizers for a gift.  The boxed pouch will be used for EPP notions - needle threader, scissors, etc.

I am almost embarrassed to say I only spent $35 on my loot

Rally Day 2019 - Pam Holland

This post is late!  Rally Day is in July.  It is put on by TAQG (Texas Association of Quilt Guilds) It's an annual event with a guest speaker.  If you are a member of one of the associated guilds entry is only $5.  There are lots of door prizes, raffles, silent auction. Most of the guilds bring their raffle quilt to sell tickets. 

There are two lectures/trunk shows from the guest speaker.  This year the speaker was Pam Holland.  She is a wonderful artist and speaker.  It was so fun and inspiring.  After speaking she had her quilts out for us to get closer looks.  Some of her quilts:

these were laid out on the steps of the stage.  The elephant is one of my very favorites:

The speaker was selling things and I picked up this print of a sketch she'd made.  It was $6 and just a lovely reminder or her art and a great day spent with friends.

Also the first 500 people get goody bags with donations from all the guilds.

Small Landscape finished

This quilt was also at the quilt show.  A non-judged exhibit where members show projects they made from guild workshops the previous year.

This was from Ann Loveless' workshop in January.  I like it.  I never finished my poppies quilt from her other workshop.  I am not happy with it.  It is sitting in a drawer having a bit of a time out

Bethane Nemesh's class The Devil is in the Details.

I have been a fan of her work since I first saw it a few years ago.  She spoke at our guild Thursday night and it was an excellent lecture.

Today I had the pleasure of taking a class.  Someday I would like to take another class from her.  She is a great teacher.

Some of her quilts hanging in the classroom:

some of her samples:

she supplied us with small quilted samples to try techniques. Below is some of my work.  It was so much fun.