Day 15 - Pick Me I'm Cute

Pick Me, I'm Cute (Flower Humor) 

2010 Sandra Starley - original design

Part of my Word Play series

finished for the 2010 Hoffman Challenge 

Selected to travel across the US in the challenge

The 2010 challenge fabric:

However, the quilt was started for the 2009 Hoffman Challenge 

All the letter were completed but life intervened ...

 Here are the 2009 letters before they were trimmed and integrated to work with the 2010 blue fabric

And here are a couple of close ups of the altered blocks

I'm glad I got it finished and accepted into the 2010 challenge and that I didn't give up!

day 14 - Pennsylvania Posies

Another challenge quilt ... have you noticed a trend here? This one was made for the Pilgrim Roy Challenge to raise funds for the National Quilt Museum in Paducah Kentucky and so I named it Pennsylvania Posies for Paducah.

Hand appliqued and hand quilted. Machine quilted in the ditch of the 1/2 square triangles.

The challenge fabrics plus my 2 additions (the pink on the right and the bottom yellow/cheddar).

The full quilt

Pennsylvania Posies - original design
40" x 40"

It was inspired by several antique quilts in my collection. And you can see more about the challenge by looking at my posts from earlier this year. After the show, the quilts will travel to other quilt shows in the US and then will be auctioned off next April at the 2013 National Quilt Museum fundraiser Auction.  
This quilt was hand appliqued and then the applique flowers and baskets were stuffed for a trapunto effect.  While the borders/ major seams were machine quilted, the applique motifs and blocks were hand quilted.  The Legacy wool batting was a dream to quilt through and even with heavier thread I was getting about 10 stitches per inch without (hardly) trying.

day 12 Folk Art

I still get a kick out of this little folk art scene! My original Design. Hand appliqued and hand quilted.

If you'd like to try you hand at this one, the pattern is available at my etsy shop.

Folk art -art made by us folks- doesn't have to follow stuffy rules like size or scale. It is okay to make a giant sunflower and a cat as big as a purple house. Sewn with a running/gather top stitch that adds a decorative detail to the appliques. It is relaxing to not worry about hiding stitches.

Full quilt is 16" x 16"

I echo quilted around the appliques and added in a sun in the corner. I used variegated thread to add interest.

day 11 - Q is for Quilt

Another one of my favorite quilts is this miniature made for the Quilt Alliance Crazy Quilt Challenge. It won an Honorable Mention in the challenge.

Q is for Quilt. I still remember how long it took to stitch each of those little * in the swag - yes, it was by machine but still slow and yet FUN!!! These are like before/after pics.

Here's what the paperpieced letters look like before they get the decorative stitching/quilting. I use 2

 layers of batting and embroider and quilt at the same time.

Love creating word play quilts and you can see I took the "Crazy Quilt" challenge quite literally!

The full quilt is only 16" x 16" with 120 different fabrics - YES'm you read that right. I squeezed in a lot of fabrics in a small quilt. It is a easy quilt to make and there is a pattern available. Email me for details or wait a few days for me to get it on my etsy shop.

day 10 - Swingin' Bird

This little bird still makes me smile. My original design. Made for the Beatles Challenge, it illustrates one of their earlier songs: "And Your Bird Can Sing". It is touring the country. It was shown last year at the Houston quilt show.

The song says the bird is green and swings so I put her on a swing and made lots of notes. Fusible/machine applique and machine quilting. My sister did the applique (my plan of doing hand applique was derailed by an accident) and I did the quilting. She also donated some cool rainbow shoelaces which I used for the swing - they were the perfect touch, Another great detail is the appliqued frog in the bottom right - my Mom cut into her favorite frog fabric :) I also like the eye cut from a dotted fabric and the rickrack legs and the flower buttons too.

"And Your Bird Can Sing"
Sandra Starley 2013

The backing is awesome 1970s vintage floral gingham fabric. Back in the day, my Mom made me a canopy bed cover and quilt from this fabric. It was fun to use some of the leftover fabric many years later.

You can see my Bird and 149 of its friends in the Beatles Book from Schiffer publishing.

Day 3 - Art and Old Lace

Day 3 - here is one of my favorite word play quilts.

Literally Challenging
18" x 18"

To read more about this quilt, 

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks

I have some great news: one of my new creations will be part of the next Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine!!! I would love to share a photo but alas I can only tease you until the magazine hits the newstands and download queues in November. There will be a fun blog hop and great give aways then so stay tuned.

Scrappy Color Play 8.5" x 11"
Pattern available

The above photo gives you a preview of the colors used - black, white, pink and grey. Probably not a shock to anyone who follows my non-traditional quilts which tend to be in that color scheme. Another hint - a version of the block is found in the picture above and is related to churning butter or shooing flies and you might have read about the traditional pattern in my Behind the Block column for the National Quilting Association's magazine Quilting Quarterly.

To see what the magazine is all about or to purchase current and back issues, visit their shop.

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Art Quilts

Literally Challenging
Original Design
18" x 18"
Wools, Cottons, Lace

 This quilt recently came home after traveling for several years to national quilt shows with the Arts and Old Lace Challenge sponsored by Artistic Artifacts in VA.  I love Bloggers Quilt Festival time which is a great reminder to make and share ART

Here is what was included in the challenge packet: 2 sets of salesman's samples. Greys and black suitings and then summery stripes and woven checks, as well as laces and buttons.

I really enjoy paper piecing and making "word play" quilts using my own patterns.  I used more than 105 different fabrics from the packet and a lace for the ampersand. I only added 2 vintage laces and a woven tape binding (thanks Mom, for all 3).

OKAY, now time to see the rest of the Bloggers Quilt Festival quilts - enjoy. If you like my quilt you can vote this week at the viewers choice link or check back in a week and vote for it at the Art Quilts page.

Spring 2015 Bloggers Quilt Festival Page is HERE.

Art Quilts Page is HERE

Vote for Viewer's Choice HERE Nominations- May 15-21

VOTE for your Favorites in each category May 22-29
Winners Announced May 30, 2015

Log Cabin Love

One of my all time favorite patterns is the log cabin and I wanted to share one I made in my early quilting days.

Made for a quilt challenge using African fabric a guild member brought back from her trip to African. I used the fabric for the block centers and then added free form wonky log cabin strips to complete the blocks.

African Sun - Rising to the Challenge
32" x 33"
2001 Sandra Starley

Some 14 years later, I still think this improvisational piecing method is one of the best ways to highlight special fabrics in a low stress, fun way. Pick a focus fabrics and lots of coordinates and start piecing. Give it a try sometime, enjoy.

Fun with Antique and Modern Quilts in St. George

Need a breather and a chance to create.  Then come see me and lots of other wonderful people  in St. George, Utah,  January 6-10, 2015.  Time for the 2nd Annual Quilt St. George retreat, a truly Quiltabulous Event!

Need a jolt of joy or craziness ?  Then this funky free-form and fun, alphabet paperpiecing class with the choice of two delightful projects would be perfect.

Love Birds & Lady Bugs  18" x 30"

Crazy Quilt, 16" x 16"

I'll also be teaching my cheddar stars class as well as a red rock landscape quilt.


And I will be sharing antique quilts galore.  With a half day class on antique signature quilt, you'll get to see many museum quality early quilts from 1840 forward.  You'll be able to get up close and really examine the fabrics and names and the amazing tiny stamps and drawings that many people added to their signatures.

Hoopes Worral Quilt, dated 1850, Chester Co. Pennsylvania

And I'll also be doing a second half day class, Patterns Through Time.  You'll see about a dozen different quilt patterns and 2 or 3 examples of each which give you a chance to see the changes in quilting and society over time.

If you like modern artistic quilts, my luncheon trunk show: Everything Old is New Again will show you how to learn from past quilters to make amazing new quilts.

And I will be doing quilt appraisals in my spare time at the retreat.  I'm certified to appraise all types of quilts, old and new, traditional and modern.  Email me if you want to schedule a time.

Beatles Bird for Bloggers Quilt Fest

Happy to share my Inspired By the Beatles quilt "And My Bird Can Sing" with the Bloggers Quilt Fest crew.  Timely entry as my quilt is actually hanging right now in Houston at Quilt Festival with 149 of its friends.  Such an impressive quilt project.  If you enjoy seeing this quilt, consider
voting for me in the Art Quilt category.  Voting starts November 1 and goes through the 7th.

Here's the full quilt

Inspired by the early Beatles song "And My Bird Can Sing".  Thanks to my sister Donna for all her help and Mom for the frog applique and more help.

You can read all about it in the beautiful book written by the project creator/leader Donna Marcinkowski DeSoto and published by Schiffer.  Includes all 150 quilts and their stories.

Word Play and Paper Piecing Fun in Minnesota

Yes, Minnesota but not until it warms up in June.  Come take a delightful paper piecing class and see how truly fun it can be.  Paper piecing is one of the best methods to create precise patterns without having to work hard.  Just sew on the lines and you get exactly what you sew.
It really is a lot of fun once someone shows you the tips and tricks.  I'll be teaching my Word Play class and you'll have a choice of the Love and Joy Pattern

 
Or the Crazy Quilt

Or you can create your favorite word or just make 

Hope to see you in Minnesota this June, here's the registration information

And ps. if you are interested in purchasing some of my quilt patterns, my Etsy store is now open.

Scrappy Color Play 9" x 11"

Love Birds and Lady Bugs - Bloggers Festival

LOVE BIRDS AND LADY BUGS -- DOTTED WITH JOY

2013    18" x 30"

I love quilts and wordplay and my favorite way to tackle a quilt challenge is by spelling out the challenge title or subject in paper pieced letters.  For this quilt, I started with JOY (literally and figuratively) and love birds soon flew into the picture.  One flying thing led to another (ladybugs).  Brainstorming, I realized that JOY and LOVE would work together seamlessly like in a crossword puzzle.  And of course, hearts naturally followed LOVE. 

I drafted my own foundation patterns and had a delightful time picking out the ideal fabrics from my black/white and pink fabric stash (especially dots and novelty prints).  One can’t help but smile when looking at polka dots so they are the perfect fabric to spell out JOY.

With the due date approaching, I was trying to figure out the quilting when I got a serendipitous call to do an antique quilt trunkshow at the national machine quilting company:  Handi Quilter.  I agreed to share my quilts, if they could take care of the quilting.  HQ Educator Vicki Hoth found the perfect cheerful swirly star pattern and helped me finish my journey of joy.  The quilt was made for the "Dare to Dance Challenge - An Artist's Interpretation of Joy and it was chosen and will be published in the Dare to Dance BOOK!!!  Thanks to challenge director, Mary Kerr.

****To vote for my quilt, click on its photo in the Art Quilt category****

Thanks again to Amy Ellis for her Blogger's Quilt Festival

Creating

This spring's project: a quilt for the Arts and Old Lace Challenge

"Literally Challenging"  Another one of my 'wordy' quilts.

18" x 18", machine foundation pieced (my own patterns)

Arts and Old Lace Challenge

I used lots of decorative stitches on my machine to add decoration and quilting at the same time.  The suiting fabrics esp. had such a crazy quilt feel that at my Mom's suggestion I added crazy quilt fans to the corners. 

An original design.  Obviously inspired by the challenge title.  Part of my series of "word play" quilts -- quilts that have something to say.  The name also notes the very challenging nature of the fabrics - much more difficult to sew than my beloved cotton.s

I used fabric ONLY from the 2 salesman sample books:  one with formal Italian suitings, the other with light summery woven (more than 105 different fabrics were used in the 18 inch quilt).  I used the challenge packet lace for the "&" but added 2 vintage laces from my Mom's stash.  She also found the woven coat binding - the perfect finishing touch.

   

Here's the challenge packet:

And here's a detail of the quilting:

The exhibit opened on July 21st at Artistic Artifacts, Alexandria, Virginia and the 87 quilts from 80 artists will be on display there until the end of September.  The exhibit will then travel to various locations.
Contact Cyndi Souder for information on how to get the quilts shown at your quilt show, museum, art gallery, etc.