Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010

Welcome all Festival Attendees!

I'm thrilled that you have taken a minute to visit my little blog. I'm Norma and I love to quilt, sew, cook, take pictures, exercise and blog. Right now I'm running 3 blogs! This one, my Quilt Guild blog, and the new Quilty Giveaways blog. Throw a husband, 2 kids and 2 dogs into the mix and I stay pretty busy. Somehow I manage to squeeze in a few quilts here and there. Grab a cup of hot cocoa and stay a while!

This year has seemed pretty busy and so my completed quilts have all been on a much smaller scale. I have plenty of large quilts in several stages of completion, but my finishes have all been small quilts for swaps. I'm glad I've found online flickr swaps, particularly the Doll Quilt Swap, because these small projects give me a sense of accomplishment.

Here is my favorite quilt of the year:

"Garden in Paradise"

Size: 19"x19"

Style: Trapunto Whole Cloth Quilt

Colors: Golden Yellow, Teal, Yellow Green

Fabrics: Kona Cotton, and Flutterby (binding)

Now before you ask, I'll answer a few questions.


- I have a tutorial on color tinting fabric here.
- This particular design is by Irena Bluhm, but I discovered color tinting before I knew who she was.
- The process pretty much goes like this: 1) Transfer design to quilt top. 2) Do a faux trapunto (somehow I managed to do more work than I had to for this step.)  3) Quilt completely. 4) Soak quilt top and let dry. 5) Add color. 6) Bind and add label.

Here are a few more pictures for you:

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Norma

Click on over to Amy's for more Festival Fun.

DQS 9 Reveal

Here is the quilt that I made for my wonderful partner Susan for the Doll Quilt Swap round 9.

I used some Tula Pink Flutterby for the binding.

And here's the whole thing. Susan has a much better picture though.

The quilt measures approximately 19"x19" and is a design by Irena Bluhm. I learned about Irena recently and even went ahead and purchased her "Quilts of a different color" book hoping to learn a few more tricks to improve my technique. I came to find out that she pretty much uses the same technique I do with the colored pencils. Still, it's a good book to have around for some eye candy.

~Norma

DQS 9

I have, once again, joined the next round of the Flickr Doll Quilt Swap. I don't do very many swaps but the doll quilt swap is one that I really enjoy doing. This will be the 4th time I join this particular swap. I can only say good things about this very well organized swap full of very impressive quilters, lots of eye candy and a very active community. It is in such high demand that sign ups usually close within 2 days!

I know I already have a long list of projects to finish (see left side bar) but I actually added this swap to the top of list because I knew I would join it as soon as sign ups were open. The good thing is that I don't have to send out the quilt until September 1st. That's plenty of time to work on this little quilt. I think I will need all of that time to come up with a really good plan because I have received my partner and am now feeling "stage fright!"

So what is a swap? Basically someone organizes a swap, takes sign ups of people that want to join, then assigns partners. You basically make a quilt (in this case a doll quilt) for your partner, and your partner (usually a different person) makes a quilt for you. The DQS9 is a secret swap so you can't just go and ask your partner what they would like. Instead you fill out a questionnaire when you sign up and provide links to your blog and to your "likes" so that your partner can get a feel for what you like and "stalk" you in order to get an idea of what to make you.

Here are just a few of my recent favorites:

1. thrifty goodness, 2. Finished!, 3. Quilting NewBees June Blocks, 4. Modern Tradition Block for Norma, 5. Melons, 6. Still piecing ..., 7. Completed Pinwheel Quilt, 8. Starburst, 9. Baby Mezzanine Quilt, 10. Stained Glass Windows, 11. Traveling Threads Block for Sparrow, 12. all stitched!, 13. Will these work partner?, 14. hst quilt top, 15. verna dresden garden, 16. Pillow Talk Swap Pillow Done