Quilt Show (part two)

As promised, today I have more quilt photos to share with you.  I have been taking it very slow, drinking tea and resting.  Thanks for all of the get well wishes.  Sometimes you just have to accept that it takes a cold "seven days to go away if you treat it and a week if you don't" - in another few days I should be getting back to normal!

There were two quilts at the show that featured fish.  The photo at the top of this post shows the detail on a quilt with cross stitched fish and sea life.

This quilt featured a very large and beautiful fish with lots of interesting fabrics, beads and metallic threads for the details.  The shimmer and shine gave the impression that the fish might actually be swimming!

There were quite a few smaller quilts - but size can be deceptive.  Some of these quilts are very detailed and actually take longer to make than a bed sized quilt from a simple pattern.

This was one of the small quilts - inspired by the Chihuly glass exhibit that was in Boston recently.  If you have never seen Chihuly glass it is definitely worth your time to visit Dale Chihuly's site and spend some time looking around at the amazing glass sculptures.

Here are a few more of the small quilts.  The colors of the center top quilt are stunning and the quilt at the lower right is actually four panels that create a scene.

This quilt had very cute frog fabric in the center of the blocks.

The use of color on this "attic window" quilt creates the 3D effect.  There are dinosaurs in each window and the corner blocks look like some sort of paw. 

This dramatic quilt was a "mystery quilt" where you buy fabrics in certain values and then follow directions each month to build the quilt - you don't know until the end how it will turn out.

A very large "cathedral window" quilt was hanging in front of the windows and looked almost liked stained glass.

The quilt was done using a "quilt as you go" method and I am planning to get the instructions and try something smaller (maybe a table runner?).

Strip piecing and a bargello technique make this flag look like it is ruffling in the breeze.

The details in some of the quilting are beautiful - do you see the dragonflies in this simple square?  I am amazed at the skill of some of the machine quilters.

This was another of my favorites - I do tend to gravitate to the blues and greens.

I also have a "thing" about hexagons.  Aren't these fabrics just stunning?

This hollyhock design is so cheerful - it reminds me of the hollyhocks at the family farm.

This quilt is actually an advent calendar.  The individual images are paper pieced (the design is printed on paper and you sew the fabric to the paper, flipping each section as you sew, to form the image).

The four red corners hold each mini-quilt in place.  The reverse side of each quilt is the same fabric and at the beginning of December all of the pieces are flipped to the plain side.  Each day one quilt can be turned around to show the design until Christmas Eve arrives.

There was a great mix of traditional and modern quilt styles.  This quilt is called "Galaxies" and there is a swirl of beads through the center and small beads in the dark blue area - faraway stars.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these quilts - there were many more in the show so these are just some highlights.  For those of you who asked - I didn't have a quilt in the show.  Paper crafting has taken over most of my time but I certainly feel inspired to try a few small projects.  Quilting is a good winter activity - the quilt can keep you warm as you work on it!

Do you have a favorite from all of the quilts I shared?  Can you see some ideas that will translate into paper projects...?  Have a creative day!

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Quilt Show Time

Happy Saturday - I hope you have some nice things planned for the weekend.  I have been fighting a cold for a few days and will probably spend most of my time drinking tea and sneezing.  I managed to do my shifts at our guild's quilt show on Friday and then came home and collapsed!

So today's post will be a feast for the eyes with very few words.  I took lots of photos so I will put about half of them up today and I'll share the rest of my photos tomorrow.  I was a quilter before I got so involved in papercrafting and I think there are many similarities between the two obsessions.  I tend to favor the geometric quilt style for my own work but I am fascinated by the intricate applique that some people do so well.

The show takes place in a church that has movable seating in the sanctuary so many of the quilts are hanging in this beautiful airy room.

This quilt is titled "Safari Star" and is full of interesting batik fabrics and prints.

 I had to add a photo of this quilt "Southern Memories" for my Texas friends!

The colors and patterns in fabrics and papers have an endless appeal.

This was one of my favorites - "Nasturtium."

The photo attached shows the inspiration for the quilt - what a fantastic translation of nature to fabric!

There were also some amazing garments - this vest is interesting in the front...

..with an incredible elephant on the back!

Some of the quilts are miniatures including this delicate "Bird of Paradise."

Here is the full view of the quilt at the top of this post - the colors just glow and there is a lot of quilting with silver metallic threads.

This wonderful applique top was purchased on eBay...

...with incredibly detailed quilting done by one of our talented members.

Here is one more fantastic applique quilt - all of the applique and the quilting were done by hand - something like this takes years to do!

There was even a room where some vintage quilts were displayed.  These colors are incredibly vibrant and the hexagons in this flower garden pattern were quite small.

Here is the last one for today - spectacular silk fans with ribbon spokes and a coin at the base of each fan.

It was truly a feast for the eyes and a source of great inspiration for future projects.  I'll have more photos to share tomorrow.  I hope you enjoyed seeing some of these wonderful works of art. 

Have a great weekend!


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Just a little something...

We are starting the ten day countdown until our oldest son's wedding!  Things are getting finished but there are so many last minute details - as there are with any big event.  It is very exciting and I hope you all understand that my availability will be limited for the next couple of weeks.

I spent most of Wednesday finalizing the details of the projects I am doing for the wedding.  There is a lot of printing and cutting involved and I have found that the Silhouette SD  and the Silhouette Studio software are incredibly helpful for the bits and pieces (place cards, tags, menus, programs, etc.) I am producing for the rehearsal dinner and wedding.

The Silhouette software allows me to design something like a placecard, set up a template and then fill in the various names I need.  Then I can print these on my regular printer and have them cut, perfectly centered, on the Silhouette.  The machine uses registration marks that are read with an optical sensor to get perfect alignment.

The photo above shows the first thing I ever cut using the print and cut feature.  It cut exactly on the edge - just amazing!  The other feature that I really appreciate is that the Silhouette will cut a circle as a circle and can cut a nearly perfect scalloped circle - something none of my Cricut machines have every been able to do.

I can't do a full review of this machine and the software until after the wedding but I wanted to share this "quilt" that I designed using the digital image that I posted last week (here is a LINK to that post).  I just dragged the image into the program and set it to fill the page.  Then I added a gradient rainbow pattern to fill the background.  I think I will have a lot of fun experimenting and discovering new ways to design with this program.  It's great to be able to combine my digital projects with the ability to cut out images that I create.  I have a lot of files that I have designed but haven't been able to test cut yet - watch this space!


I hope that those of you on the East coast are taking care with the hurricane coming - it looks like we all are in for some rough weather!


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Another "Creative" Day

Today is the midpoint of the celebration week - I am having so much fun filling the boxes and reading all of the comments and answers to the questions.   At the top of my blog it says "do something creative every day."  This represents the commitment I made January 1, 2009 to post daily to share my creative adventures and encourage others to join me.  I haven't missed a day since 1-1-09 and I am motivated to continue when I read how many of you start your day reading my blog.  It is amazing to know that people actually do read my ramblings and find inspiration from my work.  Thank you all for joining me on my creative journey.

I originally bought a Cricut in 2007 to help me with scrapbooking.  We have thousands of photos from the years we spent living overseas and I wanted to get them into simple albums.  I became a Creative Memories consultant a couple of years before I "caught the bug" and I really enjoyed helping people work out their layouts and preserve special memories.  The Cricut diverted my attention from scrapbooking when I discovered all of the other types of projects I could create and when I started using Design Studio it more or less took over my creative life.

I have done all sorts of other crafts throughout my life and I also enjoy quilting - or at least making quilt tops!  The two photos of quilt tops are both "stack and whack" style quilts and one of my early experiments with the Cricut was creating with a paper version of this technique.

This was one of the cards I made - you can read more about this technique and see what I went through to try to get a properly sized diamond HERE.

 I am still a Creative Memories consultant and I do a lot of digital projects using the CM software.  I was thrilled when Creative Memories started to offer Cricut cartridges and I thank everyone who has purchased Creative Memories items through my personal website (HERE).  If you don't have a consultant and are interested in CM products, I would be happy to help you.  The items I am adding to the boxes today are all Creative Memories products that were limited editions or are no longer available.  If you are looking for something that was in the CM line a few years ago send me an email (capadiadesigns@gmail.com) - I just might have it on hand here.

The first group of items is this collection of two paper albums and three packs of paper and stickers to complete them.  They each have a large envelope you can use for mailing the completed albums.  These are great to make for gifts for far away relatives.  The theme is tropical.

 There is an opening for a photo in the front cover  - these are a few sample pages from one of the paper albums I did for my husband's parents when we were on a family vacation in Florida in 2008.  I brought along just this kit and a tape runner and had photos printed at the local CVS so I could assemble the mini album and give it to them while we were still on vacation!

I think there is a tendency for our entire family to like blue!

I am also adding to each box a mini tape runner - these are no longer made by Creative Memories but can be quite handy for tiny places.

The third item is this little kit - a colorful tin filled with some adhesive shiny papers, a pen (random color) and some letter stickers (don't laugh - there are still ways to use these even if you do have a Cricut!).

These boxes are starting to get rather full - and there are still three more days.  It is a good thing that they will mail for a flat rate - I think they will end up being pretty heavy!

Instead of reposting the directions, I would ask that if you have just come upon this celebration week and want to start at the beginning you go to Wednesday's post HERE and work your way forward.  The rest of you already know how to play along!

The question for Saturday is

What other hobbies do you enjoy and how have they influenced your paper crafting?  Do you still keep up with these hobbies or has the Cricut (I think most of my readers do use a Cricut) pushed them aside?  Are there ever enough hours in the day? (That is a rhetorical question and doesn't need to be answered unless you have a tip on stretching out time!)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend - we have lots planned but I will be adding to the boxes again tomorrow - and it is another set of similar but different items that I'll be adding...

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