Quilt Inspiration - from clip art!



This is the altar cloth that resulted from clip art inspiration - shown here in my living room!  



This little thumbnail sketch was a piece of clip art, seen in a church bulletin years ago.  We were back home in Minnesota, in my tiny home church - one of those cute little white churches, with a green steeple, like on a Christmas card? Yes, that's my home church - where we were married, actually.  If you use every inch, you can seat maybe 120 people.

St. Paul's United Church of Christ
Delano Minnesota

Anyway, I loved the beauty and simplicity of this sketch, and thought it would make a great design for a quilted altar cloth - and planned then and there to make an entire matching set for the church, as a memorial for my parents.  They were long-time, very active members, and I thought it would be a fitting tribute.  You see the altar cloth above.



Companion piece made for the pulpit.  I also made a matching stole for the minister.

Then I decided to make a similar set of paraments for my current church, First United Methodist of Downers Grove, IL (below).

An artist friend, Janine Johnson, modified the original design a bit, making it more appropriate for our church.  I pieced the background in a brick design, using different beige fabrics, to suggest the bricks on our church. Sorry I don't have a close-up shot.

Pulpit and altar pieces - don't the autumn floral arrangements look stunning alongside them?

The face of quilt inspiration!

This is The Therese Quilt by Therese May.  I first spied this quilt many years, ago - I think I saw her interviewed on television, and loved this quilt with its many faces.  This idea was tucked back into my brain somewhere, simmering...until...

...I saw this funny photo of my older daughter, Emily.  Emily was on her church choir spring tour, and someone caught her at 6 a..m. - not her favorite time of day!  Somehow, the sight of this photo reminded me of The Therese Quilt.  I photocopied the photo, and broke it down into its simplest components, about 7 pieces, chose some colorful batiks....

...and voila!  A Portrait of Emily was born.  I used only fabrics that I already had - that factor seems to really push creativity for me.  Anyway, The quilt just kind of made itself, and I enjoy it every day.  Hope you do too!

Georgia Inspiration, Easter Dinner

Quilt inspiration comes from a variety of sources - and what's more gorgeous than a Georgia O'Keefe painting?
This is a notecard that I received a long time ago, from my aunt Phyllis.  I loved the color scheme, and thought it would be fun to try to create a quilt with this scheme.

This is the result - I used the bowtie block, with black ties, and Georgia's colors for the background.  Gives an old-fashioned black a modern, clean look.

Easter dinner was pretty traditional this year - spiral-sliced ham, glazed carrots, crescent rolls (better not skip them!), and a new recipe this year - the star of the show - 

Four cheese scalloped potatoes!  You can find the recipe here.  This is a fabulous, but pretty easy recipe - my favorite kind. You start them on the stove top and finish them in the oven.  These were a huge hit, and will definitely make a repeat appearance.  Enjoy!

Ready for quilt talk tomorrow, met a star today!

I'll be giving a quilt talk tomorrow afternoon to a group at my church - wish me luck!  I've got my notes all ready, a power point presentation of photos...

...and a pile of quilts to show too!

And, today I got to meet one of the rising stars in the quilt world - 

Victoria Findlay Wolfe!  I have followed Victoria's blog, 15 Minutes to Play, for a few years now.  I've learned a lot, and am always inspired, by her gorgeous work, to learn more.
Thanks, Victoria, for all of the inspiration!

Quilt Inspiration in a Kleenex Box?

I've been preparing for a quilt talk on the topic of Inspiration, and how you never know where it comes from.  

Have you ever noticed the beautiful designs found on...Kleenex boxes???

Not only did I notice - and designed a quilt's color scheme around it - 

 but I am so nerdy, I actually saved the box! how nerdy am I?!

 Did you see "You've Got Mail"?  And didn't you love Kathleen Kelly's apartment? I of course noticed the lovely pieced quilt on her bed - I especially loved the on-point setting, and the soft-toned pastel color scheme.

The result? Voila - a lovely pieced single-wedding ring quilt, inspired by a movie quilt prop and a Kleenex box!

Single Wedding Ring, made for Hannah, and now residing on our guest room bed. 

Crazy purses

 Hannah and I had a fun shopping trip recently.  I was looking for a great, crossbody bag - but instead, we kept finding these crazy purses!  Like the fur-trimmed, ugg-like bags above...

 ...the silver metallic bags, with fuzzy monkeys hanging from the zipper pulls...crazy...

...and the adorable daughter, holding the adorable but crazy, sparkly dog purse - in the adult purse department!