Where the Hell is Matt? 2012

Jan Krentz

Have you seen Jan Krentz on the Quilt Show or seen her new book? Her latest book is Quick Diamond Quilts and Beyond. On  TQS Jan showed some fantastic ways to use stripes in quilts. Very inspiring and exciting! Remember making God's Eyes when you were a kid? She uses the same idea for using stripes in diamonds. Alternate that block with a diamond cut from a focus fabric and you have a stunning quilt.

Here's a look at Jan's studio in San Diego. Ahh, storage space, don't we all crave more?

Mickey Depre-Time to Play!

Did you know that Maine Quilts 2012 is at the Augusta Civic Center this weekend?  I went with friends to the Champagne Preview Thursday night. Today I took an afternoon class with Mickey Depre. We used Shiva paintsticks and to rub designs on fabric. It was fun and when my samples are dry I will show you what we did.

In the meantime, here is one of Mickey's delightful wallhangings. What you can't see is her fabulous machine quilting which she does herself.  Isn't this image fun? Well, so was our class, just time to play. It was so nice to take a class and not have to drag my sewing machine and half the sewing room to Augusta.

I bought two patterns at the workshop. The quilt on the far left in the photo is called "Wildflowers" and she had another called "Bee Charmer" that is just delicious. You can see them at Mickey's website.

DH and I bought a used canoe recently and have had it in the water twice. Once on Pleasant Pond in Litchfield and once at Caesar's Pond in Bowdoin. So much FUN! I love it. 

Old Snowflake

I'm not getting much sewing done these days, but I am "quilting" in Electric Quilt. I am taking EQ7 Sampler with Fran Gonzalez at Quilt University. The first week we used the EasyDraw drawing board to create different blocks and to color them with fabrics in a palette. I've used EQ7 a bit, but I've learned a lot that I didn't even know existed in the program. 

This first block is Old Snowflake Variation which is one of the blocks within the EQ7 library. Never heard of this block, but I like it. 

Now it is Week 2 of the class and we worked on a horizontal layout first and then this on-point layout. A few clicks with blocks in the alternate blocks and borders and it is done!

There is still some bonus material to work on in Lesson 2 so I will get to that later.

Enjoy!