Manly Quilted Netbook Case

My husband headed back to school this semester to finish his degree.  He's been out of school for almost 6 years now, and it's been an adjustment for both of us with him going back.  The good part is he's attending classes at the university I work for, so I get to see him a few times a day and usually we have lunch together.  

He had been carrying his netbook around in his backpack, or in an old over-sized laptop case that he had to strap it into.  That just wouldn't do!  So I let him pick out some fabric from my stash and set about making him a hopefully "manly" quilted netbook case. He picked out some antique map fabric, which I had bought when making steampunk potholders for the my awesome swap partner Wulf, in the Potholder Swap earlier this summer.   I'll have to remember to post those quilted potholders I made him soon.

The quilting, which is done in purposely wonky stripes, is actually on the inside, so that the outside is nice and sleek looking.  I had originally planned to do buttons and button holes on it, but when we were in the fabric store looking around, DH picked out these antiqued bronze clasps instead. 

Melissa's Mini Art Quilt - The Reveal

Melissa got her art quilt in the mail today!  So, after all this teasing, we have the reveal...

Detail of beading

Detail of the whole constellation.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it.  I spent many more hours beading than I had planned, but I like the gently sparkling effect the dark blue, black, and purple seed beads give.  I wasn't going for a direct copy of the night sky, but rather an impression of the sky.  Let's hope Melissa likes it!

"Here's Looking at You"... Or, "Here's Looking at Melissa"

Again, another week goes by with me silent.  I fear this may have been a poor semester to choose to start a blog.  But as I am doing this for myself alone, and the Quilt List looms ever over me, I press on.

Tonight I completed my Mini Art Quilt!  It is all wrapped, packed, and addressed, ready to be mailed to Melissa tomorrow.  For tonight I leave you with some detail shots of the embellishing, which I admit took me many more hours than I had anticipated.  But I ask you, is there such a thing as too many stars in the sky?

The constellation, Leo.  Beaded with black river shell bead frames, pink Swarovski crystal, and glass bugles and seed beads.

Beaded starburst of black glass bugles and black freshwater pearls.

Detail of quilting, done in multiple colors to suggest various nebula.

Hidden Among the Stars

I know I've been quiet all week, but I have been working on a few projects, the MAQ among them.  This semester, in addition to my full time job, I'm also teaching a college history course, and the first week back was a bit rougher than I had anticipated.  As for the art quilt....

While looking for inspiration, I found some great bead frames in my jewelry stash.  Dark grey-black star shaped shells, with a hole in the center for another bead.  I knew they would have to be worked into Melissa's quilt and decided that I would use them to form the constellation Leo, with a light pink crystal in the center of each one.  I decided to then "hide" the constellation among other beads, so you would have to search for them in the quilt.   

One of my inspiration images.

After getting the front together, and knowing what I wanted to do with the beadwork, I tried to figure out what to do with the borders.  I considered borders on just two sides, either opposite or adjacent, but couldn't seem to make a decision.  So I did what I always do in that moment and asked my husband for artistic advice.  When I explained that my inspiration was the night sky and how I was going to bead in the constellation, he asked if I had something grey, that would look like stone.  His idea was to make the borders appear to be the walls in an astronomical observatory, as if you were standing inside it looking out.  I clearly married a brilliant man. 

I wanted to post some more progress shots, but find I only have one to share.  I must have been too wrapped up in quilting to take more last weekend! 

Quilted & bound.

I did manage to get the constellation beaded in this week, along with some more stars beaded into the top quarter.  I'm hoping to finish all the beading this afternoon.  Wish me luck!

Melissa's Mini Art Quilt

I mentioned in a previous post that next on my list is a mini art quilt for a swap on Craftster.  When I first signed up for the swap, I was so exited about it.  My partner is a lovely lady named Melissa, whom I have swapped with several times before, and whom I adore crafting for.  Now, I was even more excited.  When I got her questionnaire full of information, and some inspiration art quilts that she Wisted, I started having all kinds of fantastic quilt visions...  Too many in fact.   

I ended up with a long list of ideas, none of which felt right. So I decided to put it on the back burner for a while, and let the ideas stew.  A week or so later, I found a project in an October 2009 copy of Quilter's World that set me on my path again.  It was an autumn themed bargello quilt, with borders on only two sides that were made up of pieced maple leaf blocks.  It provided the inspiration, but it was far too large to use the actual pattern.

I knew that while Melissa loves autumn, I wanted to make her something that could hang in her house year round.  I really wanted to take advantage of the color gradation factor inherent in bargello quilts, so I came up with a list of 5 themes that I thought she would like; Night, Dawn, Sunset, Meadow, and Ocean.  I then sent her a weird cryptic little message asking for her gut reactions to a few things.  Based on those I decided to go with something based on the night sky.  Perhaps a little Aurora Borealis...

Here's what I accomplished last weekend:

Colors all laid out together.

Stripped units, ready to be cut down.

All sliced up and ready to be arranged

Under 2 feet square is a small space to do 15 strips!

All squared up.

Today I managed to get the borders on, the whole thing quilted, and bound.  It's amazing how fast you can quilt, when the item has to be under 2' square.

Alison's Wedding Quilt - Part 4: The Reveal!

I am so excited to be able to show you all the first quilt completed here on the Quilt List, my dear friend Alison's wedding quilt.  It is a Trip Around the World pattern, made from 10 jewel tone fabrics and measures 62" square.  For information about the fabrics, scroll down a few posts...

And now, onto the pictures!  For larger views, click on the individual pictures. 

On my porch swing.

Being Kentucky, there are plenty of pretty white fences around.  This one just happens to be my neighbor's fence.

The majority of the quilt is quilted in a crazy free-motion swirly motif, by the center square is done in 4 heart motif.

This is the clearest picture, hanging up in my bedroom.

And for all those friends in Grad School who used to tease me when I was forced to do monochromatic shows, here's the quilt in sepia...

Turkey Ham & Corn Chowder

Jim and I made this for dinner tonight, and it was so tasty I had to share it.  Usually I do the majority of the cooking in our house, but when Jim does cook, he usually goes all out and makes something very large and time consuming, which usually involves cast iron, and a roux.  Tonight was one of those nights when I just didn't know what to make for dinner, and didn't really want to cook.  I had some turkey ham to use up, and found a version of this recipe online, hoping I could get Jim to help me.  Truth be told, he did most of the cooking tonight, while I got to enjoy playing sous chef by chopping things.  I added in the sherry & fresh parsley, while he added the paprika to the list.  Enjoy!

Turkey Ham & Corn Chowder

2 shallots, diced (or onions if that’s what you have)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 pinch of paprika
1 quart skim milk
2 cups frozen hash brown potatoes
1 ½ cups frozen corn
½ - ¾ pound Turkey Ham cut into 1/2 inch cubes
4 tablespoons fresh parsley, snipped
1 tablespoon sherry

Directions
Heat a 3-quart saucepan (or a cast iron dutch oven) over medium-high heat. Sauté shallots in oil for 3 minutes or until translucent. 

Blend in flour, pepper & paprika. Remove pan from heat; slowly add milk, stirring constantly. 

Return pan to heat. Add potatoes; bring mixture to boil, stirring constantly. Add corn and turkey ham; return mixture to boil.
 

Reduce heat to low and simmer soup for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender and mixture has thickened. Add the snipped fresh parsley and the sherry just before it’s finished cooking.

*** In other news, Alison's wedding quilt is officially done!  I just finished photographing it in the house, but I want to take a few more pictures in daylight tomorrow.  Maybe on my porch swing...   

I'm also dedicating myself to quilting and hopefully embellishing the mini-art quilt tomorrow.  Wish me luck!***