Some of my favorite things.

Today I decided to post a few of my favorite things. Early in my quilting journey, when I was still living in the city, I fell in love with a quilt displayed at The Cloth Shop in Vancouver BC. I had never experienced a B.O.M. so I thought I'd give it a whirl. The project was from Country Quilts and I pieced it over a 9 month span. Then I moved to the US and started a new chapter of my life in a town of 160 people. Wow, I used to joke with the locals that there were more people in my apartment building than in Grass Valley, OR. My guy was a truck driver, so after moving to this rural area, he hit the road and I started hand quilting this project. I called it City to Country and it became and has stayed "my favorite quilt" It has had several places in my home and right now it is over the railing at the top of my staircase.
This next quilt also has a bit of a story, (don't they all). My guy and I were on an adventure one weekend. He wanted to see some of the sights around Vancouver BC so we headed off to Whistler. A mountain bike event was going on so after driving all around and unable to find a place to park, we continued on our journey. Just north of Whistler is a small town and amazingly enough, there was a quilt shop. My guy spied this turquoise jewelry fabric and wanted to buy the whole bolt. I restrained him and we ended up leaving with 3 or 4 yards. Time passed, I moved to the U.S., we got married, he kept asking when he was getting his quilt. Keep in mind, he already had 2 quilts made for him. But this was "his" quilt, he kept telling me, he picked out the fabric. I finally saw this pattern in one of Jean Well's books, Patchwork Quilts Made Easy, and I thought it was perfect for the focus fabric. I committed to this with him, then I counted out 384 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" flying geese. Was I crazy? Not really, look how fabulous this is. This was one of my first quilts that I did on my longarm, I used wool batting and it turned out wonderful. Donnie used to ask when he could take his quilt with him and my reply was "never". I made him a quilt for our 1st anniversary that was designed to fit his sleeper, and the other quilt I made for him was hand quilted. He would joke with me about this being "his" quilt and I would reply, "Yes it is and you can look at it any time you want"! It hung on the living room wall for many months in Grass Valley. Since he passed away, this quilt has become very special to me, as we laughed and joked over this one so many times.

Here is a little bit of inspiration. Every year I make the trek to Tacoma for Innovations, the machine quilting conference. Just down the street from the convention center is the Brigde of Glass, created with Dale Chihuly work. I never tire of looking at this amazing piece of art. Here are a couple of photos to share. If you are ever driving north on the I-5 in WA state, take the Tacoma exit and spend 10 minutes of your time, it will amaze you.




Sew many things to be inspired by...
Sharon