May 14, 2009
A Twilt from Jules Quilts
Please visit Jules Quilts and check out her fabulous contribution to the Twitter Quilt….Twilt project. I love it! Thanks Jules! “Curves Conquered“
May 12, 2009
Starlit Night for Twilt Tuesday
I went back to the early days of my process to create “Starlit Night”. The larger star in this piece is a Floating Star block from my second book, “Machine Stitched Cathedral Stars“. I shrunk the block and used a grid of 1” background squares. The smaller stars are miniature versions of Star Puzzle. I love the strong constrast created with gold prints and dark star prints. Machine quilted stars and a few Hot Stick crystals on the background add to the celestial feel.
The border print is an older Batik from the early 90’s, I think. I enjoy digging through my fabric collection and finding the older pieces. Twilts are the perfect place to finally use these fabrics. I am considering offering patterns for some of the Twilts so if there’s one you really like let me know.
For more information on Twilts: Twitter Quilts…….Twilts
May 5, 2009
A Blue Bouquet on Twilt Tuesday
A while back I made a quilt called “A Blue Bouquet for Barbara Jean”. It was a quilt I made in memory of my mother who passed away when I was very young. This little Twilt, “Blue Bouquet”, uses the same 3D flower block but has only six petals where the blocks in the larger quilt each had eight petals. I added hot stick Crystals in the light flower print inset and in the center of the 3D flower as well as a bead and embroidery.
The fabrics are several different blue batiks except for the inset fabric. I love blue and white quilts and I think I am not alone. 
The inspiration for the Twilt, “A Blue Bouquet for Barbara Jean”.
For more information on Twitter Quilts…..Twilts.
April 28, 2009
It’s Sweet and Simple this Twilt Tuesday
I just got back from the Seven Sister’s Quilt Show in San Luis Obispo, California and was worn out and didn’t have a lot of time for this weeks piece. But, that just goes to show how quick, easy and satisfying these little Twilts can be.
I started with a embroidered paper pieced basket block from my unfinished project stash. This was a left over piece from a couple of little wall hangings I made at least 15 years ago. It was too pretty to waste. 
I sewed the lot cabin strips on through the batting and back as I worked my way out to the outer edges. There are several Liberty of London type cotton lawn. These are very soft, light weight fabrics with wonderful prints. The added flowers are plastic molded flowers from Australia that have just been waiting for an opportunity to shine. I was quite satisfied with this project.
I would love to see your Twilts. Drop me a line and I will be happy to link to your Blog or send me a picture and I will feature it here. For more about Twilts see Twitter Quilts….Twilts.
April 21, 2009
Twilt Tuesday Brings Just a Hint of Summer
The Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2009 is still going on so please visit Amy’s site and the over 400 entries and my entry, Memories & Merlot, as well.
It was over 90 degrees here yesterday and is supposed to be again today. Then it should cool down to normal spring temperatures again. That was enough to remind me that Summer is just around the corner.
“Just a Hint of Summer” features an embroidered Sunflower of hand dyed silk ribbon, pearl cotton and beads on crinkled batik fabric with lots french knots in the Sunflower center.
The sunflower batik has beads added and the purple insets are pieced of multiple purple batiks.
I hope that you have been working on a Twilt or two. These little pieces have really sparked my creativity in so many unrelated ways.
Read more: Twitter Quilts…Twilts.
April 14, 2009
Lost in an Asian Garden
I did something a little different with this week’s Twilt. I kept eyeing this older Asian print that probably was produced in Japan when they first started printing fabrics for the quilters. The funky colors and old fashioned designs were calling to me. What can I say, I just let go and took a larger square of the fabric, sandwiched it and started quilting. I used regular stitching in black on the strippy areas and free motion on the flowers. I am not a particularly good free motion quilter so this was practice as well. I tried out a new product that I picked up a while back by Sew Slip. It’s a fairly large smooth sheet that temporarily sticks to the table and has a hole where the needle goes. I really will use it again. I feel like it helped.
Once I finished the quilting, I bound the piece and then started embroidering and beading. I haven’t done that in a long time and I forgot how much I miss the hand embroidery. I used french knots in the centers of the big flowers, feather stitch on the leaves, chain stitch around those round things and straight stitch, lazy daisies and beads on the smaller flowers.
I got ‘Lost in an Asian Garden’. Have you made a Twilt yet? They’re a great opportunity to practice a technique, use a small sample from that class you took and never finished, revisit a technique you have missed or you add to the list. For more about Twilts: Twitter Quilts….Twilts.
April 7, 2009
Twilt Tuesday: That Old Fashioned Feeling
Cathedral Window Quilts are supposed to be my specialty so I thought it appropriate to do a Cathedral Window Twilt. It uses the same quilted finish as Layers of Lavender and really did only take a day to complete.
The subtle fabrics I found really give this piece “That Old Fashioned Feeling”.
March 31, 2009
I’d Rather be Twilting
"Flutter By"
The embroidered Butterfly was in my collection as a sample so I finished the embroidery and made it into a tiny little Twilt. So, I have a Twilt on a Twilt. Buttons are used to hold it in place. I added some Butterflies from my Button and Bead collection. The curves that form the Butterfly’s wings are 3D triangles with rolled bias folds.
What a nice way to continue to welcome Spring. Don’t you think?
For more info: Twitter Quilts….Twilts
March 24, 2009
A Twilt for Good Luck
I finished up this piece this morning and as I sit here writing this a pair of Redtail Hawks are doing their spring mating dance outside over the trees. It is a beautiful day.
I have quite a collection of fabrics, Asian designs and Batiks are my favorites but I love all kinds of fabric in general. Within the collection of Asian fabrics I have a number of prints that are miniature in scale and have wanted a project to use them in. This twilt uses 36 different squares of these prints for the foundation squares.
“Best Wishes for Good Fortune” uses a 3″ copy of the block from my pattern Fortune Cookie. Each block uses a black square and four smaller Asian print squares. They are sewn together like a 3D bowtie block creating a black square on point with four bias folded edges. A checked square is laid on top of the black 3D square and the folds are rolled over the raw edges and stitched.
If you haven’t tried a Twilt yet I invite you to give it a try. I have found the process a very productive way to generate creativity. Check out Jessica’s latest Twilt, Ring of Fire. For more Twilt info check out Twitter Quilts….Twilts.
March 17, 2009
A Twilt for Spring
The grass is green and the sun is shining. I left my door open yesterday to enjoy the moderate temperature. It made me think of Spring which is just around the corner. So this Twilt welcomes “Spring’s Arrival”.
The flower is a much smaller version of the block from my pattern, Lotus Lullaby.
This is what the block looks like before it’s quilted. It uses 3D triangles to form the petal shapes.
For more info: Twitter Quilts….Twilts
Snips and Bits from Shelley's Studio 