September 1, 2009
Aloha Kaimuki
It’s been a while since I posted but I am back now. I took some R&R, did some work and enjoyed the summer. It’s time to get back to my friends in the blogosphere though. Early in August, just after the Long Beach Quilt Show I went to Hawaii to visit my son, Raymond. He lives in Kaimuki, a little town just south east of Waikiki and Honolulu. Hawaii is such a beautiful place and it was fabulous to see him.
I didn’t take any quilting related supplies with me other than a bit of handwork. Imagine my surprise that within walking distance of Raymond’s home I found the Kaimuki Dry Goods Store and a little bead store called Bead It.
I collected supplies to fashion my Hawaiian Twilt completely by hand. The Dragonfly fabric became the focal point and I stitched the strips to each other by hand through the batting and backing.
Embroidery floss, flower sequins, beads, pearls and shells were added for embellishment. I rolled the backing to the front and stitched the binding by hand. I think this twilt will always have special meaning to me because while I created it I explored Kailua, Waikiki and Honolulu with my son.
For more info on the Twilts: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts : Flickr Twilts Page.
July 29, 2009
Fun Times at Quilt Festival Long Beach
The International Quilt Festival Long Beach was last weekend and I worked at the show doing demos at The Quilt Attic. I saw lots of friends and made some new ones. The quilts were great. The vendors were too. It’s a show definitely worth attending.
We were located right accross from Make It University, sponsored by Quilt Art Magazine. Thats Pokey in the blue shirt. On Saturday night they had a 60’s contest. and the participants had to make something they could wear or carry out of the provided materials. They also had to sing and dance for additional materials and help. I have to admit we were dancing and singing along a little. And did I mention, there were fabulous prizes involved.
Who says quilter’s can’t party?
I did squeeze in a couple of the classes at Make It University. I’ll have more about that in my next post.
July 21, 2009
Twilight Flight
A beautiful dragonfly wings his way through the twilight. The blocks in this Twilt, “Twilight Flight” use the block from my pattern Mandalesque (Pictured below). The blocks feature two 3D triangles in a four patch. When grid quilted the rolled folds form the lovely scallops.
I picked the dragonfly from my bead and button collection. 
It’s one of Susan Clarke’s pieces. To see more of Susan’s work visit her site at www.susanclarkeoriginals.com.
For more info on the Twilts: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts : Flickr Twilts Page.
I had a wonderful time at the Southern California Quilt Run. If you missed it I hope you will participate next year.
You can see more of my patterns on the pattern page of this blog and on my website pattern page.
July 14, 2009
Cathedral Star Celebration
For this Twilt Tuesday I have recreated a block from my second book, “Machine Stitched Cathedral Stars” in a much smaller version, “Cathedral Star Celebration”. The background pieces are 1″ and 2″ cut squares as opposed to 2″ and 4″ cut squares. The fabrics are batiks except for the outer border.
Last week end I worked the Southern California Quilt Run. It continues this next weekend, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you are in Southern California try not to miss it. I will be doing demos at Georgia’s Quilting Obsession so if you go, stop by and say Hi!
For more info: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts : Flickr Twilts Page.
July 7, 2009
Star Spangled Fourth
It seemed appropriate that I should do a Twilt celebrating our country’s birthday. I took a very simple approach to “Star Spangled 4th” and choose lots of blue fabric with stars for the central panel. The red star and stripe batik complemented the blues. For contrast I added the white stripe. I quilted an X pattern across each blue square and used a red straight stitch to quilt around the white patterns in the batik.
Then came the fun of searching through my buttons, pins and charms to find the embellishments that I sewed into the center of each blue square. My favorite find was the Polymer Clay Flag pin.
I hope that you and your family had a fabulous and safe holiday weekend!
For more info: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts : Flickr Twilts Page.
June 30, 2009
Twist and Twilt
Silk and Linen are the focus for this Tuesday’s Twitter Quilt, “Twist and Twilt”. The ribbons and the twisted blocks are made from silk ribbons and silk fabric that was scrunch painted. The painted fabric was also used for the flower. The blocks are folded and basted to a backing fabric before the top was pieced. After the quilting was finished, I mostly stitched in the ditch, the ribbons were laid out and twisted as I applied them to the Linen block with a running stitch of #8 pearl cotton. Each petal and leaf of the flower was shaped using a candle to burn the edges.
The shapes were than applied using a running stitch with pearl cotton and embroidery was added to the leaves and flower center.
Credit goes to Yvonne Porcella who introduced me to the techniques through her books. She is a fabulous artist.
For more info: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts : Flickr Twilts Page.
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June 23, 2009
Sizzling Summer Twilt Tuesday
The sun batik and the Asian print at the bottom were laying near each other in my stack of fabric, calling out to be used together. I pondered what to do with them for several days and decided that sometimes the fabric wants to be the star and you don’t want to cut them up. Still they needed some piecing to make them spark. I tracked down the feather and crane prints and then used the flower colors in all the fabric to pull batiks for the multi colored bands.
The bands tie all the other pieces together. Add a little black to outline the bands and sections and it was ready to quilt. For the quilting I chose to leave my feed dogs up and use a straight stitch. In addition to background stitching and stitching in the ditch, I outlined the suns in the batik and the bamboo.
I think “Summer Sizzle” turned out quite nicely for a simple design.
For more info: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts : Flickr Twilts Page.
June 9, 2009
Checking in From the Road
I was up at the Central Coast Shop Tour this weekend and ran into lots of friends and made some new ones. I got to meet a couple of Tweeps (friends from Twitter) even. A student and friend, Judy Hines, brought in a small piece that she made in one of my classes in September of 2005. Its called “Stars for Rick” in memory of her son. It’s a Cathedral Window with a 9Patch layout. The high contrast used with the frame fabrics makes the nine frames stand out and the grid and scallop finish makes the frames look like stars.
Judy has taken lots of classes with me and I was so thrilled to get this picture and show everyone her quilt. Thank you, Judy.
I know it’s Twilt Tuesday and my Twilt isn’t finished since I have been on the road for a week and will be in San Diego for the next couple of days but I will post it on Friday if I can, so check back then.
June 2, 2009
Twilted Trees for Twilt Tuesday
The colors in this Twilt are just fabulous. I couldn’t have been happier. They just seem to glow. I plan on making a larger version of this pattern in the future.
I have wanted to try this design for a while and a Twilt is the perfect way to test it. Two different sizes of 3D triangles were used to create “Trees” .
I am reminded of the mountains and forests in the late summer or even fall.
The picture below shows what the piece looked like before I rolled the bias folds of the triangles. 3D triangles can be used without rolling the folds because they are already finished bias edges.
I often pause at the construction stage because most of my designs could be used with out the rolling. Still, the curves add another dimension and so I go ahead and roll and stitch.
As you read this I am on the central coast of California for the Central Coast Quilt Shop Tour. I will be demoing my technique at The Quilt Attic after nursing my adult daughter after she has her tonsils removed. Ouch!
For more info: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts on my Flickr Twilts Page.
May 26, 2009
Red White and Blue Twilt Tuesday
Yesterday was Memorial Day here in the US and I was inspired to dig out my red, white and blue fabrics and work on a patriotic Twilt. As you can see I have collected quite a few batiks in those colors. “Stars & Stripes” went together pretty quickly. Twelve 3D triangles point to a single 3D square offset from the center. I had rejected the muted strip with stars but when I laid it out I changed my mind. 
The 3D square and triangles are grid quilted and then the folds are rolled. Straight lines of quilting echo the stripes of the star stripe fabric. What have you been working on? I love to hear. Have you started your own Twilt project. If not, you should give it a try. I am enjoying myself immensely.
For more info: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts on my Flickr Twilts Page.
Snips and Bits from Shelley's Studio 