Tangelo It.

As I write this, I am sitting on a bumpy plane. I am jetting off to Oklahoma to celebrate my Grandmother’s 85^th birthday. My Grandmother is an amazing person (I am sure your grandmother is too). This lady grew up in the middle of nowhere, rode a horse to elementary school and then boarded in town for high school.  She mothered five boys and one girl, who are six of the best Uncles, Aunt, and Dad a girl could ask for (Hi Aunt Barbara!). She has made to every grandchild’s wedding so far to be the best cheerleader ever, also, in the case of my wedding, help make some amazing pies. It has been getting harder for her to travel, so this weekend we travel to her. It is her turn to get celebrated and it is going to be a shindig! This woman has over 20 grandchildren and I have lost count of the great-grandchildren. I cannot wait. Rest assured that I made her a snuggly lap quilt for her armchair. I can’t wait to show you pictures.

Now that I have blathered on about one of my favorite people and inspiration, I am going to show you an unrelated finish.

Drumroll please….

My Tangelo!

Some of you (maybe all of you) may know, I am a huge fan of Carolyn Friedlander.  She is an amazing fabric and pattern designer and just one of the best people a girl could hope to know. Her patterns inspire me to combine color and texture. They make my heart sing in their striking, complex simplicity (it is a thing).

I have made it a personal resolution recently to make quilts for me and to try hard things. Now, when I say quilts for me… I do not actually mean I am going to keep them all, I mean when I quilt, I want to express myself just a little, even if it is for someone else. It is the way this is fun for me.

The Tangelo is for me. Blue is my favorite color. I love metallic.

This was also a hard thing. It took me nearly six months (not working constantly, but still). I worked on this quilt during two sewing weekends with my ladies. Then, I quilted this quilt all over with custom free motion quilting and used wool batting to make that quilting stand out. Also, it made this quilt super substantial and comfy). I had to piece the backing with geese, because a front this complex just needed a little something on the back.

I matched my Aurifil thread to each solid color. Yes, maybe a little obsessive? But, I need to do what I need to do. I don’t make money at this, we don’t need any more quilts to physically keep us warm in our home. What I NEED is to see the picture of colors and patterns I have in my head come alive.

Welcome to my living room Tangelo. I think I am going to like seeing you there.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Tangelo by Carolyn Friedlander

Fabric: Whites are from Architextures and Botanics both designed by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman and Dear Stella Confetti Dots. The blues are assorted Robert Kaufman Kona cottons and Moda Bella solids. The backing is widescreen in gray by Robert Kaufman with Botanics and scraps from the front.

Quilting: Custom straight line with my free motion quilting foot with about six shades of Aurifil thread.

Batting: Quilters Dream Wool

Size: 68" x 72" 

P.S. - I got to introduce Carolyn to my Tangelo when she came to North Carolina to teach. This was a high point.

P.P.S. – The quilt is not quite straight in any of these pictures, but I must defend my quilt holder, this quilt is large and heavy. It far exceeded his wingspan and he is tall guy… I think I need a new photo set-up for big quilts.

and then fade to black

I have a confession to make right now.

I am a Carolyn Friedlander fan girl. If she touches it, I will probably like it.

She is super sweet and awesome (I met her this fall). I sort of wish we were friends. I even got her to sign a block for the back of my Botanics quilt.

When buzz about her new line Botanics started making its way around the inter webs I knew I would like it. Some people call this a line of "blenders" but I sort of hate that term. I see this as a line of dynamic prints with great hue saturation (probably not saying that right).

This is the kind of fabric line that makes my life easy. I like to work with colors, I am not necessarily attracted to prints in my quilting. I tend to buy fancy multi-colored prints and then never use them. These single color prints are the types of fabrics I will use.

Also there are metallics and I like shiny things. This is metallics done right y'all.

I bought a charm pack of Botanics from someone on Instagram (check me out @stitchingandbaon) right after quilt market. As soon as I spread out the charms I saw the saturation spectrum and my orderly instincts felt the need to sort! Sort all of the things!

So I went from there, working with what I had…. which happened to include a couple of charm packs of Bella bleached white.

Then I added the negative space and here we are.

I heart you Carolyn Friedlander. Keep doing what you are doing. That is all.

I stamped my label onto the back of this quilt before quilting. This means I did not have to hand stitch a label anywhere. What do you think of this? Keep it going? Crazy sauce? Ambivalence?

Love you friends! Hope you had a Merry Christmas and are ready for an epic New Year.

Quilt Stats:
Name: Fade to Black
Size: 58" x 68"
Fabrics: All of the Botanics line, made by Robert Kaufman and designed by Carolyn Friendlander, Moda Solids Bleached White, and some Kate Spain (couldn't tell you the line name)
Pattern: My own (using the stitch and flip triangle technique)
Finished: December 2013
Quilting: Spiral from the center using Aurifil thread

Bacon is Sewing in Between the Traveling.

Good evening my friends!

I am typing this post from my lovely Atlanta hotel room. It has been a little nuts in bacon-ville recently.

I have been traveling a bunch for work. As in I have worked in three states in the past three weeks, next week I am going to make it an even four (in case you were curious, Maryland, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.

In the past three days I have walked 19 miles. Probably more. Maybe that does not sound like a lot, but I was carrying an instrument and wearing wellies (my fault for forgetting the other pair of acceptable shoes).

But who cares about all that? I sure don't.

I have been sewing.

I turned these:

Into this. 

Then I did this:

and this happened.

But I recovered and got some of this nonsense into one piece. 

That may be as close as we get to a play-by-play without a tutorial. Phew.

I met Carolyn Friedlander. Then I tried not to be too annoying/act starstruck. She was amazingly sweet and such a treat to talk with.

She showed us stuff she made. It sort of blew my mind. I wanted all of the patterns and I wanted to make all of the things. Actually, I just wanted her things. Just perfect.

She signed a quilt block for my new botanics quilt (see above).

I am failing at keeping myself from overcommitting. I will share the results from this failure soon. They are sort of epic and amazing. There are some awesome things going around the internet (okay, that wins the general statement of the year award).

Love you all. Love your work. Keep it up.

See you soon.