On this Monday after Easter, I feel very blessed…and pray that you do, too. While I was busy on my computer or participating in Quilt Therapy, I realized I was missing out on some beautiful signs of spring.
Have to make sure to smell the roses…errrr, peach blossoms!
With tender loving care, our goal is a heavily laden tree full of scrumptious peaches like this one from last year’s harvest!
Easter isn’t just about chocolate bunnies and marshmallow gooey treats. Easter, in our house, began with Ash Wednesday, through Lent and now into Holy Week. Easter is about an unfathomable sacrifice that is beyond compare.  I have rarely taken a break from my blog – but I vowed that this year, things would be different. Therefore, I am taking a blog-cation to spend time with my daily devotions and with my family. Easter is about God’s grace. And love.
I will return to my regularly scheduled programming blogging on Monday, April 6th.
I’d like to introduce you to my new website, Quilt Articles! I got tired of searching page upon page in the search engines for articles relevant to what I wanted…so decided to just take the bull by the horns and create a website that listed articles that quilters can use to find exactly what they needed.
The website will be updated weekly, give all of us an opportunity access to the type of articles that interest quilters the most.
If you have an article that you feel would be a valuable contribution to the Quilt Articles website, feel free to leave a comment or submit your article link to me via the Quilt Articles website. Come join me at Quilt Articles!
“Fabric Easter Basket Pattern” designed by Amy from Positively Splendid
“Fabric Easter Basket” designed by Y and Company for Moda Bakeshop
“Easter Basket Tutorial” designed by Raychel from My Creativeway
“Fabric Collage Easter Basket” designed by Jenae from I Can Teach My Child
“Refashioned Denim Easter Basket” designed by Beth Huntington for eHow
“Ruffled Easter Baskets” designed by Jamie from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom
All the quilting rage these days is to use geometric and directional fabric designs – now known as part of the modern quilt movement. Mind you, there have been directional and geometric fabrics around for a long time, it’s just that a lot of the modern quilts are made with geometric and directional fabrics. Sometimes though, this is not the best course of action for a beginning quilter. A beginner can be as modern as they want…until they can’t.
When is that a problem? Take a look at this quilt block:
With the right fabrics (right being deemed by the modern quilt movement’s establishment) and colors, a simple log cabin quilt can become a thing of modern beauty. Now take a closer look at the plaid red and white fabric strips.
I had been quilting for about 25 years when I made this quilt block. And I made this “beginning quilter’s” mistake. The lines on the fabric are not straight.
I can call this whatever I want – the fabric wasn’t printed straight on the grain, the fabric shifted when I cut it out, it’s handmade and looks handmade, etc. etc. I can call it whatever I want to, but the truth is that I would never recommend this type geometric/directional fabric to a beginning quilter. If a person who has been quilting for as long as I’ve been quilting cannot cut a straight line in the fabric, how can I expect a beginning quilter to do so?
Please remain calm. This is not a post on bashing modern quilts. It’s not a post on bashing fabric manufacturers. This is a post outlining why I choose not to design quilts with geometric and/or directional fabrics – I design quilts for beginners and above!
If you are a beginning quilter and wish to make modern quilts, stick with a pleasing color palate without the geometric and dimensional fabrics. You can grow into them as your quilting advances. Or if you use those fabrics mentioned and your lines do not come out straight – go ahead and call your quilt a handmade modern quilt.