Sweetgrass Creative Designs

I am a quilt artist and quilting teacher, living in Shelby, Montana. I design and teach traditional patchwork designs, but I also dabble in art quilts, and am game to try any new technique I find. This blog will probably become a journal of sorts, and my goal is to post some new little piece at least monthly, though I'm hoping it will be more like weekly. I'm not promising ART, mind you, just fun little experiments that may or may not be artistic.

Name:
Location: Shelby, Montana, United States

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

One Inspiration Leads to Another


It began several years ago when a friend and I put together a program for our quilt guild on what to do with scraps. We made a mess of scrap blocks using squares and rectangles. Eventually, it became a popular workshop and after teaching it for a few years, I pitched the idea to my pattern publisher, who was just beginning to publish books. She thought The Thrifty Quilter sounded like a winner, and thank you, it is. (Find out more about it at http://www.sweetgrassdesigns.com/ ).


Then came the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Here I sat with plastic bins full of squares of fabric, and there was that Vancouver 2010 logo with all of its bright blues and greens, and somewhere between snowboard-cross (my new favorite Olympic sport) and short-track speed-skating, this quilt top was born:



It's the first of three Olympic-inspired tops, actually.



Here's the second:

This one is TQ-able. You like that? It's a term I made up to describe a quilt that can be made using one or more of the six pieces in my Thrifty Quilter system.

Actually, "Power Play" was made with a new tool, designed by Elisa Wilson of Back Porch Designs in Kalispell, MT. It lets you quickly mark, sew and trim up eight 4-1/2" half-square triangle units from two 10" squares. Yes, it is intended for "layer cakes", and can also be used with charm squares. I was able to make the 80 HST's I needed for this quilt in 3 hours!

This is one of two quilt tops I made to test Elisa's Square Me Up ruler. The other is pictured on her blog: http://blog.backporchdesign.com/?p=620



The third olympics-inspired pattern is still in production. I need to collect more red and royal blue 3-1/2" scrap squares before I can finish it. But I'll give you a hint: Norwegian Curling Team!









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