Inspirational Sunday (23) - via the 2013 International Quilt Festival in Long Beach

Today's Inspirational Sunday theme is flowers.  I have been thinking about flowers since March began.  My Lazy Bums group has also chosen it as the theme for this month's UFO project, and don't you know I really had to stretch a bit to find a project that fit the theme.  NOT the case with today's quilts though!  I had plenty of floral themed quilts to choose from.  In fact, I might carry over the theme to next Sunday too.

The first quilt is called "Dyer's Woad (Isatis tinctoria)" by Vivian Milholen of Chantilly, Virginia.  It is machine stitched.

The quilter's statement, "Indirubin, a compound found in the Isatis root, has been shown to be effective in treating myelogenous and other leukemias as well as some lung cancers.  Survivor Tribute: Della Milholen (mother-in-law), Skin Cancer, 2001".

I just love the echo quilting.

The next quilt is called "Zinnia's Three" by Jean Smith of Naples, Florida.  It is fused, pieced and free-motion quilted.  The design source is Melinda Bula's zinnia pattern and class.

She says, "Recently I have been making flower quilts of all kinds.  I took Melinda Bula's zinnia class and was so inspired by her technique that when I got to my quilting studio I created three zinnias in my favorite colors.  After much thought, I put my flowers in matching vases with different background colors.  Now my flowers have a home."

I've taken a class by Melinda Bula and it was amazing!  Her technique is fun and very inspiring.  I can completely relate to wanting to come home and make a bunch of flowers.

The last quilt I want to share today is called "3-D Sunflowers" by Martha DeLeonardis of Katy, Texas.  It is turned edge woven fabric, machine pieced, appliqued and quilted.  The design source was a vintage sunflower block quilt.

"The maker of the original quilt incorporated pleated petals into her pieced blocks, one of the few methods available to her at the time to integrate 3-dimensional effects into a quilt.  I wanted to expand on this idea utilizing products available to quilters today, and bring the 3-dimensional sunflower into the 21st century."

I think my favorite part of this quilt is the radiating black and white print background.

The 3-D effects seem to be very popular.  Have you ever contemplated making a 3-D quilt?

Thanks for reading today,

Jen

blockless - Building Blocks Tuesday

Ironic that yesterday's Fresh Sewing Day mosaic had mostly blocks, because I don't have any blocks to share today.  Whaaaaaaaat?

Yep, I just haven't been working on blocks this week.  I've been cutting up solids to finish up some of my Penelope Stars, but those really aren't blocks, they are units/components and won't even look like stars until the whole quilt is assembled.  And I've been making a lot of backings, and doing some basting too.  But, no blocks.  And I fear that it is possible that it might be that way for the month of March, so I hope you guys are working on loads of blocks.

My next Lazy Bum Global Retreat is happening the last weekend of the month, and the theme for the retreat is quilting (meaning the quilting part of the process), so I am trying to get some of my tops that have been laying around backed, basted and ready for the quilting process.  The retreat is only 24 hours long, and I do like to sleep (not to mention have kids to watch), so I know it will be likely that I will only get one project partially quilted during the retreat.  But there is no harm in having my other projects waiting in the wings just in case, right?

So, what blocks have you been working on?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading!

Jen

An InLinkz Link-up

the Monkey is off my back - Fresh Sewing Day

Welcome to my Fresh Sewing Day recap of February.

It might not seem like much but I am so happy to have some of these blocks finished.

1. CA poppies for Veena, 2. Cups of Comfort Blocks, 3. EKG Valentine Mug Rug, 4. Houses of San Francisco, 5. scrapitute block for Frances, 6. guitar block with skinny border, 7. finished shams, 8. more NY beauty blocks9. Not available

The 3 Star of Africa bee blocks that I finished this month were a bit of a monkey on my back.  I despise being late with any bees or swaps, and these last 3 blocks were from the summer!  Once I got behind on designing, I got really behind.  Luckily, most of the ladies in the bee completely understood the difficulty in coming up with a design that fit you and the theme for the month, and then executing the design.  I am so relieved to have them done.  Whew!

Those blocks weren't the only thing I was overdue on.  Those pillows were meant to be delivered in January, and as you know, I just finished them up last week!

Hopefully March will see more exciting finishes than just blocks.  Fingers crossed.

Thanks for reading today,

Jen


Linking up with Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts: