Victorian Silhouettes

I love the Victorian era, and the album quilts that came from it. You remember my old Baltimore Album...the eternal 'in progress' quilt.

In honor of that, I was thinking that adding some silhouettes of the babies to the recent baby quilts that I made as part of the label. Does that sound like a cool idea? I'll need to get a photo of my sister's baby from her, but I think it would be kinda cool.

I was also thinking of making a collection of my husband, me, and the boys to put up on the wall. Wondering if we should do them with (see above) or without the tongues sticking out...

A cool post I found on making paper version here.

Keep Calm and Carry On

Have you heard about this poster that says "Keep Calm and Carry On" and all the popularity it is achieving in this recent downturn?

I think the story is too funny, so I'm making my own version in applique for my doll quilt wall. Using the freezer paper on top method.

My friend Sharon just started a blog about knitting and has asked a very good question about why when you slip a stitch do you have to do it purl-wise, or knit-wise, and really...who cares which way? Since I'm not much of a knitter I certainly cannot help. Let her know if you have the answer over at Knits are for Kids.

I also ran into the cutest ever Etsy shop by LuckyMeBeads that sells custom made silhouette pendants. Are they not the most beautiful things you've ever seen?

Do any of you smartie pants know a good method of making photo or silhouette necklaces using resin? Oh....how I would love to try this. I'm going to start by making a silhouette of my darling husband.

And the winner is....

Hats off to all you rockin' photographers out there. Thanks for playing along and taking your before and after pictures for the photo contest!

Check out what Katie did for her before and after photos. Nice work here!

Sew Sally not only posted some very nice photos, but has an awesome pair of blue socks in progress.

Rupert Girl posted some adorable photos of her grandmother's flower garden blocks both before and after.

Patch Which posted her before pix of the cutest little camera bag ever.

Be in Red posted a before photo only so far...but her project is so pretty, go check out her blog.

Sue of Country Creatures also decided to play along with us and posted both before and after.

Diana of Dented Thimble Quilting used a beautiful blue quilt in her before and after photos.

Mari Quilts has posted before and after of her sock - so pretty! I seriously need to knit the other sock in my pair.

So out of all these awesome folks, I put your names in the hat and who won the fat quarters?

Diana of Dented Thimble and Anna of Rupert Girl!

Ok ladies - email your mailing address to me - quilt(dot)baby at hotmail (dot) com and your fat quarters will be on their way.

Oh and if you're wondering the fabric in the above photo is also designed by me and printed by Spoonflower. I'm in LOVE with Spoonflower!

Before and After photos

Looks like some of you have been busy with your cameras!

Here's my 'after' photo. No flash, no clutter, and with some cute little dishes in the corner of the photo.

The basic idea of the photo project is to get folks thinking about using a bit more natural light on their textile work.

Diana over at Dented Thimble (what a cute name for an adorable blog!) has posted both before and after photos. Go check her quilts too...so very pretty. Thanks for playing along Diana!

Have you been to visit Lucy at Attic24 yet? Her blog photos are very nice and perhaps will give you some inspiration.

I also ran into this adorable little water color artist, Angela Vandenbogaard and her sweet prints for sale on Etsy: jellybeans. I think this idea of using dots to make trees is very cool and would translate well into quilting.

Quilter/Knitter Photo Contest: Let the games begin!

Wow, I'm thrilled that so may of you want to play along with the photo contest! Let's do it!

Above is my 'before' photo (as you may have guessed).

Photo Contest Rules:

1) If you want to participate, leave me a comment.

I'll assume all those that commented on my last post are already participants, but if you haven't commented yet, please do so I can add you to my list.

2) Take a 'before' photo of either a finished project or a project that you are working on now. Your project should be something handmade (ie. quilt block...knitted item...clothing you are making...etc). Post the photo on your blog or flickr. It's the honor system, so try to restrain yourself from reading my rockin' photo guide before you snap the 'before' photo.

3) Read, follow instructions, and gain inspiration from my Blogger's Guide to Photography: your pictures will rock in 10 painless steps.

4) Take an 'after' photo and post it to your blog or flickr. I want us all to have at least a few weekend days to shoot photos, so I'll check back on your progress on Monday night Pacific Time, March 23rd, so finish your photos by then. Leave me another comment when your 'after' is posted so I can check it out!

5) If you play, you'll have a chance to win a fat quarter of the above fabric that is designed by me and produced by Spoonflower. I'll randomly choose the 2 winners out of all those that participate, so good luck!

Photo contest - interested?

I finally wrote the beginnings of the "Quilt Blogger's guide to Photography - your pictures will rock in 10 painless steps".

Before I post it up, I got to thinking that it might be fun to host a little photo contest.

In order to participate, you would take a 'before' photo of a project you're working on before you read the guide, then post the photo to your blog or to flickr.

It wouldn't even need to be of quilt blocks, but it could be of a clothing project, or a knitting project. It could be any hand made project actually.

Then, you'd need to read my 1 page guide to improve your photos, and after reading it take an 'after' photo of the same subject. Then you would need to post your 'after' photo too.

Let me know if it sounds like fun.

Quiltmania Magazine

I suppose I couldn't pull a fast one on you. My last post was of course a picture of binding - and as Amy guessed, it is for my sister's baby quilt. Well done rock stars.

You are well aware that I would not miss a single issue of Quilts Japan or Patchwork Quilt Tsushin.

Since there are only 6 issues a year of each of these, it's easy enough to keep up, and I'm really glad that I don't have to collect any other magazines.

That was until I bumped into Quiltmania.

This magazine is so beautiful. It's discusses all the cool Japanese quilt designers and is in ENGLISH! Yes, sports fan, this is basically a Japanese quilt magazine that can be read by mere mortals like you and me.

Lucy, of Quilting with the Past Blog, is a recent contributor to the magazine. If you haven't had the pleasure of visiting her blog please go see her beautiful quilts.

Thanks for turning me on to the magazine Marianne.

If you want to subscribe, you can call around to your local book store and pick up a copy. Inside the copy you can sign up for $56. I think that's the best deal I've found so far, it looks a lot more expensive to get a subscription from Amazon.

Brain Teaser and zillions of cool links

OK Braniacs: Got an idea of what the above is a photo of?

I'm sure some of you can guess it!

Our little almost 6 month old got his first cold and is really suffering, so think a happy though for his quick recovery...poor little dear.

If you have not seen this video/song by Oren Lavie on you tube, please look at it - you WILL smile. I beg you to view it. Just beautiful.

I cannot resist giving you guys some info that I gathered while at Stitches West. Even though I'm not really a knitter, I learned of some cool shops out there:

Asciano Fiber Art Tools: This booth was scary amazing beautiful tempting. They specialize in hand crafted (read works of art) tools such as knitting needles, crochet hooks, drop spindles. All to DIE for. So, if you need a gift for that knitter/crocheter in your life, or if you're married to Ms. Quilt Otaku and you have no idea what to get her for her next birthday...this shop is a must check out.

Toots Le Blanc & Co.: If Yoko Saito could knit, she would love this shop. All natural colors, muted, taupes, awesome yarns. Really beautiful and classy.

Sheila & Michael Ernst: These guys make BEAUTIFUL glass knitting needles. So artistic that you won't drop any stitches because you'll be busy looking at your needles with admiration.

Carolina Homespun: Not much that the booth didn't have, but I got some adorable little tiny crochet hooks from here - called "Hook/Point 'Wanda' "

Serendipity Spinners: A local spinning guild in San Jose. I have no idea how to spin yarn, but they seemed eager to teach anybody interested to know, and meet on the 3rd Saturday of the month 10am to 4pm in the San Jose History Park, 1650 Senter Rd. under the big oak tree. Sounds like fun.