Happy Sunday! What are you working on today? I plan to spend time outside and also work on this little project.
I hinted about it earlier this month and it is now officially in progress. My mom recently took up embroidery and embroidered some quilt blocks. She finished her part and now I have to actually make them into a quilt.
I’m working on putting it all together and hope to have it done soon. I’ve done one of these embroidered quilts before and they are a pretty quick project to complete. Yea for that!
Hope you have a great Sunday!
I recently headed to Grand Central Terminal to check out the Grand Central Centennial Quilt Exhibition. The exhibition is part of a quilt making challenge to celebrate Grand Central Terminal’s 100th anniversary. You can read more about it here.
The competition was sponsored by local New York quilt store The City Quilter, along with American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine. The City Quilter developed two fabric designs to be featured in each competitor’s design. They are both lovely but I really like the Constellations pattern in Aqua. It is just like the actual ceiling in Grand Central, which is stunningly beautiful and a must-see if you are ever visiting New York.
The exhibition is displayed in the New York Transit Museum which is inside of Grand Central. It’s not that large and the lighting isn’t great, so please ignore my bad photos!
There were three winners named and I was wowed by their work. It’s always cool to see what other quilters are up to and their ideas. There were so many creative and really impressive quilts on display.
The grand prize went to this colorful quilt.
It’s hard to see in the photos, but the quilting on this one is extraordinary. I can understand why it won.
Here’s the first prize winner:
Second prize:
And this one was not a winner but it was one of my favorites. I liked the taxi cabs!
The Grand Central Quilt Show is open until July 6, 2014. If you are living in or visiting New York, I highly recommend a visit. I also highly recommend a visit to Grand Central. It’s one of those places I always take guests when they’re in town visiting me. Just avoid rush hour!
I was doing a little closet clean-out recently and came across this quilt I made back in 2005(ish). I write (ish) because I think I made it in 2005 but it could have been 2006. I wasn’t keeping as good of track of my quilting adventures then as I do now.
This quilt has a much more traditional pattern than I normally go for, but it’s such a classic look that I wanted to add it to my quilt collection. I did modernize it a bit by using the hot pink color – something a little unexpected for such a traditional pattern.
I used a simple all white back for this quilt, which I’m still happy with, but I do wish I would have used something with a pattern for the binding. Oh well, lessons learned!
Now that I’ve pulled this quilt out of the closet, I’m remembering how much I like it. In fact, I’m considering putting it on my bed for summer. I think some fun patterned pillow shams that have hot pink in them would make for really cute summer bedding.
What do you think? Any hot pink bedding suggestions? I’m off to start my new bedding search now.
For those of you who live in New York or are visiting and want to stop by a quilt shop, my recommendation is The City Quilter in Chelsea. It is beautiful, well-stocked and quite spacious. And by spacious I mean spacious by New York City standards.
My mom was visiting recently and we stopped by to find fabric for a project she is working on. I should clarify that it’s a project that she started and that I will finish. (More on that project at a later date.) Specifically, we were searching for something blue and ended up finding this:
These two pieces are from the Everything Blue collection by Marsha McCloskey for Clothworks. My mom had a blue floral pattern in mind and Everything Blue fit the bill. She’s just about done with her part of the project and then I will take over.
While we were at The City Quilter I was roaming around the store (trying not to buy everything in sight) and spotted the Downton Abbey collection that I really want. This was my first time seeing it in person and I am now more obsessed than ever before. This fabric will be mine one day.
I love The City Quilter. They have so much gorgeous fabric and it is a great place to find inspiration. I highly recommend a visit.
For an added bonus, here are a couple of quilts they had displayed that caught my eye. Enjoy!
Remember last fall when I visited the Brooklyn Flea at its new winter indoor location? Now that it’s spring, the Flea has headed back outside to Fort Greene and I went for a little visit last weekend.
I saw some of my favorite vendors, like the metal letters guy, and also found some new ones.
I’m still trying to find a place in my apartment to use these letters.
I don’t remember seeing this vendor last winter, but I think using old records the way he does is very cool.
I also came across a lot of antique dealers and had two great finds. Seriously, one of them was the best things I’ve ever scored at an antiques store and/or flea market.
I found this little picture that now hangs in my bedroom. The photo doesn’t do it justice, but it fits in perfectly on the wall in my room. It looks bigger in the photo but it’s actually only about 5″W. x 6″L.
And now for my new favorite possession. One of the antiques dealers had a box full of old linens. My mom was with me and started digging through the box and found the most perfect tablecloth for me. I love it. It’s pink and vintage and so me.
This was the score of a lifetime. Thankfully it was in near perfect condition and only needed a good washing. I’m in love with this tablecloth. And the best part? It was only $7!
I found the tablecloth and the little picture from the same vendor and now I’m thinking I need to go back every weekend to see what new stuff she has. It was a very good day at the Brooklyn Flea.
It’s April, which means it can officially be declared springtime! And just in time for spring is my finished Spring Fling quilt.
It’s still looking a little brown and dreary in my photos, but the weather in New York the past few days has certainly felt a lot more like spring than winter. Yea!
I started this quilt back in January using Gina Martin’s Wrens & Friends collection by Moda that I got for Christmas. The quilt came together pretty quickly but then it took a while for me to decide on the back. I ended up using the Cream Star Bloom pattern from the collection and I am really happy with that choice.
I also added a line of scrap pieces I had leftover and I’m glad I did. It makes the back just a little bit more interesting by doing that.
For the binding I debated what to do, but in the end decided the bright blue was the way to go. I thought about going with one of the lighter patterns or solids, but I wanted one of the darker solids to really define the binding, so blue it was.
You can read more about how this quilt came together here. Happy Spring, everyone!