Scrap Happy

Kathy MacCleary 

has produced hundreds of quilts.

A selection of 

about 20

are currently on display 

at the 

Gilbert Historical Museum's

The Art of Quilting Show

 Scrap Happy #2

An original design (2011)

The floating 9-Patches are all

1-inch squares

 Long arm quilting by Debbie Stanton

 The Garden (2012)

This was Kathy's first attempt at 

English Paper Piecing.

Hand Pieced and Hand Quilted.

 Cattitude (2010)

Kathy said she decided to 

"work outside her traditional box"

 A wide variety of techniques

 Kathy is known for her beautiful hand quilting.

She wrote:

"This was an exercise in free motion hand quilting,

if there is such a term."

 Homespun Sampler (2011)

 I could see how Kathy's precision 

as a draftsman 

comes through in

how all of her plaids

line up perfectly even.

 On the cards accompanying each quilt,

Kathy shares with us some of the challenges she has experienced in life,

and how quilting has provided comfort and healing: 

"The last 6-8 inches around the three sides were

had quilted after I lost the use of my right hand

from a small stroke.  This was the perfect exercise

to get the use of my hand back."

These are just a small sampling of  Kathy's quilts on display

at the Gilbert Museum.

To view more,

the show will be open through the end of May.

Kathy MacCleary- Quilter

 The 8th Annual 

Art Of Quilting Show

is currently running 

at the Gilbert Historical Museum.

I ran over on Saturday,

excited to meet

featured artist

Kathy MacCleary

 As I walked in,

Kathy was hand quilting

this fun scrap quilt

and answering questions

about her life and work

as a fiber artist

and hand quilter.

 Kathy received her education as a

Architectural  Designer and Draftsman

and designed custom homes

in Gilbert Arizona.

She has now retired to Payson,

and is quite involved in the quilting community.

Kathy has produced hundreds of quilts,

and I noticed she just took home 

a ribbon in the 

2013 Paducah AQS Show

 Know for hand quilting,

I was curious to see Kathy use

a Stab and Stitch

method

rather than the traditional rocking needle technique.

As you can see, it works well!

I am drawn to scrap quilts right now,

and enjoyed seeing her

use of little tiny pieces of fabric.

Many of the squares were an inch in size

and I noticed she put them together in

a somewhat 

mixed Rail Fence layout.

Kathy's quilt reminded me of

Kid Potential

by Amandajean

of Crazy Mom Quilts

recently published in the

March/April edition of

Quilty magazine.

Maybe I should I be saving all 

of my little scraps?

Bird On A Wire Chenille Quilt

 Yesterday I told you about

Nannette Holmberg's

Faux Chenille booth.

I wanted to show you a few more

of her quilts 

made with this

wonderful technique.

 Bird On A Wire

 Love, love, love this quilt!

Look at all the fun embellishments.

 As I mentioned yesterday,

the faux chenille embellishments

are easy to do

using the

Chenille-It  bias tape.

 Bird On A Wire 

was featured in 

Issue #88

of Quilt Mania,

and can also be 

purchased in a kit

on the

Faux Chenille

web site 

HERE

 Plant A Garden

 Chenille really dresses up a

Banner Quilt

 I love her mixed techniques

of machine applique

with chenille.

 I can hardly wait to start playing with my

Chenille-It Blooming Bias Tape

 and so many ideas for jackets and wearables!

Make sure to check out the

Faux Chenille 

web site for

patterns 

and notions.

Vintage Faux Chenille Baby Quilt

 While I was walking through

the lanes of vendors

at the AQG Show

the

Faux Chenille booth

stopped me dead in my tracks.

 I fell 

IN LOVE

with this darling baby quilt

made with vintage sheets.

 Owner Nannette Holmberg

said she was in an

on-line exchange 

where they shared 

vintage sheet squares.

From there she designed this

soft and cuddly baby quilt using 

her

Chenille-It 

Blooming Bias tape.

 This is the first I've seen the

Chenille-It 

bias tape,

and let me tell you,

Nannette has come up with all kinds of wonderful ideas

for quilters.

I can hardly wait to start playing with it.

 The bias tape comes in 

pre-cut 5/8" rolls.

The directions are very easy:

Lay the strip in place, and 

sew a straight stitch down the center.

Machine wash and dry your quilt

and the 

Chenille-It 

fluffs for a soft embellishment.

 Nannette is from Salt Lake City

(where we raised our family)

and it was a delight to meet her 

and to see all of the creative things she has designed

with her products.

Her designs have been featured in 

Quilt Magazines,

galleries and museums.

She has a large selection 

of Wearable Patterns 

that can be found on her web site 

HERE

Tomorrow I will show you more 

colorful and creative quilts from 

the 

Faux Chenille booth.

Row Along Quilt Finish

 I have now sewn all my rows together 

and added the borders

to my

Bee In my Bonnet's

Row Along Quilt

 This has been the most fun quilt to work on

over the last few months.

Lori started us out with the best 

free tutorials 

last August

and every two weeks gave us 

a new row to add.

 It was somewhat of a mystery

not knowing how the overall quilt 

would turn out. 

I have to say, 

it's even better than I expected!

Of course, I should have known

how much I would like it

if it was a Lori design :)

 From crunchy Fall apples to Spring tulips,

this Row Along gave us 

a sample of every season, 

and included a quilting theme with

Sewing Baskets 

and spools of thread.

 In my dream life,

Lori and I would be back door neighbors,

but for now I will be content

to be

Row Along neighbors.

 All of these rows were made from scraps

from my stash.

A free quilt!

 Each backgrounds is a little different 

than the previous one.

 I even decided to make my 

borders scrappy.

Thank you Lori 

for inviting us along 

for this fun adventure!

I loved every minute of it!

Now to get my quilt off

to the quilter :)