Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Monday, September 22, 2014

Around the World Blog Hop

I was nominated by Tanya Quilts in CO to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop this week.   Thanks, Tanya!  It has been fun getting to know you through our shared love of quilting and both being teachers in Colorado.  I bet we could really have a conversation about that!  LOL!

What am I working on right now?
I spent a lot of time this summer sewing scrappy quilts out of my stash that were inspired by Quilting is more fun than Housework's Scrap-a-Palooza series.  That has been so fun, because I love scrappy quilts and feel a great sense of accomplishment making them out of my stash.  Here is my favorite:


I just started a jelly roll quilt called "Summer in the Park" based on a tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Company, using a jelly roll of Into the Woods by Lella Boutique for Moda and a jelly roll of Kona Snow.


Not much progress to show on that yet, but I'm hoping it will be beautiful!  I love the pink, dark red, teal, and brown in that line of fabric!

How does your work differ from others?

Well, that is probably the hardest question to answer!  I get so much inspiration and so many ideas from the online quilting community.  On my iPad, I have saved at least 100 different tutorials of projects I want to try. I follow way-y-y-y too many quilt bloggers and spend a lot of my "free" time reading blogs.  So, I might tell you instead about how my quilting is different than it used to be when I first started 15  or so years ago.  For the longest time, I bought only kits to work from, or did other people's patterns.  That was a great way to get started as a quilter, as long as I could figure out the directions!  

Now, I am more able to take an idea and make it my own.  A good example of that is my latest Scrap-a-Palooza finish of the summer.  I started with Cyndy's idea, but let the fabric guide my design a little more, and ended up with something completely different than I initially set out to do.  And I am so pleased with the result:


Why do I write/create?

I have been sewing/quilting for a long time, but just recently realized that it is what I do to stay sane! My job is very demanding these days, and those demands can be stressful at times.  I have found that stepping away from the work I need to do, and going into my sewing room for even just a few minutes can make all the difference!

For a long time, I have been interested in doing something with writing, but never did much until I discovered blogging.  It has been great fun to learn how to make a blog, and all the techie skills that are needed to figure everything out, but also a great way to document what I have been doing as a quilter.  Again, I get lots of inspiration for my blog from other quilt bloggers that I follow.

How does my writing/creating process work?

I'm not sure I have an actual process!  I decided that my quilting hobby should be fun, a "want to", but never a "have to," so that is how I approach writing about it and creating quilts.  I enjoy reading other blogs to see how people choose words to describe their work, and I "stand on their shoulders" as we say in 5th grade when we are learning to write in different genres.  And I have learned a lot that way!

Due to a busy, work and family-filled week, I have not contacted anyone else about carrying on with the next round of Around the World, but here are some bloggers I enjoy for you to check out, if you haven't already:

Weekend Doings - amazing photography!
The Bored Zombie - a fun voice and all kinds of different projects!
Wasn't Quilt in a Day - such a happy blogger, you can't help but be happy, too!

Enjoy your week!
  

2 comments:

Narelle said...

A lovely read and great to learn a little about your journey.

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

Great post Diann. It was fun to read how you have evolved as a quilter. I always love to see what you make and how you make each quilt your own.