BluePip Designs

It always perplexes me how all the summer activities start immediately as soon as the summer ends, but then by August there is nothing going on.  My kids are typical teenagers, so I get up at my normal school year time and have an hour or two to myself before they are awake enough to hold a conversation.  June was an exciting month for me because I   attended the MN Quilt show as a lecturer  (yes, all my print patterns were ready to go on time) and I also broke my high school bowling record by bowling a 172! Quilt Tally WIP List at beginning of month: 12 WIP List at end of month: 13 Untouched in 2024: 4 Active QAL Projects: 2 Quilts Finished None. Quilts Started Layer Cake Lily - A new shortcut quilt for the Fat Quarter Shop .  Secret sewing for now but the pattern will be released in August and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you then! Quilt Progress (6 WIPs touched) Lemon Blossom Mystery Quilt  - I was behind a little bit on th...

Last weekend was the Minnesota Quilters Quilt Show in Duluth, MN, and I journeyed up there with some of my family to take it in.  Once again, my guild put on a fabulous exhibit in the non-judged section and I was lucky enough to have two quilts included this time around.  Last year, the theme was Whisper Quilts and this year it was "What is a Modern Quilt?" Mother even got the place of honor right next to the sign explaining the exhibit!  As I finished Mother, I felt it was more of a display quilt than an everyday quilt, so I was thrilled to see it hanging at a show.   Each of the quilt cards had the artist statement that I wrote followed by an explanation written by the guild of what made the quilt modern.  The card on Mother had a mistake - the quilt design is by Tara Lee Quiltery .  The teardrop idea and themes are all hers, I just redesigned some of the interiors to suit myself.  I credited her when I submitted the design, but I wasn't asked to ...

A very old and dear friend is welcoming their first child next month and I am so happy for them!  I asked if they had a theme picked out for their nursery and they told me they were planning on doing a sloth theme.  I knew immediately what I was going to make for them: I already own the  Elizabeth Hartman sloth pattern  and it was fun to revisit it!  I've used it twice before, first as a pillow in a swap and then as a centerpiece in my modified Gypsy Wife quilt .  Both of those sloths were sewn around 2017 and it's interesting to see the difference seven years makes.  I have a different machine now and my piecing is better; this one looks more like the one on the cover of the pattern than either of the other two.  The picture below captures the true colors of the quilt better. I followed the pattern for the sloth itself exactly as written, but I extended the tree trunk up and down to make it a little taller and then added some side borders to mak...