Welcome to my stop on The 2014 New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop at Plum and June. Thank you Beth for including me in this an amazing series. Let's Get Acquainted!
Hi There! I'm Karen, flickr and IG known as CapitolaQuilter - because I live in Capitola, California. It use to read: capitolaquilter and was constantly mistaken for "Capitol A Quilter" so rather than rename myself I opted for this fix and it seems to have done the trick.
Hubby and I celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary this month - more than many readers have been alive , I know.
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| Celebrating my 50th Birthday |
We have two grown sons and an adorable granddaughter. She's featured often on the blog posing on many different quilts.
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| My Sweet Baby Grandgirl on Mod Mosaic (aka Catalyst) |
They've gotten much more use than ever before although she now crawls right off them.
Always underfoot in my sewing room and frequently photobombing are our German Shorthair Pointers who we rescued 12 years ago.
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| Chase - Step on Over |
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| Dottie - The Photo Bomber |
Although my mom never quilted, she did sew while I was growing up and taught me how at a young age. I use to sew my own clothes and made my boys some outfits but nothing too much recently.
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| Me in my Mom-Made Dress |
Before attending
Sewing Summit in 2012, I decided it was only fitting to start a blog. I've added an
About Me Page with a bit more of my backstory.
All Together Now
Collaborative projects and social sewing are among my favorite things to do.
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| SBAMQG 31 Quilts in 31 Days Charity Drive |
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| Pup Art Donation Quilt in Capitola Village |
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| My First Quilt Retreat |
A Moving Target
My design style is evolving but I can say with certainty that I love to work from my stash and incorporate scrappiness. Here are a few of my favorite quilts (including my latest finished top) to prove I can also be matchy-matchy.
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| Chain+Link top just completed |
Finished and entered into Blogger's Quilt Festivals where you can read all about them are
Catalyst,
Ring Around the Briar Rosies,
Old Italian Block,
Giant x-Plus, and
Tassels.
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| Ring Around the Briar Rosies |
The melding of traditional with modern elements appeals to me.
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| My most Pinned photo |
There's a pretty big span of projects over the years. Since I've been sewing longer than blogging and still like my old ones, I included a
Quilts & Creations and a
Pre-Blog tab too.
Happy When I'm Scrappy-AreYou?
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| Old Italian Block Wedding Quilt |
I'm not a purest or a perfectionist. Mixing batiks, traditional and modern fabrics is all good in my book.
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| Bordered Diamonds |
Block swaps and Bees have given me cherished memories and awesome quilts for my bed.
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| Giant x-plus top |
Not many, but I've written a few
Tutorials. They're harder to make than I thought !
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| Tassels Detail |
It's a bit ironic that my
Polaroid Chain Pieced attracts more traffic to my blog than anything else and yet I've never gotten around to making anything with my swap blocks.
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| My first Tutorial and Most popular one |
Attitude and Approach
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| Double Bar Supernova Bee blocks |
Another thing I like to do is give a pattern a bit of a twist to make it my own like this 12 1/2" variation of Lee's Supernova block (
how to) I adore pure Improv.
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| Improv Bee Block |
When I free motion quilt I have the same take it as it comes attitude. It's a task that takes the right frame of mind which can be difficult yet rewarding. Let go and go for it.
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| FMQ 2012 QuiltCon Charity quilt |
My Latest Detour
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| #greekpluspussquilt |
Guess what I did? Yup, dropped everything and jumped on board something new that caught my eye this weekend with these four test blocks sewn up #greekpluspussquilt for @r0ssie_fmq.
Linking up to
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.
Tips and a Question for You
ADVISE: My Top Three
#1- Let yourself get distracting and sew what you want when you want and ditto for blogging.
#2- Trust your gut. Applies to quilting as well as life.
#3 Join Quilt Alongs, Bees, Swaps, Link Ups and attend Retreats and QuiltCon (are you going? I am)
QUESTION for you - Are you happy when you're scrappy like me? I'd love to know and if you'd like to follow me, that's great too.
You can find links to the entire line up
HERE and the very useful series Advice and Tech Help for New Bloggers
HERE.
Keep on hopping and get to know these fine ladies:
Now way! 31 years! Congrats! it was fun reading about your background and seeing your quilts.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ella. Time really does fly - I can't believe it's been almost two years since Sewing Summit. That was so much fun.
DeleteSo great knowing a little bit more about you, Karen. I hope we get a chance to meet up at Quilt Con!!! Your little granddaughter is adorable!!
ReplyDeleteYou're on my short list of people I'd love to meet at QuiltCon - hope we can make that happen. I admire your work so much and really hope to take a workshop from you someday.
Delete31 years! Awesome! We're ahead of you just by a bit...I may have followed you nearly from the beginning, and have enjoyed chatting now and time, collaborating a bit on the Polaroid sew along, and even spending some time together at Sewing Summit. Looking forward to seeing you again at QuiltCon!
ReplyDeleteHey Debbie - I'm really looking forward to seeing you at QuiltCon too (and your quilts because I know you'll probably have some with ribbons on them!) You were one of my first followers and in turn, following your blog was one of the reasons I started blogging myself. Thanks for all the friendly comments over the years!
Delete31 years is a fabulous innings - long may it continue :) I love all the colour in your quilt and I'll take you advice when it come to FMQ and take it as it comes.
ReplyDeleteWas Dottie photo-bombing the neatest and most amazing fabric stash I have seen outside a fabric shop?
ReplyDeleteI am getting better at scrappy, but I still cannot do truly scrappy. Is 'planned scrappy' OK? :)
Planned scrappy is plenty OK and probably pretty accurate to how I roll. Making a zillion choices is what I find fun - other people I know consider it torture. The stash photo was taken during the initial sorting process about a year ago when my sewing room got a make over so it's neater than normal.
DeleteI love to be scrappy too! I need to follow your advice to join more groups. That's a hard one for me due to time constraints.
ReplyDeletePick and choose what you participate in and be sure to take breaks too.
DeleteI hope to get to meet you at QuiltCon! I love both really matchy quilts and scrappy. When a quilt is really scrappy, I also get really excited about an ombre gradient. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of gradient and just can't seem to get it out of my system. That would be great to meet up. I didn't go last time and am so excited.
Deletelove the photo bomber, too cute, I have a couple of those running around my house too. I love scrappy, sometimes a lot, sometimes less. I think it all depends on the day of the week. I'm trying to branch out and join more groups, I'm starting my first bee ever in August. :)
ReplyDeleteHave fun with your first bee. It can be intimidating to put yourself out there and create for others but I've found it challenging and rewarding to sew outside my own box. Dogs Rule.
DeleteHi Karen - hubby and I celebrate 32 this year. Time is flying! I like your advice on joining up and it's something I want to start doing. I'm just starting to get the hang of this blogging/quilting thing. :). I like scrappy quilts but haven't made many yet.
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary to you too. Nothing wrong with being a lurker for a while and taking it at your own pace. Not every experience is stellar but some are and to me that makes it worth the chance.
DeleteI love scrappy quilts, and see no reason not to mix solids, batiks, traditional fabrics, whatever! I love all the quilts you shared and your little granddaughter is so precious.
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you Karen! It's great to read some more about you and your family. I am in love with your giant X quilt top. It's just gorgeous. I would like to see some more photos of this when when it's finished! Thanks for sharing....
ReplyDeleteJen
Jen - I added a finished picture of XPlus to the post and a link so you can read all about it too. The photo of the top on the playground equipment is sentimental because it was on flickr explorer but a finished one would've been less confusing. I never got out to do another photoshoot and really should.
DeleteNice reading more about you! I love the Ring Around the Briar Rosies quilt, both the design and the name! I'm also a stash quilter, usually, and it's more fun and challenging to work with what you've got than run out and purchase stuff! Great post :)
ReplyDeletePossibilities are endless when options are open ended with scraps, glad you like that too. I get a kick out of naming quilts and often make suggestions - in this case I'm the one that had some help.
DeleteYour work is gorgeous! I love your color palettes.
ReplyDeleteI am so jealous of your stash and I love your Chain+Link top!
ReplyDeleteYou have made such beautiful quilts. I love the picture of your stash, with or without the photo bomber. :) I love making things from my stash as well. I am trying to use it up, because most of my fabrics are older.
ReplyDeleteAn older stash can make amazing things especially with a few bits of newer pieces - or so I continue to tell myself.
DeleteWow Karen your quilts are gorgeous! Happy anniversary! I may need to make a x-plus quilt, yours has inspired me so much!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! I love all your pieces but your grand-daughter takes the cake!
ReplyDeleteShe really does steal the show thanks.
DeleteI totally agree with sewing what you want when you want! You stash is to die for - I love a beautifully presented stash (I really can't cope with fabric just shoved on shelves everywhere!).
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy watching your quilts. They're all fabulous!, and now I'm jealous of you having such big stash ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy stash is a blessing and a curse because it means I have no excuse for not sewing and that I have no justification for buying more fabric!
Deleteyou do lovely work, I was just jumping around the blog hop, following new folks, and your work really inspires me. I would like to invite you to a new group of swappers, my friend in Greece started it up, I started blogging with her just like this.. Here is the link if your interested. https://www.flickr.com/groups/2727908@N22/discuss/72157645228165717/
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary!! :D You know I'm a big fan of your work!! :D And it was really fun to see so many of your quilts in one post. :)
ReplyDeleteScrappy... yeah I think I can get behind that. ^_^
Hi there, fellow blog hop host! You have so many lovely pics that I'm at a loss to choose on to gush about! As for your question, I like to make scrappy things, but I do like to make quilts with fewer fabrics too. I go with what I'm feeling at the time!
ReplyDeleteWell that sounds like going with your gut so two thumbs up for that attitude! This has been a really fun group, thanks for stopping by.
DeleteI need to get more comfortable with scrappy. My little OCD brain fritzes out when I try. I do semi-scrappy, but nothing full on, grab whatever and go. Might be time to try!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that I like scrappy as much as I do since I'm kind of a control freak. Semi-scrappy is not so bad. I've never done a grab from a bag kind of blind scrappy because making all those decisions is the best part but it might be fun anyway.
DeleteVisiting from Plum and June's Blog Hop. Nice to meet you! I'll be a no-reply blogger because Blogger and Blogspot do not play with Wordpress, but don't worry about replying. There isn't anything I can do about it. Lovely quilts! Yes, I am happy when scrappy too! Especially in autumn colors. Carole @ From My Carolina Home
ReplyDeleteWish all these platforms would play nice - I'm learning all about that in our group and more. Your name takes me right to your blog so that's not so bad. Glad you're a happy scrapper too.
DeleteI like the style of your giant x-plus top. That's a great way to update or change a pattern, the different sized blocks look very cool! Your dogs are very cute, I like the dog photo-bomb! I like the scrappy look, but I tend to make scraps for my scrappy projects by cutting into new fabric.
ReplyDeleteHappy 31st Anniversary! Where does time go - we will hit 38 in December! I LOVE your quilts and your GD is just too cute. Yes, I love scrappy. I've also learned if I start something that I am really not liking - drop it & move on. I've only had that happen a time or two but hey life's too short do what you love!
ReplyDeleteI agree totally. I have this idea of creating a QAL called Left-Overs or Mash-Up where we all make quilts from our extra or abandoned parts. Maybe a swap challenge - hhmm.
DeleteI love the way Dottie is eyeing up your stash! Looks so well organised, I would love that! Lovelu photos!
ReplyDeleteI just love your mom made dress! So cute! I love how organized your stash is! I really need to get working on mine! it is a huge mess! I love making scrappy quilts and some that are very planned out. I think it is just whatever I feel like at the time! Nice to meet you!
ReplyDeletewow - you really have tried so many different styles and uses of fabric. I love scrappy too!
ReplyDeleteYay happy anniversary! Or just happy 31 years if we aren't around the date. I love the dress your Mom made, and I have your polaroid tutorial saved but haven't made anything yet! I want to work from my scraps, cause I have a lot, but I am not there just yet. I mean I just need to pick a pattern - or heck, I just need to cut some squares and start sewing.
ReplyDeleteHello, nice to meet you. You've made some beautiful quilts and I love your attitude of mixing whatever kind of fabrics and styles you like
ReplyDeleteWhen I started sewing I wanted to do scrappy quilt that's why I trade some pouches for scraps but I discovered I'm having hard time to work with them. I'm matchy matchy color order pal and being scrapy is difficult. I'm working on scrappy project though and we'll see where it takes me. Hopefully I can incorporate some color order in it :)
ReplyDeleteLate visit from the blog hop. Your quilts are beautiful and your Granddaughter even more so! I especially love the mosaic quilt she's sitting on in the first photo of her. And scrappy is always good with me, I like the freedom it gives you with colour and fabric.
ReplyDeleteDottie is not photo bombing you- she is staring at your fabrics in awe of how neatly they are folded-LOL AMAZING! Great getting to know you.
ReplyDeleteHi! Nice to meet you! I've just found you through the new blogger hop. Yes, I'm about two weeks behind in my blog reader. I love the quilts you've shown. I like organised scrappy and coordinating scrappy. I've never just gone the full "stick your hand I a bag and use what comes out" scrappy.
ReplyDeleteHi, Karen! Popping over from the hop. Love your Tassels quilt, and even though it's not my taste per se, that Pup Art quilt is awesome! I can appreciate the color and design and I bet it was a hit as a charity quilt for a great cause : )
ReplyDeleteHi Karen, it's Karin. :) What a great variety of quilts you've shared with us! Dog photo bombs are the best, maybe only second to cute babies on quilts. Tassels really speaks to me, as do Ring Around the Briar Rosies, X-plus and Chain Link. I have a stack of Briar Rose still sitting here staring at me - I love it yet for some reason I can't figure out what it wants to be yet. No worries, as you know, WIPs are never in short supply for a quilter!
ReplyDelete