tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6991773072355897412024-03-14T02:14:39.079-04:00tarabu arts - books, quilts, teaquilts & books, teas & treats from Maryland quilt artist and word fanataic tarabutarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.comBlogger501125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-9443845159623212322023-02-22T15:01:00.001-05:002023-02-22T15:01:00.160-05:00Work in Progress Wednesday - 20 FebruaryMoving forward on a few pieces this week, including: Tumbler baby/lap quilt: Floral Cascade (icicles? waterfall? stalactites? best description pending): First Years squares on the design wall: tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-38701312683103515582023-02-15T17:51:00.004-05:002023-02-15T17:51:00.170-05:00Work In Progress Wednesday - First Years Quilt Cutting has begun on another first years quilt. Pattern to be determined, but will likely be a four-patch or nine-patch. Sample fabrics are a delightful mix of baby and toddler prints and patterns. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-39845970158486909912023-02-08T17:45:00.021-05:002023-02-12T17:51:46.471-05:00Work In Progress Wednesday - Tumbler Quilt This is part of a small crib-size quilt, made with die-cut tumber blocks:These blocks were made using the AccuQuilt Go tumbler block, which comes with the benefit of docked corners. pre-docked corners save time and prevent the dreaded haystack at triangular seams. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-6665543465906189412023-01-29T16:22:00.000-05:002023-01-29T16:22:14.474-05:00Fussycut Fail - Awkward Pattern PlacementThis is the sequel to Rainii's quilt from last year, for her little sister. It contains some of the same fabric prints as big sister's, but a different backing fabric and quilting pattern. As alike as siblings often are, I think it is important for everyone to have something uniquely their own. Of course, babby sister also has the makings of guffaws in a classic fussycut fail: My tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-30361461157552821362023-01-29T07:59:00.005-05:002023-01-29T07:59:26.098-05:00Orange Creamsicle Getting summer vibes from this vibrant citrus orange fabric. 60" square lap/picnic quilt, ideal for a picnic if you're cool with the white back being covered in grass stains. Sometimes my design choices are less than practical. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-44995504011789093442022-12-22T08:15:00.010-05:002023-01-29T08:18:46.910-05:00Rainii's Quilt Rainii's Quilt features flowers, food, and friends! 5" squares are a great way to incorporate scraps, including pieces of garments from friends and relatives. All cotton fabric and needled cotton batting, this will be warm when needed on the bed and soft and comforting as a play mat. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-48154337987291534162022-11-25T08:09:00.007-05:002023-01-29T08:12:27.754-05:00Double Irish Chain Classic and traditional geometric quilt - in two colours with a solid white field. 56"x66", this style and size are a popular gift for going away to college, as it lends itself well to incorporating school colours. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-3613666357430067082022-07-15T08:03:00.009-04:002023-01-29T08:12:39.810-05:00Flashback Friday - Grand Children's Quilts Flashback to these two great quilts. A pair of siblings, their mother saved some of their favourite and most well-worn clothes from their baby and toddler clothes, to commission these full-size quilts for when they started school. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-48436025643527677572021-02-23T07:59:00.011-05:002023-01-29T08:03:25.062-05:00Mancheseter City Quilt This quilt was inspired by a custom request I made a few years ago, to make a quilt for the child of a Manchester City FC fan, incorporating the team colors. The effect is subtle and I am pleased with how it turned out. Straight-line in-the-ditch quilting yields a nice drape, as well. The fabric for the backside is reclaimed from a duvet and shows of the weight of the heavier tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-8152898930979188142018-05-27T19:50:00.007-04:002023-01-27T19:52:50.426-05:00Heriloom Alterations With the blessing of the current owner, some of these blocks will be over-stitched with fancy stitches, in the style of a Victorian Crazy Quilt. There's simply no saving some of these frayed fabrics, and certainly no matching the old clothes they came from. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-1669274530805444102018-01-03T19:40:00.005-05:002023-01-27T19:53:29.630-05:00Slow Stitching It's been a minute since I have had a large finished quilt to share, but that doesn't mean there isn't stitching going on behind the scenes. Right now it's a rather summery-lush, sorbet-hued traditional nine-patch quilt. Quite generous for a child, this will be large enough to follow them easily into toddlerhood.tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-63053437021303934892017-09-19T19:32:00.009-04:002023-01-27T19:53:42.372-05:00Quilted Accessories This pouch measures only 4.5" across and was quite fiddly, but still enjoyable to make. With a thinner batting layer (quilted with two layers of cotton fabric and needled cotton batting it is quite bulky) I feel like these might become a great way to use up larger scraps and stray zippers. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-18095739897769090742017-01-16T13:23:00.007-05:002023-01-27T19:26:43.959-05:00Not Quite a Quilt - Hexie Mini Bowl Orphan Blocks - whether they are samples that didn't work out or leftovers, almost every quilter ends a project with one or more leftover blocks. At a certain point you decide there's no more drinks coasters or potholders a person needs in their life . . whether a 2" fabric bowl is the right solution is still to be determined. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-36339025392907091592017-01-01T16:19:00.001-05:002023-01-27T19:21:47.828-05:00Curved Piecing - as hard as it looks! This may be an hour of my life but, more importantly, it is validation that curved piecing is a skill, a talent, and possibly an act of magictarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-71574525052058156292016-08-09T19:07:00.021-04:002023-01-27T19:17:18.028-05:00Table Setting for Two - Steampunk Adjacent This gift set didn't come together quite as quickly as I would have liked, but the end result was worth it to me. The coasters are 5" finished hexagons, one of which includes two internal borders. The centerpiece mat is a traditional block, featuring full squares and half-square triangle blocks. Do the math on your HSTs and stitch and cut in pairs, don't play with that bias edge if youtarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-90797264779509368052016-07-26T19:01:00.012-04:002023-01-27T19:06:01.633-05:00Not Quite a QuiltBetween projects, but still couldn't resist sewing a few layers together. The butterfly needs some support between the layers to hold the wings up, but it was still a successful use of an afternoon. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-47863954280513355182016-07-24T11:11:00.000-04:002016-07-24T11:11:27.283-04:00bookshelf - The Smell of Other People's HousesI will freely admit I was taken in by the title of this book. I grew up associating the smell of people with their houses - stale cooking fat, concentrated pine-scented solvent, the stale dust of closed-in homes, the faint goldenrod of open windows.
The title may have pulled me in, but it's the characters that kept me there. To borrow a sentiment from Miss Buncle's Book, tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-82079457863745202272016-06-23T11:14:00.000-04:002016-07-24T11:14:28.606-04:00TBT - Texture!
Throwback Thursday! Heavy texture keeps quilts from being as warm, but makes them so much more delightful to pet! From the way-back machine, a close-up of a baby quilt that I wanted to keep for myself.
tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-14536877648514013932016-05-18T07:55:00.000-04:002016-07-24T10:28:07.373-04:00National Readathon Day - 21 May 2016National Readathon Day is coming again, which means it's time to bookstagram your edited-for-tidiness book nook, complete with elegantly draped vintage pashmina and perfeclty poised cuppa . . .
Or you could use it as an excuse to blow off your chores and lounge around reading all day, or browsing bookshops all day, or hitting the 'big' library and shutting it down.
In the spirit of tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-51473546876890198562016-05-09T07:47:00.000-04:002016-05-09T07:47:03.649-04:00Mental Health Awareness Month - KnittingI think we can all agree that the Craft Yarn Council may be a little biased towards anything that encourages the consumption of yarn, but in this article from the NY Times we see both a first person experience and supportive research about the value of knitting for mental health.
Paul Rogers via
The short notes that any knitter can attest to are -
- knitting helps improve focus; tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-3007852520993935122016-05-02T19:44:00.002-04:002016-05-02T20:04:43.190-04:00Mental Health Awareness Month - QuiltingMay is Mental Health Awareness Month, which is a subject near and dear to my heart - I am a big fan of healthy minds and healthy bodies, and all the unique ways the mind can heal itself and be kept healthy. From music to dance to modern art, we have it in our power to stave off the effects of dementia, short-circuit the stimulus-response of depression and overcome anxiety.
Every few monthstarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-53170040798552374072016-04-10T20:27:00.000-04:002016-05-16T21:44:26.836-04:00National Sibling Day 2016It's National Sibling Day, so it's once again time to be grateful to your parents for giving you your first and best friends, or being grateful that you have gone through life without constantly having to fish your toys out of someone else's closet.
Having spent much of my youth as an only child, I waffled between a crushing feeling of missing out when I witnessed an inside joke between my tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-41810278384541048722016-02-29T19:33:00.000-05:002016-02-29T19:33:09.632-05:00Ships, Ahoy!
These quilts are for a pair of siblings, and are made with the Ahoy! pattern by Christine Stainbrook for Project House 360, available here.
The finished pattern is roughly 48" x 60". In the pictures below, one is made with Blast Off! Collection fabrics from Connecting Threads, the other with fabrics from the Splash! Collection by Alex Anderson for RJR Fabrics.
tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-12321827892565392222016-02-02T19:13:00.000-05:002016-02-29T19:14:15.550-05:00Tool Talk: Binding
There are all manner of helpful tools for keeping your marathon lengths of bias binding clean, tidy, and at the ready, from winding cards to wooden spools you wear around your neck. I am a combination of too lazy and too cheap for any of those - I'm not coordinated enough to wind my binding around a spool or card as I iron (I can just see myself getting halfway done, then knocking the tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-699177307235589741.post-51645370605339131862016-01-15T19:06:00.000-05:002016-02-29T19:07:22.136-05:00Manchester City F.C. quiltIt's a well-established fact that children come into the lives of a great variety of people; people who like horses and people who like fine wine and people who like cheap tea. Even people who like football have smaller people in their lives, young humans they love and dote upon, and, occasionally, gift quilts to:
This quilt is four rows, three columns, seven stripes per column. tarabuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08271012102138956776noreply@blogger.com0