What She Saw ---- update

Here is how the new rose is shaping up.   Still have to finish 3 of the petals,   I like all 20 something animals hidden in it.  They are not as easy to see this time.  I also like the added animals on the sides.  I must decide on how to quilt it so I can have it done by Thursday night.   The back has been made with scraps of the front fabric and an extra red fabric I had on hand and is just waiting for me to finish the front.

My Granddaughter's Quilt

I finally got harper's quilted wall hanging finished and delivered.   Only problem was I forgot to photograph.  My husband photographed it when we dropped my grandson off last Tuesday night.
Here are a few pictures.

 

Pieced Background

 

Free-motion butterfly quilting

  

Harper's Quilt

Hanging baskets for Harper's room.

  

Wild Goose Chase

My Wild Goose Chase quilt was finished and arrived at the Berea Quilt Extravaganza on time.  It is part of the "Flying Things Challenge"  The challenge fabric is the navy blue in the sky.Here is a picture of it and another  of my quilts in the exhibit, Greener Pastures.  Now Wild Goose Chase is being exhibited at the Berea Hospital.  Fabric used are mostly batiks.  Wings are made of my own walnut dyed fabriks and batiks.  Wings are quilted, are not flat against the quilt.  One foot extends forward our of quilt.  

Wing in progress, before quilting.

kaleidoscope

I am finally back on line. My first laptop and new operating system have taken time to learn. Still need to find a MAC program to replace my paint shop pro.

Been working on many projects. Am trying my first kaleidoscope, here are the 1st pictures of it getting started on my design wall.

Wild Week -UFo's and WIP's

It's been a wild week with lots of projects and doctors' appointments and Easter Programs.  Last night we had a wonderful sedar meal with lots of lamb and horseradish.  Tonight will be our Good Friday service.

 Thank you cards to mount on card stock, postage to add to envelopes to send my son tomorrow.  Card drawn by my daughter.


On to this weeks works:   A rust dyed journal cover to hand stitch while waiting in doctors offices

Pieced some  new book marks.  Still have lots of embellishment and stitches to add.

Bo Pee's lambs gone astray is coming along.















And of course garden work, or rather photographing it lots of wild weather and windfall.  Terrific green lichen for dye, lots and lots of old branches covered in it. Yeah!

 Linden and honey suckle starting to bloom. They smell so sweet and delightful.
And our last batch of caterpillars overwintered and hatched this week

One top of all this fabric dyeing and slowly working on uninstalling all the malware on my computer.  Found a great sight that helps you for free, one on one also, lots of down loading, scans and uploading logs, but my computer is running much better.  Yeah!!!!

Wedding Wallhanging

I finished my son's wedding quilt Sunday with a wedding message and quilt info label on the back. Yeah! just in time to drop it off at my parent's house before the drive to Florida.

This little quilt was a lot of work for me.  First I was trying to use each one's favorite color, red and teal.  Found some red scraps with teal batik.  I used this as a starter fabric after many other tries and pulled colors from it.

The other problem was just me.  One of the side effects of my medicine is dropping off to sleep while doing ordinary things such as talking.  This effect can take up to a year to start.  I've been on it a year with great results until now.  It's very dangerous dropping off to sleep while using a sewing machine not mention all the frog chorus afterward. (Rip it, Rip it)




I started with piecing the quilt and then used raw edge and needle turn applique.  The lettering under the house was done with the feeddogs dropped and a zigzag stitch.



The Distelfink bird was the good luck and happiness bird of the early Pennsylvania German settlers. Overall, the design symbolized "good luck and happiness" for all. I used my own stylized version as this is where my heritage starts.

Next I used Shiva paint sticks for the first time.  I put leaves the tree and stones for the walk.  I cut a stencil out of paper and laid it on the quilt to protect the rest of the fabric.  I could see these being a very fun and useful addition to my art.  The leaves didn't show up quite as much as I would have liked. Great fortune!I amidst the small scraps people gave me at quilt guild were two 2 by 3 inch floral scraps with leaves I hadn't noticed. Just a perfect size.





Finished with lots and lots of quilting, a bit of hand stitching, beads and buttons. and finally  mitered binding and tabs.  Hope the like it!

February's Scrap Challenge

February's scrap challenge color was red.  First I choose a photo of one of my roses.  I decides to select a portion of it and make a kaleidoscope.

 I started with looking through my large and small scraps for lights and darks.

Next I sorted thread for various red shades.  It is unfortunate that as soon as white is added to fed you get pink or if yellow a peachy shade.  I decided to only use the reds.

Here is my pizza slice wedge based on the flower contours from a small section. I started with red satin, but scored it.  I found a darker cotton and utilized what I could of the satin scrape for the applique pieces.

Below is my finished piece.  After lots of applique and then quilting I finished the piece off by going around the edges twice with yarn and a zigzag stitch.

You may be able to see some of the free hand quilting  by clicking on the close up.
Unfortunately, i was not happy with my results.  I think when i have time I will do a realistic read rose.

2010 Guild Challenge

Monday evening my quill guild revealed their challenge quilts. The two red and green fabrics were from the challenge.  The beige was from my Black-eyed Susan dye experiment. I posted a few leaves in an earlier blog.  The leaves were free motion thread painted on a fabric with stabilizer.  The quilting was also done in free motion stitching without marking. 

Here is a picture before quilting and after as well as a few close-ups.
 

2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge

While sifting through the avalanche of fabric scraps on my table and floor, I gathered up lots of blue for January's  Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Here is a picture of my blue moon rose.

This 8.5" by  11'' piece is made with fusible web on a piece of light blue fabric.  I drew the rose on the fusible. The background scraps were put down first with edges cut to lie just under the rose.  Raw edges were folded under or tucked under the next piece and then tacked with my mini iron.  Next I made the rose from the center out, the same way and fused all.  I used a satin stitch to outline all the rose petals. Next the batting and background were added.  I put a scrap piece of blue tulle over the entire piece. It was a last minute thought and just fit with a bit of tugging.  I basted the edges and outlined the rose with invisible thread.  The quilting was free motion leaves in multicolored thread. Thread was mostly blue with analogous  colors purple and green.

Side note- I have a Blue Moon rose and they are more purple than blue.  Here is a picture of one from my garden.

 

Luna moth

My latest work has been to thread paint a luna moth.  for the book journal back ground I used some of my walnut dyed fabric with some additional brown ink.  Then I lay a piece of fusible on it stitched it in all directions.  Next I held an iron over it and it shrink up wit gathers.  I used thread painting and re-purposed denim for the rest.

I also made a Christmas journal and several color pencil holders.

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