I am very excited my new custom cut cutting mat is here.  It covers my entire 4 by 7 table.  Now I can just lay out my fabric and cut.  This will be great for larger works.

My First Grandson

My son David made this for his nephew.

Make a Smilebox photobook

Recent Projects

I've been doing a lot of sewing and quilting, but not much blogging. My daughter and I spent several days making scrap quilts for our community backpack program. This program gives kids clothes and blankets when take from meth homes.

I have also made two large fleece baby quilts. One for a friend and one for my soon to be grandson.

I have spent a few days each week helping some home schoolers work on quilt blocks for the school block challenge in Paducah. These quilts were done by girls age 4-12.

My latest endeavor was to make some fleece quilt with angels for a 2 and 3 year old whose house burnt down last weekend. These were designed by my 11 year old and me. We have some other angel designs we would like to make into quilts at another time.

I am still working on my stations of the cross, my triple Irish train boarder, and our challenge quilt for my guild as well as a Christmas wall hanging.

Beach Quilt & Stations

I have finally finished the quilt top for the beach challenge. All the children have been sewn down.  I am getting ready to add boarders and begin quilting.   I finished the Sanhedrin quilt for the stations and just have to stitch the binding,   I believe I have too many projects started and to many floating around my brain.  I am also hoping to do some more rust dyeing this week.  Quilt pictures coming later.

Christmas Tree Skirt

Here are some of my pictures from the Christmas tree skirt I made this weekend.  This was a quilting project from our quilt guild"

Beach Quilt

I am still working on the beach quilt challenge.  I thought I just had 2 people left to make, but my daughter decided the space needed filled in more and so I have 11 to make.   Here is a picture of the entire quilt so far.  The white slips are where more people will be added.  Click here to see the gallery of close-ups of people.

Rust Dyeing Results

After my fabric set for a week I unwrapped the poles and removed my fabric.  I wanted a little more color so I pole wrapped it and set it in tea for about 10 minutes.  The tea gave it a lovely grey shade to the white areas.  I'm guessing that was because of the vinegar.   I washed the fabric in a mild detergent dried and pressed.  Here are the results.

Rust Dyeing

Well, I keep saying I need some rusty things to dye with.  Well the high winds today gave me my wish.  It shredded our screen tent, but I was able to salvage the rusty tent poles.  I got my PFD fabric and soaked it in vinegar.  Then I wrapped it around the poles, put a few other small rusty objects in the layers and scrunched it down.  I love dyeing with a scrunch wrap, so I hope this works.  I put it all in a plastic back and poured on some more vinegar and tied it up.  I think I'll let it sit all week. I really hope this works.

Beach Challenge

I have made some of the children for the beach challenge.  A lot of the clothes are made of the challenge fabric.  The fabric was fused to wool felt and stitched with invisible thread with freemotion zigzag.  I am slowly adding thread stitching got hair.  Hre are some samples of what the challenge looks like now.  My favorite item is the volleyball net.[gallery]

With One Voice

This is my 12 X 12 block for the Breaking Arts Traditions. The money raised goes to fight cancer. This block represents the people who raise the standards of living in other countries by providing water. Did you know that just $1 can provide an African with water for a year. Boy! That's something to think about. Here are links to of these groups: Bood:WaterMissions at http://www.bloodwatermission.com and Lifewater International at http://lifewater.org

Words on quilt: "With one voice ideas trickle.... with one goal commitment streams.... to one community hope flows.... with one voice rejoicing surges."

Stations of the Cross

I am still working on several quilting projects, as well as homeschooling my daughter. I decided I was not happy with the start of the garden scene. I bleached the pathway and used dye and paint to darken the background. (Next time I do this before I start quilting.) The betrayal is drawn and painted on linen. I will add 30 coins images next before quilting.

The cross background is woven with strips of cloth.
Some are printed with parts of Isaiah 57. The cross
itself is made of used dryer sheets that I have painted
on with acrylic fabric paint.



Close up of weaving.

Beach - challenge Fabric

Here is the challenge fabric I am working with for my beach scene. I have decide to attach most of the people and trees to wool felt with free motion zigzag and invisible thread. I had never quilted through wool felt before. It is wonderful. I put all my wool felt in the washer in hot water squeezed out a lot of the dye, drained the washer and washed all but the cream in a hot wash on gentle. Then threw them in the dryer. The felt comes out all bubbly, but Irons perfect. I think I'm hooked.

What I'm Working On

I am working on a variety of techniques for my station of the cross quilts. I have four in the quilting stage. For the Pieceful Hearts Quilt Guild I am working on an original beach themed twin quilt and a snowman block wall hanging from a pattern. I still need to do a Seminole border to finish my triple Irish Chain.

Trip to Paducah

We just returned from our trip to Paducah. This was my first trip to the Museum of the American Quilter's Society. It was truly spectacular. I spent a lot of time Monday looking at each quilt. It took me almost four hours. I could hardly believe my husband and daughter did not get bored or try to hurry me along. We spent the rest of the day looking at the flood wall murals and at a park.

This morning we went to Handcocks of Paducah. I picked out just a few items and was ready to make my purchases, but my husband twisted my arm and encouraged me to buy a lot more. I can't wait to start going through all my new fabrics and stuff.

Stations of the Cross

Well, I've finally started a new quilting project. I will be making stations of the cross in quilts. There will be 13-15 quilts in the final view. Each quilt will be at least 36" and be accompanied with scripture and prayer on posts. The quilts are meant to be set up in a labyrinth form. Some of the quilts will have interactive parts. I have my sample drawings and the scripture collected. I will be writing the prayers as I work through this project. I finished cutting out the first station today. Tomorrow, I will use free motion stitching to attach all the tiny pieces before quilting.

Tomorrow, I will be taking 10 art quilts down th the Presbyterian Church . They are having their annual heritage quilt show Saturday and have invited me to display my art quilts, so people can see another aspect of quilting.

Women of Bible Links

I have finally gotten my Women of the Bible links working. Click on the names of each women to view the close-ups. Women of Bible

Mini Projects

I have not been able to work out the bugs in my latest quilting project so I am working on a series of small quilts based on my daughter's drawings of Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking-glass. Here are the first two and some detail shots.

School Days

Here are some photos of my quilt donated for the KEA auction.

Finished New Quilt

Today I have finished my quilt for the KEA spring meeting. This week was our spring break. I have been organizing my sewing room. Taking the door off the closet have really opened up the storage possibilities. I will be doing spring cleaning all day and will post new quilt pictures later.

Here is a finished picture of my son's quilted wall hanging.

Marriage Quilt

This week I worked on a marriage wall quilt for my son and his new bride. I have not gotten a full shot yet do to the cold weather. It will be finished as soon as I add the boarder.  Each tiny piece is satin stitched on. The distelfinks are Pennsylvania Dutch love birds.

Fabric Painting

Today, I have been experimenting with fabric painting. Here are a few pictures of the fabric drying.  I will still have to bush off salt and heat set.