Patriotic Block Swap Quilt

I was in a block swap in December 2008. I finally put mine together! Yay! Anyone want to suggest a name? (Sorry about the picture, but this baby is as big as my design wall and I just couldn't get it up straight.)

I ended up making two more blocks along with the original two I made for the swap. (Can you guess which four blocks are mine?) It was fun playing around on graph paper trying out different settings. If I had it to do over again I'd have the streamers of red and navy travel horizontally instead of vertically and I'd make the cream strips narrower. C'est la vie!

Lisa

Done. Now What?

I've finished the embroidery and beadwork on my African Embroidery piece. It was great fun and I enjoyed it very much. But what do I do with it now? I could bind it and call it done, but I'd like to do something more. It's too large of a scale for a jacket or vest. The size is more appropriate for the side of a tote bag, but being handwork and somewhat 3-D with the beading techniques I used it wouldn't hold up well. Anyone have any brilliant ideas?

Lisa

Blogs

I used to read about 40 blogs a day, then I decided that I needed to get more sewing done and spend less time at the computer. Coupled with that, I got a new computer and did not save the blog addresses.

That said, I still check out the occasional blog and this one is a definite favorite. I can't say that I actually read it, LOL, but the pictures are well worth a look if you're into machine quilting.

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com

No affiliation, just a happy viewer.

Lisa

Kathy's Zodiac

Kathy's sign of the zodiac is also Aquarius. (I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on which sign has the most creative people?) She chose the Celtic symbol for water to applique on her quiltlet and the soft blues we think of as water. Another beauty. And I love her quilting! Lisa

Ruth's Zodiac Quiltlet

Ruth was born under the sign of Aquarius and chose to make her quiltlet about that sign. She cleverly added crystals to the thread drawing of the waterbearer in the position of the stars of that constellation. She also included her horoscopes for the week. It must have been a good week because this is a great little quilt!Lisa

Trish's Page 57 Word 13

I finally remembered my camera and took a few shots of other art quilts from the group. I'll be posting them the next few days.

This is Trish's Page 57 Word 13 quilt. It's still in process but I just love it! Her word is "more" and she even brought photocopied proof that it was her word, LOL.

Lisa

Treasured Trash Challenge

For those of you who are following along at home, here is our next art quilt challenge:

Treasured Trash
Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do
Or do without
With thoughts of Earth Day, this week's challenge is to make a small quilt, no larger than 12" x 12", using found 3-D objects not normally associated with quilting. These can be from your recycling bin, street gutters, trash can or picked up in the parking lot. They may be attached using glue, heavy duty thread, bored holes and wire or whatever innovation you discover.

And since we're using things up, you may not buy anything for this quilt. Hope you have a good stash! Due date is May 5

Watch here after that date for my interpretation.

Lisa

What's Your Sign Results

Here's a picture of the zodiac quiltlet I made for the "What's Your Sign" challenge. It's a gryphon and obviously not a traditional sign of either the traditional or the Chinese zodiac. I just couldn't be traditional, LOL. I wanted to make a fantasy creature and thought about a unicorn, but then I thought of other creatures and the gryphon came to mind. I knew at once it was perfect! I was born under the sign of Leo in the Year of the Rooster and since the gryphon combines the lion with a bird (an eagle) it seemed very appropriate. I'm very pleased with it.

Techniques used: raw edged fused applique, hot-fix crystals and metallic thread quilting.

Lisa

African Folkloric Embroidery

I took a workshop with Leora on African Folkloric Embroidery yesterday and I fell in love with it! I worked all through class and more when I returned home and even a little bit more this morning. It's not done yet, but here's what I have so far.

I chose the coral design because it spoke to me, but there were many more designs I'd like to try. Hmmm, maybe a jacket...

Lisa

Iris

Okay, one more day of flower pictures and then I can post my latest art quilt. It's done, but I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for class on Wednesday.

Not quite fully opened

A beautiful frilly peach iris

Some lovely purple iris

This blue violet iris is my favorite :-)

Lisa

California Poppies

One of our latest joys is walking around the gardens at our new home seeing what's coming out of the ground. Since we inherited these beautiful grounds we have no idea what we will find.

This week I was amazed at all the different California style poppies. I'm not sure if they are natural sports or if the previous owners planted all these different colors, but they are fun to see!
On the right is a traditional California golden poppy (the state flower, I believe, and a heck of a lot prettier than the Maine state flower, LOL). On the left is a pale yellow variant.

This poppy was yellow inside and pink outside.

Pink poppies

More pink poppies

Red poppies

And best of all these poppies are a glorious burnt orange on the outside and orange on the inside.

In my studio I've been working (and working) on the queen-sized quilt and I finally have the top assembled and the backing is on its way. I hope to send it to the longarm quilter this week! Wow! There's a reason I don't usually make bed quilts: short attention span, LOL. I just don't enjoy doing the same thing over and over. But it's done and I'm moving on to working on a UFO. More on that later. And of course there's my latest art quilt challenge :-)

Lisa

Zentangles

I've been working on this one for about a year, off and on, and it's finally done. Yay!

I read about zentangles here: http://zentangles.com and I was impressed with some of the designs I saw. I decided to modify it a bit since my goal was a jacket so I sectioned off areas and then had fun in each section.

Eventually I was happy with the results and traced it onto the jacket fabric using a washout marker. I placed the jacket fabric over pre-washed flannel and pin basted. Each section was then free motion or walking foot stitched using either 30 wt or 40 wt black Sulky thread. All thread tails were pulling to the inside and knotted.

Here are the results:

As usual, it's prettier in person, but here are 2 close ups to give you a better idea.

Hope you like the latest addition to my wardrobe. This makes jacket #80 to go with the 27 vests and 6 long coats and who knows how many dresses and skirts... Good thing I have a wonderfully supportive husband!

Now I'm all set for my next guild fashion show. I like to have at least one new jacket for each show :-)

Lisa

How To Train Your Dragon

We went to see the movie "How To Train Your Dragon" and I absolutely loved it. The artwork was just okay, but the characters were wonderful and I laughed and cried and came out feeling wonderful. Definitely a feel-good movie and I highly recommend it.

Please realize that I saw it in 2-D and it may be even better in 3-D, but I get motion sick so easily that I didn't want to chance it. I had a difficult enough time watching the flying scenes in 2-D! I guess I'm just going to have to stay an old fashioned girl :-)

Lisa

Page 57 Word 13

Last week our art quilt challenge was to look in the book you are currently reading, find page 57 and count to word 13. Use that word as inspiration for your quiltlet. I lucked out and my word was sleep. I painted the background blue since that is the color that reminds me of sleep. I searched the web and found a quote on sleep that I liked and wrote it on the quiltlet in swoopy lines using a navy blue Sharpie marker. Then I cut out swoops of several sheer fabrics: white, dark blue and a white with silver holographic dots. These represent dreams. I tacked them on with spray baste glue then quilted more swoopy lines across the quiltlet using a blue variegated thread.

To finish the edges I stitched curves around the quilt then cut it 1/4" away, leaving the batting showing. The unfinished edges make me think of how dreams are often unfinished as we drift in and out of them.

Lisa

Hey Baby, What's Your Sign?

The next art quilt challenge for our little group is the following:

Make a small quilt, no larger than 12" x 12", depicting your own personal sign of the zodiac. It may be your traditional sign (such as Sagittarius), your Chinese sign (year of the Dragon) or your own creation (sign of the Earthworm anyone?) Due April 21 and be prepared to explain why you chose your sign.

Lisa

First Look at Queen Sized Quilt

I finally finished cutting the blocks and sashing for my bed quilt. I've never made a queen sized quilt, but my new bedroom simply cries out for one and I couldn't buy one of those awful imports... Today I'm assembling rows. Not the most exciting of processes, but I'll put on a good book-on-tape and go for it. This monster takes up my entire design wall from floor to ceiling!

Lisa

My Woven Quiltlet

The next challenge was to make a small quilt that contained some weaving. I started with a hand dyed fabric, marked off areas for weaving, quilted the rest using variegated thread then added some loooong pieces of couching thread in a radiating pattern both in the upper left area and on the bottom. For the upper area I wove in some different couching threads. For the lower area I wove leftover bias tubes (I knew there was a reason I was saving them!). I still wasn't happy once it was bound so I added a smattering of beads.

Lisa