Design Wall Monday 7-30-12

Wish I had more to show for Design Wall Monday, but this is all. I downloaded a course from craftsy.com called Thread Painting by Lola Jenkins. She uses line art, color pencils and stitching for her pieces. This is my first attempt. I took the original photo of this squirrel in my backyard and using picasa transferred it to a line art drawing. The line art was transferred to a piece of plain off-white fabric. All the color on this piece was added by me either with color pencils or stitching. I don't think it's awful for my first attempt. I have a lot to learn. But it was fun. It's about 8x10 and is called, "You Look At Me?"

Visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times today to see what others are up to.

Design Wall Monday 7-16-12

Thread painting - that is what is on my wall at the moment. I took this photo of an iris in my garden this spring. Using Picasa I tweaked the photo a bit to make the iris the focal point. Then I printed it on fabric - twice. This is my first thread painting attempt and it has been quite a learning experience. First I learned that within minutes I stopped looking at the image and was focusing on the colors. I also learned that the piece looks quite different from a distance and to get a true picture of what the mind is going to see, you simply have to step away from it. At the moment, I've used various colors to outline what I see as the major components of the flower. Now I'm going to mull it over and see what I want to do next. On Quilting Arts I had seen one of Pokey's guests demonstrate thread painting and she set the machine to zig-zag as well as free-motion. I tried that first and did not like the result I got. Even with a heavy-weight stabilizer on the back the piece was puckering badly. At that moment I was quite glad I had the foresight to print the photo twice because I tossed the first attempt in the trash and tried again with my machine set to straight stitch.

I can see where even if I never develop the talent of thread painting, the exercise itself would certainly help me develop better control of my sewing machine for free-motion quilting. Anyway, I'm having fun with it. I don't know what else I will do to the flower but I will do more. I plan to densely quilt the background with green thread. Then I'll simply bind it and it will be a wall hanging and a nice reminder of this lovely flower.

Another Journey is finished. I'm happy with it. I have another idea for a wall hanging noodling around in my head, but a hectic work schedule and a few days of vacation following that will take me off the sewing trail for a short while.

Have you seen these adorable basket kits from Clover? My friend, Lori, at Cotton Fields Quilt Shop sells them. Ruth and I saw them at the sewing expo in Raleigh a few weeks ago and, wanting to support our local quilt shop, asked Lori if she could order them. She did and we've been experimenting. Lori made the bowl and I made the rectangular basket. At the show the sample bowls were made from yarn and from fabric. Haven't tackled one out of fabric yet. But I'm happy with the way this turned out. It doesn't take long to do.This one is about 5 x 7 x 2.5.

Take a few moments to visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times to see what others have on their designs wall.

Design Wall Monday 7-9-12

At the Sewing Expo in Raleigh a couple of weeks ago, I bought a pattern called Talulah by BJ Designs. I was drawn in by the tortoise but because I live along the coast I decided it would better fit in with the ocean-themed art quilts I typically do if it was a sea turtle instead of a tortoise, and by the ocean instead of a lake, and on the beach instead of a desert. So the pattern was my jumping off point.

There is still a lot to do on it. All the tiny pieces of fabrics need to be stitched down, then of course the piece will need to be quilted, and I have some lovely seashells that are size-appropriate for this piece that will find their way onto it. So this is currently on my design table. BJ Designs had a number of really fun animal patterns in bright, happy, and unexpected colors. Worth checking out.



I also picked up a pattern called Hampton's Handbag by Pink Sand Beach Designs and made it this past week. I typically carry a very small purse or pouch, but this bag is a good size and is easy to carry so I'm enjoying using it. I'm making it again using a single summery batik fabric for the outside, pockets and straps, and coordinating fabric for the interior, bag ties, and accents. Lori at Cotton Fields has received a beautiful supply of batiks recently that I positively drool over every time I go to her shop.

At the Expo I also picked up a pattern called The Cross Town Carry Regan's Bag by Marlous Designs that uses fat quarters for assembly and am working on that, as well.

But the highlight of my crafting weekend was Saturday's Artrageous Quilters meeting where a professor of textile art at the local university, Christine Zoller, taught us about loom bead weaving. Wow! Wow! Wow! Her pieces are spectacular. She uses intricately designed and bead woven pieces that are 6 to 7" square in her art quilts. I so enjoyed learning the technique and definitely plan to continue it. This little piece took me every bit of 2 hours to do and is 20 beads wide by 20 rows, so 400 beads in that little piece! Next I think I'll attempt one of the amulet purses that hangs around your neck.

As always, visit Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday to see what other awesome quilters are working on.

Design Wall Monday 7-2-12

This quilt is "Rebecca" - it is the Victorian Crazy Quilt my mother and I made together for my mother's great grand-daughter, Mary. The fabrics come from "leftovers" from a quilt my mother and I made made together for my mother's bed, and from my stash. It is a lap size quilt. I did the assembly, had the piece machine quilted using the same rose motif and pink thread that was used on my mother's quilt, finished the binding and then put the piece away and saved it for when my mother visited me this spring. Then we finished it together by adding lace, some embroidery, some buttons. My mother was very proud to give this to Mary. And Mary was thrilled with it. Arthritis is not being kind to my mother and this may very well be the last quilt she works on - hopefully not, but we'll see.

So, it's not really on my design wall but I've blogged about it for earlier Design Wall Mondays and it was a UFO for 2012, so I felt it was okay to blog about it today.

The quilt I started last week - the one with beach color pastels and white - I finished that quilt top and have decided to name it Beachy Keen. Don't know if I'll quilt it myself or send it to the longarm quilter to do. The longarm quilter has a beautiful beach motif that I absolutely adore so I'm kinda leaning that way.

Please check out all the lovely quilts posted on Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.