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.

Design Floor Monday 6-25-12

Over the weekend Ruth and I went to Raleigh to the Sewing Expo. It was the first time it had been held in Raleigh. It wasn't a huge show but was a lot of fun. We did not attend any of the classes but plan to next year. There were some beautiful quilts displayed, including a number of quilts from Fons & Porter, plus a display called "Home Is Where The Quilt Is" (I think ... my memory ...). Anyway, the pieces in the Home exhibit were all shaped like simple A-roof houses - maybe 18" x 24" - and the designs were as varied as they could be. Some were funny. Some were sweet. Some were traditional. Some were very modern. All were delightfully creative. In the Fons & Porter display it was neat to see in person some of the quilts they have shown on their TV show - they were beautiful. There was a good assortment of vendors, too (I spent too much money .... :-(   ).

One of the things I bought was a jellyroll of batik fabric all in lovely beach-y pastels. So Sunday morning I knocked this out. I see in the photo at least two blocks that needs to be rotated - good thing it's just laid out at this point. But my sweet puppy was tired of being ignored so I stopped sewing around noon on Sunday and will try to finish up the quilt top Monday evening. It will end up being a very large lap quilt.

I also picked up a couple of wall hanging patterns, both of which have something to do with the ocean. Hmmm ... I'm seeing a recurring theme in the things I'm making.

And Ruth and I each picked up a purse/bag pattern.

I'm contemplating purchasing some of the Shiva Fabric Paint Sticks. Anyone using them? Willing to tell me what you think about them?

Visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times to see what other creative quilters are up to.

Design Wall Monday 6-18-12

Beach"es"Cape is finished. This was such a fun piece to work on.

The final touch was added yesterday which was all the teensy seashells I found at Shackleford Banks last weekend. It was just one of those unusually good shelling days - such fun. And I knew as I was picking up those shells, some about the size of a grain of rice, that they would end up on this piece.

So, since Beach"es"Cape was wrapping up, I decided to start a birdhouse-scape. The floral motif embroidery is from an autumn fabric I bought years ago - I only had a small scrap left but there was one whole motif in that scrap so I did a mimic style embroidery over it (got that idea from my friend Ruth!). The butterfly and bluebird patterns are from the book "Embroidered Birds" by Helen M Stevens. I transferred the patterns from the book onto white cotton fabric. Once the embroidery was finished I used an fusible web to help stabilize the pieces a bit, cut them out and added them to the birdhouses. I also used this piece as an opportunity to experiment with some of the decorative stitches on my BabyLock. I'm naming this piece "It's A Bluebird Day."

Hmmm ... what to do next? I have not a clue but I'm sure all the lovely posts on Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday will inspire me. I do have the Artrageous Quilters grab bag challenge  to work on. And I'm waiting on the July blocks for the craftsy.com block of the month project to be published. And  I bought fabric for a pair of pillowcases. And there is a messy sewing room that needs some cleaning attention. No shortage of things to do ...

Design Wall Monday 6-11-12

Beach"es"Cape is progressing nicely. I've thoroughly enjoyed the handwork and the "no-rules-do-whatever-you-want" process of this townscape. What's left to do? I plan to stitch in a few more beach chairs, a sand bucket or two, a couple pairs of flipflops, a bicycle ... a few other things might pop into my imagination, too. I also have some small colorful coquina clam shells and some small bits of sea glass I plan to glue to the "sand." And I'm also still leaning towards stitching on a few beads here and there, maybe as a few constellations in the sky.

Planning for my next townscape is well underway.

Take a few moments and visit Patchwork Times today for Design Wall Monday - the creativity and talent posted on Judy's Design Wall Mondays is quite spectacular.

Design Wall Monday 6-4-12

The local quilt shop, Cotton Fields, is having a delightful challenge this summer. A challenge kit is available from the shop and contains 3 fabrics that have to be used to create a crazy patchwork piece which can be embellished however the designer wants - is it okay to add additional fabrics as well. The challenge piece is due at the shop by the end of July. I am well on my way. Here is the base piece. I made the beaded dragonfly that will be adhered to the center. I plan to incorporate prairie points along the binding.I also decided to add piping between the blocks and the border. Next I'll start the embroidery, add beads, then finish the prairie points, quilting, and binding. The finished piece will be around 19-20" square. I'm naming it "Controlled Chaos" because even though it comes across as a crazy patchwork, the dirty little secret is that I made a foundation paper pieced pattern and all four blocks are the same!

The Artrageous Quilters group met Saturday. Our project was "cityscapes" - beautiful, lively, whimsical cityscapes or townscapes. I did a beachscape and will name it 'Beach"es"Cape'. This was just nothing but fun. No rules. Wonky. Cheerful. I enjoyed every second of it, and my imagination is running at a full tilt dreaming up other townscape pieces. The pieces are just pinned down right now so I need to fuse and/or sew them in place. I have some small seashells and sea glass to add to the "beach", and I plan to add some beads. I think my next one may focus on cottages ...

Take some time to visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times to see what others are up to.

Design Wall Monday 5-21-12

I don't have EQ. I've toyed with the idea of purchasing it but my computer is very old and when I looked at the specs for the EQ program I realized I would probably need to buy a new computer. Don't want to do that. Not yet. Because it's a pain in the rear to move the files, reinstall programs, etc. And sometimes I just like the philosophy "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

So, until I get EQ and a new computer, or in case I never do, this is my way of designing a quilt. I select fabrics I like ...

find some blocks I like, make several color copies of each fabric, then I cut out pieces and fit them together, move them around, and so on until I find something that appeals to me. When my cousin and I were making quilts together via the U.S. Mail service, I would make a paper block using color copies and send a copy to her so we could compare apples to apples. One foundation paper pieced block we made had 96 pieces in it and we were each making 18 blocks! Believe me, we wanted to make sure we were both on the same page with that one.

I'm going to start on a new bed quilt soon and I have my eye on the Swoon block by Thimbleberries. This design is for a 24" block. Yikes! On the bright side I'll only have to make 9 blocks. I'm going to cut and piece and audition the paper fabrics in this photo until I get the effect I'm looking for. I'll also be able to check to make sure I have enough fabric because for 3 of the fabrics I only bought 2 fat quarters so I'll need to be careful. When I bought the fat quarters I didn't have a bed size quilt in mind ... In the design process for this block I asked my friend Lori for her opinion and she brought to my attention the fact that the star in the middle fades away, so we'll do a little switch-a-roo with some of the fabrics to make the star pop out, and I've decided to replace the bright yellow with a blue.

Ocean Jools is finished. This was extremely fun to make. It's small - about 12 x 26 - so it went together fast. My last Design Wall Monday blog gives the designer's name/info. This whole piece was fun - selecting fabrics, cutting them out, appliqueing, beading, quilting. Fun fun fun.

Visit Patchwork Times today and see what others are working on.

Design Wall Monday 5-14

Finally, some noticeable progress.

Life's A Hoot, pattern by Angela Padilla and available through Craftsy.com, is finished. This wall hanging was a lot of fun to do. In the end I ended up quilting it using a simple cross-hatch pattern. Most of the fabrics in this piece are from my stash. I did buy the grass fabric and wood grain fabric, but that was all.

Sea Stable, pattern by Debora Konchinsky, was also a lot of fun to do. Most of these batiks are from my stash. Although I was tickled pink with this piece before the embroidery and bead embellishments, I have to admit that the embroidery and beading really made it come to life. The quilting is simply vertical wavy lines ... trying to reinforce the water theme ...


FYI - Debora Konchinsky calls these patterns by another name - I renamed them to put my spin on them.

Here is a close-up of the featured sea horse. That's a whole lot of beads on that horse! From tip to tail that horse is 8.5" long. 5 of the horses in this piece have beading on them, and there are also beads here and there on the seaweed.

Ocean Jools, pattern by Debora Konchinsky, will be finished before the week's end. Living close to the coast, I love everything and anything related to seashells, which is what Ocean Jools is - a collection of seashells. I've started the beading embellishments on it and am amazed at much a little ol' bead can add to the "wow factor" of a piece. I'll post a photo of that finished piece next week (I hope).

Rebecca - this is the quilt my mother and I are working on together. While it's sad to think that this will likely be the last quilt piece she works on because the arthiritis in her fingers makes handling a needle or rotary cutter very difficult, I think it's ironic that this last piece is not only named after her, but is made from fabrics we used in a quilt for her bed - so it's very close to her. She will be giving this piece to her great granddaughter.

Make sure to take a few moments and visit Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday to see what some really amazing quilters are up to.