Spiders in my Garden

I finally finished this colorful quilt...I really enjoyed working with the colors. I did find a patterned fabric on a black background to use in the main blocks...but found it to be too busy and big for the size block I wanted to use (you can see below)

Sooooo.....I ironed a fusible web on the back on the patterned fabric and cut out individual shapes and collaged them together.

Much better I think....at first glance, they might appear to look the same, but not so...all from the same fabric but just a little different from block to block.

In looking for a backing fabric, I wanted to use one of the colors from the front. I did love this green print on right but the sales person mentioned it was a Halloween fabric....SOOOO....to me it's also a garden fabric...there are spiders in gardens...right?...I wish I had found it sooner as I would have incorporated some into the front...but so be it...

I quilted it with an overall stippling stitch free motion style...

So here goes..."Spiders in my Garden"...done and ready for the show at the NC Arboretum.

"Snowin and Sewin"

I don't imagine anyone needs a reminder of the big storm - a crazy amount of snow and wind but a perfect time to hunker down and do some sewing as long as there was power.......AND power there was, so all was good.

 I do like snow and to have 1 or 2 snowfalls a season is just fine. It is so pretty and as long as you don't have to go anywhere, it works for me.

 We have some nice size hills, the kids were out sledding and I watched from inside. We gave our new kitten (13 pounds) a taste of his first snow and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

 The sky was beautiful that night, meanwhile back in the studio I decided I needed a no brainer - to sew for the sake of just sewing. I've been anxious to use up scraps and thought I would put together this little scrappy quilt.

 I started to see a pattern of this Kokopelli running through the quilt. By the way, I could not for the life of me remember his name so I googled "little man with arched back playing the flute" and up popped Kokopelli - you can find most anything on the internet.

I also started to see the gold was really needed to pop and the dark brown batik really made the gold work more effectively so scraps were replaced and rearranged.

So it has some sashing and borders and now it just needs to be quilted. It's a fairly small piece so it should go fast. I think I'll call it either "Snowed In" or "Kokopelli's Maze"....think Snowed In will always remind me of this huge snow storm.......Til next time.

Red, White and Blue

Our annual PTA Retreat has come and gone - and it was great fun - but now I have to finish the projects in progress -  not nearly as much fun as when you're sewing in a group of ten fun loving gals. I was only at retreat for 2 days but had all pieces pre-cut so it speeded things up. I did a larger version of this design in Indigo and white. edge it. 

I finally sewed it together this week and added the borders, but started to think that a tiny strip of red might "zing it up a bit.

 So I emailed my good buddy to get another opinion...

 and Mary loved the one with the touch of red.

 as opposed to the one without. I guess I need a little nudge to steer me in the right direction. I was totally down the middle and sometimes being so close to something doesn't help in decision making.

So here is the finished top, still needing to be quilted but I've decided to hold off until I can set up on my deck outside in the fresh air and do some sewing then. So far, I have 5 quilts ready to go. It's going to be a busy summer.

Problems and Solutions

My PTA retreat is coming up next week,...we are all excited, getting ready and of course trying to come up with a project that will not be too intense so we can enjoy the camaraderie.  I often work on the same thing as Kate and Mary...we started this at the first retreat doing I Spy quilts and being able to pool our fabric for lots of choices. It has been so much fun, we've kind of stuck to this plan every year. This year we're doing the same pattern, different fabrics.

I have a lot of different Indigo prints. I've also created some myself but not quite as dark as this. I decided to use this to make my quilt and a sashing of white. I thought (after cutting out lots of white strips) that the white was too stark and too much of a contrast to the very dark blue. 

I had this other wonderful piece of fabric that I thought might do well as sashing - just the white areas with spidery veins (and work around the dark blue areas) - but not nearly enough fabric and too much waste...so what to do?

I made a copy of the fabric - several actually and using an exacto knife, cut away the dark areas. I then laid the cut away area over a copy of the fabric and found a place that would blend...I did this for every dark area....a little crazy but it worked.

I made it into a silk screen and tried it on fabric...also sprayed it with water to see what would happen...Yikes...not a good look.

I really liked the screen and will use it but too strong for here...above, on a folder...

so I'm back to "what to do? again.

I thought I'll put it in Photoshop, go to filters and make it into a "photocopy" or a "find edges" both of which will turn an image into a line drawing...Success! You can see both images, the one on the left is the original and the right is the photocopy - a much softer version I think.

And here it is screened on fabric...I like the look - now to preview it on the Indigo fabric.

So here is a mock up of the white (many tone on tones) with the Indigo..

and here it is with the screened fabric....
hmmmm....still haven't decided. I think either way I'll be happy, but I do lean a certain way. What do you think?

Retreat Quilts

I've had these fabrics in my closet for a while, actually forgot about them when a friend reminded me how nicely they would work in the retreat project we were planning. I needed a few more in this Moda series and she just happened to have some to add - thanks Kate. 

 They are very soft, pretty colors and I've always loved pink and green so I was off and running with the idea.

 I am not a piecer, and no matter how hard I try, I just can't get things to line up. This quilt was hard for a non-piecer. Would I do it again....Yes, because I love the way the fabrics worked in this pattern -  Mary Kay 5.

 Because the colors are so soft, I thought it needed a little something to sparkle it up. I thought of couching - a technique I really like to do.

 I decided to couch around the little squares and long strips AND also the main blocks in the center. It was very tedious and time consuming, but once started, I had to see it through.

 I really liked the results.

 This is Candlelight by YLI and a very soft couching thread.  You can't run it through the top of your machine;  you have to use it in the bobbin or couch it on top using a monofilament which is what I did.

 I still had lots of this fabric left over and too pretty to piece together for a backing, so I made an "I Spy" quilt. It's the same pattern I used on many children's quilts only this used the Moda. I like this one better than the first and a whole lot easier.

 There is a tutorial for this quilt on my blog under "I Spy" quilts.

And yes, still more fabric, so I did this little pieced quilt and it is small.  All 3 will find different homes.
And do I have any more of this fabric?.. - you might ask...yes and I thought maybe some pillows for the bedroom one of these quilts will be in.
   I sometimes feel this fabric has some myserious powers like in the movie The Gremlins - they always multiply after midnight. I might have to spend a night in my closet to find out.

Finishing Quilts

I've been trying to finish up quilt tops so I can move onto other things. This is one of my pieces from our annual retreat, made at last year's retreat.  A few of us always work together, swapping and sharing fabric, deciding on a theme and making sure it's a no-brainer so we can talk and be part of the group conversation.  

 This was our choice for last year and it was a fun piece to do. Now to quilt it.

I needed a backing and found this fabric I picked up on sale and stashed away for future use. I think it works well with the quilt top. I didn't have quite enough so I had to add another green. I barely had enough of the other green which led me to adding some black and white also.

I quilted in the ditch  -  easy and fast.

 But then decided it needed some more so I went back with embroidery floss and did some large stitching down the middle of every other row.

I really like the effect - adding hours onto the completion of it but I enjoy the hand stitching part. I'm about to run out of black embroidery thread and am not going out today to buy more. It's 3 degrees outside...brrrrr.
Keep warm and keep quilting til next time
Judy

Happy New Year...sniffle...sniffle

Wish I had some pictures to post of my wonderful down time the week between New Years and Christmas...this is always a fun time for me. It's my birthday week and I give myself that week to do nothing but fun stuff -like working in my studio. Well, there's a box of tissues, some Vicks and nasal spray. I did have great plans to go like great guns and keep that machine humming the whole time.

 Mother Nature had other plans for me.

 This is a top I did for my daughter. She saw this in a quilt shop - made from a quilt kit and bought it. It was a bit confusing so I offered to put it together for he, it's a really cute, vintage looking piece. I planned on quilting it this week.

 And here's Audrey's I Spy quilt which she is sooo ready for. I started quilting it but didn't get very far before the sniffles began ...boooooo

 And this one from last years PTA retreat - finally ready to be quilted.

And this one from 2 years ago retreat almost ready to quilt.

I get very impatient when I am surrounded by all these wonderful projects so close to being finished and I can't do a thing about it. I know...patience should be on my New Years Resolution List.

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone, thanks for hanging in there with me and as always wishing you a wonderfully creative and healthy 2014.

Judy

"I Spy" is done

My new little "great-nephew" is almost 2 months old and I finally finished his quilt. I just put the finishing touches on the binding and label, my most unfavorite part - but it's DONE and ready to send off to its new home in Florida. It will be a while before Max can drag it around, find things on it and just have it be his "binky". I know he'll enjoy it; little ones love bright colors and "I Spy" things to find.
I held off quilting until after Max was born. I like to stitch the name in the quilting with little sayings like this one - Max is swell

or this one - "We love Max".

"Max is cute".

"Max is cool" is probably pushing it for a baby but I know he'll be very cool some day! I use very short descriptive words so they'll fit in the space and always hope for a short baby name - Max - now that's perfect. I also send a "list" of quilt phrases stitched in the quilt for mommies and daddies to find. It's called "Find the phrases" - 22 in this quilt and if they find them all, they get BIG kisses from Max!

Welcome to the World Max, and Until next time.