This is the second attempt at this quilting project. The first was part of the tutorial I posted here previously. This one is working out, it's has much work to be done, stitching it all down, adding details, etc. I thought it was worth posting since this attempt is working out.
For the past few weeks this image has presented itself on a design board setting against the design wall in my living room, behind the front door. When the sun is at the right angle, or at night from the street light , the light floods through the window in my front door thus projecting this image onto the design board. It's a face!!! Don't know of who, but it's definitely a face. I covered up the window in the front door & the image went away, so I know where it comes from. It appeared a few days after Halloween! which made it very spooky! especially at night. It's just an odd event that I thought was interesting.
In the tutorial I posted last week, I had a project on the board in progress. The way I was doing it wasn't working, so I scraped that version only to begin another, using the same figure from the original idea. Sometime that happens, have to scrap the project as it is & start again. In short, don't expect to see a finished version of the project on the tutorial. It didn't work. IF, I get another version of the project completed to suit me, I'll post a picture then. It just won't be the same as the one on the tutorial.
Here are two art quilts I've recently completed , other than quilting. I began with art quilts, pictorials, I didn't know how to do anything else. I decided I like doing them better than traditional quilts. Th first is called " Floating in Chaos", the second is " Eyes on You" since the center resembles an eye. Enjoy. If you'd like me to do a tutorial on how I make these, let me know.
Here are a cupola of new quilt tops I recently finished.
The first is an adaptation of one I saw in a magazine ( about 72" square), the second is a turtle quilt that I also saw in an old quilt magazine. Is smaller than the original. The last photo is a detail shot of the turtle quilt top.
This quilt is my one patch challenge quilt. Actually I issued the challenge to my quilt guild last spring. The challenge quilts will be in the 2014 show in May. I chose triangles as my one shape. There are smaller triangles that make up the larger triangles in the quilt along with the green dot triangles.
The challenge is to use only one shape in the whole quilt. It can be any size, any color combo, but only one shape can be used throughout the quilt. it's going to be interesting to see he the group uses only a single shape to make their different quilts.
The annual show is usually held the Saturday after Mothers Day each May. It's held in my home town of Nicholasville, KY. which is just south of Lexington. one if you can, it's always fun.
This small quilt, crib sized but not crib colors, was put together, taken apart twice. I put it away for a few months but it kept calling to me every time I passed the box it was stored in. I dug it back out, laid it out on the design wall, being careful to match it correctly for the pattern, then one by one, I sewed the blocks into rows, matched up the rows correctly & put the whole thing together. It worked!! Now I know some of you may thing orange & lime green are garish colors to put together but actually they Re complementary colors is the really do work together.
Since my collection of quilts is outgrowing all the storage spaces I have, I'm making the quilt tops only, they take less room to store. I only quilt the tops if I need a finished quilt for something. That way I can still enjoy the design part of making quilts without all the bulk of all those finished, quilted quilts,
At this point I'm fairly well caught up in the projects I began sometime ago, now I have to find something to do with my time. Make more quilt tops??? :)
This is a quilt top, still in progress although in its last stages, that my daughter has worked on off & on for the past 3 years, began in 2010, it is all hand pieced and will probably be hand quilted as well. Don't know how long that's going to take. I commend her for sticking with this project for so long, I'd had given up long ago.
Its not traditional since there are both black & white in the background of the flowers, I guess that makes it a " modern" quilt , a different spin on the traditional. An effort well done.
This quilt top, which will probably remain unquilted, is called Crossroads. It is a pattern from an issue of The Quilt Life magazine of Alex Anderson & Ricky Tim's origin. If you'll look the edges of the circles don't exactly meet like they should have. There are so many curved seams that each block had to be stretched on cardboard to lay flat. Sometimes that didn't work either. The original in the magazine was 20, 16" blocks. Mine is only 9 blocks, mainly because of the difficulty involved. I just couldn't see putting myself through that torture any longer. My recommendations on this one-- if you don't like curved piecing, extra work & frustration when thing don't match up or lay flat or straight, stay away from this pattern. Although its pretty, it's not worth it -- to me at least-- to make it.
This is Jasper, he's 16 years old in cat years, aka 75 in human years. He's our eldest pat, including the dogs. He chose us as a kitten, he just showed up one day. We've lost 2 cats already this year to old age & paralysis. After that I cherish my time with this old man. Our other cats, 3 more, are 15 years & 12 years old. All strays, all male, the 2 lady cats were the ones we lost this year. I'm not ready to lose any more yet.
Tis is the back of the previous quilt top I posted. Most of the blocks came from a book on. Modern quilting called 99 blocks. There are only 2 repeat blocks in the whole thing. This back makes the little quilt reversible.
Tis quilt was not made for orphans or by orphans, it is made from orphan quilt blocks, those blocks made as samples, learning projects, etc. that don't go with anything else. Most quilters have some laying around somewhere. It's hot off the sewing machine so it's not yet quilted. It was a quick project.
Kiwi G Wiggles was a beloved Persian cat, solid black with amber colored eyes that was the perfect Halloween cat. We'd had her for 13 of her 14 years, she was a shelter rescue. She was playful, typical cat, although she only weighed 5 1/2 pounds, she was tiny but wiry & full of life. In the past few months her health declined. In the past two days her back end became paralyzed, she was incontinent and seemed to be in pain. Since she could no longer get around and was so sick with no hope of recovery, I made the decision to have her put to sleep yesterday. It was an act of mercy, she wasn't getting any better & she was suffering, it was the humane thing to do. This is the second cat who's died this year,the first was Missy, who was 18 years old & passed away Derby eve, May 3 of this year. They are buried beside each other in our yard, both graves are marked & will be covered with flowers .
Here is a photo of Wiggles, she really does have a face even though it's not visible. Her face is smushed in like all Persian cats have. RIP little Wiggles.
Here are two similar yet different table runners I just finished. Both are in a modern style. One is more heavily quilted than the other, same colors, similar layouts. The back on one is plain while the other has a similar design to the front.
This is my first effort into modern style quilting. I call it " City Racing" because it reminds me both of the city with its angles & straight lines, and racing colors of both bicycle or horse racing colors. Included are photos of both the front & the back since the back also has a simple design on it. I'm taking a class in Modern Quilting to learn more about the aesthetic . I've done a couple of table runners & this little quilt which is a challenge quilt that will travel for a year in a Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society show in 2014. I seemed to all come together to meet that challenges requirements, so why not. I currently have a quilt in this years challenge traveling show. It's the first quilt I've ever had in a show outside of the annual show my quilt guild holds each May.
Enjoy.
I've burned out on just quilting. So I'm implementing the "strokes" part of this blog & starting an art journal. My sketches, doodles & such will be all in one place instead of scattered everywhere. Here is the first page. Bear with me since I'm just beginning & still in the learning stages
On a side note the baby of a good friend must have brain surgery to correct a malformed skull tomorrow. I will be at the hospital most of the day and a good part of the week with them. Keep the child, he's 13 months old, in your prayers if you would & wish us luck. This kid's had a hard start to life already, this surgery is one on a long road to recovery. More later.
I'm taking a break from quilting since I'm bordering on burnout there. I'm looking into vegan/ vegetarian cooking. I'm not much if a meat eater anyway, so the shift might be easy. The other members if my family are meat & potatoes people, so I'll be making the change alone. I found a couple of recipe apps that resize servings for one person instead of 4 to 8 , servings that I'd have to freeze or throw out before I could use them all. I made a trip to the local natural foods store to get some of the stuff I couldn't find at the regular grocery store. Did I mention that natural, organic foods are more expensive than regular food? I don't think it's fair to charge more for that word " organic" or " natural" since it's just food anyway. We usually raise a small veggie garden & can the produce from it, that's natural & it doesn't cost any more. I don't understand it, it's not fair to the consumer who's trying to eat better. IMO.
I also have software on order called Master Cook, that's a recipe program that's really good & allows for resizing of recipes, it has nutritional analysis, shopping lists & such. I have an older version that won't load onto my current compute, not compatible I guess. I can use the new version anyway, it's more updated & will work on my laptop.
So I'll send the summer gardening & cooking separate meals for myself.& my family. Maybe I'll lose some weight , I need to do that. Maybe I'll begin to feel better, some of the aches & pains will disappear. That would be nice. At least I'll put my nutrition degree to work, I earned that PhD the hard way,mi might as well use it.
Stay tuned for progress or lack there of through the summer.
Unless one has personally been in a tornado or in a school when a disaster happened at that school, you can't understand what the people in Moore Ok are going through. I have been there, in 1995, in a big high school when it got hit by a small tornado. I worked in the special needs room at that school, my kids were students then & my husband also worked there at the time. The chaos at the time & the urgency is unimaginable , then there's all that follows, the media, parents, the rebuild, the fear factor for storms following, even weeks later, weighs on everyone involved.
After that I became a storm spotter, I was already an EMT at the time, it I wanted to know the signs of severe weather long before it got to me. I also volunteered with the local red cross at the time. Long story, short, you can't fully understand what victims are going though. I understand, fully. Everyone there is doing ALL they can. Let the search teams work, they know what they're doing. If y want to help, if you're in the area, volunteer at a shelter, in any capacity. If you're out of the area & want to help, support your local disaster response services, Red Cross, Salvation Army & the like.
There are many, many groups who make things & send them to these organizations. If nothing else, give an extra quilt, handmade toy, pillowcase, whatever to your local fire or police departments to have on hand when disaster, of any kind, strikes .
Enough said.
Friday night my elder cat, Missy, passed away from kidney failure. She was 18 years old, 83 in human years. We had her for 17 of those 18 years. She was a very sweet cat, and will be missed greatly. Our other 5 cats feel the loss too, they are hanging close to me & looking for Missy. I made a small memorial quilt with the two photos I had if her. It hangs in my studio by the door. It will take me several weeks to get past the loss but I will move on but never forget her.
Here's a few designs I'm working on. Don't know exactly where it will wind up. Still deciding on colors to go with the main design.
I surprised myself by actually making this quilt top & actually having it turn out correct. It's 48" square. It was something to do on a rainy, stormy day. Pics of the clouds at my house are below the pic of the quilt top. I might, just maybe, will make another quilt top of the same block but in a completely different design by manipulating the fabrics in a different setting. IF that works out, I'll post pics of it too.
I'm watching the weather closely today since we're in the area for severe weather, had some huge storms last night with loud thunder, bright lightning & hail. The hail alerted me since it usually hails before a tornado, it this time there were no tornadoes, just hail. If there's no tornadoes I can live with a little hail. Stay tuned. . .
A few weeks ago I submitted a challenge to my quilt guild. It said to use only one shape to make an entire quilt and use at least 3 colors, to be ready for next years quilt show. This years show is May 18, 2013. Since this was my idea I felt I should adhere to the requirements and make at least one quilt of this nature. So here it is.
The single shape is a triangle , in greens, blues, and raspberry. I had to take the border apart and re do it a couple of times. don't know if I'll try another " one patch" quilt again, but here's my first effort.
Lots of quilters as well as others who sew make things for charity. We donate the things we make to hospitals, homeless shelters, emergency response departments ( more about that later), any place that will take what we offer. I've made baby quilts by the dozen, lap quilts and such to these places. A couple of years ago I ran upon the million pillowcase challenge on the website, All People Quilt. The idea was originally to support kids in homeless shelters, to give them something of their own to carry their stuff from place to place. This original premise also works for emergency response departments, local agencies who serve in natural disasters and such. Consider this situation: you've just lost everything in a house fire, flood, tornado, etc. .You visit the Red Cross who provides vouchers for clothes, and the like. Where do you put the things you are given? Some one one hands you a brand new pillow case. Suddenly you have something to stuff the clothes you're given, or a blanket, of whatever, into it to make yourself a pillow as well as a vessel to carry this stuff in. Hence the idea to give pillow cases to emergency response agencies.
Pillow cases, unlike a quilt of any size, take about 30 minutes to an hour to make, & take less space to store. They only require about a yard of fabric ( I make the cuff on the bottom from a different fabric from the body). I've sent them to tornado ravaged areas where shelters are desperate for anything to give to victims. I always include a note on uses for the pillow cases. I've gotten good responses from my efforts.
As I write this, the TV spouting tornado warnings for eastern Ky, east of the Lexington area. I made a couple of pillow cases today. It never hurts to have them on hand when any kind of disaster happens.
You can find the patterns for the pillow cases on the All People Quilt website under the million pillow case challenge. It's ongoing for the past couple of years. Check it it, it's s small way you can help if you choose to.
Recently I got People & Portraits by Martha Sielman. This gorgeous book is a mouth watering collection of art quilts by various quilt artists, ( these people can't just be called quilters). There are 21 featured artists, each with information about their process, inspirations, and much more. The book also includes 7 galleries of more gorgeous quilts in 7 categories. The book is loaded with colorful eye candy in all styles from the quilt artists. It'd be a great addition to any quilters or anyone who enjoys quilts, collection. Just flip through the pages and let your mouth water.
Here's the New York Beauty table topper, still to be quilted, but it's done, the whole thing is made from scraps. I'd hoped to reduce my scrap bag with this project, however, the scrap bag just got bigger instead of getting smaller. Oh well. I used the sheer, non fusible interfacing for the foundation on this instead of paper or muslin. I ll like it because it can be left in the piece ( you have to take out paper) without adding extra weight of muslin. It nearly too pretty to be on my kitchen table but that's its intended home.
Never one to be idle for very long, I'm planning a one patch project that goes from darks to light then back to dark. Have to wait to see how, or if, it turns out like I think it will. Often, what I see in my mind and what the actual project turns out to be is completely different. Stay tuned on that one,
