Alice's Flowers

I previously blogged about my friend Alice here when she asked for my help in creating a special hand-dye for her Wisconsin Wildflowers quilt.  I finally got to see the completed quilt and I think it's amazing. This is all hand-appliquéd and hand quilted.

If you look close (or click on the photo) you can see the purple and green stripe I dyed for the jack-in-the-pulpit block.

Hot Coffee Idea

I hate waste.  I hate using throwaway containers.  So these plastic portable coffee cups seemed like a fine idea.  But they get hot.  So I need a paper insulator.  Which gets (yep) thrown away.  DH is the worst offender (he drinks the most coffee).  So I made him one he could reuse. 

Using the paper insulator as a guide, I cut out fabric and Insul-Brite.

I left a quarter inch around the edges for shrinkage from quilting.  Fabric was right side out and Insul-Brite in the middle.  Just enough quilting to hold it together.  Then I trimmed off the excess. 

 Binding was two and a quarter inches folded in half, stitched around the edge and turned, then hand stitched down.  Although I suppose it could all be done by machine.  

I used iron-on velcro strips.  But I don't trust their glue, so I stitched around them with my machine.

And the finished project.  And, yes, I did throw away the paper one I used as a guide.  *sigh*

Ocean Cruise - the Beginning

I met with the Very Friendly Ladies in Monroe, Wisconsin and our project was this very traditional tessellating block quilt.


I took some of my Caribbean-colored hand-dyes and a couple of different whites for my blocks.







But it was still too traditional looking for my taste, so I got out my dye thickener and mixed up some dyes for painting.


I thought a couple of dolphins would be good.








And a sea turtle -- he's pretty yellow, I know.  But I think it will be ok after it's all put together and quilted. Although I might do a little painting over his shell with a green or brown.

And a toucan to watch over it all.  I used some really old thickener that I had out in the garage and didn't mix it quite thick enough, so there's some running  of the color.  The tree and the big red bump on the beak were the worst parts.  --Of course, I found the giant economy size bag of new thickener while I was putting away the supplies for this.

This is what it looks like on my design wall.


I think it will look good after I get some more of the tessellating blocks finished.  And maybe a little border around each of the dye-painted parts.


I'm linking up with Nina Marie at Off The Wall Friday.

Guess Where I Am

Two Quilts Juried Into Quilt Expo!

Two of my quilts have been selected for Quilt Expo in Madison, Wisconsin on September 5 through 7, 2013.





Both the pelican and a new one titled "Spectral Chroma" were chosen.

I am going to share just a detail shot of "Spectral Chroma" for now and will have more pictures -- yes, of the entire thing -- later.