A Creative K

Design Wall Twofer

2012-01-16T10:08:00.000-06:00

Long time readers might remember that I participate in a BOM every year at Mill House Quilts in Waunakee, Wisconsin (motto: it's the only Waunakee in the world). This year, even though I am working full time and can't really go to the meetings, I'm doing blocks from the book pictured at the left below along with the rest of the group.

I love the blocks in this book, but I don't really do taupe. I do brights. So I'm taking my cue from the book pictured above on the right. I love the stark contrasts in the blocks. But I'm doing mine in color. So in the photo of my design wall at the top of this post, the three blocks on top are done in spa blues and browns (which I've been collecting for some time -- although I don't really know why) and the bottom blocks are done in color to satisfy my primal need for color. After I made the top blocks, I couldn't figure out what to pair the colors with to give the blocks some consistency. But while I was wandering through my stash, I looked at the pile of black and white fabrics (okay -- I'll fess up: there were two piles) and thought: "Yes! Black and white will set off the colors and make the blocks go together!" And the blocks are pretty complex -- so after I figure out one, I may as well do another.

Yesterday, my design wall looked like this. I'm working my way through Rayna Gilman's book (pictured at left) along with my fellow artists (and Rayna!) on the blog "...And Then We Set It On Fire." I hope to start cutting up the strip sets and adding color soon. While I admire those who can work in neutral tones and I think that the Japanese taupe quilts are outstanding in their beauty, I just don't fly that way. And it's all about having fun, isn't it?

To see other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

A Finish and Some New Stuff

2012-01-09T06:23:00.000-06:00

My design wall has some new stuff today. I had a productive weekend. There's a new post at "...And Then We Set it on Fire." And I started a new bag and the blocks for the 2012 BOM. ---I'll have more about that 2012 BOM later.

And for those who are keeping track -- I finished sewing together the baby quilt. Now I just have to find the time to quilt it.

To check out more design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Progress on the Design Wall

2012-01-02T07:28:00.000-06:00

Yep -- I finally finished sewing the strips together. Now I just have to stitch them to the blocks, sew those together, then quilt the whole thing. Phew -- I'm exhausted just writing about it.

To see other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Happy New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T16:11:00.000-06:00

I know -- I've been absent for a while. And I apologize for not letting my readers know that I would be absent. Trouble is, I didn't know I was going to be absent. I've been working so many hours, all I do at the end of the day is collapse. And that's pretty boring. Soooo.... actually, it's been a service. Yeah, that's it! A service! I've done a service not posting about my boring life.

So while I was working my tushie off, my darling daughter, along with her friend, made this lovely gingerbread house. It's really sweet, isn't it?

Literally. But I think it's pretty cool too. I like the frosting curly-ques on the front. And the marshmallow shingles are pretty wonderful. But I think the hard candy awnings over the windows and the door take the cake. Or make the cake. Whatever....

I have been in my studio -- I made this gown for her dollie to wear. So just so you all know that I know how to dress up for the holidays, I'm posting this picture.

She's holding the tiny sparkly bag I made from plastic fabric

And wearing the tiny slippers also.

Happy New Year to all -- I'm wishing everyone a creative and prosperous new year.

A Little Progress

2011-12-05T06:15:00.000-06:00

...very little.

I managed to stitch the strips together in pairs, then just a few together to see what they will look like. I was going to do some sashing with more little squares, but I think it will be just fine without.

A lot of people asked what this fabric was -- it's "just hanging" by Alexander Henry. It's new -- I got it at my LQS last month (they had already sold most of the bolt last week when I stopped in). But I'm sure it must be available somewhere out there.

To see other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Sparkly Fairy Slippers

2011-12-04T15:40:00.000-06:00

I made these sparkly fairy slippers for my daughter's doll. They will match the dress I'm going to make.

For the scoop on how I made them, click here to go to my post at http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com/

A New Project

2011-11-28T06:37:00.000-06:00

The post-Thanksgiving design wall has a new project! After finishing the top in the previous post, I felt I deserved a reward, so I cut up this wonderful fabric for another baby quilt.

And all these strips. Hopefully, I'll be sewing them together this week.

To check out some other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

AQS Blog of the Week!

2011-11-26T14:36:00.001-06:00

I'm a little late posting this, but last week this blog was the AQS Blog of the Week winner and I got this nifty logo to add to my blog!

In other news, I finished the Dancing Stars baby quilt top.

So now I have to find time to quilt it. Hopefully before the baby starts walking. Or finishes college...

I hope all who celebrate Thanksgiving this weekend had a wonderful holiday and all those who don't had a good weekend anyway. We spent ours with some great friends and I have this lovely photo to share, courtesy of my friend, Kristina.

I just love a holiday that celebrates with food.

Stars and Stuff

2011-11-21T06:14:00.000-06:00

My design wall hasn't changed much since last week because I haven't had time to sew together the stars (although I do like the arrangement). I was hoping to have the borders finished, but last week just flew past and then the weekend evaporated.

It does sport some pretty fabrics on the sides of the stars -- they are the result of playing around with transperse dyes. You can read all about it in my post here at ...And Then We Set it on Fire.

To check out more design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Dancing Stars

2011-11-14T06:38:00.000-06:00

Today's design wall is full of dancing stars.

They're eight inch blocks that will be a baby quilt ---soon, I hope.

And those stars in exile on the upper right? They're over there because I cut them wrong and they're out of step. Marching to the wrong tune.

To check out other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

It's Coming Along

2011-11-07T07:36:00.000-06:00

My design wall has almost an entire quilt on it! I finished with the *&#$@!!! sashing. What a pain -- bias edges and I had to be careful to get the colors in the right places.

Still not sure about the block placement. I think it's because I don't like all the blocks. There are at least two, and maybe even three, that I really don't like anymore. But I'm going to leave them in there.

I worked up a couple more feathered stars in EQ7. I think Beth is right and they are maybe too much for this quilt.

But I could get rid of at least one of the blocks that I'm not liking. Of course, I have to make the feathered stars out of fabric first...

To see other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

November BOM Report

2011-11-06T09:34:00.000-06:00

Last week, my 2011 BOM group met and showed these blocks. The ones on the right are last month's and the one on the left is this month. I did not do this block because I've been working on the sashing for this quilt -- I'll have a photo of the progress on that on the Monday Design Wall post.

This beauty was shown last month, but I didn't have permission to post it. Ellyn kindly gave me permission when I remembered to ask. She shrunk the blocks from 12 inches to nine inches -- a math feat that boggles the mind for some of these blocks. And she added just a wee bit of red in each block. The log cabin setting blocks were her own invention. I especially like the little grey squares she added in the border.

I have a little dilemma... I need one more block for mine. Should I do a "54 45 or Fight?" I've always wanted to do one of these blocks.

Or should I do a feathered star? I love this block and I just can't imagine doing a sampler quilt without at least one. Or do both and put one on the back... Hmmmmm...

♪♫Two Swans A'Swimming

2011-11-04T10:49:00.000-05:00

♪♫ One marbled fabric, and a colorful-ul bag of beads ♪♫♪

These lovelies are from my Sparkly Chicken friend, Jacqui. She made the swans for me for a "receiver's choice swap" that we're doing and included the lovely piece of hand-marbled fabric and the beads. I think they're great!

And I have a mystery: What do this,

this,

and this have in common? Bwahahaha!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T16:23:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share the scary pumpkins that my DD and I carved.

Before carving, this little white one looked like, um, well, I will leave that to your imagination. But it made me smile every time I looked at it. I think it looks like a cat face now. I'm trying to decide if I should add some whiskers or leave it a little abstract.

DD carved this one. I like the curly top -- it seems a little incongruous with the scary face.

And I saw this last weekend. I loved all the perfectly round rolls of hay scattered across the field. This is the true harbinger of winter for me. Sigh.

Design Wall Progress

2011-10-31T07:27:00.000-05:00

I have moved all the extraneous stuff off the design wall and begun the task of sashing. I still need to make one more block -- but I really wanted to play around with the setting.

Those small NY Beauty blocks are going to go in the corners -- but I think they're flipped around. I'll play around more with those when I get closer to sewing the whole thing together.

Here is a close up of a couple of the sashing blocks. I reserve the right to rearrange the large blocks. In fact, I can see right now that at least a couple of them need to be moved around.

To see other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

HodgePodge Design Wall

2011-10-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

My design wall today has a plethora of past and future projects. The blocks for my 2011 BOM line the left side, ostriches are on the right, with the leftovers from my bag and the itty bitty "Buck A Block" blocks in the center.

A closer look at the stuff in the middle. I really like those leftover dot patches -- maybe I should sew them together for a new Nook bag to match the fall bag. Then I will be totally sartorially splendid!

And the finished sample ereader pattern bag. I still have to join the photos with the words, then I'll be ready to send the pattern to my testers.

To take a look at other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Polka Dots Are "In"!

2011-10-21T09:58:00.000-05:00

I read it somewhere, so it must be true! I made myself a new fall bag with these wonderful fabrics.I used my current favorite pattern, the Margo bag by Lazy Girl Designs. I made it in a mini version -- it's only nine by twelve inches. This time I made the straps the same size as the full size bag and I'm really happy with that decision.
I used o-rings instead of d-rings for the straps so they would go with the dot theme and I used the stripe that is part of this fabric line for the piping around the front pockets.

For the inside pockets, I used another fabric from the same line -- my daughter calls it "lightning fabric." So now I am sartorially au courant (something that really keeps me up nights worrying.)

Turkeys and Ostriches, Oh My!

2011-10-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

I found this cute turkey made from a leaf block (here). I didn't have her pattern for the leaf, so I made my own. I did use the templates for the turkey -- it's sized for a larger block (eight inches instead of the seven incher that I used.)

Here is the whole table runner -- mine's a little smaller than the pattern because I sliced off a little bit on each end to make it fit the piece of fabric I wanted to use for the back.

I couldn't find the right fabric for the background, so I dyed my own. First, I dyed a yard with diluted blue and brown. Then, I stenciled the leaves with thickened purple and greyish-brown dyes.

I quilted it with stylized leaves.

And because Beth will ask, here is the backside.

I finished the ostrich block for the Civil War Bride quilt.

I used all my own hand-dyes for this except for the centers of the flowers. The ostrich bodies are from a shibori-dye I did a while ago -- it's been marinating on my shelf -- waiting for just the right project!

The flower centers are made from my friend Chris Daly's wonderful hand-dyed silk/rayon velvet. You can get your own here at her etsy shop. I'm using the "flora collection." I think I need to get some of the "brights" now too. These were really easy to work with -- I cut a template of no-melt template plastic and did a running stitch around the seam allowance of the circle. Then I pulled it up tight and basted it with sizing. Hit it with a warm (silk setting) iron and it was ready to go. Easy-peasy! I'm trying to decide where to use this stuff next!

And here is a shot of the next block. I have a way to go...

To see other appliqué projects, click here to go to Angie's blog.

October Bounty

2011-10-17T11:20:00.001-05:00

My design wall has those BOM2011 blocks on the side, but I've put up the stuff from the "Buck-A-Block" deal that my one of my LQSs has. The yellow/white ones are from last month and the orange strip is this month's.
The blocks are made using "Thangles" and the LQS owner made hers in mini-size. We are duplicating it in EQ7 and I'm duplicating it for real. I just couldn't resist those bitty blocks. They're 2 3/4 inches, so they will finish at 2 1/4. So cute! To see other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

This mess on my cutting table is the audition for the next block in my Civil War Bride Quilt. I've almost finished the ostriches -- there was a lot of football this weekend (Go Badgers!). I'm thinking I'm going to use the dark green for the background even though there are a lot of leaves and stems in the design; I'll use the lighter greens for the appliqué.

And these beauties are my haul from the farmer's market this weekend. I found my all-time favorite squash, some gorgeous cippolini onions, and this lovely Romanesco broccoli. We sampled the Romanesco Saturday for dinner ( I drizzled it with EVOO and roasted the florets in the oven until they were browned, then a little Kosher salt and lemon juice to finish -- OMGosh! -- delicious!) We had a couple of the delicata squash for dinner last night.

Beautiful Outdoors Today

2011-10-10T14:34:00.000-05:00

It's much too gorgeous outside to be working in my basement studio. Besides, my design wall hasn't changed since last week. So I thought I'd share some photos of beautiful Wisconsin.

This is my favorite maple. It lives in my backyard. You can just see the top of the kids' play structure in the bottom of the photo.

This is the neighbor's maple. I was struck by the juxtaposition of red and light green on the same branch.

And my tomatoes are finally ripening! This has been a terrible year in my garden. I got only a handful of cherry tomatoes and the plum tomatoes have lots of green, but very few red tomatoes. Hopefully, they'll ripen before it gets cold next week.

My neighborhood has lots of locust trees -- they drop their tiny golden leaves over the course of two or three days every year. The street is resplendent with them.

I did play around with some lutradur --outside, of course. Click here to read all about it.

To see design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

October BOM

2011-10-08T09:10:00.000-05:00

This month the BOM block was the barrister's block. Above are all the blocks from the group.

On the left is my block at home with its friends. I didn't have enough left of the feature fabric to cut four large triangles, so I cut two of each. The dark blue background looks a little bit purple on my monitor, but it's really dark blue. The lime green is a hand-dye (my own) and the orange triangles are commercial fabric.

Wendy Butler Berns Classes on Craftsy

2011-10-07T13:39:00.000-05:00

My friend and colleague, Wendy Butler Berns, contacted me and asked me to review her new machine quilting course on Crafsy.com. Wendy (whose website is here) successfully blurs the line between art and traditional quilting with her fabulous quilts. As a fellow member of Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists, I look forward to her "show and tell" and have personally benefited from her knowledge and teaching skills -- Wendy is wonderfully helpful and full of great advice.

I viewed the course and found it fun and interesting. It's full of great tips and tricks and Wendy's personality sparkles throughout.

For a limited time, this course is available to readers of my blog at a special price. Click (here) to link to Craftsy.com to take Wendy's machine quilting course at a special discount.

Cutting Table Action

2011-10-03T07:27:00.000-05:00

My design wall is pretty boring today -- all the action is on my cutting table. There is a layered fat quarter awaiting quilting so that it can become the model for my ereader bag pattern, a pattern for a Thanksgiving table runner, and some Tyvek which is awaiting its turn to be part of my latest evil experiments...bwahahaha!

There is an initial post about the Tyvek here at http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com/.

And for those who were kind enough to offer advice for last week's post, here are shots of the finished bag. I took Beth's advice and did a tiny bit of lime green piping on the pocket binding. And I used the fabric for the pocket that most of you liked. I used my favorite for the lining. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out -- thanks for such good advice!

Um, yes, I know that the strap is missing. I left it off because I usually carry it in my bag, not over my shoulder. But when I took it into my LQS to show it off, they LOVED the strap. So it will be included in the pattern.

For more design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Watercolor Workshop

2011-09-30T10:39:00.001-05:00

A woman with whom I am friendly from my BOM club really liked the watercolor crayon stuff I was doing and asked me to do a workshop with her.

So I packed up my brushes, textile mediums, and texture plates and went over to her house for a fun morning.

She had a couple of embroidery machines and uses them a lot for quilting. She made up a bunch of samples with neutral threads on neutral backgrounds and we got out the crayons and played.

The texture plates were the most fun. We put the fabric over the plates and rubbed the crayons on the fabric.

Then we brushed on the the textile medium -- we used my GAC 900 by Golden.

She made up a bunch of embroideries and her 13-year-old granddaughter had fun coloring.

I really like the colors she chose.

I think my favorite is this sailboat.

But the butterfly is pretty neat too.

Appliqué Update Thursday

2011-09-29T13:54:00.000-05:00

All that football last weekend enabled me to finish the first block of my Civil War Bride Quilt. (Go Pack!)

A couple of the leaves on the edges aren't stitched down because they will overlap the next block after I get them all sewn together (grin).

Although, I might not be finished with this because I'm thinking that the flowers really need some embroidered stamens....

And I made some pretty good progress on the ostriches -- one is finished and the other is almost finished. This block is going a lot quicker than the first one did.

To check out other appliquérs, click here for Angie's blog.

Finished Thousand Words Piece(s)!

2011-09-28T13:26:00.001-05:00

"Belle Grove I"

17" by 20 ½"

"Belle Grove II"

17" by 20 ½"

Detail from "Belle Grove I"

Detail from "Belle Grove II"

Both of these were inspired by the photography of Walker Evans. Members of Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists were invited to create art to hang in the venue where the play, "A Thousand Words" by Gwendolyn Rice (more about it is here) will be produced. It will run January 19 through February 5, 2012 in Madison, Wisconsin at the Overture Center (here), and at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre (here) from February 16 through March 11, 2012. The artwork is for Madison only, I believe.

Both are made from my hand-dyed cottons. After I made "Belle Grove I" from a lightly dyed piece of cotton sateen, I was hungry for color. So I drew up a pattern and did "Belle Grove II" in colorful hand-dyes -- it is all pieced, where "Belle Grove I" is wholecloth with thread and ink. I used wool batting so that it would poof where it was lightly quilted.

I may have more information about where and when the artwork will be displayed -- I will post that info as it becomes available.

Just Can't Decide...

2011-09-26T08:53:00.000-05:00

My design wall has a project I can't show right now, so I'm soliciting assistance on this project. I've been working on it for weeks and I just can't decide.

It's not that important, but I love the Tula Pink Prince Charming fabric so much and I want to use this bag for my very own.

Toward the left of the photo are the outside pieces of the bag and on the right are two possibilities for the front pocket. That's the strap lying across the bottom of the photo.

This is choice number 1 for the front pocket. This is from the same line of fabric as the outside of the bag. But I think it's maybe too bold for the front pocket.

Choice number two -- it's from a different line of fabric. I like the buggy look to this. And frogs and bugs go together so well.

Choice number three -- this is more of the Prince Charming line. I'm not crazy about this fabric by itself, but it's a nice backgroundy kind of print.

And choice number four. This is from the same line, but a different colorway. I love the raindrops, but I think the scale is all wrong for a small pocket on the front of the bag. And the colors are too soft -- I would like to bind it with some dark teal.

For more design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Half Square Triangles in Progress

2011-09-19T08:13:00.000-05:00

I started some half square triangles for the next block in my 2011 BOM. I've placed them on the wall at the approximate spots where they'll need to be.

They're two inches each -- they'll finish at one and a half.

I counted wrong and made eight of each color, but I need 12 of each. So I'll have to make a few more.

Then I have to figure out where I can cut the large half square triangles for the larger part of the block. It's looking a little "holey" I know, but it hasn't yet achieved the state of highest "holeyness."

I think I can get four identical pieces featuring the flower on the edge of the (missing) sun.

For more design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

A New Journal Quilt, a New Toy, and Some News

2011-09-15T19:36:00.000-05:00

"Morning Sentry"

9" by 12"

I haven't done a journal quilt in a while -- I've been too busy doing real quilts (and a whole lot of other stuff). I used the color palette (here) from Three Creative Studios for last month. The stars are cute little three (3!) inchers that I made with my new toy.

I don't buy a lot of gadgets. Not that I don't want to be a gadget girl, but I am not rich and famous (it's hard to believe, I know), and therefore have a limited budget for fun things. Which makes it easy to talk myself out of rulers and things that aren't fabric. I tend to think of costs in terms of fabric and thread; as in: hmmm.... that's equal to how many spools of thread (or yards of fabric). And then I decide that I don't really need said gadget.

But this one was different. It makes Lemoyne stars and the stars are still diamonds! And the edges are all on the straight grain! And because I'm a smarty pants, I had to test it out with wee little stars! And it works! I'll have more on this in the next few months, I'm sure. Here is a link to the company: http://www.studio180design.net.

The news is that I have been invited to join the creative minds at the technique blog "...And Then We Set it on Fire." Also, there is a link on the right side of this blog. I did some guest blogging there a while back -- I put up my first post over there as a member today. I'm "up" next month and I'm still mulling over my technique....

The technique for the bird is here. I ironed fusible to the back, ironed it on the pieced stars, then covered it with thread. To check out some more appliqué, go to Angie's blog here.

Tiny Lemoyne Stars

2011-09-12T12:46:00.002-05:00

Today my design wall sports the blocks for my 2011 BOM group around the edges and two new tiny Lemoyne stars.

I have a lot of news, but I'm frantically busy right now. I'll have a post 'splainin' it all in the next day or two.

To see some other design walls, click here for Judy's blog.

A Bag for my LQS

2011-09-07T16:25:00.001-05:00

I finished this Margo bag by Lazy Girl Designs for Stitcher's Crossing.

This bag will be on display in the Stitcher's Crossing booth at Quilt Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, September 8 - 10. They will have the pattern available for purchase.

I used some ribbon from my stash to make the zipper pull.

I think the rust-colored zipper looks great with these fabrics.

Here is a closeup of the inside -- I used the stripe fabric with the stripes going up and down for the front of the bag -- where it's visible behind the leaf print -- and going across for the front inside lining.

The green with the purple and orange plaid is a nice surprise for the inside pockets.

Curses! Foiled Again!

2011-09-05T09:09:00.000-05:00

Last week on my design wall, there was this piece of fabric that I had to do something to. But I wasn't sure exactly what to do to it.

I finally decided to do some more foiling. Yep -- foiled again! But no cursing.

Because it had already been foiled with glue, I used black Mistyfuse shapes and scattered them around the piece. I really like the black Mistyfuse on the black background. I had to be careful not to hit the previous foiling with my iron and I also made sure I worked around it with the fusible web.

I pressed the pieces of Mistyfuse, then added the foil on top. I really like the way the foil isn't a solid blob -- it has the pattern from the fusible because the foil sticks only to the glue in the fusible web.

This is the final finished piece. It was dyed, then waxed and over-dyed, then foiled twice.

This is my final art cloth. It started out as a snow-dyed madala, looking something like the piece on the left. I know I took a photo of it before I sent it on its journey, but I can't find it. Fortunately, I had two that were almost alike.

Beth from Maine was the first to get it. She used something called "fugitive media." Basically, it means that she used things that normally aren't permanent on fabric -- chalk pastels and water soluble oil pastels in this case -- then she painted them with base extender and heat set. There is a much more eloquent explanation of fugitive media here at "...And Then We Set it on Fire."

Then Laura painted it with red Setacolor paint and sun-printed it using round shapes, foam cut outs and gravel from her driveway as resists.

Here is a detail showing the paint and the final foiling that Jenny did. She followed the starburst design that happened during the original dyeing. It's a pretty amazing piece. I'm enjoying having it up on my design wall.

For other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

BOM Stars for September

2011-09-02T07:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the meeting for my 2011 BOM group. This month we did the Lucky Star -- which I didn't do.

And the Morning Star. Which I did do. That's mine at the lower right. This was a paper pieced block. I fussy cut the center pieces with templates.

The trouble is, I didn't allow for the fact that paper piecing is done backwards. So when I cut out my little pieces, they were going the wrong way. And then I had to paper piece it from the wrong side. Sheesh!

So my star spins in a different direction than the others (It's a lot like me, I suppose).

The little one in the group picture also spins backward, but I think that's because she did hers in EQ7 so that she could print it out in the smaller size. I don't know how she got it reversed though. Maybe she just liked it better that way.

Also yesterday, I packed up my "Pieceful Tigers" and the pelican quilt and shipped them off for the AQS show in Des Moines. The tiger quilt is here and the pelican quilt is here.

Oh -- and it wasn't the Saints playing the Packers last night -- that's the season opener next week. Last night, they ~~beat~~ played the Chiefs.

Appliqué Update for Sept.1

2011-09-01T15:17:00.000-05:00

I've mostly finished my first block of the Civil War Bride Quilt. I have finished all those (darned) leaves and all the flowers. I have a couple of buds and the centers of the flowers to finish.

I used a washer and did a running stitch around the edge of the circle, drew it up, hit it with some sizing, then ironed to make the circles. But they're not quite round. And the little pleats are unsightly. So I'm going to have to redo them. Any suggestions are certainly welcome...

And just in time for tonight's football extravaganza -- I got the pieces ready for the next block. Those are ostriches! This was my favorite block on the quilt that first made me fall in love with this pattern. I waited to do it because I wanted to practice on those (darned) leaves before I attempted the complicated ostriches.

So tonight my two favorite football teams are both playing. At the same time. Oh woe is me -- which do I watch? I think my TV has picture-in-picture, but that seems unnecessarily confusing. So do I watch the Badgers in their season opener? Or do I watch the Packers play the Saints in the final preseason game? Or switch back and forth and miss all the best stuff?

For a look at some other appliqué, check out Angie's blog here.

Final Summer Design Wall

2011-08-29T11:03:00.000-05:00

My kids go back to school this week! So now I have no excuses for not getting anything done. Well, except for all those school, musical, and sporting events.

First up, on my design wall is my final Round Robin Surface Design Swap piece. I have to figure out what to do to this. It's been dyed, waxed, over-dyed, and foiled. Darn... I was going to foil it. I am trying to decided what to do next. Paint? More foil? Discharge? It's hard to do anything that won't disturb the foiling that's already on there. Hmmmm.....stay tuned......

And this mess is the result of a week's work on my ereader pattern. Last week (sadly, my last post), was a big whine about cutting before quilting. I got it right this time. Quilt, then cut. I'm currently auditioning fabrics for the front pocket. There is a finished bag in the upper right corner of the photo.

For more design wall fun, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Mistakes and Blanks

2011-08-22T09:25:00.000-05:00

My design wall is blank today. I took down the stuff I was working on so I could work on my cutting table.

I cut out this for the latest thing I'm working on and realized that I shouldn't have cut it out yet.

I'm working with this and I'm angry with myself because now I've wasted this big hunk of this wonderful fabric. Of course, it's not really wasted, I'll use it for something else. But it still irks me.

I'm also using these fabrics for this project.

At Judy's blog, here, there are other postings of design walls. Hopefully there are more successful projects than I have going on this Monday.

Appliqué Update Thursday

2011-08-18T13:13:00.001-05:00

I've been working on all sorts of appliqué stuff lately. This block is part of a "receiver's choice" block swap and the recipient of this block wanted botanicals. I took a picture of one of my daylilies and played around with it in PhotoShop until I was satisfied. Then I printed it out and used it to make this fused, machine-stitched version with some of my hand-dyed fabric. I hand embroidered the filiments and used a strand of fuzzy thread with a strand of regular thread to make the stamens.

I had a tough time with this one -- the receiver wanted "sweets" and I immediately thought, "chocolate!" But I couldn't figure out how to make a 9 inch block with the little candies on the fabric. Then someone (probably me) mentioned "wine" and the idea took off. This is a bottle of sweet wine along with the chocolates.

And in return, I received this adorable owl.

And this delightful turtle. I love the fabrics in both of these blocks!

And there is progress on the CWBQ block. I thought I would have had all the leaves sewn by now, but there are still a few that need to be stitched down. I have saved the flowers for after the leaves as a sort of reward for finishing all those leaves!

To see other appliqué projects click here for Angie's blog.

Pets on Quilts Show 2011

2011-08-17T21:09:00.001-05:00

SewCalGal is hosting another online Pets on Quilts Show with lots of fun prizes. My kids and pets begged me to enter because it was so much fun last year seeing our wonderful pets and everybody else's online. Click here or on the button at top of this post to see all the other entries.

Viewers can vote for their favorite entries in several categories on Saturday and Sunday, August 20 and 21. We would love to receive votes in the "Dog Theme," "other pet theme" and, of course, "art quilt theme." I'll post a reminder on Saturday and I'll probably get up on my soapbox and talk about the puppy mill legislation here in Wisconsin.

First up is Rosie, posed on a quilt I made a couple of years ago. This was the first large quilt I quilted all by myself and when it was finished, I felt like a confident machine quilter.

This was an art quilt I made featuring Rosie on on our front porch. It was supposed to be the first in a series of "View From the Front Porch:Summer." But I never made anymore in the series. I suppose I may sometime. It's only 12" by 12" but packed with stuff.

This is "Repeat," the leopard gecko and her dinner. I 'splained all about her here. This is another little quilt -- only 8 by 12 inches. You can read all about this quilt here.

And, sadly, Rex, who was such a big part of my entry in the show last year, passed on to that big exercise wheel in the sky this past spring. We miss him and his shiny black eyes and his whirring whiskers. My daughter wants to acquire a new inhabitant for his cage, but I'm enjoying the quiet...

Halloween Cat Quilt Top is Finished

2011-08-15T08:46:00.000-05:00

I finished sewing together the top and now it's on the Waiting-to-be-Quilted pile.

What's on your design wall? To see some others click here to go to Judy's blog.

August BOM

2011-08-10T20:07:00.000-05:00

Last week I was bad and didn't post about the August BOM meeting. I got about half way to the shop and realized that I had forgotten to bring my camera. So I had to use my phone to take a picture. Then I had to figure out how to get it from my phone to my computer. It's a pretty crummy picture, but the other one was worse. I promise to remember to bring my camera from now on!

Not many people made this block. The main comment seemed to be: "it was hard." And it was a bit troublesome.

I made a couple of them for the Sylvia's bridal quilt -- they're the little six-inchers. I didn't think that they were especially difficult. I think that might be because with smaller pieces, there's less stretch. Or maybe it's easier to cut smaller pieces accurately. I used templates for the curved pieces in the center, the corners are cut and put together like a Lemoyne star.

I did have some fun with it in EQ7. I couldn't find the block in the libraries -- it must have a different name. Here it's called "Hands All Around." It wasn't difficult to create in Patchdraw and I really like the secondary patterns that happen with this block.

This block creates all kinds of secondary patterns when it's in a straight set.

I really like this on point version.

Summer Sewing with DD

2011-08-08T07:48:00.001-05:00

With summer school a fading memory and middle school rapidly approaching, I needed a fun project for my daughter and I to do together. I saw this adorable Halloween cat fabric and a cute quilt made from it and thought it would be a really good project for us to do together.

Of course I cheaped out and didn't buy the pattern, so I had to make my own on EQ.

We had fun sewing the strip sets together. I did the cutting and she did most of the sewing.

For a look at some other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

The Civil War Bride Quilt

2011-08-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

Readers may remember my infatuation with this quilt at the show in Omaha. I posted about it here and you can read about it on Cheri's blog -- she is the woman who won the ribbons for this quilt in Omaha.

She kindly directed me to a blog that is all about the Civil War Bride Quilt. I would include a link, but it has been closed off to non-members since I last looked at it.

She also directed me to Corliss in Australia who wrote the pattern and from whom I purchased the pattern. She can be reached here: http://www.threadbear.com.au/index.php

I was so excited, I dyed up these background fabrics as soon as I returned from Nebraska. They're a bit darker than they look on my monitor.

Then I dyed these fabrics for this and another project that I can't talk about right now.

I pulled a bunch of fabrics from my shelves.

And I shibori-dyed a whole bunch of fabrics for leaves and animals. These are the greens -- I can't find the photo of the other shiboris, so that will have to wait until I cut them up.

This is the first block -- I've finished about half of the leaves and part of one bud. There are more leaves, but they're in my bag at the moment. I'm getting much better at the hand-stitching -- practice really does cause improvement -- although I'm sure perfection is a ways off. I've found that I get in a rhythm when stitching. This is going to be wonderful when the football season starts. I need something to do with my hands when all those players are standing around and this is it!

Surface Design Redux

2011-08-01T08:02:00.000-05:00

This is the piece I received for July in the Surface Design Round Robin hosted by the creative minds at "...And Then We Set It On Fire."

I held this one to the very end of the month (the time allotted) -- I was doing my stress-out thing because it has all this beautiful subtle color. Initially, it was rust-dyed, then masked and painted with Setacolors.

I didn't think that my usual heavy-handed, in-your-face, gonzo approach to COLOR was appropriate here. But what to do? Again, this is not my fabric; it belongs to someone else and my usual approach to COLOR might not be appreciated. Why not? Well... ok.. not really sure why anybody wouldn't demand over-the-top color, but not everyone does. Go figure.

My first inclination was to add leaves and flowers. I got out my hand-carved stampers and thought about it. Hmmm.... then I got the bright idea of carving a new stamp -- a goldfish -- and doing a weeds in the water thing. I thought I could mask off some of the greenish-yellow bars and stamp over them so it would look like fish hiding behind the weeds. But then I didn't really like that idea for this -- I thought something more abstract would be better. And I have the stacked triangle stamper and the curly cues. Hmmmm...

I got out some of the sparkly Setacolors -- orange and lime green -- and mixed them with the lightning medium. I used this because I was going for subtle (remember subtle?) and the color by itself is pretty intense. The lightning medium makes the color less intense without changing the viscosity of the paint -- very important when you're using stamps. I didn't want runny paint. I wanted nice clean images.

And here is the finished (for me, that is) piece on my design wall for today. It's ready to send on to the next person. Click on the photos for a closer view.

For more design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

More Progress on Words

2011-07-25T10:56:00.000-05:00

There is still little change on my design wall because I am still working on my cutting table. And there is considerable progress on my colorful interpretation of the 1000 Words piece.

I have found that it's best to leave the paper on to stabilize it, but I just couldn't resist removing a little of it to see what it looks like under there.

To see other people's design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

I always think I should save the pieces from the pattern. But what for? So I can make it again?

Can't Resist Resists with DeColourant

2011-07-21T17:35:00.000-05:00

The main reason I wanted to play with deColourant was because I thought it would be great to use it with the pantry resists I have been playing with.

I took some hand-dyed purple fabric -- this fabric was dyed with blue and magenta dyes and has a really mottled purple thing going on. Alas, I didn't do a very good job of rinsing the dyes out (it's been on my shelf since I first started dyeing and I didn't know as much about color and getting the excess dye out of the fabric as I do now. And yes, I did fix the piece it was cut from.)

I smeared on some rice flour paste, let it dry, then painted on a thin layer of orange deColourant. There was purple colored goo all over the plastic underneath the fabric. I'm wondering how much this affected the action of the deColourant.

This is the back side after I hit it with steam and before I removed all the rice paste and deColourant.

And this is the finished piece. It's a little darker than it looks in the photo. And some of the areas that I thought would be orange, just look kind of turquoise. Again, that might be because all of the dye wasn't rinsed out initially.

The other piece I tried was an over-dyed orange bit of cloth. It was initially a really ugly shade of pink and I overdyed it with golden yellow to get a shade of coral.

I used the same rice flour resist as in the top piece and painted on the purple deColourant.

I ironed it with the steam iron and got some nice purple marks.

So then I did three pieces with plain deColourant and three different uncooked resists. I used glutinous rice flour, potato flakes and AP flour.

This is from the same fabric as the top piece above. After I rinsed all the excess dye, I covered it with a mixture of glutinous rice flour mixed with cold water. After it dried, I painted it with plain deColourant, let it dry, then hit it with steam. The discharged areas are a gorgeous turquoise. There are some pinkish areas where there was more magenta dye.

For this one, I whisked potato flakes and a tablespoonful or so of liquid laundry starch into cold water, then spread it on pretty thickly with my putty knife. No cooking this time, but it took forever to dry in the humid weather. I wound up bringing it in the house and letting it sit for a couple of days before I painted it with plain deColourant. I like the patterning, but the color is kind of cold looking. I think it needs to be overdyed with orange.

This was some plain black Egyptian cotton I bought at Joann Fabrics a couple of years ago thinking I would use it for discharge experiments. I covered it with AP flour whisked into an equal amount of cold water. Then painted it with deColourant. I love that it discharged to white.

All of the uncooked resists and deColourant came out of the fabric easily. I let them soak in a bucket for a couple of hours, then ran them through my washing machine. I really like the plain deColourant with resists, but I haven't figured out how to get the special patterning with the deColourant that I get with dye. I think that's because the resists that I've used dissolve slightly with the dyes and because the deColourant is more of a gel, it doesn't get into the little cracks and crannies as well. So I guess I need to experiment some more.

I'm not sure I will bother using the colored deColourant with the resists again. I think I could have gotten the same result with thickened dyes, paints, or inks and the deColourant is more expensive and more steps than either of those. But I will use the plain deColourant. I like that it doesn't change the hand of the fabric like paint would. And it rinses out easily -- even on top of the resist paste.

Working on Words

2011-07-18T07:12:00.001-05:00

Because my design wall looks much the same as last week and because I'm working on my cutting table, this is a photo of my latest project.

It's related to the project pictured below -- only in color.

And I've mostly finished the thread work on this one. Now I'm trying to decide how much ink and paint to add.

This is the appliqué project that was just a bunch of stems last week. It's moving along -- although veeeerrrrry slooooowly.

It almost seems that cutting out and pinning take longer than the actual sewing.

For more design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Discharging with deColourant

2011-07-15T14:21:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some deColourant color remover. I couldn't wait to try it with the kitchen resists that I've been playing around with. But I had cleaned up and put away the table in the middle of the family room (for some reason my family insists on hanging around in that room and the "laboratory" table took up most of the space). So I had time to do just a few experiments until the outside-experiment weather happened.

I was really excited about using this stuff. I have long wanted to play around with discharging fabric -- I even purchased some stuff that stops the action of the bleach -- but because I like to breathe, I never found time to get bleach and use it.

So this stuff seemed heaven-sent. No harmful fumes, no noxious odors, and it rinses out easily with just soap and water. In fact, if you change your mind and don't like the design, you can rinse it out without it discharging!

Because it is activated with heat. Specifically, steam from an iron. Cool beans!

I had to do a winter block in brights (!), so I pieced together some brights, then, using a trusty Stewart Gill stencil, I applied this stuff to my pieced block.

I let it dry, then hit it with the steam iron.

Wow! It really does work!

And the smell is tolerable. Not really pleasant, but didn't necessitate a run to the oxygen tanks (no, I don't really have any oxygen tanks, but if I did, I would have had them standing by -- just in case.)

I went over the discharged tree with some pale grey thread to make the cream-colored discharged area look more wintery and cool. And I was finished. And the recipient really liked it.

I also tried out the deColourant Plus. It has color mixed in with the remover. I opted for the lime green/orange/purple group. I really like the orange stripes on the turquoise fabric. I was a little worried because before it dried, the edges had a bright purple color. But it turned orange when I ironed it.

I liked that I could mix the colors with each other and with the plain deColourant. The bottom stripes on the turquoise piece are orange mixed with plain. I did the same thing with the purple at the bottom of the black piece on the right.
I swirled together the green with some of the plain and got this piece. Both of the black fabrics are Kona black. I was really surprised and happy with how well it replaced the black.

But I really want to try it with resists. That will have to wait for my next post.

It's the Wall with Blocks

2011-07-11T09:22:00.000-05:00

My design wall for this stormy Monday in July is full of projects. On the left are my 2011 BOM blocks -- minus the ones I took to the group last Thursday -- they're pictured below with the everybody else's blocks.

At the top is the Surface Design Round Robin piece that I'm thinking about.

On the right is an attempt at dyeing a one-color gradation.

And in the middle is my piece for "1000 Words" -- look closely to see the progress on that.

These are the NY Beauties from Thursday's meeting. Mine aren't sewn together because I'm going to use them in the corners of the quilt. I really love the layout of the one in the upper right corner -- she didn't want all that brown in the center, so she flipped them around. I love this one!

In the lower left corner is a block from someone new to the group -- she's catching up.

And these are the fan blocks. Of course, mine is the eye-popping bright one in the upper left corner. I fussy cut the suns in the base of the fans and the center blade of the fan is a cat fussy cut from the same fabric.

Sorry about the fuzzy photo -- I wish I had a better camera. Oh sure, blame it on the camera....

To see other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

This is a sneak preview of another thing I'm working on. I'll have more about this in the coming weeks.

Round Robin Moving On

2011-07-06T11:02:00.000-05:00

I am participating in a Round Robin Surface Design from "...And Then We Set It on Fire" blog.

I received this rust-dyed fabric and stuck it on my wall for a couple of days. I regularly experiment with my own fabric, but this was someone else's. Yikes!

After a couple of days of cogitation, I covered it with rice flour and after it dried, I painted it with thickened teal dye.

I was not happy with the edges -- they're empty -- so I mixed up some golden brown and stenciled on some leaves to make the whole thing come together.

The reason the edges were empty is because I had to tape down the fabric to smear on the rice flour. It's been my experience that applying color to the edges of flour-resisted fabric causes major gloppage in the dye color, so I erred on the cautious side and left them empty. I like the stenciled leaves.

This is the finished piece -- it's been sent on to the next person in the group.

And this arrived this week. It's been rust-dyed and over-dyed. There is a lot of subtle color going on here, so my usual heavy-handed use of color won't do. Hmmmmm....

New Project for the Design Wall!

2011-07-04T06:08:00.001-05:00

This is my design wall for today. You may notice that all the previous stuff is still there, just shifted around to make room for that big whitish blob. It's my latest work!

I'm making a piece to be displayed at a showing of the play "1000 Words" next winter/spring at the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The show will move at some point to Milwaukee. "1000 Words" is a play about the photographer Walker Evans, his purported progeny, some missing photos, and some quilts.

I've been dragging my feet about what to do because I didn't want to run afoul of copyright laws, but I really wanted to use one of his photos. So I found one that was in the public domain and I dyed up some cotton sateen to look like an old stained photo. I think I'm going to do a whole cloth piece using inks or paints and thread. I might make a colorful one too -- we'll see how this goes.

This was taken at the Belle Grove plantation in Louisiana around 1936. I was drawn to all the angles -- it reminds me of an M. C. Escher print.

To see what others have going on on their design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

I Promised News

2011-07-03T14:31:00.002-05:00

And ye shall have it...

"Pieceful Tigers" won an honorable mention at the NQA Show last month in Columbus, Ohio! These photos were taken at the show by my cyber-friend, Jeri.

I finished another Nook bag -- this one has a pocket for the cable and plug thingy.

With the aforementioned apparatus next to the bag. I used elastic at the top of the pocket so it doesn't gape open when it's empty.

I pieced the back. The strap is adjustable. I'm writing up the pattern for this. Stay tuned...

I'm pretty sure there was something else I was going to say here, but I can't think of it right now.

So -- Happy Fourth to all my American friends!

Faerie Forest Revealed

2011-06-28T11:48:00.000-05:00

"Faerie Forest"

20" by 20"

I made this for the SewBatik Challenge at this year's NQA show. I used the challenge fabric for the big tree. The background is one of my hand-dyes that looks like a forest.

The door and window boxes in the stone cottage are also from the challenge fabric. I hand embroidered the flowers for the trumpet vines above the stone wall next to the cottage and the little flowers in the window boxes.

I hand embroidered the bunnies and little purple flowers.

The birds were also hand embroidered, then appliquéd to the quilt.

Where's Karen?

2011-06-27T11:09:00.001-05:00

Karen has not been a very good blogger lately. But she has some very good reasons. I know you all have been just sitting around and wondering what is going on here in Wisconsin. Well, wait no more! Karen went to Omaha! For a quilt show!

My friend, Chris Daly, who is the creative genius behind Dye Candy (here) and blogs here, invited me to come along and help at the Omaha show (here).

Here is the booth shortly after our arrival.

And in almost no time, it looked like this -- that's Chris's back side. There is a picture of both of us together in the booth, but it's still on Chris's camera and she hasn't sent it to me yet. I'll post it or a link when I get it.

This was the Chris and Karen quilt show -- we brought examples of our work and set them up on one side of the booth. A lot of people came in and asked about techniques used in some of them.

The women who ran this show went out of their way to provide support for the vendors. They had ladies assigned to come and provide "vendor relief" -- they would watch the booth while we got sandwiches or went to the "necessary room."

It was a lot of fun to go to Omaha -- my father grew up there and the last time I was there was the summer I turned 16. Of course that was longer ago than I'm willing to admit...

I fell in love with this quilt. It won a couple of ribbons. I usually don't work with such traditional fabrics and therefore decided that it would be fabulous made from our colorful hand-dyes.

Chris gave me a lesson in needle-turn appliqué. I did the heart and first two leaves Saturday afternoon. I'm all ready to start on my version of the quilt above...

This will have to serve as my entry in Design Wall Monday -- because my design wall hasn't changed since last Monday. Go to Judy's blog (here) for more traditional entries.

This juvenile Bald Eagle lives near Chris's Shady Grove Studios in southwestern Wisconsin. What a magnificent creature.

And this is a rare picture of me -- I'm usually behind the camera and therefore very camera-shy. The necklace and bracelet are jewelry my daughter made and presented to me the morning I left. They went perfectly with the hand-dyes in our booth.

I have lots of news coming up in the posts I'll do later this week. I promise!

More BOM Progress

2011-06-20T09:30:00.000-05:00

This is my design wall for today -- I finished the compass and got everything cut out for the "Hands All Around" block.

For a peek at other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

I know that I'm way behind on answering emails, so anyone who is owed -- I will get to you. Just not right now.

I have stuff to say about this, but no time. Hopefully, I will find time today or tomorrow, but if I don't, I'll write about it next week because....

Of this! I'm leaving town on Wednesday and not sure if I'll have computer access so I will just have to leave it a mystery (cue: Twilight Zone music here....)!

Back to the BOM

2011-06-13T06:57:00.000-05:00

My design wall shows a little progress on my BOM for 2011. No, I didn't abandon it -- I've just been busy. New are the fans block and the New York beauty. I didn't sew the NY beauties together because I'm going to use them in the corners of the quilt.

And that's a compass in progress.

For other people's design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

This was going to be my journal quilt for the May/June Color Palette Challenge. I thought about using it for my Nook cover, but it didn't look right where it was going to have to be cut down. So I didn't use it. Now I'm not sure what to do with it. I could just finish it and have another mini-quilt -- but I was trying to make something more useful than that. It's the wrong size for a journal cover. So I suppose it's going to move to the "hmmm..." pile for now.

Too Hot to Dye?

2011-06-08T18:28:00.000-05:00

As a group, fiber artists and quilters are pretty hot. As anybody who's ever been to Festival, or to one of those wild evening guild meetings or retreats can attest, nobody parties like a quilter. However, in my not-so-humble opinion, no one is hotter than a dyer.

Now I know there are quilters who don't think of themselves as artists, and there are fiber artists who don't quilt, and of course, there are dyers who don't quilt or even consider themselves artists. But there is enough of an overlap between the three that I can consider them all together. And the hottest are the dyers.

Except for snow-dyeing, which most of us agree is kind of a novelty thing that we do when it's too cold to do the regular kind of dyeing, the procion dyes like it hot. Especially turquoise and the other blues. And, of course, that includes all the colors that include blue: purples, greens, browns. Basically all the colors that aren't red, orange, or yellow -- which are pretty hot all by themselves.

Unlike some quilters, dyers aren't afraid of color. We have all made mistakes when learning to mix colors -- some turn out to be happy accidents, and some, well, not so much. But there is no bad hand-dyed fabric -- there is probably no bad fabric either, now that I think about it -- one person's ugly is another's "gotta have it." But I digress...

The weather has been really hot this week. Lots of people have been whining about it (not me, but that's another story). So I decided I better get out there and enjoy it. I had some dyes aging in the dye studio (also known as the northeast corner of the garage) and since I hate wasting stuff, I figured I would use them up. If they weren't strong enough to create the rich saturated colors I crave, I would just over-dye the pieces with fresh dye another day -- over-dyeing is another reason there is no bad hand-dye.

I recycle plastic lettuce boxes, among other vessels, to do my "tray-dyeing." So I scrumpled in the fabric, dumped on the dyes, and stuck the whole thing out on the front walk to bake in the sun -- also known as batching.

This morning, when I got up to wash out the dyes, I noticed a large teal-colored stain decorating the front walk. Imagine my surprise when I picked up the container and saw that it had gotten so hot, it warped and leaked!

I posed it next to a fresh box to show the difference.

The piece on the left is the culprit. Even with those old dyes, I got amazing, beautiful, rich color! I will have to over-dye the purple and the pink to make them periwinkle and fuchsia for a special order; but I just have to say... I am hot!

Oh -- and that piece at the top of this post? It was a present from the hot dyers at "...And Then We Set it on Fire" to celebrate their topping 100 followers. Pretty keen, huh?

Finishing Up May

2011-06-06T06:55:00.000-05:00

My design wall this first Monday in June has three different projects going.

The stuff on the far left has been there a while.

The fabric in the middle is Jenny's. It's part of the Round Robin of surface design that I joined at "...And Then We Set It On Fire". I'll have more to say about that soon.

The stuff on the right is for my new Nook cover.

The cover closes with Velcro. I made a pocket -- but it's mostly for looks. I have a couple of business cards in it.

I made little loops on the sides in case I decide I need a strap.

I pieced the back side and quilted it with a swirling feather motif. I had some really cool new thread -- it was supposed to be cotton, but I'm guessing it's really rayon. It kept breaking, so I had to change out the needle and have the spool unwind from next to the machine. But I finally got it to work.

From my Sparkly friend, Donna, I received this beautiful composition book with extra fabric. Donna knew that blue is my favorite color and hibiscus is my favorite flower. Her daughter made this. It's just wonderful!

And my Sparkly friend, Jean, sent me this little chicken potholder. It's too cute to use. But it will be happy living in my kitchen.

To see other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Spring's Coming Up All Over!

2011-06-05T18:33:00.000-05:00

I've been waiting seven years for these to bloom. I liberated them from my previous house when we moved. Every year they come up and withstand the onslaught of basketballs, soccer balls, and bouncy balls. And every year, beautiful green spiky leaves, but no flowers.

I fertilized, watered, and sang (really!) to them, but no flowers.

Imagine my delight to see buds shooting up through the leaves this spring.

It has taken weeks, or at least it seems like weeks, for the buds to bloom.

I think they're spectacular!

The peony was all buds yesterday, and today, almost all the buds opened into flowers!

The poppies are looking gorgeous!

And the columbine are sweet. We had almost no spring this year. The weather went from cold to hot. We had frost warnings last week and this week it's almost 90 degrees. I am lamenting the loss of spring -- I love those 70 degree days and cool nights. But I LOVE these hot temps. Even with the humidity. Although, I'm guessing the mosquitoes are coming soon. Sigh.

Holiday Design Potpourri

2011-05-30T08:53:00.000-05:00

Today my design wall has the beginning of my Color Palette Challenge for May. I took a break from my journal quilts because I was busy finishing the faerie project.

This is the little faerie cottage with its embroidered stuff in the flower boxes.

And the back side showing the machine quilting. I'm finishing up the hand work on this -- it's almost ready.

To see other design walls this holiday Monday, click here to visit Judy's blog.

Fauna for the Faerie Forest

2011-05-28T11:23:00.000-05:00

I needed some birds and bunnies to keep the faerie company. So I got out my trusty Tsukineko inks and used them to color in some pencil sketches of birds and bunnies. I had ironed the fabric to some freezer paper to stabilize it while I used the pencil.

With the colors inked in, if I missed a stitch, I didn't have to worry about white fabric showing through.

The first set of cardinals that I drew were too large for this project.

Using a small needle, I covered the little drawings with thread. Hand embroidery seemed like the best way to go with these. They're quite tiny.

I cut them out, leaving a small seam allowance -- somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 inch.

I used appliqué glue to make the seam allowance stick to the back.

Then I stitched them onto my quilt. I'll have some more photos next time.

Mini Margo Finished

2011-05-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

I used those cool pieced bits from my design wall and made this mini-Margo bag.

This is the back side posed in front of the full sized Margo bag for comparison.

This is the front side with the piped pockets. The green is a bit more limey in color -- I couldn't get the colors right in the photos. At least -- that's what my monitor looks like. That light blue is really a great shade of turquoise.

Except for the stripes, these are all my own hand-dyes.

This is a shot of the inside. I changed the pocket configuration a bit. The orange-lined side has a sectioned pocket all the way across. The blue-lined side has a single pocket with a Velcro closure.

I made the straps a little less wide and used rings to connect them to the rest of the bag. I think if I made this size again, I would make the straps the same width as the original. I did keep the length because it's perfect.

Check out that lime green zipper!

This pattern is so well-written. Making a smaller version was a snap!

This is probably the last bag I'm going to make for a while -- I hear other projects calling me...

Piping Tutorial

2011-05-24T11:03:00.000-05:00

I had an email request for a tutorial on piping. I love the way piping can really set things off. I made lots of it when I was still making smocked dresses and it's easy-peasy. So here is my method and I'll end with some instructions for inserting it into the Margo bag by Lazy Girl Designs.

I often used different fabrics for piping on the same garment to set off necklines and faced armholes.

In smocking, piping is traditionally used to strengthen and set off the yoke from the smocked portion of the garment. I also used it around the edge of the collar and arm bands.

First cut a square of the fabric. I cut only a small square here because I wasn't making a lot. Using the lines on the cutting mat, align it and cut 1 inch bias strips on the 45º diagonal. Quilting rulers make this really easy. I bought my first cutting mat and ruler long before I started quilting just for making piping.

Pin the bias strips -- if using stripes, it looks really good to match them here. Stitch, then trim and press the seams open.

I use relatively thin cotton yarn for the cording. It washes well and doesn't get stiff like some of the synthetics. For really thin piping, like on the blue dress above, I used perle cotton thread for my cording.

Cut a length of the yarn that is a bit longer than the length of your sewn bias strips. Lay it in the center of the strip and finger press the strip over it, pin, matching the raw edges. Gently push the cord toward the center of the strip. Don't iron a crease in your strip! You want the fabric to surround the yarn, not a harsh edge that would be created by using the iron.

I use a piping foot (pictured above) to stitch. It has a groove on the underside that the cord travels through. It's not necessary -- a zipper foot works just fine. The idea is to stitch next to, but not on, the cord. I try to remember to use a little longer stitch length when I make the piping -- I think it makes the piping a little less stiff so it will go around curves a little easier.

After stitching, lay the piping along a line on the cutting mat, place a ruler with the quarter inch mark over the stitching and trim off the excess.

This is your finished piping, ready to insert into your project.

For the Margo bag, mark the lines using your template. This is a stitching line, so pin the piping through the stitching to the drawn line on the right side of the fabric. I do my marking on the pocket lining, so if I make a mistake, it will not show on the front of my bag. Be sure to place the piping so that the cord is facing the inside of the piece. The cutout for the pocket will be trimmed after the piping is placed and the lining is sewn to the front of the pocket.

Clip the piping up to, but not through, the stitching to go around the corner.

Then stitch right on top of the stitching on the piping, pivoting at the corner.

After stitching the piping to the lining, pull out a little bit of the cord and trim off about an inch or so at each of the the edges. This reduces bulk in the seam lines and, for things that will be washed, releases the cord from the seam so that if the cord shrinks, it will not make the garment or bag draw up.

Pin the front to the lining, right sides together, with the piping inside. Carefully stitch on the line of stitching that holds the piping to the lining.

Press, trim, and turn. Press again, gently pulling on the piping to make a smooth edge. Topstitch next to the ditch on the front of the bag pocket.

I particularly like using stripes for piping because when cut on the bias, they look really cool.

When you feel brave, cut the bias strips at 3/4 of an inch and skip the trimming. Also, after you get brave, you can skip the pinning and just push the cord against the center of the fabric when you sew.

I have left all the photos fairly large, so be sure to click on them for a closer look.

Monday Design Progress

2011-05-23T07:10:00.000-05:00

It may not look like much, but there is progress.

To see other design walls today, click here to go to Judy's blog.

This is the front of my new bag. I finished the piping and sketched some lines for decorative stitching across the front.

Next post: piping tutorial. Stay tuned...

Pretty in Pink

2011-05-20T12:23:00.001-05:00

I started this dress a couple of years ago -- back when my daughter was still enamored with pink and purple and princesses. Before she entered into the evil clutches of Hannah Montana and all those ridiculous Disney shows. But it was just so pink -- I just had to take a break from it. Well, the break turned into a couple of years and the next thing I knew, she wasn't interested in a homemade dress in (gag) pink and purple. So I put it away and forgot about it.

Then my SIL mentioned that her granddaughter loves all things pink. And they were coming here for a visit. Hmmm...so I remembered this project and unearthed it from the towering pile of things to do. It only took one night in front of the TV to finish the smocking. Had I known that it was only an episode or two of Triple D away from completion, my DD might have worn it. But that's how things go -- and I know it will be appreciated by its new wearer.

I used this smocking plate -- the hearts are stacked cables, or picture smocking. After a couple of years' break, I had to remember how to do them. But it turned out well -- I can't tell the new hearts from the before ones.

The pattern is my own configuration -- I can't remember what I was going to use for it and it wouldn't have fit a three year old anyway.

And just for fun, I made her a little bag to go with from the scraps.

Long time readers may notice a new copyright logo on these photos. That's because my friend Beth, who blogs here, sent this to me for my birthday. I'm still working out how to use it -- but suffice it to say, I'm thrilled with it. Thanks, Beth!

Design Wall Monday

2011-05-16T07:29:00.000-05:00

Today my design wall has another free-form piece -- along with some other stuff that I'm still playing with.

I want to make a bag for myself this time. I've had so much fun with the bags in last week's posts, I'm going to make one in a slightly smaller size. I plan to use this bit on the lower right side of my wall.

But first, this week I'm going to try to finish a smocked dress that I've been working on for, um, more years than I want to think about.

Stay tuned...

To see what other design walls look like this week, click here for Judy's blog.

Tassel Tutorial

2011-05-15T15:06:00.001-05:00

I decided the Purple Passion Margo bag in the previous post needed a tassel pull on the zipper to complete the look.

I gathered up the Color Catchers I use in the washer when I wash hand-dyed fabrics. I used these because they're some kind of synthetic fabric and they have this marvelous color but don't ravel or fray. I also got out some largish beads, and embroidery thread.

I stacked the pressed Color Catchers and cut them into 1/8 inch strips.

I cut a 20 inch length of embroidery thread. I folded the strips in half to mark the middle, then tied the thread around the center of the strips, leaving one side of the thread about 4 inches, and the other around 16 inches. I didn't measure the thread ends, just eyeballed them. Also, I used all six strands of the thread -- I did not separate them.

When I was happy that the thread was tied in the center of the strips, I tied a tight square knot.
Then I formed a loop with the shorter end of the thread.

I tightly wrapped the longer end of the thread around the strips and the shorter end of the thread. When I got to the end, I tied a square knot with the two ends of the thread. I had to be careful here because it's easy to pull too tight and lose the loop. I trimmed the ends of the embroidery thread.

Then I made a knot in the loop so it wouldn't go anywhere. I probably should have done the knot in the loop before winding the thread, but I wanted the thread to lay flat against the top of tied strips.

I snipped the ends of the strips so they would have little points. Using a folded wire, I added beads to some of the strips and tied a small knot at the end of each of the beaded strips. I added a small clip through the loop at the top and attached it to the zipper pull.

I have left all of these photos large, so be sure to click on them for a closer look at any of the steps.

Purple Passion Margo Bag

2011-05-15T14:32:00.000-05:00

I needed to make something for a valued client of my husband's and the only thing I really know about her is that she likes purple.

So I dug through my stash and found this strip set of purple fabrics that I made for a bag I made for myself.

I remember at the time I was slightly appalled at the vast quantity of purple in my stash -- that's a lot of purple.

But I really like the way that all these purples work together so I made this bag with my trusty Margo pattern from Lazy Girl Designs.

Here is the front -- that strip in the center is from some of my own shibori-dyed fabric. There are a number of my own hand-dyes in this.

I decided that the strips looked best going sideways on the back.

And inside are some batiks. I LOVE this bag -- it is my favorite of all the ones I've made so far. It's very difficult to give it up. And I'm not really even a "purple person."

A better shot of my irises -- I noticed them blooming yesterday. It's so cold out this weekend. I think maybe they look a little bluer than usual...

More Swap Blocks Received

2011-05-14T09:03:00.000-05:00

I have received two more blocks from the swap in which I am participating.

This cool kitty is from my friend, Candy. She said that it's a portrait of her own cat. I love the colors and the expression on her face.

These robins are from Cheryl in Wyoming. I know that her spring is probably not a lot warmer than our spring here in Wisconsin, so I appreciate the hope that the robins bring.

Cheryl also sent along this adorable chick for a birthday present for me. I love the fabric she used -- sooo cute!

Bloggers Quilt Festival

2011-05-14T08:21:00.001-05:00

"When Will We Ever Learn: Gulf Coast, Summer 2010"

31" x 42"

Hand-dyed cottons, cotton threads, wool batt, oil paint sticks

For Bloggers Quilt Festival, Spring 2011 edition, I am sharing my pelican quilt. I made this for a Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists Show "Turning Point" at the Overture Center in Madison, Wisconsin this past winter.

Last summer, I was horrified by the images of oil-soaked wildlife resulting from the oil spilled in the US Gulf Coast and I chose a brown pelican rising above the oily water to symbolize my hope that this disaster would lead to more responsible stewardship of our natural resources.

I have entered this quilt in the National Quilt Association Show in Columbus, Ohio. The show runs from June 16 through 18, 2011.

To see all the other quilts in this online festival click on the button below to go to the show sponsored by Amy's Creative Side.

A New Spring Bag

2011-05-13T14:43:00.000-05:00

This is the front of my new spring bag. It's posing amid the May posies.

I think that spring is finally here. Or maybe we skipped spring and went right to summer. No matter -- ssshhhh -- be very quiet. We don't want to scare it and have it go away for six more weeks.

This is the back.

These are a couple of views to showcase the zipper. This pattern has an amazingly easy zipper method. I come from a garment-making background, so I'm not scared one bit of zippers. But this was sooo easy, I'm going to use this method to teach my daughter zipper installation.

There are lots of pockets inside and I added a bit of Velcro to the largest inside pocket so I have a secure place for those unmentionable things that I need to carry.

And here is a detail of the front pocket with the piping that I added.

The only thing I wish was different is the size. I prefer to carry a slightly smaller bag. Mostly so I don't wind up toting other people's junk. So the next one (and yes, there will be another one) will be a little bit smaller.

This is the pattern I used. I don't normally purchase bag patterns; I'd rather make my own. But I saw this on the web, fell in love with it, then couldn't figure out how to do it. I am so happy I decided to buy this pattern. The instructions are great! It was well worth the money. On the Lazy Girl website, there are all sorts of valuable information tips. There is also a Yahoo group dedicated to these patterns. I highly recommend it, if only for all the pictures of bags and great ideas.

Oh Monday

2011-05-09T08:31:00.001-05:00

And my design wall is significantly different. I liked the sewn together bits for the Kindle bag so much, that I decided that I needed to explore that kind of "free-form" piecing some more.

To see other design walls, click here for Judy's blog.

I finished the Kindle bag and sent it off.

This is the front -- I stenciled the tree shape using Stewart Gill silver paint and one of their stencils. I painted it after I quilted it, but before I cut out the pieces for the bag. I used Velcro tabs for closures.

I like the back best, but I wish I had gotten more of the little strips with the orange, green, and stripey material in there. It was just too small to get it all. The strap is adjustable. Except for the striped fabric, I used all of my own hand-dyes for this project.

And I finished a lot of the quilting on the faerie piece. I plan to finish the machine work on this today or tomorrow, then I have hand work planned.

First Monday in May

2011-05-02T07:17:00.000-05:00

And heeeeere's my design wall in two parts:

I divided it up in the photos because I have two separate projects going on. This is the faerie in the forest thing -- there's lots of progress. Although I haven't fused anything down yet.

And this is for two projects. One that I can't talk about yet -- sssshhhhhh. And one that is going to be a cover/bag for my SIL's Kindle.

Other design walls can be viewed here at Judy's blog.

Swap Blocks

2011-05-01T14:56:00.000-05:00

These are the blocks I sent out.

The theme for this was "Mexican fiesta." I went for a Mexican tile look. I used my own hand-dyes for this.

I designed it in EQ7 and played around with the colors until I was happy. It was tricky, but not impossible to piece -- the corners are like Lemoyne stars.

I have always loved Mexican tiles -- someday I want to live in a house that has stairs with tiles set into the risers.

I had a little fun setting this block into virtual quilts.

This is just a plain straight set with borders. I absolutely love these colors.

This is the same block set on point.

This is the original block set on point alternated with the same block in a different colorway. I think I like this one the best.

And one more with alternate colorways. I like the way the red lines connect with the red "tiles."

This block was for a teapot theme -- I thought about making a bunch of tea cups, but when I found this fabric, I knew it just had to be a teapot.The colors were supposed to be blue, white, yellow, and green. I used bits of my own hand-dyed fabrics for the background, spout, lid, handle and base. The main part of the pot was fussy cut from some Jason Yenter Camelot fabric.

What We Did on Our Spring Break

2011-04-30T19:10:00.000-05:00

I helped my daughter make a dress.

Actually, it's two dresses. A white one.

And some color to wear over the white one.

It was her idea to make two dresses -- she also had the idea to make the second one a wee bit shorter, so the first dress would peep out underneath. The red socks were her idea too.

Here is a close up of the buttons that decorate the front placket. She found these in my stash.

And we used this pattern.

The Mail Has Been Very Very Good to Me

2011-04-29T12:24:00.000-05:00

Last week, my mailbox goodness reached epic proportions. It started with this:

As they say, "You had me at hello." Who doesn't like chocolate? But wait! Even better -- I know, what could be better than chocolate? -- there was a whole bunch of stuff inside. Stuff that doesn't mess with my diet.

Handmade tags, note cards, ATCs, envelopes, a little round box filled with beads, and some pens and buttons! Who is responsible for this bounty? My friend Jan, who blogs here, and her friends who have a group blog here. They are mixed media artists who do lots of intricate, fun stuff. I highly recommend checking them out. I won this in a giveaway on http://foxontherunarts.blogspot.com/ . So cool.

And wait! There's more! I swap blocks with my Sparkly Chicken friends (not all of them have blogs, but those who do are listed on the side under "Sparkly Chickens Blogs"). Anne Marie, who blogs here, sent me this colorful moose.

Just look at the wonderful embroidery (French knots are my favorite embroidery stitch).

And she included these goodies. Cards with more stuff on them and some very sparkly yarn.

But wait! That's not all!

In advance of my birthday, the mail got this package to me in record time! It wasn't supposed to arrive until next month, but it's here!

Beth blogs here about her adventures in Africa. She sent me these little bottles and the charms -- an elephant for Africa and a shoe because, well, I'm kind of a shoe lover. The tall bottle is a vanilla sugar grinder from South Africa -- it's full of big crystals of sugar and chunks of real vanilla pods. It's delicious ground onto ricotta cheese and over coffee. This weekend, I'm going to try it on French toast, fruit and maybe some pancakes or waffles.There was some floral fabric.

And these wonderful batiks from Africa. I love these giraffes -- maybe I should make a bag out of this?

I love this one -- I can see this fussy cut up into a kaleidoscopic design. I've included a pic of the selvage.

And these chickens are the best! They're quite large and I love they way they're walking all over the fabric!

Thank you all for making this such a fun week for me!

Faerie Fun

2011-04-25T09:06:00.000-05:00

My design wall looks much the same today as it did last Monday. With my kids on spring break last week, I had very little time to do my stuff. I did do stuff with them and the mail was very, very good to me. So I will have posts later this week with that stuff. But for now, the only new thing is this little faerie.

I'm not sure I'm finished dressing her, so I didn't fuse her all together yet. But here's a preview.

To see other design walls, check out Judy's blog here.

Progress for Monday!

2011-04-18T07:18:00.000-05:00

My design wall shows progress today. I took down one of the forest dyes because I ran out of room -- it's still under consideration, though.

I finished the star/snowflake tablerunner top that I was working on. Now I just have to find the time to quilt it.

And I mostly finished the little stone cottage. It needs some window boxes for flowers, I think. On to the faerie and the tree. -Tee hee.

To check out other people's design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

More Goofing Off With Spinning Stars

2011-04-12T17:01:00.000-05:00

In the previous post I shared a small star quilt created in EQ7 that had some mistakes in the block, so the patches had color where I didn't intend color. I have fixed that block and made a couple more virtual quilts.

I love the way that they seem to glow with the lightest colors in the centers. Well, that's enough fun. Back to work.

Goofing Off with Spinning Stars

2011-04-12T14:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I saw a beautiful "Spinning Stars" quilt at "Musings from the Deep South" which is here.

So I just had to figure it out in EQ7. It took less time than I thought it would. But I had help from here and here.

It was trickier than I thought it would be and I made a couple of mistakes coloring it because I didn't close off my patches properly. I might go back and do that when I have more time. Turns out -- when you set the blocks in the quilt, you have to rotate every other row to get it to come out right. So here is a small sample.

And it took way less time to do it in EQ than it would have for real.

A Whole Lotta Stuff

2011-04-11T08:10:00.000-05:00

Last week was incredibly busy. In addition to all the usual stuff I had to do, I helped take down two quilt shows, helped tie the community quilt, attended the piecing group thing on Thursday (2011 BOM), and drove to Monroe on Friday to be part of a quilt workshop. Phew...and that was just the quilty stuff. Consequently, my design wall looks the same today as it did last week except for the addition of the star I didn't finish on Friday.

These are some more of the Lemoyne-based blocks from my February presentation for the 2011 BOM group.

These are the blocks for this month. Mine is the one with the navy background. This block is called "Enigma Star."

This is the fabric we used for the sashing and the perle cotton we used to tie the community quilt (you can read more about that here)

Here we are working on the quilt. That's me behind the camera. :~D

We finished tying the quilt and Susan Young is going to do the binding. She promised to let me photograph it when it's finished.

And this weekend, spring seems to have sprung (finally) here in Wisconsin. These are some tulips that came with the house when we bought it. They're always the first thing to bloom.

And there's a bud in the only hyacinth I could find in the garden. I did find a lot of dandelions, though.

To see more design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Coleus Palette Challenge Stuff

2011-04-06T19:20:00.000-05:00

"Savannah Tiger"

10½" by 11½"

Cotton fabrics and threads, fused appliqué

This month's Color Palette Challenge from Three Creative Studios is coleus colors. You can check it out here. I used two green strips from my hand-dye stash -- the rest of the greens were from the box o' blue/green scraps. The dark reddish colored fabric is another hand-dye.

I had a lot of fun playing with the quilting around the tiger.

I used a new (for me) technique to finish the edge. Judy Coates Perez had a tutorial on this here. Easy-peasy -- and it looks great! Yes, I know it's just pinned; I'll sew it down later.

Also for this month, I dyed a couple of scarves in the challenge colors. This one is silk.

And this one is a silk rayon blend. I'm a little camera-shy, so Rosie graciously offered to model for me.

Quick Monday Design Wall

2011-04-04T13:56:00.000-05:00

This is my design wall for today. I have added a couple of pieces of "forest dyes" to audition for the mystery piece.

I finally got started on my little stone cottage. That's the roof floating above -- but I didn't like it, so I took it off and I'm going to redo it.

To see what other people have on their design walls today, click here to go to Judy's blog.

And this morning we took down our show at the Overture Center, "Turning Point." It sure came down a lot quicker than it went up!

Finally Finished the Frog Quilt!

2011-03-31T16:25:00.001-05:00

And just in the nick of time! I dropped it off this afternoon for the show.

"Frog Leg Pie"

58" x 58"
Adapted from "Blueberries and Key Lime Pie" by Klaudeen Hansen

Fudge Factor Patterns

For the binding I used a new (to me) technique. "Faux Piped Binding" -- it was not difficult and it looks fabulous. And I did the whole thing on the machine. The tutorial is here and I think it's a really good one.

I used cotton flannel for the back so it would be warm and cuddly. I think it's going to live in my spot on the couch.

I had a little trouble with the label. I followed the directions (for the first time) and (for the first time) the ink bled. I usually heat set it before I rinse it, but the instructions say to rinse after the ink dries. I let it dry overnight, then I rinsed and hand-washed in a little Synthropol. And the silly thing bled. I used it anyway.

Next time I'll be sure to follow directions -- not.

WIP Monday

2011-03-28T06:51:00.000-05:00

My design wall hasn't changed much since last week except for the addition of this tiger. I was going to have a little stone cottage finished, but it didn't happen. I was going to have a little fairie started, but it didn't happen.

I was going to have this finished also --
but it's not quite ready. Maybe tomorrow.

For more Monday design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Parrotpalooza is Finished!

2011-03-24T17:28:00.001-05:00

"Parrotpalooza"

12½" X 14"

Acrylic inks on cotton with cotton threads, wool batt

This is my journal quilt for March. I wanted the parrots to "spill over" the edge because the March Journal Quilt Challenge theme at the Art Quilt Blog for this month is "spilling over". The trouble is I liked the background so much I couldn't bring myself to cut off much more than I did.

I faced the edge with some really fine black Egyptian cotton because I knew that this fabric would make it easy to get a clean edge. I did trim a little too close to one edge and had to add some fray stop liquid and then wait for it to dry so I could restitch it.

I did a little quilting around the eyes and on the beaks, but I left the parrots mostly unquilted so they would remain puffy. I'm considering doing just a little more quilting to provide a bit more depth -- especially under the parrots' heads.

This was primarily an experiment with the acrylic inks. I wanted to see if I could paint fine detail and not have it bleed all over. The only part that bled was the background -- and that was because I mixed a lot of water with just a few drops of ink. So it was more of a wash. I'm really pleased about how dark the color is with the tiny amount of ink I used.

Finished Top for Handmade Meaning Project

2011-03-22T08:46:00.000-05:00

I stopped into Stitcher's Crossing last weekend and took a photo of the finished top. Sorry about cutting off the bottom in my pic.

For more information on this project click here.

Boooring Monday

2011-03-21T06:28:00.000-05:00

My design wall hasn't changed a whole lot since last Monday. I folded the two snow-dye background pieces into the size I need -- still haven't make up my mind which I'm using. The stuff on the right is experimental. I'll post more about that when I have something to say about it.

I did get the frog quilt mostly done this weekend. I'll be posting a picture of that later this week.

For more design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Playing With Inks (Part Deux)

2011-03-19T14:57:00.001-05:00

I am starting to quilt this parrot piece. It was painted on cotton fabric with acrylic inks. For the whole enchilada on the latest great ink experiment, click here to go to "...And Then We Set It On Fire" where I am the guest blogger today.

Rice, Rice, Baby

2011-03-18T09:27:00.000-05:00

I wasn't going to post about this. It's more a failure than a win, but I am using the fabric that resulted from it. So I guess I should 'splain it.

I took minute rice and cooked it according to the package directions, cooled it, and spread it on the fabric. I let it dry, then painted on the thickened dye. This is a half yard of fabric.

The reason it's a failure is that I couldn't get the rice/thickened dye mixture out of the fabric. So this piece is rather stiff. Not like cardboard, but not like a piece of good hand-dye should be. I soaked it, washed it, then repeated the whole process. Finally I gave up and threw it on the "hmmm..." pile. Then I needed some bark-like fabric and I got the bright idea of using up some Setacolor paint I had stashed in a plastic container. I diluted it, then painted it on the back of the fabric. Then dry-brushed on some acrylic ink on the front in a darker brown. That's the brown mess on the top edge of the fabric.

This piece is better. I added some water to the cooled rice mixture before I spread it on the fabric. This is not as supple as a normal hand-dye, but it isn't stiff. I got most of the rice goo rinsed out. This one and the next one are fat quarters.

This is the best piece. I didn't have enough of the rice/water mixture left to do the whole piece. So I added some rice flour that had been dissolved in an equal amount of water to the rice mixture (I think I had a half cup each of water and flour). The goo rinsed out and this one is pretty good. I don't think I would use this in a traditional quilt, but it will be fine for almost anything else. And I think it has the best patterning. It has that nice crackle from the flour in some places with the bolder look of the whole rice bits. The background looks a bit blue on my monitor, but it's really white in real life.

Click on the pictures to examine them more closely.

It seems to me that things that are cooked stick to the fabric more than things that are not cooked. I had trouble getting the potato stuff out of my fabric also, but no trouble at all with the rice and AP flours. I have a package of glutinous rice flour to try next. I'm curious to see if it will be different from the regular rice flour.

Happy St. Pat's Day

2011-03-17T13:09:00.000-05:00

I took some pictures last Sunday during the St.Patrick's Day parade around the square in Madison, Wisconsin.When my teenaged son saw this -- he immediately wanted one for himself.

Of course -- I had to take a picture of this pug.

The kids really liked this guy.

This little boy was standing in front of us for most of the parade and I loved his hat.

This is "Sadie" -- she is an Irish water spaniel.

These little girls are part of one of the local Irish dancing groups.

Then today I saw this in my backyard. Look in the lower right corner of the photo.

And then it flew over to the fake fruit tree.

And best of all was the reading on the thermometer. Whoo hoo!!

Handmade Meaning in Wisconsin

2011-03-16T11:09:00.000-05:00

Last week I was delighted to assist in the Community Embroidery Project. This was an opportunity for people to put their own contemporary spin on traditional redwork. I didn't make a square, but I helped with the assembly.

Packets were distributed to the community and the resulting embroidered squares were gathered together last week at Stitcher's Crossing for assembly into a quilt which will then be bound and tied.

Under the able direction of Susan Young, we spent the day squaring up the squares and sewing them together with red sashing. I had to leave before it was finished, but I will post a picture of the completed project when it is available.

We chose this red fabric for sashing because it really made each individual embroidered square sing.

Here are the rows with their sashing. For more information on this project -- check the blog here.

For Monday - More Clues!

2011-03-14T09:16:00.003-05:00

I know I haven't posted anything in a week, but I have been very busy. First, here is my design wall for today. To see more design walls, click here for Judy's blog.

Yes, those are snow dyes done specifically for this project. And the blocks on the left are the ones I have done so far for my 2011 BOM club. And under the blocks are some scraps from my Palette Challenge -- those bits might have something to do with the snow-dyes.

And a little more of something from last week. I will say now (clue, clue, clue!) that this is a separate project -- I'll be talking about this some more later this week (I hope).

And something new that might be a clue for the stuff from last week. This needs its own post -- it's another from the robbing the kitchen/stealing from the pantry series.

This is one of the reasons I have been too busy to post. I want this to be in a show that is coming up fast.

And another of the reasons I haven't posted. This is a whole project I got to help with. I'll post more on this later this week (again -- I hope).

And I should apologize to all of the people to whom I owe emails -- I'll catch up. I promise.

Oh No! It's Monday!

2011-03-07T07:05:00.000-06:00

And my design wall includes this:

and this:

which may or may not be related to this:

or this:

I just love a good mystery. Stay tuned...

To see more conventional and less cryptic design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

Journal Palette Quilt and a Postcard

2011-03-06T14:32:00.000-06:00

"Columbine" 10" by 5½"

This is my finished Color Palette Challenge.

And a detail shot. I used hand-dyed fabrics and some hand-dyed threads. The picture is from my garden last summer. I played around with it in PhotoShop until it had the right colors for the challenge.

My personal challenge was to use some rayon threads I bought a while ago at an estate sale. They're a little tricky to work with. They tend to tangle and knot; so I found it best to wet them to make them behave as I stitched with them (please don't ask what I used -- but it wouldn't have worked if I had been eating chocolate while I stitched).

"True Blue"

And I made this little bit into a postcard for my cousin who is a dachshund aficionado.

Lemoyne Stars!

2011-03-03T18:28:00.000-06:00

These are the results of the LeMoyne star class I hosted last month. These are all twelve inch LeMoyne stars except for the one on the upper right -- it's nine inches.

And these are the blazing stars. They're all twelve inches. Aren't they great!

Mag 55

2011-03-02T20:40:00.001-06:00

"Short Season"

Red painted fingernails tap against

the martini glass -- staccato tink tink tink --

the rhythm a counterpoint

to the knife on the block.

Coolly, she watches him chop.

Sipping the blood orange 'tini

through blood red lips

"Ramps or some morels

would be good with the

risotto," he thinks --

"Damn!"

He watches blood drip

-- then sticks that finger

in his mouth as painted

red fingernails tap

against a martini glass

-kls 2011

This poem was written in response to the photo above, which is courtesy of Magpie Tales. Write your own and link up here with the rest of the gang.

I haven't posted a poem in a while -- my goal (I never make resolutions) was to do at least two per month. But February flew by with nary a poem posted. I really liked this picture and even though I'm really busy right now, I managed to make the time to write this. So I guess I have no excuse. Except that I don't like to post stuff when I don't have anything to say. And the stuff I wrote in February wasn't "blog worthy!" So no poems for February. Hopefully, March will be better.

Like a Lion

2011-03-01T08:24:00.000-06:00

Today I am a guest blogger over at ...And Then We Set It on Fire. Check it out here.

And just because it's March first.

Monday Again?!

2011-02-28T06:14:00.000-06:00

This is my design wall today. It shows some fabric chunks that are going to be part of my next Color Palette Challenge. And some stuff from last week. To see some other design walls, click here to go to Judy's blog.

I stamped some little paw prints with distress ink on this, but when I washed it, the ink washed out. Even though it had been heat set. So I redid them with different ink. The reason I washed it was that I thought that the transfer might get softer and less "plasticky" but it didn't. At least not that I noticed. One thing I do like about the transfer is that it doesn't melt or stick when I run my hot iron over it.

Tomorrow, March first, I have been invited to be a "guest blogger" on "...And Then We Set It On Fire." I'm pretty excited about this. These women have been doing really great stuff with color and fabrics -- subjects near and dear to my heart. And now I get to be part of it. I'll be discussing Tsukineko inks. Long time readers will recognize a couple of my samples, but I have spent most of the week making up new stuff for this. So stop by and leave a comment for me.