A Quilter's Dream at Quilt Expo

 I posed for several photos with my quilts at Quilt Expo this year, but this was the only one I could find on FaceBook.  That's me in the red shirt helping to hang the show.

I had to sit on my hands to resist typing "does my bum make this quilt look fat" in the comment section!

I had the pleasure of working with Stephanie Prescott in her booth "A Quilter's Dream" this year.  She has fabulous quilt and bag patterns and designs some lovely batiks.  I made this bag from her pattern "Metropolis" using her batiks for the buildings.  The sky fabric came from my stash.  

It was easy peasy to make -- the directions are very good.  Of course, I had to modify it a bit -- I added the extra pocket inside the large one -- for keys or a cell phone, and I added a magnetic snap for closure.

And this is me with Stephanie.

Three Quilts at Quilt Expo

I know I'm a bit late in posting this, but real life keeps getting in the way of my cyberlife (and my artwork too, but that's another story.)  I had a bunch of posts mostly written before I went to California, but I never got all the photos off my DD's camera and didn't finish them.  Soon...


"Spectral Chroma" debuted at Quilt Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, earlier this month and here is a photo of it hanging in the show.

It's 92" by 74" and was beautifully longarm quilted by Nell Coons.  I added some more machine quilting and will probably add a little more before I'm finished.

The pelican was also juried into Quilt Expo and will be in one more show next month before I unofficially retire it.

This dragon was part of a special exhibit of the Sun Prairie challenge quilts.  I haven't seen it in a while -- it seems like I made it and dropped it off immediately.  It's been traveling the country and I've missed it.

I'll have another post soon about Quilt Expo, then it's on to other stuff.

Alice's Flowers

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

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

Hot Coffee Idea

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ocean Cruise - the Beginning

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


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







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


I thought a couple of dolphins would be good.








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

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

This is what it looks like on my design wall.


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


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

Guess Where I Am

Two Quilts Juried Into Quilt Expo!

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





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

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