Debra's Design Studio

My February AAQI Auction Pieces

2012-01-29T09:52:00.003-06:00

Two of my AAQI pieces are being featured in the February auction:

Girl in Oval Crazy Quilt

8½ x 11

machine embroidery with patchwork

The original block came from Annie in a box of miscellaneous stuff she sent me. I thought it might be fun to try something different with the oval idea. Then, I pulled that rose embroidery I had stitched out of the UFO drawer and used it for an embellishment.

Of the Jacobean Pieces, the one on the left is in the auction. The other two sold during December.

Please help spread the word about the February auction. AAQI does such good work with the money raised from our donated pieces.

Here's a link to my Pledge Page on the AAQI website.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Heading to New Homes

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

So Prim, So Proper, So Eager for Their New Homes

Go Out in the World & Do Your Good!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Barbara's Scrap Quilts Done!

2012-01-26T08:20:00.004-06:00

I have 3 large garbage bags of recycled batting I am using for this batch of tops. When Sophie and I were at the quilt show this last fall, I asked the APQS vendors if I could have all the practice batting when the show was over. Sure, just be here when we start breaking down the booth. So we walked out with all the stitched batting. It's worked fine so far. It's polyester batting sandwiched between muslin and batik. And now it's further sandwiched between Barbara's tops and some thrift store backings. One happy day I bought another woman's fabric stash at the thrift store--2 huge boxes. Like the batting, I decided it was time for that to find another home. While I am hoping to buy some new fabric this year, it's still a year of working the stash down to a more manageable size. Well, whatever that means. So, 2 more quilts for the kiddos coming right up!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Done is Good!

2012-01-25T10:04:00.002-06:00

When I am working on multiple projects, I like to get to a stopping point on one before I move to another one. I have all the plans in mind but I feel like I need to let an idea settle for awhile before I can proceed. Some times I just have some other projects that need to be addressed and out of the studio so I can make room for new ideas.

Last year I was on a roll to rid my stash of some fabrics that just didn't appeal to me anymore. I felt like when they were gone, I would appreciate the fabrics I have & like more. Toward that effort, I made a bunch of quilt tops for donation. What I hadn't anticipated was how hard it would be to finish them. When you don't enjoy a particular color palette, you just don't enjoy it.

With a week left in January and eager to move these quilt tops into the hands of someone else, I set myself in front of the longarm yesterday to quilt. I got 3 done and have 6 more to go. I can easily get them done by the end of the month. They had grown in my mind to much larger sized quilts than they are in reality. Funny how that happens!

My mantra on these (and most of the quilts I donate) is that these are for real folk and not for quilters. I'm not concerned about fancy quilting. I'm concerned about getting these done. So, I am meandering all over them. It relieves me of the burden of having to be super creative. I can only stretch that creativity in so many directions and right now fancy longarm quilting is not one of those directions.

Two pyramid tops I made and one Friendship Star top Barbara made are done! Onward to the rest!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think. I'll be using the Threaded Reply for answering your comments so check back!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Beautiful Garden--Side Borders Pieced

2012-01-23T09:42:00.002-06:00

Don't ask me how but I managed to get the side borders pieced this weekend. I'm not sure if I will add top and bottom borders. If I do, I doubt I will add many more birds. They turn out to be pretty big. Or, maybe I should just buy the smaller sized files and try some small birds. Pretty undecided on that issue.

Next step is to go in and add the trims. I'm not very good stitching them on when I am making the block because I like to see the overall look first. I plan to use a lot of red for the trims. Actually, I have wanted to make my own trims by embroidering little motifs on fabrics so this is the experimental quilt for that idea. I also plan to use some gingham for a 'cross stitch' grid. Going for a country look here.

I'll be seriously blurring the lines between the patches, doing some robbing peter to pay paul ideas with color placement & trying to meld all these motifs together. Wish me luck! *wink*
My plan is not to stress about this CQ. It's for my own pleasure. (Rinse and repeat)

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

I am going to start using the Threaded Reply Feature so we can have a real discussion here. Feel free to add to an existing comment or add a new comment. I'll be adding my thoughts to your comments too. You may want to add my blog &/or comments as an email, through your reader or check back for the discussion.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Fabric Sample Projects

2012-01-20T08:36:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday on my way home from lunch with Angela, I stopped at the nearest JoAnn Fabrics. Since they closed in my town, I don't get into the store very often (Wes wrote the headquarters and thanked them). I was dismayed to see a sign saying "No More Special Orders" in the home dec area. My immediate thought was, "gee, fabric stores really are getting thin". On the flip side I was excited to see the 2/$1.00 home dec swatches on sale. So, showing great restraint, I bought a few. At the register I found out that the store is closing so all the inventory has to go. Fortunately, they are opening a super store about a mile away in a huge storefront that was formerly a furniture store. If they truly can fill that space with fabric, I will be lunching in The Woodlands alot! To top it off, it is right next door to Golfsmith, a super golf store with a practice pit. Wes has proposed we do some weekend outings to The Woodlands for fun and entertainment (in lieu of a trip to say, Hawaii!). What a guy!

A couple of days later the lightbulb went off and I realized those fabric samples would be perfect for the little projects I'll be doing this year for Laura's etsy store. So with my mom in tow, we beelined it back to JoAnns and bought a much more respectably sized stack of fabric samples. I thought I would be using them for little drawstring totebags embellished with embroidery until I made a faux mockup yesterday. They are just too gorgeous for bags. They will be wallhangings.

I don't "plan" to embellish these very much. Well, that's the plan but who knows? right?

Isn't this scarab awesome? I embroidered 2 on some of my handpainted fabric.

As I sorted through the samples (which are the size of FQs), quite a few turned out to be 100% cotton so I set those aside for a new quilt project in pretty turquoises with some browns. I'm going to sew something "modern". Wes mentioned the other day that he hadn't heard the longarm in awhile. Ooops. I'm itching to get back to regular quilting too. I just have a few more birds to embroider for my Beautiful Garden CQ and then I can designate it a hand/evening project and get on with my real life!

Now this is how a dining room table is supposed to look!

I love that kind of shopping. Being in the right place at the right time is fun! I was also able to stop at a discount purse/jewelry store and get some Christmas pins on clearance. They will be perfect for my wallhanging. Oh, all is right in my world!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Beautiful Garden--Favorite Birds Fly In!

2012-01-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

No respectable garden (quilt) would be complete without Robins or Texas Mockingbirds. I'm just sayin'!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Art Nouveau Women Finished

2012-01-18T07:30:00.000-06:00

I finally put the needle to the cloth and finished the 4 Art Nouveau Women. I thought Laura wanted to sell these but she told me, "No, Mom, really? I want them for myself!" OK, had I known I could have saved alot on Christmas gifts. *wink* I think they are for her dance studio she is working to outfit.

This is one of those learning projects. Sometimes I have to try an idea to realize that while it sounds good in theory, in reality it doesn't work all that well. You may recall the background of these are placemats. While I liked the stiffness for the machine embroidery, finishing them was not pleasant. But, overall, they are such sweet garden scenes that I have to love them inspite of their shortcomings!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Fabric Sewing Book--Page 1--Red

2012-01-17T09:04:00.001-06:00

In the Stitch Twelve hand embroidery group I am leading, we are working monthly blocks based on a theme and the color wheel. I introduce a weekly lesson on Sunday and then by the following weekend, everyone is supposed to have tried the stitches on Aida cloth and then started adding them to a Design Page. We are calling our assortment of block arrangements (since they are all different) design pages. We are closing in on the last of the month's lesson so I took a little time the other evening and finished up my block.

My theme is Sewing and I plan to work the pure colors of the color wheel with black and white. It's already been a hoot and a holler to pull out some favorite little treasures and add them to the first page. I also plan to add my quilting pins to future pages so this will be a little record of my sewing and the generic theme too. I will also be able to use this book as my entry in the Crazy Quilt Journal Project so it's turning out to be a valuable tool on many levels. We are working our own agenda and not TAST although the stitches will inevitably overlap at some point.

This month we have concentrated on the Straight Stitch Family and it was my intent to show the members that this lowly stitch was the basis of so many other stitches and a valuable partner with many stitches.

So here is Page One: Red of my Fabric Sewing Book. I hope you enjoy!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Mad for Red!

2012-01-15T09:50:00.000-06:00

Yesterday on my way home from lunch with my stitching friend, Angela (ladyhawthorne), I had to stop at a few fabric stores. The car just came to a complete stop and wouldn't move. Funny car, that Corvette! *wink*

I bought some brand new just released prints for Moda. I also bought some oldie goldie 80s country prints from one shop's scrap basket.

I have some fun ideas I want to try --chicken scratch being one of them--so look for these soon on my Beautiful Garden CQ. So exciting!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging--TAST stitching

2012-01-14T09:55:00.000-06:00

All the details are here on the Tuesday Stitchers blog!
I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Beautiful Garden--More Birds

2012-01-13T10:24:00.000-06:00

These are the companion birds to the Tanager in the last post. They are incredibly pretty! I was able to get some handwork done while they stitched and I'll show that this weekend.

Goldfinch

Oriole

Question: I have this vague idea I would like to do some monogrammed CQ styled pieces for AAQI. Do people still enjoy monogrammed items? What letters do you think would be the most popular? I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Beautiful Garden--Birds

2012-01-12T08:47:00.003-06:00

Red Tanager

Yellow Warblers

I've started in ernest embroidering the birds for the outer border of my Beautiful Garden. I'm loosely staying in the peach tones for the background and blocks. Looking for a balance between showy and plain birds.

I feel like I have quite a few projects going on at once. I'm slowing whittling away at each of them so I can get to the point of control. They all take prep work & if I think about it, I can get some done on one project while another one is stitching. I have my lists written! While these stitched, I was able to cut all the trims for my Christmas wallhanging. I anticipate handsewing those to the middle blocks in the evening. But, first I have to finish the embroidery on my Stitch 12 piece. Everything has to find its own place in the heirarchy!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

$3.24

2012-01-11T08:16:00.000-06:00

It took 10 minutes and $3.24 to turn my book from a cumbersome tool to an efficient tool.

Thank you, Office Depot!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Beautiful Garden -- Hand Embroidery Started

2012-01-08T09:42:00.000-06:00

Setting up my desk in the family room was a great idea! Now I have a designated spot where I can hand embroider. Toward that end, I was able to get quite a bit done this week.

I've started on my Beautiful Garden piece. My plan is to move more reds onto the surface through trims and embroidery. I am thinking about an orange/pink/red border for the birds so I need more of those warm colors sitting on my cool blues.

I found a new package of tie dye and variegated DMC floss at Hobby Lobby this week so I tried it immediately. Loved it!! This project is going to be so much fun. I am not saving any of my trims or charms--they are all going on Beautiful Garden (I'm concentrating more on the garden and less on the Virgin Mother) so I am eagerly stitching with the mindset that eventually I will be able to embellish.

I love this little set of bird embroideries--so sweet! The linen fabric was ravelling quicker than I could blanket stitch it. I need to pick up a fresh bottle of FrayCheck.

Last year I purchased the entire set of 50 State Birds with their state flowers. While I don't plan to stitch all of them for this quilt, I do expect to stitch a good variety for the borders. Here's Indiana's Cardinal with the Peony. Pretty impressive!

Now that I have my nifty handwork area, I am going to slowly work on some simple embellishments for the ornament blocks on my Christmas wallhanging. I'll add some trim to the lace section and I am thinking of a simple embroidered band around the last line of satin stitching. I wish I had more of this bullion rose trim but this was the last of that roll and I noticed the sticker said 2008. I've already hit all the clearance tables at the popular haunts this Christmas. Oh well. Something else will show up.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging -- Using the Fly Stitch

2012-01-07T08:05:00.000-06:00

My goal for TAST this year is to develop sets of complex looking bands that can be stitched with basic stitches. Toward that end, my seam treatment this week features a herringbone stitch as the structure of the band with the fly stitch added in the valleys of the herringbone stitch. The cross stitch fabric band was couched down with small fan stitches. Later, when it's time for the embellishments, I'll add beads in the fly stitch's belly & the fan points.

I decided this was a good project in which to use my specialty threads. The cross stitch band is from a huge stash that a friend gave me. I think these were originally used in the '80s & '90s for decorating towels. I think the bands will help convey the folk feeling I want for my Christmas wallhanging.

This seam treatment is 3 vertical rows of Fly Stitch overlapped. It's pretty bare right now but will be dressed up with beads later. As I was stitching, I decided the neighboring fabric will be perfect for small star sequins. I'll just place them over the printed stars!

Comments welcome! You may also want to drop by Tuesday Stitchers to see how other stitchers have interpreted the Fly Stitch.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging--Going with It!

2012-01-05T14:36:00.000-06:00

After much gnashing of teeth, lots of distractions and a few false starts, I ended up with this idea last night. This morning I stitched 4 more CQ blocks to get the border fleshed out and make the required number for the CQJP.

All the blocks are generally 12" with fabric to spare so I can square them up when done without too much fuss, she says hopefully. The sizing on this project has been a thorn in my side. I will need to add an inner border--likely to be green--to set the outer border away from the inner applique blocks. The green will tie in with the birdcage block and I'll probably bind it with green too. I anticipate hand embroidery in the greens, reds, golds, blues, purples of the machine embroidered motifs.

I love this Dove in a Birdcage motif but I have to say that after the last 2 weeks of intense machine embroidery, I'm a bit burned out on all this detailed motif stitching. Maybe I have gotten it out of my system for awhile. This bird motif is stitched on '80s chintz!

I had a few issues with the Nativity figures and the red border. So when I separated them, I could see they belonged in different wallhangings. The figures are quite large--6 x 9 so they need some large spaces to breathe. It is a ridiculously obviously balanced layout but I couldn't really do anything much differently given the poses, the ground upon which they stood and the nature of the angels. I'm going with it.

I discovered the Christmas wrapping paper I had was gridded on the back and with the paper cutouts of the figures, it was easier to play with the size of the block and arrangement than with the actual blocks. I do not want to cut those figures until I am 150% sure what I want to do. This will be a smaller wallhanging--in the 40" range for the one small wall I have in my dining room. Since I usually set up my big Nativity on the dining room table, this will be a nice complement to it.

I may do the handwork this summer. I expect some tonal beiges and golds--very subtle. I'll get my handstitching back up to par on the red Christmas wallhanging (and the beginner's blocks over with my Stitch Twelve group).
Moving from skill set to skill set is tough. I'm sure the next time I get on the longarm, I'll need to rethink what to do.

I might almost be ready to exhale!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging- Basic Composition

2011-12-29T10:04:00.001-06:00

For once in my life, I'd like to make something that doesn't require so much brainpower. Oh, nah, what fun would that be??

Here's the basic layout-

I can already tell you that I want an inner border--I don't like the jump from the reds to the beiges.

There's alot of blue in the embroideries already, so I like the idea of a blue inner border.
I am not going to make little CQ blocks. Cross that off the list right now. I'm thinking more of an embroidered border with either holiday motifs or snow/star tone on tone repeating motifs.
I'm having a little issue with mixing too many holiday motifs with the religious motifs. I like nature or the ornaments hanging from the tree but that's about it.

Couple Issues:

something between the 2 poinsettia sprays---maybe a bird in a wreath-would tie in with the cardinals in the bottom corners
don't want any more words since I have some already
should probably go ahead and make the middle section look more CQ--I am 4 blocks short of the 12 suggested for the CQJP--might as well go for the full enchilada.
I could make the embroideries as CQ blocks and blend them into the background (likely choice)
need to come up with an arrangement where they are not all lined up--more angels?
background fabrics are too thin for the embroideries--they need to be quilted or stabilized--as more of a CQ block that would help

Love this combination of Christmas ribbons all piled on top of each other---gives lots of good areas for hand embroidery--good for very inner border

Lots of blues in the ornaments and I can certainly add more blues and purples, greens or whatever through the hand embellishing.

This is a nice heavy silk that would embroider well so I will probably use it for the inner border. The section is about 3" wide.

I'm open for suggestions but don't be mad if I don't use them! I love these colors and motifs so I bet I could work on this all year. Who knows, right?

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging-The 3 Wise Men

2011-12-28T08:20:00.000-06:00

The 3 Wise Men's embroidery is as stiff as cardboard. While these are turning out pretty, they really are a bit intense with their layers of stitching and color changes. It's a lot of effort for a wallhanging that will hang a few weeks in the foyer. I'm sure it will give me maximum pleasurable enjoyment when done, right?

The background is composed of large pieced blocks. I'll be appliqueing the figures to it after I machine quilt it. I'm going for a layered effect with the figures being dominant--in color and position.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging-The Shepherds

2011-12-27T08:45:00.000-06:00

The Shepherds

Here's a test of my interest. All the Christmas decorations are put away. Will I want to continue working on this project? I still have a few main characters to embroider. The background and the border are pieced. I guess we'll see.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Season's Greetings

2011-12-24T09:29:00.001-06:00

Love and Peace

from Me to You

~Debra

Been There and Done That

2011-12-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

This is the time of year when all quilters look at their progress from the current year and either cry or clap. They cry because, well, the UFOs overfloweth or they clap because, well, they were pretty good at staying on task this year.
A month or so ago I had this brilliant idea that I would set a goal of a weekly quilt for 2012. It sounded lofty and just a little bit intimidating until I counted the quilts I did in 2011.

This morning I tallied up the quilts I made/finished/bartered/donated/gifted/sold:

1. Quilts I made from start to finish: 30
2. Quilts from others that I finished: 21
3. Quilts I bartered: 15
4. Quilts I made that were given for fundraising: 6
5. Gifted/Sold quilts: 11
6. Small AAQI sized quilts: 18

2011 UFOs:
3 Artquilt styled wallhangings I started for the TX Themed show I blew off. They just need to be quilted.
4 Gypsy Small wallhangings for Laura--they need binding
10 Donation Quilt Tops--just need to be quilted (I ran out of steam earlier in the month)

Pre-2011 UFOs:
that frickin' Orange CQ--it feels like a noose around my neck
2 partial Madonna CQs

2012 Goals:

More handwork on 2 new crazyquilts--working through TAST and CQJP with 2 support groups
Continue my Quilt Ministry working toward that weekly goal of a quilt a week!
Finishing the old CQ UFOs, the artquilts & the gypsies
Reach my $1000 Pledge with the AAQI by donating a sizable amount of pieces during 2012

Join in the Discussion! How did you do this year?

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

AAQI Awards $30,000 Research Grant

2011-12-21T09:35:00.004-06:00

As many of you know, Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative is an active on-going organization that raises money for Alzheimer Research. Many quilters from the world donate small works that are sold or auctioned. The proceeds from the sales are given to research. Ami Simms, who is the founder of the organization, does not draw a salary nor do any other people working with her. Everything about the organization is done voluntarily.

Continually, AAQI raises money! Just recently, it was able to give $30,000 for research to researchers at the University of Michigan. What a great accomplishment! I am happy to be involved with such a great cause. If you are not involved, consider adding AAQI to your 2012 goals. Take the $1000 Pledge.

For the complete story, here is the link.

If you would like to see my current offering for sale on the AAQI website, here is the link. I will have more during 2012 too!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging--More Angels

2011-12-20T09:18:00.002-06:00

A good opportunity to use metallic threads!

These toile Angels will be near the center of the composition.

The Sky Angels will be placed over the Nativity.

Now, I can start on the main figures of the Nativity. I expect a few days of work on those; but, they are really pretty & worth it!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging--Angel with Animals

2011-12-19T09:30:00.002-06:00

I totally, absolutely, unequivocably L.O.V.E. this angel with the SWEET Animals!

This embroidery is the start of the figures in the middle of the wallhanging. I've switched away from the Santa theme to the Nativity. I have a few more Angels to do before I start on the main figures. I thought I would get both large angels done yesterday until I realized this had 45 color changes! Even with a 6 spool machine, 45 color changes requires attention. But, it's so lovely!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging--Floral Spray

2011-12-18T08:32:00.000-06:00

I worked on 2 floral sprays for the interior of the wallhanging yesterday. They are mirror images of each other & I will put them at the bottom of the composition.

Everything is looking really pretty with this project. I'm sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging- Bottom Corners

2011-12-17T08:16:00.000-06:00

These cardinals are really pretty. I'll be using them for the bottom corners. Even though we don't have any snow on our backyard pine trees, we do have cardinals. Doesn't that lace in the background look like snowdrifts?

I am loving all this Red!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging: Outer Border

2011-12-16T08:40:00.000-06:00

I made great progress yesterday on the outer border. All but the lower 2 corner blocks are pieced. I was also surprised how much suitable fabric I had in this rich red. I rarely get a chance to use my metallic threads so it was fun to see how they embroidered the ornaments.

Today I'll move into the interior and start embroidering those blocks.

So far I'm tickled with the blocks!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Christmas Wallhanging

2011-12-15T09:45:00.000-06:00

Once I got all the Christmas decorations up, I felt like I would like to have a nice wallhanging in the foyer/dining room hall. I usually either hang my Tropical Tree of Life or the Newer Rawedge Landscape piece there. Neither has much of a holiday feel to it. So, I dove into my holiday fabrics and started writing down ideas.

I like red for Christmas with a Scandinavian feel--little bit country, if you will. I originally thought I would do all CQ blocks but with the help of a two by four to the head from Jane at Two Track Tails, I am now more into the hybrid version.

Yesterday I got started on the outside border blocks. They will be Christmas ornaments. It took alot, I say alot, of thinking to get those layers to stitch in one operation. Today should be a slamdunk (famous last words) with the rest of the blocks. I am so thrilled to be using these lace sample squares. I swear everytime I opened the lace drawer, they were taunting me. And, I had a eureka moment last week too. I have a good sized box of mauve chintz (polished cotton) from the 1980s. I discovered it is fabulous as backing fabric for the embroidery machine--nice and stout. So, I am working through that pile too. I will be very happy to see that fabric pressed into service.

Top corner block

2nd top corner block

One of the ornaments

While at Kohl's the other day, I spotted this poinsettia table runner. I believe those flowes will be perfect embellishments.

This set of forestry looking placemats may become the focal point as the background for a Victorian Santa and his reindeer.

So that's what I am doing to get ready for Christmas for next year! ha!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Beautiful Mother in the Garden Composition

2011-12-09T08:12:00.001-06:00

Absolutely in LOVE!!

This is exactly the way I want to be working on CQ. The "add a patch" technique worked so well for me here. I decided to decentralize the Mother and treat her like another element of the composition instead of the main focal point. By doing that, I got the CQ tapestry idea I wanted and the statue in the garden idea too. This is the smaller of the Madonnas so I believe I'll use the larger Madonna with the larger scaled roses (of which I have many) for another piece later. I think this Madonna fits nicely with the fresh country look going on here. I do plan to add a border in a "trellislike" idea.

I can hardly wait to start the handwork. But, I think I may have to take a pause and get ready for the holiday just a little.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

1st Quarter Blocks for TAST

2011-12-08T09:45:00.001-06:00

I am mentoringa group of beginning stitchers for the TAST in a small group where we are all accountable on a weekly basis for posting our stitches. Those of you that know me, know the drill!
In order to move them away from blank fabric pieces (and stitcher's block), I am encouraging them to make fabric books using the color wheel and CQ blocks.

Each month is a different color beginning with Red in January and working around the wheel (which conveniently has 12 colors!). We will stitch one block a month and add the 4 "lesson" stitches primarily to that month's page. My hope is that by the end of the year we have a fabulous book of stitches. I have also encouraged everyone to pick a theme.

For my project, I am going with a Sewing Theme augmented with flowers (naturally). I have 5000 little embroideries for flowers and I want to try them on this project. I also have a pretty cool collection of sketched sewing themed items. I will be pairing the colors with black and white--lots of funky threads and embellishments. I'm working as closely with the pure color as my fabrics allow but I'm not stressing out if something is not exact. This is going to be a fun project where I give myself permission to learn and play!

January block with Red

February block with Red Orange

(I have been wanting to try making "trim" with embroidery motifs. Those daisies will probably have a button in the middle.)

March block with Orange

(I want to be careful that block doesn't look like Halloween!)

These colors are so bright and cheerful. I want to climb into them now!!

So, now I am prepared for the TAST and can get back to either quilting a few more donation quilts or working on my Madonna piece. Now that my birthday has passed, I'll think about Christmas decorating. Thankfully, Wes suggested just a few items out this year and nothing outside but a small wreath.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Quick Post

2011-12-06T10:05:00.001-06:00

I am still working on my Beautiful Mother piece. I've decided to keep Her as a presence in the garden. My original design concept is as though Madonna is a statue in a beautiful garden. You see those kinds of statues alot in gardens in TX--that's my idea in fabric. I also wanted to give her a little structure, like a trellis, that would also double as an altar idea or a focal point.
Last night I unstitched the hems on the double-sided curtain valance so now I have plenty of fabric to work with for the background. In the meantime, I am machine embroidering some more motifs for blocks.

But, organizing and running the Beginner Stitchers TAST group is taking alot of time. I hope once everyone understands the mechanics of blogging, we can get to the stitching! I have 12 ladies from all over the world in my group and this morning I had a request from 3 more asking if I could squeeze them into my full group. I think this speaks to the power of the Internet and the need for women to find groups in which to belong and stitch. Lots of energy and creativity flowing.

These are the 2 groups you may want to add to your Google Reader:
Tuesday Stitchers is an eclectic group. We have gotten off to a marvelous start sharing ideas for our projects. Many in that group are doing the TAST and the Crazy Quilt Journal Project.
The beginner's group is TAST Study Group. We are working on Fabric Books with monthly color schemes and a book theme. Most of these stitchers are from all parts of the world.

Wish me Luck! Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Struggling a Little Here!

2011-12-04T10:56:00.001-06:00

Because I am working with alot of samples and thrifted linens, my choices are already challenging. And, because I feel like I need to embroider the motifs before composing the blocks (so they fit on the patches), I have to think through what I want and need.This is why I am working so hard right now.

The central medallion is giving me pause. I need your honest feedback!!

Half of me wants to abandon the idea of a focal point at all and just go with a tapestry approach. All the blocks would be filled with motifs and fabrics I love.The other half of me loves the Madonna in Her Garden--peacefully looking out at the world.

Last night when I went to bed, I was sure the tapestry approach was right. This morning I thought the Madonna was right.I pulled Wes into the studio last night and asked him if he liked the way the Madonna was framed with the darker background amid all the pale blue and white. He did (alot).

The intent there is to use this thrifted curtain that has huge wonderful soft rose bouquets as the main background. Then, I would add some broderie perse roses to fill in and "grow" over & around the trellis.The Trellis--I only have this one piece of yellow fabric. It's a home dec sample. It has 2 full "trellis" stripes on it. Wes agreed that it looked more trellis than the embroidered rose one I had been trying. My thought here is to cut the bottom of the trellis short and fill in with some broderie perse flowers so I have enough length to go across the top. You have to get really creative when working with limited resources.
Another issue is that battenburg lace runner is really a collar that someone cut out the middle. Remember that hideous fad from the 80s? So, I will have to get creative with the rose placement so I can use that runner.

This central focal point would give me a spot to add some reds too so the whole composition doesn't turn into something too sweet for human consumption. [Although, I really, really love this, really, really.] I do plan to use reds and pinks for the stitching.

I'm still concerned the composition doesn't have the required 12 blocks to qualify for the challenge. I am almost to the point of saying, "Oh well!" and not forcing a square peg into a round hole. I have another idea I can use for the challenge.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Central Section-Mother in the Garden

2011-12-03T09:25:00.001-06:00

I had a few issues to work out with my composition before I could proceed.

The central section is the backbone of the composition and I feel most comfortable when I know its finished size. Then, I can build the outer blocks to size.
The central Madonna was just too small.
In order to qualify for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project, the composition has to have 12 blocks. I originally only had 9. If I am going to spend all year embroidering and embellishing this piece, it should at least qualify for the challenge. In light of that, I needed to rearrange some of the blocks.
The dull green blocks turned out to be very dull. I've decided to downplay that color by making it an accent color.

Here's how the composition looks this morning.

I have this bandana with the Virgin printed on it. It's poor quality so I don't want to use the actual bandana but I feel like I can use it as an applique pattern. I like the scale much better.

I also want the Virgin on an old linen--I like the looks of Her on a solid background (and since I have that gigantic box of linens I bought this past summer, I want to use them.)

I still want a trellis but I don't want Her to look like she is imprisoned or cut off from the rest of the quilt. I'm still toying with that idea.

I have bought lots of stripes in the past so this is as good a time as any to use them--one is bound to work for a trellis.

I will have a "trellis effect" with the stripe and then the dull green as an arch from the sides and across the top.

The "reject blocks" have been pressed into service as side blocks. Some of the blocks have big open spaces but those are planned for future embellishments or stitching. It's difficult to plan those now--I want to fill them-but experience tells me that I need to wait.

I hope to get a couple more blocks pieced today. I think I have all the fabrics and motifs edited and can proceed. Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Upper Right Corner and an Extra

2011-12-01T08:22:00.001-06:00

I feel a little like Dolly Parton when she says, "it takes a whole lotta money to look this trashy" (or some such quote) because it takes a whole lotta effort to look this easy when making crazy quilt blocks. Contrary to the belief that you slap some pretty fabric down on a foundation and add some embroidery stitches, it ain't all that it appears!

BUT, I do feel like I am making some serious progress! The colors are flowing well and the mood of the piece is loud and clear! I had some leftover scraps and motifs that didn't make the 1st round so I went ahead & made a 15" block. I just never know when I will need a 15" cq block. (*wink*) I guess it beats having even more miscellaneous scraps to deal with in my stash. I am getting tired of little scraps. (I know. I said that. Shoot me.)

I love this little piece. It was a serious amount of work even by machine. Unfortunately, it and its companion pieces were lost when my computer crashed last year. All the work to digitize it from a pamphlet to a readable file for the embroidery machine are gone. I can redo it but I think I'll just move forward and enjoy this remaining piece on my garden CQ.

This is the reject block and I love it too! I'll probably end up stitching it--maybe I need a garden journal or something. Who knows?

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Mother in the Garden-Upper Right Corner & Trellis

2011-11-29T08:54:00.001-06:00

I am actually working on 2 big projects simultaneously. While the embroidery machine is stitching the central baskets for my spring vintage inspired crazy quilt, I am sewing the blocks and messing around with the central section of my Mother in the Garden crazy quilt.

I am going on record here saying that it is difficult to edit down to the very basics. I am trying to leave room for later embellishments and spaces for some fancy embroidery work should I decide to do any of that. All this planning and negotiating with fabric (because it ALL wants on the quilt) is exhausting!

Here is the upper left corner. I plan to add the rose cross stitch and the blue roses as appliques. I like the idea of many layers. I am trying to work with some pre-existing embroidery - both hand and machine- before I jump into new embroidery. As it is, this one block took all day to make.

I decided that I wasn't happy with the magnitude of Our Mother's block. It seemed too passive. I've been toying with the idea of a trellis on previous Madonna pieces & this piece seems like a perfect candidate. It is Mother in the Garden, after all! So, I pulled out a pre-stitched piece to mock up what a trellis might look like with the central block. Except for the dominant red roses, I like it.

Any comments? My thought is to add some broderie perse roses amongst the embroidered roses on the trellis. The top will have a bird nest or two. I do like how the darker blue works with the bottom blue blocks but the red may draw too much away from the attention I want for the Mother.

I am going to fold on the idea of combining the Hummingbird and Peacock blocks with the Blue Delft blocks of my other idea CQ. I like them very much as bottom focal points in this composition. I think they give needed weight to the bottom. If I am not careful, this will start looking like a pastel Easter basket.

It was amazing that when I cut into my fabrics nothing monumental happened. No fabric police or anything. How anti-climactic. *wink* But, on the flipside, how invigorating to see each wonderful motif that I love and adore! This will be such a pleasure to hand embroider.

Small question: to qualify for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project, it needs 12 blocks (min of 6"). Do you see where I could add 4 blocks?

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

2012 Challenges--I'm In!

2011-11-28T09:01:00.001-06:00

As we begin to wind down 2011, there are cyber plans forming for a wonderful 2012 filled with new friends and new stitching opportunities. If you like hand embroidery, 2 challenges beckon. Sharon Boggon is rerunning her Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge. Each Tuesday a new embroidery stitch will be introduced and participants are encouraged to learn the basics and then experiment with some variations. It's a fabulous way to expand your stitch repetoire. If you are like me, you have your set of "go to" stitches. Having a few more stitches wouldn't kill ya!

The 2nd challenge running concurrently is the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012. This challenge is designed to encourage stitchers to make projects so the world will embrace crazy quilting. The minimum requirement is a 6" block per month for a total of 12 months. Really, a 6" block wouldn't kill ya either!

Several (well, 12 of us) stitchers have banded together into a study group so we are accountable for getting through the year of new stitches. We all know how easy it is to start & how long the journey is to the end. But, we anticipate the small group setting to motivate us to move forward and stay stitching. Our group is called Tuesday Stitchers. You are welcome to bookmark our blog, become a follower, comment and help us stay motivated. I'm not going to lie--it's a long stretch. If you are a devoted reader of mine, you will recognize some friends!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Our Lady in the Garden & New Garden Baskets

2011-11-27T09:32:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was quite the day! I was chugging along on all 4 cylinders! I finally got the clue how I wanted to proceed with my newest Madonna quilt. I embroidered this Madonna with (cross stitched) roses last year. She was just waiting for the right garden!

I decided to cut into my stash of florals for the beginnings of Her Garden. I am using some of my hoarded stash--the ones I love but haven't had the nerve to cut . . . .until now! With my newfound determination to use and enjoy my stash, they went under the scissors.

Here is the Central Medallion with all the patches pieced in. The Madonna will be appliqued on once I trim the outer edges. She may still need some fortifying--not sure yet.

I am trying to remind myself that even though I can embroider motifs that not every motif needs to be embroidered. So, some broderie perse birds and flowers are flying into the mix. My intent is to add variety. Is this right, do you think?

Yea, I know--a design wall only a quilter could love! *wink* It is organized chaos!

While I was working on Her, the embroidery machine was chugging away. It was a bit of stitch, jump up, stitch, jump up. I want to do a crazy quilt that is nothing but girly vintage or vintage inspired 50s motifs--bright and cheerful. I am seriously giving into my inner girl on this one.

This is a set of 12 baskets. I am stitching them in a 5 x 7 size on some miscellaneous eyelet. They look huge but when I fill the white spaces around with a gazillion more girly motifs, I hope they will shrink. I hope. I'm going with it, anyway!

I know! Really? Yea, you might be surprised. These are really delightful!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Peacock Embroidery

2011-11-25T08:23:00.001-06:00

This piece is not distorted like it looks here. Another intensely stitched bird--3 hours. Once it was done, I decided I liked the hummingbird by itself as the central medallion for my CQ. I may see how this looks with some of my rose fabrics. It may be the center piece I've been waiting to appear.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Deborah's Friendship Star Quilt

2011-11-24T08:33:00.001-06:00

I love this kind of quilt! It's so cozy and so welcoming-like outstretched arms. This is a top Deborah gave me at the Houston Quilt Festival. We had swapped some scraps so when it came back, I still had enough of the blue for a nice border. It was fun looking at the prints she combined. For the solid squares I did a little handwriting quilting. It was so fun that I think I'll be doing more of that in my donation quilts. Thanks Deborah! Love teamwork!

It always tickles me to have a great backing for these tops already in my stash. Here's a thrifted sheet perfect for the backing. As I was pressing it, I discovered 2 small holes. I was so thankful I had decided to look more closely before I put it on the frame. A few seams later and it was ready for service.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Thankful Day, Y'All!

Hummingbird

2011-11-23T08:35:00.001-06:00

This hummingbird is incredible!The stitching time alone was 3 hours. It's so pretty that I can't keep from looking at it. It's probably one of the most labor intensive pieces I've done on the embroidery machine but so worth it!

It is embroidered on silk and even though I trimmed the edge very closely, you can see that it raveled a little-probably due to the friction of the machine against the fabric grain. Errg. I'll have to very carefully cut those little edges with my tiny little scissors. Or, add some embroidery next to the edge that covers it.

Today I will be embroidering the hummingbird's companion: the peacock. Together they will form the central medallion of my crazy quilt.

In other news, while the machine stitched I was able to get all the gifted fabric off the floor and into the little cubby I had cleared out with the last big push of quiltmaking. It's surprising how quickly fabric finds a home with me. It's 6 steps forward and 8 steps back. I also got all the waiting quilts bound and delivered to UPS or the local Angel Tree coordinator. Today I'll load a few more quilts on the frame for the kiddos.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

More Prep & Discussion

2011-11-22T07:36:00.001-06:00

Yesterday morning I went out to the drapery workroomto meet my neighbor's drapery lady and pick up some scraps. Really what she gave me were pieces and some yardage. Interestingly enough, there was a good amount of reds, golds and browns which fit into my current project. It's all usable and all expensive. I had to comment to Wes that the decorators who estimate the drapery yardage are a little heavy handed; some of the pieces are easily 2 yards over and generally these are not fabrics with repeats. So now my dining room table and the floor are covered in fabric. You know what I will be doing today!

I wanted to comment here about some of the comments from yesterday's post. I hadn't really thought about myself as a CEO of a company (of 1) but in many ways, that is true. I do have daily and weekly goals. I know just about how much I can accomplish in a day & I try to structure my goals & workload accordingly.

I think of myself as a bit of a tumbleweed; shifting back and forth between projects. I don't seem to be able to stay with the same technique(s) indefinitely. I think subconsciously I reach my saturation point in one area and move over to another area. It keeps me interested enough to work all day all week. But, I think if you look at all the work I do and have done, it hangs together as recognizably mine.

The main reason I wanted to work on a big CQ project for 2012 is that I didn't want to be making a bunch of miscellaneous blocks upon which to practice stitching. In the end, I would have to do something with those blocks. I am more interested in one big piece for all the blocks & stitches. Then, when 2012 ends, I'll have a new wallhanging. Taking the time to work through the planning stages now just makes sense to me. I'm in the mood to consolidate lots of little pieces of this and that and so making more little blocks to deal with later makes my head hurt.

The other reason for planning is that my piece will have some large areas of machine embroidery and I needed to do them and have them sized so when Jan arrives, I am ready to handstitch. The blue delft embroideries surprised me--they take 60 minutes to stitch & about 30 minutes of prep each so in themselves, they are a few days of effort. The hummingbird and peacock will be a few hours each. I'm estimating 3 days just for the focal point embroideries.

And, finally, I have 2 or 3 CQ pieces that may never get finished because I didn't understand how to plan well enough in advance. It's been difficult to go back and try to rectify the mistakes on them. Maybe 2012 should be the year of problem-solving on them too.

This is the other bottom corner. The chocolate brown is one of the new pieces I received yesterday. The background silk matches the other corner's oval. You can see all the corners in the previous post.

As I am combing through the boxes looking for fabrics, those that catch my eye and will work for my Madonna piece are getting pinned to the design wall.

I've also started pulling some very dainty and feminine fabrics for a vintage inspired CQ with baskets and spring flowers. I'm going to relax with my 1950s inner girl on this one!

I guess I'll continue blogging then! Appears I still have a few dedicated readers. Thanks for hanging out with me. Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Preparing for 2012 Challenges

2011-11-21T08:21:00.001-06:00

A few days ago I was opening fabric boxes in the walk-up attic that I haven't opened in awhile. What struck me is that I have alot of fabric in certain colors. In a few colors, I am really stocked. I also have a few of what I considered to be very attractive designer samples from when I was in an interior design program in the 1990s. These were pieces I picked up because they just appealed to me; that was their primary reason for coming home with me. When I pulled out those samples and really looked at them, all of them had a very similiar color range and it matched the dominant colors in my fabric collection. What was even more interesting to me is that I still loved the samples and the colors.

I've been a little restless lately to find some handwork. I love machine work but occasionally I need to slow down the pace and do handwork. I really don't enjoy a steady diet of either; although, truth be told, I like machine work more.

I didn't do any challenges this year and while I enjoyed my studio time, I missed the comraderie a challenge offers with like-minded stitchers. I've decided to participate in 2 organized challenges and 1 self created challenge for 2012. In order to be ready to start the stitching for 2012, I have prep work to do now.

As I was thinking about some possible projects, I decided to go ahead and let the designer samples lead me in a direction. I am refusing to get hung up on any part of the process. I've made a decision that I am fine with the level of creativity at which I work, with the methods and with the materials. I'm not interested in blazing new frontiers. I'm interested in pleasing myself. I'm going to trust my instincts and rely on what I know works.

So, in light of the recent thinking, I schlepped a bunch of supplies downstairs to the dining room table (my 2nd studio!) and spent entirely too much time on the Embroidery Library website choosing designs for the next big (fairly formal and traditional) crazy quilt.

I tend to spend the weekdays on service projects and the weekends on my own projects and this weekend was no exception. I hope to get this large crazy quilt pieced and ready for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project - 2012. I'm going to follow along with Take a Stitch Tuesday on Sharon's blog so I have an outline of new stitches to explore. I started this challenge a few years ago and it really is a good way to expand one's understanding of hand embroidery stitches. It's one of those challenges that is fairly self-directed and open-ended in possibilites. I figure it will give me an opportunity to slow down and enjoy some handwork.

Here's the scene in my dining room this morning! Wes and I are eating Thanksgiving at the country club so I don't have to clean up the room or the house. (Yea!)

I'm working with a basic color scheme of red, blue and yellow--softened to more of the country tones. I'm using alot of "one of" fabric samples so I am being cautious and thinking carefully about what I am doing. I don't always have 2 alternatives if I mess up on one of the patches.

Yesterday I was able to get 3 of the 4 corners done. I am using a delft blue embroidery design for the corners: 3 birds and a flower urn. For the central medallion I am using an Art Nouveau inspired pair of birds: a hummingbird and a peacock.

I can do all the planning in the world but nothing compares to having the final stitchout in front of me! Until the embroideries are done & I have the actual sizes, I am waiting to sew the crazy quilt blocks. They will encircle the medallion and then form 2 borders around the outsides. I am anticipating a large wallhanging to replace the tropical wallhanging in my living room.

This is a lower corner--100% wool with a silk oval. I used the back of the silk-it was much more graceful than the red and black front.

An upper corner--the damask background has pretty beige leaves against a creme background. (I'll have to take better pics for this project, I can see.)

The top ovals have a yellow green coarse linen as the background for the birds. I've had this linen since the early 90s when I thought I could use it for hand cross stitching. I snagged it on the JoAnns clearance table along with some other linens. I'm happy to press it into service now. It really adds a nice textural background for the birds.

Here's a general mock-up of the central medallion. Creams, glods, whites, country blues and reds--all colors in my house and apparently colors I have loved over the years as evidenced by the boxes of fabrics in those colors. Maybe this project will help unload some of the pieces.

I hope you will join me as I stitch. If you are reading this in Google Reader, let me know, willya? I almost gave up blogging until I realized there really were people reading just not commenting.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

4 of the 12 Quilts

2011-11-19T07:30:00.000-06:00

Gail Norback from Northville, Michigan sent me these first 3 tops to quilt for Victoria's Basic Housing Quilt Drive. Quilts are being collected for families moving into temporary housing in the Bronx. It was so much fun to sew on these happy colors! I was pleasantly surprised how many of the prints I recognized from my own stash too.

Aren't these funny cats?

I don't believe I have ever seen an ugly string quilt! This one is a beauty, for sure!

Below is one of the tops I made during the late summer. It's about as feminine and frilly as it gets!

What a great accomplishment for a Friday!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

On the Agenda

2011-11-17T08:46:00.001-06:00

I have some machine quilting to do by the end of the month! Twelve quilts to be exact. If I do these, I'll be caught up. I'm looking forward to some quilting time--it's always fun to quilt something someone else has made. This stack includes Smackdown Quilts from Barbara, Deborah and Julie & 4 twin sized Pyramid quilts from late summer.

I also volunteered to help quilt tops from Victoria's Basics Quilt Gather that gives quilts to families in temporary housing in the Bronx. Three tops arrived from Gayle and they will be going on the frame today. Lovely bright cheerful colors.

I also teamed up with the local Angel Tree coordinator to provide quilts for kids who have one or both parents in prison. In order for the kids to receive anything from the Angel Tree organization, the parent has to contact the prison chaplain and make arrangements. The chaplains then contact the Angel Tree organization for help. In my small town of Montgomery there are 25 kids who have an incarcerated parent. Surprisingly, the majority of the local kids are girls.
On the official angel tree website, they estimate that 1.7 million kids have an incarcerated parent. That is a staggering amount!
I gave the local coordinator the last batch of scrap quilts from my 8 in 6 Challenge. It's the 1st time she has received quilts for the kids so it was heartwarming for both of us to connect and share.

I'm fiddling around with some ideas for the Chinoiserie Birds and want to include this lovely embroidery of the Beautiful Mother I did awhile ago. Wouldn't she look lovely in her own gazebo overlooking a garden of birds and flowers?

These roses are machine cross stitched.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Kris's String Quilt

2011-11-16T09:19:00.001-06:00

Kris's String Quilt

Queen Sized

Machine sewn and quilted from scraps

Lots of wonderful prints in this quilt. I'm sure they have found a good home with my cousin!

The free form machine quilting is a meander loop over a curved line--reminds me of thread unspooling. Variegated thread colors appear and disappear over the surface.

Jacobean floral backing--very soft cotton

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Chinoiserie Birds: Set 3

2011-11-13T14:33:00.001-06:00

Here are the last of the Chinoiserie Birds. I believe I have enough to begin work with my inkling of an idea about gardens. This one will have to develop as it goes!

I love the satin as a background for the embroidery. Satin is not my favorite fabric to work with so having it stabilized on a coarser background fabric will make it so much more manageable. The pretty shine coming through is quite lovely in person. I also like the outer edge embroidered with a fancy stitch instead of satin stitch. Just gorgeous colors that I love!

The piece below will become an Alzheimer Art Quilt. There will be 3 in the set and I hope to have them done by the end of the month. I realize now that it's best to be a few months in advance of the season in order to give everyone time to get pieces listed and into an auction. So I am going to begin my spring themed pieces now. I may even go so far as to think about Valentine's Day with some pretty Love embroideries.

This one is embroidered on silk with a silk background.

While at the Houston Quilt show this year, I had the idea to ask the APQS people for their used practice pieces when the show was over. Sophie and I gathered them into 2 large garbage bags. When we got back to my house, we discovered that there were some good areas and some real practice areas. I decided to use the less than perfect pieces as stabilizer for the embroideries that will become Alzheimer quilts. With the firm batik, the whole unit makes a very nice stabilizer & the embroideries came out pucker-free which is always a plus. You can see how dense the designs stitch out.

Between jumping up to change threads, hoops, check thread color combinations & landing on Facebook (the perils of having my laptop on in the studio), I was able to get my cousin's top all assembled and loaded on the longarm this weekend. I have a fabulous blue and beige Jacobean print for the backing. I may start the quilting tomorrow.
It's been a busy weekend. I am always amazed how much activity my little studio space can generate.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Chinoiserie Birds: 2nd Set

2011-11-12T11:58:00.001-06:00

These birds have sent me down a path I didn't know I wanted to go. For 2 days I have been searching through my own embroidery files and those of Emblibrary (where I buy lots of designs) looking for complementary designs.

My biggest problem is that I love all kinds of designs. I am often sucked into the mindset that design XYZ won't "go with" other designs. I don't think as freely as I want to think. It often takes a few days for the layers of thinking to morph into some idea that is yards away from where I thought I was going to go.

I don't think these birds are going to be the birds for my own personal historical crazy quilt. I think these birds want to live in a garden tended by the beautiful Mother. I'm going to be playing it more by ear than I expected and letting the creative spirit speak to me.

I am still making these embroideries in sets of two. One set will be finished for the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative quilts. This set (below) is my test stitch out. I generally don't make them for all my embroideries but when I am in doubt, I have decided this is a good idea. For this set, I am glad I did because I could see immediately once the flowers had stitched out that I wanted more vibrant colors on my own embroidery. So it was easy enough to change colors when the 2nd one stitched.

I get a kick out of quilters who keep track of the number of stitches they sew on their pieces (like they really can) so for the record, each of these embroideries has +/- 53,000 stitches! (I have a stitch counter on my machine.)

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

The Beginning of Something Big!

2011-11-10T08:20:00.000-06:00

A couple of thoughts --

I don't like to waste time--the idea of running a few machines simultaneously is a great way for me to work
Operating multiple machines involves a serious amount of planning
Up until this point, I've had the idea but not the desire to follow through with setting up the multi-tasking needed
I don't like to make embroidery stitch samples
I want to make contributions to the Alz Quilts
I want to start a new large crazy quilt (CQ) project
I have a big stack of tops to machine quilt & some mindless piecing (I'm going to begin thinking of that operation as Zen Stitching) that I need to complete soon

Alot of the embroidery designs I want to use are stitch intensive.
They take anywhere from 1-2 hours to stitch + the set up time. Because of the preparation involved, I don't want to grab any fabric to test the design. I want my efforts to be useable.

Soooo, I figured out that since I have 2 sets of all my hoops, I would embroider 2 of my larger designs one after the other. One can be for future Alzheimer quilts and one can be for my crazy quilt.

It's not a big deal to pick fabrics for the Alz quilts since they will be stand alone pieces (although this set will be matching); but, the CQ took some brainpower and decision-making skills.

In the not too distant past, I had pulled a nice assortment of pastels from my stash to use for a crazy quilt. They were boxed and ready to go. I just needed to sort through them again for a 2nd weeding, deciding which rows would be which color.

Getting started is sometimes the hardest step. I act like all this fabric and these embroidery designs are one of a kind. In reality, they are a dime a dozen. Of course, what I do with them makes them priceless. *wink*

Quilting the background fabric can add an interesting layer of stitching to some very plain fabrics. They can be glamourized before adding machine embroidery. It offers a new design possibility-- gives me texture instead of prints-which I need for my CQs to be more successful.

All of this takes planning-Alot of Planning. Yesterday I reminded myself that if this project takes a long time, that is OK. Start and see where it goes. It's exciting and scary at the same time!

Silk fabrics paired together for an Alz quilt. This is my sample stitch out -- making sure the colors are what I want. I stitch the 1st set of colors, change to the 2nd hoop, stitch those colors again, change back and stitch the next set of colors continuing until both pieces are done. It took about 4 hours to stitch these 2 pieces. The bird design is about 7".

I'll be using a greyed blue green, yellow green, blue and orange color scheme for my crazy quilt. (I know, what a shock!) I've planned the fabric to be low key and marginally dull so the colorful embroidery stands out. I plan to hand embellish the seams and any other areas that may need embellishing. I want every part of this project to be exactly what I want and love.

The 1st of 4 Chinoiserie Birds stitched on satin. The satin was machine appliqued to a very basic heavy woven "canvas like" cotton, then the design was stitched.

The theme will be (gasp) birds and flowers; Jacobean flowers primarily (I think). I am contemplating whether to have a middle focal point or multiple blocks grouped as a focal point. (Suggestions?) I might think about that idea today while I Zen Stitch my cousin's string quilt.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

The General Rundown

2011-11-08T09:05:00.000-06:00

It was super great having Sophie here for the Quilt Show! We had a very flexible approach to the show so we viewed it how we wanted. Along the way we met up with Irene Puzinas (from Canada) and that was a blast. We walked around and evaluated various sections of quilts. It's great fun with another quilter & her particular input.

Friday night we met up with Deborah McLaughlin and her cousin for dinner. I loved every minute of that meeting too--Tex Mex and conversation.

Saturday Sophie and I played in my studio. Sophie wanted to see if her feather skills on her domestic machine would transfer to the longarm. She warmed up on a twin sized top that she left for me to donate. Later in the day she started working on the baby quilt with feathers. By the late night, we were both exhausted and the machine was squacking at us so we finished up Sunday morning before going to the show for the final day.

I had chatted with the APQS rep Thursday asking if I could have all the practice rolls from the longarm machines so we were ready with plastic bags when the show closed. I'll be using them for the batting on donation quilts. Once they are covered and quilted, no one will ever know.

The show itself was excellent. Nothing particularly new; most of it was predictable. I enjoyed the scrap quilts the most.

There were more than a few "What's the Point?" pieces; as in, if you have a photo of something, what's the point of reproducing it onto fabric and covering it with thread to match the original photo?

Lots of the quilts have become immediately identifiable (which even Wes mentioned a few years ago has to sway jurors) as a "XYZ's work". More than one or two were classic ripoffs of originals without any credit and Sophie and I thought that maybe the jurors thought they were from the original quilters.

There were also a few quilts that were really not on the level of other quilts but we decided they had photographed much better than they were in reality. Most of the judges' decisions were sound except in the applique division, IMHO. One that puzzled us was a cut and fused mandala in the "traditional applique" division. It didn't place but it seemed totally out of place.

I'm very close to very done with the Japanese quilts. They are phenomenal but they are very predictable. They are on their own level; as are the Best of Show quilts. The hierarchy is probably Best of Show, Japanese, the rest of the show, special exhibits, charity exhibits. (Although one of the most exquisite Best of Show quilts was Japanese.)

A few of the special exhibits were really wonderful but a few were blech. We did enjoy the Texas themed exhibits, the Text on Quilts exhibit, the 12 x 12 exhibit but the Hoffman Challenge was so predictable it wasn't even funny.

We discovered & loved 2 new quilters (to us--they are not new to quilting): Janet Stone who often wins in the Embellished Division. Her work is impeccably perfect. You would have to get up very early in the morning to beat her in that division. Just exquisite attention to detail & so refined and elegant in her execution. She clearly understands how to edit.

Some links to her award-winning work: here, here is a slide show. She's working on an alphabet series & these quilts are winning at all the shows.

And we loved Kathleen McCrady's work. She's a Texas quilter and has some quilts in the Quilt Index and an interview with the Alliance. One of her quilts that I loved on a very whimsical level was her basket quilt where she fussycut the floral prints to represent bouquets in the baskets. We stopped and admired that quilt twice!

It's getting to the point that it is not enough to bind a quilt. Now you need an elaborate multi-layered binding or some kind of freeform appendage, like prairie points or corded celtic knots.

Not nearly as many crystals as previous years but certainly still a serious design element. Paint is still front and center on lots of quilts.

My big purchases at the vendors were 100 longarm needles, a pair of machine embroidery scissors and a circle template for the longarm. From what I heard, the vendors had a good show; although, I didn't see lots of packages walking out the door. We spent 2 days with the quilts and Sunday afternoon with the vendors so buying was not my priority.

Sophie and I had lots of time to talk about the Retreat Idea for 2012. I'm very stoked to be able to offer my friends a way to connect, see the show and enjoy some workshop or leisure opportunities. As the time gets closer next year, I'll work out logistics. If you want to be included in the emails for preplanning the Retreat, drop me an email. I am going to keep the attendees right at 10 with 15 as the absolute max.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Sophie's quilt on the longarm!

Kris's String Quilt

2011-11-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

The perfect ying/yang quilt: the feminine inside protected by the masculine outside. Love, love, love, love, love!

The sets of 4 blocks are sewn together. Next will be those sets sewn together but after the Houston Quilt Festival which starts tomorrow!

I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Jacobean Embroidery for AAQI

2011-11-01T09:04:00.001-05:00

I was able to finish these pieces with a machine embroidered satin edge. It's a pretty finish if I can remember to do it and to compose the embroidered arrangement so the composition is not squashed. I am wrapping it up for the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative until the spring. I have some pretty florals planned next.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

More Angels and a Discovery!

2011-10-30T10:06:00.000-05:00

I worked another full day on these and am coming to the end of the angel pieces. While I was casually thinking about them, an idea came into my mind. What if I tried to use the embroidery machine to quilt a background on some of the taffeta and satin? OMG! I was thrilled with the results!!

This discovery opened a window onto the reason I have been stalling about making another CQ. I just don't like that flat look of fabric in crazy quilts. The shine I can handle (sometimes) but plain, boring fabric is hard to dress up even with exquisite embroidery. Being able to embroider a small grid will give some of my fabrics that little touch they have been missing. Once the Houston Quilt Festival is over, I think I can proceed with a fresh eye! It's so interesting what you learn while doing something else!

These pieces are all square, believe me, but my camera angle was askew. Good thing I am not the photographer for the AAQI website. They would never sell any pieces.
I've found that 2" wide binding is a good width for these small sizes.

Angel with Baby

12 x 9 inches

machine embroidery

made for the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative

Angel at Arch

12 x 9 inches

machine embroidery with embellishment

made for the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative

I couldn't stand that blank space at the ends of 'Merry Christmas' but I only had one sequined poinsettia! It was left over from my last Hoffman Challenge. I don't mind leftovers because when I get into a 'collaging' mood, I like to be able to shop my attic for supplies. Eventually, everything finds a new home.

Angel with Manger

12 x 9 inches

machine embroidery

made for the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative

I still need to sew this binding down. Isn't the satin lovely with the grid quilting? All of a sudden it has some character! It's a nice contrast to the embroidered satin.

This bright blue taffeta never had it so good! It is totally scrumptious now! I'll trim and bind this last piece today.

It's been a great experience working on these Alzheimer pieces. My personal AAQI page was looking a little lean but now I'll have some timely pieces to offer. It requires some advanced planning to get pieces into the queue in time for seasonal auctions. I was joking with JenClair that I should start on some Valentine's pieces; but you know, I may be right. (Hmm, doilies, flowers, hearts--ya, I can dig it!)

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Joyful & Hopeful Angels for AAQI

2011-10-29T08:40:00.000-05:00

I would like to say that these were quick and I zipped right through their construction; but that's not the case. These 2 took all day. I thought I would be making 6 panels that were relatively uniform. As it turns out, I am making each one unique. Strange how that happens. I couldn't resist the embellishments either. They looked so incomplete with an embroidery slapped onto a background.

Joyful Angel

8½ x 11 inches

machine embroidery with embellishments

Made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

Hopeful Angel

8½ x 11 inches

machine embroidery with embellishments

Made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Working on AAQI Christmas Pieces

2011-10-28T09:03:00.001-05:00

Right after I married Wes, I decided that I wanted to make a Christmas CQ for the holidays. Back then, we had a JoAnns and the Hobby Lobby was pretty well stocked. So, at the sales, I collected a nice assortment of holiday & winter fabric prints. I also collected a large assortment of embroidery designs. Somewhere along the line, I was told that my prints were too busy for CQ work and that I needed to use more solids and shiny fabrics. It was the pin that popped the balloon. I've never gotten back to the idea of a Christmas CQ since then. Earlier this week I rallied and decided the prints would be fine for some AAQI pieces. It would give me the opportunity to use the embroidery designs without making a full committment to a large CQ.

My buddy, Angela, gave me a big box of shiny fabrics -- relics from her past-- that I pulled for this project. What I discovered is that while some of the fabric had aged or faded, it was super for stabilizer. I try to use every single bit of fabric. I strongly believe in the "trickle down theory" for everything. So I harvested the areas I could use for the embroidery and the rest was placed underneath for stabilizing the fabric. One of the costly aspects of machine embroidery is the stabilizer. You can't embroider without it or your stitches will pucker so finding some inexpensive alternatives is always on my radar screen.

Here's my progress as of last night. The Toile Angel set has 6 different angels. I was able to set up ovals for the frames and do the outline stitching. I am so impressed with the outline on these 2 first angels!

This Angel with the Tree is a bit smaller so I decided to add some trim. One feature I can use is a basting stitch; but, I have to remember to do it beforehand! I basted the square and then used it as the guideline for the trim. I glued the trim down (Elmer's Glue) and will go back and add a fancy stitch over the edge.

I also plan to embroider "Merry Christmas" on a ribbon to go across the bottom of each composition.

If I put my nose to the grindstone, I might be able to get the 6 Angels done today. While I was working on them, the machine was busy embroidering this 3 piece set of Jacobean embroideries. I love their bright colors and I hope they will be a hit for AAQI too!

This is so unlike me to start Christmas pieces in October but in order for them to be ready for auction, I had to think ahead. I could probably stockpile them for next year. Once I started looking at my collected designs again, there are so many pretty ones that I want to continue making them.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Roses with Flowers Collage for AAQI

2011-10-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

Roses with Flowers Collage

12 x 9 inches

machine embroidery, vintage linens & doilies, trims, buttons, yoyos

Made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

This rose bouquet is one of my favorite machine embroidery designs--retro yet fresh.

I love making these compositions drawing from collections of oddball supplies; both mine and given to me.

I discovered that commercial quilt binding is perfect for the binding. Really works great.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Be Happy! for AAQI

2011-10-26T09:01:00.000-05:00

Be Happy!

9 x 12 inches

Machine embroidery with embellishments on a collage background

Made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

(again, it's straight!)

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Tender Mother for AAQI

2011-10-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Tender Mother

8½ x 12 inches

machine embroidery with vintage CQ, lace, buttons, photo transfer

Made for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

(the bottom is straight--I can't take a decent photo!)

Detail

This one is really pretty--very delicate with the more dominant CQ sitting on the background. I love how it turned out!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

2 New AAQI Pieces

2011-10-24T08:14:00.000-05:00

Girl in Oval Crazy Quilt

8½ x 11

machine embroidery with patchwork

made for the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative

Sweet Mother

8½ x 12

machine embroidery with photo transfer

made for the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative

It's been awhile since my last contributions to the AAQI, so I decided to slow the sewing pace down and make a few new pieces. I doubt they will be in Houston but I was told that the inventory is seriously low when they return and that new pieces will really be needed. The 8 x 12 size is a tough one for me -- I need more space!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Tinkering with the String Blocks

2011-10-20T10:39:00.001-05:00

I had to see what a few of the blocks looked like together. I like!

My cousin, Kris, has called "dibs" on this quilt when it is finished. Smart move!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Trimmed String Blocks

2011-10-19T11:06:00.002-05:00

70 Trimmed String Blocks

In my head I figured I was near 100. I still have about as many foundation blocks to go. This is going to be a cool quilt.

I would not have started the trimming without a new blade. I go through blades often because I use my rotary cutter (and scissors) daily. So when Deborah Hester sent me a few packages of these blades, I was thrilled.

The are very sharp and last a long time.

$1.99 for 2 blades (plus shipping so order a bunch)

Check out the website here.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

8 in 6 formerly 10 in 5 Challenge

2011-10-18T09:03:00.003-05:00

A windstorm is moving in so I had to work quickly to pin the quilts to the clothesline.

Quilt 1

Quilt 2

Quilt 3

Quilt 4

Quilt 5

Quilt 6

Quilt 7

Quilt 8

Which one is your favorite?

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

I Love String Blocks!

2011-10-17T09:26:00.000-05:00

I've been itching to get crackin' on some string blocks!

I often find packets of cut squares at the thrift store-usually from sheets-ugly sheets. This summer on that massive thrift store buying trip, I scored a ziplock package of around 100- 7½" squares for $1.50. I knew in my little quilter's heart they would become the foundation for some string blocks.

While I love crumb blocks, they can get tedious. String blocks are quick. Last night I sat down and worked through about half of my sheet foundations. I'm determined to use up the very last of this set of scraps (because there are more waiting to replace them).

On Saturday in an effort to clear out some other scraps, I loaded a white sheet onto the longarm and laid out all the polyester batting scraps I had. Then, I basted them down with the longarm. I did a 2nd sheet with the cotton batting scraps. Now I have 2 "new to me" batts that I can use for some donation quilts. Like fabric, batting scraps add up. No matter how closely I cut my fabric or my batting, I still have some scraps. But now I have the batting scraps under control!

OK, I am off to trim my 10 in 5 quilts and start the binding on those.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Sweater Update

2011-10-16T10:15:00.002-05:00

Slowly & steadily. . . . my goal for the next one is to use one yarn throughout the entire sweater. Some nights I am too tired to mess with the yarn changes (and keep it all straight).

I'm working on the sleeves right now because I don't have the energy to think about the front. I'm knitting both sleeves at the same time so I can keep track of the stripes. I wanted to knit them on the same needles but I couldn't quite figure it out.

Won't I look nice sitting in my family room wearing a sweater that matches?!

This strikes me as very funny--I went up to the attic and pulled out yarns I liked for this sweater. Halfway into it, I realized it was the same color scheme as the family room (well, most of the house, actually.) Talk about predictable. Libby made that fab quilt on the back of the love seat!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

10 in 5 Quilt Challenge- Quilt 8

2011-10-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

Quilt 8 is my favorite! I'm partial to floral pastels. What can I say?

When I surveyed the scraps left Thursday night I had quite a bit more with white/pale backgrounds than I expected. But, I remembered a new (thrifted) mattress pad I scored when I was in Marble Falls this summer that would work with these prints. I used as many of the soft florals as I could with just a bit of color from the crumb blocks. It's a cool composition!

I took my cue from this fabric for the machine quilting. It came out very well-all freehand. Nothing like a week of practice to get the lines flowing smoothly.

We'll see how my energy level feels today. I may go ahead and make 2 small baby quilt so I can reach my goal! (one day late)

I'll post nicer pictures when all the quilts are bound and ready for their new homes. This has been an excellent challenge! I noticed when looking for the mattress pad that I had another stack of fleece blankets set aside; something like 8 more. They are all dark so I will need to use darker fabric which may require a shift in thinking on my part. I am also down to some very narrow strips so I see some string blocks in the close future too. Is it possible I could really clean out an entire rubbermaid foot locker sized container this fall? Glory Be.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

10 in 5 Quilt Challenge--Quilts 6&7

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

I decided that in order to make my goal of 10 in 5, I would have to use more of my prepared crumb blocks on the rest of the quilts. By the end of the day, I still had enough blocks for a few more quilts; so, I think I am OK with that decision.

I was also determined to use scraps from the previous quilts to finish off these quilts. To that end, I pressed what was left of the sweater looking fabric (sheet) Barbara had sent me a few years ago into service on this quilt. I also added a muted blue rose fabric (pillowcase) Deborah McLaughlin gave me. Together they worked swell for the side borders of the crumb blocks. This may be my favorite so far!

Quilt 6

I immediately started Quilt 7 with the leftover backing fabric from Quilt 6 and added what was left of the print sheet from Quilt 4 in the mix too. This quilt took a big chunk out of my crumb block supply.
I always feel a little sad to be using my smallest scraps like this but I cheer up knowing someone will benefit from them again.

All well respected scrap quilts have a piece of that blue print with the hibiscus flower. I am, sadly, down to the little crumbs of what was once 12 yards. Barbara and I have both used it in many quilts and it seems to belong in our scrap quilts.

I loved quilting Quilt 7. I just cut loose with the quilting. If you ever have the opportunity to buy a longarm, I highly recommend the APQS Millenium. It is finely tuned to respond to a gentle touch. What a fabulous machine! I have not regretted letting Wes buy it for one minute. *wink*

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

10 in 5 Quilt Challenge-- Quilts 4&5

2011-10-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Some of the fleece blankets I find are really horribly designed. Since I am an Army brat, I feel qualified to say that I've seen alot of Army merchandise and this really takes the prize. Wes, a West Point grad, was also repulsed by it. So, inside a quilt it went!
Because it's not only ugly but thin, I added another fleece blanket with it. Together they may have been just a tad thick. I was pleased that my longarm didn't have to be adjusted for the thickness. (I don't "do" adjustments!). In the end, a very snuggly quilt for someone to enjoy. And, no horrible Army Mule threatening a nice nap.

My goal with this session was to entirely use the misc scraps I had made yesterday and to use up all the fabric from the backing sheet. I don't want to make more scraps but clear out scraps. It's a tall order, as you know.

Gack.

I thought ahead and tore off the excess sheeting so I could use it for strips on the front. That worked to make short order of that sheet. Quilt 4 took most of the day so by 3 PM I decided a small baby quilt was about all I could get done. Most of this one came from sheet headers coupled with a few cute prints. (Note to self: I think I am "over" the "great idea" to buy sheet headers from etsy merchants.)

I may have underestimated the time to make these quilts. I thought I could bust 2 per day (hence the clever math!) but even though it's a "quick" method, it still takes time; as in, all day. Plus, it's going to take a full day to trim and bind all of these quilts. It might have to be 10 in 6 . . . .

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

10 in 5 Quilt Challenge--Quilt 3

2011-10-12T08:36:00.000-05:00

I had a piece of thrifted fleece this size & used it for the batting. Fleece really gives a nice soft thick feel (without the weight) to quilts that the Warm and Natural batting doesn't give. In some ways, I prefer the fleece! I also feel pretty smug about recycling such a despicable material in such a clever way. The back on this is another piece of fabric that will never be a dress hanging in my closet. I am trying to be as merciless as possible on this fabric stash!

Quilt 3 took most of the day to make. I had the nucleus of the crumb blocks done but I had to spend a little while getting them all to a similiar size so I could sew the 4 widths together to use as a strip.

Also, because this fleece was a bold black & white check, I had to search more carefully through the scraps for fabrics that would hide it successfully. One huge disadvantage of using thrifted blankets as batting is the peekaboo factor. I had a piece of white duck cloth handy for areas I thought bled. I just slipped it under & was sure to hit it with the quilting on the final pass to keep it in place.

For those wondering about the process of making these quilts, check out the link here for the first one I made. It's a bit of sew and flip or maybe it's called quilt as you go. You could do it on a domestic machine but it's much easier on a longarm since everything is stable.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

10 in 5 Challenge --Quilts 1&2

2011-10-11T09:57:00.000-05:00

There is something just seriously appealing about these quilts! They really are bottom of the barrel for using up scraps. But it tickles me to no end to use these scraps for something so practical and useful.

Quilt 1

Quilt 2

These quilts are sewn as they are quilted. Then I go back and do a graceful line through the middle of the strip or a few lines through the middle of the crumb block section.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

10 in 5 Quilt Challenge

2011-10-10T09:09:00.000-05:00

I'm giving myself a personal challenge this week. I'm calling it 10 in 5. I'm going to make 10 scrap quilts using these lapsized fleece blankets as batting I bought this summer. I'm going to use sheets for backing and long leftover strips & crumb blocks from various projects. As much as possible is going to be constructed on the longarm. Follow along! I'll post pictures daily.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Progress on the Day of the Dead Quilt

2011-10-08T10:03:00.000-05:00

I have the sets of strips sewn together and then cut into triangles.I only cut one strip from each fabric and in some cases, the strips were not the entire width of the fabric and I still came out with a big ole stack of triangles!
I hope this will be enough for one quilt without a lot of leftovers but that is never the case. One thing I have learned over the years is that everything I do makes enough leftovers for something else. Dealing with the leftovers is what has caused my hair to start turning grey. I kid you not.

I have wanted to work with these fabrics for a long time. They are such a cheerful break from all those boring earth tone triangles I overcut. Tell me--do people really enjoy earth tones that much? Or, is it the color scheme by default? I still have about 10 quilts to make or finish in earth tones. Shortly, I am going to begin adding some other colors into the mix. It is either do that or have my hair turn white overnight. I can't stand these earth tones much longer.

I absolutely love the pops of pink in here. I am slowly working through the rose prints I have collected sprinkling their goodness here and there in the quilts. Some of my favorites in here, for sure.

In an effort to clean out lingering parts for some of my "great ideas", I cut up some miscellaneous machine embroidery samples. I'll slip these in various spots in quilts. In the back of my mind, I am searching for a quilt top idea where many of the blocks are embroidered. I have almost given up on doing a CQ because I would prefer to machine quilt it vs. doing all that handwork. I guess I see some kind of a hybrid quilt idea. While roaming the Net, if you see something that would work for individual little motifs, pass me the link please. Anyway, this is a brave new step for me! Cutting embroidery so it's not particularly centered on the block-more casual.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Day of the Dead Quilt

2011-10-07T10:09:00.000-05:00

I started Laura's Day of the Dead quilt yesterday. I've been collecting skull fabrics for awhile so it will be fun to sew them. The focus fabric to the left is a new piece I bought this summer. I expect this is going to be a really cool quilt. It's another project for her upcoming November gift party.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Making Embroidery Floss

2011-10-06T10:13:00.001-05:00

One of the embroidery blogs I read, StitchPunk, had this link today to the DMC factory in Spain. While the text is in Spanish, the pictures are clear enough for all to understand. Take a minute to view them! We often forget where our supplies originate. How cool is that?

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Small Madonna Wallhangings

2011-10-05T09:35:00.000-05:00

These are the last of the printed panels made into small wallhangings for Laura's upcoming November gift party. I tried to keep the cost low so her girlfriends would be able to buy these. Towards that effort, I didn't overembellish them and used my machine's decorative stitches & trims when I could. I was pleased with the backing. I decided to leave the placemat edge in tack and glued a false back over the stitching. On a few of the placemats, I was able to iron a flap to the back for the rod. In all, it's a neat finish. I think it works well for these small pieces. For the backing, I spray starched the fabric heavily, painted Elmer's Glue along the edge and ironed (on linen) to dry/adhere the glue. Quick & inexpensive. I was also able to use some embroideries I had already done. If I had to stop and embroider for each piece, I would still be working on them. Half of me gets frustrated when I have supplies sitting around but the other half of me is glad I do when called to work on this kind of project.

Beautiful Mother

Festive Mother

Sweet Mother II

Mother of Love

Our Rose

Backing idea

I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

New Madonna Pieces

2011-10-03T12:42:00.000-05:00

Laura came out on Saturday to start sewing some items for her upcoming November gift party. She and Brent hosted a party in August where she raffled off some handmade items, including a quilt I made for her. For November she decided to make items her friends could shop as holiday gifts.

I was pressed into service too! She wanted me to make some small inexpensive Madonna pieces. Her friends all know me and know my pieces. This is an opportunity to stashbust some printed panels with quick and easy appliques and embroidery. I am using vintage linens and new placemats as the backgrounds. I'll use stitch witchery and fuse a false back. I won't have to deal with any binding since I plan to fuse right up to the edge of the placemat's back. That, in itself, will save me time.

So far I have 3 of the Flor Larios prints done. I'm not stressing over the "folksy" look of the compositions. The nature of the vintage linens being what they are, nothing is square.

Sweet Mother

Sweet Mother II

Devoted Mother

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Scheduling Studio Time

2011-10-01T08:43:00.001-05:00

I feel like I just accomplished a milestone by finishing both the Golden Retriever Rescue quilt and the American Cancer Society quilt in September. I can now turn the calendar page to think about fall. Summer is behind me. As you know, it's been a brutal summer in Houston and the prediction is that the drought will continue until next summer. It's still in the 90º range but this morning there was a slight coolness to the morning. It's difficult to get into the fall feeling; but, with a host of new big projects it feels like a new season.

Between working on my donation quilts, I will be working on 3 queen sized quilts:

a commission quilt that represents the beach, ocean, water
Brent's food quilt
and machine quilting a top for my mom

Each one presents its own set of challenges to conquer. I feel like the work I've done this summer with the 1000 Pyramid quilts has built a strong foundation for these 3 quilts.

Those of you that have been with me a long time know that I keep pretty serious studio hours. For my new followers, I treat quilting like a full-time job. I work about 6-8 hours a day; shutting down the studio around 5:30 PM. I put all my tools away, cover my machines, and make the space ready for the next day's work.

It's been very helpful to store my supplies in the walk-up attic space so only the immediate project's supplies are in my room while I am working on it.
The newest practice I have started (and am loving) is to cut the remaining scraps from my projects into usable shapes.

I recently read in a magazine that a well-known quilter feels like the "magic" of a piece of fabric is gone once it has been used so she immediately gets the leftovers out of her stash (by donating the scraps). At first I thought that was a pretty snooty way of thinking, but I am beginning to understand it now. For me, once I've used a fabric for its original intended idea, then the rest can be cut for scraps and released to the general fabric stash. I'm getting to the point where I want to use it up all at once so I don't have fabrics that linger on for years. So, in a way, when I'm done with the fabric, I'm emotionally done with it. Do you ever feel that way?

When I machine quilt, I like to use sheets for the backing; for a number of reasons. The long side edges become the quilt's binding and I can cut the folded header (top and bottom) for the 2 short quilt sides for binding. By doing that, I already have ½ of my binding folded and pressed! So, that's one of my time-saving ideas for fast quilt binding. I also machine sew all my binding--first to the back and then to the front.

Having some tried and true routines and techniques makes quilting move at a fast pace for me. I like to see ideas move from my head through a quilt and out the door in a finished project. The more I can streamline the process and still have fun, the longer I will continue sewing and quilting.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know how you schedule and manage your studio time.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Garden of Hope

2011-09-29T09:42:00.001-05:00

Garden of Hope

dedicated to

Mary Spincic, Wes's Mother

and

Bill Britt, my high school friend

and to all the brave people

who fight this

Demon called Cancer.

Thank you to all my friends who were so helpful in making this phenomenal quilt! I love you all.

Quilting Done on Garden Of Hope (ACS Quilt)

2011-09-28T08:47:00.000-05:00

Do you remember this beauty, The Garden of Hope? I've been stewing about how to quilt it since spring. Two of my previous ideas hit the studio floor yesterday. I thought I was going to sew continuous curves but one look at the size of those 9 patches and I realized there wasn't much room for the template, the hopping foot and a curve. The next idea was to do a grid over the surface intersecting the middle of the block. I thought that between the channel locks and the template I should be able to get a fairly straight line. Five rows in & I thought it sucked. Plain and simple. So, I ripped it all out (something I am adamantly opposed to doing!).

I decided to go with a flowing, organic leaf inspired curved line. The quilt is about a garden ("Garden of Hope") so I decided this would work. I also put away from of my hesitation and told myself that the majority of the women who will bid on this quilt are golfers, not quilters. I am not quilting this for quilters. Big difference.

Once I got started, the quilting went quickly. Today I can cut it from the frame and bind it. My two charity auction quilts (this one and the Golden Retriever one) will be delivered by the weekend. Gosh, that is such a relief! It looks like the fall is going to be wide open for whatever I want to do!

Fabulous progress on my sweater too! Still loving it!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Susan's Smackdown Quilt

2011-09-27T09:30:00.000-05:00

For quite awhile I have been struggling to find an idea that I could easily put to work with the longarm--that didn't require I reinvent the quilting wheel every time. A formula, if you will, that allows me to work through quilts easily.
This quilt pretty much fits the bill.

Again, it's a quilt by committee--the top was pieced by Susan Cleveland with the idea supplied by Barbara Curiel for our last Smackdown.
It has so many good qualities going for it that it's amazing such a humble quilt could work so hard!

It has what most quilters want or need:

it's quick to piece
it's easy to piece
it uses up scraps or it could be planned
it's dramatic enough to look like a quilt without being boring

From my perspective as the longarm quilter:

the size is great (twin)--I can do one a day & backing fabric is easy to piece or use a sheet
the layout is super for the continuous curves (so I know what I can quilt immediately)
it's interesting to me to see the various prints as I quilt
no sashing to quilt

As a donation quilt:

it looks like what people perceive as a "quilt"
it's androgynous
it's cute, colorful and a welcome spot of love

So, I am all over this idea like bees on honey! It was so rewarding to work on Susan's quilt yesterday and successfully have a quilt finished by the afternoon. Thank you, Susan!

I had to goof around on the borders and get all organic.

I took the cue for one of the longest borders from this print in the quilt.

The continous curves is such a wonderful quilting design. I can see why it has become a quilting favorite. I am also tickled to have used this backing fabric. A friend gave me a bolt of this sage green cotton but the fold line had faded. So, I turned the fabric to the wrong side, seamed the fold to eliminate the faded edge and off I went. I have enough for another quilt backing.

I used the short borders as places to experiment with some freeform ideas. I love this idea- easy --looks like thread unraveling!

If you have the urge to jump into your scrap pile and make an easy quilt, this is the one for you. As always, if you want to donate it, I will finish it for you. Just send me the top.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

More Sweater Stripes

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

Still totally loving this sweater!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Starting Sweater Stripes

2011-09-25T10:17:00.001-05:00

Go ahead and say it!

OMG! This is scrumptious!!

I, like totally, love the way the green yarn is interacting with the accent colors.

I would love to know what you think. Agree with me or else!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Knitting a New Sweater

2011-09-23T08:54:00.001-05:00

I've been at loose ends lately wanting some handwork but not quite ready to tackle another CQ project. So, just before leaving for Montana, I pulled out my yarn stash. This is an acquired stash from my mom's leftover yarns. I'm in the scrappy mood & plan to knit very subtle stripes by changing yarns every 2 or 3 rows.

It took me awhile to remember how to do the ribbing. I decided for this sweater to knit the front and backs as one piece and when I did the math I was off 2 stitches. 2 stitches was enough to make the ribbing checked instead of striped. I finally got out another reference book that said the cast-on stitches had to be a multiple of 4 (K2,P2) and when I redid the cast-ons to 136 instead of 138, I had ribbing! Knitting patterns aren't much better than quilting patterns for directions. Anyway, I believe I am on my way now!

The base yarn (used for the ribbing) is a subtle celery green cotton/silk blend. On its own, it's very blah so I will use the other yarns stranded with it for the bulky weight & color I want. Maybe I'll have it done by the time the temperatures drop.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Email about Quilts

2011-09-21T17:42:00.000-05:00

I don't expect to hear where my quilts go or how they end up. I only expect that they reach the hands of those who need them. Today I found out about 2 quilts:

Just wanted to give you a little update on the adventures of your beautiful quilts. Today I gave one to a female veterans who was a nurse in Vietnam. She is living on a very small pension from the VA and is having a tough time. I felt that she really needed to know someone cared so I gave her one of the quilts. She was brought to tears and gave me the biggest hug to pass along to youJ. Thanks for giving the blessing of being able to pass these beautiful quilts to our veterans.

I got an email today from the daughter of a 98 year old veterans who served 27 years in the Army, WWII and Korea. His greatest desire is to live to be 100. This wonderful veteran who gave so much will be getting one of the quilts. Let’s all pray that he makes his goal of 100!!!

Thank you to those who help me make the quilts, send the supplies and add your blessings to the stitches of our quilts.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All! Montana was just fabulous! Love, Love, Loved it!

Golden Retriever Rescue Quilt Done!

2011-09-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

Have a Creative Week, Y'All!

See you when I get back from Montana!

Leafy Organic Quilting Lines

2011-09-14T13:36:00.002-05:00

If I am patient, one quilt will teach me how to quilt the next quilt.
When I finished the quilting on the Golden Retriever Rescue quilt, I knew I had the answer of how to quilt a top Barbara gave me when we met in Austin. I had a chance to experiment with more leafy, organic forms. I also, for the first time, successfully did a nice meander on the embroidered blocks. Now I understand why quilters like to meander. It was fun!
OK, Barbara, headed your way!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

It's Neverending, Isn't It?

2011-09-12T09:42:00.001-05:00

OMG! Would someone please give me an Award of Some Kind? I actually pulled the big rubbermaid tub down from the walk-up attic and organized and cut scraps. It was one of those "toss it in there and deal with it later" tubs, the kind where I would toss the yoke off a shirt or the really funky embroidery samples. You know-the good stuff- I couldn't toss out. Yesterday I ironed it all and cut it into usable shapes.

My crumb bag is really growing. I foresee some crumb blocks in the future. Maybe once I get my obligations done, I'll just sit and sew crumb blocks. This really is the last of some of this fabric. It has to be, right? right?

I also harvested and organized a pretty good selection of long strips that will be ideal for some string quilts. Yep, I can see my fall sewing stretched out in front of me.

I really am a happy quilter. I've found a very appreciative place for my quilts & that gives me the motivation to continue my quilt ministry; even if it includes cutting little triangle templates. Learning some new skills on the longarm is also going a long way toward making this adventure fun and worthy.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Food Pyramid Quilt

2011-09-11T10:23:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick snapshot of the leaf quilting I did on the border of the Golden Retriever Rescue Quilt. I was very pleased that I figured out how to make 4 leaf sections down the side of the quilt. By doing that, I didn't have to take the quilt off the frame and rearrange it to quilt the borders. I am, slowly, getting smarter and better.

The evenings are difficult for me. I really don't know what to do. I don't want to work in the studio because I feel like I am leaving Wes alone in the family room. Some evenings I am just tired. But, last night, I still had some energy so I set up a cutting station on the kitchen island so I could watch the Mecum Auto Auction and cut out the pieces for Brent's Food quilt.

When Brent was graduating from Univ of Houston, I came up with the idea to make him a food quilt. I started collecting novelty prints (and even asked some blogging friends for help) & as is true to my nature, I had a nice stack before I could say, "finish your dinner!". Through the past few years he has used quite a few of them for chef hats. On his last visit to see me and sew hats (a few weeks ago), he told me he thought he had "pretty much used the good fabric up" and I could "use the cheesy prints for a quilt". I guess he didn't want to wear a bowl of spaghetti on his head.

I decided it was time to tackle the food quilt. With my newfound confidence with the triangle pattern and the continuous curves quilting, it was an easy decision: The Food Pyramid quilt. Luckily, the prints all divided very nicely into darks and lights.

Here's my approach (which I am happy to report since I am feeling so victorious here too!):

1. Divided the prints into lights and darks to see if I had roughly the same amount (I did):
2. Cut 6" widths
3. Any remainder was cut into either 4", 5", or 3 ¾" widths---the 4 & 5" were cut into charm squares.
4. Scraps were cut into 6" triangles or 3¾" triangles
5. Remaining scraps were segregated for "crumb" or string blocks

At the end of the evening, I had very distinct usable piles and nothing that I would consider "scraps".
In the past, I might have cut one width of the fabric, folded it and put it back into the stash. I'm not doing that any more. I'm cutting the fabric down to the gnat's ass, sewing it up and moving on to the next fabrics. You can try to dissuade me but it won't do you any good! (*wink*)

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Golden Retriever Rescue Houston Auction Quilt

2011-09-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

I have all the triangles done on the Golden Retriever Rescue Houston Auction Quilt. Now, I'll concentrate on the borders. I am taking it nice and slow so I do a good job. I think this will be a really wonderful quilt when it is done. The auction is the first week of October. It's one of the most important fundraisers of the year so hopefully my quilt will bring in needed funds for the organization. It costs the organization anywhere from $500 and up to rehabilitate the rescue goldens so they are adoptable.

This is the 1st time I have quilted on drapery weight fabrics including a drapery weight backing. I started with a variegated thread and it broke every other block so I switched to a solid gold thread. It's tricky getting into the corners because of the bulk so I've gotten pretty good at deciding which angle goes in and which angle goes near to the corner. In the big scheme, it looks fine.

This is such a once in a lifetime quilt. I hope the new owner will love it!
All the fabrics were given to me by Deborah Hester who purchased them secondhand so already they have history.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Smackdown Quilts Done!

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

Heading out to their new homes! 3 twin sized, a lap sized and a kid quilt for those in need. Wes is delivering these today to my contact at the local veteran's office. Big Thanks to Kay for her kid quilt, Mary for the patriotic lap quilt and to Angela for fabrics for the 1000 Pyramid quilt.

I was especially pleased with the kid quilt. It was just large enough to be a good warm up/practice quilt. The curves came out very well. I may be getting the hang of the template! This quilting design gives a nice circular look to lots of straight lines. It was great having the binding ready to go too! What a treat!

I think I will follow Kay's lead and make some more kid quilts like her layout. I cut the backing leftovers from this quilt into charm squares already. I figure I can use the last quilt's scraps for the next quilt and then totally eliminate that piece of fabric. I think my days of hanging on to the last little inch for years and years are over!

I would love to know what you think.
Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

More 1000 Pyramid Quilts

2011-09-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

I always find it fun that when I discover a new to me idea it starts showing up everywhere.

The Fall 2011 Issue of Keepsake Quilting had this 1000 Pyramid Quilt on its cover.

The EQ Newsletter I received yesterday had this Tannenbaum Forest by Heidi Kory. I believe it's in the newest Quiltmaker magazine.

The latest Hancock's of Paducah catalog has this 1000 Pyramid variation as a new pattern.

I think there are lots of ways to explore the 1000 Pyramid idea. I'm planning to take my time and do some of that exploring!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

More Practice

2011-09-04T10:35:00.000-05:00

Last week was a long week! I had that debacle with slightly dislocating my shoulder that would have seriously put a crimp in my style had it not righted itself. Then, following the shoulder crisis, I volunteered to foster an 11 month old high energy golden retriever puppy for a few days. So my usual calm and boring life had some excitement. That should do me for a few weeks!
In the midst of all that, I loaded the first of the 1000 Pyramid Quilts. I promised one of the earlier 1000 Pyramid quilts to the upcoming fall fundraiser for the Houston Golden Retriever org so decided to start practicing with the continuous curves template on another top.
I'm getting much better at aligning the template (thanks to the blue painter's tape) and getting a smooth transition into the corners. I am developing a rhythm & I think by the time I get to the bottom of this stack of quilts, I should have this technique under control. If not, I don't have any business owning a longarm!

Because I am the kind of person who cannot leave well enough alone, I started looking for more information. I just felt there were some basic principles I don't know and should know. I also need to learn how to handle borders. In my quest, I discovered Sally Terry's website. I ordered her Terry Twist Templates (I took a big gulp when I hit the Add to Cart button. They were expensive.) and her book which I hope will answer some basic questions.

I now have some new material to absorb and practice.

In my mental effort to get my stash under control, I decided to go up to the attic and see if I really had the fabric for 50 quilts for next year. I figured the easiest thing would be to count flat sheets. I got halfway through one cupboard at 35 & stopped. I had no idea I had already accumulated so many sheets! As long as I can pair the sheets with existing yardage and scraps, I have the supplies for the 50 quilts. The trick will be making the 2 parts harmonize well together.

I am actually very intrigued by the idea and plan to pursue it for 2012. The dent it will make in my stash will be incredible. I'll have a focus and I believe I'll learn some color value lessons along the way. It sounds like a huge win-win to me!

I've been steadily whittling down miscellaneous blocks and tops that have been sent to me-down to the point of having close to none (which is a good thing!). I discovered a bag of smaller triangles I had cut a few years ago. With my new keen interest in the 1000 Pyramid Idea, I pulled them out for another look. It quickly dawned on me that I could cut the leftover scraps from the current bigger triangles into smaller triangles. So much of the sewing and cutting was already done for me! I spent a couple of evening unloading a pile or two of scraps. The smaller size might be a good change from the large 6" triangles.

These were already cut so I added to the pile with the pieces from below.

I think I'll just casually add and sew as I have the interest. No hurry and no decisions.

It also dawned on me this week that I could get the embroidery machine working on some floral arrangements that would fit into a large triangle and use those for a quilt top. Now that I am learning how to quilt the blocks I may be able to figure out how to combine that with embroidery. Boy, there's so much to learn!

So that's it for me on this Sunday morning. I'm working on an idea for the September Quilt Smackdown. I received Kay's quilt top this week and I'm looking forward to getting a few more!

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!