Wool Applique

The end of our beautiful fall and the cooler temps has gotten me back in the mood to create and sew. I did some experimenting with sun painting fabric this summer, but not much else. I took a two-session beginning wool applique class which ended last night and decided to make a pillow out of it this morning. Hey, I actually finished something!! It’s a small 10″x10″ pillow. I really enjoyed sitting in the evening doing the hand stitching. I bought a Christmas table runner kit last night which I’ll get started on this week.

Out of the Darkness Quilt

I finished the quilt for our quilt show the day before it was due to be turned in. I struggled with this one and almost gave up numerous times, but kept going because I had sent in my entry form and made a commitment. I also knew if I stopped working on it, I would never go back and finish it. I’m sure glad I kept at it. I think it turned out really cool and I won a blue ribbon in the art quilt category!

Quilt Show Project Update #3

With the registration deadline looming, I trashed my original plan nine days ago. I just wasn’t “feeling” it. Fortunately I woke up at 3:00 a.m. the next morning, got my sketch pad and came up with a new plan which is going to be much better than the old one.

I decided not to do the plain black background with the Sashiko stitching … it was just too boring. I made the background squares out of black and white fabrics. The top two squares are finished. The rest of the squares still need to be quilted, cut into 4 pieces and sewn back together. I also need to make five more flowers. Then the fun part of embellishing and putting all the pieces together which will be done in a nontraditional way. Lots of work left to do, but I like my new plan and that makes it a lot more fun to work on.

Quilt Show Project Update #2

I’ve got four flowers done for the project. I want to add a yellow one, but am still searching for the right fabric. I’m snow dying a yellow piece now and hope that it turns out for this project.

Showing the flowers in a vase gives you a clue of what I’m envisioning for the finished project.

The colors are much darker and vibrant than the picture shows. I’ve started working on the background which is black squares with Sashiko stitching using black pearl cotton instead of the traditional white stitching. Of course there will be lots of beading, too.

I helped my nephew, Nathan (4th grade), with a school project yesterday. He’s doing a report on the south pole explorer Ernest Shackleton. They have to create a likeness of the explorer on poster board and give their report wearing it. It had to be made entirely out of at least five items found around the house and the poster board could not be painted or drawn on … perfect project for me! So we dug through my stash of stuff and came up with the following.

We used a piece of black fabric for his shirt, painted bubble wrap for the parka, an old zipper for the parka, coffee dyed fiber-fill for the fur on the hood, and caution tape for the straps of his backpack. It was a lot of fun and I hope I get a good grade on it!!!!

Quilt Show 2011 Project #1

Our guild’s quilt show is in May and after procrastinating for the last few months, I finally started my quilt for the show today. I’ve had the idea for some time and have done a few prototypes which was a good thing since it took me a few tries to get the best system for making the flower petals.

Each petal has wire in the edges and the stamen is made from wire and pearls. I’m going to add some free motion quilting and need to figure out the best way to firmly attach them to together. The flower is about 6″.  I’ll be making several flowers in different colors. You’ll have to stay tuned to see what I do with them … don’t want to give it all away in the first posting!

It feels good to be creating again and I actually had a pretty good day with my sewing machine. I finally figured out it was the thread that was causing all the problems and frustration. It seems like my machine only wants to play nicely with Sulky 100% rayon thread.

I whipped up this mini wall hanging (5 1/2″ square) in an afternoon for my Mom for Christmas to hang in their RV. We both love cardinals.

Guild Challenge Squares and Burning Dog Food

I’ve posted pictures of our guild’s 30th Anniversary Recycled 6″ Square Challenge HERE. The challenge was outside many of our members’ comfort zone, but they did a great job and had fun with it.

Now on to the burning dog food! In the latest issue of Quilting Arts there’s an article entitled, “Metal as a Surface Embellishment”, showing how to patina copper foil. I have a roll of copper foil (actually it’s thicker than foil but can still be sewn through), so I got out my creme brulee torch and tried it. The article said to lay cat food on top of the foil before heating it with the torch and it reacts like pottery does when it’s raku fired. I used dog food instead and boy does that smell bad when burned! Marley even wanted to go inside and get away from it!!

Here’s the piece of copper with the burned dog food.

Here’s how it turned out … pretty cool.

Here are the rest of the pieces I did. I’ve got some ideas on how I’m going to use them in an art quilt.

I also had fun outside on Friday morning experimenting with pounding flower petals on fabric and using a bleach pen to discharge fabric. Torching copper, hammering fabric and drawing with a bleach pen in the driveway … yes, I’m sure my neighbors think I’m nuts!

I’m Still Here!

Yes I’m still alive, just haven’t been doing any art because I can’t seem to get inspired.

Our guild’s 30th anniversary challenge squares are due next Thursday and I finished the last one I’m doing this morning. It’s a 6″ square and has to be made entirely out of recycled items and things already in your stash and depict the number 30.

I think it turned out pretty cute and I love how it’s dimensional. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the bird is a “quilt” and is attached to the stick with pipe cleaner legs and not tacked down to the background fabric.

I glued a bunch of paper together to make the base of the nest and then glued on scraps of yarn. The “30″ is on the paper tape measure the bird is about to add to her nest. The leaves have an interesting story. I have a shoebox full of different sizes of leaves on wires that I got when my mother-in-law gave me the contents of her craft/sewing closet. Ned’s grandfather did taxidermy and he used the leaves on his pieces.

Guild Recycle Challenge Quilt Square

Our guild is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary this year and I suggested we do a recycle challenge. I presented the challenge to the guild last week and made up these two 6″ squares to show as examples.

For this one I took pictures and text from an old quilting brochure and fused them on felt,  painted it, stamped 30′s, and quilted with a zigzag stitch. I used bread ties and old buttons for the flowers and old keys for the stems, hand embroidered around the flowers, and zigzagged around the edges. I think it turned out cute.

I made a quilt sandwich and quilted it in a simple grid pattern. I sliced up a couple of wine corks and glued them on. The wine glasses are  made from the foil that is around the neck of the wine bottles and also glued on. Most of our ladies make beautiful pieced quilts and I hope they have fun stepping outside the box. I can’t wait to see the results!

My Mom has told me many times that my Grammie loved Bleeding Hearts and my Mom just planted one this spring. So, in my continuing series of “Banking on Spring”, I made a Bleeding Heart ATC for her for Mother’s Day. When I finished it, I realized there’s no fabric on this one! I made a heart stamp from sticky back craft foam and beaded around the hearts. My Mom loved it!

My studio/office is now past my “level of crustness”. I haven’t cleaned up after the last couple of projects and the bed has become a dumping ground of stuff that needs to be dealt with or put away somewhere else in the house. The rest of my house is neat and orderly … I guess I have to have one room that’s not! You would think I’d keep this room cleaned up because between working and art, most of my time is spent in here. I’m starting the decluttering and organizing today during breaks from working. You may wonder why I would post pictures of this mess … to keep me motivated to finish and post the “after” pictures! I’m sure these pictures aren’t too shocking for my fellow fiber artists!

Paducah

I had a great time in Paducah yesterday despite the fact that I hate to fly! I asked for a window seat and got the seat in the last row with no window and the engine right next to me … talk about being claustrophobic! Thank you to the Chicago ladies who gave me the aisle seat on the way back!

It was my first trip to Paducah and I can’t wait to go back next year. The museum was wonderful and what a thrill to see the Hollis Chatelain exhibit … she is an incredible artist. My pedometer says I walked 5 1/2 miles and my body feels it today. I spent the day recovering curled up in hubby’s leather chair (he’s away on boys weekend with his brother), looking at the 250 pictures I took yesterday, and watching the Blackhawks win and lots of HGTV. It’ll be a busy day tomorrow, but it felt good to do nothing today.

Fabric Rusting

Here’s my experiment with rusting fabric with steel wool pads. I soaked two pieces of fabric in vinegar and water, rung out the excess water, sprinkled with salt, tore up a steel wool pad and made a “sandwich”. I put the sandwich in a plastic storage bag and set it out on my porch. I weighed it down with two jars filled with water and you can see the rings from the jars on the fabric. I checked it 24 hours later and sprinkled a little water on the fabric because it had almost dried and the rust wasn’t very dark. I let it sit for another 24 hours, rinsed, washed, dried and ironed.

I like how it turned out. I used muslin but next time I’ll try a piece I’ve already dyed and a commercial fabric.

I’m loving doing surface design!