Sunrise Quilt Studio

I've been playing around with finding a way to easily hang my small landscape quilts - with one nail in the wall. I finally came up with this hanger. It's made from a wood dowel with wooden beads on the ends. The strap is braided hemp in 2 colors. There are several sitting on my kitchen table waiting for the straps to be braided and attached. Once I started sorting through my landscape quilts, I realized I had 20 quilts needing some kind of hanger. I spent 2 days making and attaching the hanging sleeves and experimenting with the hangers. I'm also looking into making some polymer clay beads and glass beads to cap the ends of the dowels and attaching some beads to the ends of the hemp strands. There are a lot of ideas floating around in my head for these hangers, so stay tuned to see what develops next! Susan

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Yesterday, I finished the binding on several landscape quilts. These are all small wallhangings from 8x10 to 10x12. I still need to attach hanging sleeves and labels. After looking for different hangers for these small quilts, I decided to make my own. I've purchased supplies to make them from wood, hemp and beads. Once I get them done I'll post photos. This is my daugher Hannah's quilt. I finished the binding for her yesterday along with the other quilts. She has designed another landscape pattern, but hasn't had the time to work on it yet. With Labor Day weekend coming up I don't know how much quilting I'll get done. We don't have big plans other than a family bar-b-que. We may take a nature hike if it isn't too hot and humid, or just sit and home and enjoy our new a/c :) Susan

I like change. Once in a while I have to shake things up - a new quilt, a new haircut, a new pair of jeans. Today it's a new template for my blog :) I think the green background is a better fit for the landscape quilts I've been posting recently. Today we had a house full of HVAC workmen. Our a/c went out a few weeks ago and the diagnosis was the compressor was shot. The furnace wasn't adequate for the house either, so we had everything replaced. OUCH! It's a good thing we just closed on our house in southern MO or we wouldn't have been able to afford it. It's really nice to have cool air and low humidity in the house again. While the men were running in and out of the house, sawing, drilling, hammering, etc., I got the binding sewed onto the backs of the quilts that I started yesterday. Sarah was thrilled that the Sudoku quilt was hers. She hasn't put it down since I finished it. It's the perfect size for a 4 foot tall girl to cuddle under - especially...

If you want to try glue basting your bindings, check out Sharon Schamber's website for a video on the technique. This is whom I learned it from. Click on the "Free Area" link on the left, then "Free Area" on the next page. Scroll down to the December 2007 video "Binding the Angel". Sharon gives details of her glue basted binding technique. I do my glue basting a bit different, but the results are the same. I glue baste the binding all the way around the quilt before stitching it down. When I get to the end of the binding, I glue baste the miter, stitch that miter, then glue baste that area down. Then I go ahead and stitch the entire binding down. The 2 best tips I feel are to use "school glue" like Elmers or Rose Art. I've used both and they both work well. Don't use "All Purpose Glue". The 2nd tip is to heat set your glue with a hot iron. It dries the glue quickly. The glue washes out easily so you won't have any residu...

My girls have learned well how to share. They share their toys, their CD's, their time. They even share their colds :( Hannah came home from school on Friday with a bad cold and a fever that lasted through Sunday. She was back to school yesterday and feels almost back to normal now. Yesterday, Sarah and I were at the nature center when she told me her throat hurt. Today she has a fever and cold symptoms. So between doling out doses of cold medicine and Motrin, as well as popsicles and warm baths to bring down temperatures, I've been glue basting bindings on to quilts. Oh, yes! I've also started in with cold symptoms. I taught my girls "sharing" much too well! Here are two small landscape quilts I finished quilting yesterday. The first one is from a photo I took while driving from Utah to Colorado back in 2006. Well....I wasn't driving while taking the photo - my husband was. This quilt is from a photo I took in the KOA Kampground in Cannonville, Utah. That is ...

I have been interested in landscape quilts for a very long time, but just recently got into creating them. Over the years, I have photographed landscapes and nature with the thought in mind "That would make a great quilt!" My digital camera goes along with me on all kinds of adventures - to the zoo, the park, the river, and like today, to the nature center. Here is a photo of Black-eyed Susan's that I took. They are growing all over the nature center. This particular group was near the edge of a pond. Homeschooling gives us the opportunity to explore the area we live in and make it educational for our daughters. This fall we are exploring rivers and ponds and butterflies. The first few weeks of school is rivers and ponds. My youngest daughter and I made a very quick field trip to the nature center last week just before the rain hit. We made it to 2 ponds and on the way back - trying to get to shelter before we got drenched - we spotted a doe and a fawn in our path . Would...

We have had realtively cool weather for August this year - that is until yesterday! The wind changed and we're getting the warmer winds from the south. That means we're also getting humidity that is making the 85 degree temperatures rather unbearable. So, I turned on our a/c yesterday for the first time in about 3 weeks. Guess what happened? It got hotter in the house than it was outside-ugh! The repairman came out today and said our compressor was dead :( That means we need to replace the outside unit because it's so old that replacing the compressor just isn't going to do the trick. Of course it will be a week until they can get the new unit in. In the meantime, we're sweating it out - literally! Fortunately, we have a window a/c in our master bedroom so I'm camping out here until the new a/c is installed. I don't tolerate heat due to thyroid medication I'm on. I overheat very easily and very quickly, so I have to stay in a cooler environment if I don...

This afternoon, we were invited to spend time with friends on the Osage River in Missouri. The Osage had been over flood stage several times this spring and summer but is now down to normal. We spent a wonderful day riding on the jet ski's, eating bar-b-que, and enjoying visiting with friends. This photo was taken by Hannah, my 12 y/o daughter, while the sun was setting over the Osage River. It was a nice, relaxing day. The weather has turned fall-like in central Missouri the past week or so. It still gets up to the 80's in the afternoon, but the evening and night temperatures are down in the 60's. It feels like fall will come early this year. Last year it stayed in the 90's way into October, so we may be getting a reprieve this year. The water of the Osage is still very warm and comfortable. The river traffic was busy with lots of boaters and jet skiers. We don't own a jet ski ourselves, but our friends do and are generous to take us out on the river with them. ...

When it is storming outside, I give the longarm machine a break. That's to protect it from electrical surges from lightening. I do have it plugged into a surge protector, but when I'm not using the machine, it is completely unplugged. So, today it is storming. It has been for about 2 hours and is supposed to continue off and on all day, so it's "Break Time!" I did load the next quilt onto the machine this morning. It's one of my own quilts and is a pattern that I got with some batting or other quilting product I bought last fall. I can't remember exactly what it came it. But, it's a Sudoku quilt! It was fun and easy to assemble, and it has been promised to my youngest DD. Even though she has no comprehension of Sudoku, she loves the bright colors in the quilt. I am using a white muslin for the backing and 6.6oz poly batting. I haven't decided on the quilting design yet, but am leaning towards a panto. The sample quilt was cross-hatched, but I'v...

I finished Jeri's Blooming 9-Patch quilt this afternoon. I used an overall pantograph on the quilt with Iced Blue Signature cotton thread and Hobbs 80/20 batting. The binding was applied to the front of the quilt after quilting while it was still on the quilting machine. This is an easy way to handle binding. You don't have to mess with shoving the large quilt through your domestic sewing machine to apply the binding. It's much quicker and easier. I used my straight edge ruler to maintain a 1/4 inch seam allowance. The binding will be turned to the back and hand stitched in place. The photo of the backing shows the quilting better than the front of the quilt. This is a medium density panto that gives good coverage and yet it isn't too busy looking. I think it turned out nicely. Susan

Here is the finished thread painted quilt. I quilted this quilt on my domestic sewing machine because I have a customer quilt on the longarm and didn't want to take if off at this stage. This quilt is small enough to handle on the domestic machine without too much trouble, but I still prefer to use my longarm. The wheat stems are hand embroidered after the quilting was done. I used Sharon Schamber's method of applying the binding. It makes binding so much easier for me. And since I use a glue basting method to construct my landscape quilts, Sharon's binding method fits right in with my bag of quilting tricks. Tomorrow I'm back to working on the longarm. I have a Glorified 9-Patch on the machine right now that I'm quilting with a pantograph. I don't quilt with pantos very much since the majority of my customers want custom/heirloom work, so it's a nice change for me. Susan

I spent the afternoon building my bouquet. I decided against the batik for the vase as the colors in it were competing too much against the colors of the flowers. I fused on the background leaves, then the vase and then added the flowers one by one until I liked the composition. They were secured with a glue stick. I heat set the glue with my iron on both sides of the fabric so they will stay in place while I satin stitch around them. The entire piece is stabilized with "Totally Stable". So far there is only one layer of Totally Stable, and I'm going to test it with one flower and see how it holds up. If I get too much puckering, I'll add another layer. After I have the satin stitching done, I'll add some background filler flowers - something to look like Baby's Breath is what I'm thinking right now. Stems also need to be added so that the flowers no longer look like they are floating in mid air. Then the Totally Stable will be removed and I'll add ...

The past few days I have been working on my thread painted project. I spent 5 hours yesterday adding more thread painting to my flowers. I'm happier with them now. These were stitched to InnerFuse that works as a stabilizer and will give the flowers dimension when added to the background and quilted. InnerFuse has a fusible on both sides, but I didn't use the fusible when I made the flowers. I will probably use it when I applique the flowers to the background, though. Next step is to chose the background fabric and the vase fabric. I've spent quite a bit of time this morning going through my stash - again - auditioning fabrics. The fabrics I had chosen this weekend didn't work well with the flowers, so I'm trying again. I have a couple of fabrics chosen and will work with them later today to see how it all comes together. I have a light blue background fabric and an orange/rust batik for the vase. They seem to be getting along well together laying on my kitchen tab...

Today I have spent a great deal of time on improving my thread painting skills. I'm working on an on-line class given by one of the ladies on my landscape digest. She's a very talented landscape quilt artist and teacher. Shirley has been so helpful to everyone on our list, giving suggestions and tips on how to improve our landscape quilt work. What a treasure! Like most quilters, I have several projects in process right now. The quilt I'm making for our bed is on the design wall in the block stage. The blocks are done with the sashing attached and finally set in the order that I want to stitch them together in. The borders are cut, too, so I'm just needed to set aside time to stitch all those blocks together - 42 of them. When I'm done, I should have a queen-sized quilt top ready to quilt. Did I mention that I have several projects in process-ha! What an understatement! I don't even remember the number of quilt tops that are waiting to be quilted that are my own...