Sunrise Quilt Studio

On Tuesday, the girls and I finished our schoolwork early, so I decided on a different art project for them. Dyeing fabric! I save the pieces of muslin that I trim off of quilt backs and wholecloth quilts as well as muslin I used as practice pieces for testing quilting designs and thread tension on my longarm machine. These are great for dyeing and using in my landscape quilts. The photo above is the group of fabrics my girls made using Rit Dyes. Here are some close-ups of individual pieces of their hand-dyed fabrics. We played with mixing colors and got some really pretty results. I can see sunsets in these pieces. The photo above was a very narrow piece - about 4 inches wide. My oldest DD decided to do a gradation from yellow to blue. This piece has alot of Scarlet dye in it with some orange and dark blue. The girls were trying to get violet. The learned that the Scarlet dye is much stronger than the dark blue and overpowered the fabric. Our next dyeing session will be interesti...

My quilt guild is making quilts for children in the foster care system. At our last meeting, we sorted fabric and stitched together blocks to make quilt tops. The one above is one I completed at the meeting and brought home to quilt. The blocks were already made. All I did was add the sashing and borders. This quilt top I finished this afternoon. The squares of fabric had been cut to size as well as the strips for the alternate blocks. I stitched the strips together and cut them to match the size of the other blocks, then stitched them together in rows. So I now have 2 tops to quilt up and bind in time for our next meeting. I have a quilt on the machine at present that I'm hoping to finish up on Monday. It's a customer quilt with an applique rose design on a black background. It's stabilized at this point and I've quilted around the applique. I'll echo around the applique in the borders and quilt in feathers in the body of the quilt. I'll post photos once it...

After practicing beading last week on a small quilt, I dug out my Serenity Beach quilt and started adding beads to it. This quilt is still a small quilt, but it is larger than the last one. It's already quilted and bound, so it's stabilized enough to hold the beads. This photo shows the progress I've made so far. I've started the beading in the sand and have gotten through the 2 light water colors. I'll work on the dark water next, then the hills and grassy area. I'm thinking about adding some hand embroidery to the foreground to give it more dimension. The photo above is a close up of the sand and water. The white seed beads in the lightest blue aer grouped together - some 2-3 together to mimic the bubbles that waves make as they hit the sand. There are darker 2-cut seed beads in the medium blue fabric scattered out with no pattern in mind. I've sprinkled clear seed beads in the light sand and placed them closer together near the edge by the dark sand, and ...

I really enjoyed making fabric postcards these past few weeks. After making several landscape postcards, I switched over to the Valentine's Day theme. My daughters had fun deciding on each cards new owner. Here's hoping you have time to spend with your favorite Valentine today! Susan

I have made 2 medium sized seascape quilts that need some embellishment and got interested in beading. This photo shows my practice beading done on a landscape quilt I made from a Valerie Hearder pattern. It gave me lots of practice on the beading stitches and how to manage the thread. This is very basic beading, nothing complex - just enough to practice handling the beads. I still have a lot to learn about beading. This little quilt was already quilted before I beaded it so I was able to bury the knots as I went along. I have one more small quilt to practice on - hopefully I'll be able to try more complex designs on that quilt.

Superior Threads is having a $50 giveaway on their blog! Check it out here , and good luck! Susan

I was thrilled to get Millie's message nominating me for the "Life is Grand!" award. Millie, you've made my day! The rules are that I have to list five reasons why my life is "grand", and then pass it on to five more people. 1. I have a loving Savior who grants me grace every day. 2. I have a wonderful family who puts up with what they call my "quilting obsession" ;) 3. I have my health. 4. I have wonderful, supportive friends. 5. I have a continuing curiosity to learn new things. So now I pass on the "Life is Grand!" award to: 1. Shirley from One of a Kind Fiber Arts 2. Janet from Janet's Fiber Artistry News 3. Ginny from Ginnys Quilts 4. Jeanne from All Things Quilty 5. Karen the Quilt Rambler

This is a charity quilt that I quilted for the Kimberling Area Library in Kimberling City, MO. They will raffle the quilt to raise funds for the library. This is an all volunteer library and they raise all their own money. A couple of local quilt clubs help raise funds by donating quilt tops. I've quilted several for them over the years as have other quilters. The Library is having a Quilt Day in March where they will sell raffle tickets on the quilt as well as sell other items. They will also have a program and a show and tell. It's really a small quilt conference held in just a few hours and tons of fun! The blocks are machine embroidered redwork on unbleached muslin. I quilted a feather in the outer red border, straight-line stitching in the cream colored sashing, and le loops in the red framework. There is a feather around the embroidery with a leaf-type design in the corners. The lady who embroidered the blocks marked the center circle with a water-soluble pen and left ...

I'm testing out settings on my blog and having problems with the link color. All links should be green, but in my blog some links are red, some are navy, and some are green. I have no idea why or how to fix it. My new background is from The Cutest Blog on the Block . Let's see what color this link turns out to be. Is it green?

I took some time this weekend to make fabric postcards for an exchange on Valerie Hearder's yahoo groups. I made a set of 4 to begin with. They were very basic, very plain. So I got out my Prismacolor pencils and played. Three of these cards are show in the photo - the 2 on the top and the middle right-hand card. The next day I decided to get brave and try some thread painting. Since I had already finished the first 4 postcards and they were already backed, I started over. The last 4 postcards in the photo are the latest ones. I put a tree in each landscape and thread painted the leaves. I used a zigzag stitch in 3 of the trees and a straight stitch in the one on the bottom left-hand side. I used Peltex for the base fabric and finished the edges of the cards with a statin stitch. If you want instructions on making fabric postcards, here are a couple of links: 1. Red Shoe Ramblins 2. Sew Fun Patterns 3. ArBee Designs 4. Needlepointers.com This was a fun project, and one I'm goi...