Little Red House

This little quilt is my challenge quilt for Valerie Hearder's yahoo groups. It's a Black and White with a Punch of One Color challenge. I had already made a postcard of this design and decided it would work for a larger quilt. This one is 9"x12", fused applique and a fused binding.

It was quilted on the longarm along with several other small landscape quilts.

Monochromatic Postcard

One of the challenges I entered is a monochromatic postcard exchange. This little card is not one of the exchange postcards, but it is in the package being sent to Shirley for Carma House. I call it "Golden Hills". Shirley, I hope to get the package sent today!

Mystica left a message asking to see the back of a fabric postcard. Here you go, Mystica. I use white muslin or natural muslin on the back, adhering it with fusible web. The US Postal Service requires that the word "Postcard" be written on the top of the card. I then draw a line down the center and write the name of the card, my name, and date along the line. I use Peltex for the base of the card, but you can use other materials like cardstock.

Southwest Landscape

The Southwest Landscape is fused and now has borders. I auditioned several pieces of batik fabrics before chosing this one. It's and India batik in turquiose and creams. I'm contemplating several different applique designs for the border. All the embelllishing and thread painting needs to be done, then the quilting.

Colored Wholecloth Blocks

The first 3 blocks in the Feather Sampler quilt are colored using complementary colors. I like the blue and orange together.

I've decided that I don't like yellow and purple together. This photo was taken after I recolored the yellow section with a deeper, more golden yellow. I really didn't like the first attempt - the yellow was too harsh, but I still don't care for this combination. I don't know if it's the shades of yellow and purple I've used, or if there is just too much yellow in the block.

Lastly is red and green. It looks Christmasy to me. The small feathers in the center still need to be colored, but I haven't decided on the color.

A customer quilt on the machine is just about done. All I have to do is finish the sashing and check it over. This is one of those quilts where I went overboard with the quilting. I'll have over 40 hours in this quilt by the time I'm done.

Beaded Serenity Beach

The majority of the time I feel like I'm not making any progress on my projects. I get my customer quilts done, but with my own projects I make very little progress for the most part. I know it's because I have soooo many projects all going at the same time and can't seem to focus on just one, get it done, and then move on to the next one.

Yesterday between church services and late in the evening I decided to work on a few of my projects that were just about finished and try to get them completely finished. Serenity Beach was the winner! I had a little beading left to do on the mountains and the sky as well as the larger beads on the foreground. That only took about an hour to do. Now it's complete and shining with all the beads. Yes, I went overboard with the beads, but once I got started, I couldn't stop! I'll need to learn restraint when applying beads to a quilt!

The Southwest Landscape got borders applied last night, too. I'll post a photo on that one tomorrow. Before working on the SW Landscape quilt, I finished coloring one of the blocks in my feather sampler quilt. I now have 3 blocks colored on that quilt with 3 more to go.

Late last week I finished up a set of fabric postcards for a challenge in Valerie Hearder's Yahoo Groups. These are monochromatic landscapes. They will be heading out to Ireland, Canada, and Tennessee just as soon as I can make a trip to the post office. I also made a few extra to send to Shirley for the Carma House Postcard Project. I'll post photos of these postcards at a later date, too.

After telling myself yesterday that I need to finish up some of my projects before starting another new one, I signed up to send a small art quilt for Ami Simm's Alzhiemer's Art Quilt Initiative this morning. This is a challenge put out by Valerie Hearder on her yahoo groups. She wants to get 30 quilts sent by September 30th made by members of her group. I already have an art quilt in progress that will fit the size suggestions for this project, so I'm really not starting a new project, but giving myself an incentive to finish up one that's in my WIP stack. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Inspiring Photos

Since I've been busy this past week quilting and completing some neglected household chores, I don't have any new photos of quilts to share. I have a gorgeous customer quilt on the machine now that will be done in a few days if all goes well. I also have several fabric postcards ready for embellishment and finishing. I'll post photos when I have them completed.




In the meantime, I thought I would share a few photos that have been the inspiration for a few of my landscape quilts. I've done a bit of traveling around the country as well as a few trips across the seas into Asia and one trip to the Yucatan penisula of Mexico. Some of the most inspiring landscape for quilts has been on trips through the western United States.





This photo was taken from the north rim of the Grand Canyon. I have a small quilt in progress from this photo. It's appliqued and ready for embellishment and quilting.

The photo below is from Southern Utah. I made a small quilt using this photo as inspiration and it is hanging in my living room now.

This photo is the Double Arches at Arches National Park. I haven't made a quilt from this photo yet, but it's on my "To Do" list. This quilt will need some time to complete.

Painted Fabric Postcards

These are the 3 postcards I painted with my daughters the other day. I borrowed DD#1's ideas of the background streaks on these first two cards.

"Red Daisies"
"Red Leaf"

"Orange Swirl"

I'm afraid that I'm not very creative with the titles on these cards.

More Rainy Day Fun

These postcards are DD#2's work from yesterday's stormy day distraction.
She loved the sparkly fabric paint - mostly the red sparkly paint!

I encouraged her to use more than red in this one. Purple and red look good together as the Red Hat Society would attest to!

We're back to mostly red on this one.

DD#2 didn't title any of her postcards. She didn't get the concept and Yes, she also thinks I'm strange ;)

Fun for a Rainy Day

Yesterday started out with an intense thunderstorm that lasted off and on most of the day. Since we have a "No Electronics" rule during thunderstorms, I had to find something to keep the girls busy. I got out the fabric paints, ironed bleached muslin to freezer paper and cut it into 4.5x6.5" rectangles and let them go for it.

These are my oldest DD's results.


Above is the "Electric Bunny"!

This one is "Purple Flower".

Then we have " Red Heart."

And last by not least, " Streaks and Splatter".

DD #1 thought it was strange that I wanted her to give a title to all her postcards. But, then she thinks I'm strange anyway-ha!

I finished the postcards by fusing the artwork to Peltex, adding a backing fabric, trimming to 4x6", then satin stitching the edges.

All these will be mailed to Shirley for Carma House.

A Wonderful Surprise

A fellow longarm quilter and I got together at my house recently so I could show her some the techniques I use in custom quilts. She is a proficient panto quilter, but custom quilting is new to her.

I had Noell's Mystery quilt on the machine and I demo'd how I do straight-line quilting, as well as feathers in borders, triangles, and feather wreaths. Now my feather wreaths are usually done by tracing a circle on the quilt using a air soluble pen and a circle cut from cardstock. The cardstock circles are because I have only 1 acrylic circle template - a 7" diameter - and it rarely is the size I need. My homemade solution is to cut circles from cardstock and trace around them, then use a plastic lid from a butter tub as a guide for my hopping foot. My lids are never the right size either so I have to slide the lid around to keep it at the edge of the circle! It works, although it's a bit slow.

While I was at MQS I shopped for acrylic circle templates, but couldn't bring myself to spend the money on them! There were other items that I needed more, so I put them back on my wish list as a future purchase.

A few days after our quilting session, Susie surprised me with this gift!



3 acrylic circle templates in sizes 6", 5" and 4". Isn't she just the greatest friend!

Thank you Susie! I'll always be reminded of your generousity and friendship whenever I use them.

Southwest Landscape

This is how I left the Southwest Landscape on my design wall today. I've been playing around with the pieces off and on, and stopped at this point. Nothing is fused yet, only pinned in place. After living with it on the wall for a few days, I'll decide if I need to change anything and then fuse things down. The thread painting will come next.

So far this piece is 36x42". It will get some borders with more embellishment before I'm through.

This is a class given by Shirley on Learning Fiber Arts Yahoo group. Check out her blog to see some of her amazing work.

Bluhming Sampler Blocked

I washed and blocked the Bluhming Sampler quilt. It is now ready for binding and color. Here are a few close-ups of the individual blocks.

More fun ahead!

Noell's Mystery Quilt

I finished the quilting on this quilt late last night. It was a mystery quilt designed by Noell from Learning Fiber Arts yahoo group. The top was pieced a few months ago and sitting in my "works-in-progress" pile. Monday a friend and fellow longarm machine quilter came over to see I quilt custom designs and I put this quilt top on the machine.

Here are a few detail shots of the back of the quilt. It's quilted with Signature 100% cotton thread with a 5oz. poly batting.

I used feathers as many places as I could!

The Ohio Star blocks needed some straightline quilting to balance out all the curved quilting from the feathers.

A few detail shots of the front.

Fun, fun, fun!

Bluhming Sampler

While I was quilting "Feather Starburst" I also drew out some 12x12" blocks of feathers using Irena Bluhm's techniques for feathers. I recently transferred the blocks onto a leftover piece of muslin and quilted them using a layer of 6.6oz poly over a layer of Soft and Bright batting. This photo was taken before rinsing and blocking.

I haven't yet decided whether or not to cut the blocks apart as I had originally planned. The more I look at the quilt, the more I tend to leave it as is but add a bit more quilting to the spaces between the blocks. Right now there is just a line of basting separating the blocks.

The machine is loaded with a mystery quilt done through "Learning Fiber Arts". I'm just getting a good start on that quilt. It will have lots of feathers when finished.

Happy Fourth!

While the fireworks shows are going on all around us, I'm inside keeping the dog calm. Earlier today while I was outside before dark, I took a few photos with my macro setting on my camera. These are close ups of Sedem that is almost ready to bloom, and a clover blossom.

I just may see if I can't sneak outside a see a bit of the show.

Sun Painting

Since the sun was shining this morning, I decided to get my daughters outside and do some sun painting with them. It took me awhile to get things gathered up and everything outside, but we finally got it together and painted some fabric.

This is my second piece. I used red, yellow, cobalt blue and purple, then sprinkled canning salt all over the fabric.

This was my first piece - same colors as the one above, but I used rock salt instead. I didn't like the results of those large pieces of salt. I didn't get the drawing action the way I wanted. The salt seemed to act like a mask instead.

This is the 2nd piece my youngest daughter did. She used blue purple and yellow. We then laid some string across the top and she sprinkled salt over it.

My oldest daughter only did one piece. The computer was calling her-ha! She used cobalt blue and fuschia paint, then scattered pony beads across the paint and sprinkled a few pieces of rock salt over it.

This is my youngest daughter's first piece. She used seashells across the middle section of the fabric and sea animal foam stickers. This piece was all fuschia paint.

We would have done more pieces except the sky got cloudy and it started to rain :( Maybe next week we can try some more. I need lots of practice. I'm want to try to make some sky fabrics next. Today was just playing around to see how the colors worked together, how much water is needed, etc. I'm using Setacolor Fabric Paints that I ordered from Dharma Trading Company.

Latest Fabric Postcards

Here are the 2 latest fabric postcards I have made. Both are the window drawing technique using a pigma pen then colored with colored pencils.

This postcard was a trial with thread painting. I ran out of the rayon magenta thread and didn't have enough of the lighter pink thread to thread paint the entire card. So I left it as is. I have rayon thread on my shopping list.