Sunrise Quilt Studio

Poor Puppy

2012-01-30T10:50:00.000-06:00

This is what has kept me busy the past week. Molly blew out her knee :( She had surgery a week ago and I'm supposed to keep her quiet! This is a very energetic puppy, so keeping her quiet is a huge challenge. Our vet said that her lower leg was rotated in and that caused the tendon to pull lose. Hopefully this surgery will be all she needs. We have another couple of months of recovery to get through.

Wish us luck!

Feathers Everywhere!

2011-12-27T12:19:00.000-06:00

This is a customer quilt that is a popular pattern coming out through the quilt shops in my area.

Once again I decided to quilt feathers. They are in the background and outer border.

I chose swirls for the 4 patches and middle border, with straight-line quilting for the logs in the blocks.

A view of the flip side.

Log Cabin

2011-12-14T13:54:00.001-06:00

I don't know the title of this quilt, but it is a Log Cabin Variation that I just completed for a customer. I love the soft blues and browns in this quilt.

It just begged for feathers.

See what I mean?

I did add a few leaves in the small border, though.

Fluffy Puppy

2011-11-28T09:20:00.001-06:00

I haven't been blogging much the past 6 months or so due to a lot of "life" events going on. We've had a lot of losses this year from beloved pets, friends, parents of friends and my lovely niece, Heather, who passed just a month ago. I'm still healing from her death especially.

Quilting for myself has gone on the back burner this year and quilting time is spent catching up with customer quilts. I'm working hard to get customer Christmas quilts finished in time for gift-giving.

The year hasn't been all sad, though. Who could be sad with a happy, fluffy puppy running around the house. :D Molly is our new puppy. She's 6 months old now and lots of fun. She keeps us all on our toes and brings a lot of joy into our lives.

Squash Books

2011-11-15T10:34:00.001-06:00

Our "Fancy Threads" art quilt group has been using scrapbook supplies in art quilts lately and now I have the scrapbooking bug. Last night I saw a video on making squash books and tried it out. You can find it here. Be sure to watch the second video in the series.

My book is on the right. My daughter, Hannah, liked it so much that she had me show her how to make one for herself. Her book is the one on the left with the bees and honeycomb.

This is the inside of my squash book. This was a very fun project and I'll be making more of these in the future.

In Memory of Heather

2011-11-07T17:22:00.000-06:00

My niece Heather passed away suddenly at the age of 22 from a massive stroke. Her doctors were not able to determine the cause. However, Heather left a legacy behind in her gift of organ donation. Within hours of her death, she had saved the lives of 7 people. Many more lives will be touched in the weeks to come.

Heather was completing her externship as a medical assistant. It was a career she was passionate about. Heather was a bubbly, animated person and found fun in many things in life.

Rock climing in Arizona with cousins.

Dressing up like her Uncle Paul in Texas.

Playing in the surf in Galveston.

Carving pumpkins for Halloween.

Heather, we miss you more than we can say. You left this world much too soon, but you left behind lots of happy memories, love, and joy. One day we will see you again when it is our turn to leave this world and join you in heaven.

Love you bunches,

Aunt Susan

Quick Applique

2011-10-04T15:36:00.002-05:00

I took time the other day to sort through a tub full of craft supplies that I was given by the daughter of a friend who passed away a few years ago. I had received several tubs of craft supplies and had sorted through all but one.

In this last tub I found several packages of applique kits by "Country Borders". I took time yesterday to fuse them. I still have the hand or machine stitching to do - I haven't decided which I want to do just yet.

Here are a few photos of how these kits turned out.

The first set came with the burlap, hanging rod, and twine.

The remaining kits I fused on tea towels that were also in the tub of craft supplies

Paint Stick Art

2011-09-02T14:16:00.000-05:00

It's amazing what you can do with a paint stick and freezer paper!

Thanks Gere for teaching this class.

Prairie Home

2011-08-15T21:50:00.000-05:00

The art quilter's group I belong to, "Fancy Threads", had a challenge this spring. We each contributed a 12x12" square of fabric and an embellishment to be included in a quilt. That made 6 different fabrics and 6 different embellishments to use.

"Prairie Home" is my challenge quilt. Two quilters contributed cheesecloth, so I included them both. It was a very fun project.

Grandmother's Flower Garden

2011-08-15T10:12:00.000-05:00

My mother-in-law is a quilter and she gifted me with this beautiful Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt a few weeks ago. The blocks are made from fabric she inherited from her mother and grandmother. Betty hand stitched the blocks over several months and hired someone to hand quilt the top for her.

I love how the cheddar yellow makes the flowers pop. It is truely a family heirloom.

Quilting Vintage Tops

2011-08-08T10:09:00.000-05:00

I always hesitate when considering quilting a vintage top. Will it detract from the value of the top?When it is a customer quilt, I always follow their wishes. For my own tops, I tend to procrastinate. However, this vintage bowtie quilt top needed to be quilted before it was cleaned or it would fall apart. I decided that quilting would give it a longer life and possibly add value - if not monetarily, at least in the enjoyment that my family and I would receive from it. What good is a quilt if it is stacked away in a dark closet and not appreciated?

This top isn't a historically significant quilt. I purchased it at a flea market for very little money. So I bit the bullet and quilted it.

The end result was worth it I think. I really love the feel of the quilt - just like an old quilt that has been well loved. It's soft and cuddly. The quilting is traditional to fit with the age of the top. Next to clean it to take care of some of the dark spots.

I'm so please with the results that I'm in the process of quilting a few other vintage tops that I own.

New Addition

2011-08-02T16:48:00.000-05:00

Meet Molly! She's my new puppy and is about 11 weeks old. She's a Paptese - Papillon and Maltese mix. We are all having soooo much fun with her! She is supposed to be my puppy, but my youngest daughter doesn't like to share the puppy with me. Sarah is a great help with walking her and taking care of her, so I guess I can share.

Another Vintage Top

2011-07-09T08:43:00.000-05:00

I didn't get a very good shot of this top, but here it is. I found this one in Mountain Home, AR. It is hand pieced. The green sashing is faded in a few spots and the fabric is thin like it came from a piece of worn clothing.

Vintage Quilt Top

2011-07-07T19:46:00.001-05:00

This is a close-up shot of a quilt that I purchased at an antique store in south central Missouri. It came tied to a muslin backing with cotton batting. It also had a tiny bit of hand quilting as well as machine quilting, but it wasn't bound. Binding these types of quilts can be a challenge!

I pulled out the ties and quilting because the backing was mildewed in a couple of places. The shop I found it in had the quilt laying outside on an old wooden bench. I decided that taking the backing and batting off was a priority to save this top from damage. Luckily, the mildew hadn't reached the pieced top.

It's all hand-pieced and the fabrics look to be in really good shape.

Small Projects

2011-06-02T20:51:00.000-05:00

I am working on 2 small projects at the moment inbetween customer quilts. The quilt above is the challenge quilt from our "Fancy Threads" group. We each contributed a 12" square piece of fabric and one embellishment to each participant. We had 6 people particapting, so we had a nice selection of fabrics and embellishments to work with. We each received the same materials and had just 3 rules to follow: We have to use a recognizable amount of each fabric and embellishment; the size could be from 4x6" to 30x30", and we could add any additional fabric and embellishments we wanted. The deadline is the 4th Sunday of June, so I need to get moving on this one.

I finally decided that I needed to make a quilt that reflected my business name "Sunrise Quilt Studio". So here is the work so far. It's fused and made from my hand-dyed fabrics. The quilt will become the logo of my business and appear on my business cards, letterhead, etc.

Teacher's Choice!

2011-05-25T10:04:00.000-05:00

My quilts arrived back home safe and sound. To my delight, "Feathered Star" had a Teacher's Choice Award ribbon pinned to it!

Thank you, Irena Bluhm.

If you ever have the chance to take a class from Irena, I encourage you to do so. Not only does she teach her wonderful techniques for coloring quilts, but she also teaches balance, symmetry, repetition, design, etc. All the ingredients that make a quilt pleasing to the eye.

MQS

2011-05-10T12:20:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have been extremely busy leaving me little time to post. But tomorrow I'm heading to MQS with a quilting friend and am looking forward to - well - more busy-ness, but fun busy-ness. I've signed up for several classes, allowing plenty of time to shop, of course!

The quilt above is "Feathered Star". Such an uninspiring title my daughter tells me, but there you have it. It will be entered in the art/pictoral category. It is a mix of techniques and art media including colored pencils, inks, several different threads, and crystals.

"Coronet" is in the fabric challenge. Once again a mixture of techniques, fabrics, and threads with lots of hand beading. I designed it using Art 'n Stitch software. Lots of fun!

I hope to see you at MQS this week.

Vintage Quilt tops

2011-04-11T11:08:00.000-05:00

I found these quilt tops in a small antiques & flea market in Southwest Missouri this past weekend.

They are both showing some ravages of time, but are still in pretty good shape.

Hand Beaded Quilt

2011-03-23T21:46:00.000-05:00

I am working on a hand-beaded quilt for entry at MQS. This is a photo after 3 different beading patterns. It is slow going, but it is turning out well. I can see why many quilters use hot fixed crystals instead of hand-beading - it must be faster and easier on the hands. I am having so much trouble with pain in my hands the past 2 days that I know I'm beading too many hours per day. Deadline for shipping is going to come way too fast for me so I have to keep at it.

Feathered Start Progress

2011-03-07T13:36:00.000-06:00

I've been working little-by-little on the Feathered Star quilt. I decided to color the feathers to match the circles, otherwise the entire quilt would look disconnected. From a distance, there are just blobs of color from the appliqued circles and the feathers didn't stand out. Coloring the feathers with gold ink would not have been cohesive in my opinion. I tried out the different color combinations on a scrap piece and came to that conclusion. So now the feathers will stand out and coordinate with the applique circles.

There is still a lot of work to do, and lots of hours to put into this quilt, so it won't be ready for MQS this year. I do have another quilt I'm working on that should be ready for entry. It will be in the "Fabric Challenge" section. I'm working on the appliques at this point, but almost done with that. I should have it on the machine to quilt later this week. Then I'll photograph it and send in the entry form. The March 18th deadline is fast approaching!

Autumn Afternoon

2011-03-02T14:56:00.000-06:00

The latest project for "Fancy Threads", the art quilters group in my guild, was thread painting trees. Here is my completed project. The piece was machine quilted on the longarm without a backing - using only the top, batting, and a layer of Decor Bond for stabilizer. The trees were thread painted using my domestic sewing machine.

I decided to use some rayon threads to give a bit of shine, and I experimented with using the zigzag stitch on my machine to do the thread painting. After ripping out the 2nd tree I stitched, the quilt looked much better. I had made the tree on the far left too wide, and the quilt was puckering. So I spent 2 hours ripping it out and started over. I like it much better now.

Next month we will be making quilted postcards. This group is soooo much fun! I'm having a blast!

Golden Feathered Star

2011-02-03T13:22:00.000-06:00

The quilting is complete on the applique whole cloth that I have named "Golden Feathered Star" at this point. The name may change as I continue to work on it. Yesterday, I washed out the blue soluble pen and blocked the quilt.

Today I am considering how to color the quilt. Colored pencils, or inks, and what colors and where to place them. Hmmm.....

Blizzard of 2011

2011-02-02T08:52:00.000-06:00

The snow has stopped, the sun is shining now, and the snow is sparkling to the point of being blinding. Quite a change from yesterday when there were white-out conditions most of the day.

This is my front porch. The snow drifts covered the stairs and landing and piled up against the door.

This is what I found at 6:30 this morning when I opened the door. Thats 30 inches of snow! There is 18" piled up against the back door, but luckily we can get out of the basement door and the garage door. My big dogs were up to their shoulders in the snow when I let them out this morning.

Look how pretty the cedar grove is, though.

With temperatures due to drop below zero later today, the girls and I are going to start shoveling this morning. Hopefully we'll get some progress made. This is going to take days to clear out, though. At least the fridge is stocked and we have power!

Thread Painting Project

2011-01-31T08:29:00.000-06:00

We had a good time at the thread painting workshop on Saturday. There were 7 quilt artists in attendance and we all learned something new. This is a great group of ladies. Everyone is generous in offerring their advice and expertise in quilting, art, and machine operation.

Below is the flower I worked on during our class. It is unfinished as of now.

The flower below is one I completed before class. I added some gold metallic thread to the edges of the petals to give it some sparkle.

This flower was also completed before class. I'm still debating on whether or not the leaves need something more. It's hard to know when to stop!

This is a shot of the fabrics I am auditioning for the finished project. My plan is to cut out the flowers and leaves and make a collage of them on a background piece. I'll probably use the cream batik for the background. The purple fabric is the challenge fabric for MQS 2011. I'd like to incorporate that fabric into the quilt also. It will probably be in the border.

Whole Cloth Applique - Progress Being Made

2011-01-28T09:56:00.001-06:00

I've made some progress on the applique whole cloth quilt. The elements are all quilted using Glide thread in gold, including the motifs in the applique circles

I'm McTavishing the background of the area outside of the star. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with that section.

Ooops! I missed a section! I'll have to go back and get that.

I'm using Sew Fine 401 - white 50 wt. thread for the background filler. I'm still looking for a background filler for inside the star. I'll also do some background filler in the applique circles in the gold, but nothing too dense.

Once the quilting is complete, I'll soak out the blue pen marks, block the quilt and then add color to the motifs. I'm debating over colored pencil or ink. I'll have to do a few sample pieces before I commit.

Tomorrow I am leading an art quilter's group in a thread painting class. I'm looking forward to that. It should be lots of fun.

Vintage Dresdan Plates

2011-01-12T10:35:00.000-06:00

This vintage quilt belongs to my MIL. She received the vintage blocks from another DIL and made the top. I love the yellow she chose for the border. The quilt is bright and cheery. She wanted some simple meander quilting in the background and quilting to showcase the Dresdan Plates. I think this fits the bill.

Show Quilt?

2011-01-11T19:46:00.000-06:00

Last May I took a class with Irena Bluhm at MQS on wholecloth design. Now I've been creating wholecloth quilts for several years now, but it's always good to get someone elses take on wholecloth. You can always pick up some tips and tricks that you didn't know before. This class was no exception. Irena was teaching us not only wholecloth design, but also how to incorporate applique into a whole cloth quilt. She even had a short segment on coloring with colored pencil. I had taken that class the year before and was familiar with the technique.

The quilt above is what I designed in Irena's class. Over the past few weeks I finished hand appliqueing the circles. Yesterday I started the quilting. I'm using 2 layers of batting and Glide thread in gold.

Here you can see a bit more detail. These are Irena's feather patterns.

Here is an typical example of my quilting design process - the design changes as I quilt :o. The feathers in the center were my first choice, but I decided that the outer circle of feathers were enough feathers for the center. So I decided to see how concentric circles would look around the applique. I decided I didn't like that after marking with the blue pen.

The star design that the feathers made was begging to be brought out, so I obliged. It's very confusing looking right now, but it will make more sense once the blue marks are washed out.

The feathers and ribbon on the top purple circle will not be quilted in. I decided after marking that one circle that it wasn't going to be the right design here.

Several design decisions need to be made on the quilt, but they will come as I continue to work on it. This quilt may or may not be entered for show. I'll make that decision once the quilt is completely done.

Thread Painting

2011-01-09T21:50:00.000-06:00

In a few weeks I am teaching a class on thread painting to the art quilter's group in my quilt guild. So, this weekend I did a bit of experimenting with various floral patterns. This is the one I consider successful. The other 2 started with a pattern sketched from a photograph and they looked a bit rough when I finished them. They need a bit more work to be polished.

Most of the thread painting that I do is done with my longarm machine on applique. The photo above is a 4x6" piece of floral fabric fused onto a piece of Peltex and thread painted on my domestic sewing machine. This will become a post card.

My next test will be using Decor Bond as a stabilizer. That is what I use to stabilize my projects when thread painting with my longarm machine. I'm hoping it will also work well with the domestic machine.

More Purses

2011-01-03T10:07:00.000-06:00

This past week I continued to play around with purse patterns and my hand-dyed fabrics. The purse on the left above is a pattern I found on the 'net. The one on the right is my own creation - one that needs a bit of tweeking yet!

And here is the "tweeked" version. I wanted a small purse just big enough for a cell phone, some cash, and set of keys. This one has room for a little more than that which is probably a good thing. The shoulder strap makes it a bit easier to carry, too.

Personal Quilt

2010-12-31T11:36:00.000-06:00

I don't have a lot of time to work on my own projects much less a large quilt for my own bed. However, this past summer I decided to redecorate the master bedroom and painted the walls using the linen wall hanging as an inspiration for a color scheme. I also reupholstered my grandmothers arm chair and purchased another chair to coordinate. That chair is still waiting for a change of upholstery fabric.

Below is a photo of my new quilt to coordinate with the paint color. I made a simple pieced rail fence out of 2 jelly rolls and added some batik fabrics to make 2 wide borders. It all went together quickly.

The quilting in the body of the quilt is a simple overall, freehand swirl using a variegated thread from YLI.

The inner border was quilted with a piano key design, and the outer border was quilted with freehand feathers.

The room is starting to come together. I need to finish the other chair and quilt the linen piece on the quilt rack. Perhaps I'll be completely finished by next summer!

Purse Design

2010-12-23T09:45:00.000-06:00

With Christmas arriving in just 2 days, I've been busy finishing up a few gifts. This is a purse using my hand-dyed fabrics. It is similar to the blue bag I made a while back, but with this one I box-pleated the bottom of the bag and added 3 pockets to the lining. I also changed the front just a bit by leaving out the pleats.

Sunrise Dyeworks on Etsy

2010-12-06T09:50:00.000-06:00

With all the hand-dyed fabric I've created this year accumulating in my studio, I decided to take the plunge and open an Etsy shop. I'm getting the hang of using the Etsy shop but it's taking me a while to get everything listed. I currently have 2 pieces listed, but will add more soon.

Click on the link on the side bar to go directly to my shop or click SunriseDyeworks .

Simple Heart Medallion

2010-11-24T11:45:00.000-06:00

I have been designing quilting patterns for use with computerized quilting machines as well as with hand-guided machines. This is one of my latest designs. Since I don't have a computerized machine myself, I design patterns that can be used with or without a computerized machine.

This particular design is one that I have used with my longarm machine and looks really good in wholecloth quilts or in alternate blocks in pieced quilts.

Feel free to download this design and use it in your own quilts.

Crochet Projects

2010-11-17T12:04:00.000-06:00

In the evenings, I often sit on the sofa and knit or crochet while DH watches TV. Here are two projects I recently finished.

This sweater fits a toddler and was crocheted using Softee Baby yarn by Bernat. The pattern was one of the free patterns on display at the shop.

This sweater uses the same yarns and is crocheted in one piece. I used a pattern called "The World's Easiest Sweater". I had to tweak the pattern in order for it to fit my youngest DD.

Pretty Floral Quilt

2010-11-16T17:16:00.000-06:00

This is a photo of a block in a quilt I finished for Sharon. The colors are soft green, pink, yellow, and cream. It is a very refreshing, calming quilt and it was very much a pleasure to quilt. Thanks Sharon!

A Gift From a Friend

2010-11-01T21:29:00.000-05:00

Two years ago, a friend at church passed away. A year later her husband also passed away and their daughter gifted the church some of her mother's quilting, sewing and crafting items. I was given these quilt blocks that her mother had made. While I was visiting the daughter this summer, she asked me look at the quilts her mother had made and show her which ones were the best to keep and pass on to family members. There were some beautiful, vintage quilts in the collection as well as some that were new but well made and destined to become heirlooms in the future.

These 9 blocks will be made into a small quilt and cherished as a gift from a friend.

Colors of Autumn

2010-10-28T11:38:00.000-05:00

Back in September, my daughters and I took a nature hike to look at the changing colors of autumn. It was a bit early in the season, but some of the Sumac was turning red. Up against the green leaves, that red really pops.

These bushes were in the yellow and orange stage for the most part.

Now most of the trees are past their peak colors and I've missed getting out and taking more photos. Life does get busy at times.

One Chair Completed

2010-10-20T08:53:00.000-05:00

My grandmother's chair is finally done! I finished the upholstery this past weekend after DH replaced the broken wire pieces in the seat for me.

I like the texture in this fabric. I added piping to the back side of the chair - no photo of that. I'm debating on whether or not to add upholsterer's tacks to the back. I probably will since I have them on hand.

I replaced the foam in the seat with 2 layers of "NuFoam" and added an additional layer of batting to give the seat more cushion. It's very comfortable now.

Now to get around to reupholstering the other chair!

Girls Day Off

2010-10-15T20:14:00.000-05:00

DD#1 and I took the day off today and took a field trip to the St. Louis Art Museum. The idea was to take time and do some sketching of the exhibits for art class. The museum is under construction right now and some of the exhibits are not on display. There were enough exhibits of paintings and artifacts to keep us busy for 3 hours, though.

This is a photo of the lake from the front of the museum.

This is the hill that leads from the front of the museum to the lake. DH and I would sit on this hill the first year we were married and watch people fly kites. There was also an annual hot air balloon show that was launched here.

About 30 years ago, DH and I lived across the highway from Forest Park where the St. Louis Zoo and the Art Museum are located. We were dirt poor, just married, and I was finishing up my last year in nursing school at the hospital across the highway from Forest Park. For fun and entertainment, we would spend hours at the St. Louis Zoo and the Art Museum since both are free of charge.

It's nice to go back once in a while a see how similar things still are.

Chair Parts

2010-10-11T21:22:00.000-05:00

After searching on the internet for 2 hours yesterday, I finally found a place where I can order the spring straps that I need for the vintage rocker.

I'm really anxious to get the reupholstering project done so I can move on to other jobs. I'm still searching for a set of night stands for the bedroom and an area rug. Then it's on to projects waiting in other parts of the house. Rooms need painting, bathroom floors need replacing, hardwood is waiting to be installed in living and dining room, etc.

Reupholstering Vintage Chairs

2010-10-09T21:40:00.000-05:00

I started reupholstering the vintage chairs today with my Grandmother's chair as my first project. I finished the back and am pretty happy with the way it turned out.

The seat is another story. This is what I found when I took off the old fabric. Several of the wires have been broken and need to be replace. That should be a difficult task, though. I just need to find the same guage wire and replace the broken pieces. You can see a clamp that DH placed on the left side for me. The wood was cracked here and he added some wood glue and clamped it to stabilize it. The new foam for the seat is cut and ready for the upholstery. It will be next weekend before I get back to this job.

The photo below is of the bottom of the seat of the rocker that I just bought. The damage here is more severe and will take more work to fix. 3 of the 4 springs in the seat are broken. Two of the broken springs have had some attempts made at repair, but they aren't holding. So I have to find 3 springs, or an entire new spring assemble for this seat.

On a more positive note, I did find a fabric to reupholster the rocker with. This is a chenille and the color goes well with the upholstery fabric I bought for my Grandmother's chair.

So, this will be a long, involved project, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Vintage Find

2010-10-06T09:20:00.000-05:00

While on a day trip yesterday, I stopped by an Anitque mall to stretch my legs and look around. I left with the chair on the left. The chair on the right has been in my family for ages. It was my Grandmother's chair and I've had it since the late 1970's. It has been reupholstered several times, and as you can see, I'm in the process of reupholstering it now.

The fabric laying on the seat is what I've chosen to reupholster the chair with. I'll have to find something to coordinate with it to reupholster the chair I just bought since I bought the end of the bolt. Finding something to coordinate shouldn't be too hard since this is a neutral color - it just needs to go with the new paint color in the room. Both chairs need the padding replaced, too. So I have my weekend project to work on.

The reason I bought this chair - actually it's a rocker - is because the turnings were the same as what my Grandmother's chair is made with. I don't know the age of either chair, or the style, so I'll have to do some research.

Sampler Blocks

2010-10-05T20:12:00.000-05:00

More blocks from Jerri's sampler quilt.

Sampler Quilts

2010-10-04T10:41:00.000-05:00

I try to quilt something different in each block of a sampler quilt. I just completed quilting Jerri's sampler quilt that is a beautiful quilt in creams. Here are a few of the blocks.

Radiating Patterns

2010-09-26T21:46:00.000-05:00

The radiating patterns on these hand-dyed fabrics are some of my favorite designs. I'm not sure why they come out with so much more pattern and definition than the other fan-fold techniques I use, but they seem to.

Once again, these were dyed with some of the custom mixed colors.

I now have a large stack of these hand-dyed fabrics.

The question is what to make with them.

Saturday Sampler Blocks

2010-09-24T21:55:00.000-05:00

I was behind on the Saturday Sampler blocks, but finally got caught up with the traditional set. Now, the bright set is another story!

I believe we have one more block to go, and we'll get the setting kit in October.

Custom Colors

2010-09-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

For my last batch of hand-dyed fabrics, I decided to try custom mixing some colors. These were basic mixes of equal parts of 2 colors.

In the fabric above, I mixed equal parts deep purple and fuchsia.

This fabric is using a mix of turquoise and forest green.

This piece uses the turquoise/forest green mix, deep purple/fuchsia, as well as a lemon yellow/deep orange mix.

Longarm Tools

2010-09-13T08:28:00.000-05:00

At MQS this past May, I bought an arch guide ruler from Linda's Electric Quilters booth to use with my longarm machine. I haven't used it much since then, but this quilt I recently completed had great negative space in the alternate blocks to create a quilting design with the ruler. This is the design I choose for the quilt. On the pieced block on the right, you can see where I drew out the quilting lines with chalk. I like testing out an idea with chalk first before quilting it if at all possible.

I tested both sides of the ruler to decide which would work best with the quilt. I like this design, but felt it left too much area unquilted in the center of the block.

Dyeing Unbleached Cotton

2010-09-11T19:37:00.000-05:00

This latest batch of hand-dyed fabrics was done using unbleached cotton. I wanted to see if the colors were less brilliant on unbleached as opposed to bleached cotton. I don't see a difference in the colors, only in the spaces that didn't take the dye.

The piece above was dyed with fuchsia, turquoise, lemon yellow, and deep orange. It was fan-folded on the bias.

This piece is a fan-folded piece and dyed with turquoise, yellow, fuchsia, deep red, and lemon yellow.

Another fan-folded piece. It is dyed with lemon yellow, deep orange, fuchsia and turquoise.

Use for Hand-dyed Fabric

2010-09-08T13:22:00.000-05:00

I decided to use some of the hand-dyed fabric I recently made to make a new purse. This purse used 2 fat quarters for the outside. I used a piece of commercial batik for the lining, and a piece of white muslin for the innerlining.

The pattern is Simplicity 2396.

Overdyed Fabric

2010-09-04T20:25:00.000-05:00

These are 3 of the fabrics that I overdyed. All of them had too much white in them. I had experimented with dyeing 2 pieces of fabrics layered together and these were the fabrics on the bottom and the dye didn't soak through enough for my taste. Next time I try this method, I'll have to remember to use more dye.

Turquoise, Fire Red, Bright Yellow.

Fire Red, Deep Orange, Bright Yellow, and Deep Green.

To overdye the fabrics, I soaked them in Soda Ash solution once again, wrung them out, refolded them and placed them in their dye containers. Then I applied the dyes to the areas that were still white and added dye to some of the areas that were already dyed to deepen the color.

This is one of the overdyed fabrics that really deepened in color.

2010-09-03T20:10:00.000-05:00

I'm slowly getting the bedroom redecorating done. The walls are all painted and the quilt rack back up on the wall. What I have hanging on the quilt rack is one of the tablecloths I found at an antique shop. Eventually I'll get around to quilting it, but for now I think it looks o.k. as it is. This weekend I may be up to reupholstering the vintage chair.

Newest Hand-dyed Fabrics

2010-09-02T19:33:00.000-05:00

This latest batch of hand-dyes didn't have any hidden images in them, but I like the way the colors are playing together. This is one of my favorites. I love the fuchsia against the orange.

This is a small piece - not quite fat-quarter size. I wish it was a larger piece so the band of purple would be larger. I'll have to try this color scheme again in a larger piece.

Another piece with fuchsia and orange. I was fairly pleased with this piece too.

Several other pieces did not turn out well and are currently being over-dyed. I'm anxious to see how they turn out. I'll be doing the wash-out tomorrow afternoon.

Bedroom Makeover

2010-08-26T14:07:00.000-05:00

Our master bedroom is ready for a make-over. We've been in this house 3 years and I haven't done much in the way of decorating or painting to make the house our own style. So after purchasing the wingback chair at an antique shop a few weeks ago, I found my color palate and started collecting paint chips. This is one of the walls after painting. The true color is a bit darker than it's showing up here. It's dark enough that I'm looking for a lighter shade of blue-green.

This is the same wall before I painted. It took several hours to get that wallpaper border off.

This is the chair that gave me the color inspiration. I found 3 fabrics that coordinate to make toss pillows. I'll have to make a quilt to go with this new color palate. The chair will get a new slip cover. I also have an antique wood armchair that will get reupholstered in a golden tan damask fabric. The "throw" on the back of the chair is one of the tablecloths I bought at an antique shop a few weeks ago.

I thought I was several years too late with being in style with this blue-green color as I was having a hard time finding fabrics in this color. But while looking for paint colors I discovered that this is one of the "in colors" for this fall in several paint lines. Everything comes back around!

Owl's That?

2010-08-25T12:13:00.000-05:00

More surprises are found in hand-dyed fabric. This piece was fan-folded and dyed with dark green, fuchsia, and deep purple. Can you see the owl?

Here he is!

I have another 8 yards of fabric to prepare for dyeing. This is pfd fabric from Marshall Drygoods. I'll cut it into fat quarter sizes again. I seem to get the best results when using this size. I won't get around to applying the dyes until tomorrow due to some other obligations today, but I'll be all set and ready to play first thing in the morning.

Dyeing Some More

2010-08-19T13:16:00.000-05:00

Here are a few of the less dramatic dyed fabrics from my last batch. This was dyed with dark purple and Forest Green

I used Fire Red, Turquoise and Fuschia on this one.

Deep orange, and dark purple.

A New Batch

2010-08-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

These new fabrics were left-over pieces of PFD fabric I had from cutting fat quarters from yardage. For this piece, I fan folded it on the bias then applied the dyes.

I think this piece needs to be a wholecloth. To me it looks like a coral reef with images of small sea creatures floating around in the water.

A dragonfly?

Budget Makeover

2010-08-10T20:41:00.000-05:00

I've been working on our master bedroom with a budget makeover. DH and I really like to browse through antique shops, flea markets, and thrift shops. A few weeks ago, we found this wingback chair at an antique mall for $35. It was comfortable, clean, and small enough to fit through our bedroom door. Our master bedroom is large and is just begging for a sitting area.

The original plan was to slipcover this chair in an neutral color, but the longer it sat in the room, the more the colors in the chair grew on me. So I have held off on the slipcover for now, and the next antiquing trip I started looking at things with the same colors.

This is a tablecloth about 52" square and was $11. It's a bit brighter than the chair, but I love it.

This is another tablecloth I found for $12. The aqua colors match the ligher colors in the chair. I haven't decided what I'll do with either tablecloth yet.

Then, I started looking for fabrics in the shops to make toss pillows. I also found some cream colored curtains on sale and installed them. I may trim them out with one of the fabrics above to add a bit more color. The walls will be painted soon, and I have a vintage chair of my grandmothers that will need to be upholstered to fit the new color palate.

I'm still looking for nightstands and an area rug. Looks like a few more antique shopping trips are on the schedule.

Motivation Needed!

2010-07-27T11:23:00.000-05:00

I really need to get motivated to start a new quilt. It doesn't need to be a show quilt, but just something fun. Right now life has been busy with other priorities and nothing has grabbed my attention as a subject for a new art quilt. I'd like to use some of my new hand-dyed fabric, but haven't a clue as to what to do. So, I'll keep busy with customer quilts to quilt and fabric to dye. All fun stuff, too.

The above photo shows some of my fabrics stuffed in canning jars. I don't know the technical term for this method - "canned fabrics"? This is the result of this method of dyeing fabric.

If you've ever wondered what the difference is between dyeing PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric and non-PFD fabric, here is the comparison

The fabric above is using PFD fabric.

This one is using non-PFD fabric. Most of the dye washed out even after 72 hours of curing time. :( It's good if you want a pastel fabric though.

More Hand-dyed Fabric - Part 2

2010-07-20T17:05:00.000-05:00

One of the things that I love about dyeing fabric is that you always get a surprise when the process is complete. There is very little that you can control. The dye does what it wants and you get these wonderful textures. Sometimes you even get hidden pictures. Do you see the little men all standing in a row?

This is a close-up shot of part of the fabric piece above. It looks like a totally different piece of fabric.

I have no idea what I'll do with this piece, but I love the way the dyes mixed together and created different colors and textures.

Here is a close-up shot of the fabric piece above.

Quilt guild is tonight and I'll be showing my hand-dyes during show and tell tonight.

More Hand-dyed Fabric

2010-07-19T08:53:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more pieces of fabric I hand-dyed a week ago. This piece is turquoise and fuchsia.

This piece was dyed with turquoise and bright yellow. The green is where the dyes mixed together on the fabric.

Lastly, this piece is bright yellow and deep orange.

I have several more pieces waiting to be pressed.

Saturday Sampler

2010-07-15T08:43:00.000-05:00

I'm behind on posting blocks from the Saturday Sampler, not to mention that I'm behind on stitching up the blocks! I believe there is only 3 more blocks left to go.

The block below is the same sampler top, only in "brights". My oldest DD has claimed this quilt :)

Colorful Weekend

2010-07-12T08:56:00.000-05:00

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend dyeing fabric. After ordering a new supply of Procion Fiber Reactive Dyes from Dharma, I had to try them out. I've been using these dyes for 10 years, but ordered some different colors than what I had been using. This piece is a combination of Turquoise, Fire Red, and Bright Yellow. I fan folded the fabric, doubled it up and laid it in a plastic container. Then I poured on the dyes and let the fabric cure for 48 hours before washing it out.

This piece was dyed the same way using Turquoise, Fire Red and Deep Purple.

Another fan folded dyed fabric. This one has Bright Yellow, Turquoise, and Forest Green.

This is a scrunched piece. I stuffed the piece of fabric into a small jar and poured Forest Green over the top and let it soak through the fabric.

This photo shows my fabrics in their various containers while they cure. I have the dyes mixed and poured into water bottles. The water bottles don't drip like other bottles made for squirting dyes onto fabrics, but I still have trouble getting the dyes to go where I want them to go. I'm still searching for the perfect squirt bottle!

Kitchen Rehab

2010-07-05T18:19:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting to tile my kitchen backsplash ever since we moved into this house. This weekend I finally bit the bullet and got the job not only started, but completed! Once I got started, the tiles went up fairly quickly. The grouting went even faster.

DD#1 helped me pick out the tiles. I originally went for a bisque colored field tile with brown glass tiles in the 1" size, but DD#1 convinced me to switch to the white and black. I think this was the right choice for this kitchen. My biggest complaint has always been that this kitchen is too brown - brown wood floor, brown cabinets, and brown wall paint. It made me depressed everytime I walked into the kitchen. The bisque and brown tiles would have only added to the brown color that I don't like in the first place.

There is still a lot of work to be done in the kitchen. I painted it yellow 2 years ago, but it could use a fresh coat of paint. I also need to refinish the cabinets and add some hardware. The cabinets are 20 years old and are showing their age.

Future Photo Applique Quilts

2010-06-30T09:06:00.000-05:00

Noel is my calico kitty and the model for the quilt "Blue Tigers" shown here in her favorite environment - the recliner! I'll be using this photo to create another applique for a future quilt.

This is William. My oldest DD bottle fed this calf a few years ago and I've always wanted to make a quilt from this photo for her.

Then there is "Twiga". This is a photo I took at the St. Louis Zoo a few years ago. I think I stood at the giraffe exhibit for over 30 minutes trying to get a good photo of a giraffe. It was a cool day and they were all on the move which made them hard to photograph.

These photos look like a theme or perhaps a series of brown and white quilts. Hmmmm!

So many ideas for quilts, and never enough time!

Janet's Quilt

2010-06-24T12:00:00.000-05:00

Here are 2 photos of a customer quilt I just completed. I'm striving to get caught up with quilting after 2 shows. I used a formal feather in the outer border, and a leafy feather in the middle border. The inner border has a leaf vine.

The blocks are cross-hatched in the center with outline quilting of the star points, and some line-dancing in the outer piecing. I love the brown and soft green combination.

Vintage Double Wedding Ring

2010-06-07T21:24:00.001-05:00

One of the purchases I made at the Missouri River Quilt Guild Show was this vintage Double Wedding Ring quilt top. I was drawn by the yellow fabric and when I realized it was a Double Wedding Ring top, I had to have it.

This top is about a twin bed size.

Quilted Postcards

2010-06-03T11:35:00.000-05:00

I had several applique flowers left over from "Blue Tigers" and put them to use. Quilted postcards. I signed up to donate 6 to the Missouri River Quilt Guild Quilt Show that is being held this weekend, and these appliques were a perfect solution since I was in a time crunch.

WIP's

2010-06-02T10:42:00.000-05:00

While rearranging my studio a few weeks ago, I came across this quilt top. It is one I started more than 5 years ago. I was never happy with the way it was turning out, so I finally folded it up and stuffed it in a storage container.

Looking at it now, I wonder what I can do to improve it. After taking several embellishment classes at MQS last month, I should be able to come up with something. Finding the time to work on it is another consideration.

Beading is Done!

2010-05-30T20:11:00.000-05:00

I just finished the beading on "Blue Tigers". I chose not to add beads to the leaves at this time as I'm running too close to the deadline for the Missouri River Quilt Guild Show. I also have other deadlines to meet this week. Perhaps I'll get to the leaves later this summer.

The cat has 91 beads alone. This was the most difficult area to quilt. I think it was because of the layers of fusible and the type of fusible I used in this applique. I used a repositionable fusible for these pieces. It's a bit sticky and thicker than the Wonder Under I used in the rest of the appliques.

The coneflowers with the purple petals in this photo have a dark purple bugle bead. The other 2 flowers have a round bead.

A close-up of one of the larger lillies.

Beading

2010-05-29T11:42:00.000-05:00

I spent all day yesteray and most of this morning working on the beading on "Blue Tigers". Here's what I have completed so far. The cat is still in process. I'm adding more blue glass beads to the dark blue fabrics along her back, and the bell flowers will also get more beading. Below is the photo I used to create the cat applique.

The butterflies are now completely done. I used embroidery floss to add stripes to the bodies of the butterflies and to form the antenae. Blue glass beads were added to the strips in the wings and larger blue beads were added to the tips of the antenae.

I added a string of 5 yellow glass beads to the stamen for the pollen pods. I'll add some blue glass beads to the flower petals - hopefully later today.

One of the bell flowers shown here with the beading completed.

Blue Tigers

2010-05-26T21:47:00.000-05:00

The quilting on "Blue Tigers" was completed today. I used a variety of threads - Signature 100% cotton, Sew Fine 50wt., and Glide poly thread on this quilt and Hobbs 100% cotton battingg. The frame around the quilt is fused like all the appliques.

I drew around the eyes and formed the pupils with a black fabric marker, then quilted the iris of the lime green eyes with a gold color Glide poly thread.

The blue tiger lilies will get beads added to the stamins.

The cone flowers will also get some beading in their centers.

MQS 2010

2010-05-21T09:30:00.000-05:00

Here is a photo of my quilt "Inner Circle" hanging at MQS. No ribbon this year, but I sure was happy with the judges critique. It was much better than last year. The competition was really impressive with the amount of quilting and creativity in the entries.

I spent the entire week at MQS taking classes and meeting up with old friends and making new friends, and of cours - shopping! The classes I took were mainly on quilting design and embellishment. I came home with lots of new ideas and one quilt top in progress. I took an all-day class with Irena Bluhm on wholecloth design that includes applique. That top is all marked and ready for the applique. Perhaps it will be show-worthy for next year. We'll have to see if I find the time to complete it.

The classes on embellishment were a lot of fun. I hope to add lots of new techniques to my own art quilts in the future.

On top of these classes, I took 2 classes on digitizing quilting designs. A new venture is in store for "Sunrise Quilt Studio". I will be digitizing and marketing quilting designs in the future. Stay tuned!

Blocks

2010-05-08T09:44:00.000-05:00

These quilted blocks are in Sharon's quilt "Lessons From Mama".

The following block is the April block from the Saturday Sampler that I pieced.

This block gets a heart appliqued in the center, but that will wait until we're ready to put the blocks together in the final setting so that the heart doesn't end up sideways.

I'm currently working on another star block quilt that is turning out very nicely. It seems that stars are the theme for spring at Sunrise Quilt Studio!

Quilt Entries

2010-05-04T10:58:00.000-05:00

The quilt guild I belong to has asked for additional entries into their show. So, I went through my stack of quilts and chose 5 more small quilts to enter.

This is "Stained Glass Illusion".

"Lily"

"Butterflies for Kornkanok"

"Vail in Autumn"

"Serenity Beach"

Show Entries

2010-04-17T10:09:00.000-05:00

These are the 5 quilts I am entering into the Missouri River Quilt Guild show that will be held June 5-6th. This is "Sunset Beach". Machine applique with some thread painting. It is quilted with metalic and cotton threads.

"Inner Circle" is a whole cloth quilt with cut-away trapunto using cotton sateen. This quilt still needs to be bound.

"Southwest Village" is from a class I took from Shirley Patterson. It is done with fusible applique, thread painting, and yarn embellishments. This quilt needs binding and I am still working on an applique to put in the border.

"Blue Tigers" is still needing quilting, thread-painting and binding. This one is iffy as to whether it will be finished in time for the show.

"Arabesque" is another whole cloth quilt with cut-away trapunto. It is made using 100% cotton muslin. "Arabesque" won 2nd place at Machine Quilter's Showcase 2009 for Traditional Whole Cloth.

Decor Bond

2010-03-30T20:37:00.000-05:00

In response to Vivian's question about Decor Bond, I thought I would post a bit about my experience with it. Decor Bond is made by Pellon and is a crisp, fusible interfacing. You can find it with the other fusible interfacings at fabric stores. I buy mine at JoAnn's. Since it is stiffer than most interfacings, it holds up well on the longarm machine.

I've tried other fusible interfacings as stabilizers for thread painting, but always had issues with the fabric puckering. I don't have that problem with Decor Bond. It may be because I tend to thread paint fairly heavily.

When I have the quilt top finished to the point that it's ready for thread painting (before quilting), I cut a piece of Decor Bond the size of the quilt and iron it to the back of the top. Then I load the top onto the longarm machine and do my thread painting. Once I'm done thread painting, I un-pin the top from the take-up leader only, leaving the top pinned to the "top fabric" leader. Then I load the backing fabric and batting, and quilt as usual. I don't thread paint through the entire quilt sandwich as it will make some areas more heavily quilted than others, causing difficulties trying to get the quilt to lay or hang flat and square. Such as "Blue Tigers"; I will thread paint the flowers and the cat. The quilting in the background won't be as heavy as the thread painting. I will add quilting to the cat and the flowers equal to the amount of quilting I will do in the background.

Appliques Done

2010-03-30T16:04:00.000-05:00

After more playing around with the appliques last night, here is what I've come up with. The appliques are all fuse-tacked in place. I didn't want to take the top down from the design wall and fuse-tack on my ironing board for fear of the appliques shifting out of place. The problem is that my design wall is insulation board and I didn't think it was a good idea to use the iron on it with just the fabric separating it from the iron heat. My solution was to take a piece of Insul-Bright by The Warm Company, and tuck it underneath the quilt top, pin it in place, and then fuse-tack the appliques down. It worked like a charm - no damage to the insulation board. I'm now planning on covering the entire design wall in Insul-Bright underneath a layer of cotton batting.

I'm still pondering border options - haven't come to a conclusion there. I have decided to back the entire top with Decor-Bond then load it onto the longarm for the thread painting. I've done that with one other quilt top and it worked great.

I will probably back the entire top with Decor-Bond by Pellon, then load it onto the longarm frame to do the thread work. I have 3 weeks until quilt entries are due for the guild show, so I need to get busy.

Blue Tigers

2010-03-29T12:25:00.000-05:00

I made some progress on the applique quilt last night by working on the leaves and stems. There is still a lot of work to do, yet.

I named the quilt "Blue Tigers" because there are 3 different types of "Tigers" in this quilt: Tiger Lillies, a Tiger-striped cat, and Tiger-striped butterflies.

Making Progress

2010-03-28T15:08:00.000-05:00

I started adding stems and leaves to the blue lillies and finally things started coming together. There is some depth now. It also pointed out to me that the little coneflowers and bell flowers on the right side of the quilt are too pastel for this background fabric. So it was either choose another background fabric (which I am having a hard time finding), or make new flowers.

So I made new flowers. Here are the ones I finished last night. I am still playing around with them for placement as well as digging through my stash looking for other fabrics that may also work.

If I keep this up I may just have this quilt done in time for the Missour River Quilt Guild Show in June!

Decisions

2010-03-26T16:24:00.000-05:00

Today I'm working on the cat applique quilt. I found this piece of Indonesian Batik and auditioned it with the appliques. This one isn't working for me either. It's too flat - not enough depth in the fabric for what I'm looking for.

This is the other piece of batik that I was leaning towards. The problem with it is that some of the appliques tend to blend into the background depending on what color they land on.

I'm going to continue working on the appliques this afternoon, adding leaves and stems and perhaps adding more flowers in different colors. I'll keep looking for background fabrics until I find something that works for me.

Computer Woes

2010-03-21T19:49:00.000-05:00

I don't have any photos to publish today. My computer crashed last week on Wednesday and I just got it back from the Geek Squad this afternoon. Anti-viral software didn't catch a couple of viruses and they did my computer in :(

The computer is working much better than it has in almost 4 months, but I all my photos and other files are on a new external hard drive and I haven't had time to plug it in. That will have to wait for another day.

DH and I spent Saturday morning cleaning out the basement getting it ready for the rest of the drywall installation. It is up now and waiting for taping and mudding which will probably be done next weekend. Then I'll paint the walls and shop for new flooring. I'm leaning towards vinyl flooring of some kind. I'm also going to rearrange the studio and purchase a couple of tables to make a larger cutting table. It should be a much more pleasant place to work once it's all completed.

Yesterday I finished a sweater I have been knitting for 2 months. I made it out of acrylic yarn by Red Heart in Monet color-way. I had to take it apart once and make some changes in order to get it to fit well. Now that I have the pattern figured out, I'm making a 2nd sweater - this one using Wool-Ease by Red-Lion Yarns. I'll post photos on these 2 sweaters soon.

Two New Quilts and an Award

2010-03-13T16:59:00.001-06:00

My new wholecloth quilt is finally off the frame and ready to rinse and block. This photo is the back of the quilt. The front is full of marks from the water soluble pen as well as water-soluble thread. After it's blocked, it will be ready for binding and a label. It needs a name yet, but I haven't made up my mind about that yet. The plan is to enter it into MQS as well as the Missouri River Quilt Guild Show, and the Missouri State Fair this year.

This is a photo of appliques auditioning on background fabric. Or should I say, the background fabric is being auditioned. I made the pattern for the cat from a photo of my own calico cat. I haven't added her eyes yet. They will be painted on after the quilting is done. The greenery is yet to be cut out, and the entire composition needs to be decided. This has been a fun project - something I needed after the past year full of stressful life events.

The Wedding Gown quilt won "Most Unusual Quilt" at the customer's quilt guild show! Congratulations Pat! Pat has also applied for the quilts' entry into Paducah. Wish her luck.

Companion Quilt

2010-03-03T12:33:00.000-06:00

This is the other customer quilt made with 1930's reproduction fabrics. Very sweet!

It's one of those quilts that makes you feel happy.

30's Reproduction

2010-03-02T22:21:00.000-06:00

This baby quilt is made from 30's repro fabrics with unbleached muslin. This is a customer quilt and is one of two quilts she made from 30's repro fabrics. The 2nd quilt is still on the frame, but almost complete.

A close-up of the quilting.

DH and I are working on enlarging my studio space :D We're cleaning out the storage side of the basement and will set up a cutting table in that space. I haven't decided what else to include, but will have a better idea of the usable space once we're done clearing out stuff. Oh, the possibilities!

Sunbonnet Ladies

2010-02-21T18:17:00.000-06:00

The Sunbonnet Ladies quilt is almost complete. This block has the background completed and just needs a little quilting within the applique. The sashing also needs quilting - that will be the last step.

The outer border is almost complete. It is just lacking one side border to be finished. The inner border is complete all the way around the quilt.

A little better view of the quilt as I'm working on it.

I'm using Iced Blue Signature 100% cotton thread in the blue fabrics and Parchment in the background and inner border. The batting is a 5oz poly.

More Totes

2010-02-10T21:46:00.000-06:00

I finished the last 2 tote bags this afternoon. This one is in purples and greens. I quilted some line-dancing designs and feathers in the pieced block.

I quilted feathers after dividing the piece into 4 triangles. I marked the spine of the feather with children's chalk, then quilted the feathers free-hand.

The feathers were made the same way in this red tote as in the purple tote.

Wedding Gown Quilt Revisited

2010-02-09T08:14:00.000-06:00

I received a question about the wedding gown quilt that I worked on last year so I thought I would post about it again.

This dress was pieced into the top by the customer. I'm not sure how she did it, but the objective was to keep the dress as whole as possible - not cut it into blocks and stitch them back together.

What I believe she did was to take the dress apart and rearrange the pieces of the skirt, sleeves, and bodice to make the top as you see it here in the photo.

For quilting the dress we used silk for the backing fabric. We also added a layer of underlining fabric underneath the dress "top" so the batting wouldn't show through the netting areas of the dress. A high-loft batting was used to give dimension. I didn't do any marking on the quilt since it was made of dry-clean only fabrics.

Teaching Left-handed Needlearts

2010-02-07T23:43:00.000-06:00

My husband and daughters are all left-handed. There have been challenges over the years teaching the girls to tie their shoes, write their letters, cut with scissors, and now - how to crochet and knit.

My 14 y/o daughter decided she wanted to crochet a new hat. So yesterday we got out a skein of bright red yarn and a large crochet hook, and I attempted to teach her how to crochet left-handed. I finally gave up on that. I realized that my brain just won't work in the left-handed mode. So I found a video on You Tube made for left-handed crocheters.

Hannah still found crochet to be difficult, so today she decided she needed to learn to knit. This time I headed straight for You Tube and found several videos on beginning knitting - but for right-handed people. Hannah decided to try knitting right-handed and is doing pretty well. I had to relearn how to cast on stitches since it's been over 20 years since I picked up knitting needles! We are using the single needle, long thread-tail method to cast-on stitches. Hannah is learning how to regulate the tension on the yarn. Once she gets that down I think she'll be knitting up a storm. She's starting with a scarf, then will graduate to knitting in the round. She chose a hot pink yarn for this project.

Freehand Feathers

2010-02-05T20:40:00.000-06:00

This is a current customer project. A set of 7 panels to make tote bags from. I quilted freehand feathers on this one with the black fabric using Signature 100% thread in Dusty Rose.

This picture has better color. It looks like I'm needing a new camera :( This is the same tote panel with the pieced block. I did a feather in the star, line dancing in the background pieces, and L's and E's in the pink border.

Snip, Snip, Snip....

2010-01-30T13:03:00.000-06:00

I'm trimming trapunto batting today and my fingers are getting sore :( The pain and suffering of machine trapunto! I'm finding it more difficult to trim the 80/20 batting than the poly batting, but I think I'll get the result I'm looking for.

Now to find that box of bandaids so I can cushion my thumb.

Plan B

2010-01-28T12:32:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I measured the 2 quilts for AAQI to make sure they fit the size requirements, but this quilt with the butterfly and coneflower is 1/2 inch too wide. Rats! I'm debating on whether to take off the binding and cut it down, or make another quilt. I'm leaning towards making another quilt. I don't have much room to cut this quilt down on the sides without the binding running into the appliques.

I have a wholecloth quilt on the machine right now, getting ready for the trapunto step. The top is loaded, but the trapunto bat is not. I've been debating on what batting to use for the trapunto. The poly batting I have in stock is a bit too thin, so I think I'm going to experiment with 2 layers of Hobbs 80/20. The top is cream colored, so the color of the 80/20 won't be a problem. I have used 2 layers of poly batting before, but didn't like the look. I'm hoping the Hobbs will give a firmer trapunto affect.

Here's a sneak peak at a portion of the design I'm using.

There is quite a bit more to the quilt design than this, but it gives you an idea of where I started.

Gir Jacket

2010-01-26T18:48:00.000-06:00

DD#1 has a "Gir" jacket that she has worn out and wanted to replace. The price of a new jacket was more than we wanted to spend, so DD#1 decided to design one of her own.

We purchased a hoodie jacket pattern and some polar fleece, added her own touches and now she has a new "Gir" jacket with her own designer touches.

2 More Doilies

2010-01-17T21:21:00.000-06:00

These are the last 2 doilies - at least for awhile. I'm finally feeling well enough to get back to quilting, so crocheting doilies will take a backseat. The doily above started out from a pattern, but I could only get so far and then had problems. I tried 3 times, but could never get the pattern to work out, so I stopped where the problems started and finished it with my own pattern. This poor doily needs blocking, but it didn't turn out too badly.

Now this doily took me a week to complete. It isn't a difficult pattern, just a large doily that took almost an entire ball of #20 crochet cotton. I used a #8 crochet hook. The pattern is from Free Vintage Crochet and is Doily Number 7318.

My quilting projects will get some attention tomorrow. I have 4 small quilts for the foster child program to complete along with one customer quilt and several tote bags for another customer. My own quilts are waiting in line.

I found some 30's repro fabrics at the LQS and am itching to audition them with my vintage blocks and deciding which ones will work best with the fabrics. I have the feeling that I didn't buy enough fabric!

Uncle Jim's Doily

2010-01-11T15:11:00.000-06:00

Another project from Craftbits.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with all these doilies, but I'm having fun making them.

Easy Crochet Doily

2010-01-09T09:21:00.000-06:00

This was a simple doily that gives big impact. I haven't added the final round yet, that will give a picot edge to the piece. This pattern is on Craft Bits, project 168.

Ideas for quilting doilies applied to a quilt: I've done this once and it worked out well. I outlined the doilies and did minimal quilting in only some areas of the the doily. Like the doily above - I would quilt around the center wheel-type section just where the pattern changes to the the loop pattern.

Another thing you can do is to apply tulle over the doily blocks and then quilt anyway you would like. Just slow down a bit if you are machine quilting since you will be quilting through thicker layers.

January Saturday Sampler Blocks

2010-01-08T18:56:00.000-06:00

Back to quilting today. I made up the January blocks for the Saturday Sampler this afternoon. I braved the cold basement afraid it would be too cold to work, but plugging in the space heater took the chill off the room. So I happily cut and sewed until time to fix dinner tonight. I also finished a customer quilt. It's nice to make some progress in the studio.

The January sampler blocks are Album Variation. The one above is in the Black and Bright colorway.

This is the original colorway.

I am enjoying the comments about the thread crochet doilies. It's nice to know that there are others who appreciate the work involved and the beauty of these little pieces. It's amazing what a piece of thread and a small hook can make.

I have 2 more doilies finished and one in progress. The one in progress isn't working out. For some reason I can't get the pattern worked correctly. So after ripping everything out and starting over twice, I decided to stop where I keep messing up in the pattern and just do my own thing from this point on. Hopefully it will look ok. It won't be much like the pattern at all, but at least it will be finished.

This doily is a larger version of the one posted yesterday. It's the perfect size to place underneath a lamp or a bowl.

Doily Mat

2010-01-07T08:09:00.000-06:00

This piece is part of a set of doilies. I've only made 2 of the set so far. This is one of 4 small doilies, and there is a larger doily that I'll post tomorrow. The small doilies are 5 1/2" in diameter. I used #20 crochet cotton thread and a size 8 steel crochet hook.

Thank you everyone for the complements on these pieces. I enjoy having some handwork to do in the evenings while DH is watching TV and the kids are doing their crafts. I like to keep busy and I'm usually too tired to quilt on the machine in the evenings - I make too many mistakes quilting when I'm tired. It's much easier to crochet.

I have been searching the internet for vintage patterns - ones that remind me of the pieces of crochet lace and doilies that I have of my 2 grandmothers. The pattern for the doily mat and the Pineapple Lace Doily came from Free Vintage Crochet. I've also printed patterns from Craftbits and I'll post photos of the pieces I've made from those in a few days.

Pineapple Lace

2010-01-06T14:30:00.000-06:00

Made with #20 cotton crochet thread and a size 6 (1.8mm) steel crochet hook.

Irish Lace Thread Crochet Piece

2010-01-05T21:24:00.000-06:00

I've been working on some thread crochet pieces in the evenings. This is from a vintage pattern and is an Irish Lace crochet pattern. I made it with #10 cotton crochet thread and a size 2.00mm hook. I tend to crochet with a tight tension and usually have to use a hook 2 sizes larger than what is called for in the pattern in order to get the correct finished size.