Saturday, February 29, 2020

A sprig of flowers for Leap Day

Happy Leap Day!


I recently got this embroidery pattern from a blog, but unfortunately I can't find the blog now so I can't tell you where I got it. My first thought was to resize it so it would fit the square but then I realized it would fit the quilt if I am willing to let it spill over to other blocks. Yes I am; in fact, I am happy to do it.

I added some applique to make these flowers really stand out. The petals are perle cotton. I need to add one more stem for the lavender on the left.


I put it pretty close to where the other ones are. I need to spread out  more so I can be done when I decide I am done, but this looks like a good concentration of motifs for round one.


Linked with:
UFO Busting #97 at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland. Did you notice the 2002 date in the quote?

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Three Pieces of News


I received this lovely piece of hand-dyed cheesecloth from Laura Wasilowski. Thank you, Laura!  I've shown you one of her books here on this blog, Fuse and Tell Journal Quilts. She included a card about New England Quilt Seminars which looks quite fun. Too bad I won't be able to go.


 

The March 2020 issue of Better Homes and Gardens has a article on visible mending by Kim Hutchison. I am happy that the slow stitching movement has been noticed by a mainstream publication. 



I added a butterfly to the quote quilt. I bought a piece of fabric that had butterflies attached to it from the remnant bin at Joann's. It was pretty pricey since it was a whole yard. It is an all white piece, and I decided it was too white for this quilt so I colored it in with fabric markers. It was pretty fast and easy to attach. I also attached some of the flower trims I showed you in the Maximalist post.  I just needed some quick additions to the quilt after the time consuming embroidery of the quote.

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Maximalist Revisited


Once put my Maximalist quilt on my bulletin board, I knew it was missing something. A quilt named Maximalist needs to be, well Maximal. So I decided to add some gray on the other side. I decided to make a big yo-yo and pinch in the sides to make some dimension, like flower petals. I had some trim for the inspirational crazy quilt, and thought that would be a good center for the flower.


Here's what it looks like now. I guess it is done for now.


For the inspirational quote crazy quilt, I focused on this quote.  The ink uses a fine tip marker, and it is probably okay, but I was worried that it may not hold up.  My fine tip fabric marker is out of ink, so I decided to outline it using one strand of floss. It is a long quote so it took all week to do one quote. I will be buying another marker so I can reinforce the other quotes quicker.  By the way, the shadow under the quote is not a stain, it is the maximalist quilt.

2020:  Week 8 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I worked on the inspirational quote crazy quilt this week. I also added a flower to the Maximalist quilt. I took my Opal sewing machine to be repaired, and bought some embellishments for the crazy quilt.  I have found some motifs I want to add to the crazy quilt and chose where I want to put them.


15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7 days
15 minute days this year -- 7 out of 54 days
Success rate  = 100%


Linked with:
Life in Pieces: 15 Minutes to Stitch

Saturday, February 22, 2020

More Red Quilts

The Color It Red blog hop is over now, but some of you may still want to see some more red quilts.  If you missed my red quilt, you can see it Red and White Portrait with Yo-Yo Trim.  Here are some red quilts I have made. They are all small quilts - too small to use as lap quilts. They are all taken with the same background - living room floor, so you may be able to estimate the size.

Lately, I have been enjoying seeing my quilts in different combinations - like a curator in a museum.
















Thursday, February 20, 2020

Quilt Reveal: Color It Red


Welcome to the Color It Red blog hop!

 I really like red and white quilts so for my Blog Hop day, I was originally going to finish an old project that had red in it, but decided to make a brand new red and white quilt. Starting new quilts are so much fun, and since I have an excuse, I may as well take advantage of it!




My quilt started with some red yo-yos I made for my yo-yo coverlet. I decided that the red yo-yos were too bright for my coverlet.

If you are new to my blog, as way of background, I am making a yo-yo coverlet to replicate an antique one I saw when I was in New Orleans. Welcome, and feel free to look around once you are finished with this post. I make lots of different types of quilting and other craft projects. If you are a regular visitor, I am sorry for bringing up the coverlet yet again. Consider this post to be a vacation from that coverlet. I promise I won't mention it again in this post.
 


Instead of sewing the the yo-yos together to form a rectangle, I decided to use them to surround a red and white quilt. I thought a silhouette would make for a simple applique, and a profile portrait would make for a more interesting portrait. I looked up some silhouettes on the internet and found a silhouette profile with flowers in the hair. I thought that was a great concept for my quilt.


I used dots fabric to resemble the dots portraits in old newspaper articles and books before photography. It's a little reference to my genealogy addiction.

I traced it, but made lots of changes in it to make it my own. I put fusible on the back of the fabric and cut out the shape and fused it to the background. I then free motion quilted and bound the quilt. I threw away the rest of the fusible so I don't ever accidentally use it again.  It gummed up the needle and made it very difficult to quilt.

I think it looks great as it is without the yo-yos. Some of the dark splotches in the photo above are due to my lazy job washing the washable marker out. Some of it is winter lighting.  I am sure it will be fine after a second wash.


When I quilted it, the face received dimension on its own so her jaw line is pronounced and her eyes are set in.  I really like that. I added a layer of batting behind the hair so it would also stand out. It made a small difference. I used permanent fabric markers to make the eyes, nostril and lips. The  shadow under the eye is a mistake but I think it makes the face more interesting.


Since the point of the quilt is to use the yo-yos, I added them around the quilt as planned. I think it is good practice for future use. You know, in case I ever need to know how to join yo-yos.

The inside quilt is about 6" x 8" and with the 2 inch yo-yos, it is about 10" x 12".  By the way, did you notice that the portrait uses a different fabric than the yo-yos? I was happy to find that I had two different dot fabrics in the same shade of red.

Thanks for visiting me. I hope you enjoyed your stay. You're welcome back anytime. Feel free to look around and see what else I've been up to over the last couple decades. There are links in the sidebar to help guide you to whatever interests you. When you are done here, visit the other participants on the blog hop.


February 17th

February 18th

February 19th

February 20th
February 21st

Also linked with: Beauties Pageant

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Clues to Future Posts


I have been stitching every day this week, but I can't show you what I am working on. I guess I could show you, but it is more fun for you to see the completed version.

I will be showing you my red quilt on the 20th for the Color It Red blog hop.  If you remember, my clue for that is that it uses yo-yos. It is already finished, so this week I worked on my mini quilt for March.

The March mini is also for the Dust Off an Old Book blog hop so I can only give you clues. 
 

I already gave you a clue when I showed you this picture from the yo-yo quilt.The blue fabric that is serving as a carpet will be used in my March quilt.


Do you want another clue? Okay, here is a faux cathedral windows quilt I made out of jeans. I made this a long time ago.  No, I am not making another one.  I will be making another faux window quilt, but I am not using any circles.



2020:  Week 7 of 15 Minutes to Stitch


I worked on the March mini quilt this week. 


15 minute days this week -- 7 out of 7 days
15 minute days this year -- 7 out of 47 days
Success rate  = 100%


Linked with:
Life in Pieces: 15 Minutes to Stitch

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Embroidery on the Quotation Quilt

I have been doing some embroidery.


The first step in making a crazy quilt is to piece the blocks, using a foundation which helps make the blocks. The foundation is also helpful in supporting the weight of the embellishments that will be added to it.

It's too late for my inspirational quote crazy quilt, because I decided to make a crazy quilt after the blocks were already pieced and the top had already been made. I decided to add an interfacing behind the quilt to serve as a foundation. In the photo above, I am testing the interfacing on a scrap of fabric to see if it makes the fabric sticky or hard to needle through.

It does not.  The interfacing is  nice and soft and wonderful to work with.  It has fusible on one side, which I will use to adhere it to the quilt.



The second step of making a crazy quilt is to add embroidery to the seams. This is difficult for me, because I want to ignore some of the seams and make some designs that go over the whole piece. There is a nice big square that is formed by the triangles and I want to give myself room to put big designs over the squares. Limiting myself to triangles requires small detailed embroidery.

I might add the seam embroidery around the quotes and then decide on the triangles as I go along.


Yes, it does say 2002 on the top left.  Hmm, I have 2007 listed as the start date, but it was an estimated guess. Maybe that is when the top was pieced. The blocks must have been made in 2002. That would be nice to put 2002-2020 on the label. Maybe I should try to get done this year!

I also colored in this stamp.  Those tiny orange spots in the center of the flowers made such a big difference.  I haven't decided what to do with all that white space around the stamp. I want to keep the focus on the stamp.

Linked with:
Off the Wall Friday


Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Quilt Exhibit

In my last post, I told you I went to a quilt exhibit, and then went on to show you a quilt I took to the park for a photo shoot. Today, I will show you the pictures from the exhibit

The exhibit is by the Columbus Metropolitan Quilters. They are going to have a bigger show, Quilt Spectacular 2020, “The Roaring 20’s” February 28-29, 2020 at the Franklin County fairgrounds, 4100 Columbia St., Hilliard, OH  43026, where they will have vendors, auctions, and more quilts on display.

Since I showed you 11 pictures of my quilt, I chose 11 quilts from the show for you, in the order I saw them.


The impression I got from this one that it was very neat. I got the impression that this quilter must have worked hard to select the colors and piece everything meticulously. I think this one was quilted by another person, but the quilting is also very tidy. Everything about it is pleasing, especially the colors.


The center block has been on my list of quilts to make for the longest time, and I think it is a great way to use the scraps. I really like the way the block has been adapted to form the borders.


This is a storm at sea with snail's trail at the center. It is a big quilt and very striking. I think this was the biggest quilt at the show.


This was a relatively small quilt (baby?) made with 30s fabrics.I think this is a great way to use them.


I like the radiating effect of these blocks on this quilt.


This was a small quilt that will be at the auction at the Roaring 20s show.


This quilt was made for the Roaring 20s show.  I like the Art Deco feel of it.


This is a small quilt. I really like the simplicity of it. I think the flowers were made with an embroidery stitch.


I like the prettiness of this quilt, and it is refreshing to see it in the winter.


Back to the big quilts, this Baltimore Album was incredible. I spent a lot of time looking at this one. It was needle-turn applique with lots of tiny pieces.


This was a big quilt too with lots of flying geese. It's a striking pattern that I haven't seen before. I like how it looks like some circles are on top of other ones.

Monday, February 10, 2020

Drunkard's Path Photo Shoot

I finished my Drunkard's Path quilt in November and already showed you the finished quilt.  I wasn't happy with its reveal though, because I wasn't able to get good photos of it.  I showed it to you on the floor of my porch. As a result, the size of the quilt was hard to see. It looked longer or shorter than it really is, depending on the angle I took the photo.

Yesterday, I got a chance to fix that. My family invited me to go to a quilt show with them at a park. This was the same park where we did a photo-shoot of The Earth Laughs in Flowers formerly known as Daisy's Chickenpox. Remembering that photo-shoot, I brought Drunkard's Garden along, and we managed to get proper pictures of this quilt.

This park had a lot of beautifully curved structures which properly echoed the curves of this quilt.  I don't have anything new to tell you about this quilt, so for historical reference, it was started in August of 2003 and finished in November of 2019. I tried to do another Smilebox slideshow, but apparently, you have to pay to be able to share it.

Here are 11 pictures of the quilt taken at Inniswood Metro Gardens in Westerville, Ohio. Some of these are similar to each other, but I liked them all the ones I am including for different reasons.

1.


 2.

3.

4.

5.



6.

 7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

 Which picture is your favorite?