Day 14: 31 Day Blog Challenge

Random picture of the day: roses

Creating Art Quilts with Panels

I normally do my book reviews on the High Road Reader blog, but since I have to post every day this month, I am going to do it here.  My latest book is one I got from Net Galley, but I am going to give you my honest opinion.

It's called Creating Art Quilts with Panels: Easy Thread Painting and Embellishing Techniques to Create Your Own Colorful Piece of Art From Panels by Joyce Hughes. It is published by Fox Chapel Publishing. 

This book starts with a super idea. Instead of piecing or appliquéing your quilts, why not start with a panel that is already printed?  You can change up the panel by adding applique or cropping it so you like it, but the quilt top won't take much time to get ready. It is a great idea for people who need a quilt in a hurry or really like the quilting part.

The next step is to sandwich and add a base layer of quilting to secure the layers and keep everything flat.  

Then the fun begins.  You can add thread painting using different colors of thread to add  dimension and shadows and highlights. Followup with a variety of other techniques such as trapunto, use of an overlay, three-D effects, bobbin work, couching, and embellishments.  

The second part of the book takes you through a variety of projects where she shows you how she embellished it, so you can get a feel for how decisions are made about how to use each technique. 

I had thought of this idea before but wasn't quite sure how to accomplish it, and I think this book really helped push me forward in that.  The book is not for beginners, as you do have to have some basic knowledge about how to do free motion quilting, thread painting, etc., although just confidence may be able to take you through it.  There is a lot of repetition and some of the concepts get explained very quickly so the pacing of the book was difficult for me, but overall, I learned a lot. I am giving this book four stars. 

Day 12: 31 Day Blog Challenge

Random picture of the day

Random picture of the day: Windowless window

This post posted before I got a chance to add anything to it.  I have been hand stitching the binding on the Droid quilt. This usually takes me a while.

There are a lot of birds chirping outside when Zeus and I go for our walk.  It always amazes me that there are so many birds in the winter, because I figure they would have flown south.  It seems like the millennial birds are doing their own thing. It does make for an enjoyable walk though.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Things About Me

Random picture of the day: Azaleas

Day 11: 31 Day Blog Challenge
Pretty Piney posted these 5 Things About Me and I thought it would be good for me to do it too. My blog readers are going to learn a lot about this month as I try to think of enough things to tell you during this 31 Day Blog Writer's Challenge

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Things About Me

Here's the list if you want to follow along:

One Project You Are Particularly Proud Of

Two Mistakes You’ve Made in the Past

Three Things That Make Your Work Unique

Four Tools You Love to Use

Five Inspirations

 And here are my answers:

One Project You Are Particularly Proud Of

1. This is a difficult one because I am proud of most of my quilts for different reasons - perseverance, fabric selection, skills learned, etc. Luckily, the designer of these questions didn't ask for the one I am most proud of, because I don't know. I am choosing Winter Scene to show you.  It is a tiny quilt, but I made it using non-quilting fabric and I made up the design.  I am happy that people are able to identify the things that are in the scene. It was also enjoyable to make the no-pressure quilt. I made it in three days so had to trust each decision I made. There was no time for second guessing.



Two Mistakes You’ve Made in the Past

1. There are people who  have more confidence than I do, and I spent a lot of time thinking they were better than me at whatever thing they were bragging about. It took me a long time to realize that their confidence wasn't a good indicator of their skill level, as compared to mine.  I am working on increasing my confidence overall and learning to trust my own knowledge and skill. Now I have to learn a new way of reacting to these more confident people!

2. The other one is thinking that if something is fun or easy for me, it isn't what I should be doing for work.  I like writing, teaching, etc., but thought I should do something "better" when I was choosing a career. I have learned that just because something is easy or fun for me doesn't mean that it is easy or fun for someone else.  In my current job, I get lots of writing and teaching and I am much happier.

Three Things That Make Your Work Unique

1. I have very eclectic tastes.  I like primitive, modern, traditional, art quilts. Applique or piecing. Crazy quilting.  You name it, I probably like it. Most of my quilts include a big mix of different styles.

2. I use bright colors. They make me happy. I do include other, more sedate colors, but overall there is a lot of brightness in my work.

3. Most of my work is small.  I have made bed quilts, but most of my work is lap quilt or smaller category.

Four Tools You Love to Use

1. I just got a mandolin that chops fruits and vegetables, like onions and celery and apples. Just put on top of the blade, press the cover down and voila, the stuff is chopped.  I've been making things that need chopped fruits and vegetables lately!

2. The sewing machine extension table. It is so nice to have a flat bed so the quilt does not have as much drag. (All other quilting implements are hereby also included in this #2).

3. A camera. It helps me document my progress, try out different settings, help me remember things, and helps encourage me to keep adding photo-worthy prettiness to my life.

4. The computer. It lets me look up stuff I don't know, get inspiration, connect with other quilters, work to get a paycheck, etc.

Five Inspirations

1. People. There are inspiring people who try to do good in the world. I like to watch them and emulate them. It helps me when I see what terrible things other people do.

2. The library. The library offers books, magazines, computers and other resources to learn about things I don't know about.  It shows me what new stuff is out there and make new connections between things I do know about.

3. Pinterest, Google, Flickr, and other search engines help find photos of things I may want to applique or draw, or give me ideas about different ways of doing something.

4. Youtube. It helps me learn so much about how to do things. Also it is good to watch things to pass the time or have music playing in the background while I am doing something else.

5. Blogs. Blogs are still my main source of information. It helps me know people, and get more details about a quilt or project instead of just a photo.

Linked to:
Let's Bee Social

Christmas Quilts and More Magazine

Random picture of the day:

Random picture of the day: A mandala my sister made for me.

In order to give you content every day, today I present you a magazine, Christmas Quilts & More by Better Homes and Gardens.

Here's the table of contents. I love that it has photos so you can really see what is in the magazine.

This one is by Jo Kramer and Kelli Hanken, which is exciting because I follow her blog. Also because it looks like it would be quick to make, and versatile throughout the year.

Another red and white quilt. Most of the patterns in the magazine are takes on traditional patterns, so I probably have patterns like these in my library, but nice to look at and consider making anyway.

When I looked at my newly purchased fabric, I saw that I had bought a lot of tone-on-tone patterns which were pretty big when I just started quilting. I thought maybe I wasn't keeping up with the times, but most of the quilts in the magazine have tone-on-tone or solid prints.  There aren't a lot of multi-color fabrics in any of these quilts. All of these quilts look like they would play nicely with my stash.

There aren't a lot of multi-color quilts in the magazine. The ones that are there use brights, which also play nicely with my stash. This is a tree skirt.

I've been thinking about making small ornaments like these, pin cushions, bowl fillers.

I've had red and white quilts on the brain lately.  Partly because I have the fabric out for making those XX blocks, but also because there are several red and white block of the month programs going on that keep showing up on my Bloglovin' feed. So I pretty much turned all the quilts I saw into potential red and white quilts.

Another multi-colored one.  This one does have some patterned fabrics. It looks like a great way to use the holiday fabrics. Or you could use it for other festive occasions, like birthdays.

I like this one a lot. I haven't seen anything like this before.

I can see this one being made in reds too, or maybe yellows.

ATC Holder

Day 9: 31 Day Blog Challenge. Random picture of the day: Crazy quilt square

I have a new camera.  I needed another, easily transportable, camera because the battery cover of the old one broke off. Apparently, you can buy battery covers, which is all I need, but my camera is too old to get such a thing. Anyway, it is a good excuse to get a new one. It's a Canon Powershot.  I tested it out. Zeus likes it.

Since I am working on a binding for the Droid quilt, it has made me think of my next project I want to start.  There are so many, but I think I should do something that has been on my list for a long time. I do not know if people still make ATCs, but I've been wanting to make a holder for it since they were popular.

An ATC is an Artist Trading Card. It is a tiny art piece, exactly 2 1/2" x 3 1/2".  It can be made out of fabric or paper.  It is always gifted and not sold.

I made a prototype of an ATC holder.  I want to make a quilt with folded corners that will hold ATCs.    Something like Kate's Advent Calendar, which I also want to make, but I picture this one to be bigger. Right now I am thinking 100 or so spaces, even though I don't have 100 or so ATCs. Here is my sample. This is using fabric that is already out, but the plan is to use neutral fabrics so that the ATCs can shine on their own. I did think about keeping the inside fabric slightly patterned, so that it wouldn't look too empty if it isn't filled up all the way.

Here it is with an ATC inside it.  It is a little big for the ATC, but I worry that making it too tight to fit in the ATCs. The corners would hide too much of the ATC and there wouldn't be a lot of room to maneuver or deal with slightly mis-sized ATCs.

The sashing is too big and is overwhelming for the ATC. Maybe the inside fabric should be very plain, like black or white since it makes a frame for the ATC. I can fill in blank spaces with quotes on paper or some such other things.

 15 Minutes to Stitch

This week,  I found fabric and pieced the backing for the drunkard path quilt. I also pressed the top and the backing, as well as the binding fabric for the Droid quilt.  I sewed the binding on (still have to handsew the other part, and made the sample block I showed on this post.  My progress as of Sunday was:

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  290 out of 343 sessions
Success rate: 85%

Linked to:
 15 Minutes to Stitch 
Oh Scrap! - I used scraps to make the sample
ScrapHappy

Day 8: 31 Day Blog Challenge

Random picture of the day: French mints book

It's Saturday! Yesterday, the sun finally came out, and I walked downstairs to this scene. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to come down the stairs and see all these beautiful textiles.  At the front is the Droid quilt. I was sewing on the binding, and came up short so wasn't finished.  It does explain why the leftover fabric was still with the quilt.

The quilt on the wall is the Simple Squares quilt. I really like all the happy fall colors. Even though at first, I was regretting not working harder on the placement of the fabrics, now I really like the fact that it makes your eyes move from fabric to fabric around the quilt.

On the couch is the Colonial Bricks quilt.  This one was supposed to be another quick and easy quilt, but I keep getting interrupted and distracted, and have to re-think how the rows are arranged.  I didn't worry too much about fabric placement on it either, but I do want to make sure all of one type of color doesn't wind up being on one side of the quilt.

One the table is an Indian Kantha quilt I got from Tuesday morning. It makes me happy to see it.

And of course, there is Zeus who was barking like he does every morning because he is excited that it is time to go on a walk. It's his favorite time of the day.

To see the other bloggers who are also doing the 31 day blog-writing challenge, click here.