Quilting is Done!

I finished all the quilting on my new 'modern' art quilt.   It was straight lines vertical and horizontal. Let me just say, there were alot of lines.   They crisscrossed in sections and I used several different colours as well.   I have to bury the threads and get ready to do my binding.

I am very excited to see this one hanging on my wall.   It combines hand work (something I never do) with my love of colour and modern work.

Voting Time

Have you all checked out the Blogger's Quilt Festival?   Now is the time to vote.   Head on over and vote for your favourite.

In case you were wondering, mine is #241=)

I am quilting my latest art quilt, all lines for this one.  They are stitched in variegated and solid threads and crisscross at different areas.   I haven't done straight in a long time, it is certainly a different feeling than free motion quilting.   Not nearly as exciting, but this quilt warrants a bit of uniformity.

Circles Art Quilt

I do sometimes wonder why I have this fetish for circles?  I just bought a pile of fabric at sample spree and half of it had circles or dots in it.   I have been working on my latest art quilt.  I was designing something completely different on my sketch pad last weekend, and suddenly this just popped into my head.   It was only to be a 12"x12" sample, but already I have started much much bigger than that.   This photo shows the background that I created.

The next step is to add some ric rac and ribbon.  How you ask?  Well, in a very creative and free spirited manner.

What do you think?   

A Ripple in Time

I have been busy, but some of the stuff is tutorials for Riley Blake and Pellon, so I can't show them to you yet.   But at the end of February I can=)

Ripple in Time is the name of my latest art quilt.   It describes the past summer where I would work away on my quilt wherever the kids were playing.   I would haul it outside on the deck as they played in the dirt, in the car on road trips, and up to camp on those rainy days.   I always find summers just seem to disappear in the blink of an eye.   The time just vanishes, hence the name, 'A Ripple in Time'.

This is the centre of my quilt.

Do you like the name?   

Bring on 2012!

Let's get 2012 started!   What a year this is going to be.   I have set my goals in the side bar and am ready to dive into a fresh new year.  

January is jam packed with crazy quilting.  I have two entries I want to get ready for the Canadian Juried show and one entry still has the fabric neatly folded in a bag with the design on top.   Yikes, magic better happen soon!  

I finished two tutorials this week.  They will be up tomorrow and next week.   I might add they are both on embellishing.  How fun is that?  Riley Blake loves embellishments so much that I am posting once a month on  how you can use them in quilts, sewing projects and crafts!  

More tomorrow on that delicious bit of news.

I am getting close to the quilting stage of my art quilt currently in the studio.  I always jot down steps when I am unsure how to proceed to ensure that things go smoothly.  They never do.   I had a heck of a time getting this giant piece appliqued onto the background.  I finally had to baste a large section of it.  Don't think I didn't consider fusing the whole thing down!  

Trust me when I say, it is big.   I have cut away all the white pieces and have attached it to a black piece of fabric.   I had gotten away from using black as a background.   I tried a mottled grey, but nothing seemed to work except the black.  

Now I have to figure out how to quilt this one without detracting from all the colours.   There have been a few quilts that by the time I got finished quilting them, I thought they looked better unquilted.   I really don't want to say that about this one.   Way too much time sunk into it already.   And I have a deadline!

2nd and 3rd Flower Done

My R & B art quilt is almost done.   It has 9 buttons to be sewn on, and then maybe more on the binding.    But the good news is I finished all three of my 3D flowers.  The second and third ones were all done and just had to be sewn on.   When I laid them out, I didn't like the look, so back to the sketch pad.  I made 2 more just like the first one and I like the flow much better.  

As you may remember, this quilt was supposed to be done for December 1st, and another one finished by January 1st.   There is a chance I will tackle that second one with great guns over the holidays.   But I also have a few deadlines that I have to meet.   We shall see, I may just buy a pound of chocolate covered coffee beans and go crazy=)

I probably won't post now till after Christmas, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  You have no idea how much I appreciate you signing up to follow.   So very much!   Thank you.

Art Quilt Embellishing

I think time goes on double speed as soon as December approaches.   My art quilt that has to get done very soon, has had little attention to it.
I did get one of the 3D flowers done, and  even attached.  I love it.  It was my first time combining two techniques in the flower and I am pleased with the effect.

You can see by some of the pictures that it is quite three dimensional.

Here is my question to you?  Do you have any quilted items still left to finish up before Christmas Day?

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Quilting Done!

I have spent almost a week quilting  and I finally finished it.   There are still threads to be buried, binding to be put on, and my 3D embellishments to be attached.  But I think the end is in sight.

I always get stuck on what pattern to use where and what colours to use.   Often I try and squeeze in as many FMQ patterns as room allows and use as many colours as the quilt possesses.   This time I didn't.   

I decided to just go with my gut instinct and hope to heck the jury panel agrees=)  I chose 2 colours, red and blue.  Okay, the blue is a gorgeous variegated blue.   

I used feathers in all the blue strips and circles and wandering flowers everywhere else.

The deadline I had given myself is December 1st as there are some other projects with pressing deadlines looming.  I will probably go over by a day or two, but hopefully not much more.

A Preview

Hi Folks!

If you are a new follower, thanks for joining.   Here are a few things about me you should probably know.  

1.   I love making art quilts.  
2.   I love making my art quilts 3D.
3.   Creating non art quilts is something I do alot of too, and I really like that.   When I make those,
       there is always a tutorial written for you.
4.   If you check out the page at the top titled 'My Articles', you will laugh... if you don't, you should
     seek medical attention.
5.   There is a small touch of sarcastic humour about me that I rarely share=)

I am working on an art quilt and am now at the stage of getting ready to quilt it.   I have done a bit of thread painting prior to the quilting of it.  

Remember it started out looking like this:

I have done a whole lot more with it.   I have used my GO! and added a pile of circles to it,and some lovely swirls in the middle.   Once I get it pinned, I will take another progress picture to show you.  All but the light blue linen in the middle of the bright blue stripes is my own hand dyed fabric.   The pink to red is made up of 6 gradations.   

I don't have a name for it yet.   On most occasions the name of my quilts usually comes at the quilting stage or as I am putting the binding on it.   For now, I refer to it as my R & B quilt.   (Red and Blue)

If by some rare chance you haven't entered my Baby GO! giveaway, click here to enter. 

A New Art Quilt

I am working on a new art quilt.   This one had me stumped for over two months.   This is what hung on my design wall during that time.

I knew it needed more, so I took it back down, mixed up some thickened dye and created this.

I put red circles all over it.   Then it hung for another six weeks.  I stared at it every day, thinking it needed something else, and not knowing how to put my focal point on it in a pleasing manner.   I knew what I wanted on there, and have that part made up (3D), but did not know how to get the quilt to flow together and look good.   

Last week, after flipping through books for inspiration, it came to me.   I was a little nervous because I have never cut up the background of a quilt before.   I also knew this had to be improved.  I took a deep breath, grabbed my cutter and closed my eyes.   Kidding!  I did not shut my eyes!

Here is what I came up with.

I am happy with it now.   The darker blue is my hand dyed fabric and the lighter blue is a linen I had in my stash.   I learned quickly that linen can really fray... fast!   

I now have a strong design in my sketch pad, did some work in my Paint program and got some photocopying done.   I am ready for the next step... this consists of circles and ovals.   I do have a thing for them right now.   

Will keep you posted as I progress to the next step.   I think I am only a few posts off till I hit 500, so will plan a giveaway for that celebration!  One more thing, I started a Facebook page, if you feel inclined, can you give it a 'like'.

A Win

I was asked to have two of my art quilts hang in a museum in a neighbouring town.   I have never been asked to have my work hung anywhere nearby.   Naturally I was thrilled and accepted.   It wasn't too difficult to choose as I had 3 new pieces, but two of them were heading out to Des Moines Iowa to be in the AQS juried show, so I brought in a new one and a slightly older one.

Last Thursday night, I attended the awards ceremony and imagine my delight when 'Let The Vines Shine Thru' won Best of Textiles.   This one was also juried into the Canadian Quilt Show in May.

 This quilt is called 'The First Flower'.  It was juried in 2009 to the Canadian Quilt Show.   It will always have a special place in my heart because it was this quilt that I accidentally stumbled and then developed my unique 3D method for flowers.

I am currently working on two projects both with deadlines this week.   Both not near done... please don't tell!

New Fabric and Creating Fabric

As promised, I have a whole whack of new fabric to show you.   First off is the stuff I bought from Ikea.   Up until a month ago, I didn't even know they sold fabric there.   By chance, I had to go to the closest city that has an Ikea store last week.  I might add that it is a mere 6 hour drive each way.   I planned my route so that the first stop would be Ikea, you know in case the family started getting restless, I had my priorities right.

Onto the fabric, there are so many things I love about this fabric.   It is not a quilters cotton, but  a heavy cotton, like a jean type fabric.   I bought it for purses and bags and maybe a secret juried quilt!   I must confess, I also bought it so I could keep the selvage where it says 'made in Sweden'.   Come on, how many of us have something that says that on it?   Not me anyway.

This next picture should really have a lifesaving device on it.   I had started a rather large art quilt using all my hand dyed fabric for the background and alot of Amanda's Sugar and Spice for the 3D embellishing to go on the front.   As I didn't have a complete sketch drawn out, just bits and pieces, I had no plans for borders and binding and more embellishing.   Then panic hit.... I wasn't going to have enough fabric!   Trying to remain calm, I quickly buzzed an email to fellow Design Team member Julie of the Intrepid Thread and begged her if she had any scraps left from her new etsy store.   Might I add, she always has fabric on sale, and the new stuff, not the old odds and ends.   I  personally wonder if she may be just have sniffed one too many bolts of fabric... but the deals are the best!

I am digressing, if you know Julie, she will turn the world upside down to get what you want.   Within an hour, and several emails, she had a bundle all packaged up and in the mail for me.   Not only that, look at the card that you get!  It is hand made and she wrote a lovely note inside.   What you didn't see is that the fabric was all wrapped in white tissue and neatly tied with purple ribbon.   There was no picture, because I was just about to explode when I got the fabric I was so excited.

A few days later, I received a package from Megan as I had  won some fabric over at Quiltstory.  This blog totally rocks.  It is upbeat, fun and oh so full of creativity and imagination.  I am sending back a cute little zippered pouch that I made, but don't tell=)

After all that excitement, I thought I better do some creating on my own.  

I had recently purchased some Setacolor paints.  These are the ones where you are supposed to be able to paint the fabric, lay objects on it and let dry in the sun.   I tried a small piece, didn't want to waste a whole yard of PFD fabric if it didn't work.  I was very skeptical and my only instructions were mix 1 part paint, 2 parts water, brush on, place objects on, and let dry in sun.  Seems a little too easy right?   

Well, keep your pants on, look at what happened!   It turned out exactly as it was supposed to.  I used some large washers I had in my studio and I painted on a textured piece of sidewalk.     I love the outcome.   Better get out the scissors and start cutting my PFD fabric in yards!

A few days ago, I happen to stumble across this site.  By using Sharpie markers and rubbing alcohol, I made this new fabric.

Can you totally see me using this in an art quilt?
I think I am all talked out about fabric, so better sign off.  (Correction:  I am never tired of talking about fabric, but I better get stitching with it=)

My latest art quilt

I am busy working away at my latest art quilt and wanted to show you the early stages of progress.   It is 3D of course, and here is one of the flowers that is to be part of the quilt.  It is the size of my hand.   Very big!

For the background, I am using a selection of my hand dyed fabrics.  The fabric on the left is one of the focal fabrics in my flowers.   I love how the colours  of my dyed fabrics all blend and match with the commercial fabric. 

I am doing my own version of strip piecing them together.  I will show you the background when I have a little more done on it.   

I am contemplating selling my hand dyed fabric on etsy and would love your feedback on this.   

Now to make some progress on that background before my kids are out of school for the summer.

Cross Quilt

It's done!   And might I say, it was fun.   Another original design by moi.   I used Amanda's funky fabric Sugar and Spice for this little quilt.

The border took the longest, 40 minutes for each side.   Yep, that is over 2 1/2 hours just on that little cross border.   But I really think it adds to the quilt, don't you?

I stippled in the large cross blocks, leaving the white cross free of quilting so it kind of pops out.  It is so hard to see white thread on white fabric.   The sashing is done in lines and where they intersect, it looks a bit like a checkerboard.

Quilting Arts Challenge

I just finished a top using my fun Sugar and Spice fabric.   My goal is to get it quilted before I show it to you.   And let me say, the borders took forever!   No just slapping strips on each coast, (well not this quilt anyway=)

Instead, I will show you my little art quilt I entered into the Quilting Arts challenge.  I didn't get picked, but I do like the quilt.    The theme was text.  It was only to be 8.5" x 11".
I did some piecing, fmq, sharpie pen, shiva, and wool roving.

Modern 3D Art Quilt Finished

I put the embellishments on my modern art quilt today and it is now hanging in our dining room, welcoming spring.  

The quilt was made using scraps of fabric and a large piece of white cotton.   It is machine quilted using the free motion stippling technique.  I purposely only quilted in the large white sections so the coloured strips would pop out a bit from the background, and they do.  Although hard to see in the pictures.

I think I am in love with jumbo ric rac!   It is used in all three stems.   You will notice that I brought the stems right over the binding, I wanted to see what look it would create.   The two flowers on the outside are made from zippers with an adorable pull tab in the centre.  The middle flower is made using my scrap 'n' slash technique.   Of course that is what gives the quilt it's 3D appearance.

I have shown a before I added the embellishment shot.   As I know some people would like it just like that.

Here are the pictures of the finished quilt.  I have also included some close ups of the flowers, which I adore in every way possible!

And please don't forget to give me a vote, by clicking on the bright flower at the top of the right hand side bar, only 5 more days left to vote.  Thanks!