Elaine Quehl's directions, but my results are different

Elaine Quehl was kind enough to give some directions a while back on how to make multi-colored fabric, the kind you'd use for a Ricky Tims-type convergence quilt.  So, I tried it last weekend, and some of my fabric turned out nicely, and some didn't.  Of course, it doesn't look anything like hers!

I really like these:

These were ok--

Some I wasn't crazy about at all, so, I wrapped on a pole, dyed in a dark gray dye, and now I love them!

I've been feeling bad lately, due to having to have my poor old German Shepherd dog Thunder euthanized this week.  He was 12 years old and could hardly walk, and it was pitiful watching him getting comfortable enough to lay down, it took him 2-3 minutes each time.  It was a hard thing to do, and I miss him a lot.  Hope that spending some time this long weekend sewing and creating will help.  Hey, anything is better than being at work.

Another month, another FM assignment

I love that I've been able to incorporate the "assignments" from the FM Quilting Challenges into quilt tops that I've had done for a while and they just needed quilting & binding.

Here's my May Free Motion challenge:

 Very easy design, and really quick to sew on large spaces, filling them up FAST.

I used Madeira thread for the first time.  It was on sale at fabric.com a few weeks ago and I know that Linda & Laura Kemshall always rave about this thread on their blog.  Madeira is a rayon thread that has a nice sheen to it, I think I like it and will keep using it.  My machine liked it, too, which is the most important thing.

This is a blanket for Madelyn (granddaughter) which is made out of scraps I had left from a beach blanket I made two years ago for my daughter.

Quick trip to Myrtle Beach

Nothing quilty here today--Last Friday I drove the 3 hours to Myrtle Beach to spend a few days with my daughter & granddaughter while my SIL was golfing with some of his buddies.

Here's Madelyn enjoying the sun-- 

And my beautiful daughter Erin--

 
The view from our hotel balcony--

And me with Madelyn, in a romper I made her and a sunhat my sister-in-law Sarah brought for her from Wilmington NC--

April Free Motion Challenge

For this month's challenge, we completed a piece using a tracing technique presented by Don Linn. First, you trace a design onto a piece of tulle that is held taut in an embroidery hoop, using a sharpie or other fine-line marker. I used a pattern from a book that I had at home with continuous line designs in it instead of the sample presented in the challenge.

Then, you use a chalk pencil or another type of wash-away marker and trace over the design on the tulle onto the surface you want to quilt, transferring your design. All I could find was a rust-colored piece of tulle, so I used that. This is a picture of the chalk design after I had traced it on my fabric.

Almost all of my pictures were too dark that I took, but here is one of the back. I just used regular Coats & Clark thread in the top and bottom, which is thicker than the Aurifil I normally use, but it turned out ok for a practice piece.

What an easy method this was! I plan to use this pattern on a quilt top that I'm going to start soon, and had to idea how to transfer it to my piece--now I do.

Day after Easter--back to work

Just had to share this Easter picture my daughter emailed me yesterday--

Nothing new to show quilt-wise, but I have been sewing some little sundresses and rompers. I've also found a great new resource for all things sewing-related, a yahoo group called SewItsForSale. People sell all kinds of things there: fabric, thread, quilt kits, rulers & templates, sewing machines, sewing machine accessories, quilting books, magazines, etc. The prices are really reasonable, too.

Candiotic table

I've been taking an on-line class called Dyeing 101: Controlling Color, and one of the assignments is to create a Candiotic Table using two sets of primary dyes and creating 66 colors for each set. (That's 132 colors) Then these 4" swatches are fused and mounted on a background fabric and labeled so that the colors can be recreated easily in the future.

I had all of mine dyed and mounted (finally!) when I noticed this the other night. That bubble gum pink piece looks a little out of place.

I'm not sure what happened, maybe I didn't follow the formula correctly, maybe I was off counting my millileters. But I really should have noticed it before fusing it on the background.

I've redyed another swatch, and need to fuse it on tonight after work. Final step is to print out a page of labels on a piece of fabric and fuse them to the corners. Then I'm done with this assignment, and on to the next.

Aren't these colors just beautiful?

For anyone who wants to learn more about precise dyeing, this class is wonderful! Check out Candied Fabrics.

Partial Eclipse quilt

This quilt is one I started way back in March of LAST YEAR! I went to a class at Sew Original in Winston-Salem to learn how to do the Judy Niemeyer technique for this pattern Total Eclipse. It took me about 3 weeks to piece the quilt, but then it sat in a pile of UFOs.

I thought it would be too hard to quilt on my little sewing machine.

So I basted the whole thing, instead of pinning it with safety pins.

And, I learned it was really easy to quilt this way. I could just slide it around, instead of rolling the whole thing up like I normally do, and have to deal with that big bulky roll.

I think it's done now, except for the binding (and burying those thread tails, yuck!)

March Free Motion Challenge

Last summer I painted a piece of white fabric with some Setacolor paints, in some pretty (and very pink) flower designs.

So, I never did anything with it, it was just sitting in a pile of UFOs.

This month's challenge on SewCalGirl's blog was presented by Ann Fahl, and she presented a tutorial about free-motioning flowers and leaf shapes. So I got out some black thread, made a quilt sandwich with this piece of fabric, and started sewing.

I outlined the flower petals, then did some pebbling in the centers. I used some YLI Soft Touch thread in black (the only black thread I had).

And here are some of the smaller flowers--

I think the large flowers look like peonies. Lots of thread tails to be buried still!

The finished piece is about 18" wide by 30" long. Now what should I do with it??

Watch the Quilt Show(s) Free

Next weekend, in honor of International Quilting Day, Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims are offering free viewing of almost 100 of their shows. I've heard good things about these shows, so I know I'm going to be watching.

http://www.thequiltshow.com/

Quilt Show in New Jersey

Over this past weekend, I was lucky to be able to travel to New York for my granddaughter's baptism. While there, my daughter was nice enough to take me to the Mancuso Quilt Show in Somerset, New Jersey.

Here are some pictures from that show:

Sorry, I didn't photograph the names of the quilt makers, we traveled through it pretty quickly.

The detailed work in this underwater scene was amazing:

Of course, a NY Beauty, one of my favorite patterns:

This quilt was large, probably queen size, and had three large fish on it. Very simple, but beautiful.

The stitching on this was gorgeous--it's hard to tell the scale from this picture, but the snowflake was about 3 feet tall.

And the best part it was that Madelyn got to attend her very first quilt show-with Grandma.