Happy Valentine's Day

It's only been a month since my last post...how did that happen?  I've been busy working on what seems like hundreds of things, just not taking pictures of anything.  Just wanted to give Elaine Quehl a big thanks for a giveaway on her blog that I won-- four gorgeous fat quarters she dyed--

I got to pick my colors, and these were the ones for me. 

I've started slicing them up and using them for a variation of a Darned Quilt that I made before.  I started with some gradient hand dyes in orange/browns that I cut in gentle curved pieces, sewed together, then fused to a really heavy piece of pellon stabilizer.

Then I cut strips of Elaine's beautiful fabric, and will sew them on from edge to edge.  I'll probably couch some yarns and ribbons, too.  After this foundation is all set, then I'll cut shapes (circles or maybe leaves?) and move them around, followed by sewing, or darning, them into the cutout opening.

Since this weekend is supposed to be cold (for here in NC, anyways!) I'll most likely stay in and sew and have more progress to show next week.

A couple of weeks ago I got this Liebster Award from Katherine McNeese at Blue Heron Quilts.

It was a nice surprise, but then I forgot all about it with everything that was going on at work.  

Here are "The rules":
1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you
3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate
4. Choose 11 blogs with less than 200 followers and link them in your post.

This was just too much information (TMI) for me to share, I'm just not the kind of person who is comfortable putting everything out there for others to read.  Thanks for thinking of me, Katherine!  But if you would like to check out some great blogs that I like (with less than 200 followers), check these out:

tiedyejudy.blogspot.com
multicoloredsnippets.blogspot.com
notesfromstudiob.blogspot.com
ellendacoop.blogspot.com
theredheadedmermaid.blogspot.com
explorationsinquilting.com
fiberartistjourney.blogspot.com

Oh, and finished up my hooked rug.  It measures around 24" x 36", and it was kind of fun to make.  Except for the binding on the edge, which hardly shows up here, but that took forever and was worse than hand sewing a binding on a quilt.

Also--we had a challenge unveiling on Art Quilts Around the World a few weeks ago, our self-portraits.  

Here's mine!

January is half over already!

Wow, time is flying by.  Classes started this week at the university where I work, and it's been a little busier than it has been.  Plus two friends and fellow fiber artists (Jenny Williams and Eileen Kane) and I have a gallery exhibit going here on campus, with a real opening yesterday afternoon and everything!  Check this link if you're interested in seeing some of our work on display: Elliout University Center Gallery 

Enough of that "fame", now back to real life.  Jane Sassaman is a famous fabric designer and quilter, and I've had some of her fabric for a while now (you can find it on sale in your LQS frequently because some people feel it's a little difficult to work with or sometimes even consider it to be UGLY fabric).  I used three fabrics to make this quilt top up, the blue leaves down the middle and the side panels were all cut from the same length of fabric, and were broken up a little with a fussy cut piece of the green tile fabric (also Sassaman I think).  Then the borders were done with another Sassaman print, and I used up every little bit I had of that, piecing little scraps of it just to keep the design of the "grass" pattern intact.

And of course, Leo had to be in the picture, plus the wind picked up just as I tried to take it.  The center portion actually looks pieced to me in these photos, even though it's not, which I guess is the intent of using big prints in the first place.

Here's another WIP using some Sassaman fabrics mixed with others.  I'm not sure if I like this, but since I'm so far along, it will be finished!



I can't decide yet if I like fussy cutting of fabrics.  But I have more Sassaman fabric to use up so I better learn to like it.

And now, another craft has taken over some of my free time-- rug hooking --a craft that's almost nonexistent here in North Carolina.  Since there is hardly ever any wool fabric at the thrift stores, and the price of new 100% wool fabric is outrageous, I decided to try to hook with 100% wool yarn instead, which is available at yarn stores around here. 

This style of hooking is called Nantucket style, and is actually pretty easy.  I got some burlap at Joann's and drew a design on it with a sharpie marker.  Then I figured out how to hook by watching some you-tube videos and reading some tutorials on blogs about rug hooking.

I've since read that you shouldn't use burlap, as it's not as long-lived as the linen produced specifically for rug hooking.  But I'm going to finish the hooking part since I'm about 90% done already.  But I have absolutely no idea how to finish the edges, so have to find some tutorials about that when the time comes.
What did we ever do without the internet??

Linking up with Nina Marie's Off The Wall Friday today, I forgot all about it last week.

Finishing up some things

A (very) long time ago I saw an article in a Quilting Arts magazine about Itajime Shibori (resist clamping of shapes) and thought it was something I definitely had to try--so I did.  I made up a bunch of these pieces by clamping a plexiglass shape onto a fabric square, then bleaching the color out of the surrounding fabric, and re-dyeing the color back so the only pattern left is where the plexiglass covered the design.

I made up a bunch of squares, even sewed beads onto some of them, but then they got set aside.  So I got them out over my Christmas week off, and finally made a little wall hanging with some of them.

I still have a bunch more to work with, but I just wanted to feel like I did something productive with my time off...

Unlike Leo, my rescued lab, who doesn't like to do much and doesn't feel guilty about it at ALL. 

I also quilted this little wall hanging called "Summer Solstice", that I sewed together months ago...

And quilted up this "Snowflake" table runner, still have to bind it and then it's done.  I'm figuring this to be a Christmas present all ready for next year...

Happy New Year!
--Edited on Friday, 1/4/13 to link up with Nina Marie Sayre's Off The Wall Friday.  My goals for 2013 are to be more productive, and to use up as much fabric as I can before dyeing or buying any more.  Also, to do something with those piles of scraps that are everywhere.  Like Nina, I should also add discipline and focus as words to live by this year.  Thanks for hosting this each week, Nina!

Final FM Challenge

Hard to believe that this is the final challenge--it's been a great year's worth of designs, projects, techniques, and lots of practice.  For this final challenge, I decided to do a combination of the bonus tutorial presented by Teri Lucas, along with the monthly December challenge presented by Patsy Thompson.

I don't have a printer at home, so I used my printer at work -- I ironed some Kona white cotton on some freezer paper, then ran it through a color copier, which printed out so lightly that I couldn't use it.  So I decided to try it on my B&W printer, and this is what I ended up with.  Since I did this last week, before taking almost two weeks off, I didn't have any other options at the time, but I really kind of like it.

I used a dark charcoal grey background, some Aurifil white thread in the star, some Aurifil grey on the background, and some black Madiera thread in the area right around the star.

I did freeform feathers around the outside, which I love to do.

  

 Another fun month, so sad to see it end.  Thanks, SewCalGal!

Dyeing Wool and Getting Sidetracked

I seem to get sidetracked so easily--my "plan" was to finish up all my UFOs before the end of the year and start fresh for next year...but I had some wool felt that I bought at Joann's Fabrics a long time ago, and it was just a plain off-white color.  Since Procion MX dyes don't work on wool, and I really didn't want to spend a bunch of money on a whole new line of acid dyes, I learned from some on-line research that I could use Wilton icing colors (concentrated gel) and mix with Fruit Fresh (ascorbic acid) and dye wool with it.   I used my Joann's coupon and got the gel colors there, and already had the fruit fresh because I can pears and peaches every summer.

I took two small pieces of the wool felt, and cut shapes like circles and ovals in one which I then dyed with a combination of blues/greens/purples using the icing gel and Fruit Fresh combo.  The other one I left whole and dyed orange.  (If I do this again, I'll leave the pieces whole and dye first, then cut out the shapes--I don't know why I did it the way I did--now I have a bunch of white ovals and circles that I'm going to have to dye to use.)  I mixed the gel in some water, then added the Fruit Fresh and dipped the wool into it--the colors were very bright, and I was surprised at how quickly the wool grabbed the color.

Anyway, it took over 3 days for these to dry, but they were finally dry last night.  So I took my hand needle felter and punched away on this piece, joining them into one piece.  It was slow and tedious, and not very stimulating.  Having an embellishing machine would definitely be better!

I want to do some free motion quilting and other stitching on this piece, I think it will be fun.  If anyone reading this has a felting/embellishing machine, I'd be interested in hearing about them.

So that's my experiment for the week, hope someone will read this and decide to try it for themselves.

And I also finished up my Christmas tree from last week and mailed it to my sister, who received it yesterday.  Linking up with Off-The-Wall Friday today, check out the wonderful projects there! 

Winners!

Winners--brought to you by the letter "J"!  Judith (of Quilt or Dye) and Johanna!

I used the scientific method of writing names on little scraps of paper, then folding and mixing them up really well.  Judith will get the Paper & Metal Lamination book, and Johanna will get the Making Your Mark book.  Please send me your home addresses, ladies, so I can get these in the mail ASAP.  

Merry Christmas!

(This is the first giveaway I've ever had and I feel really bad for everyone who didn't win, because I know just how you feel).

Feeling the Christmas Spirit yet? How about a giveaway!

Not too much Christmas spirit here yet, this is the first "Christmas-ey" thing I've even considered making this year.  On Thanksgiving, my sister Donna asked me to make a "traditional" wall hanging of a tree, so here it is.  Just have to cut some binding tonight after work and sew it on by machine.

Hope that's traditional enough!  The quilting, which I did last night, shows up better in this picture:

 Donna, if you read this, let me know if this is what you had in mind!

I've also been working on finishing up some of those UFOs before the year ends.  This poor thing has been on my design wall forever, just waiting to be trimmed and bound.  

It started as a drop cloth under some painting/dyeing I was doing in my garage.

The hand stitching turned out nicely, I think, and so did the machine stitching.

Maybe a giveaway will help get me in the Christmas Spirit!  Last September I ordered two books from Interweave, and waited and waited and waited for them to arrive.  After about 3 weeks, I contacted Interweave and they told me the books hadn't even shipped yet!  I cancelled the order with Interweave right then, ordered the books from Dharma's website (where they were cheaper), and they both arrived with in 2 days.  

So, last week, the book order that I had cancelled over a month ago FINALLY arrived at my house--when I contacted Interweave, they said I might as well keep them--so I'm giving them away to someone out there!

Making Your Mark by Claire Benn & Leslie Morgan

Paper & Metal Leaf Lamination by Claire Benn & Leslie Morgan

Please leave a comment, and I'll pick one winner randomly for each of these books next Monday, December 3rd.  If you'd prefer one book over the other, please note that in your comments and I'll try to accommodate your wishes.  Due to shipping costs, I'm going to have to restrict this to US residents only.  

FM Challenge for November

Got this challenge done over the weekend, I was making a quilt for a great-nephew and used the swirl techniques from the SewCalGal challenge on it to get both of them taken care of.

I did the larger swirls around the outside border on the sides.

 I added a striped border on the top and bottom of the quilt so it wasn't a square, then I quilted some small swirls in the white part of the stripes.  Since the quilt is for a baby boy, I didn't want to add too many swirls--would they make it look too feminine? 

I tried to make them look more like waves than swirls!

 I did take a photo of the whole finished quilt, but it wasn't in focus.

This month's challenge was easy, I've been doing swirls in my quilting for a while now and really enjoy making all kinds of them.  

One more month to go in the challenge. 

Another crazy week OVER

Lately I've been living for Fridays -- work is hectic and the days are long, and I don't feel like doing much when I get home at 5:30 p.m!  And there was so much emotion and electricity in the air this week with the presidential election (positive and negative)--it has been so wonderful not to have those awful political ads running constantly on the TV anymore.

This is something I started last Sunday (technique is from the on-line DMTV workshops that I signed up for).  I took a piece of hand dyed fabric and cut out some freezer paper templates of trees, ironed them on, and applied some deColourant to the spaces in between the trees.  Then you have to iron it, and wash it.

This is how it looked after peeling off the freezer paper trees and washing in the washing machine:  

Not crazy about it, but it might look better after quilting it heavily and adding some decorative stitching.  The back actually looks better, as there isn't the severe contrast in color.  Hmmm... This technique was pretty easy, and I would like to try it again with some deColourant that puts a color back in after taking the original color out.

I can't attend any "real" workshops due to the cost, along with not getting enough time off work, so the virtual ones will have to suffice right now.  Linda and Laura Kemshall have tons of videos on their DMTV website, and it's not that expensive to sign up, when compared to the cost of attending a "real" workshop.  You can get access for 3 months, 6 months, or a year, and they post new projects all the time.

I'm also working on a Christmas gift, a traditional little boy quilt for a great-nephew. 

And another quilt top that has been a UFO for way too long--I added a 10" wide border and have the backing fabric all ready to go.  Hope to baste it and start quilting SOON.

TGIF

I spent last weekend piecing a quilt and finally got all the squares sewn together.  It was so easy!  First you sew some strips of fabric together, in widths of around 5" to 10", depending on the intended finished size of your blocks.  I was going with 12" finished blocks, so I made about 5 or 6 sets of strips of 2 different fabrics for each.  The strips measured about 14" wide x 42" long when I was done.  The widths of the fabrics used to make the strips were around 5-7" or so.

Then I took a ruler and placed the 60 degree line on the left side of the strip and cut some 60 degree angles.  Then I added another piece to make a roughly shaped square. 

Here are my "squares" taped up on the wall so I could get an idea what they were going to look like all together before trimming them:

I then trimmed each of these down into a 12" square, using my 12" square ruler, and then sliced each of the squares in half, making triangles, which I then shuffled and sewed back into squares.

The squares were then placed on point, and sewn together in a design that I was happy with.  This wasn't my idea, it came from an American Quilter Magazine (August 2012?) and was designed by Marcia DeCamp.  Next time I'm going to make one with bigger squares, maybe 16", if only to use up some of the piles of hand-dyed fabrics I have on hand. 

The only fabric that is 100% commercial is the orange swirley fabric, the rest is stuff I've made or other commercial fabric that I've overdyed to make it a color that I actually would use. 

This is going to be quilted this weekend, can't wait for two whole days that I can stay home and spend time quilting.   Also on my calendar is another quilt top that I've had in a UFO pile for a year now!  It is very simple, just needs to be quilted to make it look great.

I love having lots of solid space to do lots of fun, mindless quilting on.

This is a picture of part of the pieced back--the darker fabric on the left was formerly a 2 yard piece with big cream colored magnolia-like flowers on an orange/brown background.  I overdyed it in some orange and blue to make a warm brown, and it looks perfect for this project now.  It was a piece of fabric that I knew I'd never use, but it was too big just to give away or just have it sit there on my fabric shelf forever.

I won two DVDs this week (!), from Beth at SewSewArt who is celebrating her 3rd anniversary of blogging. One DVD is on Felting, the other is by Carol Taylor on Art Quilt Design. I don't have any quilting DVDs, so this will be a new thing for me!

Here in Central North Carolina, we're not supposed to be feeling the effects of Hurricane Sandy, except that it's supposed to cool down a bit and finally feel like fall.  I have family on the NC Coast, some up near New York City, some in Pennsylvania, and one in Florida, all places that are going to be affected by this storm.  Hope it isn't as bad as those weather people on TV make it out to be! 

Yikes, I forgot to link up with Nina Marie Sayre on her blog, it's Friday, and Off the Wall.