Favorites at the quilt show....photo heavy

Notice:   I had written this post for today on Friday night.  Saturday we went to Charlotte to help Deana do some yard work.  I managed to step into a hole ,caught my foot, and did a header.  Result is a broken nose, and a broken humerus--left arm bone--at the shoulder.  We are home now and managed to get thru the night ok.  Thankful that it was not worse, but Sir Old Man has his hands full for 6 weeks, as I can do almost nothing by myself.  
  Please understand if I am slow at getting to emails to reply.  I will be following your blogs.....likely few posts of my own for now.  One hand makes for slow going.  

I had great plans to be really good and not spend too much at the vendors at the local quilt show.  I am sure you know the feeling.  We all have our weaknesses.
   But first just a few quilts that  gave me some inspiration. When I go to a quilt show, I look for color, design, or technique elements that  evoke a feeling or just plain make me stop.   There were wonderful traditional quilts, but these are the ones that gave me inspiration.

 
This one was a zinger!  The colors were so bright and cheerful, and lots of small details to delight the eye.
And the quilting was full of feathers and swirls.  I loved it.

Here's the detail shot of the technique.....raw edge applique!  Layer upon layer stitched down, much like the technique used in the French Roses quilt.  

Of course this caught my eye....color and movement in this one and a story.  The flowers represent the flowers the quilter transplanted to her new garden here from Mississippi.  I really like the pieced background she used.    Since I have a love of day lilies, I looked a little closer.

The flowers are stitched by machine with a tight satin stitch that gives a raised appearance to the edge. Very nicely done. 

Striking and graphic background done in batiks in this one.  I liked the shimmering effect  of the color arrangement.    I have a stack of fabrics that I have been saving/hording/holding on to for a while waiting for an idea to find me. This one just may be it.

This small landscape was glorious.  A very beautiful sunrise over the mountains.  So how did she achieve that effect?

Lots of strips and lots of values blended together.  This detail shot shows how the reflection of the sun on the water was created with raw edge (again!) appliqued shapes.  It was also densely quilted with wavy lines.

Another landscape---but this is heavily thread painted.  I was over the top studying it!

This is just one of the detail shots I took.  I felt like I could just walk right into the woods.  Oh, boy......I may need to spend just a bit more than planned at the vendors.

This just took me by surprise.  Jean is one of my very favorite people and I was blown away with this wall hanging.  She grows  700 or so named iris, and some historical ones, too.  She did a beautiful job at color selection.  I so love the off set layout.  

So exactly how bad was I?  Pretty bad....considering I only had needles and thread on my planned list to purchase. Ha!!!  Batiks....3 yards...."But, honey, they were on show special."  And 3 books....applique and thread painting.   "But the applique book was used and has great ideas in it."
   I sense a change is coming in what I have been doing.  You can count on a whole lot more thread painting and applique.    I have been inspired.
Happy stitching.  

Life Events

  This is the star struck variation from Bonnie Hunter.  It really should be called the kitchen sink because anything in the scrap bin that was 2 1/2" wide went into it.  The color placement is by value, not color.  My posts about the pattern are here and here .
  This is the second time I have made this pattern.  I do love the effect of the dark and light stars that emerge.  Kind of like the hidden surprises of life.  And you get lots and lots of bonus triangles to make pinwheels.  And I do mean a lot of pinwheels!

  I used borders at the top and bottom.....not on the sides as it was wide enough at 60 inches.  The "extra" pinwheels made from the cut offs run along the top and bottom.  The math didn't work out just right, so instead of fighting with it, one end of the pinwheels did not get a bordered edge.  This is the top, and on the bottom I just reversed the offset end.   Works for me, and if the quilt police stop and ask---I planned it that way.   I mean this quilt is called Life Events.  Not everything goes the way you plan or envision,  and sometimes you need a plan B, and many times you just make do to get through the tough things.

   So for Barry and Amanda, this should cover your life events.  Barry, you don't have to try to steal Rachel's quilt, and you don't need to nudge me that you need a quilt.  You are covered.
Amanda, make Barry share....you are the one with the nice promotion!   There are enough stars on this one for both of you.  I hope you enjoy it.

Insight:  Life events are blessings and joy, the good and the bad, the easy and the tough.  It is what we do with them that makes the world a better place to be.

Happy stitching.  

From ugly to covered

I was so delighted to read a  post by Dawn at Sewwequilt last week about making pot holder covers.  I have a drawer full of ugly ones that need to be trashed.  So that was one of my quick finishes this week.   From ugly.... to covered and updated!  I love the theme coffee fabric I found and just strip pieced the theme fabric and a couple of scraps onto a muslin foundation.  See her post for finishing up slip cover pillow style.    I got a little carried away and put a band on a plain cotton towel to match.  Then one more potholder of just the theme fabric stitched onto batting with a few lines of quilting.   Now I can really cover up those ugly potholders.  
There's a whole month of kitchen tutorials going on at Sew We Quilt.....a lot of talented quilters sharing ideas.

 The rain brought me some blooms.

   So before I snipped off a few to enjoy in the house, I had to take a few photos.   The color of these iris blooms is just so rich and beautiful against the green.   The rambling rose  in the background is almost in full bloom too.







 

Just one more to brighten your day.

The sun is back out, so I am going to way lay Sir Old Man to help take photos of the finished quilt.  Yes! It is done and ready  for delivery.  Photos tomorrow.
   Happy stitching.  

A point in time

   It was a Saturday afternoon and I was watching American Bandstand while  cutting out a dress.  A new  song came on.  Scissors and pins down....wow, that is cool.  The song---"I want to hold your hand"  by the Beatles.  That point in time has stayed with me all these years....the memory is so clear.   On that afternoon, Dick Clark brought us the first sounds of the British Invasion and ushered in a new era in music.  One man doing what he loved and enjoyed.  Well done. We will miss you.

This and that

Another doll quilt arrived....this one from
 Bea at Needle in a Haystack 
in France.  She used the cutest fabric and hand quilted this one. Thank you so much.
  It has been yard work time around here....trimming and cutting back, some more weeding.  Each day I see something else pop up or bloom.

 Clematis vine is loaded with blooms.
Reminder to me:   This photo would be a good pattern for thread painting.

   This is a new shot of the Memory Garden area.  The center clump is a  small dark blue iris that is  just coming into  bloom.  There must be 50  buds in this clump.  I was looking at my printed blog book from last year and there was only about 3 of them then.  What a difference a year makes....along with a lot of rain.

  Of course with all the blooms comes pollen.....lots and lots of pollen.  You know it has been a bad pollen year when even the Deere gets a bath and wax job!

Questions:
A couple of emails asked for patterns for my water color quilts this week.  Unfortunately, I don't work by pattern.  I work by value.  I would not even know where to begin to put a true pattern together for them.   So if you are here  looking for a pattern for a watercolor quilt,  I can only refer you to the page Designing a Watercolor on this blog or to the label section and click on watercolor.  Lots of details  are there  to guide you.  

 I hope to get some stitching done today...finally.  The Life Events quilt to finish quilting, a watercolor to finish stitching, and a couple of pot holder covers to make.  Maybe a couple of finishes this week.
 Happy stitching.

Free Motion Challenge for April

  For April the challenge tutorial was to learn to transfer a quilting motif with a technique taught by Don Linn.  He uses bridal tulle  for this  technique.

  The pattern is traced onto tulle in a wooden hoop using a sharpie marker.  I was surprised how well this worked, very easy to do and get a good design image.  Then the "pattern on the tulle" is placed on top of your fabric and marked with your implement of choice.....not the sharpie.  He suggests  the blue  disappearing marker for the transfer.  I threw those markers away  a few years ago after a bad experience, so my choice to use was the Sewline ceramic pencil.  It only takes a light touch to trace over the design, which you can see on a test piece...barely, but it is there and just enough for me to see.  Results good, so I found a light yellow fabric to do my sample on.  

  I stitched the design and did a single outline around it.  Lots of background to fill, so I tried 5 different fillers to see what I liked best.

  Beginning in the right top corner I tried micro-stippling, then I switched to small swirls.  At the bottom left I began with pebbling---this is not my favorite as it is difficult to get even circles.  I quickly decided to move on to meandering loops, and then finished up with some McTavishing type wavy lines.  I think I like the stippling effect best, or the meandering loops, around this design.  
  I added a sheet protector page to my quilting design book to keep the tulle pattern in since it can be used over again.  But first I better transfer it to my project runner for this challenge.  I think this technique is great and will use it again for special motifs.  Thanks to Don Linn for a great tutorial  at SewCalGal.
Happy stitching.

A few doll quilts and toys!

Time for an update on the Get Your Mrs. Claus On and those toy makers at the Greenville Woodworkers Guild.    Toys.....rows of green (of course!) tractors fill this workbench.  You can see the beginnings of their annual toy fest. 

 Al is doing some final assembly on the tractors.  He was the original founder of the Toy Project. 

Tom is the Head Elf for the Toy project now.  He is staining and sealing some the favorite Carolina Race Cars.  

  And here's the new mock up for the rocker.  Now this isn't just your usual rocker....it has a special feature.  It is called a "puzzle chair".  Are you puzzled by this?   There is a special key attached to the back of the rocker that can be inserted in the seat to lock it all together.  When removed the entire chair comes apart.  Very neat design.
   Once the head elves  for that toy in the project are happy with the design, the pieces are labeled as templates. We all know that good templates give us good results. Does that sound familiar...like in  making a quilt?

Quilts, did I say quilts?  Yes, just a few for you to view.  These are all from the HGTV Message Board group.












At the  Flickr group page  there are individual photos of these little cuties.

And just one more for today.  I love the hand painted details that Joanna--the artist--added to the beds.
Thank you everyone, and especially Nicki--the greatest organizer Mrs. Claus could hope to find--- for all the help and donations of time and effort for this project.   We each bring what we have in time and talent in helping others, and then watch as amazing results happen.
Happy stitching.