Blogger's Quilt Festival

Welcome to the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Kit Kat has always been one of my favorite quilts.  Naturally, it is a watercolor--strip pieced-- and tells a story.   I took a class on the technique in 2000 and really found my quilting heart in watercolor quilts.  I love to blend the fabrics to fool the eye and make you look closer to see what is beyond. 

For this technique you use 25 different fabrics for each block.  Using full width of fabric cuts, you get about 18 blocks that are alike.  Using fat quarters, you would get 9 blocks.  For this quilt, I  used up a lot of short lengths of strips  and made  about 4 different combinations to get enough blocks.  

The challenge with this technique is the layout.  You can't be sure what you will get until you try....very subjective.    Some block combinations have more light areas, and others more dark areas.  No matter what I plan before sewing,  the blocks seem to have a mind of their own.    Yet, for a large lap quilt size (this is 50" by 65"), it is the way to do it.  

 

 The story......  

I tried all kinds of layouts before settling on this one. It reminded me of the trellis on the back deck that had a Clematis vine growing on it.  And our cat, Pookie, loved to nap in the sun near the trellis.    One day I watched as she patiently watched the butterflies flit all around her.  And then that paw flashed out as she tried to catch one for her own.  Thankfully, she missed, but I loved the moment. 

So as I studied the trellis layout, that picture in my memory came back to me.  I machine appliqued a couple of vines, leaves, and blossoms along with a pink butterfly.  The silhouette of Pookie was drawn from a photo and raw edge appliqued too.  I added 2 narrow strip inset borders before the outer border.  I love the way it frames the quilt like a photo.  
So this quilt became the photo of that special memory.  Each quilt tells a story.  It is part of the threads of our lives.  And that's my secret to share....I stitch a little piece of my heart into each quilt I make.  That is what gives them life.
May each stitch you take create a special memory of your life and those you love.

Happy Stitching....Debbie

Small Landscapes are addicting!

The first practice piece  is now ready to finish off.  I am just turning the border to the back and stitching it in place rather than a full binding.  Looking at it now, I wish I had extended the base of the  tree into the border.  I'll try to remember that for another one.

I put together the Spring scene yesterday and added the details this morning.  One thing I did differently this time was to use a piece of muslin as a base to work on. I cut base  fabric 7" by 10".   I  just top stitched the pieces to the base.   I don't like the striped fabric....instead of looking like a plowed field, it looks like a road!  And I think the golden piece should have had a flatter curve.  The little fence worked great, even if the tiny sticks were a pain to work with.  I cheated and  used Pigma pens  to add shadows at the base of them,  and for the details on the lighthouse.

  

Then I pulled fabrics out for the Summer.  I decided that the sky was too stormy looking for a summer day and switched it to a lighter blue.  Matter of fact, I switched most of them and added water after all.   I'm not sure what details I will go back and add to this one.... maybe a boat on the lake, or a tree overhanging from the border once it is attached.  I ended with the road/path at the bottom, like you are over looking the whole scene.    

So exactly what have I learned from doing this practice..........

 Insights:

I need a base fabric to sew on.  It keeps the top fabric from shifting so much.

    Study photos for shading in the landscape.

    Add details, it gives the scene  life.

    These things are addictive....you can't make just one!

    And I need a new camera.  Mine died while trying to take these photos.  Or else I need to learn how to use Russ' better!

Tomorrow the Blogger's Quilt festival begins......

Happy Stitching....Debbie

Bucket List Day

No sewing on Tuesday, as it was a Bucket List Day.  If you haven't seen the movie, The Bucket List, you may not understand this post.  Basically the bucket list is all the things you want to do or see before you kick the bucket.
  I heard that a group of vintage war planes were in town for tours and rides.  I told Russ, "No work on Tuesday.  We are going to tour the planes.  You have your orders."

 And we did.  I crawled, climbed and squeezed through the B-17, known as The Flying Fortress, and the B-24, known as The Liberator.  What an experience, from the tiny flight step--not deck-- to the bomb bay and the waist gunners, to the tail.  I was over-whelmed by what those men did for our country and our freedom.  This  top photo is the B-17, the last of it's kind that is still flying.   The second is inside looking towards the front and the pilot's seat. 

The P-51 Mustang was a real beauty.  This plane is a small 2 seater and known for speed.  Everyone wanted to just touch her.
There were over 240 WWII Vets that came out that day, and it was a special treat to hear some of their stories.  Several of the men had actually piloted planes like these.




The special surprise Russ was the end of the day.....when he got to take a ride in the Flying Fortress.   He even crawled into the nose gun area during the flight.  

Just nothing like sharing a special day and crossing something off your Bucket List.

It's not the breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away.

Happy Stitching....Debbie

Ergonomic tip....

Here's what I added to my sewing set up recently.  An over-turned crate---about 5 inches high---to elevate my machine foot pedal.   Plus, it is  large enough  as a support for my other foot when stitching.  I can now sit back in the chair rather than perch on the edge.  The overall result is better posture, reduced back pain, and I feel I have better control over the fabric, and machine.   Why didn't I think of this sooner?

  The rest of the salvaged crates---saved from the dumpster by my husband---are used to hold fabric in the stash closet.  I did a do-over on the closet this past Spring.  This is a today photo, so you can see that I have not reverted back to the "cram it in anywhere" method of storing fabric.  Actually, Saturday I sorted the big bin of scraps and leftovers  from projects  I completed in the last few months.  I set aside a shoe box of pieces for Emily and her lessons, and the rest was cut into strips and squares and put in the correct bins.   I pulled a few pieces out and set aside for use in the small landscapes. 
I  now have 3 boxes of 2 1/2" strips.....so I will be starting a project soon to put a big dent in those.  I am debating on a scrappy braid, or a log cabin.  Right now, I am leaning towards a braid.....because I get a couple of questions  every week about the braid pattern.   It's very easy, just requires a bit of planning for the layout. 

Happy Stitching....Debbie

Landscape/seascape

I spent yesterday morning cleaning house and the sewing room--with the intention of having the afternoon to do the second lesson of landscapes.  Of course, life interfered in the afternoon and I only got about an hour to work on this lesson.  So I tried last night to create the seascape.  Ugh!

For this lesson, I needed 7 strips of blue for the water/ocean, sky and sand. Six of strips for the water  were to have a curved side on one long edge that was pressed under 1/4".  The darkest strip had a  straight edge turned under for the horizon line.  Then the strips are  layered one on the other to blend the water from distant to near.   Sounds easy....here we go.

I took the seven layers for the water apart about three times.  The scene looked very flat and off.  Finally in frustration, I put it aside.  And with a fresh effort this morning, I put it together in a couple of hours.  I realized that to get the perspective right that the strips of water closer to the shore needed to be thin and tiny.  That meant that the strips of water in the distance were wider.  Re-read that.....it is the reverse of what I had been trying to do.  Usually, the nearer the object the larger it is and smaller objects appear farther away.   A couple of my strips were short pieces so I decided to add trees and a few rocks on the right side to make it work.  These I fused on top of everything and then stitched down. 

Here it is top-stitched, and a bit of thread painting--water around the rocks,  and trees in the distance.  This ended up 9" by 11" before I border it.  I may add a few larger boulders to overlap into the border at the shoreline....something to bring the eye to the foreground. 

Insight:  Creating perspective and distance in a seascape for  water is not easy.  Smaller layers of fabric create nearness in water.

Insight:  Fabrics for landscape are very diverse.  The fabrics I thought would work, were the worse. More depth is created by varying the texture of the fabric---batiks, printed designs and patterns. 

Lesson three in Accidental Landscapes is on seasons.  Hope it is easier that the seascape!
Anyone else working on this type of stuff?  Let me know.....

Happy Stitching....Debbie

Practice landscape

I did get the mountains pieced and  the border attached , and a table runner put together yesterday. So today was guilt-free play time.

This took about 2 1/2 hours to put together following the technique in Accidental Landscape.  I didn't have a real photo to work from, I  just followed the practice first lesson, and here's what I ended up with......

The tree, rocks and a few thread painted leaves were my idea and not part of the lesson.  I needed to push the landscape back and create some depth.  It is only 8 1/2" by 9 1/2 ".  Most of the fabrics I used were some of the hand painted ones I did this spring. 

So now, I have to choose a border.  They both have the colors of the scene, but I think the blue on the right does a better job.  The other one is too greyed for this. 

Lesson 2 tomorrow.....I hope.

 

Happy Stitching....Debbie

Landscape books and ideas

OK,  I've done a few landscape type wall hangings, but not like this!  It is from Accidental Landscapes by Karen Eckmeier, which is the book I got at the quilt show this past weekend.  And the photos in the book cause me to stop at the next vendor where I got this luscious fabric that is shaded  and blended in rich jewel tones. 
  I browsed thru the book on the way home and have read thru it twice!  Although,  I have a couple of other books about landscapes, I am very excited about this one.  These landscapes are small and simple and I don't have to fuse everything, or do paper piecing and work backwards.  That drives me crazy.  I can work from the front with curved lines and  use some thread painting too. 

I pulled out my inspiration folder of photos from magazines, calendars, and postcards.  I have been saving these for a while, sometimes just because I liked the scene and other times for the color combinations.  Anyway....guess what I found?

Lots of great photos that are just perfect for these small landscapes.  Beach scenes, and mountains, valleys, and back roads.  All with at least three layers that landscapes need, in some combination---sky, horizon line of trees, mountains, or water, and a foreground. 
So tonight I plan on pulling out the sketch pad and drawing  off a couple scenes.    Anyone want to do a landscape with me?

That means I have to finish piecing the mountains on the design wall----that's the pledge I made.  Finish off the big project before beginning a new one.  Better get to the sewing room.

Happy Stitching....Debbie