Summer's Serenity

Summer is here and along with it a chance to get outside and enjoy the peace

 

Of a sunset kayak cruise with a little buddy

 

 

Or the serenity of a misty morning

 

The beauty of my snowball tree on bloom

 

This was started from a sapling my mother gave to me 30 years ago that she took from her tree that started as a sapling from her mothers tree. It is gorgeous! I wish I had someone to hand down the tradition but will enjoy the tree and think of my mom and grandmother Hathaway whenever it blooms.

 

Back to quilts - the kayak and serenity mist were finished this week. I traced my own feet for the kayak one and yes my feet are kinda wierd looking but whose feet aren't really?

 

The mist is put on with white fabric paint in a bouncing motion with a big brush. I had the dog hairless at first and kept looking at it and felt it needed something. So last night I was feeling brave

And gave him some fur

 

It doesn't show up that great on the light background - here's the back

 

The quilting shows well on the back :-)

Enjoy the summer and quilt on!

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Off the edge quilting green

This months color over at the rainbow scrap challenge is green. My challenge to myself is to make at least one off the edge quilting mini quilt each month with my scraps. I thought I would try not only a green square but a green background as well. I wasn't happy with the darker background but here it is with what I learned.

 

In case you haven't seen my off the edge quilting on my last posts - first I cut a 6" square of a decorator fabric scrap that has fusible web on the back and iron it onto a plain fabric background. Usually I put it right in the middle but tried a corner this time. Then with a pencil I draw images on the background continuing the motifs from the 6" square where they left off when cut. Since I had a nice big empty space with the square on the corner, I traced a hummingbird on it. I then free motion quilt over the pencil drawings with a dark thread. Then the background is filled in with a simple meander.

I I like to use inktense watercolor pencils to color in the motifs. If you've never used a watercolor pencil before - they are a colored pencil that when you add water or something wet to them they turn into a vibrant watercolor paint. Above is the pencils dry with no water yet.

 

And here it is after I took a paintbrush with aloe gel instead of water to wet the penciled areas. Aloe gel is thicker and easier to control than water. Hair gel also works.

 

The trouble is that the paint soaked in to much and ended up looking drab. Now I don't know if it was the fact it is darker fabric or the type of fabric but always before when I use a white or off white fabric no problem with soaking in. It could very well be the color green just muddied everything up.

 

So I added some bling with thick copper metallic thread. A bit of gold thread around the hummingbird helps.

 

The drabness still bothered me so never one to give up, I went at it with colored sharpies.

Better :-)

 

Not sure if the paint was built up enough to not soak in or the sharpie doesn't absorb but this seems to look ok after drying so called it done. Added a bead for a hummingbird eyeball and a dark green binding.

I learned not to use a dark or even medium color for a background.

These are so fun to do - a way to hone your free motion quilting skills and play with your art supplies.

What could be better than that!

Check out all the green scrap blocks at so scrappy.

 

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Ramone

A friend gave me this beautiful rug made of wool roving from Peru. It's very thick and roughly sewn together so the minute I put it down my dog ZuZu started pulling out all the fibers, having a grand ol time of it.

Before long she had pulled out a good sized pile of wool fibers. Why not make a quilt?

The wool is mixed with some shredded fluffed white batting to make it lighter as most of the rug was pretty dark. It was a needle felted to lutradur then cut out.

I think this sheep looks like a boy which Glen says is called a ram.

Thus the name

Ramone

I like how his wool hangs over the border. If you want to see the journey from start to finish go here

My friend LeeAnna from not afraid of color tagged me in a blog love link referral type of thing. Kyla of sew slowly explains it here. It's a good way to get to know new bloggers. I'm supposed to share 7 things about myself so here goes :

1. I started quilting at the age of 19 (39 years ago) - you do the math :-) my mother showed me how and the first one I remember was a bunch of jars where each jar was a different fabric. It must have been appliqué. Back then we used cereal boxes cut up for templates and scissors. No mats, no rotary cutters - and yes, oh yes - no Internet! How did we survive!

2. Speaking of Internet - I am addicted to my IPhone and love, love twitter :-) I am @quiltscapes and only follow fellow quilters, nature lovers and all things Vermont (which is where I live)

3. While I do love good ol rock and roll, I go to sleep listening to classical music but spend the day listening to podcasts or books on audio.

4. If my house was on fire I would grab first my dogs, my phone, then my handi quilter sweet sixteen - can you see me dragging that thing out the door , it must weigh 100 pounds - lol!

5. I have worked at the same job for the past 30 years as a housekeeping manager but I am a lousy housekeeper at home. Guess I'm good at telling people what to do but not at the actual doing :-)

6. My favorite thing to do is walk in the woods. Pete Seeger had it right when he said "every time I'm in the woods I feel like I'm in church"

7. I've never had kids and while I admire those that do, I have no regrets. It's just not my thing.

Here are my girls :-)

Summer - the regal princess

And ZuZu the little rascal

 

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Poseidons Sky

 

This FMQ design makes a great sky. It's basically Leah days posiendens eye design with some McTavishing thrown in. The swirls look better with the middle a closed circle, which is what you're supposed to do with posiedens eye (as in the swirl top left). As you can see my quilting on this one is far from perfect but it still works. This is very forgiving - who's to say which way the wind is blowing or how?

 

Try it on your next sky :-)

 

Linking up with Nina today

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Oh yeah, Lutradur melts :-/

I painted my lutradur blue

Found a bright green felt and the look is cool, sort of a mottled thing going on

Sewing down the face

Needle felting - works beautifully on the lutradur

And here I made the big mistake learning experience. I know lutradur melts easily, that is one of the things people like about it. So I get the bright idea to make a border - inner and outer. Of course you need to iron said border when in the making. I was careful to use a pressing cloth ......... But ......

Disaster!

(Sigh)

So carefully cut out the head and put it on a cotton background that has a fairly loose weave since I want to do more needle felting after I put on the border.

This morning I left it on the sewing machine unattended and my dog Zu Zu grabbed it and started playing with it - flailing it about. Luckily the head was sewn onto the border enough that there was minimal damage just some of the wool came out. I'm trying not to show you to much of this little shit sheep since it is a gift for a friend who wanted one I had made awhile back named sweet pea but it sold on etsy before she could get it.

I will show you the astounding results next week :-)

Yes Jean this one's for you :-)

 

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Whales tails finish

Whales tails - 29"x20"

This quilt was started a month ago - go here to read how I started and why.

The fields came out nice with all the quilting for texture.

That's a little dog gazing up at the whales tails. The "tails" are in a field that is popular with dog walkers.

I am excited to be going to glens falls NY tommorrow for a quilt show and a visit with my mom, so stay tuned for pics of quilts from the show :-)

And as usual I'm linking up with Nina today ;-)

 

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