Hermit thrush

Spring is here! Birds are singing

 

And the wild crocuses are croaking!

 

Hermit thrush before quilting

 

And after.

Shows you how much free motion quilting adds to a piece.

Enjoy the spring!

Posted with Blogsy

FMQ practice and landscape WIP

 

Practice on a mug rug - I think I like the back better than the front. Quilting got lost in the brown print.

 

Landscape ready to quilt

 

Loosely based on this pic of camels hump ( the mountain in the distance)

I haven't got anything finished

 

Because I've been playing in this!

We finally got some snow - all at once.

It is simply magical.

One more day before we go back to the 40's and it all melts so I'm off with the dogs for a romp.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Old Boy

I have a friend who has 5 dogs and a big heart. She was not looking for another dog - lord knows 5 dogs can be a lot of work and money for a single middle aged woman although we all know they give back 10 fold with so much love and joy. But when she stopped by the local shelter and met Old Boy, well then there were 6

Old Boy had been at the shelter for a very long time. He's 12 and senior dogs are extremely hard to adopt. People don't want them. But Old Boy deserves a life outside a cage to enjoy his last few years. This was taken last Friday - look at that happy boy go! He is loving life!

To run and play .......... To be a dog.

I just had to make a quilt of Old Boy

 

This one I tried a different approach than my usual reverse drawing with fusible and freezer paper. I did use freezer paper but traced each piece on the freezer paper then ironed that onto the right side of the fabrics. I left all the edges raw but did make sure the adjoining pieces all had enough overlap to the piece beside it to cover well. I then took a thin piece of fusible interfacing, laid it over my drawing for a map of where to place all my old boy puzzle pieces.

After laying all of it out looking at the original photo and my "map" for guidance - all was then ironed to fuse in place using parchment paper as a pressing cloth. Then the excess interfacing was cut away before putting on a background.

 

Since he was all one chunk at this point I was able audition lots of backgrounds.

Once laid in place on the background he was glued in place by using a very thin line of Elmer's all the way around. And then each individual piece was also glued the same way. This prevents the fabric from getting caught in the hopping foot or flipped the wrong way while free motion quilting. Susan Carlson uses this technique on her amazing quilts. Have you seen her crocodile quilt? Omg, amazing! You can read about how and why she uses glue here.

Then he was quilted - a lot.

I gave him to Old Boy's mom and neglected to take a photo of him completed but at least you can see the process. He was a joy to create and I may use this raw edge collage method again. Lots of glueing but you end up with less glue in your project than fusible and a lot easier than turned under applique.

 

Posted with Blogsy

OM and Zu Finishes

Read last weeks post for an explanation of the OM symbol. The one from last week hangs in my home.

This one is for sale in my Etsy shop here

 

The quilting doesn't show up as good as the previous because there is more of a print. I think in the future if I want to showcase quilting a solid or tonal works the best.

 

I showed you my cartoon like Zu Zu (my dog) a couple weeks ago - photo on top.

Since then I darkened under the ears and wanted to show you what a difference that one thing made.

And added her little name tag - so cute :-)

I can't believe it's almost thanksgiving already! We have had a very good November here in Vermont. It's usually dark rainy and gloomy most every November day but this year we actually are getting a lot of sunny days. Today in the 50's!

I will be doing my favorite thing - taking a walk with my dogs through crunching leaves covered trails.

We have to watch where we go though since it's hunting season.

Get out there and enjoy it while it lasts!

What's your favorite fall activity?

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Goddess tears FMQ

I've been practicing Leah Day's FMQ design called goddess tears. It's McTavishing with a teardrop.

Another experiment here is using polar fleece as batting. As you can see it has enough nap to give a pretty good texture. The thin cotton batting I usually use doesn't have any more thickness than the fleece although the fleece has a closer tighter weave.

 

So far the only drawback is that I used a bright green with red stripes (something I would never wear) and the red shows through on the back which is a light color.

Go here to watch Leah show how to do this design. You will love it .

 

Posted with Blogsy

Lotus bud

 

12"x20"

pattern/tutorial found in my Craftsy shop here or on Etsy here

The lotus has been a symbol of purity since before the time of the Buddha, and it blooms profusely in Buddhist art and literature. Its roots are in muddy water, but the lotus flower rises above the mud to bloom, clean and fragrant.

Had this background in my stash for years and finally found the right place for it.

 

This one I didn't quilt inside the bud except the bottom petals for a different look. Used sew batik's nuance line of gradient batiks in pink. Gives you all the values needed in one fabric.

 

This goes together pretty quick, using both freezer paper and fusible web.

 

We are in peak fall foliage here in Vermont and this is my backyard tree. Beautiful but I hate to see them all fall off leaving bare branches. Oh, well - such is the change of the seasons marking time.

Go outside today for a walk and enjoy the fall for winter will be here before you know it!

Next week I will be posting on Tuesday which is my day for the art on fabric blog hop - see the button on the right sidebar. I'm doing something Georgia O'keeffe like and am looking forward to seeing what the other bloggers are doing. Check it out on Tuesday!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Goodnight psychedelic moon

While I do like how this landscape came out, I had a heck of a time trying to get the color of the moon right.

Lower left is what I started out with but decided it was to light. Adding some violet brought me to lower right. In retrospect I should have left it at that but no! More is more so added some more reddish purple and some white to blend to get to middle right. Didn't like that so how about some yellow for a glow? Then ended up adding some more of all the colors and blended them together and called it done.

I like how the variegated green thread looks for grass and plants.

I wish I lived in a place where I could sit naked and gaze at a psychedelic moon :-)

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Late September update

 

The weather around here has been so nice, I haven't gotten a lot of quilting done but here it is

So last weeks post I was trying to decide if I should add something on the left side of this mountain landscape. Ended up putting on rock of a different fabric and it works so that is finished.

And I'm starting another for a local woman who contacted me thru etsy. She wants a quilt of her friends new house. I decided to quilt the background first because there will be two porches and little fiddly bits on the house so the background is better quilted without having to skip over stuff.

 

This is where the house will be.

 

And look what the mailman brought me today!

My favorite Isacord thread - the big ones - yippee!

I spent my day off yesterday hiking in a beautiful wilderness area with a friend and 5 dogs.

So much fun! My favorite thing to do and it was sunny and 70 - perfection.

 

Here is the lovely Summer

Hope you all had a good week and can get out to enjoy the cooler temps :-)

 

Posted with Blogsy

OMG quilts

There is a group of art quilters on Facebook called OMG quilts that peaked my interest. The OMG stands for organic modern graphic. So far I've not been a fan of the " modern quilts". But this group has many rules of which I like - first being no piecing. All appliqué which works for me. There are size constraints. No problem. The two rules that I find hard is it must be graphic and made with organic shapes - no pictorial designs and my brain just can't wrap around just a concept. Easier said than done.

So I went with an idea that doesn't meet the criteria of non pictorial or organic shapes technically but it works for me, was a blast to make with all the free motion quilting area to play in and well ..... That is why we make quilts isn't it?

It is 30"x20"

I used a thick red thread to quilt these words to live by

We are all girls no matter what our age after all.

 

I really like how my quilting came out - The photo isn't really showing it off very well but trust me

It's magnificent!

If you want to check out the Facebook group go here

These women really know their stuff and if you're like me and are not really into modern quilts this is a good place to start.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Serenity 2

What have I been up to quilt wise this week?

Finished another dog on the dock looking at the mist quilt. I think serenity is a good name for this.

That's what I feel sitting on a dock on a quiet morning in the summer.

I'm making a pattern for download on craftsy for this so will be doing one more to make sure I have all the components right.

 

I had made this little cairn mini quilt awhile ago but just mounted it on stretched canvas. I happened to be in Micheals and saw some 12"x12" black canvas on sale. This was so easy since I didn't even have to paint the canvas. The word was printed out on freezer paper backed fabric. Serenity again! Hmmmmmm...... I must have serenity on the brain. Could be worse. Anyway I tried using fabric medium instead of mod podge to glue and coat the word and liked it better. Seems to blend better and not so glossy. Everything else was glued down using my trusty glue gun.

 

And last but not least I'm free motion quilting away on a fun project that I will share with you next week.

Have a creative quilty week!

Posted with Blogsy

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!

Posted with Blogsy