Tuesday, July 31, 2012

I Tried Stripping, Quilting That Is!

I am spending my summer in two different locations, one at home, and one when I am on vacation.   What's a girl to do when she is in love with quilting?   Make sure you have sewing machines wherever you go!   And fabric of course.

I found it too hard to move my large projects that are geared for shows, so I grabbed a box of scraps and brought them with me.   Inside this box were all these 2" strips.   I sat down last weekend and started sewing, and sewing, and sewing them together.   I think this may be called strip quilting=)  You can see that every so often I doubled up the same set of colours.

Once all ironed, I am debating about leaving as is and adding borders and binding.   I should mention this quilt is going to a child with a long term illness in our nearby hospital.   Or should I cut them into large squares and put them on point or alternate them with this fabric:

Any ideas? I am really leaning towards cutting it into squares and seeing what happens.



Friday, July 27, 2012

The Needle and Thread Network

I am over doing a guest post at The Needle and Thread Network.  This blog was designed to bring Canadian quilters together, and today they are featuring me.  I am showing some new 3D art quilts over there.

If you are joining me from TN&TN then welcome.   Take a look around and if you like what you see, please hit the 'follow' button.

Remember I told you I was making a quilt out of something made from wood.   None of you guessed the right answer.  A few said toothpicks, I did that this past spring:


Here is the one I was working on....

Can you tell what I used?   It is wooden clothespins!  They have been covered with mini ric rac and ribbon and buttons.   Each corner has a polka dot button.   


 One nice thing about clothespins is that they have holes provided for you to stitch through.



I am also doing a little giveaway in celebration of Canadian quilters.   You don't have to be from Canada to enter though!   I adore all of you=)  I picked up these beauties at Quilt Market and they are from Art Gallery Fabrics.   I really like this company, the fabric has a very soft supple feel to it.   The winner will win a fat quarter of each fabric shown below.  This is all from the same collection.



All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment telling me where you are from.  If you don't want to do that, tell me your very favourite junk food.   Mine is stale red licorice.   And it has to be stale so it is nice 'n' chewy.  I will pick a winner on August 3, 2012.   Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Working Away

Does summer automatically mean progress goes alot slower?   I have a deadline of August for one quilt and it is sitting in a pile at the corner of my cutting table.  In the meantime I thought I would take a break and work on a little art quilt that was supposed to be finished in one week.  It has been 3 now!

Here is where I am at with it.




 I didn't know if some ribbon on the ric rac would look good.  These ribbons are part of  the embellishments as well.


Took me forever to decide what to put on the border, as you can see I am still not sure I am done it.  Next is adding the  3D embellishments.   Remember I mentioned they were made from wood, well so far no one has guessed correctly as to what they are.

I also want to show you something pretty, as I am thrilled with the beauty of it.   This was a green cocoon on my island for a week and today it blossomed=)


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Button Jewellery

Guess what I did?  I took a leap from art quilts to becoming a jewellery designer!   Not a permanent one, just one for Riley Blake Fabrics.   I can show you what you can do with their fun buttons.

Check out how to make a ring, hair clips, earrings and a necklace in my tutorial here.   


Leave me a comment and tell me what you think=)   


Monday, July 16, 2012

Giveaway Winner and a Peek

Without further ado, the winner of the book, 'Apple a Day' is Stephanie.


Blogger Stephanie said...
Love the quilt on the fence and the place mat. The colors are amazing. Loooks great.

  If you want the book, dear Amanda is offering a 20% discount till July 22nd, the code is BLOGTOUR and here is the link.


I took a break from my latest art quilt as I am waiting for a button order to come in, and am doing a small little quilt.  I am using a 3D embellishment I have never used before and you will NEVER guess what it is!



For fun, I will give you one tiny hint.... it is made from wood.  Do you know?


This is the background for it.   Don't even bothering giving me the eye roll!  I did use circles... again.   Sigh, when will I stop with my circle obsession?   Haha, will be back soon with a fun tutorial!




Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Spoonflower and update on my new art quilt

Fabric creating fun has been going on at my place!  First a disclaimer, I am not promoting Spoonflower, nor was I asked to do this.  I wanted you guys to see what I did with my art quilts.  I cropped a couple of them into a tiny little segment like this one.

Then you go to Spoonflower and download your little jpeg.   At this point you can flip or repeat it till you get a pattern you like and presto, you have created fabric.  You decide if you want to order a FQ, or yardage.  I decided on a yard of each.

Here are my 3 new pieces of fabric.  I feel like a fabric designer!
The first one, is not the best, that is my fault.  When I cropped it, I didn't notice a shadow, so there is some darkness running through it.


Okay, I should have ironed it, but was sooo excited to show you!
This second one, you can actually see my circular stitches right in the fabric... so cool.


I could definitely spend hours and hours creating new fabric from bits and pieces of my art quilts.

Which one is your favourite?   I have no idea what I am going to use them for, I certainly don't want to cut them up!   #2 could be a background fabric I think.   But my favourite is definitely the third one.

While waiting for my order from Spoonflower to arrive, I was working on my latest art quilt.   
I have been making leaves like crazy.  Look at the pile of them now.

  Thanks for all the super ideas for wearable art in my last post.  I am definitely thinking!   I have two favourites, but won't reveal them just yet.  

Don't forget to enter my giveaway.  Some of you are leaving the most amazing baking ideas... I may be asking for recipes!    I wonder if we can do some kind of chocolate recipe contest with FQ's as a prize?  Any ideas gang?





Monday, July 9, 2012

Wearable Art Inspiration

I have a little secret..... in juried shows, not very many quilters enter into the Wearable Art category.   You know what that means?   That I have a better chance of getting into a show, if I enter in that category!

I have entered into the Wearable Art category twice in the Canadian juried show.   This one, 'Serenity' got in:



And 'Seams Time for Patience' didn't:

But the bonus was that I got great feedback on both, so learned something.   Now here is my q to you.   I am tired of making jackets to enter, like I have made soo many=)   Anyway, what else could I make that would be more exciting than a jacket/coat?   From what I have seen the majority of entries are some type of outer garment.   Some do dresses, but I am not a big fan of that either.   Is there anything else you think would shock the jurors enough they would accept it?   





Saturday, July 7, 2012

Giveaway Time

I hope you have been making the rounds on my first ever blog tour!  And I really hope some of you won!  If not, here is a chance for you to win this fabulous book and a kit to make my necklace!   Woot woot!!

Amanda, put together this amazing book of 9 patterns with the help of her ultra fab design team.

Here is the kit you could win to make this super cute necklace.

These placemats are in the book.  Candice created the pattern for them.  I gave my mom the book and she is making these first.   I so love these, and am really hoping my mom made them for me, but considering I gave her the book a month ago, I am thinking she picked one of my other siblings.   Maybe whomever wins the book will make them for me.  Kidding!  They are super easy to make and I will just have to whip them up myself.  

Placemat 2


This is Jana's quilt, but it is more than a quilt.   Her pattern includes a foot warmer on the back.  Yep, all the measurements and instructions to construct  a place to put the warmers and a separate pocket to put your feet.  Simply genius!  (Don't tell her I said that, or it will go right to her head.)

All you have to do is leave me a comment.  It can be about anything, like your favourite junk food, favourite quilting tool, how much you adore my blog, recipes with chocolate in them, etc.   I will pick a  winner on July 16th.  If you just want to go out and buy this wonderful book, you can do so here.