Julianne's quilt

Here is a picture of our latest "family project" quilt, made for my grand niece Julianne who is getting married in June. Julianne's mom Janet chose the border fabric showing little birds on branches.

Little Birds

Quilt made by Joan for Barbara. I love the appliqued birds.

Modern Spring Quilt

I couldn't resist buying a jelly roll of this "freshcut" line of Free Spirit fabrics by Heather Bailey. I added in a few extras from my stash, along with some Kona snow, and now am well on my way to a new spring quilt. Of course, knowing how long it usually takes me to finish things, it may not be completed until next spring,

On the Design Wall

A nice simple quilt, great for using up scraps. Use 6" squares, cut in half diagonally. Stitch each set of triangle halves to a 1 1/2" x 8 1/2" strip. Trim block to 5" square, aligning the diagonal line on the ruler with the center of the strip. Easy and fun.

I think this will be the "year of the scrap". I have SO many fabric leftovers....it's time to concentrate on using them.

My Quilting Helper

On a family sewing day, we were rummaging through some flannel to make a pieced backing. We spread the fabric out on the floor, and of course Sunny had to test it out. I think she approves. (Don't worry, I washed it before we used it in the quilt.)

Christmas quilts again

A quilt for Sheryl, made by Barbara. Love the layered look of this one. Sheryl plans to hang it in her office.

This is not a great picture of my friend Joan since she has her eyes closed, but just look at the beautiful quilt she received from Carla. Carla said she was a little outside her comfort zone with all that applique, but I think she met the challenge and then some.

Here is the quilt Cindy made for Pam B. I very much love the beautiful pattern created by the negative spaces.

Bright Flowers

Nancy loves the brights, especially yellow and orange, so the quilt Gayle made was just perfect. A simple design, but as you can see, very appealing with the right fabric.

Beautiful Scrap Quilt

This beautiful quilt was made by Pam as a gift for Cindy. I love the wide variety of fabrics, which of course is the beauty of scrap quilts.

Christmas Quilts

This is the beautiful Christmas quilt I received from my friend Kathy this year,

And this is the Christmas quilt I made. I belong to a small group of quilters who meet once a month, and for several years we have had the tradition of drawing names and making quilts to exchange at our Christmas party. It's a lot of work, but believe me, it's the best Christmas party of the year.

Simple Spring Quilt

Here is a little quilt I helped a friend make for her daughter. Cute, simple enough for a beginner, and nice for spring,

Bright little Boats

This little quilt was made, completed, and given last year to one of my grand nephews. Our large extended family has been expanding these past few years, so quilts for little ones seem to be the order of the day. I had so much fun with the fabrics for this one.

Our new family member

No quilt pictures to post today, but here is what has been keeping us busy at home. We adopted our sweet Sunshine (Sunny) from Labrador Rescuers (San Diego). Though she is about a year and a half old, there is a LOT of pup in her. It took us time to recover from the loss of our old girls, but the time is right now to bring another fur kid into our lives. Sunny has wonderful house manners but is keeping us on our toes since she needs lots of exercise and play. Jerry has been working from home, so it has helped that Sunny has a lot of company as she gets used to living with us.

Revival?

It's been a very long time since I last posted here at the blog. I think I might be ready to revive it, at least now and then. There is still some quilting activity happening in the studio. I have these lovely bright fabrics to inspire me, and another baby quilt is in the works for my great nephew. There has been something of a population explosion and our family gatherings have become quite lively with all the young ones. It's great fun to see the next generation coming along. I only wish it didn't make me feel so old.


On the art quilt front, I am still making sketches and occasionally one of them actually turns into fabric

As usual, the design process leads to some changes. The color in the original sketch is just to differentiate shapes since I usually wait until I dive into fabric to make those decisions.

I'm not sure where this is going, although I like the shapes very much.
No doubt, with more thread work and stitching, the piece will continue to evolve.

A Baby Quilt

Here is a picture of the latest baby quilt, finally completed for my great niece Megan. Since I finished the quilt in my usual not so prompt fashion, Megan is already six months old. I included the picture from our 4th of July family gathering so you can see her. (She's the one with the cute hat .)
Our family is having something of a mini baby boom, so there are more quilts for little ones in the works.

More quilt gifts

The pictures here speak for themselves, don't you think? I especially love the red and green one.

Joan's Quilt

As I have done in years past, I will try to post the quilts from our exchange bit by bit. This fun bright quilt was made by my friend Joan and given to Nancy. Joan is very adept at hand applique and prefers the freezer paper method of prep.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljl_O2aOT1M
One difference in her method is that she removes the freezer paper before sewing and uses extra starch and glue as needed to keep the pieces in shape and in place. I do love the brights, and this is a wonderful quilt.

Hello Again

Although I happily read many of your quilting blogs, I have gotten out of the habit of posting. With the move to the new artful qulters ring, I will try to resume posting often enough to stay in the group. This photo is of the quilt I made for our quilter's exchange. My friend Gayle loved it, and I certainly had fun making it. The detail is not clear in the photo, but there is a quilted outline of Iris flowers and leaves in the green area to the left. Pictorial quilts of flowers are not ground breaking in their originality, but I still love the way this one turned out.

Learning Surface Design

These two were made using direct dye paint. They have not been washed yet.

This one with leaf shapes was done with freezer paper ironed on for resist on monoprinted fabric. The fabric pieces below were done using soy wax batik, some combined with freezer paper resist. The first (most complex) was done in stages with wax, dye paint, more wax, crackling, more dye. It was very hard to get the wax out. I had to resort to washing it in very hot water and it faded a LOT. I know, you have to wash ALL dyed fabric in hot water with Synthrapol, but the fading is so disappointing.

I'm learning quite a lot about how things work. Since the workshop I have ordered a few supplies and have been experimenting on my own. One disappointment is the intensity lost when washing out the dyed fabric. In that regard, I think paint may be better because you don't wash it. I was thinking about NOT washing out future dye painted items because the fabric will be used only in wall (art) pieces. I mean, it's not like you worry about "washing" paintings. Is there any reason to wash out dye if the completed fabric is not being used in a quilt or garment that will be used?