Trying A New Technique

This is a work in progress at the moment. I still have a few details I want to add with paint and then it is on to making the quilt sandwich and quilting.

This fabric painting technique is inspired by a post that Judy Coates Perez shared on her blog recently and while Judy used FW Acrylic inks for her piece, I used Dr. Ph. Martin Bombay India inks for mine as I didn't have the acrylic inks on hand. I have ordered a few FW inks to play with and I'm anxious to compare the two side by side.

Anyway, I LOVE LOVE LOVE how the inks layer over each other and create color depth and interest.

Valentine ATCs

I created these ATCs this past week. I had the background (blue and green pieces) leftover from another project and decided to make these. I actually was totally out of ATCs in my stash and I like to have some on hand to toss into packages I mail or for whatever reason.

The background on these is Mistyfused fabrics on stiff interfacing. Then I used pre-fused scraps to create the focal design. I free-motion stitched the hearts and then added some painted accents. I Mistyfused some watercolor paper to the back side and then zigzag stitched the outside edges.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Edit: Mistyfuse is sold worldwide. Check with your local quilt shop. Also available online through several retailers and at www.mistyfuse.com.

Journal Quilt #4

Grow (Journal Quilt #4-2011)

Hand painted cotton duck, hand dyed cotton, hand embroidery, thread sketching, free-motion quilting, Mistyfused and painted

So far I've been able to create a journal quilt each week. I won't guarantee that will happen all the time...but I'm pleased to have kept up for now.

I think I got a little unfocused with this quilt as far as following my "rules" for journal quilting. Of the seven "rules" on my list, I did do the first four, but the last three went unobserved. Oh well...I guess you can't win them all. I'm okay with only following some of the rules. This is supposed to be fun so why stress over rules, right?!

The square of white fabric with hand embroidered flowers on it was something I had started, oh maybe two years ago. I found it recently and it was almost completed, except for some black outlining. So I quickly finished it up and attached it to this piece.

Zentangle Challenge #6

It's week 6 for the Zentangle challenge and the theme this week is to incorporate a new tangle design called Ixorus. This new design is the center area of my Zentangle above. There is a diagram on how to create this design at the link beginning this paragraph.

By the way, if you are new to Zentangles, a great site for learning most, if not all, of the tangle designs is TanglePatterns.com.

Zentangled Gourd

I used to grow gourds in my garden. I did it for several years, trying different varieties of gourds. They take up a lot of room. They are a vining plant, much like watermelon and cucumbers.

I quit vegetable gardening some years back and since I had so many dried gourds stored all over the place, I decided I didn't need to grow them either. I live on 10 acres of property so if at some point I decide I want to grow them again, I can create a new gourd garden space...since I've converted the former vegetable garden into a flower garden.

Anyway, I decided to play with a gourd a few days ago and so I started adding some color to it. Then I couldn't help myself and started zentangling all over it too. It's still a work in process...I need to get some fixative spray on it so that I can add some more layers.

Three Quilt Pattern Winners

I am so excited to announce the winners from my Pattern Party. First of all, let me thank all of you who made this a wonderfully fun party. You are all winners in my book.

Here are the three winners, chosen by random drawing. Numbers 15, 55, and 37.

The numbers above coordinated with the comments from these three:

Congratulations to Shelley Vogel, Victoria, and Carol H. The three of you have won a copy of my new pattern. The pattern includes directions to make all four quilts shown in the photo.

Again, thank you so much to all of you for helping create a great party. Have a wonderful week!

Color Palette Challenge

This year we have started a Color Palette Challenge over at 3 Creative Studios. The first color palette was announced last week. I took the photo in my backyard and Vicki created the color chips from it. Here is our first color palette:

Here is the quilt I made following the colors. I decided to create a small quilt and I didn't want to over think and stress about color matching. I wanted to use commercial cottons and so I found some that looked similar to the color chips. I didn't pre-plan my design I just worked spontaneously and somewhat quickly.

We have a Flickr group where participants in the Color Palette Challenge have started sharing their results. Check them out. The first challenge will end at midnight on Feb 15, so if you are interested in playing along, you still have lots of time. You can read all about how the challenge works here.

Journal Quilting

Sunlit Swirls (journal quilt #3)

Mixed-media art journal quilt (fused cottons, free-motion quilted, painted)

This week's journal quilt is quite a bit different from the previous two. I did follow most of my self-imposed rules although it's a little harder to tell on this piece. For example, I still used my pre-fused scraps...they are harder to see though because I layered them all over the background and then painted over them. I also added some color to the thread-sketched focal designs on this quilt.

Don't forget that you can see the journal quilts that others are creating in the 3 Creative Studios Flickr group.

My Ice Cream Bucket Overfloweth

I save my used dryer sheets so that I can keep adding more scrap fabric quilt blocks to my ongoing dryer sheet quilt. And as you can see here, my used dryer sheet bucket was getting overly full. So I took a couple of days to fix that.

I found I had about 50 dryer sheets in the bucket. The last time I worked on this quilt I had created a section that was six blocks by eight blocks. So with the work I did in the past couple of days I was able to double the amount of blocks. In the photo below, the quilt section at the top of the photo is the previous section I had made and the new section is below.

I haven't joined the two sections together yet...I think I will wait until I have more sections and work with all of them at once. My goal is a queen or king sized quilt. At this point, my measurement from top to bottom is good, but I need to add about two more sections to the width for a king size. Now to fill up my ice cream bucket again.

REMINDER: Don't forget I'm having a Pattern Party. If you would like to play along, you will be in the drawing for a free pattern. Hope to see you there!

Orb

This week's Zentangle challenge theme is orb. For some reason my results with this challenge are not at all like I had thought. Not that I had a vision of anything in particular in mind. It's sort of hard to explain.

This is a Quilt!

Walking Along a Sandy Beach

Commercial cottons, free-motion quilting, water-soluble crayons, 

water-soluble pencils, textile medium, acrylic paint

9.5" x 9.5"

This is a Quilt! is the theme for SAQA's 2011-2012 Traveling Trunk Show. All SAQA members are eligible to enter a quilt into this show. All quilts are small, they need to be from 9" minimum per side to 11" maximum per side. And the quilts will actually be matted for the show so that only 8" x 8" will be viewable.

The deadline to get your quilt to the curators is January 21, so I'm right down to the wire with this entry.  This is the first time that I've entered this trunk show.  As I type this, I'm wondering about the history of this show and how long it has been held.  Hmmm, must do research.  If you are reading this and know the answer, please leave a comment.

The Big Tote - Free Pattern Now Available

I shared my first draft of the Big Tote a few days ago here on the blog. Here is my final version and I have finished getting the tutorial ready for it. You can find the tutorial over on the 3 Creative Studios Free Project page, along with many other great free projects.

The purple fabric at the bottom is overdyed denim from an old pair of jeans.

Pattern Party - You're Invited!

You might remember that I published this pattern a couple of weeks ago. Well I'm having a party and I'm inviting everyone! Leave me a comment on this post and you can win a free pattern. I will pick a winner in a week and I'll announce it here on my blog on Sunday, January 23. I might pick one winner or two winners or maybe even three winners....maybe it will be you!

Two Challenges in One Post

I'm still plugging along with the zentangle weekly challenge that Laura is conducting on her blog I Am the Diva. This week's challenge (challenge #4) was titled Starry Eyed Surprise. We were to incorporate a star or stars into our tangle. Here is my result:

And below is my 2nd journal quilt for the year. I'm amazed I was able to fit this in at all this week. Lately I just feel like I'm going crazy with meeting deadlines and getting projects completed...but I'm feeling pretty good about that now because I've actually been crossing some tasks off my list this week. That's a good feeling.

Limey Swirly Thoughts of Love

cotton duck, batiks, perle cotton, thread, batting and Mistyfuse

Check out all the journal quilts that others are creating.

News Flash - Watch the 3 Creative Studios blog tomorrow, the first color palette in the Color Palette Challenge will be announced.

Twelve by Twelve - Eggplant Reveal

Today is reveal day for our Eggplant color play challenge. Visit the group blog to see the reveal as everyone shares their results throughout the day.

I actually made two quilts this round, and while I've sort of chosen the first one shown here as my submission, I'm really up to changing my mind if everyone claimed the other quilt as the better choice.

The Three Leaves of Eggplant

Eggplant Rings

You can read more details about these two quilts on the group blog and perhaps you'll chime in over there with your vote.

Oh and in case you are wondering...we usually reveal our quilts on the first of the month but we decided to wait until today (Jan 12) because of the busy-ness of the holiday season.

A New Toy and A New Tote

Within the last month I was browsing through one of the magazines I subscribe to and noticed an advertisement for a pen that is made for writing on fabric. So I stored that information in my head and the other day when I was at my local Hobby Lobby, I found they had this pen in stock. Yay! I purchased one and this is it:

The pen states right on it that:

• it writes smoothly - Yes, it does
• it leaves permanent lines - I haven't done any washing tests, but I'm guessing the manufacturers did
• it doesn't smudge or smear - Yay!
• the pigment ink is waterproof - probably why they claim it leaves permanent lines.

Below are my two trials with the pen.  The sample on the left is cotton duck, which is a fabric with a bit more texture to it...I found the pen glided along this very smoothly.  The sample on the right is a basic muslin and it worked great there too.

In the past when I wanted to write on fabric, I had been using a Sakura gel pen with similar results as above, but I must say that this Pentel pen is much much smoother.  It will be my first choice when I want to draw or write on fabric.

A few days ago I made this tote bag.  It is a large tote for carrying large or many items.  It is the first one I made, my prototype.

Also a few days ago I overdyed some old denim jeans.  They were very light in color, stonewashed or something like that is what they were called. 

You can see above that the pair of jeans on the right is the original color and the pair on the left, which was the same color originally, was overdyed with amethyst fiber reactive dye.  I am going to do another large tote bag with this purple denim. I am writing up a free tutorial on this big tote for the 3 Creative Studios site, and it will be ready soon.

How I Plan to Use Unused Scraps and Supplies

Thoughts of Grasses Waving in the Wind

Approx. 13" x 12"

Have you seen the 2011 Journal Quilt Challenge over at 3 Creative Studios? Well if you haven't, you can find all the information about it here. The above quilt is my first for the year and while I won't say that I'll be creating one every week, I will certainly try to do as many as I can.

A few rules I imposed on myself for my 2011 journal quilts are:

• thread sketching - do some in each quilt
• use up fabric scraps that have pre-applied fusible (got lots of those)
• use up batting scraps, when possible (got some of those)
• quilt size can vary
• try new free-motion quilting designs
• use up spools of thread that are almost empty (got lots of those)
• try odd shapes, not just square or rectangle quilts

I may revise my rules over time, depending. There is a Flickr group set up for those participating in the challenge...and there will be a prize drawing once a month for those who have shared photos.

I actually have done journal quilting in the past. The year was 2007, and I created an 8.5 x 11" quilt every week and ended up with 52 quilts. You can see the final posting of that project here, which shows a small grouping of all 52 quilts.

Oh and hey!  Did you hear that 3 Creative Studios is having a party?  Well there's still time, head on over to this page and leave a comment to be included.  The party ends Saturday night...January 8.

Zentangle Challenge Week 3

This week's Zentangle Challenge is called Eyes Wide Shut. The directions said to draw your beginning string with your eyes closed. The string, for those of you who are wondering, is the beginning pencil guideline that is drawn to start your doodling. Here is the photo of the string I drew with my eyes closed.

And here is the Zentangle after I completed it.

I really had fun with this challenge. I'm anxious to see what next week's challenge will be. And stay tuned for tomorrow's post....it's a quilt! A small one, but still...

I Can't Decide

Here is the pile of fabrics I used to create my latest Twelve by Twelve quilt. The color theme this round was called Eggplant and the three colors included in the palette are purple, emerald and wine.

I've now completed two, yes I said two, quilts for this theme and I can't say I'm over the moon about either of them. I found this color palette very difficult to work with. All three colors are dark values and while we have no restrictions on using other colors (like a light color) I still felt somewhat restricted. So now I need to choose which quilt I'll officially submit to the challenge, which will be revealed on January 12.

In other quilty projects... Here is something I started before Christmas and just haven't gotten back to. I was inspired by the wholecloth painted quilts that Judy Coates Perez creates and I had a lazy day one day before Christmas (imagine that), and purchased her instant download DVD on this technique.

You might recognize this image, I shared it with you at Christmas.