Stunning Landscapes

Painting with Threads and Fibers! 

 Awesome!

Quilts Featuring Animals

Fantastic Quilts!

Quilts Inspired by Children's Literature

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Seuss. 

Here are a few quilts made to depict classic children's books.

Miss Rumphius

Very Hungry Caterpillar

Cat In the Hat

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Shamrock Wallhanging

Today at school I took down my Love wallquilt and the thought occurred to me that I needed to make something for March to replace it. Here is what I came up with.

I searched through my stash of green fabrics and tore off strips of varying widths. Then I put them in a bag to make it easy for me to just grab a strip and start sewing!  The strips are foundation pieced onto a rectangle of batting.

Using some Steam-a-Seam and clipart depicting shamrocks, I traced the designs on one side of the fusible web. After ironing the web to the opposite side of my green almost-solids, I cut out the shapes. The last layer of paper came off and I ironed the shamrock shapes onto the strip-pieced background.

The next step will be to blanket stitch around the shamrocks with some variagated 12 weight thread.  I plan to use the new Sulky Blendables I got this weekend. I will do some free motion quilting as well, then trim and bind up the finished wall hangings.

UPDATE:
I quilted both of these up using the new thread. It was harder than I had hoped and involved some ripping out stitches and researching possible causes of the problem on the Internet.  Here's the problem-- I had the 12 weight thread in both the bobbin and on the spool. That is WRONG!  Once I changed the bobbin thread to what I regularly use (Essential Thread from Connecting Threads) it worked much better. There was still some thread breakage to contend with, but I muddled through.

In the end I decided not to bind up and finish the one with the lighter green shamrocks. I stashed it in my scrap bag not knowing what I would do with it, but reluctant to toss it in the trash yet.  The other one is bound with a pieced binding made from green scraps, machine sewn as is my preference. It is at school decorating my classroom and was even used as an example of how to deal with your efforts not working out right away.

Oddysea Bricks Quilt Top

Here is my latest quilt top created from fabric by Momo in a line called Oddysea.  This is the bricks pattern, which I have used in this quilt and also in this one.  I love the way this pattern comes together easily and shows off larger pieces of the fabrics.

I started off with a layer cake of the Oddysea fabric.  A layer cake is 40 10-inch squares of coordinating fabrics in a designer's line.  Where there were some duplicate blocks in this pack, I changed the orientation of the design before cutting it in half.  I cut each 10 inch square into 2 rectangles measuring 5x10 inches. Then I took some of those rectangles and cut them in half again to make some 5 inch squares. 

I sort of randomly pulled the rectangles from the pile as I was sewing, but if I thought there was too much of one color in one area, I switched the blocks around some.

To get the bricks to be offset, I made 2 kinds of rows. The first row has 6 bricks sewn together. The next row begins with half a brick (the 5 inch square) then includes 5 more bricks and finishes with another half brick.  (Just like the real bricklayers do!)

I just kept making these rows and sewing them together until I got the quilt top to be the size I think I want it to be.  I still have some rectangles and squares left over and I have not decided if I want to include them on the backing.

I love this line of fabric--the ocean theme, the bright whimsical prints, the fishies, the seashells.  This is not a winter wonderland, that is for sure!  Makes me think of hot summer days at the beach--come on summertime!

Some Projects Don't Turn Out

 

Since my mother's birthday was on Sunday and I was going to attend her birthday dinner hosted by my aunt and uncle, I thought I would whip up a project for her.  I chose these fabrics because she loves moose and her favorite color is green.

The plan was to make her a checkbook cover to fit her top stub checks.  I used directions that I found online and adjusted the dimensions to accommodate the fact that top stub checks are slightly taller than regular checks. 

I could not make it look right. It was all good until the time to turn the checkbook right side out and stitch up the side. Suddenly it was wonky and too stuffed with batting.

I tore out stitches and redid part of it with less batting and tried again. Still no luck.  Ended up in the garbage.

Some days you are the Louisville Slugger and some days you are the ball.

Mom loved the beautiful quilted wallhanging I gave her instead. 

 Happy Birthday, Mom!

2010 Dog Olympics

It is time for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show again. This annual event is competing with the Winter Olympics for my attention.

The first night of competition is televised tonight on the USA network and on CNBC. Judged tonight will be the Hound group, the Toy group, the Non-Sporting group and the Herding group.

Tomorrow night will be the Sporting group, the Working group and (my favorites) the Terrier group.  After all 7 group winners are determined the best in show winner will be chosen.

Hometown favorites (in order of preference)

• Miniature Schnauzer
• Pembroke Corgi
• Australian Cattle Dog

One day I hope to travel to NYC and see the Westminster for myself. In addition to the coverage shown on tv, the dogs are on display for the entire time of the competition and you can talk with the breeders and handlers about specific breeds. Each breed has its own competition to determine which dogs get into the best of group ring.

Thousands of dogs compete for the glory of being called "Best in Show."  Lest you think that this show is only about purebred dogs, one of the main sponsers, Pedigree Dog Food, has an extensive program to benefit shelter dogs. All through the show, commercials run that urge potential dog owners to seek their new friends from among the many homeless dogs that deserve good homes. 

Personally I have owned both purebred and mixed breed dogs. Most of them came to me secondhand (in need of a good home.) My current dog, Conner is a purebred Schnauzer (pet quality only) that I got from his first owner when she realized she could not devote enough time and attention to him.

Love dogs!   Love the Westminster Kennel Club! Don't have time to watch the Olympics tonight!

Framed Nest Flimsy

See the bird peeking out of this block?

Look at these tiny eggs!

I love this quilt top. I started it using some 5 inch strips cut from a Nest jelly roll and began to frame them using strips from a Kona Cottons Solids jelly roll. Then I ran out of colors that matched the tones of these fabrics.

I ordered more and was able to complete the top during my snow days.  The white sashing is made using a Ralph Lauren twin sheet obtained from a local thrift store.

The quilt top just about covered the double bed in my sister's guest room. I am concerned about trying to quilt it myself. It is the largest top I have made so far.

Did I mention that I love it?

Conner Plays in the Snow

I took Conner out for a spell this morning. I wanted to get some pictures of the sunlight hitting the lingering ice from our last storm.

He could walk on top of the snow without breaking through on every step. There was even a squirrel for him to bark at. He had a good time!

Icy Conditions

Conner in his rightful place, snuggled between my feet.

Last night we got sleet and freezing rain. The trees are encased in ice. Very pretty, but could cause a problem later today when the snow that is falling now adds weight to the branches.

I only lost power last night briefly enough to cause the microwave display to blink and to require my computer network to be restarted. I am crossing my fingers that I will be spared further power interruptions.

More reading, sewing and bird watching today. Not driving anywhere!

Even More Snow!

This is how Conner likes to spend our days at home. See my toe there in my fuzzy slippers. He is on top of the felted wool afghan I made from old sweaters.

It seemed like hundreds of birds flew between this snowy hedge and the feeding center on my porch today. There were the usual snowy weather birds for this area and this....

Red-headed woodpecker. I had quite a time getting these photos because

#1 they were taken through the window with no flash and

#2 Sammy L. Jackson kept lunging at the glass and scaring off the birds whenever I got close with the camera.

Also, I SWEAR I saw a bird with a white head and a red crest of feathers for just a moment before it flew off. I have never seen a bird like that in the wild before, I am sure it was someone's escaped cockatiel or other tropical bird. I hope it can live through this storm.

Now the sleet is beating against the house and I am hoping that the power stays on. It is mighty uncomfortable here with no heat! For now I am enjoying the full use of my computer, my ipod, Facebook, blogland, Flickr and the telly.

Stay safe and warm everybody!

Not Stash Busting

I got plenty of fabric today at Joanne's. The part that makes me most happy is that every single piece was already on sale, even before I used my teacher discount. That little card got me an additional $12 off. Whoo-hooo!

This fabric featuring realistic birds on branches was sold out for a long time. I saw it today and had to buy 3 yards of it and then 2 yards of the coordinating print.



The fabric I went looking for is this modern bird print in spring colors of pink and purple. They also make it in turquoise and teal, but that was sold out already. There are two coordinating prints here, the one with many birds and the other with branches.



This assortment of reds will be made into a fireball quilt. That is similar to a snowball quilt or the pumpkin quilt I made in the fall, but made with red. I already have the red jelly roll to use as sashing for each block. These are half yard cuts, so I am thinking 9 inch blocks.

This vibrant paisley just begged for me to put it in the cart, whispering that it would make a fabulous purse.

The pinks are to go along with my other Valentine fabrics and already one is spoken for to use to back my Valentine Split Rail quilt.

All in all a satisfying trip to the fabric store.