Embellishing To POP a project

Have you ever worked on something and then realized it was not making you happy?   Y'all know that I love lots of color.  When I added some redwork embroidery to my current project I thought it would stand alone.  But when I saw it there beside the applique,  it looked too bland, tame, uninteresting.   As the project was already quilted,  I needed to step outside the box a bit and find a solution.

There are so many ways to embellish fabric, but it becomes trickier when you have already completed the project.  So I took a wild chance and pulled out some colored pencils and started coloring it.

You can see that these are Derwent Inktense pencils.  The pigment is actually an ink so it will be permanent once I heat set it.   To intensify the color (and insure that it will be permanent)  I used a couple of artist paint brushes to apply some textile medium to the colored areas. 
The textile medium makes the ink pigment flow and blend. I used it very sparingly to avoid bleeding past the embroidered lines. 

Here is the completed stocking.

The background fabrics are lovely Island Batik neutrals.

I love the soft hand-painted look that I get when I use these pencils.  In fact there is only one thing that I don't love about them.  The tin doesn't stay closed well on its own.  So I do this to store them.

Two simple rubber banks hold the lid on the tin so that I can pop it in a bag for an "on the go" project without worrying about the tin popping open and spilling my lovely pencils.

Now, this project has to cure and dry - so I will leave it for a day and then heat set it. After that I will do a photo session and post this project so that you can see my new Christmas table toppe

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

UFO - Moving Forward

Most quilters have UFOs (UnFinished Objects.)  This quilter is no different.  For a weekend at a friend's house, I grabbed a bag with what I thought was one particular unfinished project. When I arrived and opened the bag, it was a different project.  But I am happy that I grabbed the "wrong" bag.  This one is a quilt that was in five sections that needed joining together.  All the necessary fabrics were also in the bag (yaaay!)

You can read some of the backstory on this quilt here. 

One of the five sections

The reason that I did this in sections is that it makes quilting much easier on a domestic machine.  I have to say that I think this may be some of the best quilting I have ever done. I join these using the method in Maguerita McManus' book "Quilt As You Go -reimagined"   It is my favorite 'quilt as you go' technique.

I have a lot of quilting designs in this one quilt.   

When I got it all joined together, I realized why it had become a UFO.  You see it is an odd size - long and narrow.

So I said to myself,  "Okay fellow, you know you can come up with a solution to this. Think!"  Adding side borders seemed pretty obvious at this point. So I took leftover pieces of the blue, red, yellow and lavender and made 3" borders for each side.  "Hmmm..." I said,   "Fellow, those are going to be a royal pain in the patootie to quilt at that size. Back to the drawing board."  I looked at the leftover fabric, and did some calculating and decided the blue would look nice added to it.
So I sewed 2 1/2" strips of blue to the sides of the piano key borders. Here is what it will look like eventually.

I will probably bind it in red or yellow - depending on what I have enough of in my stash.  I think this quilt looks like it belongs in a circus - because of the bright red, blue and yellow colors.  But that is okay, I like it that way.

If you missed my September Post "The Absurd Bird" please go to see it.

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Value Makes a Difference

While playing with some more orange and purple fabrics I made two versions of a particular block.  More about the block later, but first let's take a look.

You can clearly tell that  one has higher contrast than the other. But you can see the design.  But suppose you were colorblind...  To simulate that, I changed the photo to grayscale.

The one on the right appears to be all one color. This is the difference that value plays in quilting. In either version of the photo, the block on the left is nicely contrasted and would even show well in dim light.  But, in dim light the block on the right would look "fuzzy" and lack definition.
The old saying is: "Color gets all the credit, but value does all the work."  I hope you can see the truth in that by looking at these blocks.
 If you are uncertain about picking value you can use a value viewer or if you have a smart phone, just take a photo of the fabrics together.  Most phones have an option of converting the photo to black and white.  If not, there are plenty of free apps that will do it.

That said, I will still use the bland block in the final quilt (unless I end up with an extra block.)

This block design is one that I found on Pinterest (I think.)   But there it was made with all half-square triangles.  I quickly saw that I could use the Accuquilt Go! Qube set to make an 8 inch version using the parallelogram  and the half square triangle. That removed eight seams per block. It did take a bit of thinking to figure out how to do the construction.  But it turned out to be easier than I initially thought.

I am considering doing a tutorial for this block using the Accuquilt Qube set.  I just wonder how many people would be interested in seeing it.

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Sampler Blocks

The  Left-Handed Quilter Sampler quilt along is moving along and I have made a few blocks.
This sampler is based on the nine-patch grid so each block is a type of nine-patch. In honor of that, I have included a basic nine patch with the other blocks.

From left to right the top row is: Friendship Star; Blue Chains, Aunt Malvernia's Chain Variation
The second row is: Greek Cross Variation,  Basic Nine Patch, Contrary Wife.

So, for this I have only nineteen blocks left to go.  Actually, I did make a Churn Dash. It seems I never get those to come out correctly.  After ripping out seams several times, the fabric frayed and distorted so that it is a quarter inch small in some areas. I will put it in the sad orphan blocks for future use.  Maybe I will try again on the churn dash for this little quilt.


Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Designing Fabric

One of my blogging friends mentioned that she didn't know I had designed fabrics. I have a couple of my designs currently available on SpoonFlower.  I want you to click and see my favorite design at this point.  That link will also get you to a place where you can purchase some of this for your very own. It is a 4 ounce quilting weight cotton that is very smooth and soft.

I had previously blogged about this fabric. So here is a picture of the actual fabric from that blog post:

The other design I have available is this one:

These two are currently available to purchase.
I have two other designs that are in the process of being printed.  Once I receive them and approve them for printing, they will also be available for YOU to purchase. (and GOOD NEWS: I got word that they shipped today, so it will be about a week or less!) I will make a small profit on them -which will go toward being able to have more of my designs made available.  
I would love for one of the wonderful fabric companies that make our lovely quilting fabric to ask me to design for them.  I have some blenders and variations of my fabrics designed and waiting until I can either afford to print them on SpoonFlower OR someone takes that chance on me.  If you know anyone who you can direct my way,  I would certainly appreciate any assistance in reaching this goal.

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

I am really happy! I finished binding the bright lap quilt. It looks really good. I am not the least ashamed of my free motion quilting. The binding is all machine sewn but it still looks really good.
Here are the pictures. I flipped up one corner so you can see the pieced back. It is simply wide stripes in varying widths- Tan, fuchsia, aqua, fuchsia, then tan again. Enjoy!

Bright Idea - Conception to Execution

Yeah I woke up slowly this morning. The temperature had dropped overnight and I slept in for a bit. But once I got awake, I thought "I will do something bright today.
So after breakfast, I started on a quilt top. I was going to do it "quilt as you go" but after I got all the blocks made and laid out, I didn't want to add the joining strips. SO!!! I just sewed them together and added a border.
There is no pattern, just a general idea to make these. I stacked up four pieces of fabric (size -about 14 inches square, so I could trim to 12.5 inches square later)
I made one cut across it with the rotary cutter and my long ruler. Shuffled it and sewed them together again. Repeat a couple of times. For part of them I did 8 pieces, cut sewed, split into two stacks and the shuffled the stacks and repeated. Get the idea? I needed a couple of extra squares so I made them with whatever was left over. I call that "granny piecing." Because that is something my Grandmother would have done.

I added a border to make it a bit larger. Now all I have to do is piece a backing, quilt it and bind it. I wonder if I will finish it this weekend. Wish me luck!



One other question- "Is it loud enough?"

Getting more done

I have gotten a good bit done on my scrappy, No Rules quilt. This is probably NOT the layout I will use. But it shows the progress I have made and all the work I have completed so far.

Okay here are the pictures:
From one side:


Then the other:


There is a big variety of fabric in there. I think I see some Kaffe Fassett - or is that Martha Negley mums? They both use such vivid colors and y'all know I love some vivid color. There are also pieces from a Connecting Threads line or two (or three?) I have pieces of old shirts in it. Bits from just about every other project I have ever done - if there was a scrap I saved it is probably in here. Plus, those orphan, and experimental blocks now have a home.

Since I will do this "quilt as you go" fashion, there will be some sashing and borders. I am as yet undecided what I will use for that. Batik? Solids? another print? And what oh what will I back it with??? Stay tuned and we will find out. I am sure I will be as surprised as you are.

Strip Surprise

I assume you have discovered Quiltville, Bonnie Hunter's website. I find lots of inspiration there, as well as anywhere I can find it. After seeing all that Bonnie does with Strips, Crumbs and other small dabs of fabric, I saw somewhere else about strip piecing on a foundation. So I made a lot of squares (also here) Now I am putting them together. I am planning a surprise quilt - unless the surprise-ee is watching my blog. (I don't think so, I think she will be very surprised!) Anyway, I sewed sixteen of the strip blocks into this piece. Wow, I have impressed myself!



I am planning to do this "quilt as you go" style. I will make this the WIDTH of the quilt then add backing and batting and quilt it. I am thinking that this will be the UPPER MIDDLE of the quilt to make a big band of diagonal motion there.

I have more of the diagonal strip blocks left so they will work in there somehow. I also have the crumb blocks I posted earlier.


I have a number of them made now also - not enough but I have more "scraps" to keep on making them. Those will go into this quilt too. This will be a very scrappy and colorful quilt. (imagine that! Ha ha, I don't know how to do muted) I am hoping it comes together into a lovely, artsy quilt for someone very special.

Bound and Determined

No April Foolin' No siree!

I was "bound and determined" to get this quilt finished tonite. (yes pun intended!)

So I sat at the sewing machine and sewed the final part of the binding. I have finished my first "Quilt As You Go" quilt. I am so happy!

This bright beauty goes on my bed! The front and the back are both bright loud colors. This is really a fun quilt. Even the binding is "scrappy" I used extra jelly roll strips that I had in my stash. They all have dots on them so there is a bit of a theme to the binding..but more importantly they are all bright and colorful to go with the quilt.