Men Quilt Too /On Tour - want to join me?

Today is the Men Quilt Too Show linky party. For my usual readers some of this may be a 're-run.'
 Let me present:

String Theory

From the very start of this quilt I was inspired.  The base fabric, a batik, has lots of visual texture.  In making this quilt, I wanted to add to that texture. I also wanted to add more color to intensify the visual impact of the quilt. I also happen to love bright bold colors.

As I worked on this quilt I noticed a flow begin to develop. Areas were stitched, not in a planned order, but rather as inspiration came. I let the quilt “tell me” what it wanted rather than trying to plan everything out.  Symbols that have personal meaning, such as the spiral, were incorporated into the design.  There are a lot of organic shapes that emerged as the quilt took form.
Various areas were filled with hand stitches but also some machine stitches.  In places, threads were woven through other stitches.  Much like our lives, the combination, working together added strength to the whole.
I sometimes used more than one thread in the needle as I had sewed.  This allowed some subtle color shifts that would not be possible with a single thread.  It also created a few challenges in the hand stitching. It was a great learning process for me.

I chose the title String Theory for a couple of reasons.  In science, string theory is a contender as a “theory of everything.”  It is a way of attempting to describe the natural world and its wonder.  I am fascinated by the higher sciences.   The second reason is that every part of the quilt is made up of strings.  Some of them are visible and some are hidden. I found  the wordplay in the title appealing to me creatively.

Here are some detail pictures. 

Please feel free to browse my full blog for other quilts I have made. And I hope you like what you see and decide to become a follower.

The Big Little Blog Book Tour – Starts Next THIS Week!

Yes I will be a stop on the Tour. I won't be there next week I will be on the tour on October 30th.  I am the next to last stop.  (I am thinking "save the best for last" - like dessert. ha ha)

I haven't yet decided if I will be writing about the book or doing a demonstration or ???? So you will just have to wait and see.
The Book is on Die Cutting fabric and covers all the major brands of cutters.  You will want to follow this tour.  Trust me.
Here’s the lineup of tour hosts!

• October 16th – Ebony Love, LoveBug Studios (that’s me!)
• October 17th – Jennifer Rodriguez, All Things Belle
• October 18th – Marjorie Busby, Marjorie’s Quilting Bee
• October 19th – Michelle Marr, Michelle’s Romantic Tangle
• October 20th – Tammy Tutterow, Sizzix Blog
• October 21st – Patsy Thompson, Patsy Thompson Designs
• October 22nd – Tracy Rampling, The Peony Teacup
• October 23rd – Mary Fons, Hey Quilty!
• October 24th – Barb Gaddy, Bejeweled Quilts
• October 25th – Katrina Chapman Khan, Sunshower Quilts
• October 26th – SewCal Gal, Insights from SewCalGal
• October 27th – Vanessa Wilson, The Crafty Gemini
• October 28th – Kelly Jackson, I Have a Notion
• October 29th – Connie Campbell, Freemotion By the River
• October 30th – Gene Black, An Alabama Quilter
• October 31st – Ebony Love, LoveBug Studios
• November 1st – Book Launch on Amazon! (but you can pre-order anytime)

Wow...just look at that lineup.  I can hardly wait! I am just as curious as you are as to what I will be sharing.

Paint and Fabric - a new Adventure

A book I got on sale from C&T publishing is about creating fabric designs with paint. The title is Off the Shelf Fabric Painting.   I was very happy on reading it to find that she recommends Golden Liquid Acrylics which I have for painting art also.  Of course being me, I never really follow the directions. (are you surprised?)
Today I took some basic supplies:

Golden Fluid Acrylics in three transparent colors:  Phtalo Blue (green shade) Quinacridone Crimson and Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide .  A bottle of water (recycled dish liquid bottle), a plastic tray and some unbleached muslin.  I did the first piece with these colors on folded cloth that was sprayed just damp.  I manipulated it a lot.  Here is my first result:

Then I decided to change to a stronger yellow - Diarylide Yellow - which is also transparent. I premixed the yellow paint with some water in a disposable cup. I did the same with the red. I put on a rubber glove and smeared it around a bit.  Then I rinsed the glove; put a bit of the blue in the tray with some water and put loose handprints on the fabric.  I also filled in some of the white areas with the blue. (I should have left more white.)  But here is my second result.

I printed another one by dampening the fabric and laying it on top of the second one. It is far more pastel and has more white space...but I forgot to take a picture of it.

The hard part will be letting these sit and dry to become permanent.  The book says to wait 14 days.  Sigh!  Let the waiting begin.   What do you think? should I continue doing these?
Should I really follow the directions next time?  Yeah, maybe I should -- I would love your comments.

All Quilted

I am TIRED!  It is nearly ten p.m. and I just finished quilting the other half of the quilt. This is the Beginner's Quilt Along quilt.  What I am going to show you is the back of it.  I have already shown the front several times.

This is not a great picture (hey, I did I mention being tired?)  I just laid the two pieces on the bed and took a quick photo.  You can see that I used several leftover pieces from the top, including the two extra blocks.  I can't help myself, I love a pieced back. I generally work a bit too much on it. Still I want the back to be an extra "work of art" so that the owner can have a change of scenery.  Plus, the backs are always what I call free piecing.  There are no rules.  If I have fun making it, that is all that matters.  Of course often what we create in play is better (or at least more interesting)  than our "work."
Do you allow yourself to play?

Boxy Quilting

The second quilt I made in the Beginner's Quilt Along is now half quilted.  I attempted to do a free motion quilting pattern that my friend Marjorie (Marjorie's Quilting Bee) showed a couple of days ago.  As soon as I saw it, I thought, "Hey that looks like one of my doodles."  The pattern is a series of overlaid squares.  I doodle these on paper all the time. So my thought was that I could sure do it on a quilt too.
The thing is, on paper I pick up my pen and move it easily.  Not so with quilting.  Also, I can see where I am going and where I have been at a glance.  Again - not true on a quilt. You see the presser foot and the arm of a standard machine gets in the line of sight.
Still I did an entire half of this quilt with this pattern - or should I say "a loose interpretation of it"

You can see the pattern in this piece. 

Hmm...I got a little "lost" or should I say "creative" here.

Even with my "errors" this pattern worked out very nicely and will make a lovely quilt.
You can see Marjorie's version on her blog post dated October 8th.

As you can see it all but disappears on the white fabric with aqua dots.  I used a white Aurifil thread and it worked amazingly well.  I used it in the top AND the bobbin. What I really loved was that for this half of a large lap quilt, that is quilted fairly densely, I only needed two bobbins!  With the other thread I was using, it was common to use four for this.  Not having the bobbin run out so soon certainly helps to maintain the creative flow.  I do love some Aurifil thread goodness!