Project Quilting 7 Vacation

I am calling this quilt Unexpected Treasures in Unexpected Places.  When my family goes on vacation we are all about new experiences in new places.  Sharing these treasures with the people I care about most in the world only enhances the experience.  While I wasn't on vacation when I found this treasure, I was with a huge number of people from my family.  Yes, this really is most of my brothers and sisters and my nieces and nephews.  If you look through the gap in the people, you can see the trestle bridge in the background, just beginning to light up.

My husband suggested I add a little police car with flashing lights at the end of the bridge.  Our car was almost towed because there were too many of us to fit all the cars in the tiny parking lot.  (They have built a bigger parking lot since we were there.)  One of my sisters suggested adding a bike, since it is a bike trail.  Another sister suggested adding my two kids from this picture.  

I didn't think I could get any of the extras done by Sunday at noon.  I may add one or the other at a later date.  Don't forget from noon on Sunday until Thursday or Friday you can vote for your Project Quilting favorite.  Please be sure to go and look at all the entries they are spectacular.

This is the photo I used to create my pattern, I took this one while I was there.  It was fun and a challenge to create.  It has raw edge appliqué, paint, fabric paint sticks, the white lights on the trestle beams are from a t-shirt iron on that you can cut to whatever shape you want.  This one is a little bigger than my other challenges.  It is 35" X 29".

If you ever go to see the bridge be sure and stay until dark so you can see the lights.  This photo is blurry but it gives you an idea of how spectacular the whole bridge really is.

The scenery along the way is beautiful as well.  You can look up more about the bridge here.  

Have a creative day

Janet

Snow people and Candy bags

I sent a package to a couple of my sisters, so now I can post on my blog.  I bought this cute pattern "Shop 'til you Melt" by Susan G Hill at the AQS Show in Des Moines last summer.  I met three of my sisters at the show and we had a fun day looking at all the beautiful quilts.

 I plan to make the whole quilt for myself, it just makes me smile and who doesn't need something to smile about when the temperature will be way below zero this weekend.  I made this small part of it for my sister Jo.

It is fused appliqué and quilting.  I decided to quilt it so it looks like falling snow.  It was fun to make.

For my next project, I tried using Pellon vinyl fuse for the first time.  I put the vinyl on both sides of the front and back of the bag.  It's kind of like adding contac paper.  Just make sure your iron isn't too hot or you have to go buy more candy because you melt your bag!  Trust me I know.

 I have made little zipper pouch bags before, but not from large bags of candy.  I saw one on Pinterest and decided to give it a try.  I saw another bag with extra zipper pulls, so I bought all the zippers at JoAnn fabrics, haha, it seemed like it anyway.  I bought enough for 5 bags.  It added another fun touch to these lighthearted bags.

I plan to make quite a few bags.  I am sending  the candy with the bags so no I am not going into a sugar coma anytime soon.

I even put pockets in the bags.  One big pocket on one side and smaller pockets on the other.

The lining is called "Back in 5 Minutes" by Janet White represented by TSB & Co.  Isn't it cute!

I have some of the Valentine Candy to make another bag tomorrow.  They are pretty quick and easy and the fusible vinyl is very easy to use.  It does make it a little more difficult to turn the bags right side out, so be sure and leave a large enough opening.  I was considering making a tutorial to add to my blog.  Let me know if you are interested.

I know I said I would post about the mystery quilt and BOM I am working on but I will save those for the next post so this doesn't get too long.

Have a creative day

Janet 

Project Quilting 7 All About That Thread

I wasn't sure if I was going to enter this weeks challenge.  I've been working on a couple of gifts for people, and a mystery quilt as well as a block of the month.  I really like these challenges though they are getting me back into the creative aspect of quilting.  It's fun just to be a part of something with so many creative people, hopefully a little will rub off on me.  I really enjoy making traditional quilts too but the design of an art quilt is somehow rejuvenating.  So, when Friday arrived I just had to make a quilt for the Thread challenge on Project Quilting.

This is a photo of a postcard I made several years ago.  It was donated to a guild in Ireland to be used as part of a fundraiser for breast cancer research.  I made two others at the time but this was my favorite.  Here is a link to that post.

I severely underestimated my sewing time for this but was able to finish all in one day.  I used a hand dyed velvet because that just seemed to go with roses and Valentine's Day.  I plan to use this for a Valentine's Day gift.

I drew the pattern on some water soluble solvy and pinned it to my fabric.  First I outline an area with a straight stitch.  It is easy to get confused as you are sewing so having the stitch guidelines helps keep me in the right area with the right color.  I fill in the area with a small free motion zig zag stitch.  This photo is from the postcard I made but I did them the same way just on a different scale.  Postcards are about 6" by 4".  This is about 10.5" by 8" without the border.

Once it is complete I soak it in water to dissolve the solvy pattern.  So it was dry this morning (Saturday) but I could tell I hadn't rinsed it very well, it was still tacky in spots.  So back in the water it went, which of course meant no sewing for awhile.  But, that was ok since I didn't have a fabric picked for the border yet anyway.

I had an awful time figuring out what to use for the border.  Every thing I tried seemed to clash.  I dragged my husband (he is really a very good sport and has a good eye for these things) to the store so I could get a second opinion.  We found a couple of choices that were ok but not very exciting.  I happened to run into an old friend, Mary Jo, who suggested green.  I hadn't even considered green but guess what, it was just what I needed.  My husband found this fabric and with just a touch of pink in it seemed like the perfect choice.  kind of gives the impression of leaves.

I just wanted it to look a little like a picture frame, so I hope you like it.  Don't forget to click the Project Quilting link at the top of my post.  You can see all the amazing entries and vote for your favorites.  You click the heart to vote and/or click the photo to be transported to their blog to see more about the entry.  Enjoy!

Have a creative day

Janet