Search This Blog

Tutorials

Friday, March 18, 2016

Project Quilting 7 A Goose in the Monkey Wrench


The final challenge!
You still have time to enter the final challenge for this years Project Quilting.  It is due at noon on Sunday, check out the instructions here.

This was my first year entering this challenge and I have enjoyed it.  Some of my pieces were so-so and some I really liked.  The important part for me was trying new techniques, and the challenge of creating within a certain time frame.  It was fun to see how many different interpretations there were of the same theme. Here are all my entries for this season.

1.  Confetti
2.  Bird Watching Season
3.  All About That Thread
4.  Vacation
5.  Through the eyes of a child
6.  A Goose in a Monkey Wrench


I am inspired by the creativity of these wonderful participants and look forward to watching what they create in the future.

I have never made a mug rug (If you don't know what a mug rug is check here) and since I have a number of other projects I am trying to finish right now I decided to go small this week.  Literally.  We needed to include a flying geese block and a monkey wrench block in our piece.  I shrunk my patterns by 50% to include in my mug rug.
Covering all the Bases
I am starting to like paper piecing more and more.  I paper pieced the monkey wrench and the flying geese but the rest of the block, I just sort of added on here and there.  It shows doesn't it.  I should have taken more time to plan it out.  Not my best work but it was fun to collage together.  It is approximately 8" x 10".  But actually since it is meant to sit my coffee and a treat on, I'm kind of glad it isn't a spectacular piece.

I am calling it "Covering all the Bases" because I also included some literal geese and a monkey.

Don't forget to stop at the Persimon Dreams blog after Sunday noon to see all the entries and vote for your favorite.  Or challenge yourself and add your own piece before the deadline.  It is International Quilting weekend after all so what better way to spend the weekend than creating a new quilt.

Have a Creative Day
Janet

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Yeah for Project Quilting!


Just had to share what arrived in the mail today!  So excited.  I won these through Project Quilting.  The aurifil thread colors are so luscious. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Aurifil thread.  I use a lot of your thread in my quilting and can't wait to find a project for these.

I won these prizes for the I need a vacation challenge.



I love the buttons.  I have always been a button collector.  

There is one more challenge left for this year, beginning Sunday afternoon.  I will have to wear this button until I get it done.  This has really been a fun thing to do and I am glad I joined in the fun this year.  Thank you Kim Lapacek at Persimmon Dreams.

Have a Creative Day
Janet

Friday, March 11, 2016

Quilting time!


In between the Project Quilting challenges I made the time to finish a quilt.  I pieced this one a number of years ago.  The pattern is by Nancy Rink.  

I pieced the back as well and am really pleased with the look.

Yeah!  Another UFO bites the dust!  Next up is my Irish quilt, it is almost St Patrick's Day.
 Have a Creative Day
Janet

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Project Quilting 7 Through the eyes of a Child

                     

This is the fifth piece for Project Quilting 7.  The theme this week is Through the eyes of a Child.  Children's artwork was a recommended source.  I love this theme!  I know when my kids were little I often thought about turning pieces of their art into pieces of my art.  I always said 'someday' when I have time.  Well I guess someday is here!  I'm going to look around the house for more.

I wanted to finish early this week because my husband's birthday is this weekend and we want to go do something fun to celebrate.  I did it!  Done on Thursday, definitely a record for me.  Be sure to check back sometime next week to see all the entries and vote for your favorite at Persimmon Dreams.  There are some amazingly talented people creating these quilts.

I used a charcoal sketch made by my son in I think 5th or 6th grade.  It was easy to find and one I always liked.  I framed this one a long time ago and had it hanging on the wall.

I like these two fabrics, I found them at JoAnn fabrics, I really did not have anything in these colors.  They are both designed by Tim Holtz ECLECTIC ELEMENTS.  The lighter one is called Symphony and the darker one is called Ledger.  I liked the musical connection in the background fabric.
This was very fun to make.  It was completed on my Bernina as were all the quilts I have made for Project Quilting.  I can't wait to make a few more.  It might be fun to make a whole quilt with a dozen individual pieces of art, I'd better start looking for my saved box of art work.  I knew there was a reason I kept all those treasures.  This one I kept true to size, it is about 19" x 12".
Have a creative day!
Janet

Sunday, February 21, 2016

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