Top Stitched, Appliqued Clematis Altered For Newlyweds to Be

This quilt now hangs proudly in the home of my son Dan and his new wife Jackie in Oregon.

They were married on August 16, 2008.


This Clematis quilt is from a pattern design by Melinda Bula using her book Cutting-Garden Quilts Fabulous Fusible Flowers. I first saw Melinda's work in a quilt show and bought her book.
I went home and began the long ardourous process of constructing this quilt. I love that the back is as beautiful as the front, as she suggested using the same colored threads in the bobbins as in the top stitches. On the black background you get another picture!

My next challenge will be using my own photos of flowers to create my own design in this fashion.This wall hanging hung at the Vacaville Art Gallery from March 21-April 18th. On May 1, it went to The Quilted Heart Quilt shop to hang (out) there a while. The place I learned to quilt last July!

Life's Crazy Pieces is now a WINNER!

I am proud to announce that a picture this quilt was voted in along with 12 other pieces of artists works to be in the 2009 Art Calendar in New Zealand. What an honor! October 5, 2009

On April 21, this quilted wall hanging was selected to be in the Vacaville art gallery's juried art show. And now, May 20, it's been entered into the 65Plus-the art and lives of older artists calendar contest in New Zealand. The winners will be exhibited on the virtual Tart website during October 2008. (http://virtual.tart.co.nz/ )

This is what traditionalist might call a crazy patchwork quilt. I wanted to do something with patchwork, so did so on a small scale wall hanging. (18" X 23") It's top stitched using a free motion foot, metallic and rayon threads, and beaded a bit for extra pizazz. It is bound and has a hanging sleeve on reverse side. Colors are brighter than shown here. Double clicking on photos shows greater detail.

Shirt Scrap Quilt

I've been thinking of making a quilt from old shirts like Bonnie Hunter for awhile. And when I was driving past a local thrift store and seen the special for the day I had to stop and see what I could find. The deal of the day was 10 long sleeved shirts for a dollar. They had a over supply and were trying to clear some out. So I searched through the racks and found these. I got 19 shirts for the quilt and 1 wool sweater for some felted craft I want to try. I trimmed off the collars and cuffs cut off the buttons and had a nice pile of usable fabric. I searched for a pattern for at least a week and could not find what I had in mind. And then I came across this one.

Nice large pieces that will look nice in a straight set. I found it in my Dear Jane Book. EQ helped me make it a 12" block. I tried a sample block and really like it. I think I will try to alternate dark and light blocks. I cut pieces for a few blocks and I have plenty of fabric. I may have to make a 2nd quilt when I finish the first.

Here is a picture of the pieces in the block.

Shirt Scrap Quilt

I've been thinking of making a quilt from old shirts like Bonnie Hunter for awhile. And when I was driving past a local thrift store and seen the special for the day I had to stop and see what I could find. The deal of the day was 10 long sleeved shirts for a dollar. They had a over supply and were trying to clear some out. So I searched through the racks and found these. I got 19 shirts for the quilt and 1 wool sweater for some felted craft I want to try. I trimmed off the collars and cuffs cut off the buttons and had a nice pile of usable fabric. I searched for a pattern for at least a week and could not find what I had in mind. And then I came across this one.

Nice large pieces that will look nice in a straight set. I found it in my Dear Jane Book. EQ helped me make it a 12" block. I tried a sample block and really like it. I think I will try to alternate dark and light blocks. I cut pieces for a few blocks and I have plenty of fabric. I may have to make a 2nd quilt when I finish the first.

Here is a picture of the pieces in the block.

Stepping Stones

I worked up this sample block in February and have been using the 4 patches as starters and enders. I strip pieced 1 and 1/2 inch strips cut them and keep them by the sewing machine as starters and enders. I found this pattern on the web it was just a line drawing that I printed out and then adjusted the block size so I could use up 1 and 1/2 inch squares. It sure is nice to have a nice bright springy colored quilt to work on. The weather here in South Dakota just isn't turning over to spring yet.

Stepping Stones

I worked up this sample block in February and have been using the 4 patches as starters and enders. I strip pieced 1 and 1/2 inch strips cut them and keep them by the sewing machine as starters and enders. I found this pattern on the web it was just a line drawing that I printed out and then adjusted the block size so I could use up 1 and 1/2 inch squares. It sure is nice to have a nice bright springy colored quilt to work on. The weather here in South Dakota just isn't turning over to spring yet.

Good Old Days

The last week turned out to be much busier than I had anticipated. Eldest daughter was home from college, and there was catching up to do, and family time to enjoy. It took me several days after designing the layouts for my square quilts, (see post below) to actually find the time to begin constructing them. Unfortunately, once I had the time, I had lost the desire. That happens all the time with me. I need to strike while the iron is hot, (that is how the old saying goes isn't it?) Otherwise, the inspiration cools and new ideas pop up demanding my full attention. This time around my brain was only seeing retro TV's and I had to make a "Boob Tube" quilt! I am not sure why my mind is all of a sudden focused on TV images. Maybe it's from all this talk of everything going digital, or whatever it is that television is going to be doing soon. Something about a converter box, and government mandates. Uhgg. I miss the days when all you had to do was plug it in. No muss, no fuss. Except the reception was often bad, prompting my Dad to start fooling around with the buttons on the back of the set. Then the whole screen would go hay wire, and he'd ask me to come up and move the rabbit ear antennas this way and that way. Off he'd go into the kitchen to get a bit of aluminum foil which he would wrap around the antennas. Dad would stand back and direct as I would wiggle those rabbit ears all around until... "Hold it! Don't move! Stay right there! Perfect!!" Ever so slowly I would move away, one inch, two inches... And then the reception would go out again and we'd get to start the whole process over! Yup, those were the good old days!

String Quilt

I have finally put the string quilt top together, well almost. I ran out of black fabric to do the side borders. Now all I have to do is buy the backing fabric and the batting and finish it off :D





The string quilt blocks have finally been sewn in very crooked rows. Now I have to straighten the rows and find some way of joining the rows together to make a quilt. Any suggestions, anyone.......

Well, I cut my nice square blocks up to make irregular shapes. The trick now is going to be to put all of them together to make a geometrically shaped quilt. I can't wait to see how the quilt turns out........

I am almost finished with the Animals in Log Cabins quilt so have decided to learn a new technique - String quilting. This is awesome - you play with offcuts of material and sew them on a backround fabric. These are my first 3 blocks I did last night. Watch this space for more blocks..........

Shweshwe pants

I made some cargo 3/4 pants from traditional South African fabrics called Shweshwe fabric. I used a big bold pattern for the side pockets and a smaller pattern for the main part of the pants. There are bits of yellow in the main fabric. I made the top pockets out of the main fabric. Retrospectively I should have possibly use the bold pattern for all the pockets. :-) Next time......... (I think I need to take better photos...... or crop them better.......:-)

Lynn's Art Quilts

Spool Quilt

The spool quilt top is done. I played with border ideas for and hour and decided finally to not add any. I've been sewing the backing and cutting the binding for quilts right away when I finish them. That way the backs and binding seem to match better. I can use fabric from the fronts before they disappear from my stash.
The color in the picture of the backing is off a little the blues are more navy. I had to do some creative piecing on the backing. But I used up some stash.

Spool quilt all folded with the backing inside and the binding cut and marked. I can put it away and it will be ready for quilting when I get to it.

Spool Quilt

The spool quilt top is done. I played with border ideas for and hour and decided finally to not add any. I've been sewing the backing and cutting the binding for quilts right away when I finish them. That way the backs and binding seem to match better. I can use fabric from the fronts before they disappear from my stash.
The color in the picture of the backing is off a little the blues are more navy. I had to do some creative piecing on the backing. But I used up some stash.

Spool quilt all folded with the backing inside and the binding cut and marked. I can put it away and it will be ready for quilting when I get to it.

Star Baby Quilt

I just finished hand quilting the baby blanket for my first grandchild. Just in time. I have to add, all the small pieces took longer to quilt then I had thought. Now that I know the baby's a girl I may have to make a pink girly girl quit for her.

And here is our little bundle of joy. In the picture she is 1 day old. The hospital glues bows on the girl babies isn't it just so cute. We can't wait for all the fun my husband and I have ahead of us. Oh yes her name is Allison Joy, 8lbs 5 oz.

Star Baby Quilt

I just finished hand quilting the baby blanket for my first grandchild. Just in time. I have to add, all the small pieces took longer to quilt then I had thought. Now that I know the baby's a girl I may have to make a pink girly girl quit for her.

And here is our little bundle of joy. In the picture she is 1 day old. The hospital glues bows on the girl babies isn't it just so cute. We can't wait for all the fun my husband and I have ahead of us. Oh yes her name is Allison Joy, 8lbs 5 oz.

Civil War Diary Bocks

I did get 8 more Civil War blocks done. Some are very tough and have lots of pieces. So I decided it was ok to edit a few pieces out of some of the blocks. The common fabric (the muslin) really pulls the blocks together. I really have enjoyed making these blocks.

Civil War Diary Bocks

I did get 8 more Civil War blocks done. Some are very tough and have lots of pieces. So I decided it was ok to edit a few pieces out of some of the blocks. The common fabric (the muslin) really pulls the blocks together. I really have enjoyed making these blocks.

What I've Been Up To

What have I been doing? I finished this applique top. It's a smaller quilt 52" x 52" for a wall hanging and plan to hand quilt this one. The pattern is from Kim Diehl's book Simple Traditions. I'm going to add buttons in the flower centers and dark binding.
I dug out these string blocks and started in on these again. One pile is done and the other pile of blocks is now 3 to 4 strips from being done. After 2 days of working on them. I almost have to finish these be fore going on to any thing else it's not worth cleaning up the mess from the strings at this point. I used pages from the phone book as my base to piece on. So far it's working ok they are very easy to tear off when I'm done. Just hope my husband doesn't need the yellow pages until the new phone books come out. I may be in trouble.

It will be hard to explain to him were they are. I'm machine quilting using a walking foot. My first time with the walking foot and only my 2nd machine quilted quilt. I'm about half done. We don't use this table in the basement for any thing so it works nice to machine quilt on.