Latest Projects... now

Ok I got my first Block Swap done, although I am not trying to find a way to get them stateside for safe mailing. yes and to save money too! Now what do I have to do?

Where do I start?

• My daughter's Butterfly Quilt is a UFO
• My husband's t-shirt quilt is a UFO
• My track t-shirt quilt is ... welll you get the idea
• My mother-in-law's Quilts; one is made from various book bags (she's a teacher and has loads) and a musical one for her anniversary in Nov. she game me a deadline ;) I love her so!
• Two "quick quilts" (aka: cheater cloths) to be quilted and bound
• I do want to do 5 more house blocks for my father, siblings and myself for framing.
• and a load of ides in my head!

This is my track t-shirt quilt - in progress... I have had these fused with stabilized and cut since 2005!

I will ask.. has anyone seen any of the following fabrics, I would like to use for sashing in some of my above projects. Send links or info please!:

• "Track & Field" fabric. It is for my highschool track t-shirt quilt (see above). I have searched on line for years and found only one thing on eBay, and it was way over my budget. If you know of any 'type' fabric, please let me know.
• Generic Football (my husband was in football most of his life) fabric for my husband's t-shirt quilt.
• Music fabric - notes, sheets of music, instruments, etc
• Teacher type fabric - apples, or something

That's all I can think of tonight!

What are your top UFO's?

*hugs*
Jackie

Grasshopper in my Garden

I've kept this quite for a long time, and it's so nice to finally be able to share...


About 2 years ago I received an email from Kathreen Ricketson, whom many of you are familiar with from her popular blog Whip Up. She wanted to know if I would like to contribute to a book she was writing on mini quilts. After what seemed like forever, (takes a long time and a lot of work to put a book together) I am happy to say that it is finally in print!

Here's my little contribution... An embroidered mini quilt titled "Grasshopper in my Garden".






Now, those of you who visit Kathreen over at Whip Up, no doubt already know about the book, as all month long she has been featuring mini quilts on her blog in honor of her new book.


I was waiting until I received my copy of the book before sharing the news here on my blog... It came yesterday, and I am delighted to say that it's really lovely. Kathreen did a super job compiling lots of helpful information along with a wide range of projects from many talented artists, many of which I know you will be very familiar with.

I especially like that it has a spiral binding, so it lays nice and flat, and there's a pocket which holds all the patterns. Artistically, the layout is lovely, with beautiful photographs and super illustrations. This is a terrific book, and I hope you'll all be sure to check it out!

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Many thanks to everyone for your kind comments regarding my new Remnant work. I truly appreciate it.


Sometimes I am so afraid that no one will get what I am trying to do, and then when I receive so many thoughtful words of encouragement... it means so much.


The first 2 Remnant pieces sold very quickly, and I have just listed the 3rd in this series, shown here, here in my shop. I hope to post more later this week.


Have a great weekend Everyone!

It happens every year

My beloved red boots go boot scootin', on Valerie's feet, at the Clovis Rodeo. This year the event turned into a bachelorette party for Jessie, the adorable blond sitting to the right of my red boots her sister Valerie.

This is the kind of partying I'll be doing this weekend. Sorting all these fun selvages into little groups with a theme, and then turning them into items for my etsy shop. Yep, it gets pretty wild in this household...

Maybe I should wear my red boots while I'm doing all that sorting....and pour a glass of wine. Yee Ha!

Nicki Lee's CQI Asian RR heading home

Well, this block was such a pleasure to work on.  It came so beautifully embellished from  Meg, Rita and Darlene, the whole time I was doing my bit on it, I was analysing and enjoying theirs. 

The fan was printed on to the patch which was a great start, and each section of the fan turned into a mini patch, so much fun!

I added a flower bead and feather stitch to another seam and wove  through it red and metallic thread.  On the patch below it I outlined a gold design.  

I filled in the geisha's underskirt with yellow stitching, did the seam to the right of the fan, and also the one above the geisha's head, then carried down to the next seam with the lazy daisy stitches filled with black tiny beads.   And just below that I added a dragon charm. 

This RR has produced some stunning blocks, and pushed me to do new techniques. 

Who you callin' a fat quarter?

I love Australian fabric/pattern designers/quilters. This bag is courtesy of Shannon Lamden, AKA Aunty Cookie. "You'll find something you like. Or maybe not. No pressure. Your choice."

I'm sure I would purchase way too much stuff from these great artists, but  the postage is usually what prevents packages from Australia showing up in my mailbox very often. I guess that's a good thing...given my fabric obsession.

Fabric obsession...have I mentioned before that I'm fabric obsessed?  Or that I love getting the mail every day? Probably.

So when SewMamaSew had a fat quarter exchange during Quilt Month, you better believe I jumped on that bandwagon. And this is what has showed up in my mailbox this week so far, mostly from the East Coast.

I even got something in my virtual mailbox. Fat Quarterly launched their first issue on Tuesday.

Isn't that border awesome? I already have a quilt planned just based on the cover. Aqua, lots of funky squares, white sashing. Hmmm....I wonder if Aunty Cookie has anything in aqua.

Back to the BlueBird

Yesterday I spent some time tidying up my workspace. It had become somewhat unruly from working on the black lab quilt and the Block of the Month blocks. I have a couple of unfinished projects (OK, more than a couple), that I need to get back to. One of those is the blue and green Indian Orange Peel quilt and the other is this bluebird quilt. I decided to start with the bluebird quilt. I am adding more color to the bird and leaves. I had earlier given everything a base color and now I'm going back in with deeper and lighter colors to add dimension.

Here is the main product I use to add the color to my quilt. These are Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Crayons. They are water soluble and become paint-like once they are wet. I also use some acrylic paint when I deem necessary for the effect I am after.

And here is my color chart for the Neocolor crayons. I find it absolutely necessary to create color charts with my paints and crayons, otherwise it's difficult to know exactly how a color will look in the end.

Sue has created a technique project sheet on using the water soluble crayons and also Shiva Paintstiks. The project sheet will be available mid May. If you are interested in learning more about these products, watch for that information in the Three Creative Studios newsletter.

In other news...
Most of you know I belong to a group called Twelve by Twelve, a Collaborative Art Quilt Project. Well our first group of art quilts are currently set up at their very first exhibition at the Australasian Quilt Convention. See photos of Brenda and Kirsten setting up here. Oh how I wish I could see it in person.

Neighborhood Block Swap Finished

I am done with my neighborhood blocks for the swap. Now to get them stateside ASAP!

It is my first swap! I hope the group goes easy on me. This was my first time doing fused applique. My machine had 8 stitches. I am limited on thread so I just used one color. Oh I hope they extend grace to me and forgive me for any short comings.

I love them and had fun and learned a LOT! Did I mention I learned a Lot? ;) in a very good way, too!

*hugs*
Jackie

here they are, please go easy on me... (i have 3 kids 5, 3, and almost 1!!) lol

:)

Bonus Blocks

I finally was able to create the April bonus blocks from the Three Creative Studios Block of the Month project. This is bonus block 4A.

I had to adjust the color placement on this first block from what was outlined on the project sheet. I was running low on my turquoise and black fabrics and wouldn't have been able to make the block according to the color arrangement in the directions.

Next month will be the release of block #9, the last block in the Block of the Month project. The original BOM project was for nine 12-inch blocks, but we decided to include three bonus blocks for anyone wishing to create a larger quilt or if you wanted to substitute a block for one you weren't crazy about. After the release of the final block, we'll share some layout options for all your blocks.

Wordless Wednesday

Images used with permission of Yulia Brodskaya

Remnants

Pinned up on my studio wall, I have some photo images of really heavily patched and stitched antique boro.


The patches in those boro pieces are all raw edged, and seem to completely cover whatever had been the original base fabric.


I like that nothing went wasted, and everything was important enough to be patched.

... Years ago when I was a teenager, a woman commented on my heavily patched and mended jeans, (they made my mother cringe and I know she used much restraint not to steal them from me in the middle of the night and set them on fire). The woman told me that to patch something was to show love. I never forgot that. (And I appreciated that this kind stranger understood me.... I wasn't accustomed to that.)


Anyway... looking at the boro images, and then glancing over at the ever growing pile of small bits of fabric scraps and off-kilter shaped pieces of batting left over from previous projects and now just sitting on my shelf, got me to thinking it was time to use it all up.


So I'm starting a little series of "Remnants", which I will be posting in my shop as they are completed.



More to come soon. xo

Little treasures

                                                                                                                                         One thing I find about being a crazy quilter is I am on the receiving end of some lovely bits and pieces.  Because we only use scraps and fragments of trim or embelishments, a little piece of lace 6" long or a pretty button, is really something worth giving (and receiving!)  This wonderful assortment of bits and pieces came to me at my quilt guild meeting last Tuesday evening from one of the members that I had only met briefly several weeks before.  This is one of the most interesting ways to increase the stash and I'm so grateful when someone takes the trouble to assemble all these little treasures in one place to give to me. 

Future in sewing?

Dye your own thread color as you sew?? And, I was just talking to my husband about this, this past weekend... REVERSE ON THE PEDAL!!!! Woohoo!! I may be the only one that stitches a lot on reverse and wishes the reverse was on the pedal. heehee

This project is called “Leitfaden” and I want one.

it's a concept design and not in production (yet) that I know of.

See this: http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/04/20/sew-color-what/

and more here: http://www.monikajakubek.de/index.php?/naehmaschine7/

*hugs*
Jackie

Candji's Silk Ribbon Embroidery RR #1 block

Candji's first nakid block went missing in action, so she quickly put together another for the CQI round robin.  This is a 16" x 16" block and here it is after I finished my additions to it.  I am the first stitcher to work on it and I started on the peach patch with a rose tree, some foxgloves, iris and little filler flowers.   The pink ribbon roses are quite tricky to do properly.  I used 13mm ribbon which gets pulled to the right side and then twisted many times.  Put the needle through to the back of the work very close to the place the ribbon came up, and fold the ribbon over at the half-way point, hold it and let it twist on itself. Gently pull the needle on the wrong side and this pulls the twists flat into folds which really look like roses.  The trick is to keep the shape of the folds without it unfolding all over the place.  I have many small stitches holding the petals in place.  I loved the look of the strip of green velvet and added big pansies in 13mm ribbon.  I kept the seam treatments small and quiet so as not to intrude on the SR embroidery. Note:  I changed the photos from centred to left alligned and somehow that changed their order around.   Sometimes I just don't understand Blogger's internal workings!

Still Sewing

100's of web pages and re reading all my books has still not solved the problem of what to do with all my new fabric. So I stuck to working on my baby blanket.

I'm enjoying the quiet from my sewing machine but I am still

missing the chaos of colours and surprises that

patchworking can bring. 

Quilt Dad, 2nd Blogiversary Giveaway!

This Giveaway is amazing. Look at all that was donated to give away! Makes ya drool!

I think I am comment 631! I hope the random generator picks me!!!!! :)

All you have to do is say HI! Deadline is midnight EST! Hurry!

*hugs*
Jackie