WIP and Finishes

Last week I started EPPing (English Paper Piecing) again. 

Now I understand why people are addicted!

With so much busy-ness, it's nice to sit and let my hands work while my mind drifts, relaxes, finds peace, puzzles and reflects.

These little diamonds turned into this:

by the end of the week.  Yesterday I spray basted it onto some happy, yellow polka dot fabric and machine quilted "echoes" for the center star and the colored/patterned fabrics...and twice around the whole piece.

I chose a salmon colored thread to hand quilt larger stitches in the white areas.

This will be a pillow for the den.  Around 15" sq when I'm done.  I scored some vintage napkins in these colors over the weekend and will use one for the back.

Another WIP is my mom finishing up her 25th round of radiation yesterday!  She starts "heavy" chemo on Thursday, and all prayers are appreciated!

Linking up with

Quilt Story

i have to say

freshly pieced

and

crazy mom quilts

for WIP's and Friday Finishes!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013

Yay!

It's one of my favorite times of the year...Blogger's Quilt Festival!

As a homeschooling mama, college senior's checkbook, and wife-extraordinaire (lol),  I don't get to jet off  Quilt Market or SewCon.  Shoot, I barely make it to my LQS at a respectable rate.

That's what makes this event so awesome...We (me, myself, and I-and YOU!) get to grab our beverages of choice, our iPads, pc's and electronic viewing devices and go to a virtual quilt for two weeks straight!

So grab your cuppa, slip on some comfy shoes (or go naked footed), put a box of Poptarts and juice boxes in front of your kids, lock the door and enjoy two rockin' weeks of the best the web has to offer! 

This year I'm entering my "Tree of Life" quilt in the Art Quilt Category.

Over a year ago, I fell in love with a print from Rett.  I emailed her and asked permission to share some of her incredible photos and tell her I was working on a quilt inspired by her "A Tree Grows".  Please stop by her blog!  She is a "quilter at heart" and her work is truly amazing!

Here is my initial "grid" of scrappy squares with white for the area where the "tree" would go.

I stitched together the yellows, oranges, reds and pink and took a large bowl as a template to cut out the "tree" and then pin basted it onto the sky and ground "grid".

Then I drew the trunk and branches onto a large piece of butcher's paper, transferred it to Heat N Bond fused to a beautiful, brown batik and cut out my pattern.

Ironing was done very carefully!

LOL

Using the same process, I cut out about a gazillion yellow dots for the "fireflies".

Ironing was done even more carefully!

Time for quilting!

Which was a whole other learning curve for me and stretched my limited FMQ skills to the max!

I used a variagated Sulky in blues for the sky.  FMQing swirls for the "fireflies" to play in.

A variagated orange, pink, red and green Sulky for the leaves on the tree.

I tried to stay "true" to Rett's concentric circles for bark and am really happy with that and the feel of the branches.  The grass is quilted with long, vertical "blades" of grass and the whole thing is bound with the same brown batik as the trunk and branches.

"Tree of Life" measures 17 1/2" sq and because of all the quilting, is pretty heavy!  I really enjoyed taking Rett's inspirational creativity into a new medium and her current works would make lovely quilts!

Thank you once again Rett!

   

That's how we roll!

Due to what we thought at the time was extremely unfortunate incidents...Chris now has a car for his use as an upcoming new driver.  It's my old Honda CRV (loved this car!).  In the past, it had been Javi's car to use and Chris needed some time behind the wheel to learn the car and get used to driving it.

So we decided to spend some time in the west central part of Indiana.  At least a two hour drive away.

Guess who drove?

LOL

We headed out to Shades Park.  Here in glacially flattened corn land...we drool over anything that has heighth to it. 

We have always liked hiking and when the boys (all boys!) came along, we naturally took them with us.  We've hiked up and down from Michigan to Florida, Alabama to South Carolina.

We usually end up in water somewhere along the line!

This is Lady.

She will be ten years young this year!  She has been with us for nine of them and enjoyed many of our adventures.  We didn't get out with her much this winter, so we thought she might like a road trip too.

She loved it!  When the boys headed down the waterfall, she was right there, ready to jump into the water and go!  Since she and I are "young" together, I kept her at the top with me.  We like hiking, but that slope and water logged trail was too much for us that day.

We ended up the day with Pizza Hut and everyone but the driver napping on the way home.

I'm so thankful for these times we get to take away from the norm and get out and experience things like waterfalls, flooded trails, dizzying heights and lots of adventure for the guys!

Not much sewing going on here though.

We're finishing up a lot of classes we "farm" out for the kids.  As a second-semester, high school junior, Chris took a dual credit class at a university up the way.  He also took an English/Composition class from a lady in another town and we have homeschool co-op in a nearby town.

Lots of driving!

We're down to the last two weeks of classes.  Chris has Spanish and Geometry to finish up and Ben finished up his Pre-Algebra so that leaves English, Spanish, Cultural Geography and Science for him to complete.  We also picked up four or five spring soccer games for Chris...so we're still doing lots of driving, but I love that the boys enjoy what they're doing and get to spend time with the awesome kids on the team!

I did get to put a border on the Rose Star Quilt.

This is Moda's "Rose Parade".  Check out this selvage!

I also got to sit down and try some EPP again.  I have loved the look, but hated the work!  I usually try to figure out how to maching piece instead of hand piece...but sat down Saturday for a couple of hours browsing Pinterest, listening to the radio, watching the bunnies and squirrels in our yard and start a little project.

Hoping you'll join the parties this week to see some incredible projects and finishes at:

Quilt Story

i have to say

freshly pieced

and

crazy mom quilts



"Mini" Feathered Star Block

is finished!

I bought this pattern

at a LQS years ago and found it while cleaning off my sewing table and organizing my "tools".

I loved the block, but was intimidated by how small the pattern was.  So it sat amongst the rulers, Janome instruction book, quilt magazines and pens and pencils.

I pulled it out and decided to tackle it.

The unfinished block is 8"x8".  There are lots of boo-boos in this block.  LOL  The pattern was simple, but I learned the hard way that heavy starching is necessary to keep the paper pieced sections flat and not shifty.

This try came out "wonky" and the seams don't match up like I would like and it sat on the ironing board for a week.  I wasn't in love like I'd hoped I'd be and I was very disappointed.

I am not someone to give up very easily if I know I could have done a better job.

Especially with quilting.

I love a challenge.

This is where the huge pattern comes in.  The small paper piecing parts were hard to work with for me, so I thought, "Why not make the parts bigger?"

I took the pattern to Staples and asked them to resize it by 200%.  I think this is blue-print paper, but I could be wrong.  The lady at the copy desk kept making mistakes and I ended up getting two copies for less than $4.00. 

I cut out all the sections to make the star (there are flying geese sections for a border if you want) and decided to machine piece and hand applique a soft, romantic, vintage looking hexie for the middle.

Okay.  I liked this and I liked the fabric it was on for a picture so much that I made this the "star" fabric.  I cut out and pressed pink, blues and yellows to piece the rest of the star.

Aqua-ish blue scraps are the "anchor" colors where the "arms" of the star meet. 

I am MUCH happier with how this "big brother" block turned out.

LOL

This block is 15 1/4" sq. and I definitely love the scrappy, romantic, vintage look of it all!  I think either a scrappy pink or blue border next.  Again, not sure where this is going...but I'm okay with that!

Stay tuned!

LOL

Linking up with

Quilt Story

i have to say

Freshly Pieced

and

crazy mom quilts

What aweome blogs to be able to visit every week!  They host linky parties where other bloggers can share their finishes for the week, their new projects and be encouraged and inspired!

I almost forgot to share some beautiful fabric I picked up this weekend!

3 yards of "Rose Parade" by Moda

and

1/2 yd of "Victorian Modern" by Modern Quilt Studio for Andover.

Yummy!

 



Over a Year in the Making

but finally finished!

I found some of the original batik for the binding. 

Yay!

There are advantages to being a scrap/fabric hoarder!

I'm calling it the "Tree of Life" and it measures in at at a heavy 17 1/2" x 20"!

Thank you for all the wonderful comments and encouragement...I really appreciated it last week!

It feels good to get another WIP/UFO completed and ready to hang up!

I'll be sending Rett an email to let her know that halfway around the globe, her creativity, genius and artwork continues to inspire me!

Thank you.  Thank you, Rett!

Onto another project.

For scale, I placed my umbrella next to a pattern I took to Staples and had blown up by 200%!

LOL

Go big or go home!

Another machine-pieced, hand-appliqued scrap hexie in the middle of auditioning scraps which became this:

that will be the center of my new project.

Linking up with

Quilt Story

i have to say

Freshly Pieced

and

crazy mom quilts

In a world gone horribly wrong sometimes, it is nice to have somewhere to go for a little light, beauty and kindness.

Join us this week!

 

Encouragement

meant a lot to me this week as I sat down to finish the tree.

So...thank you for your encouragement and cheering last week!

Funny thing is...I didn't break any needles this time!

LOL

I did however, have to unpick all of the sky swirl stitching from before.

Ack!

I used a variagated Sulky thread and my bobbin tension was off.

Adjusted that and kept on quilting.

This quilt started as an inspirational print from Rett to a "grid" of scraps, to an appliqued tree trunk and branches, to the "starry" lights being placed and on to this:

with the quilting finally finished!

I originally had this blue Kona border because I wasn't sure where to take it after the quilting was done and wanted something to help keep the edges from fraying and shifting as I quilted.

I've since asked hubsy sweets and my LQS guru for opinions and advice.  Hubby wanted to frame it...LQS guru said it should be hung like a quilt.  I started this as a wall hanging quilt and want to finish it as one as well. 

This week will be about removing the blue, adding corners to hang it and using the same brown batik as the tree for a simple binding to "frame" the piece.

This is a close up of the quilting.

I tried to stay "true" to Rett's concentric circles for bark and am really happy with that and the feel of the branches.  I did a horizontal stitch in the tree background continuing the circles around the "lights" (which I've always thought of as fireflies).  The ground/grass is just a vertical stitch and I thought of swaying grass while sewing.  The sky is full of swirling air currents the fireflies are playing on.

I am ever so thankful to Rett for her letting me take her vision and recreate it in another medium.

Linking this up as a "finish" and a WIP at:

Quilt Story

Freshly Pieced

and

crazy mom quilts

Go visit these blogs and see all the incredible projects these bloggers are working one!

You never know what might inspire you!



Gently

was the word of the week.

Do you remember last March when the Granny Squares were all the rage?

I drank the Koolaid and made a small wall hanging inspired by the colors in my hot chocolate mug.

I used my last hoarded pieces of Moda's Sunkissed.

I was in the middle of painting our front hallway and wanted a cheerful and happy something to hang on the wall in there.

I used a Hunky Dory-ish type print for the binding and then used it as a table quilt for the next year as one thing after another kept me from finishing the painting (sad, sad, sad attempt at sympathy for such crazy apathy!).

While spring cleaning, I washed all my table quilts and found this:

Ack!  The top had come loose from the binding in one spot.

What to do?  What to do?

Well, we all know there really is only one thing to do.

Gently.  Gently.  Gently.

With a very soft touch with the seam ripper....remove the old binding

and replace it with a happy, bright, polka dot orange

and add corners to hold a dowel rod for hanging.

The word "hope" on the back with a close up of my FMQing.

Well, the painting is done now (and other rooms are groaning!) and I'm needing to make a trip to Hobby Lobby for another dowel rod and hanger to put this up.

A favorite quilt saved.

I'm also trying to get the nerve up to finish this:

Last time I worked on it, I broke four needles in a row!  Four!  Exasperating and intimidating to say the least.

I tried different sizes and types of needles and have been psyching myself up to try again.

Linking up with Quilt Story

i have to say,  Freshly Pieced and crazy mom quilts

for a virtual Quilting Expo, Bee, Extravaganza!

Come join us!