Hello,

I am still enjoying the unfolding of spring here in upstate New York.  The oak tree is now leafing out and I enjoy the wonderfully translucent  apple green of the leaves.   They are so very delicate and frail now. The shadows they cast seem some how softer too.   I know that  they will thicken and change color in a week or two.  The tree is flowering as well and the long pollen filled pale green blossoms are falling all over the walk and drive.  The season seems to be doing double time with it’s amazingly fast changes.      I realized that I need to do a bit of double timing myself as graduation is just around the corner for my grandson and my nephew.  I got a box full of tee shirts from Zane for his quilt this week.  He has been in 22 plays and wants his quilt made from them.    Most of them are black with a few blue, one white and one green.  I have already put in an  hour and a half  cutting away the backs and arms and I still have five shirts to go.  I will then iron fusible interfacing to the backs so they will not stretch before I add sashing.   Zane’s graduation date is the 25 of May so I will be late with this gift, but he seems OK with that.  When Nick was asked what kind of quilt he wanted he told me he just wanted lots of color.    So yesterday I started through my stash cutting  three strips from different pieces.  One strip was about 1.5″, the second 2.5 ” and the third was4.5″.    The pulling out pieces and  cutting  process made me realize I need to do some refolding and sorting.   I will sew all the strips together in a random manner and slice them again.  It will be a real playful quilt.       I will enjoy that process.

Progress Report:   Wiggle Wiggle – Adventure Challenge( previously Blue Boundaries)

The cream fabric on this project is from an old silk shirt.  I sun printed the blue patterned fabric using paper stencils I created by cutting away parts of scrap booking pages.    The texture and the reason this quilt belongs in the Adventure Challenge category is  from Terry White’s book Enhance Your Quilts- Embellish!   The process is one where you take a slender strip of fabric and accordian fold it.  Then you slip a threaded needle through the folding and insert a bead.  Then you continue folding and inserting beads.  If you come to the end of the fabric and you want a longer unit, just add more on.   It  is fun and the fabric add interest to the beads.

Opel Opening- renamed Cobble Stones- Adventure Challenge  is still in progress.   This quilt uses the whole process and the suspension of the cut outs with the faggoting.   I like how the faggoting is going, but that process is very slow for me .  Now that comes from Louis Ericson’s book, Design&Sew it Yourself. This shot shows the quilting and on the right you can see the dark blue that will become the facing for this quilt.

 

 

 

 

Wrinkle Work- Adventure Challenge

  I had lots of fun with this project.  I tried not to make the pieces square and that turned out to be more difficult than I expected.  It stared with three pieces of fabric that I had previously sewn wrinkled silk to.  That process is from Louis Ericson’s book too.   Then to quilt this work I started sewing lines from the end of the lines on the silk units.   The final effect of the quilting is a lot like water flowing around rocks.    This quilt has turquoise print  panels on left and right sides that will become facings.

This close up shows the facing good side to good side with the quarter inch seam shewn.

This shot shows the trimming away of the batting and the backing so the facing is flat and the bulk is minimal.

This shot shows the machine tacking the facing back to create a crisp line when it is pressed and then hand stitched to the back of the quilt.                                                                                                                 This last shot is of the facing turned to the back and ironed in place the pin is holding it and I will hand stitch the facing to the back.  You can see the machine stitching line along the far left just inside the turned area.   I think the fact that I used the same material for the backing and the facing makes this hard to see.

Purple Procedure    This work had been shifting around on the design wall sense the  April 26 post when I noticed how the while unit in the center became a big  whole to my eye.    I have added ribbon on top and built up the surface a bit and that is helping solve the problem.  .

  I plan to do some hand stitches and add some beads to the surface as well to help this quilt along.

 

 

 

Slipping Away- working title

This is the back unit for some more of my slipping through units.  It is made up of some of the same fabrics that I used in Beth’s quilt from Dec.   I wanted a bold but low contrast body to pass through.   I am leaning toward a blue or green at this point.  I will try several combos before I make the final decision.   I think this will work.

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Blocks

   This photo shows two of the hand blocks that I have been building  this year as my weekly mini projects.   The block is 8.5″ square with a 4″ square in the center.  I stamp two or three of my hand carved stamps in the blue center and then embroider and bead around the square until I feel it is finished.   I will show two every week until I catch up with the completed blocks.   These may become my Calender for next year.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol