Category Archives: Scrap Happy Quilts

Adventure Challenge 2013, Scrap Happy Quilts

April 11, 2013 Going Green

Hello friends,

Spring is coming to our part of the world as I see more and more green.  Even this bit of stain glass green caught my eye yesterday and I have looked at this many times and not really seen it.   I like all the patterns created from the siding on the opposite wall as it sifts through the glass.   Green is one of the colors that scientists tell us the human eye see more variations on than any other color.   It sure seems that landscapes have lots and lots of greens in them and why I think I noticed the small flecks of green on a bush across the street yesterday when I went out for the mail.  The grass seems a bit greener this morning  too even though it is gray and raining here today.    Green was my mothers favorite color and she wore lots of it.  There was even an apple green couch and a green plastic covered rocking chair in the living room in one of the first houses I remember.  It is a color that I do not seem to have a lot of in my stash.  But as I kid I remember being a bit frustrated by the limit of greens in the crayon box.   I am just glad that Green is starting to fill up my world again.

I helped my friend Nancy this week work on the quilting of her new quilt.  She is new to quilting and did not come to the quilting through traditional paths- but jumped in with both feet  staring with a animal applique quilt for her grandson several years ago.  This time she put her unique point of view into a work using channel and flannel.   It makes for unique challenges and I love working with her on it. ( the green stain glass is behind her)

This week  I went off to the Turquoise Street Studio and worked with the pastel gals too.( look at all the greens in Pat’s pastel box).   They were all getting busy for a workshop this week  and having lots of fun.   Beth and Pat both did  finish up work on old projects and color exercises.  Barbara on the other hand was making what she called “Skins” of various mediums and color on wax paper that she could later peal off and apply to paintings.   I did hand work on my Brass Bits piece.    I am  using decorative stitches  to apply the brass bits that Sharron sent me last fall.  The top of this image shows a bit of copper knitting that is used to keep slugs off of plants.   Texture is my thing.

Progress Report:  Cracked Up  I did free motion quilting on this work this week.  It was enjoyable to let the patterns on the printed fabric be my starting place for this piece.   The piece  has its facing’s machine sewn on and I will get the hand work done soon.Slicing Through : This work got attention this week too.  There is that green again, but this is Marty’s blue challenge fabrics with my solid green added.   I am still a little shaky about were this is going.  Sometimes the materials seem to be telling me what to do and I tend to follow the muse when that happens.  Usually that is not a problem- but in this case the challenge has a size limit and I am well beyond that already.   I see challenges as places to really grow in new directions so I am going to go with this and see were it leads me.

Untitled  This work is  still   in flux.   I have done all the piecing and I am OK with that part of it- but some how it is not satisfying-right -or something….   I am discontented.    I have pinned various metallic ribbons, wrapped pip cleaners and such on the surface  to see it that is what it needs, but still I do not feel like I have the answer.   It may just need to be folded up and put away a while – like the Purple Trees work from March 14.   It’s not a creative block-  it more discontent……I will not let this stop me- time will help.

Auditions   These  colors all work together and I have pinned them up to look at and think about them  for a new top.  I am  very comfortable with blues and they may help me move forward with the” problem children”  that I just mentioned.

Scrap Happy I am working away on this project too.  I want it done by Monday when the woman for the Prevention Network comes to pick up a quilt for the spring auction.  I always like to have two works done so she has a choice.  This shot shows two rows that have been sewn together through the batting and the backing in the flip quilting method.   The blocks are roman strip with centers of red and blue star prints.  The two side bars of the block are made up of scrap pieces- that is were my name for the work comes from.    I find these quilts are what I call ” no  brainers” as I have made so many that I do not need to think much about the process to complete the task.

Be on the  look out  for Spring.

And Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

Adventure Challenge 2013, Far Horizons, Landscapes, Purple Trees, Quilt Exploration Group (QuEGs), Scrap Happy Quilts

March 7, 2013 Meetings

Hello Friends,

This week has been a very busy one for me.  I  have had an event of some sort every day this last week.   That started out with QuEG’s play day were we all worked with Gelli plates.. ( From Gelli Arts)The smiles should indicate how much we all enjoyed the process.     We worked and printed only on paper  because we did not know what we were doing.  The paint was flying onto the surfaces as we all explored the mixing and mark making fun of working this way.   Linda explored with Saren Wrap and got some wonderful results that I want to try.I really liked working with the styrofoam plates and printing on top of collaged papers.   I can see the potential for use on fabric  as well.  We all went home with stacks of paper with a wide variety of images on them.  There is lots more exploitation necessary I think.   Then I went off to Ethel’s and we did more discharge work and wax painting with her new jaunting tool.( at the bottom of the photo)   On Friday I went off to the Turquoise Street Studio again and did even  more stamping.     My goal is to print with all the stamps I have created.  I worked all day and I still have a bag full.  I am sorting and tossing out some that are weak as I go along.   I will need to spend another day at that at least- but I think I will not work on that when I go the next time.   I want to do more Gelli play first.

Progress Report : Tropical Day Dreaming 

Tropical Day Dreaming
19″ X 27.5″

 


 I had a lot of fun laying out and assembling this bright quilt.    This project uses the gessoed fabric like  Gearing Up, except this time I made it all.  The gesso is painted on turquoise felt with  two different  stencil patterns.  I used the textured gesso on plain white fabric- again with a stencil and then painted the fabric with turquoise and blue paint.  The textured gesso can be seen in the close up.  I free motion quilted a tile pattern all over this quilt.    I do not recommend the texture gesso however as the machine does not like stitching through it.  I even tried a leather needle, but the thread kept breaking .

Another Choice  

I challenged myself to use paper applique on this top.    I had done some wax resist on paper and then dyed  it. ( the white lines in loops were the wax and the blue is the dye.)  I found I could not use the paper as I intended   because it would not stick to any thing with the wax finish so it was shuffled around for at least four years.

Another Choice
24″ X 37″

When I was looking for paper to use with the Gelli printing  it came to the top again.  So I decided to use it.  First I cut the wax covered  paper into triangles.  Then I zig-zagged them down to blue felt.  I played with several  layout  locations, never really finding anything I was happy with.   Finally  on Sat I saw the cut away triangles from my last paper quilt and  added them to the mix.  I was satisfied.   The size if the quilt holds the many parts and I am very pleased with the results.

Purple Trees This project continues to move forward ever so slowly.    I would enjoy a row of days without any commitments- then I think it would come thought.  But I do not see that in the near future so I will just have to limp along on this project.

 Experiment: Far Horizons. This is an experiment as the heading suggests.  I am still working with the wiggle cutting and trying to get it to lie flat.   Now that I am at this point I want to make several vertical cuts and then rearrange the parts.   I am not at all sure how this will work, but  I saw a quilt that I think was created this way and I wanted to play with the idea.

  Scrap  Happy .   I am still working away on the scrap happy quilt.  This first shot show two rows that are ready to be sewn.  The second show shows the same area open up.I only have three more ten block rows to add and the top will be assembled.  After that point it usually takes me about four more hours to complete the quilt.

New Top  This top is my newest beginning.  No name yet but I am working on it.  The commercial fabric with the strong strip pattern is the unifying part of this one.  I silk screened the pale blue pattern on the white fabric with dye.  I like the pattern but was disappointed by how pale  the color turned out to be.  I will screen some more fabric in a darker color in the future.

 Color Challenge   These fabrics will be the start of a new piece this week.  I was reading an old article on color and one of the things the author was pushing was using analogous colors and then adding the compliment for punch.  I realized that I had never  consciously tried this color combination.   I may still add some neutral to this mix, but for the most part this will be the color combo I think.

I  am happily playing in the studio as much as I can  and  I hope the same for you.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

Purple Trees, Scrap Happy Quilts, Truquoise Street Studio

Feb. 21, 2013 Longer Days

Hello,

I really fell we are moving out of the depths of winter as the days grow longer.  I was awakened this morning and the golden pink light of dawn was spreading across the quilt.  I

Beth

wear glasses and so when I looked at the window to see the sky I not only saw the beautiful color, but also the fuzzy dark  lines of the maple branches against that sky.   It is oh so wonderful to wake up in light again.  I watched the color of the sky change from that golden pink to pure gold and then lighten to a lemon hue to pale blue before I moved from the soft warmth of the bed clothes.  The sky has changed over the course of the day and now is a velvet gray with snow falling again.  I still feel pleasantly pleased when I think of the color of the dawn of today and know there will be more coming.

Pat,with Barbara in the background

This week I went to the Turquoise Street Studio on Friday and played with my pals.  The others all worked in pastels, but they include me any way.  I really like the atmosphere and I do get work done.   I am still playing with gesso on fabric, felt and cardboard this time.   I was  thinking that I could add the felt or cardboard on top of the Gear shift quilt in a fashion similar to what Barbara was doing with her paintings- but that did not work.    I will use them on cards or something else.   I never feel anything is a loss when one is exploring and playing with ideas.     I also put in a little time creating some small works for the Six By Six project.  That is a show where you make small works that are all six inches square and sell for $20.00 each.     I did a little fusing for this project- something that I have not been doing much of lately.  It is a great way to explore and use little bits of fabric as well as  little bits of time.

Progress Report: Gear Shift
 I am in the middle of quilting this piece now.  I left the circles that I am using as templates pinned to the surface to show how I do them.   For smaller circles and little shapes I cut the shape into a old photo- that way I can see exactly where the stitches are going.  For the bigger shapes I cut the circle and pin it so I can see the area around the out side of the shape.  I use this same method for any irregular shape I am quilting.

Growing Up
 I was feeling the gray snowy effects of winter the day I started this work.  I am quilting it using the growth lines as my starting points and filling the surface with the nobs of new growth at the end of the lines.  I am sure I will finish this quilt this week.

Blue Fuse
 This is a detail of more of the hand work I am doing on this top.  I am trying new stitches and keeping the color limited on this one.

Purple Trees 

I am still struggling with this work.   This shot is what I greeted me on the pin wall this morning.  The last work or yesterday.  I really only like the tree on the far right and feel that I may abandon the other two and start for that point.     I think it is important to show my failures as well as my successes because they happen to everyone.

The Tide Is In
This is a top that  I came out of my frustration with the tree  work. I often play when things are not going well.   I also wanted to use some of the felt gessoed fabric and the some that I had painted on Friday at the studio.  

Scrap Happy  Project

This is the sot of the blocks for the Scrap Happy Quilt I am working on for the TV Auction our local Public station does every spring.   The big colored areas show the center of the roman strip of the block.  There will be two different row patterns using an alternating lay out.   So there is not top of bottom to this quilt I will turn the second row in the opposite direction when I put them together.  I do enjoy making these quilts.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol

PS –  sorry- I though I pushed the publish button on Thur and only when I checked today did I catch my mistake.   I will try to stay on top of things.

 

Curvie Cuts, Explorations 3, Scrap Happy Quilts

Thur November 8, Winter Cold

Hello Friends,

Sandy did not hit this part of the country- but the cold sure did.  We went form fall to instant winter.  It snowed on Tue- not a lot just enough to make me glad I had pulled out the hats, mufflers, and mittens over the week end.   I worked away on a quilt to ship to the shore for the

Scarp Happy
Queen size

relief program the quilt group organized.   I have been working away on this scarp happy quilt fora while and now I am very happy that I have been.  I only had to finish the binding and now it is ready to ship.  I always have one of these types of quilts in some form of assembly- it is my way of getting started some times. It is also  a way to use – by cutting up-my mistakes and they do not become just trash.  I machine assemble them and they are totally machine washable and dry able.   It is just about time to start putting together pieces again so I will do a tutorial on the process by early Dec.

Progress Report:  Lauren’s Wedding Quilt  I am finally done with Laurn’s quilt.  I like

Laurn’s Wedding Quilt
90″ X 100″

the way it looks like a birds eye view of the mid west.  I also like the way the gold and brown centers sort of float up to the top of the work .   This quilt also made me realize I do not seem to be very confident in my use of green.  It was my mothers favorite color and I think I resisted it for that reason.   I will ship it off tomorrow.


   

 

 

  Composition in Purple  This quilt is one I have lots of mixed emotions about.  I like the

Composition in Purple
20″ X 28″

colors and I know that Laurn’s quilt did influence me into starting this one_ (especially the boarder fabric).  I also wanted to contrast the shinny silk with the matt finish of the cottons.   I am still playing with wiggeleing the seams.  It is fun but I do not have the control I really want with this process.   

New Exploration 3
This new top is really into the wiggle stuff that I got from Marty last mouth.  I pictured two others in this series last week.  I am really enjoying inserting the little units into the composition.  I have a lot more control of the curves and movement of seam lines with this process.  The other two in this series are nearing completion , but not done so I am holding them all to show together.  I am enjoying this process so much- that there may be even more.

I hope you are all snug and comfortable.

Keep Creating

Hugs

Carol