End of March Doings

I can't believe that it is the end of April already, time flys when you are having fun!I had a busy month in March. 

I belong to the Unlimited Textiles group and the theme for March was Gothic. I love stained glass and especially the wonderful Rose Windows. Here is what the one in Strasbourg looks like. 

Hard to get that much detail in a 5" quiltie (Small quilts) but I did try, unsuccessfully. 

Then I started going through my stash  and found this great fabric, and put a black fabric mask on it to make the leading for the stained glass look and 

the quiltie turned out pretty good. I did some

 beading in the center and at the end of the spokes.

I was surprised that when  I chose smaller beads they got lost in the whole quiltie, but when I went up to a larger bead it looked so much better.

The other exchange I was in was the Fiber Beads trade and I had lots of fun with that. I decided to make my beads with a hard shell, rather than 

the  soft fabric outside. The one problem I had was trying to Photograph the beads so that the fabric itself showed. The darker beads are a beautiful batik of blues and greens and 

purples. The beads are too dark or shiny in any of the pictures to do  them justice.

I wrapped some of them with Razzle Dazzle thread in different colors, and some I wrapped in Angelina fibers. I left the tails long on the beads so that the tails could be could be cut to any length she wanted. I also used some wire and some of the micro beads in the hard shell of the lighter colors. I didn't want to do a matched set of beads, so I did a variety of colors and styles.

I also got a lot of work done on that wedding quilt I keep talking about. My goal is to have it at the quilters by the end of April. I can't wait to post a picture of the completed top. As soon as I can get my card from my camera to work, I'll post some pictures of that I received in the exchange.

March Doings

I finished two trades the beginning of this month. One was an abstract 5" quilt and the other was an 8 x 10 inch quilt on the Wives of Henry VIII. Each was different and challenging in its own way.

I wanted to tell you a little more about the class with Katie PM that I took. One of the techniques we learned was to take shapes and super impose them in a pleasing arrangement, erase some lines, crop the piece and then color in the cropped picture with watercolors. What fun I had with that exercise. This picture is the result of that exercise.

When I got home I had the 5" quilt to make for my trade so I used this picture as a starting place. I made a copy of the portion that I wanted be my 5" quilt on tracing paper and then colored it in with colored pencils, you can see that picture below.  I didn't 

use the water colored copy to make the tracing , but I used the tracing I made the water color from (I hope that makes sense).

I made another copy of this colored tracing to use as a pattern that I cut out of freezer paper and then  position it  on the fabric I had chosen. After I had cut out the pieces and laid it out on a piece of muslin, I made some changes in the fabric I used until I liked the way the colors and values worked with each other.

I sewed, quilted and beaded the piece and I've posted a picture of it below.

I thought it turned out pretty well and it is on its way to England to its final home.

We had many more exercises, but this was the first and the longest and for me, one of the most enjoyable. 

I've got some more pictures and at least one more quilt coming out of the exercises from this class, but you will have to wait for the next post on this subject.

February Doings

This has been a very busy month for me, I finished taking Dena Crains Darned Quilt Class, I haven't quite finished the project but here is picture of it with all the circles cut out and darned in. I need to do the decorative stitching and also the quilting , but I enjoyed doing this so much that I know I will finish it. I've also put a close picture of one of the circle area's so you can get a closer look. Great technique and I think that there are many variations of this technique in my future!

As soon as I finished this class, I had another class the I took up in Santa Fe through the local quilt shop up there. It is a beautiful shop and if you like fabric batiks, hand dyed, everything you will love this store. If you are more into the folkart, homespun, reproduction, Aunt Grace look, you won't find much, but if you want the good variety, interesting techniques, art quilt supplies you will find a little of everything there, even a couch and reading area for the non-fabricholics that might be with you. I have no affiliation with them just a happy customer, glad I don't live next door or I would be a bankrupt customer.

Anyway I took a two day class on design with Katie Pasquini Masopust and it was wonderful. The class was very intense and full of exercises and art and design. We got to see many of her quilts first hand. She is so precise in everything that she does, and she shares so much in her classes. The class is based on her book Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter and if you ever get a chance to take a class from her, get to the head of the line.

A New Year

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday this past year, we had a very restful holiday and enjoyed it very much.

I've been in my studio working very hard this year, so far, I finished a couple of baby blankets, burp cloths, bibs etc.

I've been working more on the wedding quilt and I'm going to take a few pictures next week and post them so you can see what I've been doing. I'm also making a kids quilt for a birthday next month, its from the animals around the world series, and incorporates one of the soft book panels. Its looking nice and I enjoy doing something simple for a change, I'll post that also when I'm done.

I have been taking two classes from Quilt U. One is on fabric painting for landscapes. I've been following the discussions and reading the lessons, but I haven't been able to set aside room in the studio to paint right now. The other class I'm taking is Dena Crain's "Darned Quilt Class" and I'm having a lot of fun with that. See some pictures below.

We need to have gradated range of fabrics that mostly read as solids.

 These are the colors I chose.

Next we sewed them together and this was the end of lesson 1

Lesson 2 was to embellish the quilt, and I'm not quite finished with that yet, but i will try and finish this week...

What fun the class is, I would highly recommend anyone who wants a fun class and just wants to enjoy the process to take this class.

Click on Dena Crain to read more about the Darned Quilts and see some examples.  I'll show you more as the quilt progresses. 

Happy Holidays!

I was catching up on my blog reading this morning, mind you, after I returned from exercising - getting back into my routines, and the first one I read was My Croft and Melanie issued a general "tag" to her readers. The tag was to pick up the book nearest to you, turn to page 56 and count down 5 lines and transcribe a sentence or two into your blog.

With all those endorphins running around in my body this morning I decided to play tag and be it. The book nearest me is "Digital Essentials" by Gloria Hansen. It is the quilt makers must have guide to images, files and more! It is an early Christmas present and I am really enjoying it, Gloria is a dynamite quilt maker, if you are interested in looking at her work click here.

On page 56 (this page is talking about how to do this in Paint Shop Pro) line 5 is a question:

Q: How can I know how large (in inches) I can print my image before it starts to degrade (get dotty)?

A: 1. Turn off the Resample image option. 

      2. Type in the desire Width and Height in the Document Size box (e.g. 8" x 10"). Look at the resolution. If it is too low, make your image dimensions smaller.

Now this probabally doesn't make a sense to many of you, but remember by the time you get to this page, you already know a lot of digital terminalogy. Given how fast things progress these days, this is an excellent book for anyone that is working on designing or printing any type of art work.

I am reading another book, one of my vices is reading mystery books, however it was under the book I used. Of course I have another book under that one and a few magazines.....

So now does anyone want to play tag with me? If you do, please leave me a comment, so I can ready about your turn as "It".

I don't have any art work to share today, but I will be getting back into the studio, hopefully this afternoon, and have something to share next week.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and for those that don't have Thanksgiving tomorrow, lift up a glass and join in on a toast with all your US friends!

We spent 10 days working at my Dad's house and then came home. We will go back after the New Year if my brother and SIL can use our help. It was a hard 10 days, but it is always wonderful to visit with my brother and SIL and nieces and my Aunt, no matter what the circumstances. We live so far apart from them that any visit it heartwarming.

We are here in Tennessee having Thanksgiving with family and watching the coming baby grow, we went into Nashville yesterday and went to the Main Library. Oh my, it was wonderful, I was tempted to move in, 3 floors, beautiful reading rooms, its an older Marble building, kind of like the public library in NYC, a lot of art, fabric, quilting, dyeing books!

I've been working on bumper pads for the crib, so I'm even doing fiber work here. In between our time at my Dad's house and leaving for Thanksgiving, I completed two trades that had been due the end of October, my trade partners were all wonderful about my sending them whenever I got them done, and in some cases, I didn't need to send them if I didn't do them. I still got the PC from everyone.

The first trade I worked on was a Leaves PC.

I used a yellow check fabric and then I did an edging technique with different size leaves in a grape and dk. green shiva oil sticks. Some of the leaves I put in some veins and then I added some silk leaves that I had. Wish I had felt a little more creative and I would have made some lace leaves with FME. There is always more time next year.

The next exchange I had was a 5 inch quiltie call Autumn.

I made a quilt sandwich and then cut out a cornucopia from some fabric and did a little color addition with some bronze and brown shiva markers. Made the pumpkin stand alone and tacked it on, did the same with the grapes and added some silk leaves. I was pretty pleased with this one, and I really enjoyed it.

I will try and post again in a few days with some picture of where we are in Tennessee, it is just beautiful here. When we get back home I will also post the cards and the quiltie I received, I think you will enjoy all the different cards.

On a sad note, the kitty (Sassy) I use in my profile and at the top of my blog is no longer with us. When we returned in September from our vacation she was very thin and continued to get skinnier and skinnier every day, we changed food, and when we went back to my Dad's house after he died we left her at the vet, so she would get fluids and care while we were gone. When we returned she had held her weight but was not eating a great amount., her labs were good, no sign of any masses, she was alert and didn't seem in pain. We had her on pepcid, to help her digestion and before we left for Thanksgiving she stopped eating. Took her in to be boarded, when we left, she did eat the day before, and have an ultra sound performed. Unfortunately the ultra sound showed that she had cancer in may of her organs, and she would not be getting better. It wasn't a hard decision for me to make when I heard that so she is at peace now, I really miss her, but that is what happens when we allow animals to adopt us. The other 3 cats and 2 dogs are at home with the pet sitter and are being spoiled rotten!

Everyone count your blessings and have a wonderful holiday season!

Taking it Further Challenges

I'm sorry to say that I have dropped out of the Take it Further Challenge for this year. My father passed away today and I need to fly back to NY and take care of a myriad of things. We lost my Mom 18 months ago, so things need to be sorted and the house needs to be sold, and so many things for my brother and I to do.

I don't feel like I will be able to concentrate on the monthly challenges for a while. I will still be keeping up this blog and my other blog with trades, exchanges, and projects.

I want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments and suggestions, keep it coming.

Thanks everyone,
Meg