Four Yellow Blocks

Since I was tagged on Facebook by Susan Leslie Lumsden to show some of my work every day for five days, it’s made me work. Good show Susan. Caroline S. Daley is the tag for today. Her work is such fun.

Yesterday I showed an old piece. Today I’ll show what I’m currently working on – a yellow quilt which will be a gift for someone who likes yellow. Here are the first four blocks, untrimmed. There will be a total of 16. Yes, it’s certainly YELLOW.  The squares that are off center in each block are from a vintage butterfly fabric. Each butterfly in the fabric is about 8″ square. Much too large so I’ve cut 6″ square out of it getting pieces of butterflies. Looking at them I think they are almost flower like. I’m not overly fond of yellow but I think it’s going to work. I keep trying to tone it down and I can see that one lighter yellow strip it too big so I’ll trim it down. This is a Quilt As You Go project and will have a narrow sashing of a darker, gray-ish color.

Yellow Challenge

My latest challenge is to make a yellow quilt. I’m not overly fond of yellow and have been dragging my heels but a day or so ago I ran across this yellow retro butterfly print in my stash and began to wonder if I could do something with it. The butterflies are huge, like –  8″ x 11″.

Yesterday, while at the Quilt Sampler shop in Springfield, MO I saw this batik and said to myself, “YES” and bought it.

Then came home and started pulling out other fabrics. I think I can make this all work together. and it just might be fun. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Stay tuned.

BASTE

this  title could also be titled”Determination” or “Hard-Headedness.” I have been trying to sew a piece of silk to a strip of velvet for a art quilt. The silk crawls and the velvet slithers. After two ripping outs I finally got it. Baste, baste, baste.

YES. And, yes, I will clean it up and remove the basting and the little stray threads. The black thread is not basting. It’s decorative.

Eco-dyeing via India Flint

After reading Eco Dyeing by India Flint and since I live out in the country of the Ozarks, I’ve become interested in what colors/dyes are available from local plants. Here is my trusty old stainless steel dye pot from my weaving days of dyeing yarns. I’ve place jars of fabric with various plants into a water bath in the pot and boiled it for many minutes. These are the results from yesterday on silk.

  

Dark, almost black pansies

Red Sumac leaves

Dark purple petunias and orange marigolds.

Wild and Crazy is finally fishished

The last couple of weeks have been more than frustrating. I finished the Wild and Crazy quilt and was very proud of it. Laid it out on the bed and thought it looked super; pillows excluded.

Then I washed and dried it to get rid of the cat hair and to puff it up. Oh Woe. The hand dyed red fabric (which had been previously washed) faded on to the narrow white strips making them a dull pinkish-grey.

There is no contrast between the “white” strips and the grey pieces. What I thought was going to be a great quilt was now a disappointing quilt. I tried to get over the disappointment but it was always in the back of my mind. A few days ago, I wondered if the strips could be painted. Not practical. Then I woke up two days ago and said, “Dots.”

So – by dipping a half inch wooden dowel into white fabric paint and touching it to the strip the quilt turned into this.

Detail:

Now, I think I’m happier with the quilt than I was in the beginning.

 

Printing on Fabric

Just when I think I’m getting smarter in PSE, I perform dumb, dumber, and dumbest things.

I’ve printed on fabric many times, but this time nothing goes right. Gets hung up in the printer, smudges of ink on the sides, etc., etc., etc. I had a small piece of hand dyed gray fabric to print on and messed it up.

See the big smudge on the right? And I had no more hand dyed gray. Once I use a hand dyed fabric, a commercial fabric just doesn’t do the job. What to do? Ah-Ha! I turned the above fabric over and scanned it and put it in PSE. Then I scanned my drawing of the trees on tracing paper and put that image into PSE  on a transparent background. Then – moved the trees onto of the scanned gray background and printed it on a paper backed silk purchased from Dharma Trading Co.

The background is a little lighter but I can live with it. And if you look very closely you can see the trees that were on the back.

I also wanted to use an image that I saw on the internet. I asked the photographer for permission but got no answer. So I altered the image by putting my head of “her” body. That wasn’t so hard, but every time I printed the image there was something wrong. Too green, too big, too small, too something, Took nine tries to get it right.

Wish I were really that slim.

Happy New Year 2012-Resolutions and Scrap Quilts

Happy New Year to everyone. May it be happy, healthy, and prosperous.

I’m terrible at keeping New Year’s resolutions but I can think I can do it this year. I’m trying to clean up my fabric stash and throw out what I’m sure I’ll never use. When I see some pieces I say to myself, “What was I thinking?” What you see here is only about 1/2 of the stash. The resolution is to make three large to large-ish scrap quilts.

 One  quilt will be from blocks given to me by my old quilt group in Florida, The Cover Lovers. One year we gave each other quilt blocks for Christmas. At the time none of them seemed to go together. Maybe they still don’t but my challenge is to make it happen. I have a couple of ideas but I’m open to any suggestions. Seeing the blocks in a photograph I can already see that some rearranging needs to be done.

The other two quilts will also be scrap quilts. One for a blue person and the other for a hot pink person. The blue has begun.

Heron At Sunrise

The latest Uncommon Threads Challenge was “Peaceful Waters” which happens to be the title of a song written by Roberta Ranney’s husband, Bob.

I used this pictures of a Heron that I took at sunrise last year down at our neighborhood boat ramp.

I could have tried dyeing fabric for the background, but that seemed tedious so I found some hand dyed that I bought a number of years ago and have been saving  for a special occasion. This is the occasion. I printed the heron onto fabric and then machine embroidered all over it and fused “him” and the dock to the background.

You can see all the Peaceful Water challenges on the Uncommon Threads blog. Click here.

Dandelions

Since the last post, I’ve turned thebackground fabric 90∘and like it better. Then moved the apron and blouse toward the center. Now what will the apron “arms” do? I thought about butterflies, bubbles, and have settled on dandelions.

I’ve quickly sketched a dandelion on tracing paper and pinned it in the upper left corner.

Not sure How I will depict it but some inspiration will come along. So many possibilities. Machine embroidery, hand embroidery, silk screen, applique and embroidery. Ummmmm.

And then in the top picture you see a table runner pinned to the bottom. Those flowers along the borders look too much like dandelions making it impossible not to incorporate it some way. You might think it’s too pretty to cut up, but there are stains and besides, think of it as a beautiful piece of cloth instead of as a finished product.

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year to everyone. Do you make resolutions? I usually try to make one. So – here’s mine for 2011:

DO MORE FIBER ART

A baby quilt 60″ x 48″. It started out as a pink quilt but the red quickly took over. Oh well, I have to listen to the fabric.

What’s really fun is that I’m helping my friend, Sally, make a baby quilt. It’s her first experience  quilting so she knows no rules. Sally is a photographer and she is going to incorporate pictures of butterflies, AND, she’s willing to try Improvisational Piecing. Hooray! She made a strip fabric out of all these fabrics. It’s gorgeous and she says she’s having fun. I certainly am. You want to know what’s one of the best things about helping Sally? We’re both left handed!! Silly I know, but we don’t have to keep turning things around or getting in each other’s way.