Judy's Quilt

I have finally finished quilting the quilt I have been working on for my friend Judy. We were both in a fabric swap some time ago where we traded bright log cabin blocks. My quilt was finished and is posted a couple of years ago on this blog. This one is Judy's and it is very pretty. I love her beautiful blue border with the stars she did in yet another block swap. This quilt will be heading to her this comming week and I sure hope she enjoys it.

I Am So Excited

I went to the Fiber Arts Fiesta 2009 on Saturday to see all the wonderful stuff. I was also hopeing that the quilts I had in the show would do well. They did! I was just awed that I won not just one blue ribbon but two. My Ode to Spring was something I finished off the UFO pile that was just having fun playing with all the things I never to to try because I was too busy. Oregon Shores the group quilt I made with Jackie and Kathy also got blue. Needless to say I am just elated!

Landscape Round Robin

This is my little landscape piece finally done! This is really the base only which will be my contribution to the piece. This is a round robin so there will be 4 of my friends who will each in turn add things to this to make a final piece which will come back home to me to finish up. I am very excited about this group as we are really going to uncharted waters of fiber arts in that we will enhance these pieces using any fiber technique we would like.

This is the base that my friend Dee has made. It is a desert landscape and I will be the first person to make additions to it. Since I live in New Mexico this is pretty much my back yard so I will have lots of nature to examine to come up with some things to add to the piece. I think the first addition will be more prickly pear cacti and maybe a few other native cacti. Then I need to add a creature of some sort.....................horned toad, rattlesnake, roadrunner or quail......................humm I am still thinking on that.

Another Custom Quilt Finished

It has been some time since I have written here. I have been really busy and do miss writting in my blog. In any case I just finished this great sampler quilt and here is some eye candy!! I did notice that I missed one of the triangles in the top photo and went back and added the quilting to that! One reason why taking pictures is such a good thing.

I have been working on the crazy quilt round robin and am just putting the final touches on the last round and will have some photos of that pretty soon so come back and visit again.

I Am Still Here..............Really!

Well life has been pretty busy with non quilting stuff and I have not had the oportunity to post. I do wish things were different but I am having to concentrate on other things that take me away from those things I love doing. I hope to be back soon with more stories and photos of needlework and fun things.

More Work On Lou's Block

This bow was a total experiment, and I love how it came together. The ribbon was pretty stiff and hard to work with. Basically I began with tying a real bow with the amount of ribbon I wanted to use. I plopped it down and did the first french knot in the center of the bow to secure it. Then I worked my way around each of the bow parts turning and adding french knots to arrange them in a pleasing way. Then I did the same with the ties. Next I had to figure out flowers. Since I did not really have the right silk thread I thought out of the box and went to my DMC floss stash and found this wonderful color that went nicely with the ribbon and the background and made chain stitched roses. I made the stitches very loose so they would stand up nicely and love the effect. I also found a green that went with my other colors and just did some lazy daisy leaves. I really like this one.


This one is at the center of the block and the more I looked at it the less I wanted to plop down some design. I finally decided accentuate the rose so did a blanket stitch in two colors to define it. I also added french knots to the center.



There are some really long narrow patches and I decided to just add a feather stitch vine to this one. If I have time I will add something to the vine but this can also be added in the next round as well.

Work In Progress Wedensday

This first photo is a little landscape I have been working on for a round robin I have begun. We are a group of five. Our goal is to embelish these 11x14 base pieces with elements to make a pleasing landscape. I am currently working on green hills. After these are in place a house will be added, the foreground, a red barn and a road. This base will then be sent along to the next person in our group who will begin the embelishment. You can find our group blog and read more about what we are doing here: http://landscapefriends.wordpress.com/



This is more progress on the Crazygoround round robin group. You can find the blog for this group here: http://crazygoround.blogspot.com/ I have added some ribbon roses and a bit of green with a stem stitch and lazy daisy for a stem and leaves and then made some french knots to add a bit of spark.

Here is another part of Lou's block. Here I did spider web roses and a feather stitch for background foilege. I might add some leaves or leave them for next round.


And....................more work on Lou's block. The blue block has more ribbon roses, stem stitch, lazy daisey, and french knots. These are the same combination of stitches as the photo above but there is a very different look. I have also done the outline of a heart in the red patch which I will be adding more things to.



Last I have begun quilting the commission quilt. The colors in the photo are not very good. In any case I have done stitch in the ditch around all the blocks and have done a stipple in all the light areas. In the bottom of the quilt is the border which will be getting flowing feather. Once the feathers in the border are done I will be going back to each of the 10 blocks and adding more quilting in the colored areas of the blocks. This will consist of some continous curves, some feathers, and a few other elements which I am still thinking about. Since this is a sampler quit each block is different.

Some More Crazy Quilting

Well this is not quilting at all. Crazy quilts are really a anything goes embelishment and needle craft piece. This is a portion of round three of the round robin I am in. This is Lou's block and the needlework is actually really simple. There are only a few stitches involved, stem stitch, chain stitch, fly stitch and french knots and sewing on a few buttons. I just love the way this little spray of stems looks. I am going to add a few flowers and then leave the rest to do for the round four person to have some fun with. I will be showing more photos of this block as I work on it. Now I better get back to that quilt waiting on the frame............I am doing a Popcorn panto today on a lovely pieced tulip quilt.

Round Two Finished On Crazy Round Robin

I have finally finished round two on the Crazy Go Round round robin. In this round we received a block that had all the seams embelished with a simple seam treatment and we were to add to the seams to make them more complex. I now have the round three block sitting here waiting for me to begin. I will post some photos of it later.

Oregon Shores At Road To California!

Here is Oregon Shores at The Road To California Quilt Show 2009. We got an honorable mention as I was told by my friend Suze. She took the photo for me. Lucky lady she not only went to the show but also took some classes as well. I am pretty happy to have gotten another ribbon on this quilt. I wish I could have gone to the show to see all the great quilts but I guess I will have to go another year. They always have the most wonderful quilts entered in that show.

Traditional Sampler

I am working on a commission quilt. The request was for a sampler and the use of traditional colors and fabrics. Getting the coordinating fabrics in the requested colors in the right fabric sure was a hunt but in the end I found 5 fabrics at about 3 different stores and had looked at about 7 stores total. Here are 6 of the 10 finished blocks. They were pretty complex but it is always fun to see how things look in different colorways. The photo is just a quick in progress shot that shows the blocks on the fabirc I will use for sashing, with the green cornerstones, the border and green binding.

My Scrap Quilt Is Pieced And That Fabric Is Not Right

Have you ever pieced a scrappy block, or been in a block swap and found that the fabric used did not have the look you wanted? The two photos are the same, well almost the same. This is a log cabin quilt I am beginning to quilt and there are a few fabrics here and there that are a bit too light in the dark side of the log cabin block. Well no problem I have a new trick. If you look closely you will see that two of the fabrics on the dark side of the log cabin block are just a bit darker and look much better. There is a very dark piece to the right of the red square and the fabric next to it and the one below the red square are just too light. How did I do it? Simple I have an assortment of Sharpie Markers and Pigma pens in various colors and I simply lightly darkened those pieces. The difference is subtle but it does make a big difference. I have been busy stitching in the ditch around all the light areas so have pretty much been all over the quilt and found quite a few pieces here and there that were just way to light. Some even lighter than my example here and I simply played with the markers and changed them. In some fabrics I played with the print to only change say some really light leaves and make the darker green, or on a plaid I only darkened one color in the plaid. Wow what a difference this can make.

So the next time you find that the fabric in your scrap quilt simply is too light you can fix it without having to rip that piece out and replace it.