Improv I

I have never been one to work in a series but I think I might give it a try. Sometimes an absence of something give you a new prospective on it. I have been away from quilting and art in general for about two years ago now. I have been drawn to all the new "modern" trend all over the web. This is not a new thing for sure but it has gained in popularity. I actually did my first improv quilt some years ago when I was just messing with fabric. What I like so much is that there is no such thing as careful planning. For me the most important thing is color.

Here is my first Improv for the series. It does not have a name for now so it will just be Improv I for now. I got the inspiration from a piece by Kathleen Loomis on the blog: andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com/2012/06/piecing-very-fine-lines.html She has a very good tutorial of the technique she uses and has a gallery of her work useing this great technique. I am also very inspired by the work of Uta Lenk at justquilts.de She has some really great eye candy in her gallery.

For my first piece I decided I need to have a good contrast and what better color palate to begin with than cool colors offset by fushia! I did not have to dig too deep into the stash to come up with some chunks of fabric that seemed to play nicely together. This year by motto is if you like the fabric: cut, cut, cut! No more saving fabric for that special project as the fabric store always has more.

Not to worry about the mess as this is only about color choices and how the fabrics look together. The fushia will be the thin lines so only a little of it will show.

 The next decision is really about the base. I opted not to have lines of the fushia separating these pieces. This is really just about putting together the pieces in a nice arrangement. They will be altered once the lines begin to appear.

 Then a choice has to be made. Where to make that first cut and insert the strip.

 Then the next line is cut. At this point I decided to sub cut just the top part and insert some strips there.

So far so good. I continue to cut and sew until the piece has enough lines. There is no right or wrong. One thing to keep in mind is that there will be some quilting and who knows maybe embellishments added so it needs to be enough but not too much with all that in mind.

Well that is enough for one day. Next time I will show the top with all the lines on it.

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2014! I just know that this year will bring lots of good things. I have been busy working on a few creative things and am ready to really get moving on some new ideas. Each new year I set some goals. I never do resolutions as those always seem to fail so goals are better. 

Here is my list:

First is the fitness and I will be starting an new blog for that.

I want to finish one UFO per month.

I will begin a new series of work and will work start to finish on those.

I want to enter at least one major show this year.

I need to organize my work area as it has been packed away for a couple of years.

Mostly I need to get a list of every thing I have started and catalog what is there.

Below is the final round robin project that has been nesting at my house. I actually finished this some time ago but have not posted the results. The prior post has a photo of how this looked when it arrived. I will be mailing this back to Kim this week and in a way it is a finished UFO for me as I have finished my part in it.

 

 The most fun part of working on this was the squirrels. I think they look like they are up to something and are very playful. I really hope that Kim likes what I have added to her work and will enjoy finishing it off.

This is a round robin project that belongs to my friend Kim. She made a base of the fabric piece. There were two people ahead of me that added to this project. This is what I began with. I have been working on this piece for some time and it is now ready for the reveal before it goes home to Kim. I will take some photos of my additions and post them very soon.

Suze's Landscape

My friend Suze's landscape has been nesting at my house for waaaayyyy! too long. Well after lots of very slow progress I finally got it finished amid trying to get my Christmas gifts crocheted, ferrying kids around, two trips over the holidays, family time and work.

All in all I really love the way this is looking. I made several additions. First I decided that there needed to be more trees so I used Suze's photo and added trees lining the road. I used a lazy daisey stitch to make them. Then I decided to put something in that georgous blue pot in the foreground. After some research on Italian gardens I decided on red geraniums. I used pearl cotton in two colors to give a bit more contrast. They were made using a French knot. I made the leaves out of silk ribbon and did the stems in DMC cotton using a stem stitch. I decided the background needed more so I made some rows on the left in a green DMC that were similar to the ones made on the right in the fields in an earlier round. The piece then rested for some time while I was trying to decide what else it needed. I finally realized the trees I had made had trunks in the photo so I added those. It was a small thing, but I really like how they really came more to life.

Here are the photos of the piece with my additions. I sure hope that Suze likes what I did. First the whole piece with my additions. This time the photo is upright.

 Here are the flowers in the pot.

 Here is the left side with the row of trees I added and the green lines along the field suggesting some sort of crop.

 I am looking forward to seeing how Suze finishes this off. Everyone that worked on it did some beautiful things with it.

 October 5, 2012

Ok I know the picture is sideways! I have been playing with it for over an hour now and I cannot figure it out so I will publish it as it is right now. This is a round robin made by my friend Suze. I have had it WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY to long and it is time to add my embelishments and send it back home so that Suze and put on her finishing touches and enjoy it. In any case this is how it looked when it arrived at my house so this is the before shot (I promise the after shot will be right side up. This is what happens when you take the photo sideways with your cell phone, e-mail it to yourself, add it to your PC photos where it shows up correctly, and then import it into your blog.

So far I have added lots of trees along the brown road. I am not done with all of them and will be adding a few more before I work on something in the empty blue flowerpot. I am thinking of some red flowers with big green leaves.

My absence from this blog has been way to long and it is a long saga since I have posted. I have changed jobs and now have less hours. I also broke my foot last year and had a serious complication, a pulmonary embolism which almost did me in. It has been a road of recovery from that. I am beginning to feel that things are going to look up again as far as being able to create again. I have started drawing alot which has the juices flowing. I also got my Gammil longarm machine going again and will be finishing the little quilt that has been sitting on  it for who knows how long now. It is a whole cloth quilt out of some floral fabric that was in the stash. It will end up being a little throw for the dog and I was making it just to practice my allover feathers. I guess it is good it is only half finished as in finishing it I will be able to warm up and see if my feathers still look good. I do not think Sadie the dog is gonna critique it other and seeing if it is worthy of napping on!

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.