Mirage

For a "fantasy" themed landscape quilt challenge over on Valerie Hearder's yahoo group. 

Why yes, I am getting a little tired of the eternal winter around here-- gray, dark green, shadows, and rain-- so this is where I went to in my own personal fantasy.  The exact opposite, hot and parched.  Is that an oasis in the distance, or am I hallucinating from the heat?

This is a small quilt, about 10-11 inches by 11-12 inches, and uses a variety of hand-painted fabrics and commercial quilting cottons.  The shading on the dunes was painted by yours truly using Shiva paintstiks, and the dunes were appliqued down using a fusible web.  I hand embroidered some tiny french knots to add texture to the "desert floor" and machine top-stitched the distant mountains and water of the mirage using metallic machine threads.  Then I added beads because I can't help it, it's gotta have bling. 

Black Friday

Shopping?  Maybe.  I want to go out and feel the energy of the crowds and get decorations and stocking stuffers for all and sundry, but to go shopping today would involve dragging the kids along so maybe we'll just hit one or two of the lower-traffic stores.  We are out of coffee so there's my excuse for an expedition.

But I did get to do some shopping for myself last weekend, there was a quilting and sewing show over at the fairgrounds.  My biggest purchase was this bundle of quilting cottons (and would have been the pattern too, but that was only $0.01 with purchase of the fabric, score!). 

I absolutely adore these colors and the model for this quilt was stunning and did not look so difficult, so maybe this will be a good Christmas-break project.  It'll be my first quilt larger than a couple placemats strung together, so we'll see how that goes.  

Also there was scissors acquisition involved but that'll be a future post.  Hee!

The pretty quilt

"Pretty" is a relative term.  But, little Lena thinks it is gorgeous! 

Last week Jo-Ann had a big fabric sale and I let Lena pick out some fabric for a "dinosaur quilt".  She picked out this boldly printed flannel of orange and navy dinosaurs on turquoise.  It was THE fabric and none else would do.  Saturday was spent making some curtains for the boy's loft bed, so Sunday was the day of the quilt assembly.  She picked out a pink ammonite fossil print cotton from my stash for the binding.  None else would do, so despite a vividly bright and clashy color scheme, I assembled it.  She "helped" by "measuring" the binding strips and laying them out as I cut them.  Oh, and by getting into all the spools of thread to pick out the color I should use to sew them together (bright red).

The original plan was to mount some of the stitched dinosaurs I'd made for her directly onto it, but when I went to get them she said "NO" and it took a long time to sort out what she wanted...eventually we figure out what she wanted was to do the decorative stitching on it herself.  You might remember her first stitches from September.  So I got out the pink DMC and a hoop and she went to town.

She couldn't finish her masterpiece before it was time for trick-or-treating, so in the evening she cuddled up on the couch next to me to finish it.

Aww.

And the finished masterpiece, put on your sunglasses:

She loves it.  If she wants to use this thing to learn some stitches that is fine with me, and she's been dragging it all over the house ever since.  I am really glad my only requirement for the materials she picked out was that everything be washable--she wanted some gold sequins added too, but I said maybe next time.

The sad tale of the unfinished algae pool quilt

When I was looking for the muslin the other day I uncovered this:

"What the heck is that?" you ask.  Appropriate question.  A few years ago I took a three-day art quilting design class with Ann Johnston.  It was a good class and I learned a few quilting techniques, and had some good exercises on the value of line and shape in fabric design.  She asked us to bring some of our own favorite photos to use as inspiration.  This was one of the ones I chose:

"What the heck is that?" you ask, again.  Apologies for the photo quality, it was taken in the BDC (before digital camera) era with a really cheap 35mm point and shoot.  Remember how film used to be expensive and you'd only take one or two shots of something, rather than 30 and pick the best?  Anyway I digress.  This is algae growing near the edge of a Yellowstone hot spring.  You better bet that next time I get back to Yellowstone I'm taking a couple extra SD cards for a few thousand photos.  Anyway...

Our project on the last day of the class was to use what we'd learned in the class to make a small quilt based on one of our photos.  I chose to simplify the bright colors of the algae and try to capture the movement of the water. 

I actually still really like this quilt.  When I got it home I continued the quilting lines within the central area and started quilting the lighter green. 

But I kept breaking threads and needles, no matter what I tried.  That is when I realized something very, very important.  This quilt was made using reverse applique of several layers of fabric.  I did not trim away the excess underneath layers, the other people in the class said that probably wasn't necessary and the extra layers would create a firmness that would be an interesting effect in the finished product.  What I failed to realize was that I, as the youngest and poorest member of the class, was using an entry-level basic Kenmore sewing machine, everyone else was using fancy Berninas and whatnot.  And when free-motion quilting, my basic Kenmore can't handle more than three or four layers (fabric, batting, fabric) in the quilt sandwich. 

So lessons learned:
1) know your machine
2) think about the advice of others, if it will really work for you, and
3) if I'm serious about this quilting thing, invest in a better machine.

But today I'm still using the basic Kenmore.  It does still work well for most general applications.  And because of space restrictions I'm not going to be doing large quilts anyway so now I just have to be careful about how I construct the smaller things, most of my work is done by hand anyway. 

So that's the end of the tale, for now, at least.  I still rather like this unfinished little beast, and if I ever do upgrade my machine, I think finishing this little quilt will probably be how I learn the new machine's quirks. 

Map Quilts

Pondering the idea of making a small quilt of a map of our area.  Maybe a topo map, or road map, or or or...  Looking for ideas across the internet this morning, I found some wonderful things!

Scrappy maps in vivid color like "I Left My Heart in Africa" from WorldQuilter

Topographic Quilt of Julian, California.  One of Haptic Lab's fabulous Neighborhood Quilts

And the most stunning quilts by Leah Evans...wonderful interpretations of topographic maps and aerial views in fabric. 



Leah Evans' "Tundra" quilt.  See more at DesignBoom and Leah Evans Textiles



Zion trail landscape done!

Finished last night. 

Last June we took a wonderful trip to Utah.  We spent a fantastic afternoon exploring a little side canyon in Zion National Park, that had amazing, undulating sections of steep-sided slot canyons, gentle rock slopes to scramble on, a thousand small cactuses and lizards the boy marveled over, and pink sand that the little girl just loved.  Unfortunately, we did eventually have to leave-- and we made a rock tower to mark the turn off back to the car.  This photo is one memory of that afternoon, of how reluctant we were to leave but how happy and thankful we were to be there in the first place. 

The quilt:

 This measures about 8x10.  Still (always) learning this craft but each one seems a little better.  It is hard to improve upon reality but with glittering fabrics and threads and a wonderful memory, at least you can try. 

Landscapes in the Fall

No, not necessarily the colorful foliage of Autumn...but when it turns damp and colder outside this time of year, my stitching habits tend to turn slightly toward two things:  Christmas ornaments, and quilts. 

I am not a good traditional quilter...putting things together using straight lines is apparently not my strength.  I tend toward small applique, like Hawaiian quilts, geometric art quilts, and landscapes.  All my little quilt experiments must be small, sadly, because of space restrictions. 

This was my first ever landscape quilt, it's about 5x8.  Don't look too close at the poor machine stitching!  It was my first attempt at free-motion stitching on my inexpensive Kenmore sewing machine.  I should have practiced more, but frankly, I'm still not that much better at it. 

I was looking vacation photos yesterday and thinking it's time for more landscapes.  These books are my favorites on the subject, and it's Valerie Hearder's titles that got me started in these.

So I think I'll pull out my little stash of fabrics later today and see how I can interpret some of my favorite places.  I'll let you all see what I work out!

Bryce Canyon, June 2010

Zion National Park, June 2010

Washington Coast, March 2009

East foothills of the Cascade Mountains, July 2009