Two posts in one day!

I decided to do one more little “sketch” before calling it a day. It seems that as soon as I sit down at the machine, all my doodling ideas fly out of my head and I draw a complete blank. Oh well, it isn’t much but at least I did something.

Not sure what I will do with this, I might cut it apart and use the pieces for cardmaking The edges are unfinished but I wil probably finish them with paint if I use it for cards.

Now back to pondering the baby quilt!

Finished!

Okay, I finished the traditional mini tumbler made from repro prints. It was a beautiful day to sit out on my park bench and hand stitch the binding. Here is a picture before washing:

And here is what it looks like after washing:

The biggest difference can be seen in the borders. I use Warm and Natural batting which is 100% needle punched cotton. I love the way it softens after washing.

I am really pleased with the free hand feathers in the border but I can see here that I have a lot of work to do when it comes to photographing my quilts. These pics look washed out and definitely not as crisp as I would like.

I have a baby shower to attend on Sunday and haven’t even started the baby quilt yet. I better at least decide tonight what I am going to do!

Until next time….

What is this?

I used to make only traditional quilts, my favorites being scrap quilts with reproduction or real vintage fabrics. I still love these but in the last few years have moved into more of an abstract arty style. Yesterday while surfing the net, I came across some wonderful blogs that reminded me of my roots in traditional scrap quilts. There is a lady named Lucy who lives in the Netherlands and I spent a number of hours (yes, hours!) yesterday enjoying her blog as the rain poured down outside. Here is the link to her site called Quilting the Past. SHe inspired me to dig out some scraps and make a vintage style miniature quilt.

The tumblers are 1 1/2 inches high and the whole top is about 15″ x 20″. This shows machine quilting on my favorite machine, a 1955 SInger Model 201:

I am actually a bit farther than this now. I stitched the tumblers in the ditch and then free handed feathers in the borders. I am using a repro yellow for the binding. I should have a picture of the finished product tomorrow.

It does feel good to start and finish a project in one weekend! That doesn’t happen very often these days. I also knitted half a sock on a trip to IKEA Friday so this is the most productive fiberwise I have been in a long time!

Until next time….

A few more “sketches”

Thanks for the comments on my last little piece! I was encouraged to try a bit more tree sketching. I have never thought I was any good at drawing so it was a bit scary to try sketching at the machine without a pattern or anything to follow. But since I was working on small scraps of fabric and batting, I didn’t have anything to lose but time. This is what I ended up with:

Here are closeups:

I used light blue thread for the trees ( because it was already in the machine ) and again finished the edges with silver paint. Looks like it is time for me to clean my cutting mat!  The sizes are in the 4 1/2 to 6″ range. 

Until next time….

A new little something…….

I spent a little time playing tonight and came up with this:

It measures about 6″ x 10″ and is actually straight. I took the pic with it hanging on my little wire clothesline in my sewing room so it isn’t flat against the wall and wants to twist. I started with a piece of hand dyed fabric and chalked in the tree trunk and moon. Then I machine quilted followed by a bit of Shiva paintsticks on the trunk and moon. Finally I trimmed and finished the edges with a bit of silver acrylic paint. Now I am deciding if I like it enough to frame. It was an experiment. I rather like the tree except for the branch on the left side, way too thick and no idea how to fix it. If I trim it off, the rest of the tree is too far to the left. Hmmmm……. The moon is more golden than I would like but my selection of paintsticks is VERY limited. I went over it with white but it didn’t lighten it much.  Any ideas, thoughts, critiques?

Until next time……