Central Oklahoma Quilt Show and Toads

I've been amazingly (for me) productive on some of my quilting projects, lately.  As I've posted, a number of times in a number of places, I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a needle rather than use it to do handwork.  Because of that, I get to the point of handstitching down the binding on a quilt and tend to just...stop. 

Recently, I've been working on a quilt I'm giving as a gift.  I didn't start it until last week.   It is small, about the size of a baby quilt.

I quilted it a couple of days ago and yesterday, I actually cut out the binding, machined stitched it to the quilt and handstitched it down.  ALL IN ONE DAY.  I couldn't believe it.  I amazed myself.   I felt like doing a victory lap but it was still 95 degrees outside at nearly 10:00 AT NIGHT and I didn't want to drop dead of a heart attack before I got that sucker in the mail.  After it arrives at its destination, I'll post some better photos.  For now, here's a toad:

I went to the Central Oklahoma Quilt Show, this week (this is not me):

There were so many fabulous quilts.  It was an excellent show and I am mad at myself for not making an effort to create a quilt to exhibit.  That would have been fun.  I've also lollygagged around so much that I probably won't have time to make one for the State Fair, either.  I'm including a few photos.

This photo does not do this quilt justice.  It won Best Use of Fabric.  I think it's called Shades of the Orient:

 I'm not a big fan of strip quilts but this was one of my favorite in the whole show:

If you zoom in, above, you can see that the flowers are all appliqued.  Gives me vertigo to even consider it.

An innovative and dramatic use of log cabin blocks with a great job of quilting to pull it together:

 I hate that I didn't get the name of this quilt but it was a beauty:

Who doesn't love batiks?  Closeup:

 The former First Lady of Oklahoma, Donna Nigh, gave her award for this applique quilt:

This quilt was beautifully appliqued and quilted:

Spiked stars - what a gorgeous piece of work:

Gorgeous Piece of Work:  If I ever do a self portrait, I will keep that title in mind. :)

Best in Show and it deserved it:

This was painted as well as pieced and quilted.  The photo doesn't show how three dimensional it looked.  Just lovely:

 Lot's of embroidery on this one:

 A very traditional Dresden Plate:

 Beautiful colors reminiscent of the thirties with scalloped edges:

 Another paperpieced batik:

 Loved this appliqued quilt.  I wish I had it for my breakfast area:

And no, I am not going to make one.  I don't do applique.

A pretty Hawaiian Quilt:

Very traditional solid colored fabric Feathered Stars.   Solid colors sometimes look so bold as to be hamfisted but by feathering the stars, she made it look dainty.   Beautifully quilted, too:

 This is a miniature, maybe a 15 inches long? - just gorgeous:

 Closeup of some YoYo's:

 Little works of art:

This beauty made me tired just looking at it.   The longer I look at it, the more I realize just how much is going on in there.  This quilter was a master.  She's perfected so many different techniques. It was incredibly intricate and gorgeous:

By my art quilt hero, Charlotte Hickman:

And these next two are by Lola Jenkins - she is a fabulous artist.  I saw her standing near some quilts wearing a very fine hat but didn't take a picture of her:

 I love this pattern:

 Another art quilt that caught my eye:

 I want this quilt to give to my Grandson, Charlie:

Maybe I will just make him one, myself.

This was a beauty, too:

It is toad season and the girls are driving us mad being constantly on the hunt. 

We've begun taking a bucket out on the patio at night to rescue the ones they capture.  We're using a bucket because when we put them over the fence, the little monsters come right back into the waiting jaws of death and destruction.   I put grass in the bottom of the bucket to make them feel at home but that isn't enough to make them content.  They sometimes still manage to leap out.  I felt terrible a couple of nights ago because I set the bucket on the table and a toad leaped 18 inches to the top, over the edge and landed all the way on the concrete patio floor, landing with a clunk.  It seemed to be okay but Mr. Morbid kept saying things like, "They are built like a water balloon so it probably has internal injuries and will die." 

I didn't need to hear that. 

My next quilting project, besides working on bindings, will probably be my younger daughter's wedding quilt.  She was married over four years ago and it is about time I got back to it.  It has pineapple blocks, one of my favorite blocks.   After that, I have a stained glass quilt project coming up and also an art quilt I need to make for one of my online groups. 

Happy Quilting, Penny, Evelyn and Pearl the toad tosser

Crayon Quilt and Fabric Foil

I've been finishing up a quilt for the world's most beautiful baby, my grandson, Charlie. Charlie is only four months old but is showing every indication of having the potential of being the first perfect toddler in the history of man.

As soon as I returned home after Charlie was born, I started on a Crayon Quilt. I used my existing stash for all but the backing:

 I was going to use some of my stash for the backing but when I saw this fabric, I had to have it:

 Here is the border:

 This is before I've stitched on the border:

 It is simply quilted - just a large meander for the most part:

 

 I've machine stitched down the binding but haven't handstitched it down, yet:

I've also been working on a project for one of my online groups where we exchange handmade gifts using materials or a theme selected by the members on a rotating basis. This time, we are supposed to use fabric foil to make something. I have no idea what I am doing with this project and am sort of floundering. I decorated a yard of fabric, thinking I could use it to prepare a gift. Here are some photos of that attempt.

The following is a photo of several fabric foil pieces, the bottle of adhesion, a sponge and some leaves I used as stamps:

 These leaves came off one of the Post Oaks in the front yard:

 I globbed on adhesion (glue) to the backs and used them as a stamp:

I decided that I didn't use enough glue on several of the leaves.  Here is a photo of the glue while it is air drying:

I covered everything with freezer paper to keep it from getting too messy.  This glue was stickier than you'd think.

 This is the end result of my first effort:

The way you apply the foil is to first let the glue air dry about 2.5 hours.  At that point, you cover the dried glue with a foil sheet, colored side up.   Then, with an iron on the cotton setting, you use the edge and press it away from your body for several strokes.  After a few seconds to let it "catch," you peel off the foil and some of it remains on the fabric:

 There are several colors on each leaf because I used multiple colors on each one:

 Close-ups:

 I thought it was pretty, but I am not sure how I would be able to use this for this project:

As a second attempt at this project, I made a muted colored nine patch (12 inch finished block) and instead of using leaves, I used a quilting stencil and some stamps. It didn't turn out like I wanted.  The frustrating part of that was that part of the block looked great but the rest looked yucky. 

So after that, for a third effort, I stamped a bunch of separate pieces with a flower stamp and used different colors of foil. By doing that, I was able to pick and choose which ones I wanted to use in my project. I cut them out in smaller blocks to combine, later, but still am not sure what I am going to do with it. I'll let you know...

Happy Quilting, Penny, Evelyn and Pearl

Quilting Funk and Berry Bag

For quite some time I've really been in a quilting funk and haven't been inspired about creating something with fabric.  Part of that may be due to the time of the year when it is hot and I like to be outside.  Additionally, I've been preoccupied with learning to use my new camera, plus we've had a lot of work being done around the house that's kept me busy.

That being said, however, in the past couple of weeks I've visited several quilt shops seeking inspiration.  I finished up my son and daughter-in-law's wedding quilt (four years late); starting binding a lap quilt I made back in Virginia; ordered some materials for a group project that is due on the 15th (and clearly will be late); finished the top of my latest quilt for Grandson Charlie; and ordered some backing fabric for it.  I also stitched up a little strawberry shaped bag.  The bag was a Fig Tree Threads Pattern:

I've never been one to use patterns that much (they call for more discipline than I have, generally) but whenever I break down and use one, I'm usually happy with the results.  Go figure - some of us are bound and determined to make life hard on ourselves, I guess.  Some of us go further and make life hard on others while we're at it. 

I decided to use a red fabric for the berry and quilted it using a spray on adhesive to help hold it, together.  I really hate pinning things to quilt and prefer the spray when I can get away with it. 

I quilted in a simple grid with white muslin for the backing.   Using the template from the pattern on freezer paper, I cut out the front and back of the berry body.  So far, so good:

After stitching the body, right sides together and leaving open the top, I cut pie shaped points on the edges of the quilted "berry."

The lining was from the same template, only stitched deeper so it would fit inside (that's it underneath the "berry").  I also left open an additional four inch gap to turn it, later:

After that, I used templates to make leaves.  I stitched them, right sides together, leaving open the top to turn:

Per directions, I turned them and overlapped them on the top of the berry:

I've had this green fabric with the lady bugs for a long time and was glad to use it for this.  

I doubled up on the amount of fabric the pattern called for so the strap would be thicker:

Here is a closeup of the leaves pinned to the body: 

I discovered that pinning the leaves horizontally didn't work so well because when I tried to stitch it to the lining, the pins kept catching. I ended up having to frog stitch and redo it. The second time, I put the pins in vertically so they wouldn't catch. I also basted the top to keep the leaves flat.  Here is a photo that also includes the strap (in this photo, the pins are still horizontal - I guess this was taken at the first try):

The strap is shorter than the pattern called for, just because.  I took the length in the pattern simply as a "suggestion."  I do that, alot. 

The next step was to slide the "berry" (right sides out) into the lining.  The right sides of the "berry" and the lining were facing:

 You then just stitch around the top edge to catch the leaves and the straps.  Here is a closeup:

It is a little tricky because the layers of the straps, seams and leaves are on the underside where you can't see them but not really hard if you're careful.  And if you mess up, it's easy enough to frog stitch and redo.  Once you stitch around the top, you turn it inside out through the gap left in the lining.  You then stitch the gap closed.  This is a photo showing turning it inside out, in progress:

TA DA!! 

Where I messed up was that I should have used a lining that didn't clash with the leaves.  I'd never made a purse with a lining so didn't realize that the inside would poke up, a little, over the seam.  Didn't even occur to me.  Were I to do it, again, I'd have used matching green fabric so it wouldn't be obvious.

I gifted Evelyn with the purse but she wasn't at all pleased about the "honor:"

 Pearl took it a little better:

 Here are a few photos of the bag:

 See?  Green or red would have been a much better color for the lining:

 Live and learn.

Happy Quilting, Penny, Evelyn and Pearl