SummerWind-COMPLETED!!!

This baby is done, and she rocks! I present "SummerWind":

The center star and the multicolored border feature my hand-dyed fabrics along with a few batiks. 

The star was created using a pattern I found in Simply Charming Collection by Moose on the Porch Quilts.

I  designed the border and highlighted it with a running feather-loop in both the multicolored border and the black outer border.

I knew I wanted really heavy FMQ (Free Motion Quilting) in the white (negative) spaces. But to balance the quilt, I needed to stitch the center with a close, but not too dense stitch. So I did these curves with in each square.

Each white triangle has a feather surrounded by filler stitches. I am trying to define my style, so instead of doing a more traditional feather stitch, I tried to go more realistic. And I like it! 

Each white corner contains filler stitches: spirals, pebbles, loops. Just full of shapes I enjoy stitching.

The name comes from my favorite Frank Sinatra song: "Summer Wind".

The summer wind came blowin' in
From across the sea
It lingered there to touch your hair
And walk with me

2 more done!

I haven't been a complete slug this Holiday week. I have done exactly what I wanted to do: sleep late, spend time with my Hubby and quilt! We have also taken the dogs to run every afternoon. They love the snow and it is such fun to watch them play in it.

This is a wall quilt made from scraps. One inch strips pieced together, then crosscut and re-pieced. Looks tiny and impressive, but is quite easy!

The corners are my hand-dyed fabric. I FMQed feathers in the corners and meandered in the center.

This wall quilt is for my dining room. These fabrics were a set of batik fat quarters I bought with no project in mind. I did my half-square triangles. I love how the colors make it look like Kaffe fabric! 

I did really free-FMQ all over starting with ogees from top to bottom. I am so glad to have the time to complete these. I did no sewing last night but I may play a bit with fabric today. 


As we near the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011, here are my wishes:


I wish for all children to be loved, fed and safe
I wish for all pets to be loved, fed and safe
I wish for comfort to all who are sick and who mourn
I hope for peace


I am so grateful to all of you who stop by, read my missives and view my pictures. 


Happy 2011 my dear blog-friends.

What I've been up to pt 2

I got my dye stuff out on Saturday to create some Christmas gifts. I had much fun! Forgot how much I enjoy this process. I dyed several hoodies, t-shirts and pillow cases. they make unique gifts for my family and they seem to like that!

 

Back in the studio

This has been such a busy month. I had much to do. Then my Dad was ill, and all my priorities changed. He is home (came home Thursday) and his cardiac rehab is underway. He faces the brain surgery to remove the pituitary tumor in 6-8 weeks, but he is strong and determined and surrounded by a host of family and friends to assist in any way. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers. Please continue to pray for my Dad in this rehab and in the face of the tumor. Please also pray for my Mom, who is his primary caregiver, chauffeur, best friend, life partner etc! She is exhausted from all the stress! I spent Friday night with them since I had a free-motion class on Saturday morning at Sewingly Yours. We had a relaxed dinner and I got my Mom to help me with paper piecing. She tutored me well and I have a pattern to attack in the near future!

My free-motion class was packed! I had 13 great students! The morning flew by. Wannitta has started a blog for the shop. Please check it out here and become a fan on Facebook!

And finally, on Saturday night, I got to spend a nice quiet evening with my hubby! We ate a fantastic dinner that he prepared, (roasted pork loin with root vegetables), watched the Olympics and chilled.


And today, back in the studio to release some pent-up creativity! 2, yes 2 new WIPS:


I am calling this "peekabu"

A close up of the cool batik and Kona cotton:

 

And a new hand-dyed I am calling "portal":

 

 

It has been a beautiful warm day. We have spent time outside with the dogs. I have been cutting and piecing and am quite relaxed. I am so grateful!

Snowed in, and happy!

It snowed all day yesterday. We have around 10" of snow with ice on top. It was gray, cold and nasty. Perfect to dye fabric! My son had 2 t-shirts for me to dye so I roped him in to assist. I dyed his shirts as well as about 7 yards of fabric. Part of the fabric is a really nice, soft, fine muslin; the other was an old cotton bed sheet. The results! Oh yeah, LOVE IT !

Today the sun is out and the snow is bright and great to show my colors. I do need to dye some greens, just didn't have enough jars to do that yesterday.


This is my most favorite piece from yesterday:

I love how the red and yellow blended and it looks alive and happy!

I also really like this piece. I just used my brown and golden yellow dyes, wadded up the fabric and let the magic happen!


These pieces have inspired me. I have sketched my next 2 art quilts and now just need to get them done. I have started one of my Christmas quilts, so I will get it pieced first.


As info, I dyed all these by the method for low-water immersion dyeing in "Color By Accident" by Ann Johnston. I didn't use her color color recipes, but did use her process.

New dyed colors

I dyed these yesterday:

Each piece is 1 yard.

I LOVE the folds, crinkles and shading!

Now I need to buy more muslin!

Lets catch up!

Been a busy week. Remember this fabric? While I was surrounded by the inspiring atmosphere of New York (and my fantastically talented co-workers!) I recieved the inspiration that has become this:

Front

Back

Detail

This was so much fun! I free-motion quilted in an organic circle pattern.

I daydreamed about working on it every day at work.

I could not wait to get home to work on it.

I have some more of my dyed fabric on my design wall. I am waiting for the inspiration to strike!

And I have 5 more yards in dying as I type this!

What inspires you?

Quiet Sunday

Spent all day yesterday in Danbury at the "Stokes Stomp". A great festival that features tons of great music, dancers, art and food vendors, held in Moratock Park right beside the Dan River.

For more on the "Stomp" visit the "Stokes Folks" blog. A great way to spend a gorgeous September Saturday!

Today, I dyed more fabric:

 

Love these cool colors! I concentrated on greens and blues, since I have plenty of reds and oranges. Check out this awesome "crackled" grey!

I wet the cloth and sprinkled salt on it before adding to my dye bath. Love it!

And finished 2 pillow shams to add to my etsy shop:

 

Now, I must pack. I am off tomorrow morning, spending the week in New York. No blogging until Friday!

Ciao!

Another post

Trying to catch up on crafting desires:

Finished a Buttercup Bag for my mother-in-law. Her birthday is this month and she picked out the fabric.



Dyed some fabric. My new obsession!

I love the texture.

I love my colors!

What to make........

Trying new things

When I turned 40, I decided to challenge myself by learning or doing something each year, that I have never done before. I accomplished 2 of those things in the past 4 days!
I will start with my Dan River adventure on Thursday. My husband and I went Kayaking on the Dan River with the help of the Dan River Company. These guys took us 2 novices on the river for an incredible afternoon. We went 6 miles in about 2.5 hours. It was peaceful, quiet, beautiful and exciting! Our guide, Dale was fantastic! The water was clear, and we saw turtles, birds and fish along with the awesome rock formations. This is a great trip suitable for about ages 10 and up. Most of the trip was very calm, with a few rapids thrown in to keep it exciting!




Then yesterday, I took a class with my mom on hand dying fabrics. I am definitely adding this to my crafting repertoire! We concentrate on dying a six color progression (I did from yellow to magenta) and then used our extra dyes to play and experiment. This was fun and easy, and I intend to do more to work my hand dyed fabrics into my quilts.