happy friday

Getting a little more applique practice in... Every year, B's school does a project for the auction where they ask about 30 artist to contribute to the Alphabet project.. Each person gets a letter or symbol, and produces something to do with that letter... I have the letter B this year.

In the past I have always given photographs, but this year, I am thinking of giving this little quilt... I'm going all out on a limb here, folks! Applique, embroidery, beads, hand quilting the works... I have only just begun to stitch everything down...
(and I need to learn how to BEAD!!)
anyone? tips?

So far, I'm kind of excited about the project, except, my daughter, B, insists, it's for her! So I am afraid I will be making a second one!

*********WaveRunner Progress*********

Mary made this so far!~

Siobhan pushed on, and came up with this so far!~

Michele is cruising right along! fab brights!

I'm completely giddy~!

If your posting your progress,
please shoot me an email so I can keep up!
they look fabulous!

if you need extra help, please check the videos in the last post.
to see more pics of their work hop on over to their blogs!
***


Ok.... here's my yummy stash I bought in Houston...
I didn't think I'd be buying any fabrics, but alas, I did indeed...

I couldn't pass up some Kaffe blues and greens
Old prints. I love 1800's style quilts more than anything... so I had to buy some repro column fabrics and indigos to play with...
And one little piece of Amy butler's new line.... love the navy blue..
This is all Terrie Hancock Mangat fabrics... Truly funky and fabulous...
crazy color combos, right up my alley.
And lastly, YELLOWS!
It's time for me to get back to my dresdens, and I was in serious need of background yellows....
What fun...

See! I didn't' buy out the show... just a wee little bit!
oh, and two antique quilts, but I'll save that for another post...

Have a great weekend everyone. Happy quilting!

Waves and other things

WAVERUNNER TUTORIAL CLICK HERE

A few things...
the second Waverunner top is complete. I just need to sew the blocks together.
I need to write the second part about layout... so I will wait til next week to do that.
I need a new name for this one... any ideas? "BROKEN...."Something...
I haven't figured out what...


Here is some short (goofy) videos I put together this a.m.
( It's hard to sew and hold a camera! )
to help show the process of the waverunner quilt.
watch them in order...

****
Megan & Susan cracked me up as they both emailed me saying,

YOU HAVEN'T POSTED IN TWO DAYS you must really be sick!

I know I have a blogging problem, I do like to post as much as I do make quilts.. But actually my DARN computer is acting up and I've been putting off purchasing a new bigger computer...I mean, really, why spend more money than absolutely necessary these days...
I tried posting yesterday and I had run out of upload space on my picasa which links Blogger! (Didn't know that!) so after you upgrade it, you have to wait 24 hours before it's available to use... then when I tried this am, I couldn't get my videos to load... (computer is getting slow) and well there you have it.. I learned something new... And I may be visiting MAC sooner than later...

Thanks for checking in on me though! hey you never know! ;-)

my sniffles are better too, I didn't take any claritin in Houston, and that messed me up...I've been living off claritin for three weeks, as is everyone in my house...

Anywho! Do you suppose I have something to show you?

Of course I do!

The SIMPLY REDS are done, except for labels, then they are outta here!
I needed some natural light and it's GORGEOUS out today, so I went up on the roof of our building to take these... Man, it was HOT up there...
Cool view though, No?

*********

******

My mother sent me a box today that included her Applique blocks for the Sis boom POW! quilt.

You'll have to go over there to see them. Click here, to see how those quilts are coming along!

BUT! Besides the blocks, THIS was in the box! A crazy pillow my grandma made! I am finally making a connection to how much she has influenced me as a quilter...

I adore the pillow. Love. it.

Ready, set Sew!~

WaveRunner Quilt along

ready to Rock and Roll?

Here we go...

Basic Tools:

Rotary cutter
rotary cutter mat
straight edge
sewing machine, of course!
steam iron and ironing board...


Got your fabrics selected?
(I'm using the right hand fabric for inspiration and most likely it will be the backing fabric...)

Remember when selecting your fabrics to pick
LIGHTS, MEDIUMS and DARK, & BRIGHTS

For a challenge, try to not use WHITE or WHITE BASED FABRICS...
White becomes a comfort zone color, and it's the first thing your eye is drawn too.

I used some scraps, some 1 yard,and half yard pieces.
I folded them so they were about a 10 piece on my cutting mat.

Using your rotary cutter, and NO RULER
Cut random width strips, 1 - 3" wide...
make slightly wavy cuts.
You don't need to be EXTREME in your waves...
A few every once in a while is good, but you don't need them all to be that way...

****Cut ONE strip of each of your colors, and lay them out for starters...

***

Take each strip of each color and lay them out.
How do they look?

Hmmm, for me, I don't like the black and darkest brown...

make sure you have a nice balance of colors...
I've laid mine out on the design wall, dark to lightest...
a nice gradation of tones and values...
Does it look good?

Does one color seem to flatten the whole thing?

For me the BLACK, and my darkest brown, where to much...
So I am pulling them out.

I added a deep purple instead with a warm reddish brown.

That Looks better to me...
If you have a warm palette of colors, it doesn't hurt to throw in a few cool tones... my two purples are helping to balance to warm colors...

so visa versa, have mostly cool colors? add one or two warm colors....

Continue Cutting all your strips...

If you want to cut all your strips the same length, that's fine, I use a lot of scraps so I have a random cut lengths...
We will be sewing strips together to make a variety of 10" x 10" blocks and 10"X20".

SAVE ALL YOUR SCRAPS from your trimming. in the end we will use them to create other odd 10" blocks and a few filler pieces with them.

In no particular order, I begin...
Our goal is to sew enough strips together to make 10" wides sections.

Pick your first two strips, see how wonky they are?...

Doesn't matter. lay them together, edges together at the beginning....

Start to sew, I'm keeping the red edge lined up with the purple edge...
BUT,
They do NOT need to stay edge to edge all the time, if it works out that they are not even that is FINE! They will still be nice and wavy so don't worry about the edges lining up PERFECTLY...
Sometimes with the wave of your fabric you won't be able to get the edges perfectly...
(this is really going against everything you've learned about sewing right!?)
;-)

keep adjusting the top fabric... your sewing line DOES NOT need to be straight,

if your strips are too straight, then sew a
wavy seam, JUST KEEP YOUR EDGES TOGETHER....

See how my seam is wavy and I have pulled the fabric to keep my raw edges lined up?

Open it up, and with your full steam iron, you'll press, steam and pull the fabric til it lays flat.

These curves are very gentle and with a hot iron you CAN press them out flat... Just keep spreading it out, and steam pressing it flat... press seams to the darker fabric...

See? now continue adding rows, til it's just over 10" wide...

You can press as you go, or sew all your rows on, and then press it out...
BE SURE TO PRESS YOUR SEAMS to Towards the DARK FABRICS...
Since we are only going 10" wide, I tend to do the whole bit, and then press it out...
Stretch , pull, and keep lots of water in your iron to steam it all out flat...

Mine looks like this because I used scraps... I sew the long bits together anyway,
as when I trim this, (the only time you'll use your straight edge)
I save the bits to start new blocks... SAVE ALL YOUR trimming!!

trim to cut 14 ...10"x10" squares
4....10" x 20" rectangles,
And, I repeat! Save all your trims, as you can use them to start the next 10" block...See some blocks have little bits tucked into them. Use the scraps to create another 10" block.
It's nice to change directions even inside a few random blocks...
When you start to lay them out, I try to do a vertical, horizontal vertical pattern...
some blocks I make have both directions in them ...

Be aware, when sewing the cut off bits together to make new blocks, that you DO NOT PULL
the seams to much or you will have to re sew the cut seams, like this...

Here are a few more areas where there are two directions inside of one block.

mix it up... there is no right or wrong way to put these together...
NOTE:
If you get a piece, and no matter how much you press and pull it does not lay flat...
CUT THE WAVY PART OFF, and add onto the block with something else...
(or cut it at a 10" block if you have the room to do so)
I've only had one piece in two quilts that I needed to do that too.
I'd show you but blogger says I just ran out of photo upload space...
so i gotta go fix that...

This is the random layout I used on my first... After you've made up your first 18 blocks, Using your scraps , you can start to use them for filling in...

We'll deal with the lay out in the next post. Because sometimes a block just doesn't sit the way you want it, and you have to PLAY! with them to get it right...

Please comment, and ask questions, I'll answer questions in the comment section itself...
Remember not to over think this, just cut your strips, throw them in a pile, and pick one up and start sewing them together any which way.
It's fun and fast, and you'll use your noggin more when you're laying them out... ;-)
Have fun!

I'll post filler blocks and layout next week Wednesday.
If you have images of your work, please email them to me. Email is on my profile.
I'll take a day once a week to show progress.

thanks!
V

home...achoo!

oh, lordy.
I am home!
I had such a great time in Houston...
A truly eye opening experience...

I got to meet Shelly and her hubby,
(what a good sport to drive his wife 16 hours to see quilts!)
of prairiemoon quilts.
What a sweetheart. so fun to put faces to bloggers!
She had a quilt in one of the exhibitions... you can see it on the link above...

CLICK HERE: Pictures of the Houston Int'l Quilt Festival

Click on the above link to take you to ALL 10 pages of my images from the show.

Below are some of my personal favorites.

I kept coming back to this quilt. Although it was not a winner, I thought it was the most creative lovely piece of work at the show. Very different from every thing else. It was made by a Japanese woman, and I have learned they do some pretty amazing stuff....

Roberta Horton did the above quilt. It's right up my alley and has the most lovely fabrics...

Winner of Miniatures, 10" square block! click to enlarge.... it will be bigger than it was in real life!
The photo below is probably life size, if you don't click on it... amazing points!!!
She had to use to magnifiers over her machine to stitch this,
and the craziest thin thread to do this...

There were many quilts with people on it, and I thought most looked flat, and the face were never as good as the rest. then we saw this little guy... Stunning.

And of course, some flying geese, because I love flying geese and the color and layout is fabulous...by Janet Steadman... really LOVE her stuff...

Machine Quilting anyone?

This quilt had the dog quilted out of it... all that lacy look was machine quilted...
Overall it might not have been the best machine quilting but the idea,
and effort gets a A++ from me!

The big winner of them all was:
Best in Show: Caryl Bryer Fallert

You can click the link to see more about her. Color and composition was amazing, machine quilting fantastic, but I really am not crazy about figures in quilts... But hey! I'm not a $10,000 quilt show winner, so what do I know!... Good for her, Congrats! It was indeed a beautiful quilt.

Wave Runner Quilt along.

I also brought home a COLD form Houston...
So I am think I am going to need an extra day to get organized...

So by Wednesday, I will have up the first post for the quilt along.
I'm thinking, Wednesdays will be the WaveRunner post day.... so be sure ladies, if you quilting along, check the blog on Wednesdays for up dates, info and questions answered...

I purchased a bunch of fabrics for my dresden plate quilt so I will be working on that...along with the waverunner.

I also purchased a bunch of great fabrics from an artist named
Terrie Hancock Manget.

I'm a huge Virgin mary fan. Although not religious... Look a this tryptic she did.
Love it. Knocks my socks right off.... see gallery of her work here.
And I am itching to start that project as well...

So I need to unpack, clean up and get to work...
Hope you all had a great weekend.