Five Shadows

Looking forward to a new year of sewing, and having come across many interesting challenges on the web, I’ve decided to sign up for two. Here is my plan, I’ve signed up for the Free Motion Quilting Challenge offered by Sew Cal Gal. I took a free motion quilting class at a local quilt shop this past year, and have just not played/practiced around with it enough to feel comfortable with FMQ. This challenge should help. There will be 12 experts giving free advice during the year. One FMQer per month. And there is a Facebook page with loads of advice and encouragement.

Then the Color Palette Challenge caught my eye, offered by Vicki of Field Trips in Fiber and Judy of Patchwork Times. But would I really follow through with two different challenges, I wondered? Vicki suggested that the two could be combined. The more I’ve thought about it, I believe Vicki is right. I could use her color palette to create a mini quilt each month and then use the encouragement to FMQ that piece.

Then I remembered a Block of the Month pattern series I bought several years ago. Baskets & Blooms by Joined at the Hip (2000!) And now my thought is I’ll create the BOM using Vicki’s color palette and practice the FMQ in the background of those blocks.

Here’s to a Happy New Year with new sewing experiences!

My daughter helped me out on a recent commission. I received a bag of fabrics along with the instructions to create two baby quilts that must have a rainbow as part of the design. I gave the job to my very creative daughter, Janelle. She sketched out two similar ideas, we bought more fabric (background for the rainbows, backing and binding) and she got busy with the piecing and fusing. Then she hand quilted the two quilts!

Here are her results – Rainbow with happy rain drops:

Rainbow with happy cloud.

Cute quilts, don’t you think?

I make shop models for Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, 126 W. Second Street, Roanoke, IN 46783. Owner Deborah Roehm’s Victorian house is bursting at the seams with lovely fabrics, patterns, books, tools.  Josephine’s Knot by Calico Carriage Quilt Designs is the latest top I have pieced. 63″ x 100″.

Quilt #2. I am currently working on four clothing quilts for a client. These will be memory quilts made of t-shirts, sweatshirts, dress shirts, ties, handkerchiefs, slacks, jeans, and bib overalls. I’ve decided to call them Not Just T-Shirts Quilts because of the variety of clothing in them. They are similar in construction to t-shirt quilts. Several of the clothing types need to be backed with a fusible interfacing for stability. Theme fabric have been incorporated to add interest to the quilt top. Dog prints in this quilt top, theme Yorky Dogs. 67″ square finished quilt.

Because of the quantity of clothing, the piecing has spilled over on to the back. There is a pocket in the lower right corner that my client may use to tuck a personal note in for the recipient of this quilt.

I’ve signed up for the challenge for several reasons. I’ve played at FMQ for a long time. Sometimes being successful and sometimes not. I have been following Leah Day’s blog all year, but have not taken the time to play and practice to improve. Leah is one of the 12 teachers listed who will be teaching us how to FMQ in this challenge. I even took a class from a local quit shop – bought stuff, but haven’t used it. This challenge sounds doable! So I’ve signed up! Sign up here if you are interested. (Thanks to I’m Doing Stuff for posting about this challenge on her blog.)

I just found Lily’s Quilts: Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet. What two great ideas! So I am linking to her. See the links on my side bar if you are interested.

I’ve been working on clothing quilts lately. 4 to be exact. A clothing quilt is like a t-shirt quilt, only it incorporates a larger variety of clothing. The 4 I have been working on include t-shirts, dress shirts, ties, sweat shirts, slacks, jeans, and bib overalls. Here is the first completed quilt:

I added theme fabric and just a bit of bright fabric that coordinate with the t-shirts to add visual interest to the top.

I had more clothing items than I could fit into the top – so they spilled over on to the back-

And in the corner I placed a pocket with yet another piece of clothing – denim from a pair of jeans.

Another project has been a baby quilt-

This quilt is for young friend Brianna, who is expecting her first baby in early January 2012. I have been taken by the simplicity in Victoria Gertenbach of Silly BooDilly hand quilting, and decided to try my own simple quilting of just straight lines by machine for this baby quilt. Brianna is going with an elephant theme for baby Hadyn. I don’t have a picture, but the back is the cutest ever animal print, Jolly Jungle Animals by Henley Studio.

I’ll share clothing quilts 2-4 as soon as I get the binding on!

Here are three of my most recent creations.  I have been a fan of Jan Patek for a long time! Here is one of her wallhanging made with Lilac Hill Moda Fabric.

And for all the dog lovers in the world – isn’t this a cute quilt?! Go Fetch! is the pattern using Basic Grey Moda Max and Whiskers fabric line.

And how about some Sherbet Pips? I love this retro fabric and snowball pattern! Sherbet Pips by Aneela Hoey for Moda. Hmmmm. I’m seeing a Moda theme here.

I read somewhere that some gals like to see projects in progress, not just a photo  of the completed project. That sounded like a good idea to me. I must admit, I do like seeing the progress on blogs myself, and at least some explanation of the process. That said, here is a photo of a few items I’ll be playing with this coming week. I’m thrilled to get to try out  Leaves Galore quilting rulers created by Sue Pelland Designs. I’ll be making up some models for Fabric and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN. And I love the Mistyfuse stabilizer! Have you ever used it? You need to use a teflon sheet with the Mistyfuse – oops forgot to put that in the photo!

I’ll try to show an in progress photo next. I have many ideas using these rulers swirling around in my head for quilts and also for paper crafting.

A little girl just might love this bright and happy bug quilt. Dancing Bug Fabric, Me & My sister Designs – Easy as 7 pattern.

This is a Ricky Timms pattern and fabric, line is Oodles of Doodles. 3D Flying Geese. This was a fast and easy quilt using the one-seam method to make the geese.

Sidelights Pattern, Orientals. I think this pattern would work great in a fussy cut kids print.

A soft Shannon fabric quilt (like Minky fabric) sewn with the sew and flip method.

And Purses! This orange print with black cats is a friend’s favorite fabric. She loves it! I call it the scary cat fabric. The pattern is called “Multi Tasker Tote.”

This next purse uses the “Peace Bag” pattern. But I did not put the peace symbol on the purse. Front, showing off the lady fabric:

Back of bag.

That’s all folks! Till next time!

Alas, my running record of 21 years without a rotary cutter mishap has just ended.   I was busily working away on a quilt, when Yikes! I shaved off the side of my finger with the rotary cutter. There are way too many capillaries  in one’s finger tips, I think.

Here are some quilt tops that might make you smile.  Hope so!

This quilt is made with Dilly Dally Fabric by Me and My Sister, the pattern is Got a Feeling by Abbey Lane. I like the large rick rack used as flower stems. Rick rack is making a come-back in the sewing world.

This fun quilt is made with Love My Dog fabric from the Playful Pups line by Benartex. The top is similar to a pattern found in the Fall 2010 Fons and Porter’s Magazine by Debby Kratovil. I just changed it up a bit.

And this quilt is made with Peek-a-Zoo fabric by Henry Glass Fabrics.

These three quilts are shop models for Fabric and Friends Quilt Shop, Roanoke, IN. 260-676-2149.