Five Shadows

These pretty fabrics are about to become a clothe book for a friend.

This is the little wall hanging (21″ x 34″) that I stitched up for a friend. I don’t do the quilting, as she is a long-arm machine quilter. She is also a vendor at quilting shows in Northern Indiana – Country Quilting is the name of her booth. So if you are ever shopping at shows in NI you can look for her booth. She deals mostly in books, patterns, and kits.

These lovely ladies and coordinating prints are about to become a wall-hanging for a friend. I’ll show the resulting quilt in a few days!

Terri Stegmiller of Stegart blog and Sue Bleiwess at  Two Creative Studios are hosting a block of the month (BOM) over on their website. On their Two Creative Studios website you can find a TCS ning group to join if you want to play along. (Click on Free Projects and then Block of the Month) I’m playing and here is my first block. Oh! And Terri and Sue are offering prizes too!

I used Sweethearts fabrics by Benartex. The fabrics are leftover from a quilt I made this Spring for my friend Ria, who lives in South Africa. You can see a picture of Ria’s quilt top here.

Two Creative Studios are offering a summer giveaway over at their website. Go check them out and sign up for their newsletter! They have a list of great class offerings that one sweet day I hope to sign up for! But alas, money will not allow such a thing right now. But I enjoy their blogs and newsletter and the inspiration I glean. Sue has a photo up on her blog of what they are giving away and also two journal covers she is making out of foil and ink. Here is a link to Terri’s blog. She has been doing some amazing fabric dying lately.

Another giveaway happening is over at Leah’s Art Girl blog. She hosts a Scrap Saturday Giveaway and has a huge one running this month with a link to Art Now for Autism. Check out Leah’s post and see if perhaps you would like to donate to this worthy cause. The Art Now for Autism is a reverse auction with proceeds going toward autism awareness and research. Go check it out! If not creating art to donate, you could buy an item to help support autism research.

PS  I wanted to add that there is a great company here in my hometown that runs an online store and store front creating items to help those with Autism. Go check out Sensory Critters!

Here is the progress on several of the canvas round robin bags that have passed through my hands. For the Flower Garden theme bag, I made Prairie Points using two fabrics (notice the yellow center of the prairie points) and then added some silk flowers and buttons. They are actually sewn on a vertical seam of the bag but I rotated the picture to post …

Next I played with Dimensional Applique, (see The Quilting Arts Book by Patricia Bolton, page 76) making several leaves as described by Heidi Lund. These are so fun to make! Here are three of them added to the Autumn theme bag. I also added the hand died variegated ruffle on the top edge of the bag.  I cut the ruffle from a piece of fabric I  won from a drawing held on  Kelli Perkins blog. (Thank you Kelli! Do you recognize it?!)

Then  I played more with the dimensional applique, making bird feathers for the Bird theme bag. And I also played with painting on fabric with using Setacolor paints and salt to create the letters ‘B’ ‘I’ ‘R’ ‘D’  which I sewed on the side of the bag and then attached the fabric feathers and a real feather.

I am trying to experiment with new to me techniques as I work on the bags. So far the dimensional applique and fabric painting has been the most rewarding!

So friends! How about signing up for the Generosity Project as I described here? Just leave a comment here and you may receive a gift from me, made by my own hands – hmmm, how about some dimensional applique or needle felting!

I sent this little 12″ square quiltie off in the mail yesterday to meet the deadline for Lenna’s Fabric Technique Swap. The idea behind the swap was to try out some new-to-you techniques. I had planned a go at needle felting, but then my last issue to Belle Armoire arrived in the mail. I used Roberta Morgan’s technique for using alcohol inks on fabric – pages 40-43. Great article and a fun, simple technique! I also did hand stamping, foil, beading, and free motion quilting.

I’m so happy to show this quilt top which has actually been on my  to-do list for TWO years!  That’s right ladies, two years! I planned this quilt two years ago to make for my  friend, Ria, who lives in South Africa! She was here visiting at the time, and asked if I would make a quilt for her. Of course I said yes! She picked the block pattern and then headed for home.  I started buying fabrics. But never got around to starting the quilt until I received an email saying she was coming to visit the end of March.  Yikes! I had to get busy! But when I pulled out the bag of collected fabric, I knew it was just not bright and bold enough for Ria, so off I go shopping for the right fabric. I completed the top on Monday. I headed back to my local quilt shop on Tuesday for fabric for the back and finished it up at about mid-night last night. This morning I created the label and took the top and back to a mutual friend who volunteered to do the long-arm quilting as her part of the gift quilt to Ria. I should get it back next week when I will then add the binding. I’ll show better pictures of the quilt and back once it is quilted. This pic will have to do for now.

Block name: Spinners. From The Thimbleberries Guild for Weekend Quilters. This is so not Thimbleberries fabric! Kittie Juno checking out the quilt.

I just read Jacquie’s Spring to Finish post over at Tall Grass Prairie Studio. She is challenging her readers to join her if pulling out the unfinished projects and seeing how many you ca complete by the end of April. Since that is just what I have been doing, I have decided to join in! I have a curtain to complete for a customer, a quilt top to finish up for a friend, and Yikes! I even have a deadline to meet by April 22 for a swap I signed up for and have not sewn one stitch for yet. And do I get to events count too? I’m coordinating a spring formal dance “prom” for 120 teens happening April 24. The to-do list for that seems to be getting longer rather than shorter as the date draws near! – just two weeks away! But yet, here I am blogging! LOL I needed a break!

Here are some photos taken by my friend, Mary. She is new to quilting and, I think, having lots of fun! But I don’t have a picture of her or her piece work! We each brought along the projects we wanted to work on, plus there were three classes offered. Some of the ladies took the classes taught by quilter Twila Longenberger.

here are a few of the blocks made during two classes

Two of Twila's quilts (one on top of the other)

Another quilt by Twila.

Cynthia taught her daughter to quilt! Genevieve's first quilt top!

Melanie's Thimbleberries Quilt Top

Dianna's Quilt Top

Melanie's crazy quilt top

Busy Bee Kathy

Newbie quilter Jeannette and her table runner