A sweet quilt to share on Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all.  I just finished quilting Evelyn's sweet Pink Fuchsia quilt last week and wanted to share it with you today.  She hand appliqued everything on the quilt and hand beaded it with tiny seed beads.  She'll be entering this darling quilt in the local quilt show in May.

Quick Table Runner

I just wanted to share this quick table runner idea.  I took the batik fabric left from my sister's quilt and cut everything into 2-1/2" strips using my Go!Cutter strip dies.  Randomly sewed the strips together, subcut the strip sections to 15" wide then kept sewing the sections together.  I also made a very long table runner/dresser runner for her to match her quilt.  This little runner is a leftover from leftovers!

Here is a picture of the original quilt that I made for her.  The pattern is from Karla Alexander's book "New Cuts for New Quilts"  It's made from all batik fabric and is quilted with the pantograph pattern "Waterworld".

New Toys!

My new Oliso iron finally arrived!  I just love it - it has little feet that retract when you touch the handle.  This allows you to leave your iron in a horizontal position at all times.  When you are ironing large pieces of fabric or small pieced blocks that allows you free use of your hands.  Takes a little bit of getting used to, but once your're accustomed to it you'll find it very hard to go back to a conventional iron.  It turn itself on and off and steams like a dream.  This is my 2nd Oliso; the first one is 5 years old and was beginning to show it's age a little.  When you use an iron everyday in your studio it does take some wear and tear.  I will be taking both Oliso's to the retreat so that everyone can play with them too!

Last night during "Cupcake Wars" I decided to cut out a project that I could sew during our retreat free time.  I used my Go!Cutter "Tumbling Block" die and cut up all the red and white fabric left from my stash.  Using the free pattern that came with the die I will make a twin size quilt to use as a quilted sample for by booth in April.  I was curios as to how long it would take to get organized, iron the fabric and cut:  1 hour!  Just enough time to hear the end of "Cupcake Wars"

Last weekend I started this table runner project using the Go!Cutter "Rose of Sharon" die.  It's very quick, as you only have to make 3 blocks, set on point with a nice focal fabric.  I finished the fused raw edges with a very small zig-zag and Superior Rainbows thread.  It's still a little puckery, but that will go away when I quilt it!  Love that fused applique!

Dixie's Exploding Pineapple

Just thought I would share Dixie's quilt with you.  A beautiful purple and cream batik quilt.  The purple blocks are "Exploding Pineapple" blocks.  Dixie made this quilt in a class at the local quilt shop.  She brought it to me for quilting, wanting to display it on the back of her sofa.  Her custom quilting includes modern feathered wreaths designed especially for this quilt.  The borders are quilted with feathers and piano keys.

Go! Cutter and a new cutting studio....

Well, after an intense weekend of spring cleaning fever I now have a new cutting studio; a separate ironing and cutting area to house our new Accuquilt Go!Cutter.  If you are short on space and cutting gumption you can come use my studio and Go!Cutter for $5/hour.  Seriously!  Bring your fabric and come visit.  Give me a call at 324-6838 to book your time.  And remember that the Go!Cutter with all my new dyes will be at the retreat in February for you to use also.

Unidentified Sea Creatures

I thought I would share an update on my beaded piece.  It's been very slow going, but nice to have some hand-work to play with.  The one thing that I didn't think of is my eyesight!  Boy, are these beads tiny.  It certainly takes good light and strong glasses but I'm enjoying the work.  I've tried to make my creatures similar to sea anenomes and various corals and it's been fun to just imagine what they should look like.  I've also added some beads to the fish, but I'm not sure that I like that yet.  enjoy....

Times Flies....when you're having fun!

Last week was was a busy one  with customer quilts.  This southwest beauty was made by Sue Isreal.  Sue chose a southwest edge to edge pattern called "Shades of Anasazi" by Diff'rent Strokes.   I quilted it with Superior Rainbows thread with Quilters Dream blend batting.    

To bead or not to be....

My wonderful mother and sister heard about this upcoming project and sent me a mountain (well, may just a small mountain) of seed beads to work with.  I have this Batik panel that I bought in Hawaii a few years ago with the intention of someday making it into a small wall-quilt for my bathroom.  Now that I have Friday's free to work on hand-work (while my daughter is skiing) I decided to work on a bead project.  I just recently received Nancy Eha's new book "Bead Creative" and decided now would be a good time to practice beading on a small quilt.  Not having the time (or patience) to actually piece something I decided that the Batik panel would be the perfect practice recipient.   Stay tuned for more updates.....

After a quilt quilting session with Quilters Dream blend batting and Superior Threads the batik is ready for beading. 

A small section; partially done after 7 hours of beading.  I'm sure glad that I decided to start with a small panel!

The selection of seed beads that my mom and sister mailed to me.  Jackpot!

Nancy's book is a wonderful resource for quilting on art quilts.

"Circle of Nine" 24 Stunning & Creative Quilts.....

Imagine my delight when I checked my mailbox yesterday and found a new book "Circle of Nine" by Janet Houts & Jean Ann Wright.  Janet is a local quilt pattern designer that I have quilted for the last several years.  Her latest indeavor has been to write this new book with her sister, Jean Ann Wright.  Several of the quilts in the book were quilted by me and I always find it exciting to see my name published.  The book has a wonderful variety of designs and setting options to choose from.

More information about their book can be found at http://circleofninequilts.com/

Here are some of the other projects that I've quilted for Janet:

"Kimono Rose" was published on the March/April 2009 cover of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine.

"Chantilly" was published on the April/May 2008 cover of Quilt magazine

Dyeing to Dye! Where's the snow?

Winter came a little early this year to our little corner of the world in Southern Idaho.  We saw a significant snow fall in November.  Being a 'snow-dyer' I was so excited to get started dyeing again using snow.  I have my dye studio set up now in our garage (no, the car has never been in there), and supplies at the ready only to discover that I had forgotten to order fabric!  So, a quick order was placed for 25 yards of the mercerized cotton that I like to use.  Unfortunately, the snow melted before my fabric arrived.  Here's the kicker;  we've not gotten ANY snow accumulation since then!  Yesterday, my daughter started skiing at the closet ski-area (1-1/2 hours away).  I started looking around at the mountains of snow available, and thought I could just bring some home.  Soooo... next week if we do not have any snow here I will be transporting boxes of snow home with me.  My daughter has already informed me that she will claim to not know me when I start shoveling snow into the back of the car!

I thought I would share some of my snow-dyed fabrics and hand-dyes from last year.  I will be putting much of it up for sale on my new Etsy shop (work in progress); so if you see something that you HAVE to have just send me an email

This last green piece was not snow-dyed.  I painted it with Setacolor paints, after heat setting the paint it was over-dyed with a Shibori technique.

Happy New Year!

My New Year's resolution this year was to start a blog and keep up with it....so, welcome to my blog!

Every year during Christmas I try to work on new techniques.  This year I worked on my Fast Friday Fabric Challenge #52.  We are challenged to complete a piece of artwork within one week, based upon a set of requirement for that particular month.  The challenge occurs the last week of each month.

My piece, "Lava" was created from a single piece of my own hand-dyed fabric. I distorted the fabric by slicing is up, staggering the pieces and then sewing it back together. The black strip signifies "nothingness, deep in the earth; where the lava comes from". It is heavily quilted, using 10 different threads to add to the color patterns. I used many metallic threads; gold, bronze red, garnet and black to signify the metals found in lava. I found this challenge exceptionally challenging; the more I studied "Color Field Painting" challenge, the more I became confused. Hopefully this fits the the description; it was fun and I am happy with the piece. Just need to finish the edges and label it. It measures 22"x26".

I thought I would also share the 1st challenge that I have completed, that being the FFFC Challenge #49 which was based upon the technique "Chiaroscuro".

 "Frog on a Leaf" was created from a photo that I've had for quite a while. The frog is appliqued from my hand dyed fabrics and thread painted. The background is a tonal batik which has been heavily quilted for texture. I also added Shiva Painsticks and Inktense watercolor pencils for highlights and shadows. It measures 12"x13".