Oh... to be a Cat!

Good morning everyone... I know that most everyone is busy preparing for Christmas and the holidays but it's always nice to take some time for yourself.  This year I carved out a bit of time when given the opportunity to test a very cute pattern for one of my favorite artists, Terri Stegmiller.

"Oh.. to be a Cat!" by Margie Kraft

I chose to test her pattern "Paws in the Garden", using my own hand-dyed cotton fabrics.  I couldn't resist adding the black & white polka dot commercial fabric for that little pop.  My quilt is constructed with fusible applique using Misty Fuse; I really prefer hand applique but with the artsy-look I wanted to achieve (and due to time constraints) I'm very happy with the results.  I used black King Tut cotton thread to zigzag the raw edges to give the applique the similar look that Terri has in her artwork.

 The hand-dyed green background fabric that I used was a verrry bright green and needed to be toned down a bit.  I knew that quilting would do that some, but decided that adding additional texture ahead of time with my Shiva Oil Paintstiks and rubbing plates would do the trick.  The  oil paintstik textures were added after all the applique work was done but prior to quilting.

When I was ready to quilt my little art piece I used 2 layers of batting:  Quilters Dream Wool over Blend.  This allows the applique work to really pop and gives wonderful dimension to the quilting.  I used clear thread to stitch-in-the-ditch all of my applique and Glide thread for all other quilting.

Details were added to my cat's faces using my Inktense Watercolor Pencils.  These wonderful pencils allowed me to add colored shading to their eyes, legs and whiskers after quilting.  I'm thinking that I may add some clear heavy duty mono-filament whiskers to the cats too.

The background and applique details were all freehand quilted ....  I wanted to add as much texture and interest as I could.  I thought about my own three cats;  Cleopatra, Midnight and Tiger Lily as they prowled around our property.........................  What did they think of in their imaginary garden as they snuck upon their prey or slept dreamily in the sunshine?    Oh... to be a Cat!

Please leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of one of Terri's patterns.  You get to choose which pattern you'd like, either Paws in the Garden or Butterfly Moments.

The pattern will be provided to you in PDF document format, which you download and print yourself.  It will be delivered to your email address.  Please be sure you provide contact information when you comment.

A winner will be randomly drawn the morning of Friday, December 13.

Please visit all of the following blogs for more chances to win (each blog will have a winner):

Terri Stegmiller

SewCalGal

Jill Buckley - The Quilt Rat

Teresa Raleigh - A Quilt and a Prayer

Marsha Leith - Cool Quilting

Snoodles - Lily Pad Quilting

Judy Applegarth - ScampAlot

Margie Kraft - Margie Quilts

Joy Manoleros - Bjoyful Studio


Well, if you've read this far I also wanted to invite you to help me celebrate the Grand Opening of my new Etsy Shop:  RainBird Quilting  by offering  20% off all purchases over $25.  Just enter the coupon code 20NEWSTORE at checkout to receive your discount.  Rainbird Quilting will be my new name after we have moved to Alaska in January!

A big thanks to everyone....

Thank you everyone that has joined me this week.  The winner of my drawing for the Fat Eighth Bundle of my hand-dyed "Desert Dyes" fabric is Karen in Cincinnati.  Karen if you would send me an email with your mailing information I will pop this fabric in the mail to you.  Congratulations..... and welcome to my quilty journey!

And the winner is...........

If you stopped by my booth at the quilt show this weekend and signed up for the drawing you were eligible for a FREE Edge to Edge quilting and Quilters Dream Batting (up to a queen size).  Our drawing winner is Nancy Bond of Twin Falls.  I'll be contacting her today to let her know!  Congratulations Nancy.

one end of my booth at this weekend's quilt show

Stay tuned as I will be having another drawing soon....... if you leave a comment on my blog AND become a follower during the next 7 days you will be eligible for a bundle of 8 - FAT Eighth Hand-Dyed Fabrics. 

My new "Desert Dyes" hand-dyed fabric Fat 8th Bundle

A Colorful Day

This last weekend we finally got some snow (last time was in November). While most of the country has been buried under snow our little corner of Idaho seems to have been in a weather bubble most of the winter. I should have been cleaning house and getting caught up with life after the quilters retreat but I took the weekend to dye fabric instead! (I have such an understanding and loving family.....)

Here are the results..... 2 days and 24 yards later. By the way, this post is dedicated to a blogger-buddie Sherrie who lives in Washington State and is missing the bright colors of her previous life.

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".