WIP Wednsday

Ok, so I'm trying something new here to try to help me finish some projects.

I saw on a blog today a thing called WIP wednsday's where you post what project you have in progress each wednsday and hopefully the next week report that they have all been completed and here is my new works in progress. Then you put your link with all these other bloggers that are doing the same thing, read their blogs ( spending the time that you should be finishing up your WIP's) and supporting each other by leaving comments. Ha! Well it's worth a try anyway:-)

Click on the button to the right if you want to check out the links and join in the fun (or humiliation)

This is probablly been on my design wall the longest and why I don't know because it is the cutest.

A wolf howling at the moon, another one done but not quilted

A winter scene, waiting for a border and quilting

The dreaded oval mariners compass that I got frustrated with and had to move on for awhile, waiting for a border and quilting

Well will you look at this! It's quilted, has a binding - just need to hand sew that sucker on!

Any bets on which ones I'll have done by next wednsday?

birds in a nest

I've had this in my mind to make for awhile now and so when jaye choose the word bird as her creative prompt last friday, I knew I needed to make it.

first I drew and painted the birds onto fabric using acrylic paint and aloe gel for a medium

(thank you quilt rat for that tip)

then put them on big square of felted wool from an army blanket that I got at a garage sale new for 2 bucks - what a find that was! I got 3 of them:-)

after quilting the birds down I made my nest out of all sorts of leftover yarn that I have collected and used a wool felting tool to poke all the little fibers down to attach to the wool back - then went and used my free motion foot to sew it down more securely

I then cut off the big wool part and then zig zaged a backing on. (Sorry I didn't take more pics)

How to hang this thing was my next question - well birds nests hang in trees from a branch so I tied some yarn together, tacked it to the back and tied it to a branch for hanging.

I think it's pretty darn cool!

Quilting Gallery

Ever been to the Quilting Gallery website?

If you like quilting this website is one of the best I've seen for all quilt related info.

Michelle puts a lot of work into it and it shows - I recommend you sign up for the newsletter so you can keep up with what's happening there, new information etc. all the time. I like the weekly themed quilt contests the best - it's easy to enter and even if you don't have a quilt with a theme that works that week, the quilts are wonderful to look at - such talent out there in cyber - quiltland!

This week I entered my lake trout quilt - the theme is quilted expressions this week which sort of applies to all of my work but this one is the latest so I entered it.

Vote here if you like:-)

the oval mariners compass chronicles 2

this is the center that I ended up with using the same fabric as the outer most rays

(like my mother told me to do in the first place)

this is the first one I did and as you can see the colors just don't work. I auditioned them but sometimes you just don't know until its together

moral of this story is 

Listen To Your Mother!

the other problem I had  - look at my middle star point! I lost part of it somehow!

I really don't want to rip it out again but if I want it to be perfect I think I'm going to have to. Any ideas?

Maybe I should walk away for awhile, do another quilt (a nice easy landscape, something in my comfort zone) then go back and start from scratch again with that middle star.

quick creativity exercise

If you are a creative type (and you know you are or you wouldn't be reading this) you should take part in artquiltmakers creative prompt project. She gives us a word every Friday on her blog and you take that word and illustrate it somehow. I have been taking the first thing that pops into my head and you can do whatever -

a doodle, a drawing, paint on anything you have at hand, a postcard, ATC, anything goes

 and you don't have to spend alot of time - a 5 minute doodle is good - this is just an exercise to get you thinking and doing. I know alot of us are already thinking and doing and don't have a lot of time but this is a good way to get yourself to do something different if only for 5 minutes out of a week. I want to improve my limited drawing skills so I usually just do up a sketch on my i pad with the paper 53 app - a great sketching app if you have an i pad by the way.

So this week the word was WRITE

I can see the writing on the wall

or on top of the wall

but then most of us do our writing in our BLOG

Keep Calm

and

Create On

:-)

Unfinished mariners compass

Just a quick update of what I've been working on for the past week. This is an oval mariners compass from Judy mathesin's book where you of freezer paper piecing as opposed to the paper piecing. I had my mom help me with it because it takes a little getting used to but once you get the hang of it you will never paper piece again - no pulling out that paper from the back that has been sewn on! They do take some time but I really like the mariners compass blocks, they are worth the time. If I make a lot more I may take the time to do some photos and a little tutorial.

My problem is the middle - after I put it on and it was on the design wall I think the rays are to bright. My mother told me I should use the same fabric as the outer rays and being a rebel, I used something else and of course mother was right :-)

So I am ripping out the middle after I hand sew the outer ring on and making another inner star.

When I'm done I will post the before and after so you can see the difference that the middle change makes.

At the rate I'm going it will be another week. (sigh)

Today is a bright sunny day so it ain't happen'in today though :-) I'm off to the waterfront!

The lake at dusk

Just wanted to share last weeks finished quilt "The lake at dusk" I love the blue and yellow batik - looks like a sky on a half cloudy summer evening just before the sun goes down. You don't see the sky in this pic but it is the same as the water (the water being reflected from the sky)

The woman's dress is painted and her hair painted then thread sketched over it. The tree is strips of fabric twisted to give some dimension, then quilted down, with little bits of contrasting fabric thrown in for knots or shadows, giving more of a look of a tree.

The sailboat started out just fabric, then didn't look right so I painted over it and used thread for the mast and the bottom part.

This is of course for sale on etsy if anyone reading this is interested.

On another note, the above is the color palette for may and these bright primary colors are so far out of my comfort zone I'm at a loss right now on what to do.

Any ideas?

 

the rose pincushion

This weeks creative prompt word is rose.

I like to make pincushions out of 100% wool that I pick up at resale shops and felt and am a firm believer that you can never have to many pincushions. Usually I fold strips in half and roll them but  have made roses before out of strips of ribbon so why not do the same with the felted wool?

First I made the rose by sewing a couple of strips together and rolling the folded strips, tightly at first (the middle of the rose) and then more loosely as it gets bigger - all the while tacking it down and scrunching it up with a needle and thread to not only hold it together but to make it have the folds. I then toke some green felted wool and cut 2 large leaf like chunks and folded them, scrunching and tacking with thread. Now it needed something to sit on.

to keep the recycle theme
I took a top from a
laundry soap bottle

then cut out a circle from some
brown home dec fabric
and put elmers glue all around
the inside of the cap and then
wrapping the fabric over the cap.

then more tacking with needle and thread of the rose to the
base (or flower pot if you will)

Voila! a pincushion rose

 

April color palette challenge

 

This is the palette we had to work with for April. I thought it might be interesting to use the same pattern as last month - wine tasting - just to see how color affects the same image.

April

March

This is the palette for march

Which one do you like better?

Lift and gift

Another rainy day in Vermont - perfect for being a slacker - laying around and playing artist on my

I pad sketchbook app. Jaye posted about a former creative prompt lift yesterday and today the word is gift.

I've been wanting to learn how to draw a hand and also baby birds for an art quilt. Since this time of year I'm always on the watch for any baby birds that may stray into our yard because my cat would have them for a play toy in no time at all. I imagine myself seeing a little bird and lifting it up back to its nest (which I know you are not supposed to do, but this is an imagine.

As you can see I practiced quite abit, this one was the first - not so great

Now for the word gift. The love of my life and my gift from God is my little Pekinese Magoo.

We've been together for 15 years and he is still the cutest man in the world.

(don't worry my boyfriend knows he's second to Magoo and he's ok with it)