You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist

One of my favorite quotes from Indira Ghandi is what I immediately thought of when two of my favorite quilting podcasters , sandy of quilting for the rest of us and sandi of quilt cabana - organized a quilt challenge after the Boston bombing based on the word hope. When events touch us, what do quilters do - make a quilt. It makes us feel better somehow.

 

23" x 13"

This is my zentangles quilt - I'll show you how I went about it.

 

I found a public domain image on the Internet and traced the handshake onto plain muslin with pencil. Also printed out the words the size I wanted and traced that as well.

 

Then after adding a white border I backed and batted with thin cotton batting and outlined the handshake, sewed over the words and randomly added lines to divide up the space into separate little "doodle canvases".

I then took a photo of this blank canvas.

Printed out the photo and used that to audition a bunch of doodles, drawing on the paper print out. Some work, some don't and I would rather see the ones that do not work on paper before quilting them. I use a lot of Leah Days free motion quilting designs. She is very generous by putting hundreds of FMQ designs here.

Then it's just a matter of putting the pedal to the metal - getting into the "zen" of quilting.

Before you know it, you have a zentangles quilt!

If more people in this world would just talk and get to know one another instead of crazy yelling and fist clenching we would all be better off. As John Lennon said

"Imagine all the people, living life in peace"

 

I'm linking this post to the quilters blog festival.

You should also check out the project hope online quilt show on Flickr.

I will add my quilt to it soon but there are some really good ones.

 

WIP - lakescape / hope in progress

 Please allow me alittle bit of shameless self promotion today :-) I just finished this Lakescape pattern which is modeled after Lake Champlain but could really be any lake with mountains in the background.

You can buy the pattern with detailed tutorial - perfect for a beginner to learn the freezer paper turned under applique technique for landscape art quilts on craftsy here or my etsy shop here.

Both are available for immediate download so you can get started today!

You can add whatever novelty fabrics you wish to make it your own - this one is for a camper - is that an outhouse on the left there?

Or for someone that likes to canoe - the size can be varied as well. The framing border can be cut anywhere from 13 1/2 inches to 15 or 16" - depends on how much "stuff" you want to add. Buttons, ribbon, lace could also be added - you could really get creative with this pattern.

Ok, so that's my finish - now on to the WIP's

This is a zentangle (or should I say quilttangle) for the project hope on flickr that sandi and sandy from the podcast fame - quilting for the rest of us and quilt cabana started. I have quilted the foundation lines and started some of the fillers, using Leah Day's designs for inspiration.

And I'm trying to make some cupcake pincushions to sell at the Vermont Quilt Festival in June. They are mostly hand work, sitting on the couch time. I'm using my felted wool from the "wool haul" that I scored last month. I will put some pearl headed pins in them to make it look like sprinkles. and I'm experimenting with using the tops of laundry detergent for the base so they will stand up better.

So many projects! So little time!

Off the wall Friday 5-17

Starting a new project but only have the bare start - It's going to be a zentangle in response to the word hope and I "hope" that I don't screw it up, now that I've said I'm doing it.

I've lightly penciled in a sketch and will outline all in black, then divide up some sections and quilt my little heart out, getting into the "zen" of FMQ ing.

 

I also need to work on some cupcake pincushions to sell at the quilt show in June. They've been sitting here for a month like this.

 

My mom just finished this fishing quilt - 540 pieced pieces! Did I mention she is a bit of a crazy person?

It's gorgeous and precise. She is such an accomplished piecer - great job, mom! Look at all the pebble quilting on the bottom brown part.

And this is all HAND appliquéd and HAND quilted! Yes, people still do that and she does it very, very well.

 

We met today in Vergennes,VT and had a nice lunch in a park with a view of these falls.

Beautiful spot.

 

A quiet moment between friends pattern

A Quiet Moment Between Friends

19"x19"

I finished my downloadable pattern for a quiet moment between friends - finally! It takes longer than you think to make a pattern / tutorial. The pattern part is easy, it's the tutorial with the photos and trying to get the directions down. I want to be thorough but yet not go on and on, which I tend to do. I try to think like the person reading this is a beginner so I may go into more detail than I have to but then I want beginners to be able to do this. With this pattern, in the beginning I laid out the basic measurements so that someone with a lot of experience in this type of fusible appliqué can just print the pattern and go.

 

Then after I finish, I like to make the pattern again from what I downloaded as if I purchased the pattern to see if it works. Above is the version with the cartoonish dog and cat. I'm still working on the binding yet.

I'm happy with how this pattern came out. You can purchase on craftsy here

Or etsy here

The cost $4.50 on craftsy and $5.00 on etsy (etsy takes a percentage and craftsy does not so I suggest going there) craftsy is a wonderful site if you've never been, I highly recommend it. Their video classes are worth the price and they do have some that are free.

 

While I'm on the pattern making kick, I am starting another one. This will be a simple lake landscape that can be embellished to the makers preference using cut out novelty fabrics. For instance the airstream and little cabin above.

This one I'm working on today, getting some of the measurements and photos together. It's a nice rainy quilty type of day off today so I can play with my "lakescape"

 

 

What! Does that mean no walk?

;-)

 

Art and Soul

Art and Soul is a one night art show with 1/2 the proceeds of any art sold going to a local charity. This year it's Echo, the lake Champlain education center and I just finished 5 art quilts to hopefully be selected to enter in the show. Since I put my H(art) and soul into all my quilts, this show appealed to me. They need to have something to do with Echo's mission which is to educate people about the lake and the area around it. So here's what I came up with.

The waterfront near burlington, that little lighthouse is sort of a landmark down there.

 

Lake Champlain - camping is a great way to enjoy it

 

The lake again with a bear - we've had a lot of bear sightings around here lately

 

I know, this is not the ocean - it's Vermont! But did you know that just a few million years ago this area was covered by the ocean? And sea urchins were all over the place.

 

And my personal favorite - the sand dollar.

 

Wish me luck with the art and soul show and if that doesn't work out, I'll be putting in my etsy shop.

Quilt On!