Graffiti Quilt (one type of artist inspiring another type of artist)

I heard about "graffiti quilts" last August.  The term intrigued and excited me.   When I went on-line to look this up, I was very disappointed that some long-arm quilters were making "thread paintings," but calling them graffiti quilts.  The "graffiti quilts" I was seeing were fancy immaculate quilts, which to my mind, have nothing to do with graffiti.  I think, actual graffiti makes a statement in a bold and raw fashion.  I had a discussion, about this situation with a fellow quilter, who's little group of quilters decided to each make a graffiti quilt, but not with thread painting.  They wanted to do small wall-hangings that had a message in a bold fashion.  I thought they were quite good and not fancy and elegant.  I started my own "graffiti quilt" in November.  

I decided to use some words from a song as a statement in my graffiti quilt.  I mulled it over for a while, then went with Once in a Lifetime, by the Talking Heads.  

My wall-hanging is 15.5" X 22".  I sewed a casing on the back and cut a branch from the bush in our front yard to hang it on, using a ribbon that had previously tied up a stack of fat quarters.  I used what I had on hand to make it.  The words are painted on white muslin with woodless watercolor pencils.  The entire thing is quilt-as-you-go.  The backing, batting, and the two pieces of fabric behind the Roman pillar started out as a piece to practice my stippling on.  I just added everything else to it.  This is my graffiti. 

Pizza Rounds Quilt

In late August, when I was not working at the Home Arts Dept. at The Fair, I was playing around with some of my favorite bright fabrics and some curves.  I started what I call my "Pizza Rounds" quilt.  To me, it is an art quilt.  It hangs in my quilt room, where it adds nicely to the atmosphere.  My quilt room has a lot of atmosphere. 

Our daughter came to visit in the first half of November, and we had so much fun.  We went on a day trip to Twin Falls, where we strolled down Main Avenue, window shopping.  We discovered several interesting places and spoke with a number of engaging people, especially small businesswomen.  

We met a friendly print shop cat, and an adorable creativity shop bulldog.  This little bulldog was the shop greeter at "Altered Purposes".  The shop, Altered Purposes, is amazing.  It has stuff creative of all types, not limited to wood, ribbons, decals, metal, paper craft, paint, inspiration for upcycling, classes, and bunting.  I bought some small drawer handles, that I intend to use on an art quilt.  I also bought some woodless watercolor pencils and a length of plaid grosgrain ribbon, which I used to make my "Ever Was" graffiti quilt.  My daughter asked the owner, who happens to be a woman veteran like my daughter and I, if she had a room upstairs for rent, as she would love to live upstairs and come down every day to play.  My daughter does a bit of sewing and is very creative, and her true creative love is everything Halloween.  

She has inspired me to do some Halloween quilts, bunting, and some small art quilts.  I have taken about a month off from quilting, and now I am trying to clean the Christmas lights and wrapping stuff off my quilt table.  Just this evening, I got a little twitch to do some piecing, so I better get my table cleared off, so I can get going again.

Dalek Quilt for Daughter

In 2015, I found some amazing Dalek fabric, on-line.  I could not pass up buying it, as my daughter is a huge Dr. Who fan.  She visited over the holidays (2015-2016), and I gave her the pillowcase, I made out of the fabric.  She loved it.  She says it "exterminates bad dreams".  See it in my post of 3 Jan 2016 .  I think I started the stack-n-whack quilt in 2016.  I completed it in 2017.  I did not make a blog posting when I completed the quilt, because I made it as a gift for my daughter's retirement from the Air Force.  I know she seldom looks at my blog, but she does occasionally, and she looks back aways, so I did not want to chance it. Her twenty years is coming up in December, so I have decided to give it to her now.

It makes me smile when I think she has no idea this amazing thing exists in the universe.  I only took this photo of it last Sunday.  It has been hidden away for a while.  My husband helped me to hang it on the wall in my quilt room, so she can discover it, when she arrives later today.  I must admit, I am excited for that moment.  I am sure she will know it is hers.

I took this photo in February 2017, when I had all six layers pinned together, before cutting it into triangles.  I think this was the second batch, as it took two make that many.  It is not your typical stack-n-whack fabric, but it worked for my purpose.

Design wall photos.  This is the last photo I took (11 Mar 2017), before I put the completed quilt away.  I meant to take a photo a few times, but it just never happened.  Put your mouse on the photo(s) and click to enlarge the photo(s).  The quilt is 67" X 78".

I am so excited she is coming today, and I finally get to make a posting about this amazing quilt.  I did take over a year to make it, because I stopped after I got all the Dalek blocks finished, as I was concerned about making the black/white triangles that go in between.  You have to place them a certain way, so they do not stretch, plus I always want to start a new project before the old ones are complete.  It is the way of creativity!

MY Round Robin Row Quilt

Earlier this month, I wrote about the process of the "round robin row quilt."  Just scroll down a little; it is the next post below this one.  I got my quilt top back from the other quilters, and then I had to square it up, add a little more sashing, and borders.  Then I located a quilt backing, in my stash, that was good to go.  Thank-you, Teresa.  It's been five years.  

Here is my completed quilt, hanging on another old barn in my neighborhood.  I do love it, when I ask permission to photograph a quilt on someone's barn, and they say, "Go right ahead."

These folks have taken a lot of care in keeping this barn in good shape.  It is well painted.  I, too, took a lot of care in getting this quilt top into shape, prior to being able to quilt it.  I quilted it myself.  I do like how it came out. Smile!

Round Robin Row Quilt

The project of my quilt group, for 2023, is a "Round Robin Row Quilt."  We each make one row and put it in a box with instructions, and maybe some fabrics to go with.  Then it gets passed to several other quilters, in this case, eight others.  Our rows are 36" long.  Each month it went to someone else, then we had a big reveal at our August meeting.  I photographed each quilt that I received, with whatever number of rows it had at the time.  I am going to share them. 

This is the row I put in my box.  It is just springy fabrics.  My blocks are 6" X 6" square.  It has a 50's feel.

This is the first one I got to work on.  The big flowers are Monicas.  I added the bird house row.

The second one, I got to work on, was Annita's.  Her's is the one I posted about last spring.  It is in "rainbow order", so I made the third row down, with alternating shoo fly and churn dash blocks in green and yellow.

#3 was Jan's.  I added the nine-patch row at the bottom.  I got it done the second night I had it.  So, I was feeling fairly accomplished.  I also brought home Marsha's.  She had fallen and REALLY hurt herself, so she could not do any sewing.  She dropped out of the project, but we wanted to finish her quilt top for her, so I took it and added my row in April prior to our monthly meeting.

#4 Marsha's was about neighborhoods.  I added the top row, in this photo.  I put a yellow sun and a yellow tree to help balance the yellow that was in the lower row.

#5 was Tessa's.  I did the liberated churn-dash blocks at the top.  I was bad and used that lovely floral for the background.  Her instructions said to use the white, but no one was using that lovely floral, so . . . I did.

#6 was Lizzy's.  Her's was a farm theme, so I added the chicks on the bottom row.  I embroidered their little legs on.

#7 was Donna's, called "Who Let the Dogs Out?"  I liked what everyone had done before me, and I wanted to be different, so I made little dog houses with dogs in them.  This doggy neighborhood has lots of trees.

#8 was Judy's and it had trees.  I used the same fabrics as that second row from the bottom, so I balanced it off by making the row pictured at the top.  The trees are pale and have sunflowers on them, and the background is the blue and green tree fabric.

This is what my quilt top looked like, when I got it back in August.  I realized the Donna did not get to do a row on my quilt, so I called her up.  Because the top was long and narrow, she agreed to make me four corner blocks for the borders.  We are supposed to have our quilts done, for sharing/showing off at our meeting later this month.  I only started working on mine on September 28, but I have got it finished.  I need to photograph it, then I will post it on this blog of mine.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Hachi II

I finally took photos of my second Hachi quilt.  It has the traditional Japanese binding, so you do not see the binding on the edge.  It has a very clean finish.  Yes, another barn was found to photograph it on, and this morning was overcast, so I drove right out and got a photo.

I am glad I did not dilly-dally, as now it is raining.  Time for a cup of tea!  It suddenly feels like fall.  I call this my purple Hachi quilt, but it is so much more.  You can see my original post, dated July 30, 2023, about this quilt and my other Hachi quilts.  At that time, this one was on the design wall.  Look at the "Blog Archive" of my posts in the right margin, and find 2023, then July under it, and CLICK! -->      Or you can just scroll down until you get to it.  Then you get to see other quilt photos on the way, just traveling backwards in time.

The Boo Do Special

Look at your fabrics and see how they interact with each other.  When shopping for fabrics for this type of wall hanging, keep in mind what you need for good background, foreground, skulls, teeth, and eyes.  I have a few special fabrics, I was fortunate to find, that work in a way that other fabrics don't seem to.  This wild dark blue and white fabric, that I want to call a plaid, is one of them.  It is kind of a wavy grid pattern.

I have used it a lot, in the past couple of years, to make my skull designs really stand out.  It is great for the background and for the mouth.  I use a rustic sort of white fabric, as the skull, so the white is not glaring or clean looking.  I made my own skull pattern, by attempting to draw a peanut shape.  I keep all my patterns in a binder, so I can locate them when I want to use them again.  If you draw a shape, then decide it is too small or too big, just resize it on your copy machine, or draw more lines inside or outside of the existing shape.  

I like the wonkiness of my skull pattern, as I can flip it one way or the other and have it a little different, instead of cookie cutter skulls.  I fussy-cut the teeth and ghetto applique them onto the skull part.  Of course, everyone knows that when doing applique on a Halloween project, you must use Stitch-Witchery to hold the pieces in place, while you sew. 

I don't like scary skeletons or skulls, so I like using large flower prints, or something similar, for the eyes.  I have several good prints that work very well for this.  

Because I am making a wall-hanging for my hairdresser, I got this crazy idea about making something with a "Boo do".  I decided I needed to put a "do" on one of my skulls, as the focal point.  I used my existing skull pattern to help me draw the right size of hair to place over it.  I just drew some spikes!  Then I had to think about the right fabric for the hair.  Hmmmmmm?  A dash of purple?  Lightbulb!  I have some amazing fabric that I ordered years ago, to use in my daughters' Doctor Who quilt.  I have some scraps of that.  I dragged that out and pressed it, then fussy cut an area that I thought would look good.  It does!

The plaid/grid background, above, will not work on this, as the hair fabric changes the dynamics.  I had to go for the darker solidish fabric.  I already had two flower-circles fussy-cut from a previous project, so I just used them.  This is so shaping up!

The design wall has not been this clear in some time.  This block is approximately 9.5 by 12 inches.

Then, I took some strips out of my spooky stash and tried them around the central block.  I cut a couple strips, so I could audition how it looks.  I want orange strips around the black to make it pop.  I want something in a couple of the corners to ease the background of the skull.  Since it is for my hairdresser, I decided to add some scissor fabric in one of the corners.  I have lots of different scissors prints, and one just happens to be black and white.  Then my gray fabric with skulls and ghosts also has the word "Boo" on it.  I fussy cut that out to make the "Boo do" part, then decided it looks rather like a poster or add, so I am adding the word "special" underneath.  If Teresa were here, she would tell me that I misspelled it. 

Only the central orange section is sewed at this time, the rest is merely clinging around it on my design wall.  All I need to do, is finish sewing those strips around it.   I do like the direction this has taken.  Notice the scissors fabric, please.  It really fit in.

I "do" like the deer-in-the-headlights look.  Here you can see how this skull differs from the others.  The hanging in the background is the one I did last year.   I hope you embark on your own adventure in creating a wall-hanging.  

What's on the Design Wall in September!?

Actually, I thought I would not get time to post on my blog until after returning from our RV trip up to the Payette National Forest.  But hey!  RVing has so many unexpected situations that are part of the experience.  We did not make it out of town today, so here is what is on my design wall:

It is kind of foundation-pieced applique.  I am using the small blanket-stitch on my sewing machine to sew the curves down.  Here is what happened this morning:

I am nice and clean.  I washed my hair and put on clean green capri jeans and my Life Is Good t-shirt with the turtle playing guitar.  I captured the cat at seven a.m. and put “her up-setness” into her carrier, so I can relocate her from house to RV.  Then all we have to do is load up a few clothes and the groceries I bought yesterday and be on our way.  It is September and it is the first time we have been able to go traveling in our RV in 2023.

I go out through the garage to see how my husband is doing, when he informs me there is another leak.  We had a major leak yesterday morning and it flooded the RV underneath the sofa section.  We got that fixed and now this.  It turns out we did not exactly get yesterday’s problem fixed, according to my husband.  So, he is actually going to thoroughly fix it today.  However, we need to take the cork out of the pipe beneath the RV and drain the tank, again.  I am a little thinner than my husband, so I volunteered to climb under the RV and pull the cork.  I went under on my back, until I put my head down and remembered how dizzy I get with my head on the same level as my body, so I kept my head up until I got under the middle of the RV. I was able to roll over onto my stomach.  Much better.  Remember, I am sixty-five and don’t normally crawl around under vehicles.  I was able to work my way to where the water drain pipe is and pull the cork out.  I really wanted to exit by a shorter route, but RV’s have metal boxy walls coming down here and there just along the insides of the underside of the chassis, so I turned around and scrapped Mr. Turtle and his guitar along between me and the concrete for about eight more feet.  There is nothing like getting all grubby in the morning, before one even makes it out to the woods.

Hubby helped me up and I went and let the cat out. 

We plan on leaving tomorrow, we hope.

Hachi Quilt Number Four is Completed!

It is a great over-cast day for photographing quilts out-of-doors.  My red, white, and blue Hachi quilt has finally been photographed. 

This is another fabulous barn in my neck of the woods.  This barn door is the perfect backdrop for a red, white, and blue quilt.  The owner was very nice to let me photograph their barn.

If you click on the photos, you can view them closer up.

What's On the Design Wall in August?

Hachi quilt number four is red, white, and blue.  I am making it as my annual donation quilt for Veterans Day.  I like to have it done well in advance, and this year I am hitting the mark.  

I was not sure about the red stripe fabric when I chose it from my stash, but it is what makes the quilt look sharp.  I have fabric in my stash that will make more amazing Hachi quilts.  I have some huge florals, but the ones foremost in my mind are sharks and Dr. Who.  That is my mind!  Keep checking back on me.

The Picnic Quilt

This is Hachi quilt number 3.  I had it on the design wall last month.  It is made from men shirts (the shirts of men).  Three belonged to my husband and two I got at the thrift store, but now they are in an amazingly soft quilt that I designed for use as a picnic quilt.  I put a shirt tail on all four edges of the quilt.  I sewed the ends into the piecing, and left little cubby spaces between the quilting, so one can tuck one's napkin in, and it won't blow away.

Plus, I used a pocket piece from each of the four shirts.  The fifth shirt was a dark woven shirt, I used as the unexpected visitor in the quilt.  It is part of the unexpected, curved-piecing I decided to use.  I also incorporated a few blocks made from the cotton sheet that I used for the backing and the binding.

The batting is two scrap pieces of 'Warm and White', I joined on my sewing machine.  I did the quilting on my home machine, using stitch-in-the-ditch.  I washed all the shirts and the sheet prior to construction, then again after I completed it.  It is so soft, I wish I had made it bigger, so I could snuggle in it.  

In the beginning, there were shirts . . .

My First Hachi Quilt

It has been a busy month.  I completed my first Hachi quilt, which is in the Japanese style.  Doing this one inspired me to make another this same size, then two doll quilts, and a red, white, and blue donation quilt, which will be one row longer.  

This is the back.  I am so glad I bought a few yards of this amazing multi-color fabric.  Besides using it in my Hachi quilt, I gave some to a friend, so she could use it in her Hachi quilt.  It goes with so many other fabrics.  Astrid is also throwing a titch into her Hachi quilt, as the unexpected visitor.  I expect she will be posting something about hers any day now.  Astrid has actually reread the instructions on how to add the "end cap facings" to Hachi quilts, as opposed to our traditional bindings.  She said she thinks she has it figured out, and she is going to attempt that style on her Hachi quilt.  I am looking forward to learning that process, so I can include that type of "binding" on the rest of my Hachi quilts.  I have to say, I already have at least two more planned, in my head, as I am discovering the joy of this type of improvisational quilting.  P.S. Tessa, I love that you look at my blog, but if you are judging quilts at the WIF, maybe you should not be looking at the photos. :)

Design Wall Madness!

In my May post, I had quite a mess on my design wall.  That is all off of there and I have moved on and on, and on again.  I even had a friend's quilt up there for a little bit, as she did some layout work.

This is the May photo, with updates.  The one on the lower right you can see the finished project on Gluten Free Doll Quilts blog .   I love my doll quilt blog.  Kirsten has a whole story about this latest doll quilt.  

This is the row I completed on Tessa's quilt, which was at the top of my design wall in May.  I have since turned it in, and then did a row for Lizzy's quilt, which I turned in last week.  Now, I have Donna's, but have not looked at it yet, as I am in the middle of another entire quilt layout on my design wall, and I am trying to focus on it for the moment.

Meanwhile, after Tessa's and Lizzy's rows, I started working on some Hashi quilts, which are Japanese.  

I bought this book at the used bookstore on State Street.  It used to be Rainbow Books.  I really like the method of creating these Hachi quilts.  It appeals to my need to do improvisational designs in my quilts.  I am teaching two of my friends how to make them.  Then, I made my first one.  I got the top done in two days and the backing finished on the third day.  

This is what it looked like on my design wall.  It is currently at my long-arm quilter's house.  These quilts are made with 8-inch finished blocks, each of which is in a relationship with a large print and a solid.  I don't care much for solids, so I use 'acts like a solid' instead, such as Grunge Basics and Canvas collections.

Then I dug through my stash and found some more large prints and had to purchase a couple more 'acts as solids' to go with them.  This is the next one, as it was on my design wall.  I actually decided against the 'unexpected visitor' in this one, and the final version is different.  I will post it when I get it completed in about a month.  I am excited about it.

This is the backing of the one just above.  It is going to look amazing.

Currently, my design wall is holding my recent creation using button down shirts.  I am using five shirts and an old sheet to make the quilt.  I cut off all the shirt-tails and am placing them along the outside edges of the quilt top.  I am using a modified Hachi block construction and layout.  I have limited fabric pair-ups, so it has to be modified.  I am trying to determine how to work a couple of those shirt sleeves in.  I will post a more complete picture, in a couple weeks.  I have been a maniac on the design wall these last couple of weeks, even though I have spent a couple full days doing genealogy and read a biography about Emily Dickinson.  If you have a sewing machine, I encourage you to cut up some old piece of clothing and sew it back together with some other pieces of clothing, to see what you come up with. 

Quilts and Barns

I have managed to combine my quilting passion with my passion for photographing old barns.  I have been quite immersed in genealogy this year, and I am wondering how I can combine that with quilting.  I have recently completed another donation quilt.  I decided I was going to make it fun and not fuss about making it masculine.  So, here is the latest girly donation quilt.  I know some young lass will really fall in love with it.  Although, this is a strip quilt, I stealthily included a couple little houses, one with a fox in the door.

I photographed this quilt at Eagle Island State Park.  They have a couple old barns and silos there.

What's on the Design Wall in May?

I was restrained, as far as buying fabric, at the Quilt and Craft Show the other week.  There was awesome fabric for $6 a yard, so I bought two yards.  Then a smidge here and there, adding up to a total of $28.00.  I did behave!  Then, as I waited for DF to catch up to where I was in the crowd, I found an iron that was being demonstrated.  My spouse has been nagging me to buy a new iron, as mine has a faulty steam selection switch.  P caught up with me and she has the same problem with her iron, so we waited for the sole person, in this booth, to tell us about this iron.  Well, we both bought one!  The show sale price was $220.00, and DF could not believe we both bought one.  It made my husband happy!  

My design wall has pieces from six different projects on it.  The one needing the most attention is the churn dash blocks at the top.  When that is outta-here, then the houses and trees doll quilt will be next.  The largest one is the Eye-spy layout, which I need to get moving on.  I have just completed quilting and binding a quilt that was constructed by a friend who only partially quilted it.  It has been interesting.  I have finally finished it up and need to deliver it.

During some pucker abatement, I had a pin come loose underneath, which I sewed right through.  That little green bird has holes in it's body now, so I know it is my lucky favorite amongst all the bird pins.  

This is a thick quilt and has been a challenge stitching-in-the-ditch, as the top is made from drapery fabric and the batting is kind of thick.  It is heavy and bulky, but I gradually pushed on and got it completed. Gradually means 3 1/2 years.  She will be surprised to finally get this back!