What's On the Design Wall in November?

Things are finally settling down for the year, so I am making some regular quilts that have been on my list for a while.  I got the donation quilt top and back finished and delivered to my long-arm quilter.  Now, I am working on "the black quilt".  I had placed over fifty black backgrounded fabrics in a box last December, and now I am working on that quilt.  I am really knocking it out, so I can start on the next one.

I am determined to only use fabrics that I already possess.  I am also tidying up the quilt room, to make room for a few friends coming over for a sew day on Saturday.  This is looking good.  I cannot remember if Lynne, of Patchery Menagerie (blog), used sashing or not.  I will have to go check that out.  I want mine to look different from hers, so I have not looked at the one she posted, last year, since last year. 

Dyed, Stitched, and Quilted Book Project

This weekend I attended the virtual Montana/Idaho SAQA Region Annual Meeting.  It was amazingly engaging!  I learned so much!  On Sunday, we started a project where we performed mark making on fabric and then learned to fold it into a book and stitch it together.  The real trouble is, I now have two new projects on my list that were not there on Friday.  They are both going to take a little while, because I have to think about how I proceed, when it comes to art.  

The one I am working on now, I started with a piece of hand-dyed and somewhat marked fabric I created in July with my "Sewful" stitching group.  At least, when this book is complete, I will have used the fabric in an art project.

This is showing the folding part, but I had not started any real stitching on it yet.  I had only stitched the interfacing onto the wrong side of the fabric, at this point.

At this point, I have determined which panel part of the book will be the cover.  I have stitched most of this owl.  I need to add the beak and talons.

I have two regular quilt projects that I planned to start, this month, and I had better get started!

Some Art Quilt Challenges Completed

It was certainly a busy summer!  Now that all the activity of September is over, I have time to regroup and catch up on some projects.  The real problem is, I have quite a list of projects to work on and I want to just have some fun play time in my studio.  My friend, A, came over and we finally did a landscape with mountains.  We actually did some "Accidental Landscapes."

This piece, I was happy to use a scrap of the upholstery fabric left over from Pete's carpet bag.  Hmmm, I don't think I posted about that project.  Anyway, this landscape measures 6" X 7" and I completed it in one day.  Title:  Ditch Side Beauty

It is highly likely that someone should talk to me about how I name my art.  On the other hand, I should be true to myself.

This piece is 12" X 16" and is hand quilted.  My Unruly Quilt Artist group learned how to do Sashiko, last summer.  (I had taken a class years ago, but I never went anywhere with it.) We were each to make an art quilt with one of the blocks we hand stitched.  I used some of my Japanese fabrics to create my art piece.  Again, I found a scrap (of my Aoi has Two Sisters fabric) to fussy cut and include in my design.  I used some two-holed beads to add interest.  This was a challenge and not my usual design type.  I really like it.  In this last year, I have made quite a few hand-quilted pieces.  I like being able to take the time to make hand sewn/quilted pieces of art.

Title:  My Favorite Dish: Fish

Princess Poppy

I started this art quilt in February.  I took Susan Carlson's Fantastical Fish class on-line.   I completed the fish and background in about a month.  I did a little quilting on it, then I procrastinated with the remainder of the quilting until August.  I quilted it on my domestic machine with my walking foot, so it took me a substantial number of hours to finally complete it.  I completed on September 15, 2025.  It is 36 inches wide and 23 inches tall.  Quilt name:  Princess Poppy

Hand-stitched Fun!

Between projects that take a lot of thought, I like making fun, quick little hand-stitched do-haws:  tiny quilts and odd quilted birds.  I made all of these in the last nine months.

The birds, I made in the last ten days, needing a break from my overwhelming Princess Poppy (fish) quilt.  I have been powering on through for the last couple of days and she is nearly complete.  I am putting her in the upcoming (09/26-09/27) BBQ Quilt Show.  She is rather a surprise, I started last February, then procrastinated on the quilting bit.  

I am also getting ready for the doll quilt show, which is also at the BBQ Quilt Show.  I have to sand and spray paint some more doll stands, get the curated quilts collected up, and dress the dolls for the show.  I am so happy Princess Poppy is soooo close to being finished.  About three more hours is all I need.  No more birds til after all this other business settles down.

Indigo Dye Party Quilt

I found another barn to photograph a quilt on.  I love taking photos of old barns and what better reason to get out and do so, than photographing a quilt completion.  This barn is SPECTACULAR!

Barns absolutely dwarf my quilts, but this is my favorite shot!  I always ask permission and sometimes I meet the nicest people.  This morning, I knew exactly which barn I wanted, and the farmer was very hospitable.  He said take all the pictures you want.  While I was doing so, he came out and chatted and opened a door for me, should I want to go inside.  I only took a half-step in, because it is very old, and no longer used except as a home by a flighty flock of pigeons.  His daughter-in-law also came and chatted, then the old guy came back and gave me some fresh picked tomatoes. 

 

Here is the close-up.  If you click on the photo, it will enlarge, so you can see more of the details.

Meanwhile, I took these photos on August 16, but I cannot "post" this until Elverta's birthday.  It is a gift for her 80th.  Her daughter arranged the "dye party' and she and Elverta's grandson each made a block for the quilt.  The rest of the blocks were made by the other five ladies in the Cloverdale Ladies Society.

Done and Done: Pentagon Quilt aka Crap Shoot

The challenge quilt from my Piecemakers of Idaho quilt group is completed.  The challenge was to bring instructions for one quilt block and pass them out to members, along with any fabric you wished to include, so they could make a block then bring it back at the next meeting.  I made twelve pentagon shapes (that is five sided, just in case) and pinned one to each of twelve sets of instructions.  When I passed them out to the group, I said that the five-sided piece of fabric, included, was to be the focus fabric, which means use strips of fabric that are the colors in the pentagon.  I got ten back at the next meeting.  I decided to wait to work on the quilt until I got the last two.  Four months later I got number 11, but I made another one for Jody, cause she wanted to make one and she turned that one in.  I got 12 altogether and I made 18 more.  I ran out of my focus fabric so I had to punt on the last block.

I had decided when I joined this challenge, that I would accept whatever people gave me.  Since more than one block had red or blue or orange or some of two of those NON-FOCUS FABRICS in them, it was okay because they balanced out.  It did turn out rather amazing looking for a quilt that has some blocks made by twelve different quilters, many who had difficulty with the construction concept.  I like it a lot and it makes me think of the quilters that contributed their blocks. 

Naturally, I photographed it on an old barn door.