Belated Halloween

Last post, I promised a Halloween project would be up next. Well now it's Christmas season, but you know what? I finished the larger of the two Halloween projects just yesterday, so I'm going with it anyway! (And now the decks are cleared for something new.)

This first one did get finished in time to hang on the living room wall for Halloween...

I have never loved a Halloween panel as much as I do this one. It's from Wilmington Prints titled, "Frightful Night Haunted House Panel."

Here are some closeups of the free-motion quilting (click on any one to enlarge).

The house was the most difficult section to quilt, as I was using dark mono-filament on black fabric. So believe me, the stones/bricks were stitched more by instinct than by sight. This house reminded me of the original Addams Family TV series, which I loved, and I think that and the black cat (adore black cats) were what sold me on the panel.

The second, coordinating project was made from a "layer cake" (forty-two 10-inch squares) of companion fabrics from Wilmington. That's the one that just got finished yesterday. (As is often the case, life got in the way.)

As you can see, the back is more of a Thanksgiving quilt, which is fine--dual duty. The last photo is to show how I cheated by sewing the label on right through the front of the quilt. Since orange thread was used in the needle and purple thread was in the bobbin, the stitching is almost invisible in the front.

This is for my granddaughter but it will stay at our house for her to use it when she's here.

Happy Holidays!!

Linda

The Tattooed Heron

 Finished my heron quilt a few weeks ago but am just now getting around to posting. Three-quarters of the way through it, I still wasn't happy with it, so decided to just start playing and experimenting....which I should have done in the first place. Liking it much better now that the shells and yarns have been added.

The Tattooed Heron 27 in. x 47 in.

Here are some closeups...

And one that better shows the texture...

Next time, a Halloween panel that I just couldn't resist buying and quilting!

Linda

Heron Quilt

So far this summer has been full of activity, very little of it landscape quilting. But in late spring one had been started on the design wall--using, of all things, one of those "ugly" skies I painted...

...and a heron I sketched. More about him in a moment.

Some hills and trees had been auditioned...

as were boulders and other elements not shown here, including a boat and an eagle.

The heron and the smaller elements were temporarily removed so that the background could be basted and quilted more easily.

After eight weeks of yardwork and a couple of other projects, work was begun on designing the heron's feathers. There are now 8 discarded sketches and tracing paper all over the place. One keeper as of yesterday, not shown here.

I did stitch out two of the discarded designs as practice/test pieces, using different yellow/gold threads, with tracing paper on top.

It quickly became apparent that ordering some Golden Threads Quilting Paper would be a good idea, as the tracing paper was a bit difficult to remove. In the last photo, much of the tracing paper is still on--after all, it was practice only, so I abandoned the effort.

The Golden Threads paper was delivered Saturday, so tracing the final design on it will be the next step, and then stitching it out on batted fabric, later to be appliqued.

Happy mid-summer or mid-winter, depending on your hemisphere!

Linda

Ugly Hand-painted Fabric BEFORE Cutting...

 These 3 "before" photos should have been included in my most recent post (you'll have to scroll down to the "after" photos; for some reason Blogger isn't allowing me to close up that space)...

I mean, seriously ugly!!...although, believe it or not, I'm using the one at top right in a landscape now.
Go figure!

Used way too much water on this one--
AND transferred the paper-towel pattern
when I blotted the excess water!

This was a "scrunch" experiment...interesting
but impossible to use in a landscape.

Not sure where the "before" of that purple one is

And here are the "after" photos...

These will be used in mini-landscapes (or by my granddaughter)

Love these!

Really glad I finally cut these up!

Have a great weekend!

Linda

Ugly Hand-painted Fabric...What to Do?

A few years ago, I tried painting my own sky fabric, then tried painting an earth piece as well. The sky pieces mostly turned out okay (some doubled as water) and were used in these landscape quilts...

...but the earth piece did not turn out well, and it has now joined the rejected sky pieces in a strip-cutting bonanza---because what else do you do with ugly fabric???

And suddenly, they don't look so ugly.

Should have done this ages ago! Have a great weekend.

Linda

The Loch Tower

Last week it was a finish for The Loch Tower, 26" x 49". (Closeup photos further below--click on any to enlarge.)

The entire background was quilted first, without a backing, to cut down on drag weight at the machine.

 

Pieced separately, the tower was also quilted separately around each stone, then blocked before being appliqued to the background. (See small photo of the tower back, below left. The stabilizer behind the batting was not removed.)

The photo below shows (somewhat) the dimensionality given by the extra layer of batting behind the tower.

After gluing the tower to the quilted top, the backing was basted on, then firmly attached with additional lines of quilting in various places.

More photos of the finished quilt:

Happy spring (or autumn in the southern hemisphere) everyone!

Linda