Triple Finish

Very happy to report that this week, the batik scrap project begun two weeks ago...

...is a finished landscape quilt!

A big shout-out to VVHH for his part in this. He drilled three tiny holes in each seashell so that they could be sewn to the beach and not simply glued. If this were staying here at our house, Aileen's Jewel-It glue (great for gluing lightweight objects onto fabric) would have sufficed. But like most of my landscapes, this quilt is going into my Etsy shop, and will be rolled up on a pool noodle for shipping. So the shells--which were first glued on for easier sewing--could pop off if they weren't also attached with thread.

The coolest thing about this quilt, for me, is that it was made completely from scraps, except for the boats, balloons and shells. And there are plenty more scraps left in the drawer!

Also, remember the wanna-be 'ghost quilt' UFO (unfinished object) that was pulled out of the closet last week?

Now it's a FO.  :)

18-1/2 x 21-1/2

The print panels were cut from two different upholstery fabrics (look closely and you'll see that one background is white, the other ecru). I continued the upper red leaf into the lower panel, with color pencils and fabric markers. Both panels' edges were given a good dose of Fray-Check, as the weave wasn't very tight and would have frayed.

The border and binding are regular quilting cottons. It's easy to mix fabric weights and types in this project.

The hardest part, as usual for me when fabric markers are involved, was not getting too crazy with them! And as mentioned in the last blog entry, they really were necessary, because the stitching in this mid-tone border barely showed.

OFF SUBJECT:  Also this week, a finish for something for the Lucy drawer (Lucy is my little granddaughter).

This was knitted with Deborah Norville Serenity Chunky Heather yarn in a beautiful coral/gray/ecru mix called Oatmeal. Lucy won't be able to wear it until a year from now or maybe even the one after, but she has enough sweaters knitted to get by until then (Grandma just can't stop making them!).

So, all in all, it was a more productive week than usual. But only in the studio. The rest of the house...eh, not so much. Hey, we can only be in one place at a time, right?

Have a great weekend!

UPDATE: September is my birthday month, and we are celebrating at Linda's Landscapes shop on Etsy with FREE shipping! Just enter coupon code BDAY4LINDA at checkout.

Linda

Middle Ground

Last week's batik scrap landscape is almost done--but not quite--which will be explained in the next blog. It has to do with VVHH's (very versatile handy husband's) part in it. Let's just say I'm not experienced with a drill, but he is.

During the delay, a UFO was pulled from the closet.

This was supposed to have been another 'ghost quilt'---meaning that outlines from the print fabric are extended into the background fabric with nothing but stitching (type ghost quilt in this blog's search box to see more about that process). But this piece wasn't working out as well as previous ones. The stitching just wasn't very visible. Why?

Because the background fabric was too much of a mid-tone. Not light or dark enough. Consequently, no matter what thread I tried, whether very light or very dark (I ended up using dark, as light was just plain wimpy), the stitching just did not stand out the way it was supposed to.

What to do? (Seems like I ask myself that a lot.)

Get out the fabric paint markers! They are so much fun, and have saved my arse more than once. Seven markers (yellow, brown, red-brown, red, pink, green and olive green) were pulled from the drawer and used in various combinations.

No, it's not looking so hot right now. But I'm still working on it, and hoping it will look okay when it's done.

So maybe two finished quilts will be posted next time. I hope so.

Linda

Knights, Castles and Princesses

It's been a productive but poignant two weeks around here.

First, finished another 'ghost quilt':

(here's a shot with more obvious texture):

Had to clip it to a drawing board and move it near a window for the right light.

Second, finished 48 blocks (24 each) for two donation quilts. As with the previous two donation quilts, these were made mostly from what I cut out of upholstery sample books last year, so again, there are some rather eclectic center motifs. I especially like the Medieval ones. Here are a few of the blocks (click to enlarge):

Third, one of the highlights of our week: VVHH (very versatile handy husband) surrounded by all 5 Kentucky Derby princesses:

In all of my 60 years of living in Louisville, I'd never been anywhere near a Derby princess until yesterday. One of them lives across the street and they all came there to change into their ballgowns for the Derby Parade. You just never know what your day is going to bring!

And fourth, but not last by a long shot, the poignant aspect I mentioned: our family had to say goodbye to an altogether different princess...our sweet, wonderful cat, Morticia, who has been with us for 23 years. We are grieving, but also very aware of how lucky we are to have been blessed with her gentle, loving company for all this time. Never let anyone tell you black cats are bad luck.

Morticia / Mort / Morty, c. 2007

Hooking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Whoop Whoop Friday post, Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing's Free Motion Mavericks post, and A Quilting Reader's Garden's WIPs Be Gone post. Don't miss these blogs OR their reader hookups. I'll be checking them out this weekend.

On that note, have a great weekend. If you're betting on a horse at the Kentucky Derby, best of luck!

Linda

Giving Birth

This week gave birth to two new projects...maybe something to do with expecting a grandchild in the next few days? The regenerative energy seems contagious!

One project is a landscape, which began with three fabrics (plus one bush)...

...and is now a complete quilt top ready to be sandwiched and put on the machine.

The other project is another 'ghost quilt' (number 4). Don't know if I'll ever get tired of making these.

Again, though, the 'project' I'm most excited about was made by my son and daughter-in-law...our first grandchild, Lucy, due Sunday!!!!!!!! (Every time the phone rings my husband and I go into high alert. :)

Heading over to some favorite blogs, which I hope you'll check out if you haven't already--Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Whoop Whoop Friday, Lizzie Lenard's  Free Motion Mavericks, and A Quilting Reader's Garden's WIPs Be Gone.

Looking forward to 70+ degree weather next week, after 3 weeks of deep snow on the ground and record-low temperatures. If you get bored with your weather, just move to the Ohio Valley...it's always changing.

Happy March!

Linda

'Ghost Quilt' #3

Using the lightbox VVHH (very versatile handy husband)
 made from stuff around the house

Last week another 'ghost quilt' (see the explanation of that term here) was started, and for the first time I had to trace an element instead of drawing it freehand. No way could I have repeated these...grapes? olives?...without tracing.

It turned out to be kind of fun, and very relaxing.

So fun and relaxing, that other elements got traced and repeated in the border, too--like this beautiful leaf.

This part was drawn freehand (more leaves were added later).

After stitching, squaring and trimming, it was time to steam block. See all the wavy areas around the perimeter?

All that waviness goes away after steam blocking.








Here's the finished 'ghost quilt'...

...and some close-ups:

As you can see, the free-motion stitching is not perfect. It's not supposed to be. That's one of the cool things about these quilts. You are basically sketching out in the border--even if you do cheat and trace some elements. Believe me, when you are stitching over the tracing (done with very light pencil lines) you sometimes lose your way a little. But that's ok. It's part of the charm!


Now, totally off-subject is this jar filled with dead pine branches. They came down in our back yard during a storm, and I snatched them up immediately. Do you see why?

The bark was long gone, leaving bare wood with strange markings everywhere. Those are actually channels carved into the wood by a colony of pine borers. (The marks are made more obvious by the black paint my husband rubbed onto the branches and then wiped off, leaving the paint to dry only in the channels.)

It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the process of decay can be in nature. Some of those markings might even inspire a free-motion stitch design.

Off to link up with some favorite blogs: Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Whoop Whoop Friday, Lizzie Lenard's Free Motion Mavericks, and A Quilting Reader's Garden's WIPs Be Gone. Lots of good weekend inspiration there and in their reader linkups!

Also off to work on a fourth 'ghost quilt.' I can't seem to get enough of these floral/butterfly-type pieces. Maybe I'm pining for spring. And it's so nice to finish a project in one week!

Linda

Cloth and Broth

During the last month, there has been a lot of knitting going on for our first grandbaby, Lucy--who is due in 3 months! No photos of the knitted items yet, but there will be eventually. (Still trying to keep those projects secret from Lucy's mommy.  :)

And on that note, shortly before Thanksgiving, the twin-size 'top-secret' quilt top for Lucy received its finishing touches. At that point it hit me that, for a couple of reasons I'll explain in a later post, this can't be quilted as originally planned--which was an overall, large-scale serpentine-line pattern on both diagonals. So, it was back to the drawing board...literally. After printing a black-and-white photo (why waste color ink?) of the quilt on regular 8-1/2 x 11 printer paper on 'poster' setting for 2 x 2 sheets, I taped them together and clipped them onto a drawing board, then laid a piece of clear vinyl on top.

Drawing on it with dry-erase markers, I outlined certain elements for echo-quilting, then very roughly sketched some general stitch designs to fill in the border and the open areas. It will probably change, but at least now there is some direction to what at first seemed an intimidating prospect.

Then for a fun break I started another 'ghost quilt.' (See the first one at this link.) Finished this second one today (roughly the same size as the first one):

On Monday it was 'out of the studio and back into the kitchen,' where the carcass of our Thanksgiving turkey, plus the legs and thighs, went into a 16-quart stock pot along with lots of veggies and herbs...

...which, after simmering 4 hours and being poured through a strainer, turned into this...

...a total of 2 gallons of thick, rich, golden, turkey broth. Yum! Into the freezer, ready to be made into batches of hearty, hot soup this winter.





This week it's on to Christmas decorating and, I hope, cutting fabric for the back of Lucy's quilt. I decided to use the two yards of hand-dyed batik from Fabrilish, pictured at right, for the center panel. I'd been saving it for something special, and it doesn't get more special than a quilt for your first grandchild!

A wide border will be pieced in alternating blocks in a dark-green Hoffman batik and a light-blue print--overall, a much more peaceful look than the lively, colorful underwater scene on the front of the quilt.




Hooking up over at Lizzie Lenard's Free-Motion Mavericks blog, since I actually got some free-motion work done this week. I love the idea of sampling thread the way she does. Check it out! Also linking up with Sarah Craig's Whoop Whoop Friday blog. She has posted some lovely projects from other quilters. And I'd like to thank her (not!) for reminding us that there are only 20 (now 18) days until Christmas...YIKES!!!


Have a wonderful week.  :)

Linda