Sadie the Saddlebill

Yes, after lots of delaying tactics, I have finally made a start on my Collage quilt!!

I had finally found my stash of “Misty Fused” fabrics that were left over from a workshop that I apparently enjoyed so little, that I didn’t take any photos AND threw the piece out when I got home!!

But, that isn’t important!! The important thing is that I had a small stash of black/grey pieces that were already fused and ready to go!!

As I mentioned in my previous post about this quilt, I had drawn the design onto non-fusible, lightweight interfacing and was ready to start adding fabrics.

I decided that the ideal place to start was on the larger feathers so began but cutting out LOTS of feather shapes to use…..

I had a great time adding the feathers here and there while trying to follow the colorations in the inspiration photo…

Once I was happy with a section, I used the mini iron that I bought YEARS ago and lightly ironed the fused pieces in place…..

When I came to irregular shapes, I used my lightboard to help determine the fabric shape….

….and then used those guidelines to roughly cut it out of fabric…..

…and then carefully added it to the existing piece….

If you cant see it here, I will tell you that I made a mistake and took the super-easy way out to fix it, but that is for another post…..

Please come back for more!!

Pictoral quilts at IQF

As I walked around the International Quilt Festival in Houston, it became clear that collage quilting has taken a good hold in the quilting industry. And, as I expected there were some amazing quilts that fell into this category.

I have always been interested in water and rocks but this quilt blew my mind….

“River Rocks” by Sandra Mollon

I loved the depth that she found with her fabric choices and the water is beautifully done. It looked as if the water was hand-dyed and she mentioned doing some inking. It was definitely one of my favorites.

This little boy……

“Summer Fun” by Marina Laudi and Fabia Diniz

…..was spectacular. In her artist statement, she said that the water reflections were a challenge. Most of the quilt was constructed with pure silk….opaque for dry areas and another for the shiny, wet areas.

Just look at the stitching…..

The “Birds of a Feather” exhibit produced many gorgeous quilts such as this one……

In particular, I love the lighting in this quilt and she did a great job in letting you know exactly where the sun was coming from!!!

This swan…..

….was a fantastic mixture of fabric collage and detailed quilting. In particular, I loved the water…..

…especially the additional tiny white beads to provide some shimmer in the foam.

Probably my favorite quilt in the show was this one……

“Welcome Home” by David Taylor

The detail was eye-popping, down to the metal studs in the swing.

Then there was this quilt…..

“Dune Seasons” by Ann Loveless

The quilt has 2 panels for each season and flows from Spring on the left to winter on the right.

Here is a video that will let you get a bit closer…..

In some respects, it is a simple design, but the attention to detail made it outstanding…..

One of the things that caught my eye were these couched threads…..

I am thinking that they would be perfect to add to the marshland that my stork will be standing in!!!

I will leave you with one more photo of one of the panels…..

Come back tomorrow for some of my favorites!!

Best laid plans???

As I mentioned a couple of weeks back, I had planned to return from my quilt retreat week and then get stuck into my next project big time. I even got the fabric pulled and the studio ready to start!!

Well you know what they say about plans…..

…..they often don’t go quite the way that we wanted!!!

There was the baby quilt to finish and because I was having so much fun with machine quilting, I went ahead and quilted a charity quilt that had been on my “to-do” list for almost a year!!

I ended up spending a portion of the week cleaning out a flower bed that had become completely overgrown with Black-Eyed Susans……

The first few years I had thought….”oh look, it is filling in so nicely” but after 3 years of not having time to clean them out it turned into “NOOOO….they are taking over!!!”

But, it does look nice now……..

And, I even rescued a couple of gorgeous plants that were being overshadowed by the out-of-control growth!!

And, as another distraction, I had to spend 2.5 days working on a project for a client….sigh!! I hate it when work gets in the way of fun!!

But, on Thursday I was determined to not leave the studio until I had at least ONE piece of fabric in place for my Stork collage quilt!!

I had already drawn out the design and enlarged it to the size that I wanted, but when I put it on the wall, it looked too small (approximately 18×24) There wouldn’t be enough space to really work the fabrics to achieve the look that I was going for……

So I went back down to my computer and printed it out again….this time using a 4×4 printing format rather than 3×3. This looks much better……

And, you may be wondering about my makeshift design wall?

This is the first Collage quilt that I made since my studio was enlarged and I realized that the cutting table was TOO far away from the design wall and that I wouldn’t be efficient in my design work.

So, I pulled out the “portable” design wall that I built several years back and placed it on an easel, pulling it right up to the cutting table.

It makes things a bit crowded but it will be easier to work….

And, as you can see, I did get ONE piece of fabric in place…..

Here’s to a better collaging week to come!!!

I’m excited!!!

Yesterday I wrote about setting up a task board for my studio with the idea to finish up some of my projects. And TODAY I am writing about a new project that I am thinking about.

I am not sure that is how it should work, but………

As we traveled in Cotauda 11 in Mozambique, I kept seeing a magnificent bird called a Saddle-Billed Stork. I mentioned him during our first trip, but on this second trip, I got to spend some concerted effort in photographing one.

Happily, late one afternoon, one of the specimens strutted up and down in front of me and posed perfectly…..

I have already put the photo into Photoshop and applied a couple of filters to it. I think there is DEFINITELY a quilt here…..

But first….let’s finish a thing or two on my list!!!!

Sweet Marley

This past week my daughter, Jenny, had to have her sweet dog put down. Marley was Jenny’s first dog and we remember when she first arrived on the scene as a little bundle of energy……

Michael and I soon named her the “Tulip Muncher” as NO flowers were safe from her…..

Her favorite spot to sit in our house was in a chair in front of the window….because she HAD to know EVERYTHING that was going on……

One time my Mother-In-Law, Esther, was sitting in that chair and Marley jumped up beside her. Michael and I laughed as Marley slowly inched her butt back into the chair, effectively pushing Esther out!!!

Early on in her life, I wanted to immortalize her in fabric and used this photo as my pattern…..