A Bird In Hand Mug Rug

I've been planning this quilt for a couple years. (It doesn't count as a UFO if you haven't cut into the fabric yet does it?) I bought the background fabric at a going out of business sale and absolutely love it. It has tree names. However, as I was stitching the bluebird down, I discovered that it also has phrases like "the forest is burning" in it.

The bird is raw edge fused applique that was machine stitched with a blanket stitch. The quilting is by hand using quilting thread. The branch is hand quilted using Pearl cotton. This little quilt measures 8 x 12 inches.

Here is a little more detail on the bird. You can see some of the forest is afire language. I like this little bird and will probably be using the design on a few more things in the near future.

New Beginnings v.1

Uncle! I cannot get the colors to photograph or to photoshop close enough to really show this little quilt. I have tried room light, sunlight, shade, you name it. I think there is something funky with the crazy mix of colors in the background. They are a pretty kelly/kiwi green, a light cobalt-ish blue and white. If I get the blue to look right, the green looks funny and the white is missing. If I get the green looking right the blue is too turquoise. The tree is a lime green batik and the flowers are a bright orange.

The tree is fused, raw-edge applique. It is machine stitched down with a blanket stitch and hand quilted around the border. The binding is black Kona. The piece measures 12 x 18 inches and has fast finish triangles for hanging.

Mardi Gras Table runner

This is a former UFO. I finished it in time for Fat Tuesday, but only got around to taking pictures today.
A close up of the embroidery. They are designs from Emblibrary.com. The fabrics are a great deep purple (which won't photograph properly), a green textured, a print with Mardi Gras maskes and the border is a Micheal Miller Mardi Gras beads. The border stitches are decorative machine stitches. The backing is a mix of leftover fabrics and muslin. It is lightly quilted using diagonal stitching and some decorative stitches. It measures approximately 16 x 42 inches.

Catalog Inspired Iron Craft

This is definitely my week for not finishing. First it was the barn quilt and now it is my Iron Craft projects. This round we were to make something inspired by a catalog. Etsy's a catalog isn't it?

The quilted piece is the start of a chess board. The spuds all received a set of chess pieces made out of bolts from their dad for Christmas. It was my job to make the boards. I am finally getting started.

The green jacket is a request from spud 2. He showed me a picture of a very elaborate dragon hoodie. However, all he really wants is a recreation of the green and yellow dragon raincoat he had as a toddler. I had this all finished but for the zipper and the hems when I discovered that my "little boy" didn't fit into the men's size Medium pattern I used. My wonderful mother ripped out all of the necessary seams (carefully stitched using a stretch stitch) so that I can make some gussets and insert a row of dragon spikes down the back to make it fit. But... that did not get finished before todays IC deadline. Oh well.

At the Crossroads

I spent a lovely evening with the Crossroads Quilters last night. It is always fun to see the amazing quilts and handwork they bring to share. And I always come away with new ideas and solutions to quilty problems.

Progress

This week was pretty hectic, so I didn't manage to get this wee quilt finished. I was making it to enter into the Project Quilting Challenge. The inspiration was Barn Quilts.

I grew up in the midst of a relatively rural area. I spent a fair amount of time on the farm and on occasion in the barn. Over the years, more and more barns have fallen into decay. The traditional barns have been replaced by pole barns and steel buildings. They've faded away with the passing of my grandfather's generation. It is a sad sight to see the graying wood crumbling into the ground.

I like the hope I see in the barn quilts. It is the contrast between the gray and weathering boards and the bright and cheerful quilts that I am trying to evoke in this little quilt.

On the Work Table Today: Bird and Barn

Two more mini quilts in process.

Happy President's Day

Hope those of you who have the day off today are enjoying it. Hope those of you who have to work have a calm and pleasant day.

I've been fighting a sinus infection that just won't quit so my blogging has slowed down to a stop. I will start getting to my backlog of pictures and posts soon.

Busy. Busy,

I've been working on a number of things this week. Now that we have a nice sunny day, I'll try to get some pictures posted. But then it is a warm sunny day in February...

Iron Craft 3: Something Warm

I almost missed the deadline for this episode of Iron Craft. This week we are to make something warm. I've been quilting. I have some small pieces completed, including the test piece for my New Beginnings mini quilt. Consider this another bit of sneak peak. I need to get better pictures.


The rest of the pile include the mug rugs I've been working on, almost all of the stacked coin quilt I showed you a while ago and the start of a baby quilt.

I (Heart) Quilt

I thought I'd posted this quilt a long time ago. It seems I never actually finished the text. So here it is with a few additional comments....


I made this quilt earlier this year. It was an experiment. I wanted to learn more about how to use my new sewing machine. In particular, I was interested in leaning how to combine machine embroidery with quilting.

I purchased a set of quilting designs from embroidery library and set out to design a simple and quick quilt to test it out.


Of course, by simple and quick I meant miscount and cut more again and again and again. I wanted to use the heart pattern and combine it with some of my favorite and dwindling red fabric scraps. I started with a rectangle of bleached muslin. I measured and blocked out all of the embroidery designs I planned to use on it in disappearing ink. Then I cut 2.5 inch squares and randomly piece them into strips. At the end of round one, I had enough to do the double layer on two sides of the quilt. At the end of round two I made it to a single layer around the whole thing. Finally by the third try I had enough squared pieced to make the double row all the way around.

Now for the embroidery quilting. I used my new Snap Hoop.



Funny thing about this quilt. My mom asked if she could have it. Of course I said yes. It turned out she wanted it to give to my niece for her wedding present. I think my niece liked it.

Pieced border. Free motion heart in corner. Simple diagonals on the boarder.

A better look at the machine embroidered feather stitching in the center with some free motion stippling around it.

A view showing a bit of the back. You can see the diagonal stitching and the heart pattern around the edge. I added that at the end as it looked too plain when I was finished with the basic part of it. I had some control issues on the heart stitching but this was supposed to be a learning experience so I didn't really care all that much. Of course I had no idea it would end up front and center at a wedding.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day wherever you are.

Shared with Linky Party Tuesday - early

Pouches I like

1. Lisette pouch, 2. Orange Scrap Pouch, 3. zippered quilted bag, 4. ..., 5. bird, 6. * pink pouch, 7. Mouse boy pouch, 8. Audrey pouch: Pretty little pouch swap, 9. trillium baby quilted triangle bag . summery flowers ., 10. Eye Glass Case, 11. Quilted sewing pouch, 12. TeaCup pouch 67

Oh my! I did it!

Niwot Ridge V

Above and below me is blue.

forget-me-nots live with their roots in the ice.

I asked the lichens if the rocks were old,

Around and around they said they were.

Climb that Mountain

Unfortunately not that sort of mountain. The one I'm climbing today is a mountain of paperwork. It is time to get everything filed for our annual canoe/kayak/bike/music and craft festival. It is a mountain of paperwork. Fortunately going into year 6, I've got most of it down.

Commemorative Quilt Contest

Once again, I've entered one of my little quilts in the weekly contest over at Quilters Gallery. It is a great site with lots of resources for quilters.

You can find all of the amazing commemorative quilts here. And if you feel so inclined, I would appreciate your vote for my "Quilt for My Brother". Thanks!

Mug Rug

My swap partner received her mug rug today so I can post this one. It is my attempt at modern. It is about 12 x 8 inches. It is hand quilted with pearl cotton in gray, green and blue.

Here is a look at the back where you can see a bit more of the stitching... and a great big wrinkle. I don't think it is really that lumpy.

On the Design Floor Today

OK, it is really on the table, because it is the start of a mini art quilt.

Party Purses

I've been makingwool felt party purses. The basic pattern is from emblibrary.com. I've been experimenting with putting other designs on them. For example, this one has the design on the flap instead of on the front of the bag. It took some wiggling but I was able to use some editing software to fit the Celtic heart (Urban Threads) around the button hole.

This little camera bag uses another UT design.

New Beginnings

I am very excited. Partner information arrived today so I can get started. I've been stacking up ideas for a while now.

Mug Rugs

I've been making mug rugs lately. I have a some vintage fabric from one of my great aunts. Try matching fabric colors to a piece that is 30 years old at best and more likely 50 or 60 years old.


The aqua color is actually the reverse side of a printed piece but it works pretty well. The black with green circles is pretty close but not quite right. I found a better solid that I will try to work with on the next one. The white is actually an off white because the vintage piece is just a bit off as well. Fortunately the black is nice and crisp.



I was going for a modern vibe incorporating the old fabric. I just love the figures in this piece. Look at the gentleman driving the carriage. Such simple lines that express so much.
I was so excited about finishing that it never occurred to me to change the bobbin thread. So I have lovely white thread showing up on the back of my wee quilt. Oh well. I'm also not so happy with the way the binding 'rolls' around. I cut it on the straight but the pattern wasn't. Next time I try that I will go with the pattern.


This next one was a bit of an experiment in a number of ways. I've always admired the appliqued quilts that have pieced backgrounds: blue sky, green grass. I pulled a bunch of gray fabrics from my stash to see what I could do. I did a variation of foundation piecing to get it to work out. I could be more random, but I have some ideas for making it better next time. I didn't manage to leave any raw edges showing, which is probably OK for a mug rug. I also ended up doing a bit of machine stitching which makes it look more crazy quilt that modern pieced background.

The orange circle was appliqued by sewing the 'glue' side of some iron-on stablizer to the right side of the fabric, cutting a slit and turning it. I worked pretty well.

Here is the back on this one.

This is the mug rug I received from the_trademarks in the craftster mug rug swap. It is gorgeous and I love the frog fabric in the middle. There seems to be a bit of frog theme going on around here lately. Once again, there will be a certain subset of my readers laughing hysterically! I know I didn't put frogs in my wish list! I am definitely going to have to tell the frog story one of these days! Thank you so much t_t!

You will have to wait until she receives it to see what I made for her.

On the Work Table Today

Last year I made embroidered tote bags for the winning table at our little trivia night. For some strange reason, I decided that I was going to make crowns this year.

One down, seven to go. I'm not sure I'm going to have the patience to make all 8 of these crowns. The paper mache wasn't easier than I had expected and one layer was sufficient to make the paper forms sturdy. but I have no idea how to proceed from here. I have a grand notion to do some sort of paper collage over the top, but I haven't done anything like that and am not sure where to start. Plain gold paint would be too boring. I'll do a couple more and perhaps something will come to me. Any suggestions?

Beyond that, is this just too dumb for words? I mean who is going to want a trivia queen/king crown.

FaceBook

WaggonsWest is now on Facebook. There is going to be a liking party with give away soon.

On the Design Floor Today

A crazy stacked coins quilt made from an inexpensive jelly roll I found at Tuesday Morning (of all places). I came up with a way to make this without pre-planning or onerous measuring.

In the Works

I have a lot of things in the works and some ready to share, but it is gray and gloomy here so I will wait until tomorrow to see if I can get some better pictures.

Niwot Ridge IV

IV.

When I follow the road to the top of the ridge,

I have to climb through a narrow gulch

Where snow collects and rarely melts before the end of June.

Some people call it the trough.

Jacob's ladders grow there.

Some people call them skunk weed.

I think...

...I need to do another give away. What do you think? Sunpaint fabric? Mug Rug? Badges? Custom Badge?

Quilting

I will have some quilting and crafting pictures for you soon. I've been working on some swaps and can't show you until my little packages arrive at their destinations. I've been playing with some more vintage fabric, learning a new applique technique and making lace on my embroidery machine... so lots to share soon!

Time Passages

While I'm really not a fan of this song, it was running through my mind today as I was out and about. I was thinking about a recent email about some one I consider a young adult who is actually in the mid forties now. The email was essentially letting me know that this individual was feeling all of those years. Now, I have pretty much adjusted to babies becoming toddlers and my own spuds becoming young adults. I am started by but accepting of the aging I note in individuals who are older than I. And yet I was completely thrown by the obvious aging of one just slightly younger than I.

It reminded me of time spent with my sister not too long ago. We were out and about in the town where we grew up. She left many years ago and I have spent long periods away. As we noted familiar places and thought we recognized some familiar faces, my sister blurted out "They could at least have the decency to cover their gray". It was her way of expressing my thoughts today. It is easy to accept the passage of time in other generations but to see the physical evidence of it in ones own can be startling.

Niwot Ridge III

III.

I drink water from the stream above the road,

Get it in my special cup

That is white and blue with flowers on the side.

Eric made the dent in the bottom but I can't complain,

He washed it out in the lake for me when I was too tired.

It was night and the moon was next to Mars.

I think of the sky when I use my cup.