Mini Project gift

     One of my art teacher friends had a birthday and we had a lovely garden luncheon. Terri loves handmade items. I thought I would use some of my made batik fabric and make coasters (5 x 5 finished). I doubled the batting to make them more substantial. I quilted with variegated thread in a square spiral. All on the 301.
     I am still trying to experiment with denim. I was able to find a small back pocket, cut it out, sew it to card stock and add a lot of edges I trimmed off some batik fabrics going into a quilt. I folded the strips in half, tucked them in the pocket and sewed them down inside the pocket flat. The streamers can go up out of the pocket or down. She loved the card.

Six coasters

All ready to go

Front of birthday card, streamers up

Front of birthday card, streamers down

     Well, it is off to Syracuse tomorrow morning for AQS Quiltweek. Anyone reading going?

Strips with blacks quilted

    This quilt is made from an assortment of dark jelly roll strips from jellyroll.net and solid color ones given me by another quilter.  I asked my mom to sew the strip tubes, I cut them, arranged them, and then she sewed the strips together as I had taped numbers at the tops and pinned them for her. I quilted this today on the Nolting trying a different idea in every strip. I would rather do this than waste fabric and batting on practice sandwiches. Not yet bound. This will be a comfort quilt. For a few of the diagonals, I used my new ruler and template base. More learning curve. The ruler squirts around all over the place. Still pretty stinky quilting. 

Back

Back detail

Front detail

Front

Winter/windmills sewn together

      The blocks from the Winter/Windmill in the Cultural Fusion book were sewn together. What fun! I do not think I will put on a border. It is lap size. Wish I would have had more of the Marimekko fabric. I want to make another!

     I also finally made my portable design walls. I had to buy a whole 4 x 8 sheet of insulation board- the foil faced, cut it in half in the parking lot in order to fit it in the car. I cut a 3 x 4, 2 x 3, and some small left overs. I still have part of the sheet. I covered it with fleece on the large one, and felt on the smaller. I attached it with clear duct which it difficult to cut and handle. I hope it stays attached. The walls are light, rigid and pins go straight into it. Now I can work on some more denim applique quilts.

4' x 4' with fleece

Back with clear duct tape

Kit rearranged

    A couple of years ago, Connecting Threads had a huge Black Friday sale. I bought a lot of precuts and one kit that was priced below $10. I asked my mother to sew sets of three strips WOF for me. I have had these sitting around. 
   The Cozy Quilt pattern was included. Finally, I cut the strip sets and put it on the design wall. Hated it. I did not like the random arrangement which is why I also hate Yellow Brick Road- never made that again. I rearranged the blocks and was much happier. The border fabric included was so similar to the block fabric, that it disappeared. So, I added two accent borders, turquoise and light green, in between. I think it gives some interest and sparkle. Now it needs backing and quilting.

This was the kit picture with leaf appliques

My arrangement sewn together

Thin borders between provided fabric borders

Another Improv experiment

    In Sujata's class in Ithaca, we did a sample rail fence cutting 5 1/2" strips into freehand units. At home, I have a lot of 3 1/2" strips because lots of times cutting fabric, there is that much left over and I hate to cut it down to 2 1/2" and lose fabric. So, I tried using 3 1/2" ones and was able to get enough to do a 5 x 5 layout instead of a 4 x 4. So, now do I continue and make more? The block would finish at 12". I could make comfort quilts out of 4 blocks by 5 blocks having no border. Hmmm.

Top block using 3 1/2" strips, bottom one made in class with 5 1/2" strips

Improv attempt

     I just love the book, Cultural Fusion, by Sujata Shah. I love the class I took with her in May. I had some Marimekko that I had been given by a good friend and have not ventured to cut into. After the class, I decided to take the plunge on the idea of Windmills from the book, in the style of her quilt, Winter. I added some other colors for some pop and to make the quilt a little bigger.  The blocks were so much fun to sew! The blocks are trimmed at 7.5" now. I have to pick an arrangement and sew them together.

Idea 1

Idea 2

Little purse for little lady

     My granddaughter, Jolene, was looking through my cut up denim the other day and found two pockets with some bling. She said, "Grandma Linda, could you make me something?" I could not convince a three year old I am 3D sewing challenged so I said yes. I made her a little purse out of the pockets with a lining (pink of course) and a strap from a seam so it could be a cross body bag. She loved it. She keeps her little stuffed cat in it and kleenex.

Pockets right sides together, sewn

My attempt at a lining

Sewn together

Finished mini purse

Trying to integrate denim

     I love denim, especially used denim. I keep collecting jeans, cutting them up and trying to make quilts without bulky seams. I did make the denim stained glass one and and the denim lily (on display at Campbell Pottery starting next Saturday; it is on one of the slides). This one is using charm packs I got at Houston from Moda, lots of gray Kona Ash and denim. I just finished the quilting on the Nolting. I tried lots of patterns to get my practice level jacked up. I cut the binding out of a striped chambray, but it is not attached yet.

Detail

Detail

Back

Lots of sliding color strips!

     I have made a similar quilt (the rainbow one a few days back). I cut the batiks this time and the white was left intact as the strips were placed. I used 2 1/2" strips of batiks WOF and 2 1/2" strips of white, half of WOF. They were sewn into tubes- that is the batik to the white on both short ends. Then I laid them on the floor (getting too old for the floor), and arranged the colors. Satisfied with the color strip arrangement, I cut the colors to stagger the whites and have different lengths of batiks at the top and bottom.  When all were cut, I used blue painters tape and numbered each strip from left to right. I put the number 2 strip face down on the number one and pinned the right edge. Every pair was pinned the same way. Now all the strips are in an envelope and I will see if my mom will sew the long edges. She is having some eye surgery next week, so I may have to wait. I have plenty of other quilts to sew. I took the photos at night and the colors are a bit tough to see, but I needed to get those strips off the floor before Tugger the terrible cat rearranged them.

Fabric tubes

Cutting and laying out

All laid out, ready for numbers and pins

Finally quilted

      This quilt is from a Missouri Star quilt pattern that uses layer cakes. Over a year ago, I bought this bookish fabric from Connecting Threads on a pre-Thanksgiving sale. I made the quilt and started quilting it on my 301. It was kind of tough due to the size, so after finishing the center row, I put it away. I loaded it on the Nolting which was a little tough because it was partly quilted. I persevered through some wrinkling and shredded Glide thread (why now?) and finished this but for the binding. It will be a comfort quilt for someone who loves books, not sure who. Love the Military gold thread color by Glide. Now onto a couple of more quilts hanging in the closet for over a year. Have to take the safety pins out first before they load on.

Back

Back detail

Front

Quilted, not bound

     The jelly roll rainbow quilt was quilted with some rainbow thread that was given to me. The bobbin thread was lighter weight and so the back is a little funky, but ok. I made this as a comfort quilt for a little girl to be determined. I hope this is not construed as a co-opted symbol of a political stance, but as a cheerful, colorful, and aesthetic comfort quilt. Quilted on the Nolting.

Detail

Backing is one piece wide fabric from Ikea

Made Fabric Amp cover done and delivered

     The amp cover for my son was finished, wrapped, delivered and is now on his amp. I saw it on Instagram, but could not figure out how to get the picture here. I took the photos on a deck chair, so you have to use your imagination on the fit. It was not bad sewing through the vinyl on the Singer 15. He did like it.

side

top

Back

side

Front

Front