ANOTHER RAIL FENCE?

With the Project Linus quilt still in mind, I thought that I would quickly put together another quilt to give away.  I've had the green fabrics on my cutting board for weeks, but time slips by.  I've missed the deadline but still made a quilt top.

Looking at it I think "Is this all that it could be?".  Nope.  I have plans.  Stay tuned.

PRESIDENT'S CHALLENGE - PEAR STILL LIFE

Every year the Halton Hills Quilters' Guild President offers a challenge.  This year we were to take a button from within a bag and make a quilt based on that button.  I pulled out a pear shaped button.  

I came up with lots of ideas and discarded lots of ideas, but finally fell on using photos of actual pears, and thread stitching them into an art piece.  

I called upon my photographer sister to take some pictures that I could use.  I don't like eating pears so she had to go out and buy some pears on her own then set up the shoot.  Here's what she sent to me.

I guess she got hungry during the shoot.

I printed these pictures onto fabric using my desktop inkjet printer.  The pears were cut out and placed on a dark background.  Each pear was thread-stitched.  Painted, stitched and distressed Lutradur leaves were an added 3D embellishment.

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES

I'm always trying to come up with new and innovative ideas in quilting.  Using the last  Group of Eight Fibre Artists challenge "Secrets" I wanted to produce a piece that contained a secret code of some kind.  I came up with the idea of using squares to represent vowels and rectangles to represent consonants.  Using black "letters" I stitched the first paragraph from the book The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  

It was machine quilted in a honeycomb or grandmother's flower garden shape, and a queen bee embellishment was added.

PILLOWS FOR A FRIEND

My sister does a lot for me, so when she asked if I would reupholster some cushions for a friend I said yes.  Now keep in mind that even though I know how to sew, I gravitate towards quilting  and quilting arts and asking me to make cushions is like asking Van Gogh to paint your garage.  Well, it took a while, but I finally got them made - job done!  Then, my sister presents them to her friend (along with the left-over fabric), who is all happy and excited, but now wants some throw pillows to go with the cushions (why not use up that extra fabric).  Well, here's another job that I was not looking forward to doing.  My only request was that I was provided with pillow forms no larger than 16" square.  The left-over fabric was not wide enough to make a pillow any larger.  Of course I get six 20" pillow forms in return.  I know, what's the difference between 16 and 20 inches??????  Size does matter!!!!!!

While I was walking my dogs last week, I passed by a garage sale in the set-up (it was early in the morning).  I noticed a box of cushions.  Could it be?  They looked the right size (16").  I kept walking, but after I took the dogs home, went back out with measuring tape and cash in hand.  I measured the cushions and as luck would have it, they were 16" square.  There were eight of them with a price of 4/$10.00 on the box.  That was too much so I offered $10 for the lot and a deal was made.  

I rushed back home and started measuring the fabric thinking that I wouldn't have enough to cover all eight pillows, but I squeaked out enough to cover all of them. They will be presented to my sister's friend as a birthday gift.  I hope they will be appreciated.

WANDERINGS

I've been trying to play with fabrics in a more abstract way.  The fabrics used in "Wanderings" were hand-dyed, stitched together, heavily quilted then painted using acrylics.  Some hand stitching was added.

AND THEN WE SET IT ON FIRE

My friend, Jo (check out her blog here), was the guest blogger during the month of May, on "and then we set it on fire".  During one of her blogs last month, she mentioned some of my work with Lutradur.  Look here for more.

In this piece, entitled Spanish Doors, I printed pictures of doors, taken while I was in Spain, onto Lutradur.  The Lutradur was then distressed  using a heat gun.  The Lutradur piece was then mounted on a backing and quilted.

FIBRE ART GREETING CARD

True to form, my friend Linda Kittmer, never misses sending a greeting card to wish a Happy Birthday.  Linda has photographed her own art and produced her own cards.  They are beautiful.  I received this card in the mail a few days ago.  How lucky can I get?  Thanks Linda!

PROJECT LINUS

Project Linus provides love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers.”  Each year, the Halton Hills Quilters' Guild makes quilts for this charity.  

Here's my donation toward this cause.  I love the black and white blocks, but alone they just needed some help.  The daisy border looks great with the black and white blocks.  The thin yellow border picks up the yellow from the centre of the daisy border.  That's better.

Here's a closer look.

JOSEPH SCHNEIDER HAUS ORANGE RAFFLE QUILT 2014

Every year I enter the Joseph Schneider Haus Quilt Block Contest.  I don't know how many blocks are submitted, but mine usually ends up in the finished quilt.  This year, the theme was From The Stash, where each block was to be made with a minimum of 50% of the fabrics used coming from the makers own stash, AND the colours had to be orange.  Even though I don't have as much orange fabric as other colours, it wasn't a stretch to use all fabrics from my stash.  The quilt block design was from StrataVarious Quilts by Barbara Persing and Mary Hoover.  It was machine pieced, machine appliquéd and hand embroidered with a blanket stitch outline.  

When I was ready to submit the block, I was concerned that the centre did not match up completely, but I thought that since it was a block that I was giving away, why waste my time fixing it.  Well, in the judges comments, it was mentioned to watch the centre setting.  I guess I should have fixed it!

After all the blocks are submitted, they are pieced and quilted by local women.  Here's the final quilt.  It will be raffled off, with the proceeds supporting the Friends of Joseph Schneider Haus Programs.