The first quilt I ever designed and made...

Was this little wall hanging I did for my late mother-in-law, Juta.  Tom and I had just started dating in 1993, and, while I'd known both Tom and his mother since I was a little girl, I hadn't seen either one of them for years.  In visiting her at her home in Chicago, I learned she loved her garden, and the color pink.  Meanwhile, I was just learning about quilting and reading everything ever published about the subject. 
So--when I saw a flip-and-sew technique in a magazine and saw it could be applied to creating flower shapes, I tried it to make this roses quilted wallhanging.  It was given to Juta for Christmas. 




 

 

 



I used the flip-and-sew method for the roses, and raw-edge applique for the stems and leaves.  I guess, even though I'd taken numerous art classes in my life, I didn't yet have an eye for value.  The stems and leaves are pretty muddled.  I also had no idea about doing a binding or a hanging sleeve.  My techniques for those were pretty primitve.  But, at the time, I thought it was kind of cool. 

She never hung it up. 

(BTW--I can't for the life of me figure out how to flip this photo so that's it's upright.  Grrrr....)



 

A new craft idea!

Found this in a funny little shop in Fond du Lac.  I can make one, too. 

Colin's Leaves

My friend Colin lives in Chicago, and a while ago he  took a picture of three leaves on the hood of his purple car and posted it on Facebook.  Having a particular Fast Friday Fabric Challenge in mind, I asked if I could use his photo as inspiration for an art quilt.  The challenge called for making a quilt using high contrast, which the photo had.  He said OK!  I wanted to make the quilt shiny in some way to reflect the car surface, so I pondered on it for a while.  Months, really...

Recently--another friend of mine, Lynne, who is a seamstress, gave me a chunk of the most gorgeous purple raw silk...perfect for Colin's Leaves!   Then, while cleaning out my closet, I decided to retire an old blouse of mine as it was probably 10 years old and had frayed cuffs.  It's ivory silk--perfect for Colin's Leaves! So I took it apart and saved the pieces.  With these two fabrics, I got the feeling the universe was telling me to finally make the quilt! 

So I used the two silks and quilted the back ground with black and silver metallic threads.   The leaves were marked with a silver paint pen and quilted in silver as well. 

I like it.  It's the first pure art piece I've done in a while.   Thanks, Colin! 

New Year's Day Mystery Quilt

Planet Patchwork (http://www.planetpatchwork.com/) does an online mystery quilt every year on New Year's Day, along with other days of the year, where participants can choose their fabric , follow instructions that are posted each hour and end up with a fun quilt top. I've done this a couple of times with mixed results. The first one, called Sno Business, I loved and The Hubs uses it all the time. The next one I disliked and took it apart right away.

This one is called Chips and Strips. It's very fun and I like it! This is a crappy picture, but when I finish this I'll take more. I already know how this will be quilted (geomterically along the zig zags) and I know it'll be used.

Naaaahhhh it's not art...but it's fun!