Was a little nervous when it came to quilting the piece. My old 100 stitch Kenmore never really seemed to quilt very well so I never really enjoyed quilting much. A couple of months ago, I bought a new machine, a Janome 6600 & she's just wonderful!! I love my new machine!! Quilting with it is wonderful. Starting & stopping you didn't have that little knotted mess on the back side of the fabric that you wondered how you were going to clean up & the thread cutter button is a must!! Was a little nervous when I began stitching over the toilet tissue cast pieces, but the Janome didn't have a single issue with it. It stitched along like I was quilting on muslin.
Almost forgot, finished, it's 12.5" by 18".
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Green Apple Martini
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Green Quilt Finished!!!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Tax day & other things..................
I am happy to say that I did get out of jury duty, yeah!
Sorry that I haven't posted much lately, but remember the quilt that I wanted to enter into a show & I messed up the measurements? Received an email stating that they were going to extend the deadline by one more week, so I've been working like mad on trying to finish up another idea. All I have to do is bind the quilt, which I hope to finish tonite & if I have time, will take pics tonite & hopefully post tomorrow, otherwise, I'll post on Wednesday.
To give you a little hint of what I've been doing on this piece, I dyed bamboo poplin, my favorite neon green, cheesecloth, that same green along with hints of turquoise(it turned out really nice) did some thread painting along with adding touches of dyed toilet tissue cast, angelina fibers (first time I've ever used those) & Misty Fuse. And should it not get chosen for the show, that's ok, it's a piece I can add to my Etsy store, which I hope to be opening soon!!
Monday, April 7, 2008
Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was summoned for jury duty today & tomorrow. They didn't pick me today & hopefully, I won't be picked tomorrow!! Talk about exhausting. You sit in a room with about 200 other people & that's all you do......................sit. Brought my latest Quilting Arts & American Quilter's Society magazine, along with a book & my sketchbook. A person can only read for so long, then you get sleepy......................well, at least I do. One day down & hopefully, I pray, only one more left!!
On a happy note, I received this over the weekend from Nikki.
I visit her blog quite often & love what she's doing!! One day I suggested about "goin' green". She obliged & look at the beautiful work she created in that color. Thanks Nikki, I LOVE it!!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
ACEO's from Marion
Marion Barnett & I did a private trade & this is what she sent me. Aren't they just GORGEOUS?!!!!! The colors are very beautiful & vibrant. There's so much going on it each of these ACEO's (Art Card, Editions & Originals) They each have a soft velvety touch to them when you gently run your fingers over them. The two on the outside have layered Lutradur & what I think are Angelina Fibers that run over the sides. They've all been painted & some of them have foiling & quilting added.
I love how she finished the edges by leaving them raw. I would have never thought of doing this. When I make pc's or atc's, my thought is of always stitching up those edges. Seeing these has now opened my mind to new possibilites.
You really should check out Marion's blog, she's doing some wonderful things & if you find yourself really wanting one of her beautiful pieces, she also has an Etsy store!!
Thank you Marion for such wonderful little works of art!!!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Goin' to the birds
I had a busy weekend. I had to make 8 of these for a swap in Surface Design. I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. I'm one of those people that after spending a lot of time on something like this, when they're done, I wonder, "do they look ok?" "did they turn out ok?" I'm always so critical of myself. I did like how the fabric turned out, below, before I made them into birds.
The sky blue (a somewhat lighter color than I would normally use) was actually a mistake from a previous project. (Glad I held onto it!) I then layered a metallic eyelash yarn, black Misty Fuse then another eyelash yarn on top.
I also dyed my cat, Matisse, this weekend. No, it was not intentional. I do all of my dyeing in my garage & when I'm working, I leave the door open from the living room into the garage so my 2 boys, Matisse & Sydney can play & do what cats like to do when checking out new places. I was dyeing some of my neon green for a quilt that I'm working on & decided to make up some extra dye to paint some Tyvek. I don't like how lightly the dye goes onto the Tyvek, so I actually pool it onto the Tyvek & let it dry over night. When I finished, I would have sworn that Matisse was in the house, so I closed the door. A couple minutes later I went back out into the garage & there was Matisse on the other side of the door. I didn't think anything of it. Half an hour later, my husband noticed this green stain on the living room floor. I had NO idea where this had come from since I never brought any dye into the house. As I was cleaning up that spot, we started to notice, little green kittie paw prints all over the living room carpet, up the stairs onto the wooden floor in the kitchen, all the way through onto our cork floor in the dining room. We snatched up Matisse & sure enough, that little boy had 4 neon green paws. We were able to rinse most of it off, however, it did dye his feet a little bit.
My next worry, how bad did the garage look? It was a massacre in there. Remember that pool of dye on the Tyvek? Matisse had walked through it, realized his feet were wet & shook them all over the counter & walls. He then proceeded to walk the entire length of the counter, slid down my white cabinets & continued onto the concrete floor. Luckily, every thing cleaned up quite well, even the carpet. I think my saving grace with the carpet was that, the dye I mixed up for the Tyvek, I didn't add the soda ash so the dye was never able to bond with anything. Unfortunately, I have no pictures to show you of Matisse's paws, since he has dark pads & the green just wouldn't photograph well enough to show.
It is kind of funny looking back on it now, however, when it happened, I found NO humor in it whatsoever.
(oh & by the way, my Mariner's won their game yesterday, 5-2)