Sew Sunshine

"From the mending pile"  41" x 50"... ish, as it is finished as it was with no squaring up, improv design, up/re/cycled materials of denim, twill, stretch twill and denim machine pieced and hand quilted in a long stitch fashion These textiles originally came from some leftover scraps my mom had in her sewing room box. I realized they were bits of her old jeans and a bit of denim off cut from some she made herself.  I happened to look in my repair pile and I had a pair of worn out stretch denim leggings that I used to wear, a pair of Bugle Boy twill pants and a leg of work jean from my husband. In another pile I found a pair of stretch twill pants from my sister who always needs longer length in her pants. I am not sure if I was supposed to hem them and give them back to her or if they were just done but...they are in the quilt now. :) And, lastly another pair of twill pants I inherited from another sister.  This accumulation is from 5 differen

"Path Interrupted"  is my  Project Quilting 10.2 for the  red, white and blue theme. 20" x 27" improv pieced improv walking foot quilting in a woven pattern of organic lines made in Ne. I have to admit that red, white and blue are not my favorite combination of colors. I thought about just using 2 colors but I could not think of what I wanted to make for this challenge. In the mean time I was getting the email updates from  Amy's creative Side  on getting started with Improv. I adore improv and while I have not been joining in on the daily challenges I have been following along. I finally thought to get myself unstuck on the PQ challenge that I would cut some strips of red, white and blue pieces and put some strip sets together.  .....and what if I cut those strips up and inserted some other strips? I was starting to get a feel for where this was going. I love the dark navy batik print I found in my stash. I think it feels like trees

In late October my husband and sister and I took a road trip to Austin Tx. to attend the wedding of my niece.  It was a beautiful wedding and the weather was great. Outside our hotel was this river walk and it was really fun to walk around a bit. For quite a while now I have been working on an improv piece that I started in 2016 I believe, in a class taught by a fellow guild member Kris Khan.  I loved the colors I had chosen and we were doing improv strip piecing.  I had a few nice strips and then decided it needed to change direction a bit. Once I did that I was not sure where to go so back in a bag with all the fabric it went until a couple sew days this year with my lqg. I had so many solids set aside for this piece and I could be using them in other things but I didn't want to break up the fabrics in case I would never find them again or horror...use them up elsewhere!!! So....what does that have to do with my Austin River walk pictures? Finally in lay

Just in time for my lqg meeting challenge....I have a little finish! Our guild challenge was called "That's MODern" and we had to draw a Modern element or aesthetic out of a bag and make a 16" square black and white quilt with a pop of color.  I drew "Texture"..........say what??  The first thing I thought of was all the wonderful quilting I have been seeing lately. But I am not a talent for quilting and my sewing room is a big heaping pile since the remodel project started months ago.   Recently the MQG had a webinar by Rebecca Bryan from  Bryan House Quilts  and bits from her book Modern Triangle Quilts.  She talked about modern aesthetic and graphic design. So that got me excited. Here is what I came up with.  "Text-ure" 16" square Modern element = Texture black white and pop of color  I wanted to make sure everyone knew what my element was so I wrote out an improv word. :) Emphasis on 'text' since I love tex

So....not much has been new in my neck of the woods lately. I have been working on remodeling our kitchen and dining room. The work has been fun and will be great in the end but also exhausting. I have little time or energy for sewing or reading.  Now some deadlines are looming and I am having to switch gears and get to some things that are important.  A few months ago Debbie @ A Quilters Table  hosted a Improv Stripes QAL and I so wanted to join in. I had some leftover scraps from my local guild and decided to work with them and make a pillow size.  I was limited to the scraps so had to add and arrange accordingly.  I think it turned out pretty great and more importantly I finished something for the first time in months.  This pillow is getting donated to Friends of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum ART Market coming in November.  So yep....a finish... yay baby!! Linking up with  Let's Bee Social  @Sew Fresh Quilts and  Needle and Thread Thursday @ My

Here is my second entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy of  Amy's Creative Side . Please click on the link to the Festival to see all the lovely entries from around the blogging world.  This wall quilt is currently touring the state of NE because it was my entry in the Ne 150th Celebration of our statehood. There were 3 top places and then 6 of us had honorable mention quilts that got to tour with the winners. I have not seen this quilt since earlier this year and it has a few more stops before it makes it back home to me. It is a favorite of mine.  "Woven"  24 x 24  Improv pieced wall quilt depicting Ne diversity (More details on my quilt are in the link above)  Very fun scrappy improv representing many aspects of Ne life and landmarks Matchstick quilting is one of my favorite things to do.  The piecing up-close represents the land and terrain in an  aerial way but when you look at the quilt from far away you see the city-scape

It is time for Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy at  Amy's Creative Side . There are lots and lots of yummy beauties to behold already up on the page so I hope you go check them out!  I have been busy with a house remodel for the last several months and have not hardly looked at my sewing machine much less worked on anything...... BUT I can share a quilt or two that I did earlier this year so I feel like I am still part of the quilting world.  One of my all time favorite pieces I made and photographed is my all scrap " Triumphal Arches " quilt.   46 x 40 Improv pieced with solid scraps Memories of the beautiful arches from a trip to Italy.  back is one fabric not pieces but the colors work so great with the front and I really dig that arch I found to take my quilt on. 

Triumphal Arches 46 w x 40 h LMQG Curves Ahead Challenge scrappy arch curves I love arches. Many years ago when I went to Italy I just loved seeing arches, looking through arches at other things but most of all I loved the free standing triumphal arches.   My local guild had a challenge that I led called Curves Ahead. The idea was to inspire trying curved piecing though we accepted curved applique and curved quilting also.  I have been making quite a few circle quilts using various techniques and decided now was the time to try the arch shape. All of the quilt was made up of just pieces in my scrap bins. I grabbed random colors and sewed the arches and then pieced and puzzled them in between my scrap strips. Very little trimming was involved.  I placed the pieces from dark to light giving the illusion of sun and shadow on the arches, just like my photo shoot below!! I love the idea of Triumphal Arches and who knew I would actually find one near my neighborhood

"Woven"  24"x 24" A Nebraska 150 Wall Quilt Challenge entry Theme: "Inspired by Nebraska's Diversity" **warning very wordy ahead This year my state of Nebraska will commemorate its Sesquicentennial (150 years) of statehood.  A challenge went out to make a 24" wall quit with the theme Inspired by Nebraska's Diversity.  Our local modern quilt guild was already working on a project to tie in a charity fund raiser quilt and while I was participating in that I thought it would be fun to try my hand at a personal wall quilt.  My thought process was to present a sort of history woven in fabric.  I started improv piecing scraps, in the lightest fabrics I had, creating a grid of the farm land I grew up with.  The textures of the warp and weft are created by tiny inserts of fabric, some less than 1/2" wide.  Part of the aerial landscape is a bit of my journey. Born near the South Dakota/Nebraska border and slowly making my way sou

approx 37" x 47"  "Random Logs" finished UFO woohoo I made a quilt with some of this fabric for a charity a few years ago. (below) In keeping with my organizational challenge to not just move things from place to place but to finish things, I decided to just sew. I had 6 small 8" blocks and a bunch of scrap strips cut in a bag with backing fabric tucked in there too. I literally just started sewing strips on to the blocks and made 3 more just from scraps. The most fun was that I didn't once measure the blocks just squared them up after adding each log. I marked on my design wall the desired size I wanted for this crib size quilt and just kept sewing until I got within range. Totally mindless and very enjoyable sewing. Yay!!!  ....another one bites the dust and another one is gone!!   This was on my  2017 UFO challenge  on a secondary list, still, it is a goner!! I made more log cabin blocks but didn't fit them in because