Sew Sunshine

"You are my Sunshine"  27" x 34" most of the sun rays are made from hand dyed either I did or purchased, background fabric is mixed pattern is from  Scrappy and Happy Quilts by Kate Henderson Sun was just starting to coming up when I took this pic.  It was super windy this morning so it was hard to go to far from shelter.  I kind of like the sun starting down on the bottom corner. :)  My local quilt guild held this challenge and just said do what gives you Joy. We had a lot of variety in quilts and a lot of fun stories.  I can't put a fine point on what gives me "joy" but some of the things that came to mind while I was making this: I love to use fabrics from my stash. I used a few experimental dyed fabrics I made. The bottom left sun points were made by just pouring undiluted dye over another dyed color. It has dark and light spots that almost look like it burned the color into it. Love that. * note- probably not washabl...

My Moth (er) pattern by Tula Pink 42 x 38 My second entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by  Amy's Creative side   The back of this moth quilt was so fun. All those 1" strips folded onto themselves leave 1/2" on the front and this double layer on the back.  Check out my original post  HERE  and  click on over to the Blogger's Quilt festival to see all the lovely entries. 

  Blogger's Quilt Festival is going on right now over at  Amy's Creative side  Hop on over and see all the amazing quilts from the blog-o-sphere. "Under the Rug" Scrappy improv QAYG string quilt 52 x 64 For how I made this scrap quilt you can read more about it  HERE   and click on Amy's Creative side link at the top of this post to see all the lovely entries this year. 

"The Wall"  39" x 51" scraps, orphans, extras and so much more Freemotion quilting random stuff It was a sew day back in Oct of 2015. A few brave members of my local modern quilt guild got together to attempt a Round Robin score taken from Sherri Lynn Woods book: Improv handbook for Modern quilters. Six showed up and bravely worked on their beginning pieces until the timer said to pass it to the person on your left.  We had so much fun just improv sewing.  I really didn't have a theme at first and then the bits and scraps just became this graffiti to me that represented a bit of my life. I mean, there is some chunks of blocks from a Victoria Findley Wolfe class I took. Some bits of the very first Quilts for Kids quilt I made that was race car themed. There are favorite fabrics used by me and 5 other members all somewhere on this wall quilt.  When the initials M + K sort of formed I knew it was supposed to be my wall representing my husband and...

This is My Moth(er) 42 x 38 Tula Pink book Pattern -Ikat Moth freemotion quilted circles over moth and wavy lines over background By now if you follow me you know I am really an emotional quilter/crafter. I attach to certain things I choose and often it comes from a somewhere deep inside that usually circles back to my mom.  "You and I possess within ourselves - at every moment of our lives, under all circumstances, the power to transform the quality of our lives.  Knowing that is what the work is all about." - Werner Erhard I put that quote on the label of this quilt because this was a huge learning curve for me. I chose to use these vibrant colors inspired from the Madegascan Moon Moth. I think many moths are beautiful and live such short lives.  This quilt taught me lots of patience which is burned into a memory of my mother when she started getting sick.  1" strips sewn down to 1/2" makes for a very thick quilt. The skinny li...

Back when I was doing the remodel on my dining and kitchen areas, I ordered new windows. The east wall has these 4 short windows. They had custom metal blinds there before and because I sew in there sometimes they were covered with fuzz ALL the time.  We replaced the windows and I had some simple ideas to cover them with but the one window was made slightly different than the other 3 and so nothing and I mean nothing can be installed there.  So I either had to choose outside mount which would be huge because the 4 together are over 120" or come up with something simple.  One day I decided. Since I sew why not make simple a simple shade-type style curtain that lets the light through in a quilty way.  I came up with these pojagi style panels. They are a gray weave look cotton with white, gray and grunge in the lighter areas.  They slide on simple cafe rods and can be taken down in seconds or put at different levels to let the light in.  My samp...

A while ago I saw a free pattern from Robert Kaufman made out of Kona called  Kona Crossing . I thought it was super cute and would be an easy piece to change size on and make into a fun child size quilt. This is my interpretation made out of these fun gingham looking cottons I had.   I have to admit this is super cute! Some little girl is going to love this.  and because the next photo had too much background clutter I zipped it up in a filter which turned out way cool.  Fun and done!! woohoo Also for fun........ I decided to add some shibori (itajime) type folding and some black rit dye to some gray dish towels. They turned out so cool. :) Linking up with  Let's Bee Social  HERE My quilt infatuation  HERE (she featured my Dahlia Dream quilt...woohoo) and  Finished or not Friday  HERE

My two local Modern Guilds had a mini quilt swap between them. We met up last Saturday to exchange the quilts and have a bit of meet and greet.  There were 15 from each guild that signed up to swap. My partner and I chatted by email and FB and then met up on a sew day. "Bad Romance" on the Left is my sample "Just Dance" on the Right is my finished swap piece Fun at the park on this photo shoot. I could not resist the bicycle wheels on the dinosaur.    My partner suggested colors of blue green, green blue, greens, burgundy and mustard. I tried to come up with a soothing combination for her. We tried to pick a page number and then find a quilt book with something good on that page. I was stuck The only thing that was remotely possible was a simple drunkards path block. Then I found Tula Pink's book in my stash.   I found in the book this Eclipse pattern.  Straight line quilting I also included a piece of fabric from my ...