Sew Sunshine

Dog Days - from dictionary.com =  plural noun the   sultry   part  of  the   summer,   supposed  to  occur   during   the   period   that   Sirius,   the   Dog   Star, rises  at  the   same   time  as  the   sun:   now   often   reckoned   from   July  3 to  August  11. a  period   marked  by  lethargy,   inactivity,  or  indolence. Bits from my dog days:  BeeUtifully Modern Bee mate Liz picked an open theme for her Bee blocks. Sort of "a day in the life" or "inspired by Gwen Marsten-ish" or "whatever makes you happy" combo. The fabric colors she picked were way cool. I put off doing mine for a long time because I was not sure how to depict a day.  The top block is sort of a maze. Each days starts out with hope and then depending on how I feel, I either accomplish something and check things off my to do list or I spin my wheels and get nothing done and end the day with little to no progress.  Battling health issues that take me o

"Overlapping Dimensions"  24"x24" Improv pieced, machine free organic plaid quilting My Big Blue inspired challenge piece for an upcoming exhibit. Our LQG used a quilt for inspiration that was made by Ardis James back in 1983. We chose 7 blocks to remake, update, modernize or reinterpret whatever way you say it.  Each block has at least 3 people modernizing it. We ended up with 25 pieces turned in. The proposal for an exhibition has been submitted to the IQSCM for a possible exhibit in the spring. This outdoor photo-shoot was so fun as my friend and fellow quilt buddy Jen was out with me. She has a piece in this challenge too and needed a photo also.  My block was a single wedding ring block. It was pieced and then appliqued onto a background piece. I chose to do an improv interpretation of the block because I feel that if Ardis was alive today she would appreciate the deviation from the rules of traditionally made wedding ring blocks. 

"From the Cutting Room Floor II - Edit"  42" w x 34" h local quilt guild Oh Scrap Challenge entry Earlier in the year our lcq had a scrap swap. We did it musical chair style sort of. I was MC for a while then jumped in to grab some scraps. Well I ended with a few more of my own scraps back and not enough of new to me scraps. I decided since this was my challenge for the guild I would just use some of what I got from the swap and use the buckets of black and white scraps that I had from previous quilts. While we all were working on our quilts a member of the guild offered to have her studio space open to us for the finished pieces to be on display.  Her space is downtown at the  Burkholder Project  an art gallery and collective.  The challenge ended at our last meeting at the end of May and we swooped in and got them down to the studio and hung for the first friday art walk in the downtown area. So last friday we had a small reception and enjoyed seeing

It has been ages since I have taken a few to post. I am glad to say that I have been working on things just not getting them posted. I am pretty pleased with some of my work but disappointed with other things in my life. Mostly, I have not felt up to a whole lot physically so getting a few things finished is a huge milestone of sorts.  Lots of rain and yucky weather in my area but occasionaly I catch a glimpse of something beautiful and miraculous.  So above is a bunch of curves sewn in a lqg pop-up workshop I put together. We did 4 different kinds of sewing curves. The ones with orange are being sewing into a crib size quilt and going to Quilts For Kids. It is really fun to have participants give me back the blocks they practice on and then they can go into a functional quilt for someone else.  One of the members in our lqg bought and donated a huge amount of coffee cups. Since our guild meets at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum we often try to supp

"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

It was a really snowy day but I wanted the chance to take a photo of my newly finished "Chihuly Inspired" quilt outside of the Josleyn Musuem. The snow was still everywhere so I got the courage to go in and ask if I could take a quick pic onthe rails.  Afterall, it was inside that I first saw the large installation of the Chihuly Glowing Gemstone Polyvito Chandelier. (blown plastic)  Up close you can see the fun quilting design. I worked with Marsha from Dog Ear Creek Quilts to come up with something that would enhance but not take away from this fun layout.  This quilt was made with one of my all time favorite things, The Quick Curve Ruler (QCR) and the pattern can be found in the books from   Sew Kind of Wonderful . I love their rulers and on a mission to make several of their patterns. This layout of colors and fabrics was my own design. I wish you could see the glittery gold fabrics that make up some of the orbs.  Since the pics outside of the Josly

Out of the doom and gloom of this winter that seems to never end..... my UFO finish Sunset Strip 27" x 35"  Strip set score from Sherri Lynn Wood book - The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters Aurifil thread pieced and grainline improv quilting The score is to make strip sets and then create from there. My limitations were the 2 colors of blue and yellow. I made strip sets of blues, yellows and one slightly mixed. I evidently felt I needed some blue waters and sunshine in this bleak winter because that is what it turned into.  I played around with some thread colors because I finally had some various shades of Aurifil to use. Then I sort of did this flame grainline type quilting. I like the texture but it did stretch the quilt out a tiny bit. I had to block it when I was done to get it into shape.  I chose to use up as much of the leftover pieced strips I could. I thought I did but then when I was cleaning up I found a small stirp set