Junk Journaling Again

 Here I go again. Hi everyone. Please allow me to practice on you all with my first attempt to video one of my latest junk journals. I am not good with the direction of turning the journal the correct way. Please use kind words with your critiques. And thanks in advance.

String Quilts

My good friend Gene asked about my string quilts. He hadn't seen them in a while, so I'm reposting some of the ones I've done in the recent past.  Most come from scraps left over but the majority come from me cutting in the vast amount of fabric I have stored away and needing to refold. That's when I find most of the ideas of new string quilt designs....I know some of you know exactly what I talking about. The, "Oh wow, when did I buy that fabric," or "I didn't know I even had that one."

This one was a string challenge from my Wacky group.

 I couldn't find the photo of the whole quilt on this one but the close up is of some of my favorite fabrics.

 

This one was from strips of fabrics from many other projects.

 This one is from my red, white and black period. The rose fabric came from a quilt shop in San Antonio, TX. Funny how I can remember that and can't remember where I put my car keys.

 This was from some cowboy fabrics I had left over.

 On clue when I made this one but I do remember the 1 inch off white strip I used as an eye-popper.

 I was playing around with tone on tones in this one with dark fabrics to show off the tones.

 This one was made with all of my green fabrics. Green is my favorite color. I used several red fabric to bring out the center of the diamonds and then did a small red first border.

 Here, I was given some pink floral fabric from a lady's grandmother. I made the quilt you see for myself and made one for her as well.

 Pink, again. This one was made at the request of Ayden, my granddaughter. At the time she loved pink.

 Another red, white and black quilt. This is one design that I make often because it's a quick one and I never get tired seeing the fractured diamond effect.

 Another fractured diamond quilt but this time not only do you see the star in the middle but also the outlining border of brown and gray which is more pronounced than the one in the red/white/black one.

 Again, leftover fabric. I threw in the green as an accent and added the ABC at the last.

 I was just playing around with more scraps in this one. (Fractured diamond)

 Green/black/gray was used here...another fractured diamond type.

This one was made last year for a veteran.

Finally, this one was made a very long time ago, like 1998-ish.....LOL!!

So, that's the end of my string tour.

To see more strings from other bloggers click HERE!

 

 

 

Ok, Maybe One or Two More?

I've enlarged each design 150% on my printed. It takes several repositions to get all the parts and then loads of cutting and taping things back together.

There are at least two Veterans at our Seniors Center who served in the Army and Air Force so I decided to make those two seals especially for them. I can easily quilt these on my Janome because they aren't going to be any bigger than 25 inches each.

After this I'm really finished.....no.....REALLY!!!

Below are some of the stages to making the seals. I'll show the finished quilts in a lager post.

 

 

 

I use dinner plates, pizza pans, skillets and anything else that will lend me a perfect circle. Mr. Cowboy just shakes his head but wisely says nothing.

I will stitch all the pieces down before quilting everything.
In a couple of previous posts, someone asked about the types of fabric adhesives I use. I love Steam-a-Seam Lite but it's sometimes hard to find so I'm using Heat-N-Bond Lite at the moment. When quilting everything together I use either the 505 Spray or Loctite Spray Adhesive (the Loctite is found at JoAnn's).

Celebration Part 5

Onward!
Someone asked about the design I used in a previous post. I'm freely sharing it today. It's mostly half-square triangles with a few, what I call, blank squares added. You can use any size HST.

This Fractured Star design is perfect for the eagle I have in mind. The design for the Fractured Star, which I've used many times, you can probably find if you do a Search of tutorials on my Sidebar.
Just wait until you see the eagle I'll be using. It's perfect!!!!

Here's sort of hawk in the hay field waiting for the balers to scare up a mouse, rabbit or snake. No need to soar overhead & wear out the old wings....laugh out loud! 

WINNERS!!!

I'm still waiting to hear from Needled Mom who won the last fat quarter. Her favorite color at the moment is yellow. Mr. Cowboy was anxious to pick the latest name from the old cowboy hat because he needed to get back to the hay fields to move those bales into storage. So the winner for a fat quarter this post is Gene! Congrats to Gene who has requested blue. 

Leave a comment to participate in the fat quarter give away. I think I have a couple more post before the 1600 mark.

Celebration Part 4

So, after several nights sleep I decided Log Cabin blocks would be the perfect solution. Of course I made a few to see if my thoughts were on point. 

Yep! So off to the old stash I went to find more blues/reds/creams.

I feel really good about this one. I might sew on a border but maybe not! At the moment it measures "51 by 45."

Thoughts??

Now for the winner of the FQ this post. It's Needled Mom whose favorite color at the moment is YELLOW! Congratulations to you. I must tell you, Mr. Cowboy gets to pull the names from the hat and always comments about the blogger names. I just laugh and send him on his way. That reminded me of when me and my brother were children and dad had a CB in his truck. Some of you may remember those which were a way to communicate back in the 70s. Truckers had them in their big rigs and when regular drivers discovered that CBs were a great way to outwit the Highway Patrol.....well you see where this is going.....LOL!  Dad's handle was Rancher on the Road. David and I loved to hear him talking with everyone on our road trips to Galveston. Mom was not so happy with all the chatter.

Sorry, I got off topic for a moment.

Remember that if you've won a fat quarter you can still participate. Just leave a comment and mention your favorite color. I'm very close to the 1600 post mark!!!

 

I'm already planning the next quilt. This process has been very therapeutic and has made me very happy.

Celebrate - Change of Plans

Oh, don't worry. I'm still counting down to the big 1600 post.
I'm referring to my changing the eagle for the second Veterans quilt.

I finished highlighting the eagle, changed his brow & stood back for a look-see.

But when I auditioned it at the top of the quilt, I didn't like the proportions one bit. So back to the drawing board.

The quilt needs a narrower eagle. 

I came up with one in flight. Now on to my stash of fabric to pick just the right colors.

Much better, don't you think?
I needed wording and Mr. Cowboy came up with "Freedom Isn't Free"
I like the way that sounds.

I've auditioned it above the scrappy quilt & it looks good. Now to figure out how I want to attach it. Maybe a strip between the quilt and eagle.

Not a very good photo but another quilt top finished!! I might try to take a better pic this weekend.

Now, for the first winner of the FQ.

The Left-Handed Quilter/favorite color at the moment RED!!

BTW, if you don't here from me after you leave your comments, please know that sometimes I just can't get to everyone. But I do read all comments and am so appreciative of everyone's time.

Alrighty, leave a comment, mention your favorite color to win a fat quarter.

Help Me Celebrate

Greetings Everyone!!

I was looking over my blog the other day and discovered that I'm 9 post shy of 1600 posts. OMG! I can't believe it. I've been blogging since 2007 & through many ups and downs in my farm-girl live, I've enjoyed every minute of getting to know many of my fellow bloggers.
So I decided to do a count down & some give-aways to build up to the number 1600.  I'm giving away a fat quart (the winner choses the color) each post until 1600. All you need to do to participate is to leave a comment and in said comment mention your favorite color starting with this post. I'll gladly send to my international friends as well.
Now, onto my next Veteran s quilt. 

I made this HST quilt last year & it just sat on a shelf collecting dust bunnies.

I'll be placing a close up of an eagle at the top. I really like it so far but I'll need to add more details.

Stay tuned for more FQ give aways toward my 1600 posts!

Finally, here's one of my grandbabies. I can't believe they were able to snap a photo with the hat still on her head. She's a firecracker!!!

One Scene, Five Points of View

I recently went on retreat with my "wacky" girlfriends. Needless to say, we had a blast what with laughing, eating and girl bonding. There was a bit of sewing involved but mostly we were just so happy to be together. However, I did bring along a little project for everyone to try. The above photo is a close-up of an old tree trunk and in the background are trees, the lake and a bit of sky. I gave each "wacky" a photo and ask them, along with myself, to make a mini of what each saw. I brought along as many pieces of landscaping type fabrics for them to use and each received a glue stick instead of using adhesive fabric backing such as Steam-a-Seam or Heat-n-Bond. Glue sticks are easier, faster and won't gum up your sewing machine!!!
Here's the results:

Rhonda's view (me)

Molly's view

Annie's view

Kathleen's view

Kathy's view
The retreat was a great success and therapeutic to us all. We are all refreshed and ready to get back to life and family.
I hope everyone who reads this blog post has a wonderful week and enjoy the last of April!!!

Mini Wednesday

Whoooooo!!1 You guessed it. This is the beginnings of an owl.

Here, I used a gold fabric and colored orange crayon stripes over it.

Now, I've placed the eyes over the feathered area. He's coming alive.

Adding white feathers in key areas makes the owl pop.

Finally, just before trimming I added a gold leopardy fabric.....Love it!!!