Mini Wednesday

I'm back!!! I really needed that break but am happy to be back in Blogger-land and to share my new favorite mini with you.

As you can already surmise, this one will be a windmill. Lately, I've been fascinated with them.

I tried out a cloudy background but didn't like it one bit.

This is much better.

Stringing all the tiny pieces is time consuming but rewarding. Mr. Cowboy came in to watch me which was nerve racking!!!

All done and happy!!! The reason for the changing color is some of the photos were taken during the night or under my Ott-Lite.

Things Texas Revisited

A new blogging friend asked about the patterns to my "Things Texas" quilt. I had to think really hard about where those patterns were. It took me a couple of weeks to dig them out. I decided to re-post about the process and share the patterns with anyone who's interested.
As you can see from the photo, there are lots of what I call blank spaces throughout some of the designs. I am linking to my tutorial about how to do this particular process. It's a bit time consuming but well worth the effort.

• Below are the patterns I used. Just right click on each page then copy and paste them into you own document. You can then enlarge each pattern to your desire.
• I chose fabrics that would show off the silhouettes.
• I used Steam-a-seam or Heat-n-Bond as an adhesive backing on the black silhouette fabric.
• Note: One thing I failed to mention in the last video is that I had removed the adhesive before the final placement and pressing.
• After pressing the silhouettes into place, I stitch the raw edges into place stitching as close to the edges of each pattern as possible.
• The videos were made in August 2009 where I mentions a silhouette give away of that cow. Well obviously that was years ago but I do have a little surprise this August 2013. Scan down to the bottom of this post to see what's up.

 

The tiger is an example of another way to use an image as a silhouette and use more colors to jazz up the image.

It is my give away design for this particular post.

It is unfinished in that I have not stitched it down, never got around to it so it landed in my UFO box......LOL.

If you are interested in this unfinished block measuring

 approximately 12 1/2 inches just leave a comment and mention

 your favorite

animal

 and it's that easy!!

 

 

 

DWM

To see what others are up to, pop over to

 Judy's

for a closer look.

I learned about this wonderful project from this LINK.

With the various situations, tragedies and worries that have occurred lately, Sandra and Sandi came up with this small heart warming project.

I chose a heart design. I wanted it to be vivid. The rest of the design was to be in shades of gray so that the piece would standout.

I used fabrics from my stash. Robert Kaufman's Fusions; Windham Fabrics-Civil War by Nancy Gene and other scraps.

I wanted the wording to fade from darkness to light.

"From Tragedy to Hope"

was what I chose. "Hope" is done in two shades of yellow. 

Sprinkling the monochromatic gray, black and white flowers added to the piece.

Now I'll need to sandwich everything then quilt it. The finished piece should

 measure 12 inches square.

 

All done!

 

Barn #4 Plus Tutorial

I decided to show a little of the process I use when making these blocks.

First, sketch out the design, which may have just the basics. This one is very basic. I tend to add to it later only in fabric form.

(This is a free design that I'm sharing with everyone)

After tracing out the design parts onto my favorite adhesive....say it with me...Steam-a-Seam.....you all know me so well....I then choose fabrics from my stash that best represents what I'm seeing in my head, which is a scary thought, indeed!!

After cutting the pieces out, I press the barn pieces together when at all possible. A tentative  background is chosen and auditioned.

I am not liking this one at all. Hummmmm, back to the stash.

This is more appealing but not quite it, yet.

I like to play around with the slanted options which, in this case, looks like fields in the background.

The blue clouds fabric I'm using is the back side. It's a little more subtle than the right side.

I've turn one corner over so that you can see the difference. I often use the back side of fabrics. A quilter spoke about it years ago. I think it was Mary Ellen Hopkins who did a lecture about the wrong side of fabric. Click on the photo to make it larger.

At this point, I have not pressed anything to the background. I'm looking at it from several angles. I also take a photo of it to see if it needs any changes. You'd be surprised how helpful that little tip is to us quilters.

This is the final version and I've pressed it down. I like it a lot.

I am trying not to buy much fabric this year. Of course there are times that my stash doesn't have the correct green, blue, tone on tone, red, black..... oh, sorry. You know how that goes.

I have one more block to make and then I'm calling it quits. After that, I'll get into how I want to place each barn, what are my filler blocks going to be, will I add something to tie the blocks all together.......woooo, I head is spinning!!!

Four so far

 

 

In The Meantime.....

So, I'm into Plan H with the project I've been posting about.........LOL
And I've just recently mailed off my Quilt of Valor top.......Yea!

So while that project is brewing in my head for a solution, I made a wall hanging from ....... you guessed it, scraps.

Part 1 ... sew some scrap strips together

Part 2... choose a background fabric to add interest

Part 3... find a nice focus fabric

Part 4..... oh, flower petals sound good

TaDa.... wall hanging 17 1/2" by 21"

Love it!!

So, I'm Thinking......

I've slept on it and come up with this.

 Twenty-five 4 1/2 inch squares of tone-on-tone. 

 Four varied shades of blue prints - I used my grandmother's fan template to cut the shapes.

This view is just to see if I like what's going on.  I think I do so I'll be working on sewing everything down.

Details

 I've gotten the outer brown circle in place and will need to hand stitch a thin circle to add more detail later. So far the circle is roughly 16 inches.

The stars that appear above the eagle's head are supposed to number 13 for the first 13 states but I decided not to depict that tiny detail because my talents are not up to that one as of yet...... LOL

The leaf and berries have the correct number of 13 each and I have 13 arrows.  Not sure of my next step at this point but I'll sleep on it and come up with something soon.
The weather here in central-ish Texas is unusually rainy. Last night we had lots of thunder and very scary lightening. Then the rain came in buckets. It was one of those times like I remember my grandma use to say, "Get somewhere and be still, little girl!" That's what she told me during those time and believe you me, I was very still last night....... smiles!

National Quilting Day

 

To celebrate National Quilting Day, I decided to pick out some fabrics to start a new quilt I've been thinking about.  As most of you know, I'm really into "seals" ..... not the animal or the guy model..... I'm talking about symbols of authority, such as, the Texas seal.... remember that one??



So, this is the next project concerning seals. As I've said many times, for me the process of choosing fabrics is the hardest part because there's just so many colors to choose from and I want to get just the right shades.

When working on this kind of project, I use a color copy and a black/white, plus, I enlarge or shrink the design as desired.
I'll be using several techniques.... applique`, hand embroidery and silk purse, as well.

Here I've started the eagle. It's just on a non-stick pressing sheet for the moment. I'll add the talons later and the white tail feathers.

Happy National Quilting Day everyone!

Step 3

Photo

Shhhhhhh......I can't believe it but I found some time to work on my woodsy project.

• This is just an audition step. 
• By cutting and laying out the various fabrics pieces, I can pick and chose what works and what doesn't. I've already pressed the adhesive and cut the pieces..... it's a very small price to lose the fabric I don't choose.
• I'm thinking at this point that I may need to use a different background... a little darker but still mottled.
• I've used the reverse side of a black fabric to shadow the hollows n the trees and I really love that effect. Batiks really work great in this type of project.
• I found some subtle greens for brush in my stash but as I said, I need a different background......
• Once I've finalized everything, I'll stitch everything down and add the thin limbs and branches shown in the foreground on the photo.

Stay tuned.

Step 2

Using a light box or light source, I've starting tracing the reverse side of the photo. I know my images are faint but that's alright with me. I used something called Dry Mounting Tissue. A box of it was given to me by a friend years ago and at the time I had no idea what to do with it. But it has really come in handy as an almost transparent product.
On each tissue I traced one component of the photo which will be matched with a fabric later. I used a Sharpie Permanent marker for tracing..... it's the only thing that won't wipe off.
Each traced component will now be traced onto the Steam-a-seam and then pressed to the back of the chosen fabric when I find the time to get to it.  
I'm afraid that life is about to get in the way for a few days so hang in there and stay tuned.

Seal

I've had this idea in my head for a couple of months.  Had to do something about it.... LOL.... As you all know, I'm from Texas and as we all do, I love my state, the people, nature, the weather and even the little scary critters who often invade my yard, the back forty, come into my garage, fly by my head, have the nerve to even...... sorry..... where was I?
Oh yeah...... anyway, I found this clipart photo, thought it had potential, studied it, thought about fabrics to use and then went for it.

I went with soft colors for the most part... olive greens, butter yellow, rust, browns, with pops of color... black and white. All fabrics came from my stash. I'm so proud of myself.

 The background fabric is gray which I just love. The photo does not do it justice.

So far this block measures 20 inches square but I will probably trim it down to 18 1/2 inches.

This is what I have so far. I've got to add the acorns to the oak area next.

I plan to do some hand stitching to vein the leaves and stitch around for the circle effect. So stay tuned.