October 03, 2015

Update and a Share

First, I wanted to show you a final finished picture of the Cherri Tree Branch quilt.  I didn't finish it the typical backing and binding way.  I did what Chantell calls TIRSO (turn it right side out).  Which basically means putting the quilt front and the backing right sides together and stitching around it leaving a 'hole' big enough to then turn it inside out.  I then just stitched in the ditch and glued a few little flower buttons that I bought from Stamp-in Up on it.  And here is the result, first an over all picture.


Then a close up so you can see the little flower buttons. 


Although I am not really a 'stamper' I do find that Stamp-in Up has lots of products that can be used for my quilting.  I have a wonderful Stamp-in Up demonstrator, Catherine.  I will add her website on the right just in case you might want to check out what they have available.

Next up is my 'share'.  My sister Patti asked me if I would stitch her a dragon on my embroidery machine for her.  She was taking a quilting class at our local quilt shop and had bought some fabrics to make her quilt with and one of them had dragons on it.  Mia had digitized a set of dragons for me a while back and I immediately thought of the one which was my favorite.  Below you can see the results, her finished quilt.  I think she did a great job!


Here is a close up of the dragon fabric.


And finally a close up of the embroidered dragon.

September 20, 2015

The Cherri Tree Branch

Time to share my latest project with you.  It started out with an idea for a new competition quilt.  But before I could start working on the new quilt I needed some help from my friends Chantell and Mia.  Mia and I had already discussed the idea that I wanted to create and she has already worked on her part and has most of it done.  I started out thinking that I would use Chantell's tree and branches that I had used on the Owl Quilt.  But the more I looked at it, the more I realized that I needed something a little different.  So I wrote Chantell and requested just a tree branch, no tree.  She said yes, but that I would have to 'draw' out what I wanted.  Well I spent way to much time trying to find some clip art that would work, but nothing was exactly what I wanted.  So I went and took some photos of actual tree branches and traced different parts of the photo and came up with a pretty good drawing.  I sent it to Chantell and she cleaned up the art work and produced eight panels for me.  All of these needed to be test stitched, so I did that.  This was the end result.


Well, of course I wasn't happy with it yet and wanted to add a couple more panels.  I felt that the concept of what I was trying create needed more panels, it just wasn't quite wide enough.  So I went back to the drawing board and came up with two more panels.  I think it will work out much better for the idea I have for the competition quilt.

 
Not wanting to waste anything that involved that much work, I decided to go ahead and make this into a small wall hanging.  I added some birds that Mia had previously digitized to the panel.  It is not quite finished yet, I still have to put a back and binding on it, plus some little extra's that I am going to add, but you can get a good idea of how its going to look.  I will post the final product when finished. 


Now, that I have all the 'tools' that I need, I am off to create the new quilt.  I might post a sneak peek or two as I am creating it.  I have the feeling that it is going to be another one of those that takes months and months to finish.

Just in case you would like to create your own 'Cherri Tree' branch panel, Chantell does have the design set up for sale on her website.  Just the tree branch, not the birds. 

On a sad note, my friend Bev lost a member of her kitty family this week.  Jake will be missed by all, he was a sweet boy and loved lots of attention.  Here is a picture of him in one of his very favorite places, the kitchen sink.

July 23, 2015

Pink Pomegranate Parade

Well it's looking like once again I have been overlooked by the judges at the Hoffman Challenge.  I guess they just don't appreciate the beautiful machine embroidery and the originality of the designs digitized by my very talented friend Mia.  They haven't announced the winners yet, but they have a PDF that you can download and it shows who is traveling and who won the prizes.  I can see my quilt on the list, but there is no prize next to it.  So once again, they will be keeping my beautiful quilt away from me for a whole year.  I can only hope that all of the visitors to the different quilt shows where it will be displayed will admire it and be inspired. 

I can share pictures now!  So enjoy!  Look closely, those are tiny little pearls glued around each elephants hat, one big one on front of each collar,  and really tiny ones above each leg band.  Mia digitized the elephants, the peacock centerpiece and the long row of diamonds around it.  Chantell helped out too, she digitized the large corner on-point squares and the smaller on-point squares around the center piece.  Thank you ladies!  I really appreciate all of your help.


Here are some close ups of each set of elephants.  Remember the whole idea is to use the challenge fabric in ingenious ways.  I thought using it for the blankets and little hats was a perfect plan.  I think they are adorable!





Here is a picture of the back.  You can see a big piece of the challenge fabric in the middle.  Needless to say it was a very challenging fabric choice!


And of course, last but not least, the label which according to my friend Jackie is sometimes better than my whole quilt.   I know she is kidding (I think).  Mia digitized the really great lettering for the Pink Pomegranate Parade label. 

July 18, 2015

Owl Quilt and Hoffman Challenge Quilt Finished!

I actually finished two quilts this month!  The Owl quilt has of course been an on-going project for many months, but the Hoffman Challenge quilt was only started after I won the fabric and Aurifil thread.  I can't show you pictures of the Hoffman Challenge quilt yet, but I can share the title which is the 'Pink Pomegranate Parade'.  I will share pictures with you as soon as the judging is over next week.

I can show you pictures of the finished Owl quilt now named 'Owls are Among Us'.

Just to refresh your memory.  I used a combination of embroidery designs from my two favorite digitizers.  The 'background' which is the tree and branches is a set from Chantell Creations and the Owls are a set from Mia.  Both are available for purchase if you are interested.  The other various, lizards, squirrels, flowers, grasshoppers, and birds are designs from Mia.  They are not currently for sale, but I am sure if you are interested in any of them you could contact Mia (see blog Accidental Embroiderer) and she would be happy to discuss a purchase price.

First up, a couple of pictures of the full quilt.  Its a little dark at the bottom because I don't have that great of lighting in the kitchen which is where I hang most of my things to get a picture.  I really need to set something up outside so I can get better pictures.


Next is a close up of each row.  Hopefully you can see all the little details better.

 
Look closely, there is a grasshopper and a lizard on this panel.
 
 


I see another lizard and another grasshopper hiding in the grass.



I usually like to do something fun on the back of my quilts, but this time I just used one fabric.  I didn't take a picture since it wasn't all that exciting.  I know you can't really tell, but the border is a gold metallic fabric which really blends well with the different gold and metallic fabric and threads in the owls.  I also have to say that I just LOVE my new Babylock Destiny sewing and embroidery machine.  I had most of the quilt already stitched before I purchased the Destiny, but the camera/scanning ability of this machine made the placement of the different lizards and grasshoppers, etc. easy as pie. 

June 07, 2015

Owl Quilt Progress

There has been progress on the Owl Quilt project!!  Yes I know, I am suppose to be working on the Hoffman Challenge Quilt, but as usual, I got distracted.  I have had the Owl quilt hanging up for a few days trying to figure out what else it needed.  It always helps when someone else looks at your work and shares their thoughts.  My sister Patti was over and looked at it for about five minutes and said, well you need a lizard or two and you need a plant in the lower right hand corner that is half in the sky and half in the grass.  Genius!  So that is exactly what I did, plus I added another grasshopper while I was at it.  Here are some peeks! 

First up, the new flower.


Next, one of the new lizards (yes there are two).  The other one is hidden in another place on the quilt.

 
Next is the second of two grasshoppers on the quilt.  The first one is really hard to see, its hidden in the grass between the three blackbirds.  If you look really close at the first picture you can see him there.

I also went ahead and stitched down the leaves that I had added.  They were stitched out separately then I used some of the Heat and Bond Lite that I won and ironed them down on the quilt.  You can see a couple of them in the middle picture.  I now have it hanging again to see if it needs anything else, but I am thinking that it looks pretty good right now.  If by next weekend I see nothing else to add, then I will put the back and binding on.

Now back to the Hoffman challenge quilt....

May 16, 2015

Sizzix Contest Big Win

As promised here are some details of the big contest I won from Sizzix.  So exciting and such great prizes!  I entered the contest on their blog, here is the link where you can see what the prizes were and even see that I won!  http://blog.sizzix.com/march-craftness-grand-prize-week-2/



The prizes starting coming in just a few days after I won.  Here is the first prize from Graphic 45.  Such great paper, and I am all about the cats so, it was a perfect match for me.  There are multiple packs of paper in different sizes, stickers, etc., just all kinds of goodies.

 

Just a few days later the Xyron package came!  Very nice machine for making your own stickers and you can even laminate with it. 


 
Next came the Hoffman Challenge fabrics and a very nice set of Aurifil 50 wt thread that was actually designed and manufactured to match the Hoffman challenge fabrics.  Very nice.  Which of course this prize is why I decided to go ahead and enter the Hoffman challenge this year.  If you are interested in more details, here is the link to it.  http://www.hoffmanchallenge.com/  I will give you an update of how great the fabric and thread are in another blog entry when I post my finished quilt.  Yes, I have already started the quilt and have been using the thread in my embroidery machine and its working great.
 
 
The next prize was the package from Therm-o-web.  They sent a nice variety of samples of their different products.  I was VERY interested in the Heat-n-Bond Lite.  I do a lot of applique with my embroidery machine and I had a friend tell me how great this product is for keeping the little fuzzy edges from happening when you trim the fabric.  Imagine my surprise when I found out that the 'bolt' of product that came with the prize was non other than the Heat-n-Bond!  I am a very happy girl and this will get lots and lots of use.  Great prize!
 

But the BIG BIG BIG prize was from Sizzix, a huge Big Shot Pro machine with a gift certificate for 100.00 so that I can buy some of the Big Shot Pro dies.  They have several really nice quilting dies that I can't wait to buy!

 
Thank you again Sizzix for having such great contests for us to enter, and for making such great products.  I also want to thank Laura Hollar for her help.  Make sure you check out her blog entries: http://blog.sizzix.com/author/lhollar/  I also want to thank each of the companies that provided prizes.  I have added them all to my favorite websites.


May 10, 2015

Catching Up

I know you have heard all of the excuses, 'time flies', 'life happens', etc., from people trying to explain why there has been such a long length of time since their last blog update.  I will not bore you with my details or try to explain, I will just try to catch you up.  Many quilt projects have been started, and even a few have been finished.

 First up, the much anticipated Owl Quilt project that has been going on for what seems like forever.  I am very close to finishing it but there are just a few details that I am still working out in my head.   To create this wall art quilt I used a set that Chantell digitized (which can be purchased at her website) and a set of Owls that Mia digitized (also can be purchased through her blog).  Once I am finished and ready to reveal it I will give you more details.  But just to give you a little taste, here are pictures of two of the panels.


The tree and the branches are from Chantell's set and the owls are from Mia's.  The little squirrel is also digitized by Mia.

Two of my friends Jackie and Beverly have birthdays in basically the same week.  I really like making their gifts instead of just buying them something, because I want them both to feel special even though we sometimes celebrate both of their birthdays on the same day.  One received a t-shirt with an Aries Zentangle (courtesy of Mia) stitched on it, and the other received a little wall quilt named Seven Layer Cake (courtesy of Chantell). 


Label for the quilt.


Another project that I have started is my Aloha quilt.  The blocks are from Chantell's website.  One reason this one isn't finished yet is because I keep hoping that she will digitize some more blocks.  But if she doesn't, I will just stitch some of the existing blocks in different fabrics until I get enough to finish it up.  Basically these blocks come two ways; a small 'all in one' block, and then in a 1/4 block, which means you stitch four of them and then sew them together.  Just love how it looks so far!  There are more finished than what is shown in this picture, but you get the idea!

 
 
Some of the other things that I am working on include an Art Nouveau applique wall quilt for my bathroom, a multiple bird cages with birds project, plus I still have the Charlie Harper one to finish up and then there is the Hoffman Challenge quilt for this year.  Interesting story about the Hoffman challenge quilt, I had decided not to do one this year, but I won a very nice contest on the Sizzix blog and the fabrics were one of the prizes, so I figured, why not?  I will give you more details on the Sizzix prize once all of the prizes are delivered.  I want to thank each of the companies that sponsored the contest here on the blog, but to be fair I want to wait until my last prize is delivered.

Ok, that is all for now, thanks for taking the time to catch up with me!