March 28, 2017

A New Adventure

Last year in late October I lost my fabulous "Rocket Scientist" job of 29 years.  For most of those 29 years I scheduled the work flow for many successful launches.  I started out working for McDonnel Douglas which became Boeing, and then when Boeing and Lockheed Martin decided to combine forces, I continued to work for the new company, United Launch Alliance.  I started out launching Delta II's and then Delta IV's and for the last couple of years I also worked with the Atlas program.  I very fulfilling career, but when the opportunity came up to take a voluntary layoff, I decided to go for it.

My Last Official launch with the company Atlas OSIRIS-REx

Delta IV - WGS-9 Launched after I left, but I worked on it.

I was missing something in my life.  I have always had a creative side, I would sneak in projects on weekends and vacations, but it just wasn't enough.  I really needed to recognize and develop some of the creative thoughts and ideas that are constantly running through my head.  I am hoping that I can take this second half of my life and pursue this direction.  I do love the art quilts I have created mixing machine embroidery and quilting.  I feel that maybe doing more of these types of projects might be a good direction to start.

Trying to decide where to start this new creative full time direction, and figuring out what exactly it is that I want to do, can be difficult. For me the questions that needed to be answered were:  Do you need to make money?  Do you just want to create beautiful quilts for contests?  Do you want to just make things for your friends?  I answered yes to all of them. 

I recently had an opportunity arise that I decided to grab and take a chance with.  It might possibly help me with the number one item on my list, make money.  I own a beautiful Babylock Destiny embroidery machine that I bought from a shop near me, Quilts and Lace.  The shop just recently acquired a new owner, Beth.  She is full of energy and ideas and was looking for some help in teaching a machine embroidery class or two.  I feel that I am very qualified and signed up for the job.  Beth had purchased a package put together by Kimberbell Designs to make it easy for shop owners to teach classes.  They provide designs, instructions, and even supply lists.   Although teaching somebody else's projects and using their designs isn't exactly what I had in mind, I feel it's a very good start.  I can get comfortable teaching and I can see what kind of other projects my students might be interested in for future classes. 

My first Kimberbell class will be a simple but very cute mug rug all done in the embroidery hoop.  I will be teaching it on Saturday, April 15 starting at 10 AM at Quilts and Lace.


My second class is also bunny related.  I stitched my sample on a linen tea towel.  The bunny is appliqued on using the embroidery machine, and the decorative ribbon is then sewn on using the sewing machine.  I will be teaching it on Tuesday, April 18th.


 
Both are very cute projects as are the other projects I will be showing you soon.  I will be teaching three classes in May and two classes in June.  I will keep you up to date on how the classes turn out, and as I get the samples made for the future classes I will share pictures.  If you are local, come sign up and take the classes!




March 14, 2017

Little Shirts

Earlier this year I attended a quilt show in Orlando, Florida.  I love looking at all of the quilts and seeing what great ideas quilt artist from all over the world have incorporated into their works of art.  Yes, I do believe quilt makers are artist. 

I love looking for inspiration and ideas to enhance my own art work.  At this quilt show one quilt in particular caught my attention.  I took a quick picture and once I got home I looked up the artist, Gillian Travis to see what her story was.  Well she does beautiful things and I found her website full of inspiration.  This is the quilt that was displayed at the show that caught my eye.


When looked at very carefully you can see that she has 'stamped' a design on the background fabric, which is wool felt.  Wool felt was a very good choice for this type of quilt. Felt is an easy textile to 'rubber stamp' an image on.  Each one of those little sweaters are hand embroidered. I really love the idea of the embroidered sweaters, but if I ever do anything like them they will be done on the embroidery machine!  If you are interested in looking at any of her other art work you can look at her website. http://gilliantravis.co.uk/ 

I am filing the rubber stamping on felt idea in my head for future use.  I do love a rubber stamp and I have collected many over the years.  I like finding new ways to use them.

I showed you this quilt so that you could see where I got my inspiration for the little quilt I am currently working on.  I must warn you, I love this embroidery machine applique that Chantell digitized for me so much that it will be showing up in a lot of my quilts.  If you are interested in the design, you can purchase it from Chantell's website.  I will warn you, she is in the middle of cleaning up and moving her website so it might be a little messy, but if you click on Quilts and applique on the left hand menu, it takes you right to the page they are on.




If you look closely you can see that the collar and the pocket are '3D'.  I hand sewed on the little buttons on these bigger shirts.   There are 9 of these that I stitched in the 8x8 sized hoop and I am making a little wall hanging out of them.  I will post a picture when I finish.



On these smaller shirts (which fits in the 5x5 hoop) the buttons are part of the applique design so the embroidery machine stitched them.  You can also leave off the buttons if you wish. 



And yes, if you think about it, these would look really good in that Hoffman challenge fabric!  Hmmmmmm 😻

March 13, 2017

2017 Quilt Challenges

It's that time again!  Hoffman fabrics has announced their fabrics for the 2017 challenge.  I do love entering this contest and this year will be no exception.  Hoffman is giving us two different colors of the same fabric to choose from.


I looked at both fabric choices very carefully as there are many different quilt design directions you could go depending on which fabric you choose.  Although I had ideas for both, I ended up choosing the more colorful one, Blooms.  I have to admit the second I saw the fabric I had an idea pop into my head.  Now I could tell you what that idea was, but what fun would that be?   I will just have to tease you a little along the way. 

I will of course be having the usual help from my friends Chantell and Mia who do my embroidery digitizing for me.  There are some really cute designs this year!

If you would like to read up on the rules and maybe create your own masterpiece here is the link.  http://hoffmanfabrics.com/hoffman-challenge/

Since I was having so much fun with this challenge, I decided that I would like to enter a couple other challenges as well.  The first one is sponsored by Free Spirit Fabrics and the fabric line, Artisan, is from Kaffee Fassett.  I have already started working on it and have the quilt completely designed.  Yes, I will be making the blocks on my embroidery machine! 


There are many different colors and fabric textures for you to choose from.  They are very bright and beautiful.  Free Spirit has included cottons, batiks, and even a woven selection. You can see them here on the Free Spirit Web page:  http://www.freespiritfabrics.com/artisan. The rules and prizes are available at this link. artisanchallenge/IAMANARTISAN_RULES.pdf

The second new challenge is a BIG one.  This one is sponsored by Moda Fabrics and the prizes are cash!  First prize is 5000 dollars!!! The rules are a little stricter for this challenge.  You can only use these twelve fabrics, and you have to use all twelve, plus it has to be an original design. 


I have already collaborated with Chantell and she had digitized the blocks that I am going to use.  There is still some planning required on this one, but I do have until September to have it completed. 

Here is the link for this one in case you would like to try it yourself!  http://blog.modafabrics.com/challengebella-solids/

So it looks like I have a very busy year ahead of me!  I have a few other surprises that I will be sharing with you soon.