Swirly Whirly Twirly

Last week I posted my internal debate about where to go next with my free-form pieced block made from ice-dyed fabrics.

I decided I really liked the idea of adding some black frames to the piece but wasn't quite sure how I would do it.

I remembered seeing a demonstration on how to piece a circle into a square of fabric and wondered if I might be able to use the same principal to create the design I wanted.

First I used a square ruler to cut a square from the center:

Next I stitched a strip of black fabric around the square cut out, flipped the square around and then stitched the square back into the hole.  I have never stitched a Y seam and of course I wasn't smart enough to look up instructions on youtube BEFORE I stitched.  I just worked intuitively and miraculously it fit and lays flat too!  

I then repeated the process for the next square and added a thicker black border around the outer edge:

I love how it turned out!

I'm thinking I need to make a few more of this pattern with my other ice dyed fabrics.

. . .But I must restrain myself and quilt this piece FIRST.

Making another one like it will be my reward for finishing this one.

The top is 37" square.

Any brilliant ideas on how to quilt it?

Lines? squiggles? circles? feathers?

Do I quilt the borders or leave them to pop out?

So many questions to answer before I quilt.

If you have answers to any of these questions please let me know in the comments section!

Painting Practice

You know that feeling you get a few weeks before you're scheduled to teach something you haven't taught in a little while and you start to wonder if you remember how to do it, more or less teach it?

Yeah, me either.

I pulled out my paints and stencils today and started playing around on some fabric.

I found some Tulip Soft paint on clearance and thought I would give them a try.  The painting at the top with the spotted background was made with the Tulip paints. 

(Sorry about the poor color quality in the photos)

The bottom flower is painted with Jacquard Textile Paint.

Both paints painted nicely.

This flower was created free hand. 

I'm not sure how I feel about the polka dot background.

It reminds me of a reptile. 

The dandelion was traced from a Crafter's Workshop stencil. 

I really like the dandelion.

I will quilt both pieces and make them into journal covers which will serve as samples in my Painted Book Cover class next month.

Free Form Beginnings

Ever since reading about ice dyeing and ice dye parfaits in Quilting Arts Magazine, I have created a lot of ice dyed fabrics.  I love the way these fabrics look!

Recently I decided it was time to stop petting them and create a project.
An idea came to mind and I drew a very crude drawing of the idea.

Not sure why I drew it with straight lines because I've always had swirly lines in mind.  More like this sloppy drawing I made in photoshop.

I actually wanted to do something much larger but decided to start with the simpler idea.

I ended up with this piece:

I stacked a red piece on top of a green piece and cut the curves free form, switched the pieces up and stitched them back together.

I really like the way it came out.

It has been up on my design wall while I decide where to go from here.

Should I chop it up and add more pieces to the middle?

And if I did would I do curved pieces in black. . . 

. . .or maybe straight pieces in a different green?

Hmm I like the swirl and these cuts seem to be taking away the curves.

Maybe I should make more of these large blocks and piece them together. . .

. . .Wow that is bright!

The actual quilt wouldn't be this bright and might not even be all green and red because I don't believe I have anymore green pieces but it is a design to keep in mind for another day.

Maybe I can chop it up and add some black borders.

I like this look but I have seen it a lot.

Maybe if the center were on point?

Oh, I like this look.

Now the trick will be. . . how?

I could paint the lines on or make them with Decolourant.

However, they might not give me the stark black contrast I am looking for.

Do I applique black strips on?

No, I like the idea of the lines not quite meeting up as they do in the outside border of the drawing.  

So now the question is . . .do I chop it up and piece it back together?

Or do a fancy piecing job so that I don't have extra seams?

Any suggestions?

Please let me know in the comments section what you think the best way to finish up is.

Today's post is part of a blog link party being hosted by Nina-Marie at Creations. . .Quilts, Art. . .Whatever.  You will want to have a look and see all the other great Works in Progress being posted.

Obsessing over Handwork

I have always loved handwork.

It's portable and requires very few materials.

I made this embroidery project in '70's.

I've also created a lot of projects with needlepoint and cross stitch.  I still have a very large ufo cross stitch which I call my Eternity Project because that is how long it will take me to finish it.  Especially since it has been a few years since I've stitched anything.  I seem to have some sort of nerve damage in my hands and stitching can be painful.  However every time I see stitching like this or this or this I go crazy and I want to stitch!!!  Let's couple that with the fact that volleyball season has hit and I will be sitting in the stands watching games two or three times a week not to mention a few all day tournaments.  I really need something to do in-between games.  Last weekend I decided to pull out the needle and thread and try something simple.

I quilted the piece with perl cotton and then meandered with a simple chain stitch and threw in a few lazy daisies to create an art journal cover.

I was excited that my hands didn't give me too many fits and so I moved on to another piece.  I was at an all day tournament so I had plenty of time.

I drew a flower onto the black fabric with a chalk pencil and traced it with a back stitch and threw in some french knots and a chain circle for the center.

I really love the way this one turned out.

The simple quilt lines on the back and front are all done with the same variegated perl cotton I used in the embroidery.  I'm so excited by the results that I need to piece together more journal covers and make sure I always have one with me for down time.

My biggest problem now is that I don't remember how to do other stitches besides the ones above.  I need to refresh my memory and learn more stitches.   I know there are a lot of tutorials on the web as well as great books on embroidery stitches.  Does anyone have any great suggestions of where I can learn more stitches? Please feel free to share them with me in the comments section.

Ghostly Trio Halloween Banner

Halloween is just around the corner and I decided I needed a new Halloween decoration.

After playing around with some drawings I decided these ghostly images would make a great door or hallway decoration.

One of the best parts of the pattern cannot be photographed - at least not without a more expensive camera!  The ghosts are made using a glow-in-the-dark fabric.
They look very cool glowing in the dark!

 I've written up a pattern and am selling it on Craftsy in my pattern shop.  I am also selling a second banner in my etsy shop.  

Have you ever made anything using glow-in-the-dark fabric?

Quilting Arts Gifts

I just discovered that the front cover and table of contents for Quilting Arts Gifts 2012 is live!  They are taking preorders for the magazine OR you can purchase the digital edition NOW!

My friend Candi from candiedfabrics.com has made the cover with her fabulous Holiday Row Houses.

I was very excited to see that my Mixed Media Holiday Apron is featured on the first page of the Table of Contents!  Wahoo!

I can't wait to see the whole magazine because there are so many great projects featured!

Cupcakes!

Nothing better on a Sunday evening than cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Yum. I LOVE frosting!

My daughter made cupcakes to take to a potluck dinner and asked that I make the frosting.  I've had so-so results with my frostings and am always looking at new recipes.  I decided it was time to give my friend Jamie a call.  Jamie is an expert cake maker.  She made all the cup cakes for my daughter's graduation party.

It turns out that the chocolate frosting recipe she likes best is one she's tweaked from the back of the Hershey's Cocoa!

We made it and it was fabulous!

I didn't follow Jamie's suggestions to the letter but the frosting was successful and everyone is happy.  I used the larger amount of cocoa and next time I may tone that down just a bit but it was still fabulous.

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 Cups Powdered Sugar

1/2 to 2/3 Cup cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk (I used evaporated milk)

Beat it all up starting with the lesser amount of milk and adding as you need more for consistency.

My Little Sweetheart

Often my younger cat, Mister, gets all the hype here on the blog because he is always following me around.  I thought it was time I gave Keiko a little blog time too.

She is a middle aged woman who doesn't like to be bothered with Mister's young adult foolery but when I let her outside she becomes a youngster again.

 She investigates every nook and cranny. . .

 . . .and tries to find the birdys that like to pester her when she is cooped up inside.

What's that?!?

What is making that noise?

It's a hummingbird!!!!

MOMMY!  Get it for me!!!

The Kindness Chronicles

How did it get to be August already?  I missed the beginning of the month and so I am late in posting my Kindness Chronicles.

I had the opportunity of traveling to DC with my oldest daughter, mother-in-law and brother-in-law for 5 days to look for an apartment for my daughter whilst bil was in meetings.  It is amazing how many kindnesses you can observe while traveling:

There was the TSA officer who was bright and cheery.  Perhaps it was the beginning of her shift but no matter the reason it was a kindness to everyone who had stood in a very long line waiting their turn to arrive to a cheerful face who asked how their day was going.

There was the man who was willing to trade seats with my mil so that she did not have to sit by herself.

There was the group of wait listed passengers who had been waiting so long they'd become friends and cheered for each other as they were able to get on the flight, some of them into first class!

There was the man who noticed that a woman dropped her phone and he went out of his way to call it to her attention and take her back to where she had dropped it.

There was the group of people who went out of their way to help a man pick up all the change he had dropped all over the floor.  (I can remember a time when people would have picked it up and walked off with it. Yay for honest people!!!)

There was the driver of the carts in the airport who had no where to be so he stopped to drive an old woman and her pretty daughter.  Okay, I'm not that old, but I know the pretty daughter is probably the reason he stopped. ;)  Later when we were walking to find a place to eat he offered us another ride but we sent him on his way.

There was the man who carefully watched as a woman struggled to take put her luggage into the luggage rack on the plane.  He didn't step in immediately because he didn't want to insult her by assuming she couldn't do it.  He waited and watched and offered his services at just the right time.

There were the patient passengers who each took their turn getting off the plane.

There were the numerous drivers who didn't honk at the out of town driver who didn't know which way she was going.

There was the shuttle driver at Mount Vernon who jammed as many passengers onto her shuttle as she could because she knew it was too hot and humid outside to walk back up the hill.  There were many grateful passengers and everyone on the bus was grateful even if they had to stand close to one another.

The people at Johnny Rockets who were trying to clean up just before closing time who were kind and let us come in so that my mil could get the strawberry shake she had been craving all day.  We offered to take the shakes to go but they told us to go ahead and sit and enjoy.  So wonderful after a hot day!

My mil for her enduring patience as we drove up and down and up and down street after street looking for for rent signs or an address we couldn't quite find.  We often found her asleep in the back and were grateful she didn't complain about all the driving!

My daughter for taking photos of people almost everywhere we visited.  She must have the kindest face of everyone around because every where we went people asked her if she would take their photo and she did it cheerfully.

My bil for paying for our airline tickets and hotel room so that we could go to DC and find my daughter an apartment to live in while she goes to graduate school over the next two years.

And finally there was my husband who first of all held up the home fort while I was gone and second was willing to go to the airport twice in one night.  The first time was to take our younger daughter and put her on a plane to visit my sister in San Francisco and then wait for his brother and mother to come in on their flight.  The second time was a few hours later (long after his bedtime) to get me and our daughter from our later flight.  We were fortunate enough to let ourselves be bumped off of our flight and receive certificates for two more flights later on.  This was a huge blessing for my daughter so that she can now come home for the holidays for free!  (We are convinced we made the list because the person at the desk wanted to help us out.  Thank you!!!)

Life is so much better when you look for the kindnesses in the world!

Dye Results

Last Month I Dyed with Friends at my quilt guild's dye party and I have finally taken the time to take photos and post the results.

I tried out some basic shibori by wrapping a fat quarter around a stainless steel water bottle and securing it with rubber bands.  The second shibori piece was wrapped around an empty plastic container.

 I thought the blue and yellow would mix more but I guess I didn't put enough dye or get it wet enough?

After doing the ice dyeing and shibori I'm not a big fan of my painted fabric.

These first four Ice Dye Parfait pieces are fat quarters and were in the same parfait.

These two pieces weren't a parfait despite the fact that I marked them that way.  I just remembered that I did them separately to show the difference between using small and large pieces of ice.  The first piece was done with large pieces of ice from my freezer.  The second piece was done with crushed ice purchased from my favorite local hamburger joint.

The large ice gave me larger bits of white, where the smaller ice permeated the fabric more allowing the dye to go everywhere.

I put a piece of fabric under the grate which held the two above pieces and caught some of the dyes.  I hate wasting dye!

Here is a closeup of my favorite part of the catcher fabric:

I really need to go buy more ice!