Dyed Fabric - Ready to Quilt

The other day I attended a fabric dyeing workshop which introduced me to a fairly involved, and somewhat tedious method of dyeing fabric. There were many color schemes to choose from and I chose the 'Tutti Fruiti' which was pretty much like a rainbow color scheme. I think the final result was a bit more pastel than the photo but pretty all the same. Now I just have to figure out what to make from these colors. Any ideas?

More Art Quilts

Onward and upward I move into the Art Quilt realm, I have a real feel for these 'trees' so I'm doing another one which is almost done. It's even named already, it's called "13 Leaves Til Winter" All I have to do is put the border on then I can assemble it with a back for hanging. I'm already in mode for my next set, I showed this to a friend of mine yesterday and she gabve me a great idea... so I'm moving on with it... but I won't tell you till Im done... hehehe anyway, here's a pic of my trees without the border... but by tomorrow (I hope) it'll be properly 'dressed'.

Ruth's Weed Garden

Yes,... Yes... I know, it's been a few days. Sew sue me. LOL - Get it? I've actually been busy gardening, or cleaning up the surrounding grounds so I CAN garden... and I've had a few dear friends helping, for whom I am very grateful, and we're making progress! We burned a few piles of branches, leaves, and other cuttings, and removed a LOT of weeds, oh, and did I mention weeding?

Yah, lots of that... so much so, that I was inspired to create a new piece called Ruth's Weed Garden. Here it is...I contemplated naming it Weeds of the World, all sewn with the same thread... but that seemed too long and needed explaining, so Ruth's Weed Garden won out. So there you have it, today's post is my weed garden, I'd much rather keep it online and in quilt pieces, than in my front yard.

Practicing on the Mega

Well I managed to finally reload my bobbin and it created 'caterpillars' underneath when I sewed... So I got out the book, looked to see if I did something wrong, but No... it's looking good. Then I figured only thing left is the tension. I fiddled around with that, and presto! I got it to work. So I got some more practicing in and I must say my loops are looking smoother, and I managed some other daring feats as well. Step by step... closer we get...

By the way I have a treat for you, I found this online at the Quilters Warehouse, I tried to post it here so you don't have to click to see it, altho, it doesn't seem to keep the animation here on my blog, so if you have a second... click the link.


Short Arm Quilter

Oh My Stars!

Oh My Stars!! Today was a great day! It was so exciting! I attended a fabric dyeing workshop where I learned to use a sun-reactive paint to hand dye fabrics. It was so much fun I could have done it all day, but I think they wanted to go home. So here are some of the resulting fabrics, and I am 'dyeing' to make something with them! But for now....

My Troll

MAKE LOVE NOT WAR

I found a drawing of a figure similar to mine posted by a Bill West, altho it was a 2 year old post of his... and I thought - WOW someone else draws these silly things... so I wanted to post MY version of what I used to draw in school, many decades ago... so here it is!

Dogs Like Quilting Too

One of the projects I found easy to practice on when learning to free-hand meander, was this set of Doggie Placemats I made for our dogs. They loved them and didn't seem to care what I quilted on them, as long as their food and water were there. It also helped to absorb the water when I splashed a little in filling their water dishes.

I have also created a pattern for these doggie placemats and have the pattern and instructions for sale for only $4.99 + $1.99 s&h - PayPal preferred. So email me if you would like one of these.

Something Worthwhile

A friend of mine passed some older magazines on to me pertaining to Quilting. Most of them were titled "lady's circle patchwork quilts" which I'm pretty sure was one of the first quilting magazines printed, and I'm also pretty sure they are no longer in print. However, some ideas never go out of style, like the one I read about this morning. The article told about a woman in Ohio that wanted to make blankets, quilts, for the homeless. It told how she placed an ad in the newspaper recruiting anyone who wanted to help and the turnout was magnificent.

They met at her church, and that day alone they managed to cut, sew, iron and piece together 115 quilt tops! That's what you can do when 200 people show up with machines, thread, fabric scraps etc, and commence upon a common task! WOW. They then proceeded to meet again the succeeding Saturdays to layer and quilt the tops and then distribute to homeless shelters in the area. They continue to do this once a year in January. (Personally, I think October would be better).
Now, I know this issue of the magazine was dated May 1995, but not only is that not that long ago, but also there are more people quilting now-a-days than there were back then (13 yrs ago). So, I'm thinking, why not? Let's get more groups together and have these 'sessions' once a year to turn out as many blankets as we can for the homeless. Many of them are homeless not of their own accord, and wouldn't it feel better to help them? :-)

Quilting Direction

I have been quilting for a few years now, actually longer if you count the quilt I made when my daughter was 2 years old, and i guess we really should count it, after all, it is a quilt, it's just that it's not made by today's rules... it's got alot of polyester in it... but then, that was the fabric of choice in the 70's.

Since cotton has come into our world, all the rules have changed. I only made the one (well 2) quilts back then, after which I switched to sewing clothes for my baby girl and then after a while, being a working mom, that dwindled as well. Lately, however, I have found my interest perking back up. I'm actually going on my 3rd year now of immersing myself with 'real quilters', and embarking on quilting projects, to learn the current day rules of quilting. You know, how to make your points pointy, and your mitered bindings accurate, etc. Except what I'm finding out now, is that the 'rules' only apply if you want (or need) them to. Think about it... in the 70's it was perfectly acceptable to make a quilt with polyester! Now it's not? I guess it all depends on how artful you want to take it. And I'm finding that since I'm not the most traditional of people, I don't necessarily want my quilts to be either. I can't even imagine cutting our 800 triangles for some pattern, or even 100 of anything. WOW, I'd lose interest WAY before I was done cutting those, not to mention then sewing them back together??? Yikes!

I don't mind making semi-traditional quilts for my grand-daughters, but I suspect even those will give way to the more un-conventional style soon. Ya, I think of myself as more the artful quilter. This has been coming on for over a year, I've just wondering how to get started. I think I found a clue this past weekend. I attended the Quilt Show in Long Beach, CA and found some VERY intriguing ideas.

Here's my first piece and I can't WAIT to post some more for you to see! And at the same time I'll be redoing my website to showcase and maybe even sell these new pieces. I hope you pop on over and come back to see how it's going! See ya later.