Finally finished a project that should have been years ago

Years ago I conned,er um, talked a group of friends into a 12 x12 project. We each chose one word and then every other month I drew one out and everyone was supposed to make a 12 x12 art quilt piece inspired by that word. More friends wanted to join in. Others dropped out. I believe that only about 3 of us completed all of the words. I myself was missing 3 or 4 words. Recently I was thinking that I should go back and complete the set.  The last couple of years I have been in a knitting group with a couple of women in a neighboring town. We meet for coffee and chatting every couple of weeks. 

One of my missed words was Joy. Well, one of my coffee/knitting buddies is named Joy! Both she and Karen spin yarn. Joy has been spinning for a long time and it is a joy to her. Since her birthday is this week I decided to do a 12x12 in her honor. Joy's Joy.

Joy spinning on her wheel

I took photographs of Joy and Karen spinning one meeting. I am looking to get a wheel some day and it was a good excuse to ask questions and compare their wheels. While at the same time getting a photograph to base my quilt on.

It is all about the twist

In spinning, it is all about the twist! So I quilted twist into the background.

My pattern

I printed out the photograph in black and white. Then I traced the outline of the wheel. I fused some fabric and used the outline to cut out the shape of the wheel.

The spinning wheel

I used stitching lines to enhance the shape of the wheel.

Joy's Joy

I used a bit of my own yarn that I had spun on a spindle to put on the bobbin. I left a tail of fiber and then quilted Joy into the background. Karen's husband is a wonderful woodworker and made a hanging stick to go along with it. Joy was so surprised when she saw this!

I know that I still need to do Frog and Road.  I need to double check my list and see what others I am missing.

I am linking to Off the wall, TGIFF, and Finished Friday.

Better Photographs

Recently I posted about a commissioned quit that I made for my friend Karen. She sent me some photographs of the quilt. She has a much better camera than I do, so these turned out much better than my photographs. Her husband does wonderful woodworking and made a wonderful hanging rod for this piece!

Maple Leaves

Back

Close up

another close up

I finished this quilt in the summer, but since it hadn't been received yet, I couldn't post photographs. For my nephew, a going away to college quilt.  All plaids using my sourdough starter fabrics.


This is my off the wall post for this week and finished Friday post for this week.

Sticks and Stones

I am trying to get some things caught up in my studio. Last week I wrote about my Ocean Blue piece for the A4 challenge group.  I was late with that piece, but am on time (I think!) with this theme. Sticks and Stones.

Threads everywhere!

I decided to do a piece using the phrase "Smile stone". The full story of the Smile stone is on the A4 blog post, I won't repeat it here. I decided to use trapunto to poof out the letters. After layering with a batting and backing I went around each letter with black thread to highlight the letters.

All tucked in

I am a thread tucker. I feel that it makes a more polished finish to quilting threads.

Stones

I am not very skilled at free motion quilting, but I can do pebbles!  I was pleased to see the letters pop after quilting the background.

Finished!

I did a line of stitching then rough trimmed the piece. I soaked it to remove the wash away thread I had used in the trapunto letters. I laid it out flat to dry and went off on errands. I was pleased to see how the soaking had improved the texture of the piece. At that point I came up with a wonderful idea to "bind" the piece using sticks!

Check out the A4 Challenge blog to read the full story of my smile stone. Also take a look at the wonderful challenge pieces the group has posted.

This is my off the wall post for this week.

Small Town Quilt Show!

The town I live in has an annual Scandinavian Days. This area was settled by Scandinavians. It is a fun, small town celebration. Our little quilt guild puts on a quilt show in conjunction with the festival. I helped to hang the show yesterday. We have close to 50 quilts in the show! (which is about the max the space can accommodate)

Jessica with her Scandinavian quilt

Jessica Ranaelee brought in this wonderful Scandinavian themed quilt that she designed! It is wonderful to young people taking up this wonderful art! This is only the third quilt that she has made! She won the Horseshoe Mountain Quilt Guild's scholarship a couple of years ago. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Cross stitched quilt

We have a lot of wonderful antique quilts this year. The motifs in this quilt were cross stitched.

Setting up the numbers and labels

The Christmas quilt in the foreground is the first quilt that Kate has made in a beginning quilting class taught by Brenda Bailey. It is wonderfully done!

One of our aisles

At the info table

This is my friend, Sherre's quilt. She tested my Emerald Pools pattern for me last summer. She made it for her grandson.

Raffle Quilt

Every year the Horseshoe Mountain Quilt Guild makes a raffle quilt. The proceeds go towards a scholarship at Snow College here in Ephraim. I love that this wonderful group of women put their efforts into such a worthwhile project.

Another aisle

Antique quilt

I believe this is a Pine Burr pattern. The workmanship on this piece is outstanding! It is hand-pieced and hand-quilted with stuffed work.

Close up

Stuffed work

Such tiny squares

This is a vintage trip around the world quilt. The squares are smaller than an inch. All hand pieced!

Fantastic vintage folk art corduroy quilt!

This  quilt is almost entirely made out of corduroy! It has been well used and loved.

Closeup

It has some simple loops machine quilted across the quilt. The quilt had been used so much that the quilting stitches are worn off.

Marcia's antique quilt

My friend, Marcia, has this heirloom handed down from her mother. It is unknown exactly which ancestor made this quilt. It must have been in a trunk for a long time, the colors are still vibrant.

Oops

There is a small clump of threads that got caught behind the background. Would you try to pick it out? or is it part of the quilt's story?

My "Little Brother" quilt

Laurel's sunflower quilt

Our Utah Quilt Guild area Rep, Laurel, brought several quilts up from another group in the area. Laurels Sunflower quilt is wonderful!  I am not sure who made the embroidered quilt beside hers.

Ephraim quilt

Carol made a wonderful quilt that honors our town. There are photo transfers of  vintage photographs of buildings around town. Some still standing, others are long gone.

The show continues until tomorrow at 5pm, so if you are anywhere near Ephraim, Utah this weekend stop by and see the show!

This is my off the wall post for this week.

I am here. Really!

I had thought about writing a blog post last week. But I had nothing to talk about. So rather than spewing nonsense, I kept quiet.  This week I finished another Journal project. I had talked about it last month.  I really did intend to make these weekly. I guess it is not a weekly journal project. But it will be a 52 piece project.

Inspiration photo

I went with this inspiration photo and using one of my hand dyed fabrics I quilted the piece and then added some yarn scraps couched down on top of the quilting. I am happy with the result.

Plaid Sky

My second ever Weekly Journal I titled "So much for out there". I am not sure what exactly I meant by that. At the time this was made (September 2011) I was trying to put myself out there. So something must have glitched.

So much for out there

I had taken a class and failed spiraling.  So this was proof that I could actually spiral!

This is my off the wall post for this week.

Pie Plating in Fountain Green

The ladies of the Pie Plate Pattern company put on an annual Super Spring Retreat. It is held in their small town of Fountain Green, UT. It is about 20 miles Northwest of my home. Always a great time! A very nice, small town retreat.  My friends Lisa and Helen came down to the retreat, so an extra bonus.

It takes 3!

I have never used Mistyfuse and recently there was a special on a hundred yard roll of the stuff. So Lisa and I went in on buying one. Lisa uses it a lot. It took three of us to roll off 50 yards off the roll.

My Mistyfuse

The rolled off bit doesn't look nearly as nice as the factory roll. It will still do its job.

Mistyfuse

So Lisa gave me a quick demo on how to use the fuse.

On the Goddess sheet

You need to use a Goddess sheet because this fusible web doesn't have paper attached.

Action shot

You cover it with the Goddess sheet and press the fusible to melt it.

Ready to cut

Lisa brought her Silhouette machine to cut some leaves for me. I asked for her help with a project and thought her machine would cut out the intricate shapes easily.  Well, it was a good theory anyway.

Beautiful leaves!

Lisa designed a lovely page full of leaves for me! SO excited! Let's see how it works!

failure

Unfortunately, Lisa  forgot to bring the fabric blade for the machine. The paper blade kept picking up the fabric and scrunching it and not cutting through it cleanly.  UGH.  So she will take my fused fabrics home with her and cut them at home with the proper blade. So then I can be impressed with that machine.

Block challenge

Everyone got the fabric to a make a block of their choice. We will vote on our favorite and the winner gets to keep all the blocks.

Lisa in action

Lisa at out table working on her blog post of our adventures.  

This is my off the wall post for this week. Next week I hope to have something to show after having 2 more days to sew like crazy!

Challenge projects.

Bark

I had joined a challenge on the Quiltart list. There were 12 people signed up and only 7 made a piece for the challenge by the due date. Disappointing. The challenge was "Patterns in Nature".  I had taken a photograph of a eucalyptus tree for my inspiration. I cut the sections free hand and then added a layer of tulle to hold it down while I quilted it using my trusty walking foot. You can see the rest of the challenge pieces on Sue Kaufman's blog.

New Canyon Lake

Another online challenge group is the A4 group. The latest challenge was in the woods. I made a tent with a forest print for the background. I added a bit of lake and then I added some dragonfly charms since my quilted trees did not show up.

Trees? I can't see no stinking trees!

This is my off the wall post for this week.

Asilomar!

I was lucky enough to be able to attend Empty Spools Seminars in Asilomar this week! I am having a wonderful time! I started off driving to Salt Lake City to visit the grands. Then I drove to my friend's house and stayed the night with her. Together we drove  to Carson City to stay the night at my cousin's house. And then off to California the next day!

We had snow over the Sierra's, but it was so lovely we didn't mind. The roads were clear and dry.

As we got closer to the Pacific Grove we could hardly sit still in our seats! We were as excited as little kids at the fair! I love the ocean

I love the wild flowers along the boardwalk. I took a walk to the beach every morning. I was every bit as excited about seeing the ocean as I was about attending the seminar!

I took David Taylor's class, Pictorial Applique. I really enjoyed the class. 

David showing the class how to draw patterns.

I chose to use a photograph of a Sego Lily that I had taken in my backyard last year. David got my drawing started for me. I had watched as he helped several of the other students with their drawings, it was very interesting to see how to draw the animals.

This is as far as I was able to get today.  We have half a day tomorrow and then it is time to leave this wonderful place.


This is my off the wall post for this week.