Not what I expected of today

Today hasn't quite worked out as I expected. I offered to come in and work the shop, the owners have had a family emergency. The store is in the process of closing.  Sad for the quilting community in this rural area. But that is how things work out sometimes. I was going to do a post earlier today, but with the sale going on, it was busy today. They let me use the wifi here, I have a useless data plan at home and I am almost out for the month, so cannot upload files or photos.

Pink Twin Quilt

I have been working on two similar quilts for my cousin's twin daughters. They graduated High School in June and I wanted to make them some cuddle quilts. Yeah, I am a bit behind.  I finished the first one yesterday, aka the Pink Twin Quilt. The second, aka the Purple Twin Quilt is ready to pin baste. They are similar, but I used a different color scheme and value placement in each. So hopefully they will feel different enough to make each girl feel special. The quilts are 60"x 72".

First Campsite

Second Campsite

Last weekend we went down to Capitol Reef National Park. Even though it is only about a hundred miles from where we live now, we haven't been there since our kids were in elementary school. I made an art quilt for a National Park challenge. I cannot show it until after the book is released. I love the red rock parks in Southern Utah! I hope to do more pieces using the parks for inspiration. 

About Time

I did get my garden in late, so it is no surprise that it took forever to finally get a couple of ripe tomatoes. I am sure that in a week or two we won't be able to keep up with the crop.

This is my Off the wall post for this week. Next week I will be at a quilt festival and hope to have a lot of inspiration.

I am also linking to Finish it up Friday.

Now I can show!

I have delivered one of my finished quilts to its new owner, so I can now show it off to you! My friend Karen commissioned me to make her an art quilt for her living room. She wanted it to feel like the color of cranberry. First off I had to go shopping. While in California earlier this year I was able to find some wonderful batiks in cranberry. I then had the idea to have my friend Lisa cut Maple leaves for me using her silhouette machine. You can read about how that worked on this post . Since I had moved on to another project, this hibernated for a while. I wasn't exactly sure where I was going with my Maple leaf idea.

Auditioning fabrics

So for the background I was going to sew some half and half blocks, with curves. Note the 4 blocks in the upper right hand corner.  Yeah, that wasn't doing it for me.  So I decided if I had leaves, I would need a tree trunk. I put up chunks of fabric for the tree trunk and the background.

Background is all pieced!

Several of the fabrics did not make it into the quilt. I also thought I would need some branches. Some are sewn in, others are on top.

Quilted

I machine quilted the background. Mostly with the walking foot, some with free motion quilting.

The quilting on the back.

Close up of the quilting

 Trimmed

I then placed the leaves all over the quilt. I left it on the wall for a couple of days to cure. I did move some of the leaves a little bit. Then fused them down and free motion quilted veins in all of the leaves. With so many of the leaves floating off by themselves, it took an hour to tuck in all the threads. I am a tucker. I feel that it looks better that way.

Finished!

I am pleased with the finished quilt. Karen loved it! That was the most important part!

This is my off the wall post for this week.

I am also linking to design wall Monday.

I am working on sorting out some stuff from my studio. I am going to be moving my studio to a smaller space and need to destash.  I have listed a bunch of stuff in my Etsy shop. More stuff will be going up in the next couple of days. Use the coupon code of BBLOG10 for 10% off a $10 or more purchase.

Craft books/magazines and patterns 
Vintage craft books/magazines and patterns
Craft supplies

Thanks for looking!

What can I show?

I have completed two quilts the last couple of weeks. But the recipients haven't seen them yet, so I cannot show them here. I am working on another piece, but because it is for a show I don't want to jinx it by showing it off here.  So what can I show? How about my good friend  Lisa's trunk show that she presented at the Springville Art Museum on Wednesday?

Lisa with her entry in the quilt show.

Doing her thing!

Some of her early work

A challenge quilt

Ice Dyed and then quilted

One of her latest pieces

I also had a couple of quilts in this show. They were hung next to each other in a hallway gallery.

Bark is on the left and Odin II is on the right.

This is my off the wall 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.

Summertime blues

Up the Mountain

Sunrise

Sunrise two

Ocean Blue

I just completed this little quilt for the A4 challenge group.  The theme is Monochromatic.  For some reason blogger has turned this photo on its side.  The light portion is the top.

This is my off the wall post for this week.

Quilt Walking!

Last weekend I was down in Panguitch at the annual Quilt Walk Festival. As usual, always a good time! I taught my Wiggle Quilting class on Friday morning. There were 6 students and they all seemed to have a wonderful time!

My fantastic students!

 
 

 

 
 Here are some examples of my students work. Everyone did a great job playing with all of the various ideas that I had presented. One student said that she didn't think she could quilt her own quilts and that I "changed her life"! What wonderful praise! I floated around the rest of the day! I love it when a class goes smoothly!

Bernie in action

I then headed over to the open sew area. I was able to sit next to a friend I hadn't seen in a while and we sewed and chatted away the afternoon. 

Date your work!

I went through the quilt show with my friend Sandy. This vintage quilt was made from suiting wools. Some of the embroidery stitches were wearing away. I didn't get a full view of this one.

Charm

Close up

Another vintage quilt. This one had been made with all kinds of satiny fabrics. Tons of charm! She must have ran out of fabric, the last round has a variety of prints.

Wild flower

I had some lovely wild flowers in my "nature-scaped" backyard this year. I don't know why blogger rotates some of my photos, very annoying.

Sego Lily

This one is a Sego Lily, the Utah state flower. They only last for a week or two. But very lovely flower. I am working on a piece using this flower. One of these days I will show it off.

This is my off the wall post for this week.

What else?

On June first the registration opened for the Utah Quilt Guild's Annual Quilt Festival that is being held September 15-19, 2015. Always a fun time! It is a chance for me to hook up with my Salt Lake quilting buddies. The theme this year is Quilt Camp. I designed "Tent City" just for the theme. It is a fun, easy, paper piecing project. Great for those who would like to learn how to paper-piece. I will have some tree designs for the students so that they can customize their quilt.

Tent City

Last night I baked a loaf of bread. It looks so wonderful! Usually the loaf will grow a nose or something, but this one was picture perfect, so I just had to share!

Pretty loaf!

The start of my Cording

I saw someone mention this blog post about making cord out of leftover strips of fabric. It involves twisting the fabric and then back on itself to make a double ply. Since I am trying to get into spinning, this really intrigued me, so I had to try it out. (I have a big bag of thin strips that I use for my clothesline bowls) It works!  I don't have very much done yet, but it really is simple. I can see this cord making my bowls and maybe some coasters or placements.

Close up of the twist

Speaking of spinning, I plied! It turned out well, for a first try. The last time I was at Karen's house for knitting/coffee group she spun and gave me a lesson as she was spinning. Her yarns are fabulous! Check out her yarn shop to see some of her wonderful spins! You will have to look at her sold section, since her yarns are so popular that they sell out quickly.

Plied!

Right now my singles are still very thick and thin. It takes practice to even that out. But sometimes I like the look of the inconsistent thickness. It will knit up an interesting texture.

This is my Off the Wall post for this week.