A Day With Friends

A super hot day!  cool inside though with friends who are sharing their

talents--we haven't met much lately and this day was our

last gathering till Sept--oh, there will be planned

retreats for some--lots of travel for others--then the

stories to share of our adventures when we gather again!

Super bright!  Love this top!  I'm partial to Orange, of course!

Linda created this bargello top in a workshop/class--

Smashing colors and quilting!

Linda's quilt of warmth for her granddaughter,

who loves to dance!

Judy is working on this pattern, very well aged by 10 years!

Once she saw this, she knew she had to make this quilt for

her dining room!

It is such an astounding work!  So impressed by the ability to

figure this out--Judy is taking it step at a time--

The pattern is from Buggy Barn, which sadly is no longer in

business--and this pattern is out of print. 

Each piece is hand appliqued with care and precision

This is how Judy is finishing up the piece to applique

She is using this product called 'whisperlite'--it is

certainly sheer and adds no weight to the piece like some

other stabilizers

Judy has finished the Christmas gnome top from

Fatcat Patterns--it was 2018 block of the month

Some of the blocks set your teeth on edge but she

handled the placement and stitching of this block perfectly

Here is her stitching on the Joy block

Sandy is tackling this awesome quilt pattern by

Bonnie Vanqool for Windham Fabrics

She has many grey fabrics--now, just needs to choose

her brights--this pattern is made with all half square

triangles

Annette has been working on her Grandmother's flower

garden quilt for many moons--it's all paper pieced--

she is sewing the top together by add each square

Several of the gals are working on 2019 block of the month

from Pat Sloan's Out of this World--Linda has chosen

red, white and blue fabrics for her theme.  

Judy's is on the display wall as he adds her blocks--

she has chosen sheep as her focal point.

Sorry to say, these gals put me to shame!

I've not got a focus fabric or any thought as

what to do with these blocks--

maybe, I'll dig through my stash to see what I

can use.

A good day spent with friends sewing is better than any

other day!

ChickenS............................

for some reason, I'm doing the chicken blocks from Fatcat Patterns

 This free block of the month began in January--so, you

guessed it--I've done five blocks already!  I'm a 

sucker for chickens--the blond headed daughter has

chickens--so I make these for her.

The other day when we were at the ranch,

I saw not one but Three chicken quilts I've made

for her--

She displays them across the sofa, tacked to the

wall or just draped over a chair--

Okay--enough of these chicken blocks!

The five blocks I've already made are going into a 

reversible table runner!!--oh, guess I need to do

one more to make the runner look right

Here chick chick--

that's enough for me..

Summer of Weaving

Are you familiar with Handweaving.net?  This is a great

resource for weaving drafts and other information. 

Just recently they received a rare 1910 Italian book

on weaving pattern compositions titled Manuale de Compositore

di Tissuti by Pietro Pinchetti--this manuscript contains

1230 drafts for shaft looms.

You can find the collection Here.  These drafts range from 2 to 54 shafts! Some very interesting 8 and 16 shafts included.  This venture took months to obtain so quite the find to add

to the collection.  The original is from the Smithsonian Library and has been

digitized for public use.  You can download a copy here

The text of the publication is in Italian, of course!

Weavers don't need to read the words--we can read the drafts

to make sense of the pattern.

Found Treasures!

After I came across my silk paper treasure chest,

I looked in one to find many 1" and 2" squares--

okay that's all well and good--can always

use those tiny pieces somehow and somewhere.

Not only did this 'treasure chest' yield tiny squares

but, also

This wonderful pile of 'booty'!  Yea, I can see

a small quilt in my future and all the pieces are ready

to sew!

Maybe, having the chests 'lost' for awhile gave the

tiny elves time to work up perfect 2.5" blocks--

So glad I found my treasure chests full of treasures!

Silk Paper--

My studio has been moved three times within the last year!

It's exhausting work to pack and unpack--put things away

and then forget where you put anything--it's not in

the regular place you thought!  and then there are

some things missing!  well, not really missing--I just

forgot where I put it--

The last time when I thought I was settled--

I came across my silk paper boxes--

I love silk paper!

What is silk paper you ask?  There is an excellent book

by Kath Russom on Handmade Silk Paper--

Yes, this is silk paper!! paper you can write on,

create structures with, shape every which way you want,

a fun activity too! 

The back of the box--shaped like a treasure chest

Another chest made from silk paper--front

side

back--

I just might make more silk paper--to use in my wall hangings--

a great way to use up all that silk roving I need to spin!

Miniature Block Stamps

You can give a gift to someone and eventually,

the gift comes back to you--

The giving works with non tangible things or

with tangible.

Case in point--the following small hangings

This  one was given to my mother for Valentines' day

many years ago--Recently, when she had her fall and

went into Assisted Living, we cleaned out her house and

I found this in her bedroom--it came home with me--

This one was given to my mother-in-law--

she loved red--and when she passed--

it came back to me.

These two small quilts are my treasures--and I'm

grateful they can be in my house again.

I created these little miniatures with stamps 

I've had them for years--although friends have asked to borrow

I don't let them out of my sight!  These tiny stamps were

used often--

I did find Bowers Art Rubber Stamps- creator,

James Bowers--he passed to the happy stamp heaven

in 2015--

there are tons of rubber stamps, but I haven't seen

any like this lately.

I just might stamp again since I found the stamps!

Thread Painting Or Needle Painting.......

Doesn't matter what you call the technique--it's still a 'freeing' opportunity to be yourself on fabric with needle, thread and motion.  

Laughing Cat Designs has a tutorial for her machine thread painting--

The basic thread painting stitch is only a free motion zigzag on the machine.  

The goal is to add color where it's needed--a zigzag stitch can achieve a

painting effect with different threads--it will also highlight and shade

different parts of the piece.

Check out the rest of her tutorial on how she uses thread painting--

Give a look at Nancy Prince's website--

This is machine thread painting!!  Just WOW!

We have seen many different types of thread painting at

Quilt Festivals--the quilts look likephotographs--just

unbelievable.   Nancy has a photo gallery to admire

plus a tutorial--you too could do this type of thread 

painting by machine.

For me, I prefer Needle painting by hand--

Mary Corbet has a excellent experiment that you can try.

Here is one of my Needle Painting embroideries--

the cartoon is from a agate geo stone--I loved the

look of the circles in various shapes 

I used silk threads to feature the highlights of 

the smooth surface of the stone

This was so much fun to stitch--I don't know why I

haven't done more of these--maybe, it's time to pick up

that needle and thread again to do some needle painting.