Garden Lady #4 - Part One

I found a picture that I wanted to use for my Garden Lady series.  This is #4.  It'll be named when it is complete.

The inspiration is from a watercolor designed by Lois Dahl.  It really spoke to me and the artist gave me permission to use it as an inspiration for my garden lady series.  I loved the ethereal nature and all the green shades and flowers in this piece.  

I traced around it and had it blown up to 50" H at the Rose City blue print shop in Portland, Oregon.   There was a huge "For Lease" sign in the front.  I looked panicky when I got up to the counter, but the people there assured me that they were not closing, but that they had gotten close to it before negotiations made it possible for them to stay.  (It is run by only 2 people).  This is my absolute favorite place to get my sketches blown up.  They are quick, courteous, privately held, and very inexpensive.  I don't know where I'd take my sketches if they closed.   Anyway, here is the pattern from the print shop.

For the shirt, I collaged hand dyed material, lace hem tape, rick-rack, organza, thread and Angelina fibers; all in multiple colors.  I quilted it with pale green thread, cut it out with the pattern on top and turned under the edges.  Here are some progress pictures.

Layering the materials on an off white batik. 

Showing the quilting on the back side of the sleeve.

Sewing the pattern to top of the collaged sleeve.

More detail on the layers of the body of the shirt.

The shirt with the sleeve pinned onto the pattern.

A pile of the components.  Angelina fibers, 3 colors of organza, purple and green hand dyed material, antique rick-rack and hem tape.  Not included is the thread that was snipped and dropped into place.

I hope you like the progress so far!

Mix and Mingle by Natalie Crabtree

 I made a top for our charity group that was based on a pattern called "Mix and Mingle" by Natalie Crabtree.  It was such a modern and cute quilt that I just had to make it, but with some improv blocks.

It's 59" W x 83" H.

I hope you like it.

Improv drunkard's path blocks

I am making a quilt that has drunkard's path blocks dispersed throughout the top.  I saw the quilt in a shop in Walla Walla, called "Stash".  They didn't have the pattern for sale, so I looked it up after the trip.  It was a quilt designed by Natalie Crabtree called "Mix and Mingle".  And it was so modern and cute that I knew I just had to make a version of it.  When I say version, what I mean is that I like improv and intuitive placement instead of blindly following a pattern.  

Anyway, here is the process I used for the drunkard's path improv blocks.

Stack the two colors together, right sights up.  Cut a gentle curve with a rotary cutter about 2/3" away from the left edge.  You can see the ruler below is at about 3.75" on the 6" square.

Switch the two pieces so that the light color is matched up with the darker color.  Place a pin at the center of both pieces.

Line up the pins and pin the pieces together with the concave (or inny) piece on top and the convex (or outie) piece on the bottom. 

Using a glue pen, gently glue the pieces together from the center towards the edges.

Sew a scan 1/4" seam.  Try to sew slowly to make sure that you don't get any wrinkles in the top piece.

Press towards the outside of the block.  You'll get two blocks, with the colors opposite of each other.  Since these are improv blocks. you can see that they don't match up like they would if you used a pattern.  That's the reason why they start with oversized squares.

Trim the blocks to the correct size.  I needed a 5" block and I started with 6" squares.  First, line up the ruler on the pie, or inner piece and trim both sides.

Turn the block and trim the outer edges. 

And its just that easy to make an improv drunkard's path block.  

Challenge quilt to celebrate 50th guild anniversary

Clark County Quilters in Vancouver is celebrating their 50th year from the very start of the guild.  The guild has put out a challenge to make a quilt celebrating the 50 year anniversary and to enter it into the quilt show in April 2024.  I did a rough drawing of balloons and a banner.

After looking at several photos of balloons, I realized that they weren't exactly circular, but more rounded on top and thin at the bottom.  I also noticed that I had 4 balloons, which is an even number.  So I added one more and 5 balloons fit better with the 5 decades of the guild.

My idea was to use LED lights for the largest balloon, and do them in shiny material.  I gave up on this idea early on and instead used gold fabric and ice dyed fabric from my stash.  I don't know why I didn't take pictures along the way, but that is how it goes sometimes when I get into the groove.

It was quilted on my domestic machine with gold thread and has some gold trim and green yarn couched down.   I added purple and gold sequins and beads after this picture was taken.   It's 24" x 34".

I like how it turned out and I hope you do too!!