Improv quilt using ombre leftovers - part 4 - Top Complete

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of an improv quilt using leftover ombre fabric.

I sewed all of the extender pieces to the vertical rows and added the little bits of striped fabric here and there.  I added a 3" border around the the sides.  Actually, I'm not sure that I want to leave the border on the top and bottom....there seems to be too much fabric between the improv blocks and the border.   It's now 51" x 64".   Anyway, here it is:

Later - I didn't like the empty space on the top and bottom, so I shorted both ends.  It's now 58-1/2" L x 51" W.  

I like it much better and hope you do too?

Ombre leftover quilt - part 3

This is a continuation of two previous posts about the making of the improv quilt from ombre leftovers.

I got the interesting idea to insert little pieces of fabric between the rows of the background ombre fabric.  I did a sample with 3/4" wide striped fabric and cut at 1-1/2" long, 2" long, and 3" long.  I like the longer one the best.  It was a little tricky to make them but I think that the effect will be interesting in the quilt.

I ran out of the first piece of ombre fabric in the darker turquoise area and had to use my second piece of ombre fabric that went from turquoise to orange.  I cut strips to match the widths of the vertical rows, and then 3" wide pieces for a border that really enhances the ombre effect.  This was just all pinned to the design board at this point, but it's worth showing you my ideas.

And I just can't help but show you a cartoon from Pickles by Brian Crane on October 25, 2024 that I thought was SO funny.

Anyway, hope you get a few giggles and like where the quilt is going so far!

Ombre leftover quilt - part 2

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of an improv quilt with the leftover ombre fabric.

I thought it might help to show you how I do some of the steps.  I've already sewn the first 3 rungs of this piece.  So, here is how I add the last piece to "square" up the block.  I place the curved edge on top of the next piece, both face up.  I cut the curve through to match the previous one.  The new piece should overhang just a bit on the lower edge.  The pieces are separated to remove any of the cut-off pieces.

Then I match them back up and flip the top piece over the curved piece and pin about 2" from the leading edge.  I place a few more pins to match up the edges until I reach the leading end (at the top in the picture).   I don't pin the rest of the curve.

I start sewing with a narrow seam, removing the pins as I sew.

When I reach the end of the pins, I use my fingers to gently match up the edges, but only an inch or so at a time.  I'm very careful not to stretch either piece.

This is what the piece looks like after it's sewn.  I flip it over and press the seam towards the outer edge.  It wants to go that direction most of the time.  I do use a light spray starch and try again not to stretch things as I go.

The piece does need to be "squared" up after sewing and pressing because all of the bias edges move around.  I don't try to make it the final size until I know where it is going to fit into the quilt.

I placed this one up on the design wall and knew that I needed to add a strip of fabric to fit the other pieces in the row.  I cut this one oversize and sewed it to the block.

I sewed it to the previous block and then trimmed it to fit.  No measuring first...sew first, then trim!

Here it is all trimmed.

And here it is up on the design wall.

Here is the piece with all of the vertical strips sewn.  Now I have to figure out how to sew the background ombre fabric.

I hope you like it so far!

Ombre leftovers

I had a lot of the Lipstick Cowgirl turquoise to gray ombre fabric left over after cutting out the pieces for the Modernized New York Beauty.   I just loved the fabric so much that I decided to make another quilt with the ombre as the background.  The pieces left over were mostly the gray to the lighter turquoise, plus some of the darkest turquoise at the edges.  The trick was to design a quilt using what I had left over.   I looked at several ideas, and then just decided to do improv.  I had been looking at some of the elongated or melon shapes that some quilters are now using, and decided that was the direction for this piece.  Here are some of the pieces that I've made and put up on my design wall.

I made all of these pieces as rectangular blocks.  I have no idea how I want to sew them together, or how large I want the piece to be in the end.  But, I like the start of it!

And I hope you like the start of it too!

Garden Lady #7 - Part One

I got the inspiration for this Garden Lady from the French artist Gaëlle Boissonnard.  I loved the playfulness of her series on ladies in nature.  Her signature is skinny arms and legs, and exaggerated height and body dimensions.  I made a sketch that minimized the exaggerated height, but still kept the essence of the artist in mind.  The sketch was blown up to size at my favorite blue print shop in Portland.  

I found the perfect ombre background fabric at Sharon's Attic in Hillsboro, Oregon.  It is a lime green shade of Moda ombre bloom by Vanessa Christenson.

Usually, I sketch a few features, and on this one, I changed the face and hands.  I found a clothing advertisement with a face that I liked.  So I traced it and uploaded it to Adobe Photoshop; flipped the direction of the face and sized it to fit the art piece.  The original tracing was about 2", and the final size was about 4".

I wanted to try a few different techniques on the outfit, and the first thing that I thought about was doing some daisy-like trapunto on the pocket.  I sketched up a couple of daisies and imported them into Photoshop.  I copied and pasted it 3 times to fill up the sheet.

Here are the cut out the daisies that were placed over the pocket to get a layout.

I took a photo and used this to copy and transfer the picture to a dissolving stabilizer.  The stabilizer that I use is Ricky Tims Stable Stuff Poly ricky-tims-stable-stuff-poly and I buy it on a large roll.  It's pretty curly when it comes out of the tube.  (Note:  Ricky Tims no longer has a store,  but can clink on the link above and buy it from The Quilt Show store.)

I thought that I could just run it through the printer, but it totally jammed.

So, I cut another 8-1/2" x 11" piece and ironed it to freezer paper.  I covered it with my wool pressing mat and let it sit overnight to get flat.  Then, I ran that through the copier and was smart enough (just barely) to notice that there is a paper selection for thicker paper!  Anyway, that time it worked.

I didn't invent the process, but am so glad to pass it along!  I actually think that the first time I noticed it was on a quilt that  Philippa Naylor exhibited in Paducah, Kentucky called "Flower Power".  

Anyway, Ricky demonstrated this on one of his segments on The Quilt Show (#2606).  I picked the pocket fabric and placed the daisy pattern on the wrong side of the fabric.  Using dissolving thread, I traced the outline of the daisies.  

I flipped it to the right side and stitched the inside of the daisies with micro stippling.  Then, I layered it with batting on the backside and sewed around the daisies on the front side with a tight meandering stitch.  When the stitching was done, I cut away the excess batting, then the excess stabilizer.  

The whole thing was dunked into a sink of water and the stabilizers dissolved, leaving only the material, the batting, and the decorations done in thread.  These photos show the front and the backside of the finished pocket.

I hope you like it so far!

Garden Lady #5 - Part Four

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of Garden Lady #5.

The next thing that I wanted to add was some purple fruit that might look like as if it was being picked and put into the basket. I used some purple hand dyed fabric that I had on hand.  Using printouts from Pinterest and my sketch book, I drew up some plums in a couple of sizes.  One technique that I like to use is to trace the shape onto a dissolving foundation, glue it to the backside of the fabric, trim the edges, glue them again, and iron them to the back.  This gives me a nice clean edge that is easy to stitch onto the quilt.  (Unfortunately, the product that I used was Ricky Tims poly stable stuff and he is out of business!)  Here are some progress pictures:

I placed the plums and basket on the quilt and stitched around all of the edges with invisible thread and a small zig-zag stitch.  Once they were placed, it was clear that some leaves needed to be added, so I drew them up and used the same technique as the plums.  The final thing I added were some inked birds and white butterflies.  Here is the quilt top all pinned and spray basted, ready to quilt.

I hope you like how the top turned out!

 

Green Butterfly Lady - Part Four

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of the Green Butterfly Lady.  I tackled the dress next and did it in three parts.  The dress top and bottom were worked in torn strips of green fabric, dyed cheesecloth, organza strips, ribbon and a few of the leaves and flowers.  The whole thing was covered with green tulle, backed with light green fabric,  and lightly quilted with 4 shades of green thread.   The corset was made with organza and ribbon.  It was backed with orange fabric and covered with tulle, then lightly stitched with bronze thread.  The three pieces were pinned to the design wall to see if they were going to work.  And they did.

Then I turned the edges under and stitched the pieces together with a zig zag stitch.  

As I turned and tossed in the middle of the night, I remembered that I had a light green fabric that might work for the background.  I didn't want to lose the transparency of the wings with a darker color.  So, I  pinned the pieces to the background to test it out.  I placed a few of the loose flowers and leaves on top too.  Here is the picture off the components as they might appear on the final quilt. 

Nope, it was too pale.  I did a little shopping and found the perfect fabric.  It was Moda Ombre Fairy dust metallic, stock #10871.  I could have used just one length and had the lightest ombre in the middle, but I decided to put a seam in it and offset the light part to the right.  Now, here is the butterfly lady on that backing.  Just right! 

Stay tuned to see what the next steps were.  

Shadow Selfie #3 - Bubbleishous

This is the 3rd quilt in the shadow selfie series.  I wrote blogs about the previous 2 quilts.  The shadow selfie is from a picture I took of myself on a walk early in the morning to get that long leggy look.  I positioned myself to make it look like I was holding a bouquet of daffodils.  Well, actually, they look like they're coming out of my belly button, but you get the gist.

I found a wonderful new-to-me ombre fabric at a quilt show in Portland.  I knew that I was making the shadow selfie series when I bought it, and it was put into the quilt within a week.  I loved the bubbleishous (made up word) feel of the fabric.  Doesn't it just make you happy?

"Shadow Selfie #3 - Bubbleishous" by Joanne Adams Roth 2018

The quilting was done with circular templates and free form pebbles.  It complemented the fabric really well, and is hard to see unless you looking at the quilt in person.  One of the things I like about going to quilt shows is when you get drawn into a quilt to look closer.  I think this one will make people do that. (p.s. My sister days my butt is not that big!)

I hope you like it.

Shadow Selfie #2 - The Adams Stance

This is the second quilt in my shadow selfie series.  I wrote a blog about the first one previously.

This quilt started with shadow selfie photo that I had taken on a walk.  In April, I took a picture of a field of blooming daisies.  I loved the idea of putting this shadow selfie onto the field of flowers.   So those 2 photos became the inspiration for this quilt.

I started with a blue ombre fabric as the background.  The shadow selfie was appliqued, then the piece was quilted.  White, pink and yellow embroidery threads were used to embroider the lazy daisies on the bottom of the quilt.

"Shadow Selfie #2 - The Adams Stance" by Joanne Adams Roth 2018

I was tickled pink when our 5 year old granddaughter noticed right away that it was a shadow!  She drew a picture of the quilt.  Don't you love it?

I named this quilt, "The Adams Stance" because many of us in the Adams family (no...not the show, my real family) inherited a quirky knee bend from my father.  There are so many pictures of him like this, and of me, and of my son.  It's really quite funny because we don't know we're doing it.  Then we see the pictures and have a great laugh.  Do you have family characteristics that show up in pictures too?   Like perhaps squinty eyes?  And you know who you are, right?

I hope you like it.