Granddaughter's Graduation quilt - post #3 - FINAL

This is a continuation of two other posts about the making of the graduation quilt for my granddaughter.  I had coffee with her parents after watching her in a Veteran's Day parade with her high school marching band.

They asked me if I'd seen her bedroom decorations recently, and I answered that I hadn't.  They said it is almost pure white, with very little color.  That really helped me "pale out" the quilt.  I think the quilt will now be more to her liking, while still letting me put in a few flecks of color.  

I sewed it together on the diagonal set.  And here it is already quilted.  Side Note:  I woke up at 3:00 am and thought it might be fun to applique some white flowers on the top.  Then woke up later:  NO.

Tami Levin did the quilting for me with a digital design that has swirls and circles.  It is so modern and beautiful all quilted. 

I love Tami's work.   I hope you like it too!

A ribbon for a friend

One of my friends has a new goal.  And to help her visualize the goal, I made her an award ribbon.

In 2015, she and I were part of a group to go through "The Artist's Way".  One of her goals, then, was to win first place in a category at one of the National Shows.  Since she was already a winner in our local guild shows, it seemed like she would easily achieve that goal.  But to help her along, I made her a blue ribbon that had "First Place, National Show" on it.  Since then, she has won 2 blue ribbons in categories at National Shows; has had 2 solo shows; has been featured in a SAQA journal, and has continued to win both local and national ribbons at the highest level.  She is an amazing art quilter, mostly focused on portraits that are based on pictures in the National Archives.  Just Google Lynn Czaban and you will get a feel for her body of work.

Recently, she told me her next big goal is to win a Special Award at a National Show.  She didn't say what the special award would be for, but they can range from a judge's choice, a sponsor's choice, best of show, and many other areas.   Well, guess what I did?  Yes, I made her another ribbon that had "Special Award, National Show" on it.  It was so much fun to pull out ribbons and go shopping for all of the bling and to look at YouTube videos on how to make a ribbon. Here's the picture:

I hope she gets a kick out of having this one too!

Carnival Flower - Part Two

This is a continuation of one previous blog post about the making of Carnival Flower.

The second class and booklet of instructions were for the pieces next to the outside border.  They were made in two stages, then pieced together with the curved piecing technique with glue.  I LOVE this technique and have quit using pins!  This section also included applique circles and gumdrop shapes.  It's a good thing that there is a month between classes.   Because it takes a long time to turn the edges and applique 120 gumdrop pieces and 72 circles.  Plus, all of the piecing. 

Here is a photo after the second booklet of pieces and instructions were completed.

Published in Quilting Arts Magazine - Spring Issue

I wrote an article for Quilting Arts Magazine and it got published in the Spring Issue.  I'm linking the magazine order page here:

Quilting Arts Magazine - Spring Issue

The magazine features an artist who has something to say about quilting and what it means to them, and it is usually at the end of the magazine.  I was thrilled that they selected my article.

I hope you can read the article and that you like it!

Gigantic foundation pieced project - Judy Niemeyer Carnival Flower - Part One

I know that I said I would never make a big quilt again.  But I just couldn't resist this one.  One of my friends is a certified Judy Niemeyer instructor, and I told her that I'd be interested in learning some of the new techniques that have been developed since the last time I made a Judy Niemeyer quilt.  Well, the company came out with a technique of the month pattern, called "Carnival Flower".  I'm taking the 6 classes from my friend and we meet once a month.  That gives all of us plenty of time to finish the homework between the classes.

The quilt will be 80" x 80", which is called the wall size; I call it a big quilt.  I used the pattern and colored it in several different ways. I landed on lime green (of course), orange, yellow, turquoise, and eggplant.  I think its going to be spectacular.  

The first class was to work on all of the outside border pieces.  We will continue to work our way towards the center, so it will be an interesting process.  Here are the border pieces on the design wall.  It covers the wall from the ceiling to the floor.  There won't be much room for anything else until this one is sewn together, but I think I can squeak a little one on the right hand side of the design wall.  

Stay tuned for all of the posts about the making of this quilt.

Northwest Gardening Lady - Part 5 - Final

This is a continuation of 4 previous posts about the making of the Northwest Gardening Lady art quilt.

I chose to do all of the background quilting in a dark green thread that closely matched the background fabric.  Before I sat down at the quilting machine though, I used a chalk marker to essentially draw out the design lines.  That way, when I was quilting it, I had lines to follow and could listen to my podcasts without too much brain power.

Here is the final quilt.  It measures 41" W x 50" H.

I hope you like it!

Northwest Gardening Lady - part 4

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of the Northwest Gardening Lady art quilt.

I needed to add the plants in the tall pot and the trunk for the strawberry tree.  These were made from fabric that I had in my stash.  The final selection of plants were the ones that I wanted to place at the bottom of the piece.  I had pictures of poppies, columbines, and hostas that spoke to me.  I printed them off on 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of paper and tested out the placement and size.  In the end, I decided not cover up the dress.   So, here is the top all ready to be quilted.

I printed a black and white copy of the quilt and then traced the outlines onto tracing paper.  Then, I fiddled around until I had some quilting lines that I liked.  Here is the quilting plan.

Of course, the quilting will not end up being so prominent once its on the quilt with the dark background colors. 

Stay tuned to see either more progress, or the finished piece.