Pallet cleanser - part Two - and Check Mark quilt layout

This is a continuation of a previous post about doing a pallet cleanser in my studio.

I sewed the top together and basted it with basting spray and then safety pins.  While this was ready to go, I started making another one with more of my green scraps and fabrics that were too small to keep in my stash.  I made 26 more blocks measuring 9-1/4" square.  In the first quilt, I made 9" blocks, which worked, but this time I decided to make them a little more generous.  I still had a pile of green fabrics after I had made 26.  Am I the only one that has a pile of fabrics LARGER than when I started.  It seems like scraps make babies behind my back!

Well, I decided that rather than just add solid fabric to make the half-square triangle blocks, I would make strip sets with black and white striped fabric and solid black.

I cut the strip sets into 9-1/4" bocks and marked the center diagonal line.

These were sewn face to face with the green scrap blocks and pressed towards the black side.  I started placing them on the design wall and a "check mark" layout appeared.  So, I went with it and here is the second pallet cleanser quilt done with a pile of green scraps.  I've also included the pattern instructions in case one of you decides to tackle this fun little quilt.

I hope you like it!  And here are the pattern instructions:

CHECK MARK

48” W x 64” H

This pattern is an easy way to use up scraps and still have a dynamic designed quilt.  It utilizes scraps in one colorway and a very dark solid with a striped fabric inset.

Materials & Cutting Directions

Color (Green)

Tons of scraps in one colorway from light to dark, solids and prints.  Scraps should be at least 1-1/2” wide and can be up to 3” wide.  I used a bucket of scraps that were color sorted, so I picked from that pile.  I also had a huge stash of green fabrics and some were too small to save for a quilt project, so those were pulled and cut into strips of varying widths.  Just start with a big pile. 

Black

Cut 2-7/8” width strips WOF.  You need 3 strips for each strips set, and each strip set will yield 4 each 9-1/4” blocks.  For this size quilt, you need to make 23 blocks, or 6 strip sets.  So, 18 strips need to be cut.

Black and White Stripe

Cut 1-1/2” width strips WOF.  You need 2 strips for each strip set, and each strip set will yield 4 each

9-1/4” blocks.  For this size quilt, you need to make 23 blocks, or 6 strips sets.  So, 12 strips need to be cut. 

Sewing Directions

Start with your smallest scraps and start sewing them together.  Keep adding longer and longer strips to make 9-1/4” square blocks.  As you sew and trim, you’ll keep making small scraps again, so sew them together and keep going until you have 25 blocks.  You should make them slightly oversized and trim them to 9-1/4” square.

Sew the 3 black strips to the 2 black and white strips, starting and stopping with black on the outside edges.  Press towards the black.  Cut the strip sets into 4 blocks that are 9-1/4” square.  Hint:  you need to sew a scant ¼” seam on these strip sets.

Place one of the scrap blocks face to face with the black and white blocks and mark the center line.  Sew a scant ¼” on either side of the marked line and cut on the marked line.  Press the blocks towards the black and white side and give it a good press (there’s lots of seams).  You need 46 finished blocks.

Trim the blocks to 8-1/2” square.

Layout and Sewing

Lay out the blocks on your design wall to achieve the “check mark” layout.  You can change where the check marks are on your quilt, so play with it!  There will be 6 columns that are 8 rows long.  Sew the columns, press in alternating directions, and then sew the rows.  Give it a good press.

Make sure to stay stich the outside edges to preserve the seams.

And here's an alternate layout:

Exhibit at Gray Space Gallery in downtown Vancouver

I went to see the exhibit of my 10 Garden Lady art quilts in the Gray Space Gallery in downtown Vancouver. It was a bit serendipitous because I was supposed to have hip surgery on Sep 24th, but it got cancelled.  The Mod Squad scheduled their monthly meeting in the downtown Vancouver library on Sep 25th, where my quilts are being exhibited.  So, I got to go to the meeting and was able to walk around with some of the Mod Squad members and give an artist talk to them.  (Be quiet if you go though, we got shushed by one of the librarians for making too much noise!)

Here are some of the pictures showing how the quilts looked against the gray concrete wall.

I loved how the library posted the artist statement in both English and Spanish and left a comment box!  

The show runs through October, so if you're in the area visiting or live nearby, please stop by to see the exhibit.  And if you do, I hope you like it!

Palate cleanser

I struggled with what to make for my next quilt.  It was an odd time for me as we prepared for a 2 week trip to Hawaii, with hip surgery following that trip.  Sometimes, knowing what and where to start are a little hard; there's so many, many ideas floating around in my head.  That's when a palate cleanser is needed.  You know what I'm talking about.... something that you can make in your sleep, something to do with your scraps, playing around with techniques with no goal in mind, or making some quilts for charity and thinking about someone else in need.

I pulled out my scrap bin of greens and blues and started sewing them together.  It's a bit of a messy process as you can see in the picture.  I didn't use a foundation; just sewed them together and flipped and pressed as I went along.

I sewed enough pieces together to make 9" blocks that resembled crazy quilt blocks or modified log cabin blocks.

Then I cut 9" blocks out of dark navy blue fabrics and sewed these together to make half-square triangles.  I pressed the seams towards the blue fabric.  The blocks were trimmed to 8-1/2".  I was lucky that I got that size since I started with 9".  I think the trick was to sew a scant 1/4" seam on either side of the center line, so that I got the maximum size in the end. I put up  them on my design wall and played around with a setting.

This top would only be 40" x 56", which is a little small for a lap or twin sized quilt.  Even my husband said that it looked a little small when he poked his head into my studio.  

I thought about doing something else besides making more scrap blocks, but anything that I thought of just didn't float my boat.  So,  I went back to the sewing machine and made more scrap blocks.  I only had to make 5 more in order to get 10 more finished half-square triangle blocks.  Anyway, here are the blocks on the wall all ready to sew together.    It should end up at 48" x 64".  But I headed to Hawaii for a couple of weeks, so you'll have to stay tuned to see the finished top, or maybe even the finished quilt. 

I hope you like it so far! 

small lady quilts revisited

After teaching the class on chop and drop applique, one of my students showed me how she decorated the left side of her quilts with motifs.  It got me thinking about doing some kind of embellishment on 2 of the quilts that I had finished.

I have been pinning things on Pinterest for years, and some of the things that I save are humorous quotes.  I pulled out a couple of them, typed them up in Word and enlarged them in the font and size that I needed for these quilts.  Then I picked a background color that went with the quilts.  The Word document was then printed on HQ printables photo paper, which is prepared for printing fabric that goes through the inkjet printer.  After the ink dried, I adhered steam-a-seam to the back and fused the sayings onto the left side of my art quilts.

A friend came to visit and suggested that I add black buttonhole stitching to the outside of the sayings to permanently adhere them to the quilts.  I used stitch #1309 on the Bernina, and set the width to 1.6 and the length to 2.3.  It was just the perfect finish to these quilts.

Here's a close up of the stitching:

And the finished, revised quilts

I hope you like how I revisited these pieces with ideas from 2 other quilters!  I certainly do!

5 Ladies - part 7 and Final - "My Alter Egos"

This is the final post about the making of the 5 ladies art quilt. It was quilted both on my longarm and on my domestic sewing machine.   I thought a little bit about adding some handwork, but then decided that it was done, so I added the facing, sleeve, and label.  

It is 55" W  42-1/2" H.  I named it "My Alter Egos". 

I hope you like it!

5 ladies art quilt - part 6

This is a continuation of 5 previous posts about the making of the 5 ladies art quilt.

Once the figures were all placed on the background, I inspected for areas that needed some tweaking.  I could see that the figure on the far left had some issues with the neck and head placement.  And some of the legs disappeared against the background.  I fixed those areas and got everything pinned to the background instead of the design wall and then fused down the faces, shoes and hands.   It took a day to get everything sewn down and then I sketched in more facial features and thread sketched the hair and some more of the facial features.

I had enough background material to use for the backing and got it all layered up and ready to quilt.  Here it is part way done with the quilting.

I found it pretty easy to quilt the background by just following the dots in the fabric.

I hope you like it so far.

Exhibit at the Gray Space Gallery in the Downtown Vancouver library

The 10 Garden lady art quilts will be featured in a solo show at the Gray Space Gallery in the downtown Vancouver library for the months of September and October.  This is the last time all 10 quilts in the series will be exhibited together.  They're all for sale and up for grabs to anyone that wants to purchase them.  

I enjoyed making the series of quilts over a 2 year period.  And I'm thrilled that they are in their 2nd gallery showing.  I hope you get a chance to go and see them!  Here are 3 of them.

The Vancouver Library is located at 901 C Street, Vancouver, WA  98660.  Hours are generally 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.  The gallery is split between 2 of the upper floors.

5 ladies art quilt - part 5

This is a continuation of 4 previous posts about the making of the 5 ladies art quilt.

Once all of the pieces were pinned up on the design pattern, it was time to move them to the real background.  This is always a tricky step, because the pattern is what keeps all the pieces in the right place.  What I did was to pin the pattern just at the top and then lift and cut out one of the figures at a time.  It was easy to place the ladies in the right spot by just filling in the hole.   Below is one lady already placed and he hole cut out for he second one.

Now, you can see that the 2nd lady has been placed in her corresponding hole.

Here is the 3rd lady cut out and placed.

And the 4th one.

Then the 5th one.

When they were all placed and pinned to the design wall and background, I cut away all of the paper pattern.

I hope you still like it so far!

Rusty Lady and Lady in Blue

I made a couple more class samples both during and after the Saturday workshop day.

One, I'm calling, "Rusty Lady", and the other, "Lady in Blue".

I had so much fun teaching other members of Clark County Quilters how to do chop and drop applique.  We were having so much fun that I totally forgot to take pictures of my class and their projects.  Gosh darn it.  I did get one sent to me later and someone else snapped a picture of me teaching the class.

Here is my student's piece.

And here the two that I made, all quilted and ready to show.

I hope you like them and let me know how I should display them.  Sew them together?  Add some floral interest?

5 Ladies - part 4

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of the 5 ladies art quilt.

I moved next onto the face and hands.  Have you noticed yet that I kept avoiding them ?  Yes, I'm still full of anxiety about doing them the right way.  It is a very slow process with lots of tiny pieces.  But, I decided that I just needed to dive in and do it!

I pulled out fabrics and then treated them with dilute Mod Podge.  After they sat overnight to dry, I was able to start cutting out the tiny pieces and moving forward.  I forgot to do the lip and shoes, so I did that a few days later. A couple of the lips weren't treated and I remembered that those tiny pieces fray pretty badly without the treatment.  Also, when you look at the picture with just the fabric, their faces still look a little odd.  They start to look a lot better when the thread work starts happening.  Here's the art quilt with all of the ladies done and pinned up against the pattern.

I hope you like it so far!

5 Ladies - Part three

This is a continuation of 2 previous posts about the making of the 5 ladies art quilt.

I continued making clothes following my chop and drop applique method.  Since I've shown that already many times, I just took pictures as the outfits were pinned up on the design board.

My husband popped his head into my studio to check on the progress of this art quilt.  He said, "It looks like clothes that you would wear?"  Why, yes, I responded.  Why else would I have saved this picture with all of the green outfits.  I could easily wear any of them and love it.  I might even name this piece "My Alter Egos".  

What do you think?

Five Ladies - Part Two

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of the Five Ladies art quilt.  I uploaded hands from the original picture and sized them to fit the size of the pattern.  Its interesting that I started with the face and hands... both are my nemesis.  I've thought a little bit about putting sun glasses on all of them.  Hmm, have to think about that.  In the meantime, I've picked out some fabric for the outfits.

I looked at the fabric in my stash that I could use for the background, and all of my larger pieces of fabric were too light (blah) or too dark (dreary).  So, off to the quilt store I went.  And I went a long ways!   One of my favorite quilt stores is called Stash, and it's 4 hours away in Walla Walla, WA.  It wasn't too hard to talk my husband into a quick getaway for wine tasting and some nice meals out,  and, of course, a quick stop at Stash.

They have the largest selection of fabrics for the modern quilter and I found a nice Tula Pink fabric.  Here it is:

I made one of the outfits and pinned it up on the pattern.  It is lightly sparkly and very fun.

I hope you like this quilt so far!

Bees on Flowers - Painted Art Quilts - Verbena Bonariensis

This is a continuation of several previous posts about the making of the Bees on Flowers painted art quilts.  This one is the verbena bonariensis.

Here is the painting part completed:

After thread sketching:

And the final.  It measures 9-1/2"  W x 12-14" H.

I hope you like it!

Bees on Flowers - painted art quits - Verbena Bonariensis

This is a continuation of a few previous posts about the making of bees on flowers art quilts.

The second piece that I painted was the bee on the pink flower.  I believe it was on a verbena bonariensis, which is actually purple.  I'm not aware that I have any pink flowers that look like the picture, but I know that I took it.  Anyway, instead of trying to recreate the actual color, I used the color as it appeared.  I mixed the paint in a palette that allowed me to mix a lot of shades of the colors that I wanted to use.  It has a cover that allows me to paint a bit, and then come back the next day to finish it off. 

Here is the piece with just the flower and bee painted.

I painted the background after the flower had dried.

I'll show the thread sketching and quilting in a future post, and I hope you like it so far!

Bees on Flowers

OK, these are not quilts.  But I do have to post some of the pollinators that are in my garden this year.  I love having a garden filled with plants that are welcoming to all kinds of bees, birds, and bugs.  Enjoy!

                                                                    On a zinnia

On a dahlia

                                                            On a drumstick allium