Doggies ala Andy Worhol

I wanted to give my daughter some couch pillows for her new home as a Christmas gift. She is an absolute doggie person. She has three... 2 huskies and a chauwaha.

The applique art I found determined the size of the pillows. The chauwaha was a head shot and the husky was full body. After some consideration I decided to do an Andy Worhol approach to the chauwaha and of course I wasn't going to buy any fabric - relying on my stash. My daughters living room is blue based so a blue background - main color was in order. 

12" finished blocks. The pillow will be 24" with a piping detail finish.

 

 Found some 60's psychedelic prints and incorporated them.

The background here is one of most favorate Amy Butler designs.

I found the applique patterns on line at FourTwinSisters.com.  Thery have several fabilous quilt patterns available for free, all they ask for is "barter"... quilt fabric, notions or items you do not want or need. 

Her dog, Lelu, has a heart shape on her forehead.

Now these are works in process, alot of details are still missing, I just started on them yesterday.

 I have not been blogging much lately - not to say I have not been sewing.  I made a bunch of Egyptian costumes for the Muzeo in Anaheim...(where I volunteer as a docent).

 The new King Tut display is there now until January 24th.

Kids can dress up and see the exhibit, it makes it a more memorial experience. 

Quilting Economics

Very Productive Day

I made a major  progress on the Stunning Universe quilt today. 

At this point Stunning Universe is 51 1/2" wide x 56 1/2 long.

Got the images transferred to fuse - unfortunately I did not reverse the pattern so in turned out as a mirror image of what I had envisioned. But I was not going to throw away all the fabric, time and effort so it is what is is. The boarders tie it together. I do not know what I am going to do with the top and bottom boarders as of yet.

I love it!

And the center of the circle is not done yet either. Here is an enlargement of it. I found an image on line and printed it on fabric using the freezer paper method. I looks OK here in this photo but actually the pinks kind of clash and I should not use it. I experimented with several other ideas and I keep coming back to this one. 

Then I went on to try and finish:

#ELEPHANTS ON PARADE

DONE!!!! Quilted! Bound! Labled!

Here she is. I did add the pinwheels in the corner as I said I would. 

Really glad I started a baby quilt - my way of being prepared for the future... well now have to start another one.... yes as you will see on the label below this one has a home. One of my neices is going to have a baby and this Friday night - there is a "Find Out The Gender Party" - never heard of that one before.... but actally I have a notion it will end up as an Engagement Party. 

These youngsters - do everything backwards.

In any case I so excited to await the arrival of a new family member. CONGRATULATIONS!!

Here is the label. See the bar code in the center of the 9 patch? I will link that back to my blog so if you ever really wanted to know more about this quilt you can use your smart phone, scan the label and learn more about the whole process. The bird was one I did facing the incorrect way so I redid it instead of using it on the front. I hand stitched the words with floss. 

I wanted to show you my quilting on this quilt - look closely at the quilting. See the giraffe and the elephant in the stitching? I used a pantograph and long armed it myself - look mom, no computer. It feels good to be able to actually complete a top and quilt the quilt.

This pantograph also featured a lion.... see him?

Quilt Inspector photo bombing!

Hope your day was as productive as mine.
Hop eto see you soon!

Stunning Circle Closing In

I have finished the circle and in trying to get the scale correct I pulled out and taped some pieces of drawing paper together, layed the piece on it, and started penciling in some lines. I added shading to the circle and pulled out a little piece of circle that I had cut incorrectly - the quilt is taking on a universe look with a dark hole, or sun - and a comet. The length is being determined by the background fabric I purchased in class. I bought a yard and a half... wish I would have bought 2 yards now. Oh well. I will be adding some boarders 

This will be one of my first art quilts with an original design. 

I am really liking the direction it is taking. I love pink and grey together. 

While on a quilt run with my friend Ann and her children, we came across an adorable, friendly cat that needed rescue. I made a bad decision to take her home. The kids named her Lilly.

Playful little thing!

STUNNING CIRCLE QUILT

My guild had a fantastic speaker last week, Andi Perejda, she is really a wonderful creative person. Ann (my bestest of friends)  and I decided to take her workshop at the Orange Quilt Bee so we played hooky from work Wednesday and joined the fun. 

The stunning circleThe class was on her stunning circle quilt. It is a modern take on an old version. Andi uses a 9 degree angle ruler and strip sets to simplify this completely complicated looking design. It is unbelievably simple and goes together like a breeze. While we were all sewing, Andi went around the store and did some shopping for everyone. She picked out fabrics that would go with each persons blocks. The fabric she found for my pink on pink circle block was fantastic and I just had to pick up a couple of yards. There goes my promise not to purchase any more fabric.... but I justified it with the gift card I got from my son for Christmas... so no money out of pocket...Thank you Mr.M!

My strips.

Beginning to take shape.  In the background upper right is the
fabric for the background Andi choose.


Here is the fabric she chose. Pink fading circles repeated. I love it. It has modern qualities and certainly goes along with the psychedelic theme of the stunning circle.

I have decided to shadow the circle with some grey fabric in my stash, then for boarders I am putting together some pieced lines that are suppose to be star bolts shooting down from the sky, using the 2 pinks and some more gray's. I think my quilt universe is coming together.

The center of the circle needs to be special. Taking cues from our teacher who loves hand dying fabric.  This weekend Ann and I are going to delve into fabric paints to try and come up with appropriate centers for the focus block. I have a collection of fabric paints that I have put together in anticipation of a creative moment... so we are going to use them. Look at the prices on the packages.... most are from Tuesday Morning... see why I had to pick them up? 

Classmate Patti looking at trim options.

Beautiful red and white.

The Tie Challenge

At the Orange County Fair our Guild was asked to demonstrate quilting. Many people come up and ask about the quilting displays and what we are doing. These two guys came up and were really interested in us and they went on to offer our Guild a bunch of men's silk ties. Apparently, they manufacture ties and wanted to recycle some of their seconds. Our Guild ended up with boxes upon boxes of men's ties. We promised they would not end up on EBay or being sold in their original format. 

Here is the ties I ended up with.

 This is the first purse I made - shown here with the button I think I will use as a closure

The inside has a zipper compartment, a couple of separators and a place for credit cards.

My second one with the button choice

My third one with 2 button choices..... I think the triangle is the one I will use.

This has been a fun way to use the ties. I hope to make a bunch of these for Christmas presents.

#ElephantsOnParade

Elephants on Parade

Got To Make It

Here are the first few blocks lining up for the cutest baby quilt ever. The design is so simple, these blocks are fun to make. Sew Fresh Quilts offered this free on their website and I must say that I really enjoyed the way the instructions were written especially the cutting part. In the beginning Lorna gave complete cutting instructions along with sub cutting information. Cutting is probably for me a tedious part of making a quilt and having these instructions was a blessing.

I pulled all the fabric from my stash and the quilt went together quickly. 

#ElephantsOnParade

I haven't done the side sashings yet. The boarders are pretty plain and I am thinking of adding colorful pinwheels in the corners to brighten it up.
I have already reserved a long arm at Bear's Quilt Shop  - Can not wait to get this one loaded on the longarm!

Kits and Long Arm Quilting

It had been along time and I am going to try to get caught up with all I have been doing.For one thing I have been takeing long arm quilting classes on Mondays lately at Bear's Quilting Store. Sometime I will go into detail about Bears - it is not your normal quilt store experience..... BY ALL MEANS!!

This colorful quilt (46" x 63") was a quilt I bought as a kit. I usually do not buy kits. My friend Ann and I went on a quilt run and this kit was in the greatest sale stuff. I (under duress) broke down and purchased it. The quilt looked easy with its' large panel look pieces - I thought it would be an excellent way to practice my newly acquired long arm quilting skills.

The quilt went together quickly. I loved all the beautiful colors. 

There was so much fabric left I decided to piece the back.

Here is a close up of the front quilting.

Here is a view of the back. The quilting is obviously a beginners work, but I am proud of it. No computer programs, only a pantograph to follow. I think my skills are improving.

 The quilt is not bound yet... who knows if it will become a UFO?

Water Color In Lodi

It has been a very long time since I have made a post but actually I have been very busy - quilting, enjoying life and vacationing. I just haven't gotten around to posting much. I will show you shortly the two projects I have been working on... more of.... Fiesta De Flores and a cute little 3D baby quilt my friend Ann and I both have been sewing together.
Today I want to tell you about water color painting with my sister in Lodi. Each year we accompany our husbands to a military vehicle show in Lodi, CA. They collect WWII stuff and we being the great wives we are, endure their hobby (kind of like they endure ours). My sis is a great painter and she wanted to do some plein air painting and she took me with and gave me a little lesson.
In Lodi there are many, many wineries. One of the conditions we make with the hubbies is to take us wine tasting one day of the trip - usually we will take a WWII Jeep and travel the back roads with the wind in our hair but this year it rained.  In any case  in the past we had visited Jessie's Garden Winery and my big sis chose Jessie's Garden to paint.
Jessie's Garden has a great barn and lots of beautiful trees, roses and animals for inspiration.

The barn at Jessie's Garden

This is me enjoying the moment.

This is my sisters version

And here it is my first attempt. I think I had a pretty good lesson from my sis... wouldn't you say?

Scary Monsters and Happy Birthday Complete

My quilt guild, The Orange County Quilt Guild is having their annual quilt show April 10th and 11th, the theme is "Echoes of the Past"

I have never entered a show before but I am up for it so I pushed and pushed and completed two quillts this weekend. 

Scary Monsters
Quilted, Bound and Labeled 

I started this back in December 2010 as  a block of the month with a pattern from Quakertown Quilts, Inc., Houston Texas. When I saw the pattern, I just had to have it. I love the whimsy, the colors and the wonderful poem:

There are big scary Monsters under the bed

but, I'm not afraid, I just laugh off my head!!!

The monsters stare in surprise at me... 

But then they giggle and laugh with glee!

We laugh 'til we're tired, then sleep through the night -

And dream sweet dreams 'til mornings light.

There is an alternative poem that is cute too:

There are big scary Monsters under the bed

And every night, they must be fed.

They love to eat fabric; it's their favorite food -

It puts them in the very best mood.

So the lesson is clear: consider your plight -

Keep buying more fabric... or be dinner tonight!

One of my favorite parts was all the half square triangle sawtooth borders around the poem. My favorite monster is the purple "Mr. Big Mouth" (1st block) followed by "The Green Machine" ( the dragon first block second row)  This took me 4 years and 4 months to complete, it was the show that gave me the incentive to get the button eyes on and get it labeled. I am glad to have a true finish! Yea for me. 

Happy Birthday 

I have had several posts about this quilt and finally I finished it today. This quilt was started January 2014. It was a block of the month, free on Riley Blake's website. I enjoyed having a sewing project each month and posting it on this blog. I started it as it looked like a good stash buster. I did not purchase any new fabric for this quilt - oh except the backing. I think it turned out great.

It is 74" x 84.5".

Happy Birthday

Quilted, bound and labeled.

I can see this quilt as being used on "YOUR BIRTHDAY" -  

What better than being wrapped in quilt love on your birthday? 

All in all, I see I really compete quilts under pressure. The guild gives me great incentive to get them done. I enjoy showing my work to them at meetings and now at a show. 

I think this guy looks like my husband, but

I can not imagine him saying this.

Hugs to all,

Julie

Thanks for stopping by!

Fiesta de Flores 3 More Blocks Done

 These are 8" blocks machine appliqued in batiks. I have 12 blocks completed. 

The sashing and boarders for this quilt is quite complicated. I am going to have to get some coordinating fabric - yea a reason to go fabric shopping. Planning to attend the Pomona Quilt, Craft and Sewing Festival this weekend. 

Hope you are well!

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Jules

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