Two Finishes and Two Starts

"In The Garden" is now a done. I finally put together 12 compatible blocks and figured out how I wanted to sash them. I searched in my stash for fabric that would work and I found some....trying not to purchase anymore fabric is a priority to me and I think I did ok with this one. 

All those paper pieced blocks!

Since my last post I have quilted  In The Garden and now Knitters Gifts.  I rented time on a longarm at Bear's to finish the them and here they are:

Knitters Gifts
59" x 80"

In the Garden
51" x 67"

I absolutely love the blocks in this quilt:

Pattern bt Quilt Art Design
On Craftsy

Block Pattern by Janeen van Niekerk

Here are links to some of the blocks:

Janeen van Niekerk of Quilt Art Design

Hummingbird      Trees        Squirrel          Birdhouse              Tulip

Shape Moth

Eurasian Jay Forest

Feather Forest

Sewing Under Rainbow

Fern Flower

Hard to believe but although I tell myself ALL THE TIME to finish, finish, finish - I continue to start new projects. At Road To California I bought 2 kits. The first kit is called MOD TV - Ann my friend also bought this. We thought it would be a good project to work on at our Tuesday night sewing class. I have made pretty good progress on it, finishing the 20 blocks, I am ready to start to construct the flimsy.

MOD TV blocks

Then I saw a video on YouTube about a quilt called Cutting Corners and just had to try it. Here is my design wall and the progress on that one:

"Cutting Corners" progress
finished quilt should be 54" x 63"
6 blocks across by 7 blocks down

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy your day!

Julie

Butterfly and Squirrel

My Tula Pink Butterfly progress.

I keep running out of fabric, ordering fat quarters to find out I still do not have enough. At the end of the piecing you have to make 160 HQT to all all the outside jags. I am digging through all the tiny scraps of fabric I saved to try to accomplish this. 

Basically there are two blocks missing. One is a fussy cut tree intersection and the other consists of HQT's. See the gap in the center of the quilt above and below the black and white arrow? NOW I have to get more of the white background... boy the is a pain.

Here is my Laura Heine - progress. 

This quilt has been one that I do not feel comfortable with. Color choices are hard and the tequnique is so different than piecing. It is also a very expensive way to achieve the result - the Seam A Seam II - costs so much and if you choose a bad color of fabric - well the fabric is ruined and you still have to find a replacement and start the process again. I think this one is going to bee stiff - yea it should be a wall hanging - but who has this much space on a wall for Mr. Squirrel? Or maybe I should say... who would want to hand this on their wall. Soft comfortable quilts is what I love the most.

I cleared out my sewing room and had the wood floors installed. I am planning the furniture now. I thought it would be easy - not! Back to sewing  at least - moving everything was an interesting process and bringing it back to the sewing room - I am gong to have to lighten the load. Hopefully I can part with some of those treasured supplies.

Thanks for dropping by:

Batik Workshop

Success!

I had eleven students at my first Modern Batik Worshop. 

We had a full day of learning, creativity and friendship. Would I do it again? Yes in a minute.

Here are some photos.

Me in the middle.

We had the most beautiful January - California day!

Eight blowers to help the fabric dry quick. It allowed additional dye opportunities in the day.

Lunch - Panera Chinese Chicken Salad and a Potato Bar.

Beautiful silk scarf!

Happily removing wax. Reminder: Next time have more irons available 

and put the big trash container closer.

Happy Campers. A little wine anyone?

There was so much to teach that I didn't even scratch the surface. Another workshop will be in the making. 

Modern Batik Workshop

I am getting ready for my first workshop. I have always wanted to do this and honestly this one has come about because of the cost of materials. In college I batiked a lot. I sold batiked onesies and stuffed thing (pillows, dolls, mobiles) at a little shop in Beverly Hills. I could hardly keep them in stock. My renewed interest in dyeing fabric came with sticker shock. So I thought if I could get a group together it could help share the costs. So this Saturday 11 of my closest friends and I are going to CREATE BATIKS.

I have been collecting all the supplies and making lists as to not forget anything. I hope it turns out to be a great experience and that the attendees will want to do it again.

So my next post will be all about the workshop and you will be able to see what everyone designed. 

How exciting. 

These are the tjaps I bought on EBay.

Here is what started out as notes for my workshop, but ended up as

 my complete knowledge of the subject:

Introduction to Batik

I found a box of my old batik tjantings and in the box there were also several of the batiks made by my sister Marie and I over 35 years ago. I thought I would go ahead and photograph them and post them here for fun.

Now remember... these were made with RIT DYE and are over 30 years old. 

These still have the wax on them

I use to use stained glass as my inspiration.

Marie's Signature

I remember the green on this on was painted in with acrylic paint

Julie

Oh there is one spot left if you know anyone interested!

Have a great day.

Julie

Linking up with Connie at Free Motion by the River

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New Project - Butterfly & Indigo Dyeing

Butterfly 

I love #TulaPink and I have been eyeing her butterfly quilt forever. I finally broke down and got it. Here is the progress. Cutting the fabric and organizing the blocks into sandwich bags was a 2 day job. There is a lot of curve piecing in this quilt, I am definitely working on a new skill set.

Just played out the blocks that are finished on the bed. Starting to look like a butterfly.

INDIGO DYE

Sandra Johnson is a pretty famous local quilter and my Tuesday night sewing teacher at the local Jr. College. She invited all her students to Patchwork Show Modern Makers Festival in Santa Ana Sunday to do some Indigo Dye demonstrations. I was excited to participate as I have never done this type of dyeing before.

Two finished indigo dye pieces!

While there Jamie Fingal and Libby Williamson dropped by to say hi to Sandra. 

It is always inspiring be be able to bump shoulders with truly talented individuals.

Elephant Quilt

I wanted to show you the progress on the elephant quilt too. I added some yardage to the top and bottom and started quilting him. I added a little mouse near his foot, a tree along the right side and a couple of African ladies on each side. Next more leaves and a tree frog - but my largest throat sewing machine broke and I had to take it in for repairs. Trying to pull this quilt in a small throat machine is torture so it will have to wait a while.

Woman in long designed wrap.

Face of an African woman.

Geometric quilting on elephant.

Hard to see little mouse.

Well that is it for now. Always sew much.

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Nine Degree Evolution of A Quilters Mind

It is finally finished.

I changed the name of the quilt. Since the large round traditional checked block uses a 9 degree ruler and this quilt actually evolved into what it is now, I thought the name needed to reflect that movement.

I will be entering this quilt into QuitCon 2018. I really do not expect this quilt to be accepted. I think it is modern but it isn't made of solid colors, it doesn't have straight line quilting, yet I have never seen any other quilt like this one - it is unusual, interesting, cosmic, mesmerizing and whimsical 

Maybe it has a chance.

Nine Degree Evolution Of A Quilters Mind
50.5" X 61"

In the quilting I have incorporated the solar system around the circle - with all the planets including the Earth's moon and Saturn's rings, the Starship Enterprise, Challenger, a spaceman, a meteor,  a UFO, a satellite, an alien and Spock hand in the" Live Long and Prosper" position in the boarder. 
It was a lot of fun.

Fingers Crossed.

Although we did everything differently back then, this photo shows that deep down, raw human spirit never changes. Our compassion, ingenuity, curiosity, and perseverance as a species will always stand the test of time.

A bicycle that fits a family of four, including a sewing machine. 

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Splendid Universe

Finally Quilting
Here are some of the details of the quilting of this cosmic quilt.

Tissue in place.

Major Tom

So far:



I have our solar system, the space shuttle Challenger, a space ship, a space man and a starlight. Here is how I did it, I took coloring book drawings and enlarged them to the size I wanted, then copied it onto tissue paper and sewed over the tissue. I think it works pretty well.

I am still deciding how to fill in the rest of the "space"

Mr. Data, make it sew.

I am linking up with Linky Tuesday - Free Motion By the RiverSaveSave

and 

Cooking Up Quilts