Guild Challenge - Inspiration American Gothic

I love guild challenges, they make you move out of the box. This one was: 

"Artful August" 

Art or Architecture 

Inspired by:
American Gothic
Grant Wood 1930
32" x 30"

 This is what I came up with. I wasn't going to do the challenge as I have so many unfinished projects ... but the guild but off the competition until September as we have a speaker this month and time didn't permit it. So I decided to go ahead.
I love the way it turned out but it did not turn out as a quilt. I stretched it on bars. Couldn't figure out how to incorporate the pitchfork so I used a Holy Bible as an American iconic symbol, it was heavy and hard to keep in place on a soft sculpture, thus the stretcher bars. I also added a broach on the Mrs.

Original layout on cutting table - only sewing here was the making of the apron and dress.

Four Years Later...back at the farm...

Twister Mini

Finished my Twister mini and got it mounted on this cute little hen hanger 

found for a dollar at the Goodwill Store. 

 King Tutankhamun

Steve got his book signed by Dr. Zahi Hawass

Last night DH and I went to a special event at the California Science Center downtown LA: 

Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh

dinner and lecture with Dr. Zahi Hawass

and the IMAX movie Mysteries of  Egypt.

AMAZING  TO SAY THE LEAST!

I am hooking up with Freemotion by the River - see what others are doing by clicking here.

Finished Baby Memory Quilt - OC Fair Winner!

Lots of great stuff...
1st of all a finish!

This quilt was unusual, Mia, my daughters friend gave me theses baby clothe over 4 years ago. 

It was having a real design wall that inspired me to get a start on it.

It turned out damn cute, even if I have to say it myself.

Love the stuffed feet, the real clothe line with appliquéd birds on one, the upside down nighty, the cute sayings like..." My Uncle Is Single", "Captain Adorable" and "I Can't Be Calm, I'm A Toddler"

I am sew happy with it.

AND... 

I won 2 ribbons at the County Fair!

My "In The Garden" quilt entered under my husbands name won a 2nd Place.

The "9 Degree Evolution of a Quilters Mind" quilt wasn't displayed very well but it won a 1st Place in the Original Design category.

My friend Jamie won for her Buggy Barn "If Pigs Could Fly" quilt

And my friend Ann won 2nd Place for the blue, green and purple batik star quilt.

Hea you two.

QuiltCon Charity Quilt

I volunteered to purchase the fabric for next years quilt because I was going to the M&L sale. And then I put together the kits for the guild and then I put together the tutorial. I think I am the assumed "chairperson". So much for volunteering.... ugh.

Here is our inspiration:

The theme this year is "Small Piecing" You can see the color palette on the board (from the OCMQG meeting below. Then on the right below a pieced block of the quilt which will be cut up to make  either a tree trunk or branchs. The participating members will all contribute sections like this. There is no right or wrong way to piece this and all in all I think it is going to be a really cool modern quilt....we'll see. I'll keep you up to date on its' progress.

Kits ready to go.

And what am I working on today....

In cleaning  and moving my sewing room, yesterday I found a little twister ruler I lost years ago. I have pulled out the unfinished project I was working on when I lost the ruler and I am going to finish it now. 

Here it is:

1.5" Little Twister Ruler

On the top is the first piecing, then you cut it up with the little  ruler,
and sew it back again. The project reduces form 22 1/2 " to 11".

Baby Clothe Memory Quilt

A few years ago one of my daughers' good friend, Mia, asked me to make a quilt for her from her first child's baby clothe. She handed over a large tote with just the cutest ever little boy clothe. It has been sitting in my closet since I finally got the inspiration and started on the journey.

Beginning the project I hung the baby items on my design wall as if they were on a clothe line.

I thought a clothe line with all the little guys hanging down would look good.

I used three fabrics as the background. Blue for the sky, a flowery print for the middle and a green "grass" print for the bottom.

Also see the design wall? Yes a real design wall finally. Maybe that is why this quilt is finally in the making. I put together 2 4'x8' insulation board - covered in a beautiful tie dye blue flannel.

I went through and removed many of the snaps that way while sewing I had less chance running into one of those little land mines and save a few needles from breaking. Easier said than done. Those little snaps are hard to remove without damaging the fabric.

The first little shirt I cut apart and fused didn't hold its shape as I wanted it to, so on the second one I machine based the top and top arms and both sides - THEN I cut off the back and fused it. This worked well. 

All fused down and ready to applique

On another note, I got two quilts entered into the Orange County Fair.

Top completed and ready to quilt.

Charity project ready to quilt.

Modern Quilt Guild Block Lotto ready for Thursday meeting.

Linking Up to Free Motion On The River

SaveSave

Elephant Abstraction Finish

I started my#Elephant Abstraction quilt May 15, 2017 and today is June 12, 2108

Here are some of the blog posts about the process:

May 15th, 2017

Sept 30th, 2017

Started quilting it November 2017

And finally today!!

63' x 76"

This is actually the 2nd custom quilt I have made. Mostly I do all over or stitch in the ditch. 

This quilt has 2 Parrots, 2 African ladies, gecos, tree frogs, leaves, vines, a trees and a mouse quilted into it. 

African lady face

One of the Parrots

One regret I have is that I used the busy batik leaf fabric for the backing, if I had used a plainer fabric you would have been able to see the quilting.

I will be showing this at the Orange County Quilters Guild tonight.

Also (Hurray For Me!) I got my quilts accepted into the 2018 Orange County Fair!!

Next up is to quilt the Trula Pink Butterfly

See you all soon... Hopefully.

Julie

Important Words

...we come to quilt making looking for a respite from one set of challenges by embracing a very different set ~ involving color, pattern, sensuality, skill, and order, in an ever-changing mixture ...  The act of making patchwork quilts [has] provided an oasis of grace in my life. I [have] pitched my pieced tent in that oasis, finding shelter and warmth for my psyche... [from Quilting to Save My Life by Janet Catherine Berlo, author of Quilting Lessons: Notes from the Scrap Bag of a Writer and Quilter]

I Love Pintrest

I Love Pinterest!

I love succulents!

I saw a post on Pinterest with a maniquine covered in succulents and I had to give it a try.  Online I ordered a form, I went around the garden and chose some beautiful succulents to propagate. 

Succulents propagated from my collection

Couldn't resist 99 Cent Store Succulents

I found a mannequin form online for about $28.00
Here I covered it with fern.

I used 3 Coco Liners from Big Lots $3.00 each.

Florist Pins from JoAnns - Used a coupon of course!

After adding a moss covering over the Coco Liners,
I used the florist pints to attach the plants 

I'll come back to this in a month or two to show the progress.

All in all I have about $58.00 invested in this piece.

I absolutely love it.

See you all soon.

Hugs,

Julie

Artist Studios
Here are some you need to look at:
Here

PHD

Happy Birthday Carol!

I made this quilt for you...

"Knitters Gifts"

All the items a knitter might make for someone, scarf, gloves, hats and socks.

And thank you for the lovely sweater you made for me.

Hugs,

Julie

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