Archive for November, 2011

Geese in the Air!

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

Its that time again! Time to think about Geese! Its so easy to do around here. The Geese are “flocking” back to the river and making lots and lots of noise! I assume they are just passing through because they are not so prevalent during the rest of the year, but here in the fall, there are 1000s of them on the water all night long!  A veritable cacophony of honking! They fly in and out around the clock   – yet another reason for not owning a house right on the water. These birds are loud!

So in honor of the all the Geese flying overhead, here is Geese in the Air!

       

Geese in the Air

Click the link above for your instructions. These geese are getting pieced the old fashioned way – lot of half-square triangles – so be careful with the cutting and use an accurate 1/4″ seam allowance so everything will come out to the size they are supposed to be. And be grateful that your geese are so much quieter than mine!

Really cool stuff – Check out my flowers!

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

While in Houston, I came across this demo in the Jenny Haskins booth. I’ll show you how it works here as I can’t find any thing about it at her website. She starts out with her product Krinkle Magic – her version of Texture Magic, a Superior Threads product – here are some demo videos on YouTube.

I’ll do my best to explain this wonderful 3-dimensional flower technique to you. This concept opens up a world of ideas with applique and embellishment! First you start with your flower fabric. I used a bastiste but you could use anything from cottons to silks and sheers. You will have to play with it to see the results. I made a sandwich of flower fabric, Texture magic, flower fabric – the flower fabrics have “right sides” to the outside of the sandwich. Then I hooped it and  stitched a flower. If you have a embroidery machine, you could just program in a flower design. I thread-painted mine.

 

Next I trimmed very closely around it. Jenny Haskins used synthetic fabrics and threads and has a “burning” tool that trimmed away the extra fabric quite nicely but could never be used with cottons!!

After its trimmed, you  attack it with steam! Do not let the iron touch the flower or the texture magic will melt into hard plastic. Also, make sure your iron is clean. I never use steam so when I filled up my iron and let it blow, it decided now was a good time to clean out all its pipes –

This was pretty disgusting as well as ruining my flower!! I had to even wash the ironing board cover!!! So make sure your steam is clean. I ended up steaming my flowers very carefully with the tea kettle!!

 

Here’s a cleaner version of the flower – note the leaf too! I made two flowers, one slightly smaller. They can be sewn together in as many layers as you would like your flower to be. You may even consider embellishing the flower center with beads or french knots or buttons… I had a lot of fun with this – hope you give it a try!

Back from Houston and the Quilt Show

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

What a wonderful experience the International Quilt Show in Houston Texas is! The quilts were absolutely stunning! My favorite is Caryl Bryer Fallert’s Checks and Balances – take a moment to click on the link to see what I mean. Actually the photo is great but you miss a lot of the detail that makes it outstanding! If you ever get the chance to see it in person, there is so much more in the quilt that photos just can’t catch. Her skill in the construction and quilting is amazing. It did  not win best of show but remains my favorite.

The Best of Show Quilt, Harmony Within by Sue McCarty was a stunner also. When you click on the link, you will notice there’s an awful lot of gold in this piece. It is all threadwork! Gold thread in the black borders and gold thread in the red background. This piece actually has very little applique. And the most outstanding part of it is she created it on a Gammill 26″ classic Longarm with absolutely no bells and whistles! She is my hero! I am inspired to reach to her level, at least this week, that is – next week, I may be more realistic about my goals…

 

 

Inspiration Time!

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

Off to Houston! I am very excited to see all there is to see and take a few classes in addition to all the girlfriend time I’ll get in! Leaving my adoring hubby home with the cats, dogs and chickens – definitely a vacation for me! I’ll let you know all about what I enjoyed and learned and was awestruck by when I get back!