nothing new on my design wall this week

I was busy making 4" X 6" cards for our local art museum's Postcard Salon ... They are now turned in and I'm looking forward to seeing them after the exhibit opens on Thursday :) They will be available for sale on February 13th to benefit the museum (and if they sell, I also get some money).

The top left postcard is a quilted postcard. It has three layers and has free motion machine embroidery to give it the look I was going for :) I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

The three other postcards are mixed media collage. Canvas, paper and acrylics - one of them also has some fiber to it (the upper right one). I was exploring quotations with those little pieces.

If you are in West Michigan visit Muskegon Museum of Art anytime from January 30th through the middle of February to enjoy the Postcard Salon (Thursdays are free admission, thanks to Meijer!).

For some design walls that have something new, check out the link party at Patchwork Times!

Project Quilting Season 5, Challenge 2

I didn't think I would get anything done for the second challenge ... Upcycled ... but I did get a little idea and it came to life today :)

 I pulled these out of my sewing room ... some old buttons, taken off other things; some funky yarn; a length of some faux suede and parts of an old uniform from the Army Guy.

I pulled a tutorial for a Stuffie off the internet - a Ninni Monster and modified it to fit my idea :)

After cutting the front and back, I appliqued pieces to them in the opposite fabrics. On the back I appliqued a tail:

 On the front I appliqued a face - and quilted it as I was appliqueing the face down :) I added eyes and mouth at this time, too.

 I sewed around the body, clipped my curves and turned the stuffie. I stuffed it with rice to make a weighted stuffie (NOT microwave safe, btw, with that metallic yarn!). The Boybarian likes to fidget with my rice-filled wrist rest, so I thought I would make a cat for him to fidget with (that way I won't lose my wrist rest!).

I pinned the opening closed:

 Hand stitched that opening closed (that faux suede was NOT fun to stitch by hand):

 And put it in the hands of the Boybarian (he was not overly impressed, btw):

Here is a shot of the back ... I think I made the tail too big, it almost looks like a squirrel sized tail!

on my Design Wall ~ January 13

While this is not on my design wall in this picture, it now is :)

I am hostessing a 30s Dresden Plate Block Swap on About.com and needed to do a test block with the pattern - here is my test block :) Now I get to make more for the swap!

I also have my finished Egret quilt hanging up (you can vote for it by going to Project Quilting and voting ;) it is #19 )

For more lovely design walls, check out Patchwork Times!

Project Quilting String Challenge

I'm going to try to keep up with the Challenges in Project Quilting this year ... And so here is what I've worked on this week (in between all the other busy-ness of my life).

The Challenge was STRINGS - as in String Quilt style ... nothing over 2 1/2" wide is allowed.

I wanted to do something other than the traditional string quilt. I love the look of string quilts, but I have worked with strings on a quilt, so I wanted to go out of the box a bit ... but had no immediate ideas. Monday morning it came to me - I saw an Egret made of strings on a string background :)

 

I started in on Monday while the weather was so cold and snowy. I cut strings in Egret colors and started sewing them down to a foundation in such a way that they might look like feathers.

After I had the Egret done, I set him aside and worked with strings of blue and green. Nothing exciting, and I didn't take any pictures. I cut those strips into HSTs and laid them down until I found an arrangement that I liked - and sewed the background together. After that, I used fusible applique to put the egret on the background and then started quilting.

I used a squiggly line for the sky quilting,

pebble quilting for the hills,

a swirl for the water,

 

and some up and down lines for the land - most of the quilting was done with invisible threads, but I did do some quilting over top with green at the very bottom of the quilt. NOTE: color is not the best in this picture (you probably guess that).

 

I trimmed up the feathers and added a hot fix crystal for the eye and we have:

my finished quilt: Egret.

 

On my design wall 1 6 13

I tried earlier to post a picture of my design wall, but blogger wouldn't let me upload a picture :(

But, now I can upload :) Here are my 100 Clue 2 blocks for Celtic Solstice and 16 that I made with the wrong color in the center ...

 

Now I'm setting CS aside again and working on Project Quilting ... so you should see some other things appearing here on the blog this week ... if I remember to take pictures ;)

 

Check out other design walls at Patchwork Times