A New Toy for Me

...And I do mean 'toy'! I bought a Crayola Light-Up Tracing Pad and it is working out marvelously!

Thing weighs almost nothing and is battery operated. I need a light box for one of the classes at Road this year and though I have my light box that my Dad made for me when I was in college (it still works!), it's a bit heavy to lug around since it is a wooden box...this new light pad has LED lights, and a non-glare surface. Comes in pink or blue (clearly marketing to the sexes)...bought the blue since it promised earlier delivery.. And..the pink is a bit much...


May need to buy one for my DGD - she has a birthday coming up soon..

Mandarin Duck and Other Projects

This is the Mandarin Duck, my project from a class with Jenny Bowker at Road to CA last year. It came home with most of the pieces temporarily fused onto a muslin backing..I hadn't added the eye..and there were a few places that had 'holes' where the alignment was a bit off...I  fixed those and then sat down to stitch the edges with MonoPoly...started out with my normal foot and quickly realized that I needed to switch to the Big Foot and do this more like FMQ...

As I was scooting around in my crowded work room after I trimmed up the Duck, I knocked a piece of fabric off a stack..when I picked it up off the floor, it begged to be used in the Mandarin Duck...I originally was going to add a flying geese border, but I love how this piece looks against the rich dark brown...

Then, I played with adding a bit of the rust from the Duck's sail...and that just made it sparkle!

So..the borders are on, I stitched three wool batting pieces (still left from the days when Hobbs was a vendor at Road and sold the squares for 50 cents), created a backing - just plain white muslin...and batted the piece - when it rains, we eat lunch in the cafeteria, and I get some quilting time in..and its predicted to rain all week!

Finished off the rest of the stitching on my Beast from the Beasts of the Jungle class from a couple of years ago - Kissy has been waiting patiently by my sewing machine..and so she is done..

And...since I am taking a hexie class at Road this year, I made a portable design wall / block carrier out of a pool noodle, the cardboard tube from a dry cleaning hanger for pants, a piece of fleece and a hair tie...this will help me carry my design home from the class since there is no way on earth will I get 50 hexies prepared AND stitched in 6 hours..I am fast..but not THAT fast!

I have to cut 70 squares of a single color family for these hexies - I picked green (no shock there, eh?) and so far have unearthed at least 90 different greens!! On to the cutting...I hope I end up with 70 that I can use!  I know some have to be tossed - the plaids, strange fabrics, flannel - but I pulled them anyway..just in case...

Echos of the Grand Canyon

First finish of the new year:

I renamed the Drip quilt to  'Echos of the Grand Canyon' because..well, it reminds me of the Grand Canyon, in a vague sort of way.

It is long...it is thin...it has very many warts..but it is also DONE!!!
Started in January 2014 in a class with Katie Pasquini Masopust called 'Watercolor Painting to Quilt', it now qualifies as a quilt. (It's even labeled)

I couched various threads, yarns and fibers onto the seams of the applique. That was the most fun part  (besides painting the original) of this quilt - finding the embellishments! The border fabric is very strange..it's crispy (even after washing) and has an odd odor when the iron hits it (so its NOT quilting fabric)..But..it was the best piece in my stash for the borders..I had just enough to make the facing out of the same fabric - I just think facings look better when they match the front fabric.

Only place where I could hang it for its portrait and be able to the see the whole quilt to was the door at the end of the hallway!



more info on the quilt formerly known as the Drip quilt:
Around the World Blog Hop

and
Road to CA 2014

Tuscan Landscape

Many, many moons ago...I made the base for the Tuscan Landscape in a class at Road to CA with Martha Nordstrand...It went on a journey to visit the needles of some very talented quilters who also attend the Valley of the Sun Retreats..and finally made its way back home where it took me another year or so to finish off the embroidery and quilting and to decide on the border...

At last...here it is!

Quilters who contributed to this are Ami Krenzel, Kim Diggins and Kathi Eddy

Getting Back in the Saddle Again

Yikes..its been a VERY LONG DRY spell in these parts! Sorry for being absent so long.

I did attend Road to CA in January...took a couple of neat classes:

Tentmaker Work - I am almost done with this piece. It is going to be a pillow cover. This pic is how much I got done in the class...The class was taught by Egyptian Tent Makers..they are truly amazing applique-ers!

Images in Landscapes -
Loved this class but unfortunately, have not worked on this project very much since January. Class was in how to blowup a snapshot into a wall hanging sized quilt...which you then can add traditional blocks to make an interesting focal point..mine will not get too much bigger than this as I don't usually do very many 'big' quilts...but I am thinking of at least adding a border of flying geese..we will see how inspired I get! The small picture is the photo I started with and then enlarged...looks pretty darned close, eh?

Project Bag - This was a fun, quick bag class..I went to M&L a few weeks later and bought a yard of headliner fabric to make more of these. I think I even have enough of the clear plastic...just need time!

I did attend the annual Valley of the Sun Retreat in February:
One of the highlights was making this Mystery Quilt...I think EVERYONE loved the pattern and how their quilt came out! Still need to quilt it though...

And..just went on the annual So Cal Quilter's Run and stimulated the economy!

One of my additions is a Thread Director...supposed to help eliminate breakage when using metallic threads for FMQ...will have to play with that soon!

Road to CA 2014

Oh my...cannot believe I have neglected this blog for soooo long!

At Road to CA this year, I took two classes - Mixed Media by Patt Blair and Watercolor Painting to Quilt by Katie Pasquini Masopust.

The Mixed Media class was very interesting..we adhered bits and pieces of paper napkins, stamped tissue paper, wrapping paper, rice paper to a piece of fabric using artist medium (gel medium or fabric paint medium) - it dries clear and once you coat both sides of the paper, its pretty impervious to water though I don't think I would wash this quilt!!

Here is the quilt after I added the borders and did some minimal quilting..it needs more!

The Watercolor Painting to Quilt class was two days...the first day we played with watercolors..I discovered my watercolors from high school are probably not the best anymore!! They turned out rather pastel...

We did a bunch of techniques...we blew bubbles on the wet paint, we dripped paint, we used the edges of bottle caps and the rims of cups and an old lampshade, we sprayed water on the paintings, we used rubber cement to mask some areas and stuff called Masquepen to see the differences, we dripped India ink and squirted it from a syringe...

Then..once those were dry, we use a cropping tool to figure out 'interesting' places in our paintings...cut windows out of typing paper and decided which one was going to get turned into a quilt....
This is my drip painting - broad bands of wet watercolors, held at an angle so it flowed into the lower parts of the painting...

Here is the section I cropped out

Looks kinda 'Grand Canyon-ish'...

Then we used acetate, and marked the color changes:

Katie then took the acetate overlays to the copy shop and blew them up twice...my piece ended up around 15 x 40...The next morning, she brought back two copies of the blown up piece - one we stuck onto a piece of poster board to make the pattern pieces with, and the other was pinned to a piece of foam core.
We copied the drawing onto tear-away stabilizer, then started cutting the pattern pieces and fabric and stapling those to the foam core board... She showed us how she uses the poster board pattern pieces to turn the edges using starch and a hot iron (and a stiletto!)...Now..starched edges DO NOT float my boat...so after a couple of inches of stapling to the foam core..I switched to prep for needle turn..I had a suspicion she used starch so I brought my applique pins!!

Got almost done with cutting the pieces of fabric and pinning to the stabilizer.

Road to California - 3D Sculpture - Day 3

Today we added flowers to the trees:

 This is my friend's Beast and Tree:

Our Beasts and Trees on  the teacher's stage:

Closeup of 'Blowing Kisses':

I loved this class! Learned sooo many techniques for making 3d sculptures.

Road to California - 3D Sculpture - Day 2

Today we learned how to couch wire using our machines...we made leaves for our trees! Fortunately I didn't break a needle - there were some that did...

And..we met 'The Beast' (he really didn't come in a bag). I was the only one to get my beast sewed, stuffed and pinned together..

I need to stitch the openings closed, and stitch the limbs on the beast..and stitch up his gestures : here he is blowing kisses:

Tomorrow we will make flowers for the center of the tree and hopefully I will be done with the hand stitching..just will need to make a base for the sculpture (she will show us how she does bases, but its not something we will make in class.)

If you ever get a chance to take a class from Susan Else (and 3D fabric sculpture floats your boat) - she is an excellent teacher. I have enjoyed this class SOO much!

Road to California - 3D Sculpture - Day 1

It rained pretty steadily today..fortunately I got there early and got a really close in parking spot. Tomorrow and Sunday, I am going to a friend's house and her hubby will drive us..thus saving us BOTH 18 bucks! The upstairs was SUPER crowded, most likely because of the rain.. Didn't get a table but did score a few chairs..so lunch was eaten off our laps!

Today was the first day of the 3D sculpture class with Susan Else..O.M. G...this is a terrific class..she provides ALL of the supplies..already cut so we just do the sewing! Best supplies fee, ever!!

Here is a picture of the Beasts in the Jungle we are working on..her sample is way more involved than what we will be able to do in three days...but we are doing 'elements' of the scene. The 'beast' in the center is the one we will be creating (There are 3 figures/beasts in this scene - the lady in the tree, the beast swinging on the branch and his friend peaking out from behind the second tree - Susan describes the Beast as having a duck body, cat legs, chimpanzee arms, horse head with dinosaur horns):

Here is my tree after FMQ, trimming and stitching the shapes together..

Here is the tree after stuffing. I started out using a chopstick to stuff with, but then tried out one of the metal stuffing forks. I had to buy it! (only purchase of the day):

Here are the wires and the stiffening rod (an old knitting needle!) that keep the tree up and let us bend the roots:

Here is Susan's tree in the Jungle scene - we will be making those large leaves and the flower tomorrow and starting on the 'beast in a bag':

Here is the vine before stitching. Once we stitched all around the leaves, we wet the Solvy:

And...here is what my tree looked like before I left the room for the night - I have a bit more stitching to finish up closing the hole on the bottom and to stitch a few of the 'gestures' in the roots:

Road to California - Wholecloth Painting

It's Road to California Time, once again!

The weather report for Southern California was wet today, wet tomorrow, possible wet the next several days after that... sigh... At least I didn't get too wet this morning, and by afternoon, the sun actually broke thru for a while.

My first class was a wholecloth painting class from Judy Coates Perez using Setacolor paints. I loved the class and learned quite a bit! The class was in the North Annex building...across the street from the rest of the Quilt Show. They didn't have irons and ironing boards, which were needed, and the tables were not covered with plastic..we had to tromp thru a long arm class to get to the bathroom to get water..They brought a couple of ironing boards while we were waiting for some of the students to show up (we got an email 3 days ago saying the class was in the North Annex..now..if you KNOW where that is, good..but its not shown on the map, and there was no address! I did a Google street view and saw the Convention Center sign but a few of the students had no email..and were totally confused...)

Here is the cartoon that I started with:

We traced the design onto PFD muslin...then cut out masks for the lighter parts..ironed those on and made up a batch of background paint..mine I didn't get quite light enough..it should have been much lighter blue. And..I got lots of 'bleed under', which I had to fix by painting opaque white over the edges where it bled.

We learned how Judy makes the steps the paint so she gets really smooth shading...I need more practice as mine don't have quite the 'pop' that Judy's have.

Here is what my painted cloth looked like by lunch:

Here is Judy doing a 'glazing' lesson on a magnolia - notice the 'pop' on her leaves and..her background is way lighter!

Here is what my painted cloth looked like at the end of the day...it is VERY NEARLY DONE!! Which, for a class is QUITE AMAZING! (but then, since is was still a bit drippy, I stayed in the room and worked on the painting instead of getting wet and fighting the crowds in the vendor mall.) I will probably add some shiny gold accents before I quilt it..don't have to, but want to!

After I scrubbed out my paint dishes and stashed my supplies in my car, I headed over to the vendor mall...amazingly, I actually made it around both rooms. The crowds had thinned quite dramatically, and it no longer was dripping... I bought a few things:

I think the ruler gizmo is really the 'cat's meow' - it has grippy things that when you press on the handle, stick thru holes in the center of the ruler and man, o man..it GRIPS the fabric and holds it soooo tight! And you don't have to press very hard at all...and..I may actually use this thimble..its like a jelly one, but has a hard silver tip..feels very comfortable.

Tomorrow...3D sculpture...hopefully in the main building!!

Twenty-Thirteen

Happy New Year!

I was hoping to be a more faithful blogger this year..not starting off too well, eh, since its the 6th already!

This is a rainbow that was out our back window this afternoon. Its a rainy day, but the sun peaked thru a bit and this was the result!

Getting ready for the annual Road To CA quilt show in a few weeks. I am taking two classes - one is a fabric painting class with Judy Coates Perez, the other is making a stuffed diorama with Susan Else.

Susan Else was a featured artist at last Road and I am thrilled to be in her class..actually, thrilled to be in both classes!

Sunflowers and Tea

January 2011 at Road to California I took Terry Waldron's class called 'Scavenger Hunt Art Quilt'. She sent a list of 'things' we should find around the house that might be incorporated into the quilt that would come out of the class.. Here is the list from her email:

THE SCAVENGER HUNT ART QUILT

with Terry Waldron

Using your BEST sense of humor “funny bone”, you have until the day BEFORE our class to find:

1  NEW ITEM THAT EXCITES YOU AND YOU WANT TO HAVE ON THIS QUILT

  (example:  a glorious bead, some specially dyed cloth or yarn, an antique doily, some alpaca hair or spun yarn,,,,)

1 ITEM THAT IS OR WAS ALIVE

(example:  a flower, a leaf, some tufts of grass, a nut or pod,

a silk worm cocoon, a unique scrap of paper, a natural fiber like silk, a piece of bark from a tree!!!)

1 ITEM THAT WAS THROWN AWAY BUT INTERESTS YOU

It will probably be some sort of paper item like some newspaper or a ticket or a sales slip or a napkin, but it could be a snipped scrap of fabric or ribbon from a present or a piece of sandpaper or… ?

1 PICTURE – BLACK & WHITE OR COLOR

This can be a photograph or a printed logo from a package or a picture from a newspaper or a design on a piece of cloth or a magazine page or something from your wallet.  (I am going to bring my copier for you to use to transfer this to cloth.  I will have fabric that is ready for copying.  It will cost $1 per sheet, or you can bring your own if you want to.)

1 ITEM THAT IS LONG AND WILL CREATE A LINE

(example:  string, yarn, wire, ribbon, torn paper or cloth.

 You could even fold twist-ties together to make a long line!)

Oh..the possibilities!!

My scavenged items that ended up on this quilt are an antique doily (it has a small hole in the center...), the fabrics that make up the sunflowers are decorator fabrics from a huge bag of scraps from the Fullerton Civic Light Opera, the green ribbon along the left side and the sunflower 'paper' that was wrapped around a pot of flowers that my son gave me when I was in the hospital... 

I knew going into the class that I was going to do 'something' that had sunflowers on it..It turned out to be a modern-ish tea table with a pot of cheery flowers..I know the perspective is not quite 'real' but..it is pleasing to me..and I hope..to you!

Here is what the quilt looked like the first day - the elements are just pinned onto a piece of batting over a foam core board:

The cup was odd..and the background swallowed up the pot..so I changed out those elements once I got home.

 

Here is what the quilt looked like after I stitched all of the elements down with Monopoly at Retreat:

And....here is the completed quilt...I quilted the leaves and the rays from the sunflowers with my Octi-hoops...and hand stitched on the buttons into the flower centers and added the tiny ladybug seeds.

Front: (click to view larger)

Back:

 

All the pieces were free-hand cut - even the borders. I fused the plastic-y sunflower paper from the pot of flowers to muslin - that became the saucer liner under the tea cup and the backing to the quotation on the reverse of the quilt. The tea bag tag was a piece of trim that the lady who was sharing my table cut off for me. The saying on the back was a quotation that Terry had us pick out to help our creative juices get flowing (hence the cup of tea!)...the two 'ladybug' seeds were in the packet of interesting 'stuff' she gave us at the start of the class..as were the pieces of yarn over the cup of tea, the stems for the sunflowers and the border of the flowerpot. The buttons were from my button collection. The backing fabric was a remnant that I found fascinating because of the scarab-like graphics.

All in all...a very satisfying class...Thanks, Terry!

Progress on Garden Bird

For International Quilt Day yesterday...and today...I spent most of the day watching videos from The Quilt Show..and working on the Garden Bird..He's looking pretty cool so far!



Next up..the embroidery part..you can just see the pencil markings I have made for the stems...I need a few more colors of embroidery thread though..I can't find any grey and I think I need another greenish color..

Yesterday...it rained and rained and rained...today the weather was wildly changing..it went from this in the early afternoon:

...to this an hour later!



Here's a couple of shots of the ornamental Saturn Peach tree - one branch fell over but its still attached and it has more blossoms on that part of the tree than the other upright part!




And..a picture of my Tiger cat...just cuz!