I had said “I did make the mistake of making the cover a little too large for the pillow form, so I’ll buy a larger form for this cover.”
Nicole said “If your pillow form is a bit small, you can wrap a strip of batting around it as many times as you need. You can roughly hand stitch the sides together but you don’t have to.” What a brilliant idea!
I had a length of puffy poly batting (I can’t remember why I bought it) that was perfect. I just wrapped it around the pillow form and stuffed it back in the cover. It looks like it could use a bit more stuffing in the corners, but I’ll do that later. I was also able to get photos with more accurate colors. On the left is the pillow with just the pillow form; on the right after I wrapped a couple lengths of poly batting around the form. Thanks, Nicole!
Here’s a peak at my progress on the galaxy quilt. All fabrics pressed to freezer paper templates, and pinned to the design wall. I’m going to change the gray on gray star fabric for a dark navy with white dots. I’ll do start-to-finish post when it’s completed, showing my construction process.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
I’ve finished my VMQG Round Robin quilt. When I brought it home from the guild meeting, I pinned it to my design wall and contemplated it for a few days. I decided that some of the final borders were too wide – they seemed to be overpowering the center. After debating with myself for a while, I cut some of the outer borders in half lengthwise (flying geese became half-square triangles). I used some of the off-cuts as additional borders, and changed the shape from a rectangle to a square. I pieced some of the off-cuts into the back, along with some darker borders I made that didn’t work out for the front.
I quilted it with a wonky square spiral, starting from the center of the circle block (which was my original block). You can see the quilting better from the back.
I bound it with black prints and a few solid colors. I’m trying to think of a title for it – any suggestions?
I found the I really enjoyed the whole Round Robin process, and plan to participate again next year.
I also completed the pillow cover I started a couple of weeks ago. I quilted it with black thread and bound it with black fabric. I even put a zipper in the back. I really like how it looks, and I’m going to make several more pillow covers with the same fabrics. I did make the mistake of making the cover a little too large for the pillow form, so I’ll buy a larger form for this cover.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
For some time now, I’ve been thinking about making an abstract art quilt of a spiral galaxy. A few weeks ago I made a rough sketch. Since I want the quilt to have an abstract look, I decided to just enlarge the sketch, rather than refining it making numerous more detailed drawings.
Here’s my original sketch. I photocopied it at 400%, and traced it onto tracing paper with a more dramatic tilt to it.
Then I enlarged the tracing paper image by 400% onto 8 pieces of 11 x 17 inch paper. I taped those together to make my full-size pattern, which you can see below on my design wall. I’ve pulled a lot of fabrics that have black or dark backgrounds, plus a couple of lighter ones for the center. Which fabrics actually end up in the quilt will depend on how they look when I pin them to the design wall.
I’m going to rough cut the fabrics and pin them on top of the pattern, starting in the middle and working out to the edges. Once I’m happy with my fabric choices, I’ll apply fusible web on the edges and trim them to their final shapes.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
Brandy Lynn of Brandy Lynn Designs has organized another fiber postcard exchange – theme: Snowflakes. (I missed the summer Maple Leaf exchange, so when I saw the announcement for this one, I signed up right away.)
I decided to go with a gold and black color scheme, and a modern look. I cut narrow strips from several gold fabrics and sewed them together. I drew the snowflake shape on fusible web which I fused to the back of the black fabric. Then I cut out the snowflake shape and used the positive shape on one postcard, and the negative shape on the other. I straight-line stitched around the snowflakes with a gold and black variegated rayon thread.
I haven’t made fabric postcards before, so I checked out a few online tutorials. Monika at My Sweet Prairie Studio has a really good one, with lots of great tips – like using white thread in the bobbin so it won’t show through the backing – which I never would have thought of! After making a couple of prototypes, I decided I would wrap the fabric from the front to the back, then I wouldn’t have to deal with the tedious job of finishing the edges.
For the back of the postcard, I designed it in Excel, then printed it on some ivory-colored linen-blend paper that I happened to have. I fused the paper to the back, covering the raw edges of the fabric. Then I stitched around the edges through all the layers.
I had lots of fun making these, and will definitely enter more postcard exchanges in the future!
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
This arrived in my virtual inbox at my Etsy shop – feedback left by the purchaser of my most recent custom pet portrait. I’m touched and thrilled by her comments.
“This is an extraordinary work of art, the perfect tribute to the life of our beloved canine companion, Toby. Terry is a gifted artist and quilter, and she is also compassionate and empathetic. She wanted the quilt to be perfect for us, and it is. Terry has an uncanny knack–a genius–for capturing the life and spirit of a creature and beautifully rendering this vibrant life force in fabric. Our dog, Toby, is so alive on the quilt, I almost expect him to leap from the center to plop on my lap with a giant lick. The quilt is truly magical. ”
And this arrived in my physical mailbox this afternoon. A complimentary copy of the Winter 2015 issue of Art Quilting Studio magazine. It will be on newsstands in a few days, and one of my self-portrait quilts is on pages 126 and 127.
I’m working on some pillow covers for our living room. These are the colors I’m using. I’m quilting them with black thread, and will bind them with black. I plan to make several pillows in these colors, with a variety of geometric patterns.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
P.S. Don’t forget to pop over to Blogathon Canada, a week-long blog hop of Canadian quilting blogs, sponsored by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop. If you follow along, You’ll get to visit and meet some amazing Canadian quilting bloggers – and there are giveaways to enter every day!T
I’m delighted to be participating in the third Blogathon Canada, a week-long blog hop of Canadian quilting blogs, sponsored by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop. If you follow along, You’ll get to visit and meet some amazing Canadian quilting bloggers – and there are giveaways to enter!
The first stop is Beautiful British Columbia, and the BC hosts are Stacey of Stacey in Stitches, and Jessica at Momiji Studio. Make sure you visit both of their blogs, and enter their giveaways. And they will introduce you to many more BC quilters.
If you’re new to my blog, here’s some information about me. I’ve been hooked on quilting since 1998. I consider myself primarily an art quilter, but I’m also an enthusiastic member of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild, and I appreciate all styles of quilting.
I don’t have any new projects to show today (as my machine is getting it’s annual checkup), but here are a few of my recent projects.
Don’t forget to check out all the other BC quilters listed on Stacey and Jessica’s blogs, and check back with Sew Sisters for the rest of the week, as they travel across Canada.
I can’t remember the last time I made something for our home. I’m usually quilting for a show or a challenge, or for a custom order. Or even just to add to the inventory in my Etsy shop. But this table runner was made specifically for our new dining table.
A few months ago I attended a VMQG sponsored workshop with Marianne Haak. Marianne demonstrated her QAYG techniques, and we all practiced making blocks that were about 18 x 18 inches. I made 3 blocks – with no specific plans for them.
When we recently bought a new dining room table with a dark gray glass top, it cried out for a bright and colorful table runner, and I remembered my QAYG blocks. I cut 2 of them down to about 12 inches wide, and referring to Marianne’s excellent tutorials, I added a section to one block, then joined the various sections together. The table runner is 69 inches long by 12 inches wide. In the left photo below, you can see it on the table. In the right photo, you can see it on my design wall – the front and the back.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
I usually show my progress on a quilt through several posts, but I didn’t blog about this one because it was going to be juried. It’s now been accepted for the exhibition, so I’ll show my entire process – start to finish – in one post.
It’s for a new Fibre Art Network exhibition, titled ‘Canadiana’. All pieces must be 18 inches wide, and the length can be anywhere from 24 to 54 inches.
I had initially thought I would make another Vancouver cityscape, but the 18 inch width was feeling restrictive. Then I remembered a photo I took a couple of years ago of the Lions Gate Bridge as we walked along the Stanley Park seawall. It fits the vertical format much better than a cityscape. I love the teal tones of the bridge, and wanted to use realistic colors for that. But I decided to make the sky a warmer lavender-blue shade for better contrast.
I won’t make you read all the way to the bottom to see the finished quilt – here it is. (But if you’re interested in how I made my full size pattern and how I constructed the quilt, continue reading.)
As usual, I used Picasa to edit the photo. I cropped it, lightened it, then used the ‘pencil sketch’ effect to get a line drawing. I printed that version of the photo on letter size paper and used a pencil to fill in a few missing details.
I like to have a full-size pattern and a full-size mirror image pattern. I use the full-size pattern to position the various pieces, and I use the mirror image to trace pattern pieces onto freezer paper and/or paper-backed fusible web. I’ve found a nifty way to get both patterns. I photocopy my line drawing onto a product called Fun-dation. It’s a semi-transparent foundation material that comes in letter size sheets and can be run through a printer. Because it’s semi-transparent, you can see the mirror image on the reverse side of the sheet. The image can be photocopied and enlarged from either side of the foundation sheet. (The reverse side is a little fainter, so the printer may need to be set to a darker setting.) My printer can take 11 x 17 inch paper so for this pattern I enlarged my images by 400% and printed the full-size pattern on 4 pieces of paper.
I used a similar process to what I used for ‘Swoop’ – my quilt of the Skybridge. (And it was so easy to look back on my blog post and read about my process – I didn’t have to wrack my brains to remember what I did and why.) As with ‘Swoop’, the larger parts were constructed from freezer paper templates with edges folded under and the smaller parts were fused raw edge appliqué.
The fused units were constructed on parchment paper laid over the pattern. When they were complete, I just peeled the fused unit off the parchment paper and pinned it on the design wall. Here is the cross brace section under construction.
I needed to make sure I had enough value differences to make the bridge look three-dimensional and solid. So I auditioned a lot of teal fabrics before starting construction.
I made the sky background and quilted it before I added the bridge. I positioned and fused the bridge components, then straight stitched the edges.
The large main cables are fussy cut from a great striped fabric – the white-gray-black stripes look like the cables are lit from above by the sun. The vertical suspending cables were made from 2 strands of white embroidery thread couched in place.
Title and artist’s statement – I usually think about this while making the quilt and jot down descriptive words and phrases as they occur to me. I also did some internet research about the history of the bridge. Several sites used the words elegant and graceful to describe the bridge and that really resonated with me. On the day of the deadline for entry I still hadn’t decided on a title. As I was writing the artist’s statement, editing my description down to 50 words, I used the phrase ‘air of elegance’ and decided that would be my title.
The Lions Gate Bridge has been an iconic landmark of Vancouver BC since 1938. Its striking teal colour and slender metal structural towers lend it an air of elegance. Here the bridge soars over the seawall in Stanley Park, then spans the First Narrows of the Burrard Inlet.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
At the last VMQG meeting, we revealed our round robin quilt tops. We started in February and we’ve been adding to each others’ blocks every month since then. This is my starting block, and how it looks after 8 months. I love how it looks! I just have to figure out how to finish it off.
And this month’s block lottery is circles. I’ve made 4 so far.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
