The Kodiak portrait is finished – and on its way to its new home. I’m very happy with the finished quilt. (To see the progress of this quilt, click here.)
Now, I have to get myself organized to work on several projects that are due in September. I hope to have some exciting new work to show in the next few days.
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.
This weekend was the long-awaited PNW MQG meetup hosted by VMQG. The Friday evening picnic meetup was well attended and a lot of fun!
One of our events on Saturday was a short workshop by VMQG member Jessica – an introduction to indigo shibori dyeing. Here I am unwrapping my first ever indigo dyed piece – how cool is that! (photo by Karen C.)
And here are all the indigo projects from the morning session (mine is in the middle).
And now I’m back to working on Kodiak’s portrait. I completed the thread-sketching last Thursday, and now I’ve started the quilting – the sky, house and tree branches have been quilted 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.
I really like this little quilt I made for the Vancouver MQG Mini Quilt Swap. I didn’t have a lot of time to enjoy it after I finished it, because that happened yesterday afternoon – just in time for the guild meeting last night! I enjoyed making this, and may make another similar one for myself. I made this quilt for my friend Janet of What Comes Next? Her favorite colors are blues, aquas and teals, and I decided to go with various shades of teal in solids and patterns, with a few shots of contrasting colors. I called it ‘Mostly Teal’.
And, unbeknownst to me (because it was a secret swap), Janet was the one making a mini quilt for me! I can’t remember exactly what I said my favorites were – but Janet got it perfectly with black & white and lime green and flying geese. And look at that fabulous machine stitching! Janet titled this “Every Which Way But South”. I love it!
The reason I was working on my mini quilt at the last minute was because I spent three days last week in the beautiful city of Victoria BC. I was invited by the Victoria Quilters’ Guild to do a presentation on modern quilting. I talked about the history of modern quilting, and showed them many of my modern quilts.
Now it’s time for me to get back to the portrait of Kodiak. I’m just about to fuse it all together and start thread-sketching. I’ll post about my progress in a couple of days.
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.
Welcome to everyone visiting from Lily Pad Quilting’s Pets on Quilts Show. This is my second entry to the Pets on Quilts Show – you can read about my first entry here. Make sure that you pop over and check out all of the wonderful quilts in the Quilt Show and vote for your favorites. I’d love it if you voted for mine, if you’re so inclined.
Category entered: Dog-Themed Quilts
Techniques: fused applique, thread sketching, surrealistic colors
Finished size: approx. 13 x 16 inches
This is one of the first pet quilts I made (in 2011). I started with this photo of Neo, and used Picasa to posterize the photo. I really enjoyed the challenge of using surrealistic colors – where value is more important than color. You can read more about my portrait process here.
Neo
Thanks for stopping by. In addition to Lily Pad Quilting’s Pets on Quilts Show, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you will see many other creative projects.
Welcome to everyone visiting from Lily Pad Quilting’s Pets on Quilts Show. I love making quilted pet portraits, so when I saw this online quilt show, I just had to participate!
Make sure that you pop over and check out all of the wonderful quilts in the Quilt Show and vote for your favorites. I’d love it if you voted for mine, if you’re so inclined.
Category entered: Cat-Themed Quilts
Techniques: photo imaging, fused applique, thread sketching, needle-felting with cat fur
Finished size: 8 x 8 inches
If you’d like to read more about the story behind this quilt, and how I made it, read this post.
Baby
Here’s what my portrait of Kodiak looked like yesterday – pinned to the full-size pattern on my design wall.
Here’s a lesson I should have learned a long time ago – don’t pin a portrait in progress to a vertical design wall – because when it’s time to fuse it together, and pins are removed, some of the tiny pieces will inevitably fall to the floor!
Instead it should be pinned to a small portable design wall, that can be propped up to view from a distance, or laid flat on a table or ironing board. So that’s what I did last night. I pinned the full size pattern to one of my mini design walls (17 x 24 inches). Then I pinned a piece of parchment paper on top of the pattern – you can see the pattern through the parchment paper, so pieces can easily be positioned in place. Plus, the fabrics can be fused to the parchment paper, then peeled away later. Then I removed all the pieces from the vertical design wall, and finger-pressed them in place on the parchment paper. This is so much easier when working on a horizontal rather than vertical surface.
Here’s what it looks like now – just about ready to be fused together. (I placed the mini design wall on the floor to take this photo.)
Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday. Click on the links below, to see many other creative projects.
I have a new commission for a dog portrait (and another one waiting in the wings!). This is Kodiak – he’s a malamute. His coloring is similar to two other dogs I’ve made portraits of, so I started with some of the same fabrics for the lighter fur. Here you can see the original photo, some of the fabrics I’m considering, my full-size pattern, and his paws in fabric.
Here’s his face. The eyes and tongue are separate units not yet fused to the rest. I like to create in units, so I can easily switch something out if it doesn’t work with all the other fabrics. I don’t fuse it all together until I’ve finalized all my fabric selections.
I like to check the accuracy of my values and colors by looking at the fabric portrait next to the original photo.
Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you will see many other creative projects.
I’m working on and/or thinking about several projects right now. Most of them, though, I can’t show you any photos.
I’ve started a new dog portrait, but it’s not yet at the point where I can take photos – hopefully, I’ll have something to show in a couple of days.
I have 2 commitments for the next VMQG meeting on Aug 18. I signed up for the mini quilt swap. I haven’t even decided what I’m going to make yet, but when I do there will be no photos until after the swap at the meeting. And, I’m participating in the Round Robin, and that’s also a surprise.
I also have several sleeves to sew onto finished quilts – boring!
I can show you this quilt. I started it at a workshop in 2013 and finished piecing at a retreat in May. I just need to quilt and bind it. I knew I wanted to quilt the flower shapes, but couldn’t decide how to quilt between the flowers – probably something with a geometric pattern and/or straight(ish) lines. Finally, I decided to go ahead and start quilting the flower shapes, and assume that an idea for the rest of the quilt will come to me. Suggestions are welcome.
Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday. Click on the links below, to see and enjoy many other creative projects.
The portrait quilt of Thomas and Kalina is finished, and has been presented to the happy newly-wedded couple. Now it can be revealed in full glorious surrealistic color.
This is the first time I tried the faux piped binding technique – but certainly not the last time – I love the way it looks!
There are lots of on-line tutorials about this technique – I used Trisha’s tutorial as my starting point. I made a couple of changes – when I sewed the accent strip and binding strip together, I pressed the seam open. I decided I wanted narrower binding so after folding and pressing I trimmed it to just over 1 inch folded.
I’ll be back later with a post about a new project on my design wall.
Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday. Click on the links below, to see and enjoy many other creative projects.
A little boasting here. My copy of Quilting Arts Magazine arrived this week, and it was a treat to see my ‘Kids in the Park’ quilt in the Readers Challenge section.
And how cool is this? When I went to the Quilting Daily site to see the Online Extras, I found my little quilt featured on the table of contents page!
You can read about how I made ‘Kids in the Park’ here.
If you get a chance to read the magazine, it’s also full of many colorful and inspiring art quilts and exciting techniques.
Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you will see many other creative projects.
Terry Aske Art Quilt Studio
