I am awake at 3 in the morning not able to sleep. Wanted to do a blog post but not wake anyone up by taking pictures of the progress I made yesterday on my flowering vines quilt. Let's look at some pictures from the East Bay Heritage Quilter's Voices In Cloth 2010 quilt show in Oakland, CA. The show was at the Oakland Convention Center on April 10-11th, which happened to be the weekend I was moving. I was so happy we finished moving in time for me to attend this show!
Sorry for not having the quilter's information! This is the first time I have gone to a quilt show and then wrote about it (extremely after the fact) on my blog. Promise to do better next time!!
I loved the detail of this quilt. Standing back and close up reveals two different experiences of this work.
I wish I had a more detailed picture of this quilt. It was incredible, as you can see.
I love the movement in this quilt, not only in the pattern but also in the machine quilting.
This particular quilt was one of my favorites. The star block, in all its varieties is one of my top blocks. I would have liked to see this quilt without the green in it. My eye is drawn to the green and takes away the focus from the overall design of the quilt.
Love this quilt though, that is why I am standing, smiling in front of it!
I am a twin. My sister and I were born a minute apart, her first. She says we are a few minutes apart, so she is that much older than me!
I grew up in a very small town in Nebraska but now live in California via Washington state. I think all those places shaped me in some way.
I learned to sew from my Grandma and 4-H. I learned to love sewing and all things creative from my Mom.
I earned a Masters degree in Psychology but don't use the degree. Some days I feel good about it and some days I wish things were different.
I was born with a serious heart condition. Finally as an adult I feel in control of my health and see all the struggle I went through was worth it, just to be where I am today.
I tend to be somewhat shy, but once I know you I cannot stop talking.
I love Starbucks Chai Cream Frappacino, venti of course!
I want to be good at something right away. Quilting is no exception. I am learning to be okay with my mistakes, actually to see them as something creative, this helps me to keep going.
I am in love with the man in my life and cannot imagine my life without him. We hope to soon be parents. I never thought I would ever be able to have a baby, but was given permission by my cardiologists earlier this year. We are excited and nervous for what lies ahead, but are so ready!
I have always loved to write, but have struggled with my "voice" as a writer. Got in the habit of being very dry and academic from all the years in college. I love blogging though, and love that I can be myself.
I have decided to commit to two hours a day working on my quilting and sewing. It may either sound like a lot or not that much but for me I see it's what I need to do if I want to be serious about being a great quilter. I tend to get caught up in the other stuff that needs to get done around the house and end up not working on sewing. So let's look at what I got done this morning during my two hours!
Coming up with a title for each post is not one of my strong suits! But I took some pictures of my quilt/craft space and stuff that's on there right now, so let's take a look.
fabric I am thinking of using for a border on flower quilt
I love this pincushion
pink fabrics stacked on quilt pieces
fabric scissors, ruler, mat and rotary cutter, which I cannot do without
fabric stack reflected in ruler.
That was the quick tour of what is on my craft table right now. The flowering vines quilt is rolling around in my head all the time and so all the fabrics sit on my desk. At the stage right now where I need to put a border around the main area so I can put the outer squares/rows on the quilt top. Then I can move onto the applique part.
This border part is like a mini roadblock, not sure what fabric to use for this. My ability to be very indecisive is coming out!
I could ask you my lovely readers to help me in the decision! I will show you the fabrics I am considering and you weigh in! I like this idea, so check back and let me know what you think.
The Flowering Vines Quilt is moving along. Below is a reminder of the flower quilt, on the cover of this awesome book.
I've gone through a few packages of the Lite Steam-A-Seam already, so I will have to find a larger package of this stuff! Now let's take a look of what's new:
Applique, I continue to work on my skills. You see right now my applique knowledge is at a medium level from all the reading I have done on this technique. But getting comfortable with actual applique is still new to me.
Yesterday I went to Joanns, 40% off coupon in hand, and bought this lovely pack of fusible web sheets.
I was thinking I originally wanted a fusible web that wasn't double sided, but not sure now that I roll it around in my noggin if that would work. I really want something that doesn't add bulk to my applique, since right now the applique flowers I already made with a regular Steam-A-Seam2 are super stiff and will have to come off the Flowering Vines quilt.
You can't tell in this picture, but it's like cardboard and will totally not work on this quilt! I love this flower though, oh it's cute.
I went searching for more info on fusible web applique technique the other day and stumbled upon critterpat's channel on Youtube. The lovely Deborah Konshinsky had a whole video series on Machine Applique. This particular video is Machine Applique part 2 raw edge:
I like the raw edge and the "drawing" on the applique, there seems to be so much freedom in this technique. I need all the space to be creative and explore. Not that anyone is holding me back, but my own sense of needing to be perfect!
Here is my first quick attempt at using the Lite fusible web and machine applique raw edge technique (whew).
I had to mess with the tension a little to get the stitches looking and working how I wanted but I love how soft and pliable this turned out, and I can't wait to keep going!
The Flowering Vines quilt is mainly what I am working on right now. The applique is where I am stuck, but got some great advice from Melody, an amazing quilter, check out her blog, fibermania.blogspot.com
This quilt is waiting patiently for me to put this lovely flower fabric on the back, so basically finish it. Hopefully I can finish this one by the end of the week!
I have had these bears done for atleast 6 months. I went on this huge streak of constant crocheting once I learned how to make the crochet stuffed animals. Then I hurt my wrists from too much crochet so I stopped and these got put away in my craft closet. put all three of these teddy bears up on my etsy shop cherryheartdesigns.etsy.com
My makeshift photo studio in the bedroom. I am still figuring out the best way to take pictures of the things I make! This seemed to work pretty well though.
I was able to take some pretty good detail shots of the bears, here is one that I really liked.
My puppy Mason wanted his picture taken to and kept taking the teddy bears for himself when I wasn't paying attention. Caught in the act!
I cut more stacks of fabric for the flower quilt. I have so many quilts in progress, along with other projects, I thought I should go back to this one and see how much I could get done.
I included some new fabrics, like the cherry fabrics.
A snapshot of the progress on the flower quilt and the new fabric stacks waiting to be sewn together.
I decided one day to go to Joann's fabric store and buy a fat quarter of all the cherry fabric I could find. Who knew they had so many?! I think I bought 10 different patterns of cherries!
I wanted to do a diagonal style quilt in strips. It was very simple and went quickly. The strips were cut 3 1/2" x length of fabric. I then added a gingham fabric I had in my stash as a nice accent border. The gingham strips were 3" x length of quilt. I then used deep red Kona cotton for the back of the quilt and binding. The final size of this baby quilt is 38"x40".
Closer detail of the quilt.
Mason being so cute in front of the cherry quilt, which he loves! I think he wants every quilt I make for himself!
Blogger has this whole new way to make blogs on blogspot.com look new and updated. I am experimenting with new backgrounds to see how it looks. Have any feedback? Let me know!
I have been gone from this lovely blog of mine for no apparent reason, besides enjoying the summer sun!! Check back to see what quilt projects I have made some good progress on!
I began the process of ironing on the applique's to my quilt. I tried to sew on the applique but it just made large holes in the fabric. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I continue to experiment and see if I can figure it out.
I am still working on the flowering vines quilt. I wanted to do this one because of the applique flowers. I love applique quilts! The quilt pattern has templates but I decided to free form the flowers. Also it calls for vines but I think I am just going to add leaves as the accent to the flowers instead.
Purple flower. Green flower.
Polka dot flower.
All three flowers together. These are the only flowers I have done so far, more to come!
After being closed and gathering dust bunnies for quite awhile my Etsy shop is now open for business again! You know I keep making things and my intention is to sell them. Of course I have doubts and I am done letting this get in the way.
The Rainbow Quilt will be listed later today. For now I have my pencil pouches listed.
The back of the Rainbow Quilt.
See the binding, I love this cute wavy yellow striped fabric!
My sister has always been my biggest fan and cheerleader. She was also the quilt holder for these pics! Thanks KP!!
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
