My Tips n Techniques

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Cattle Drive......in the Snow


We are moving cattle today...

Come along for the ride!

Enjoy the Slideshow:


Click to play this Smilebox slideshow
Create your own slideshow - Powered by Smilebox


CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

Click Here to view Gunnr

Click Here to view my Art Quilts

Click Here to view my Tutorials


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn

Snow Day.....2011

Remember as a child when you woke up in the morning
to find out school had been cancelled...

because of a SNOW DAY !


Welcome to My World:


7 am I stepped out the back door
and this is what I saw...

Little Snow Cakes on top of the fence posts!

Click Images to Enlarge !




Across the river the Cow Barns are covered in Snow




Gunnr was more than happy to join me outdoors:


He is staring over at the barn...



Gunnr is letting me know that he sees...


a yearling calf taking shelter in one of the horse stalls



This little yellow building is...

The happiest place on earth...
The Thread Shed





All of my quilted textiles are born in this building





Yes, I am a Jersey Girl Originally...
I have lived in Oregon for 30 years




Just outside the Thread Shed
Growing on the Arbor


These tiny little buds are braving the snow...






This is the corral fence just behind the Thread Shed.
The livestock are good company while I sew.




The corral fence makes a good perch for the birds.





Grape Arbor
CLICK HERE to view the Grape Arbor last fall





Luckily these little apple trees
haven't bloomed yet...



This is pretty much the tour around the yard...

I am heading back in to make some breakfast...





Gunnr and Suzy are ready to go back inside too !






After breakfast we are moving cattle...

I will post more images of the cattle drive when we get back!

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

CLICK HERE to view:  Cattle Drive in the Snow

CLICK HERE to view the Thread Shed

CLICK HERE to view Birds

CLICK HERE to view more Snow Images


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full of Snow,
LuAnn

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Quilting is not my only Passion...

If you have followed this blog for any length of time
you know that
Quilting is not my only passion...
Cattle, Horses and Dogs are a big part of our lives here on the farm.
These animals inspire my quilts,
and usually end up in my quilts.

I enjoy watching this video from time to time,
and thought it was time to share it with you.

This is the story of Skidboot...






CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

CLICK HERE to view our Dogs

CLICK HERE to view our Cattle

CLICK HERE to view our Horses


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full of Animals,
LuAnn

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Wallpaper Quilt.......Class Samples

Last year I found a roll of Textured Wallpaper
at the thrift store...

I just couldn't help myself...

I just had to sew through it!


Wallpaper Quilt
I colored the textured wallpaper first.
Then I couched fibers on it.
Then I sewed on a few beads.

CLICK HERE to view the making of this quilt

In a former life I was a legal secretary.
I love all things office-related...
Pencils, Pens, Typewriters, Tape, Scissors, Paper Clips, Rubber Bands, White-Out, Glue and especially PAPER.

It is so fun to sew through paper.
The needle makes a wonderful popping noise as it pierces the paper.

I have decided to share my love of paper with my students.



Today I made this new class sample:


This wallpaper is extra bumpy and gives this piece incredible texture that you can't get with fabric alone.



Below are pieces of Textured Wallpaper.
They have been painted, waxed, scraped, stenciled


The wallpaper with leaves, on the bottom left in the photo above, is the piece I used for this class sample quilt.

I created these pieces in a play day recently.
CLICK HERE to view the Play Day photos





I added fabric borders to the wallpaper
with the stenciled leaves



I basted it together with batting and backing fabric:


Then I machine quilted skeleton leaves all over the surface.




I used Distress Crackle Paint to stencil the leaves:

I just love the texture the crackle paint adds to this piece





Click the image to enlarge and see all the
great texture...





If you are after TEXTURE...
Give Textured Wallpaper a try in your art.


These class samples are for my class next week:

Wallpaper Quilt Class
Thursday, February 24, 2011
1:00 - 4:00
JanniLou Creations
Philomath, OR

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn


Sunday, February 13, 2011

Gunnr is......... a Calendar Boy !


Announcing the 2012
Quilting Arts Calendar Artists!




Gunnr
12 x 12




Gunnr is ......... a Calendar Boy !





Gunnr 8 weeks

This is the first day our eyes met....






Nicholas & Gunnr 2006

Our son brought Gunnr, his puppy, home to meet us.




Gunnr quickly became part of the family...


Gunnr just adores our Jack Russell, Suzy



They spend lots of lazy days in the Thread Shed
asleep under the sewing machine:


So......you can see how I was inspired to create a Gunnr quilt.
Actually, I have made several quilts with Gunnr on them over the last few years.

My most recent quilt was picked as a finalist in the




This year’s theme, Getting Pet-ty inspired hundreds of you to depict your beloved furry or feathered friend with fabric, thread, and heaps of love. From the countless entries received, the decision to winnow the lot down to 13 was very difficult. We saw lizards, llamas, parrots, horses, mice, dogs, cats, iguanas, you name it.
Congratulations to the following artists whose art quilts will appear in our 2012 calendar:

LuAnn Kessi “Gunner”
Faith Cleary (Untitled, cow)

Nancy Brown “
Opie and Mittens Go Birdwatching”

Sue Clayton “My Pet Llama”

Susan
Brubaker-Knapp “Trouble in the Pumpkin Patch”

Susan E. Connor (Untitled, cat with fish bowl)

Lisa
Encabo ‘Cutie says, “FEED ME! Throw my ball.”’

Nancy Hayes “Jazz Fetch!”

Loreen
Leedy “Cautious”

Amber McIntosh (Untitled, frogs)

Joan
SowadaAgnus Ready”

Nanette
Zeller “A Perfect Storm”

Jill Packer “The Iconic Miss Isabella (Iguana)”


CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

CLICK HERE to view the Thread Shed

CLICK HERE to view more about Suzy


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn Kessi

Friday, February 11, 2011

Wallpaper Quilts......Play Day


This is a typical play day for our group.

It is really a day of experimenting...
asking....what if

As you can see from the work table below,
we brought everything,
and we will need a kitchen sink along the way too:



We are working in Nancy's Studio today
with Textured Wallpaper





Acrylic Paints





Alcohol Inks





Water Soluble Oil Crayons



Nancy stenciled on textured wallpaper:


The wallpaper shows off it's texture after color is applied

After this dries, fabric borders could be added,
it could be basted together with batting and backing fabric,
Stitched through and made into a quiltlet.



We are playing with
Dorland's Wax Medium:


Mixing acrylic paint into the wax....
then spread it all over the textured wallpaper with a brush





I wrote a story into the wax medium on the wallpaper
with the end of a paint brush.
Now, it needs to dry before I heat set it with an iron



Now we are playing with Modeling Paste:


I placed a leaf stencil onto a piece of painted wallpaper.
Next I spread modeling paste over the top of the stencil...





Pulling the Oak Leaf Stencil back...



To reveal a dimensional leaf:


After the modeling paste leaf dries,
I plan to paint it or stain it.





The green wallpaper piece on the bottom is painted with acrylics
then scraped over with a comb to form the wavy lines.

The bright blue piece in the middle
was done with a foam roller.
Different shades of blue were rolled on.

The stenciled leaves on the bottom left were painted
with Distress Crackle Paint.
They are slowly cracking as they dry, to give even more texture.

This was a day filled with TEXTURE !

We will take our pieces home and play with them further to see if we are successful in creating wallpaper quilts from them.

I will keep you posted on our progress...

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

CLICK HERE to view my Wallpaper Quilt 2010


CLICK HERE to view our Neocolor II Portrait Play Day

CLICK HERE to view a Jello Play Day

CLICK HERE to view my Mixed Media Work


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn