My Tips n Techniques

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Calypso......109 Blocks Pieced


Monday I pieced 44 Blocks for the
Calypso Quilt...

Day 2


This morning I threw the 44 blocks up on the design wall
just to get a feel of the colorways...




I am enjoying working with these tropical flavors...





Today, Tuesday, I pieced 65 more key hole blocks...











I threw a few more up on the design wall:


This orientation is subject to change...

I may set them up completely different...



This is what awaits me tomorrow morning:


When I left the Thread Shed at 6pm...
109 Blocks Completed

Lots more to go...

CLICK HERE to view Part 1

CLICK HERE to view Part 3


CLICK HERE to view My Quilts


CLICK HERE to view: Flowers for My Sissy....Sherry's Quilt

CLICK HERE to view: Flowers for My Sissy.....Tinker's Quilt

CLICK HERE to view: The Thread Shed


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn Kessi

Calypso.......New Quilt Project


I am chasing my tail on a new quilt project:

Day 1

600 Strips Cut and Ready to Piece...


I chose fabrics in the shades of:
Coconut Browns
Key Lime Greens
Ocean Blues

Sounds so tropical...



Our son, Nicholas, has a birthday in February...


Hoping to have his " Calypso " quilt finished soon!

Wish me Luck

More to come...

CLICK HERE to view: Part 2

CLICK HERE to view: Part 3


CLICK HERE to view My Quilts


CLICK HERE to view: Nicholas' Graduation Quilt 2001

CLICK HERE to view: Heath's Graduation Quilt 2003

CLICK HERE to view: My Art Quilts


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn

Healing Stitches exhibit at Lunafest 2012


The Permission 2 Play Art Quilts
were on Exhibit at Lunafest 2012


You can view them here:


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Many Thanks to everyone who made this evening of AWARENESS possible!

Warm Hugs to the Harlan Valley Quilters who created and donated the
Always in Bloom Raffle Quilt to the Womens Cancer Coalition.
Long Arm Quilting Donated By: Santiam River Quilts/Jean McDaniel
(proceeds from this raffle quilt fund women's cancer programs in our communities.)

Special Thank You to our Permission 2 Play students for exhibiting your art work and inspiring all of those who view it.

See you next year at Lunafest !


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn Kessi

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Wedding Ring Quilt.......57 Footballs



I am making some progress on this

Double Wedding Ring Quilt...



57 Footballs or Melon Shapes done...





I think I need 80 footballs for a full size quilt...




Now that I see it up on the design wall...
I think I will make it bigger.
Probably 40 more footballs, who knows.




I am enjoying the process.

CLICK HERE to view:  Video Tutorial


CLICK HERE to view My Quilts


CLICK HERE to view: My Art Quilts

CLICK HERE to view: Take-a-Long Quilts

CLICK HERE to view: Surface Design Techniques


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Snow Dyeing......Part 2


After the snow...
came a storm....
then a flood...
No Power & No Water

The Snow Dyed Fabrics batched for a few days.

Here are the results of my Snow Dye Session:


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CLICK HERE to view My Quilts

CLICK HERE to view: Snow Dyeing Part 1

CLICK HERE to view: Storm, No Power, No Water

CLICK HERE to view: Storm Chasing Slideshow

CLICK HERE to view: Kathi's Snow Dyeing Results


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn Kessi

Portrait Class......Student Work Slideshow


I spent a lovely day with 16 students
in a Portraits in Fabric Class
at JanniLou Creations Quilt Shop
Philomath, Oregon


Check out the Slide Show below to view:

Adventures in Portrait Quilts



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Student work is shown in alphabetical order


CLICK HERE to view My Quilts


CLICK HERE to view: Portrait Class June 2011 Slideshow

CLICK HERE to view: Mixed Media Class Slideshow

CLICK HERE to view: Jello Printing Class - Student Work

CLICK HERE to view: My Art Quilts


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn Kessi


Thursday, January 19, 2012

Storm Chasing.....Slideshow


Mother Nature is Rocking My World:


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CLICK HERE to view My Quilts


CLICK HERE to view: My Challenge Quilts

CLICK HERE to view: The Cattle


CLICK HERE to view: The Chickens


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn

Storm.....No Power.....No Water



Remember all of that beautiful snow we had on Monday:



It inspired me to do some Snow Dyeing on Tuesday...



A storm moved in Tuesday....late afternoon...


The front yard went from this snow....





To this..... in just a few hours.



Between the down pour of rain and the snow run-off:


The river swelled up over its banks and covered the gravel road I live on.



It wasn't long before we lost power....and water


Trees were washed away down river, along with part of the pasture fence.

Mud slides blocked the gravel roads and parts of the road caved off into the river.

So....not being able to rinse out my snow dyed fabric wasn't such a big deal.
It sat for 48 hours batching and waiting patiently for power and water.

The power is back on....and so is the water.

Once I get the house back in order I will get busy with the snow dyes.

More to come.....


CLICK HERE to view My Quilts


CLICK HERE to view: Snow Dyes Part 1

CLICK HERE to view: Thermofax Printing

CLICK HERE to view: Portrait Quilts


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Snow Dyeing.....Part 1



I just couldn't let all of this SNOW go to waste...



I invited Kathi over for a Snow Dyeing Play Day...



We are using the kitchen for a Wet Studio:


Here we go...



Fabrics are soaking in soda ash in the buckets:


The dyes are pre-mixed:
2 Tbsp to 8 ounces water




3 yards of fabric under all of that snow:


We squirted the dye on top of the snow





I placed the dyes in strips of color in this container




I swirled the fabric in a circle then placed the snow on top:


I placed the dyes in a circle pattern on the snow






I have never done snow dyeing before...
so I am shooting from the hip today.






Kathi is loading snow into a rectangle container...





Kathi is making a little snow pie in this round container.




All of the containers have metal grates or screens on the bottom
so the fabric doesn't sit in the melted snow.


Turquoise and Deep Purple Dyes





Lemon Yellow, Scarlet Red & Orange Dyes






Orange, Chartreuse & Scarlet Red Dyes





Last one of the day....
I wanted to do more, but ran out of containers & grates.




22 pans full of fabric, snow and dyes:


22 yards of fabric and 2 t-shirts snow dyeing

That was FUN !



A few hours later...


The snow is melting...





The dyed fabric is peeking through...

It will batch for 24 hours before I rinse it out.



This is what the kitchen looks like:


It is much more fun getting everything out to play...
than it is to put everything back away.

CLICK HERE: Snow Dyeing Part 2


CLICK HERE to view My Quilts

CLICK HERE to view: Microwave Dyeing

CLICK HERE to view: Rust Dyeing

CLICK HERE to view: Sun Dyeing

CLICK HERE to view: Kathi's Snow Dyeing Results

There is so much already posted on line about Snow Dyeing, so I am not including a tutorial. Google....Snow Dyeing....lots of info out there.


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full of Snow,
LuAnn Kessi

Monday, January 16, 2012

Let it Snow........



This is what the front yard looked like when I went to bed last night:


A light dusting of snow...




This is what it looked like at 5:00 this morning:


The Garden Bed Frames have a bit more snow resting on them!





The Flowering Cherry Trees always look so cool in the snow!





We live in a tiny valley, just 200 feet above sea level,
so SNOW is a big deal to us!

I plan to mix up some fabric dyes and get busy snow dyeing!




Somebody is staying indoors where it is cozy...


Not sure who is more comfortable?





Gunnr is definitely more comfortable!

Have a great day!


CLICK HERE to view My Quilts


CLICK HERE to view: Cattle Drive in the Snow Slide Show

CLICK HERE to view: Oregon Snow Slide Show

CLICK HERE to view: Our Chickens Slide Show - Very Funny!


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full of Snow,
LuAnn