Improv Houses.....Design Wall

Time to get the Improv Houses 

up on the design wall...

 

I had to get them up just to see if 

the sold red hand dyes

worked with the black X commercial fabrics...

The X fabric creates some texture...

The more houses up on the design wall,

the better I like it...

It has been great FUN incorporating 

my thickened dye surface design fabrics

into this project...

Over 40 houses on the wall so far...

Of course, I am already thinking about

and edge treatment...

I have several 1 yard pieces that I created

with black thickened dye...

I folded them up into border size strips...

Border Audition...

This is working !

This is what the outside of the Thread Shed

looks like today...

The Sunflower Quilt block hung on

the front of the Thread Shed

is covered up by all of the real sunflowers

now blooming...

Sunflowers, Pink Coneflowers, Brown Eyed Suzies

Sunflower

State Fair Zinnias

CLICK HERE to view all my improv work

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

Improv Houses...

I was pawing through the fabric cupboard

and found these surface design fabrics...

 

Created with black thickened dye...

Check out what I wrote on the selvage...

I created this fabric with hand made 

nature brushes and 

thickened dye.....in 2018

Looks like it was FUN making this piece !

These circles were created with a

nature brush made from feathers...

This fabric was created by putting strings under

the fabric then rubbing over the top with

thickened dye...

I also found this soy waxed fabric:

I wrote on the fabric with hot soy wax,

after it cooled off and hardened,

I put it in a dye bath.

I also pulled a few commercial fabrics

from the cupboard...

All of these black and white fabrics need

some RED...

These are some of my 

low immersion dyed fabrics...

This is what I will be playing with:

Left......Red Low Immersion Hand dyed Fabrics

Center......Thickened Dye Surface Design Fabrics

Right......Commercial Fabrics

This is my set up:

I will be sewing lots of little seams,

so I set up the felt ironing pad to my left,

cutting mat in the center,

sewing machine on the right...

this helps me work efficiently.

Here we go:

I am creating improv houses...

keeping it very basic

Red hand dyes for the background behind

the improv house...

A wonky house...

The hand dyed fabrics work well

in this design...

This house is wide at the top...

narrow at the bottom

Like potato chips...

can't stop at just one !

This is working....I'll make more !

Each house is different...

18 Improv Houses done today:

Looking forward to adding to this little village

sometime soon...

CLICK HERE to view all my improv work

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

Fabulous Finish....Number 5

 

This improv piece has been sitting

around for almost 2 years...

It has waited long enough.

The top consists of Pick Up Stix blocks...

This is a piece I hand dyed and

         silk screened.

I sliced it up and created borders...

The quilt top is ready to be basted and

go under the needle...

This is a small quilt so I am doing the

machine quilting on my Bernina Artista 200...

I am using a walking foot for the

simple, wavy, line quilting...

The white thread does not compete with

the pick up stix blocks

and shows up nicely in the borders...

Time to get this trimmed

and stitch on the binding...

I pawed through the cupboard and found this

hand dyed green for the binding...

Love these clips when binding...

I am stitching the binding on by machine

and pin these clips an inch apart

so the binding does not slip...

It has taken me a few years to master

a machine binding:

The binding looks great on the top side...

and the back side...

Here is the big reveal...

Fabulous Finish.... Number 5

CLICK HERE to view all Fabulous Finishes 2022

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

Portrait Quilts.....A Blast from the Past

Let's go back 10 years...

I was having lots of FUN creating

PORTRAIT QUILTS 

Image of Lilly

Close Up View......Lilly

The fabric surrounding this portrait is 

my hand dyed fabric that I screen printed on.

Machine quilted.

My Favorite Cow and her calf...

Finished Quilt

I use Neocolor II Crayons on cotton fabric

Ram

I took a photo at the Oregon State Fair.

It made a great subject for this portrait quilt.

Kindra

Lilly

A herd of Wild Horses

This is yet to be quilted.

Captain America and Devn

This is yet to be quilted.

The Cowboy unloading hay

This is yet to be quilted.

Gunnr

This portrait quilt was included in the

2012 Quilting Arts Calendar

Gunnr with his portrait quilt

Rose Portrait Quilt.....in progress

Orange Zinnia Portrait Quilt

Close Up View.....metallic threads

The Neocolor II is applied to the cotton fabric,

then water is painted over the Neocolor II

which creates vibrant colors...

CLICK HERE to watch me create this Zinnia quilt

Thanks for sharing this great trip 

down memory lane!

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi