Horse Quilt Panels....

I have made several horse quilts over the years...

including a few horse panel quilts

 

This horse panel includes pieced borders

and intricate machine quilting.

"Giddy Up"

This horse panel includes a 

hand sewn english paper pieced hexagon

border treatment.

"Friends at the Fence"

This is a gorgeous horse quilt panel

that I pulled from the cupboard...

it is time to get it up on the design wall

and give it a go !

I am thinking....Bear Paw quilt blocks:

How yummy are all of those points !

These are time consuming to cut and piece...

but well worth the effort.

The lighter colored points

work just as well as the dark points...

I can make 2 Bear Paw blocks a day...

Time to get the blocks up on the design wall:

The brown fabrics in the bear paw blocks

really jump off of the Green Kale Grunge 

background fabric...

Here's an organization tip:

Bias Squares are so tedious to stitch...

I set myself up for success by staying organized.

I keep an ironing station to the far left of the

 sewing machine, a cutting mat and ruler station

 next to the machine.

I also use Bloc-Loc rulers 

to trim the bias squares.

I keep the Bloc-Loc rulers in this organizer...

It keeps the rulers upright where I can see them

and I spend less time searching around on the

 table under the fabrics for the rulers.

When not in use,  I store the Bloc-Loc rulers

in this snap bag...

They travel well in this bag.

This is another organizer I use on my

sewing table...

It keeps most of my rulers upright 

and easy to access,

as well as rotary cutters, scissors, pencils, etc.

It lives here on the sewing table

and keeps me organized and working efficiently,

which helps me enjoy my time in the Thread Shed.

I put a few more Bear Paw blocks on the wall:

I will need 16 blocks to go around 

the horse panel...

I better get to stitching !

p.s.  I found the ruler organizers at the thrift store,

but I am sure you can find them at 

any office supply.

CLICK HERE to view all Horse posts

CLICK HERE to view all my improv work

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

Cow Pony Rust Quilt....Auditioning Threads

When Mother Nature Speaks......I need to listen more closely

Click Images to Enlarge:

Intentionally Blank

I last left you when I was in a state of indecision

I was trying to decide whether to put the horse shoes on the top or the bottom.

I was trying to listen to what the quilt was asking for...

I should have been listening to "Mother Nature"

"Ye Shall Not make Design Choices when having HOTflashes"

My brain was BLANK...

I have known this about myself for years now.

I cannot make color choices or design decisions when my hormones are flaring.

Instead of listening to my body, I was behaving like a quilter, I was listening to the quilt.

I left the Thread Shed for a couple of days until it was safe to....go back in.

I just love the rusting on the horse shoes

You can really appreciate rust dyeing in all its splendor in these close ups of the horse shoes worn by Dancer the Cow Pony.

Dancer started out as my trail horse in 1991. He was like riding a rocking horse and he had the best personality. He eventually became my husband's #1 roping horse, and what a time they had together. I have videos of the two of them in the arena roping horns and feet. Dancer earned the name Cow Pony because he loved cattle so much. When he wasn't in the roping arena, you could find him out in the pasture surround by a herd of yearling cattle. This is known as being "cowy."

After the hotflashes subsided 2 days later...

I walked into the Thread Shed....took one look at the design wall...

and immediately knew where to put the horse shoes.

They didn't belong on the top....or the bottom.....they belonged on the side!

What a relief....my indecision had passed.

I thought I would take advantage of my moment of clear thinking and make some thread choices.

I chose thin 60 wt. Bottom Line polyester thread for my threadwork on Dancer's face.

I absolutely love these threads for threadplay. They are fine and do not overwhelm the photographic quality of the image.

You can see threadwork on our dog SUZY HERE

Sample Quilting Sandwiches

Next I auditioned thread for the wide border area around the central image.

I went straight for YLI Variations Polyester threads. They have a very subtle color change and a beautiful sheen and they free motion quilt beautifully with a balanced stitch front and back side.

I also threw in a Robinson Anton Metallic and a Mettler Orange Polyester.

I am thinking I need a subtle, neutral color.

I don't want to overwhelm those gorgeous rusted motifs.

I spool out a generous amount of thread to puddle up on the fabric and give me a realistic idea of what the thread will look like stitched out.

I removed the darkest and the lightest threads.

These 4 threads are the finalists.

I will stitch them out on the sample sandwiches and see how they look.

Straight Stitch Thread Plate

I removed the zig zag stitch plate on the right and replaced it with the single hole straight stitch plate. I get a beautiful stitch on the back side of my quilt with the single hole.

Titanium Needles

Rust Dyed Fabric is tough to stitch through...

This is the strongest, sharpest needle in the cupboard.

I drew a few lines on the sample sandwiches... I am ready to stitch out a few of these threads to see which one will make it into the quilt.

Stay Tuned...

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

Quilting Stormy...

I am working on Stormy today.

Let's see where the day takes us...

Click Images to Enlarge:

Stormy

I chose a medium brown batik for the inner border

Auditioning Final Border Fabrics:

I pulled a variety of light, medium & dark fabrics and arranged them around the edges.

Medium Browns are yummy...

Dark Fabrics...

Dark/Textured Fabrics...

Light Fabrics...

Medium Browns are too blendy with the inner border

Dark Fabrics are well......too dark

I love this fabric......but it just demands too much attention.

I want the horse to be center stage.

I like the light fabric......but I think I can do better

This fabric is light, but warm........the horse is the main focus.

I think we have a winner !

Basted and ready to go under the needle

Backing Fabric & Bobbin Thread

I chose a medium gray thread to blend into the backing fabric.

I plan to use 2 threads for the quilting on the horse.

There are a lot of different fabrics, and I don't plan on changing threads 30 times!

This medium brown thread will work for all of the lighter areas.

The size 75 needle will work nicely for this tiny 60 wt thread.

I warmed up on a quilt sandwich to get the tension adjusted:

I had to decrease the tension to nearly 1

All of the lighter fabrics have been quilted...

Face........Quilted

I am now ready to quilt the darker areas:

I chose a dark brown thread

All of the dark fabrics have been quilted:

Nose & Mouth........Quilted

I am using an off-white thread for the background behind the horse head:

I shadow stitched mane hair into the background fabric

Ready to Quilt the Border:

This golden yellow thread should work nicely

I want the border to be textured, but I don't want the stitches to be center stage and take away from the central horse image...

Border.......Machine Quilted

Next..... a binding treatment

I am calling it a day...

Here is the view as I push myself away from the sewing machine:

Gunnr & Suzy

The best Quilting Dogs I know

Gunnr 3 year old Boxer

Suzy 15 year old Jack Russell Terrier

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

CLICK HERE to see the first part of this post

CLICK HERE to see the completed Quilt

CLICK HERE for Machine Quilting Tips

CLICK HERE to view my Art Quilts

CLICK HERE to view Chicken Slideshow

CLICK HERE to view Jello Printing

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn