Bubbles & Blooms.....New on the Design Wall

Something New is up on the Design Wall

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Bubbles & Bloom theme fabric

It is happy, it is fun and the flowers are Groovy Cool.

The background was created using the Disappearing 9 Patch Method

You don't have to handle those small squares or strips.....ever!

I am auditioning border treatments on the right side.

Fabrics from my stash for the applique motifs

I decided on the lime green inner accent border

The freezer paper came out of the cupboard.

It is time to design the flower applique shapes.

Using the theme fabric for inspiration, I drew out the first flower petal

I designed 3 different flower petals.

I am not sure if they will work, but you have to start somewhere.

The first flower will have a black petal.

I traced the petal shape onto fusible web, cut it out and ironed it to the backside of the black fabric.

The second petal is pink

The black petals jump right off that busy background.

The pink petals pump up the color!

A CD disk was the perfect size template for the center of the flower.

The first Groovy Cool Flower is done!

It is about 24 inches in diameter.

You know the routine.....trace out the petals onto fusible web....get out the iron.....

The second flower is done!

The third and last flower is done!

I am still thinking about the pink variegated border treatment?

I think I will have to cut the fabric into border strips and lay them all the way around the edge of the quilt top to see if they are going to work or not.

If you want to find out more about the Disappearing 9 Patch method you can CLICK HERE.

I hope to play around with this a bit more today before I leave for my sister's wedding. I will let you know what I decide about that border treatment....

I started this blog in February 2009........this is the 100th post!

I have enjoyed all of your comments. Thank You.

p.s. To See More Bubbles & Blooms Click HERE

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

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Summer Pleasures...

Glue Gel Resist Technique

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Glue Gel Resist AFTER Washing out Glue

Glue Gel Resist BEFORE washing out glue

I chose to mix Tulip paints in spray bottles and spray the paint directly onto the white muslin fabric. You can also use a paint brush and put the paint in between the glued areas for a more precise look. The technique I use depends on my mood at the time.

Yesterday I spent the day with these two cutie pies......my grandnieces came to the farm to spend the day with Annylu. It was just the break I needed from the Thread Shed. I was on burn out from preparing exhibit quilts for the September show.

These little ones gave the porch swing a good work out, then took me down to the river to play in the water. Before they left, they asked if they could go out to the chicken house and pick eggs.........yes, they kept me smiling all day. We made enough memories yesterday that I can live on for weeks.

The bed frames behind the Thread Shed are working out beautifully as fencing to support the tall Dinner Plate Dahlias.......I love the rusted patina that is forming on them also.

The Glads will be blooming soon....

The 6 foot tall hollyhocks are growing straight and tall thanks to the new bed frames giving them support.

This old fireplace screen found at a thrift store reminds me of a Peacock.

It works perfect to keep the dogs out of the flowerbed.

Very juicy orange dinner plate dahlia

Very very red dinner plate dahlia

Wild & Pink Spider Dahlia

As always, please feel free to download and use these flower images in your artwork.

Always glad to share.

The patio out back has tenants: 4 new baby birdlings

The mama keeps them covered up, so it is difficult to get a photo of them.

Gunnr & New Hens

I hope you are enjoying your summer as much as Gunnr is!

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn in Oregon

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Design Wall...Winding Ways or Wheel of Mystery

Something New is Up on the Design Wall

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Wheel of Mystery or Winding Ways

I quickly put these blocks up on the design wall yesterday....mostly so I could have something new to look at while I was sitting at the machine doing some binding work on the clam shell quilt.

This is my current Take-A-Long Quilt. I started it in 2005. It goes everywhere I go. This pattern is known by two names: Wheel of Mystery or Winding Ways. I think both names suit it well. Brad thinks it looks like a kaleidoscope.......I see that too!

These curves are so gentle compared to the clam shell quilt I hand pieced before this.

This is a John Flynn lazer cut kit. I purchased one kit, which makes a lap size quilt. I used batiks from my own stash, cut more pieces and doubled the size of the quilt.

Right now it is 70 x 80 inches without borders. I have enough pieces cut to make more blocks, but I think I am ready to begin designing a border treatment.

I will leave this up on the design wall for a few days......move blocks around.......and see what border ideas I can come up with. I am thinking borders that read solid, so the machine quilting will show up in the borders....because it definitely won't show up on these blocks as busy as they are!

I will post my progress as I continue with this quilt.

Something new in the Thread Shed

I spend so many hours on my feet while working out in the Thread Shed. I am a bare feet girl.......I only put on shoes to go into town!

I decided to be kind to my feet and purchased this mat. It is 3 x 5 feet in size. Just perfect in front of the cutting station or the ironing board.

I found it at Sears this week $40.

I have seen mats like this elsewhere but they were nearly $100 or more.

I am trying to figure out how to change the name on the mat?

It should read..........CRAFTSGIRL

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

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Clam Shell Quilt Binding...

Time to bind the Clam Shell Quilt

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This is one of my Take-A-Long Quilts

After completing the Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt in 2003, I was so lost without a take-a-long project.......I guess you could say I was lonely without something to stitch on while away from home. It didn't take me long to find an acrylic clam shell template and begin cutting clam shells from my 1930's Depression Era Reproduction fabric collection. Why choose the clam shell design? I thought it would be much easier to hand piece those sharp curves, then try and do it on the machine.

It only took one year to piece this 102 x 102 inch quilt.

It was an absolute joy and delight to handle these beautiful fabrics.

I spent the day cutting 2 inch binding strips from all of the red fabrics leftover from this clam shell quilt. I need quite a few to make a 400+ inch binding! I think the scrappy binding is just right for this quilt. I tried not to use any one fabric more than 3 or 4 times total in this quilt, to give it a nice, old fashioned look.

Why so large? We are sleeping under this one this winter! We have a very tall pencil post bed. It requires a 100 inch square quilt to cover it nicely.

Peaches 'n Cream Rose

I just had to include a few flowers that are in bloom right now. I never tire of strolling around outside to check out all the new blooms each day. They are a treat and an inspiration! If these images inspire you, please download them and use them in your art work. They are at full resolution and should print out nicely for you.

Pink Star Lily

Red Star Lily

Orange & Yellow Star Lily

Pink Mum

50 is Nifty

SURPRISE PARTY

I partied down with my favorite party animals!

My grandnephew & 2 grandnieces

I do not cringe at another birthday...

50 is wonderful.

I have so many more quilting skills at 50 than I did when I was in my 20's and just starting out.

I choose to celebrate growing older each year...

Many are denied the privilege.

50 is Nifty,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Creating The Sunflower Quilt.....From Inspiration to Completing the Quilt

Make a Smilebox slideshow To see my New Work CLICK HERE To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Binding Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt...

Machine Quilting by Day.........Hand Binding by Night

It is Amazing what a Deadline will do for you!

Click Images to Enlarge:

Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt

90 x 100 inches

1993 - 2003 This Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt traveled everywhere with me. It was my "Take-A-Long" Quilt. It has traveled on planes, trains and automobiles. Using the English Paper Piecing method, I hand pieced over 12,000 half inch hexagons at: football games, basketball games, wrestling tournaments, the dentist & orthodontists offices, the pediatricians, family vacations, at Seattle Mariner games...it was my constant companion......many times I was tempted to piece a hexagon while sitting at a rather long stop light in town.

I only pieced this quilt while I was away from home.......so it turned into a 10 year take-a-long quilt project. After the top was all pieced, I began to hand quilt it, but the pain in my wrists and hands from carpal tunnel soon let me know that I would never be able to complete it. I removed the hand quilting stitches and sent it off to a highly recommended long arm quilter in Idaho. She quilted feathered circles in the center of each flower. I used a wool batting and the quilt is absolutely yummy.

My personal quilts tend to get put on the back burner. The quilts that have deadlines are the ones that get completed quickly. I have never set a deadline for one of my own quilts. My quilt exhibit in September has given me a BIG DEADLINE to complete my own personal quilts. It is just the push I needed to get this quilt out and get to work on it again.

Yesterday I sewed the bias binding on the top side of the quilt with the sewing machine. Last night I brought it to the house and began hand stitching the binding to the backside.

I use hair clips to hold the binding around the edge of the quilt. The clips help to relieve the strain on my hands and wrists while I am stitching the binding in place. I don't struggle trying to hold the binding in place, the clips do that for me. I am able to bind for hours without any fatigue to my hands.

This is my Binding Tin.......I found it years and years ago at a garage sale with hair clips already in it. I added a small pair of scissors, a wooden needle case, Thread Heaven thread conditioner, and thread to match my binding fabric. All of these supplies live in this little red tin and are always ready when I need to bind a quilt.

The best part of this quilt is........the yellow center in every flower block is a piece of fabric cut from my grandmother's house dress......making this TRULY a Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt. I have named it......In The Presence of the Past.

P.S. To answer a few of the questions I have rec'd since posting this:

1. I started out with a fanny pack around my waist. It contained a zip loc bag with fabric hexagons and paper hexagons, thread, needle, nail clippers and beeswax (I later switched to Thread Heaven conditioner). I was able to sit quietly and piece hexagons, going mostly unnoticed at any event I was attending. I sat in a church at weddings and pieced and nobody even noticed. This gets addicting once you get started. Every idle minute you have away from home, you want to be piecing on your take-a-long quilt.

2. These are mini-hexagons, each of the 6 sides measures one half inch. A standard hexagon is 2 inches on each side....much quicker to put together.

3. There are 63 mini hexagons in each flower. A flower takes about 10 hours to hand piece. There are 150 flowers in this quilt........1,500 hours to piece the top.

4. 5 spools of thread.....2,500 yards of thread to piece the quilt top.

5. This is made entirely from scraps of fabric. Over the years I rec'd fabrics from people who knew my history with this quilt, had watched me work on it for years, and wanted to add to the quilt........I gladly included the donated tiny bits of fabric in this quilt, which makes me cherish it even more.

5. ALL of my nieces helped with cutting hexagons from fabric, pinning the papers to them and putting them in zip loc bags for me. They enjoyed choosing the fabrics and designing flowers for me to sew. I cherished my time with my nieces. Two of them eventually became quilters! LOTS of warm and wonderful memories come to mind when I look at this Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt.

In My Cozy Spot Binding,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Sunflower Quilt Slideshow

This slideshow represents my journey while creating the Sunflower Quilt. From my original inspiration for the quilt........to the completion of the quilt. It was quite a trip!

Click Image to Enlarge:

CLICK HERE to view the slideshow

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

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE