Raffle Quilt…..Ready to go under the Needle

I spent the morning 

preparing this raffle quilt for machine quilting…

505 Spray Baste……the only way to baste for me

Scrappy Binding ready to go…

Extra leftover backing fabric for the hanging sleeve…

Love the Glide thread!

Linen for the top thread…

Cream for the bobbin thread…

I decided to quilt my big leaf vine on the vertical rows

 of the quilt with Linen color thread...

After the vines are quilted, 

I will go back in and stitch horizontal lines

between the vines.  This will press down the background 

and make the vines pop out…

Here are some Big Leaf variations from my Sketch Book:

CLICK HERE to view my online Sketch Book

I am always happy to share a bit of inspiration with you!

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

On the Road…

Traveling……Quilter Style

I have my Quilt Wrangler with me…

We are traveling through the Pacific Northwest  

from Oregon to Washington state…

Having FUN at a hat shop…

I never leave home without some kind of a

take-a-long quilt project…

Apple Core Quilt

CLICK HERE to view my Apple Core Quilt tutorial

We followed onion trucks down the road...

We stopped for the onions along the road side 

that fell off the trucks.

Gunnr loves to travel…

Having FUN at a county fair…

Love those sheep blankets…

The blankets keep the sheep clean….

before they go into the show ring

Petting Zoo…..Llama

Chuck Wagon

County Fair……. Quilt Exhibit

Windmill Farm along the Columbia Gorge

Paul Harvey Quilt at the Windy Flats

Paul Harvey is my personal lap quilt. It keeps me warm when I am on the couch at home, and it also travels with me everywhere I go. I sleep with this quilt when we are in motel rooms while traveling from state to state. It just makes an overnight stay a bit more like home, and I sleep better cuddling up with it.

Yes, I named my quilt "Paul Harvey" after the radio announcer 

that tells us "The Rest of the Story."

This quilt started out as a class kit in Idaho. When I returned home to Oregon I realized all of the fabrics were not in the kit. I waited months for the quilt shop to send the missing fabrics......but it never happened.

I eventually found fabrics on my own and incorporated them into the quilt top.

 The border fabric came from Canada.

This quilt took so much longer to complete than I had anticipated. After awhile I began to feel like it would never be done........when would I see....."The Rest of the Story."

I eventually began to refer to this quilt in progress as my Paul Harvey quilt.

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi

Rust Dyeing…..

I am currently working on a series of Barn Lot Quilts.

My supply of rust dyed fabric is getting low…

Time to make more Rust Dyed Fabric:

100% White Cotton Fabric

Kosher Salt

White Vinegar

2 Yards of Fabric

1/4 cup of salt

Enough vinegar to saturate the fabric well

Scrunch up the fabric to mix in the salt and vinegar.

The fabric is wet, but not sitting in a puddle of liquid.

Most any rusty object works well for rust dyeing:

I am rusting yardage, 

so I am using a very large culvert screen.

40 inches wide x 6 feet long

The rustier the object the faster your fabric will rust.

The culvert screen is on a big piece of plastic.

The wet fabric is ready…

The wet fabric is placed on top of the rusty screen…

It gets wrapped up in plastic 

to keep the fabric wet during the rusting process…

It also helps to have HOT weather.

The hotter it is, the faster the fabric will rust.

I placed a 4 wheeler ramp on top 

to keep the plastic from blowing off

and to keep some pressure on the fabric 

so it will stay in contact with the rust.

Now we wait…..for 3 days.

I will not peek at it or disturb it in any way.

3 days later...

This is waiting for me when I unwrap the plastic…

Gorgeous Rusted Fabric…

2 Yards of Rust Dyed Fabric.

This will get soaked in a bucket of water 

with 1 cup of Baking Soda.

This will neutralize and stop the rusting process.

Then I will throw it in the washer and dryer.

Then it is ready to put into a quilt.

I was up before sunrise this morning 

to check on the rusty fabric bundle…

I watched the sun burn away the morning fog.

Thread Shed…

This is where I am working on the series of Barn Lot Quilts…

Water drops on an iris leaf

Lily Bud…

The soaker hose was watering the flower bed 

and the sun caught the water drops just right

and turned them shades of red and blue…..FUN!

Gunnr is having a wonderful summer!

He is 8 years old this year.

So gentle, sweet and loving…..such a joy!

CLICK HERE to view more Rust Dyeing

CLICK HERE to view the Thread Shed

CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi