Sunday, April 23, 2017

Soy Wax Over-Dye......Fabric Reveal


Here are the results of our

Soy Wax  Batik

Play Day last week...



These started out as light colored hand dyes:


This was a light gradient from blue to yellow

stamped with circle sponges

then over dyed dark green.






This is a lavender flour sack towel,

stamped with a hand cut sponge,

over dyed dark purple.






This was a piece I was using for

 a demo in classes.

It has all sorts of soy wax stamping on it.

It started out light peach colored,

then over dyed dark maroon.









I am not certain of the original color,

stamped with a pool noodle,

over dyed dark green.






Not sure who did this one,

very cool.... I like it.






This started out white,

stamped with leaf shaped sponge and circles,

over dyed dark green.






This started out very light blue,

stamped with plastic plumbing pipe,

over dyed dark maroon.








Stared out white,

stamped with circles and squares,

over dyed dark green.






This started out as a yellow hand dye,

stamped with a hand cut oval sponge,

over dyed black.



This is the only piece to survive 

the black dye bath.

All of the other pieces came out nearly all black 

without any resist?






I think this was waxed with a 

natural bristle brush?






White Fabric stamped with pool noodle,

over dyed dark green.








Lavender hand dye,

stamped with wire circles and plumber pipe,

over dyed dark purple.






stamped with potato masher and pool noodles,

over dyed dark purple.






Gradient hand dye yellow to blue,

stamped with sponges, pool noodles 

and plumber pipe,

over dyed dark green.









Light blue hand dye,

stamped with circles,

over dyed dark blue.






Stamped with sponges and circles,

over dyed dark purple.








Light blue hand dye,

stamped with glass bowl and circles,

over dyed dark green.






Light blue hand dye,

stamped with hand cut oval sponge,

over dyed dark blue.






This one has some previous soy wax 

that was over painted,

then soy waxed again,

then over dyed dark green.






Not sure what color this started out,

soy wax stamped with metal circles 

and pool noodles,

over dyed dark green.


We had a FUN day playing with 

hot soy wax and hand dyed fabrics 

that needed more surface design treatments.









CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,


LuAnn Kessi

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Comfort Quilt For Ralph...



I have been doing some stitching and trying 

out new motifs and fillers on a 

practice sandwich



I have been getting way too much assistance

from Ralph, the Quilting Kitty...






This practice sandwich 

is one of my hand dyes...







It has been fun to try out background fills

with contrasting threads






Ralph spent so much time on this practice piece

that I decided to bind it and give it to 

Ralph as a comfort quilt






I stitched his name into the quilt...












Look closely...

you can see Ralph's hair

This piece started out 100% cotton...

it is now 80% cotton and 20% cat hair!







Ralph will spend lots of napping time

on his custom Comfort Quilt




CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,


LuAnn Kessi

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Dragging Mole Hills...



Spring has arrived @ our house...





How do I know it is Spring?


Because instead of hearing the hum 

of my sewing machine...

 I am on the tractor dragging mole hills...






The Cowboy is building fence today 

in one of the cow pastures, 

so I am on tractor duty in the hay fields 

knocking down mole hills...






This tractor is just as much fun to drive

as one of my sewing machines...




I am not alone today...

the bulls kept me company in the 

third hay field and

the goats kept me company in the 4th hay field






I don't have any quilt images to share with you 

today so here are the flowers that were waiting 

for me this evening when I returned home...

all backlit from the setting sun.....enjoy!













I took my camera along with me 

in the hay fields today.

You can ride along with me on the tractor

by clicking the video below:


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CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,


LuAnn Kessi

Friday, April 14, 2017

I Love You to the Moon....



Time for FUN...



I installed the straight stitch throat plate

and the open toe free motion foot...







The I Love You to the Moon panel is

basted and ready to go under the needle...

I plan to stitch feathers everywhere!






Now that was a blast!






I had no plan...

I just followed the lines of the words 

and stitched feathers.






If you need a free motion quilting hit...

grab a panel and quilt to your hearts' content!







The Quilting Makes the Quilt!






Farm Life...



Mama Cow with her Twin calves







We continue to try and convince her that she wants BOTH calves, but she prefers the heifer calf and shoves the bull calf away...

The second set of twin calves are doing well and their mama is taking good care of both of them.


Here is a video of Mama and Babies:

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CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,


LuAnn Kessi

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Sunset @ Island Park...



I have been stitching away on this quilt for the last few weeks in between trips back and forth to the cow barns to check on the cows and calves...



The Cowboy surprised me with this

Bear Quilt kit

55 x 55 inches

I rarely work from a kit....I enjoyed the convenience of having everything I needed in 
one little package.






Last weekend I put it under the needle of the Sweet 16 and finished the machine quilting.  I matched my thread colors so I would not distract from the simplicity of the design.  It is heavily quilted, but you can't see it the photo.







Last evening I stitched the 

binding and hanging sleeve...






As soon as I cut the thread, 

the Cowboy hung it on the wall 

in the living room.  

It is a memory quilt of the wonderful summer we spent in Island Park, Idaho.  Each evening we would leave our campsite to chase the sunset and capture it with the camera lens.


Other than the 80 2 inch bias squares for the bear paw blocks, this was a simple quilt that I enjoyed putting together and a nice distraction from all the mud and rain the last few weeks.



CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts


May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi