Let’s get warm in 2014!!

Join the West's Premiere Quilt Show

15 DAY FULL TRANSIT PANAMA CANAL CRUISE
APRIL 15-29, 2014
WITH TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS
FRIEDA ANDERSON - PATT BLAIR
MELINDA BULA - GREGORY CASE
ANITA GROSSMAN SOLOMON - TERRY ANN WALDRON
I am going to be teaching several of my fusing classes. There will be pre-fused kits to make the prep time very minimal.
I am really looking forward to this trip. I have always wanted to see the Panama Canal and I have never been to Mexico. This is going to be one fun trip.
I hope you will consider joining me.

Leaf–table runner

I did a post last month about making this table runner.

Mary sent me these pictures just this week. I thought I would share.

My local guild, The Rippers, had a "Christmas Gift Challenge" where we were given a bag with one piece of fabric and an information slip with a member's name and preferences.  We were to add fabrics to what they gave us and make a gift for them for our Christmas Party tomorrow.  The fabric in the bag that I got is what I used for the background and backing on this table runner.  If I were to make one without the restriction that the challenge placed on me, I would have made it either from hand dyes or batiks plus I would have made the leaves "fatter".   Thanks again for the pattern!  I enjoyed making the table runner and it was a perfect fit for the fabric that I was given to work with. 

Hugs,
Mary




Nice job Mary, and good combination of fabrics. Oh and by the way - nicely quilted

Happy Quilting today.

And now..

To finish up our Peace wall hanging.
We will put all the trees in a circle and add the letters.

Lay out your red background fabric.

You should have the circle marked for reference to place your trees.

Place the trees around the edge of the circle, let the trees stick out beyond the marked circle just a little.


Tack fuse in place.

Transfer the Peace letters to the back of a 10” square piece of fused green fabric. (refer to my pattern)

Cut out all the Peace letters using a pair of sharp KAI scissors.

Place all the Peace letters in a circle under the trees.

Place the big P slightly off center and tucked up under every fourth tree, and then place the small letters in-between.


Place a clean white cloth over the whole unit and steam set all the fused pieces in place.
Layer your red background square with batting and backing fabric, I like Fairfield 60/40 for my batting.

Use 505 spray basting adhesive to hold the layers together for machine quilting.
This is a wall hanging and the backing fabric will only be seen when you take it down and store it. So use some old fabric you bought and you can’t for the life of you remember WHY you bought it.

Now machine quilt this to your liking.

First thing I did when I quilted this was to do a zigzag through all of the Peace letters. I then did a quick squiggle up the middle of each tree trunk.

Next I did a tighter stippling in the central part of the wreath.

And lastly I free motion quilted a bigger curly queue design in the outside area of the wreath.

Once it is all quilted, square the quilt up. Mine measures 16” square but yours could be different.

Add a sleeve and fused binding. You can refer to my tutorials at the top of the page for these.

You can have this hanging on your wall for Christmas Day or until Valentine’s day.

Happy Holidays.

I am participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party Give Away.

Visit the 175 quilting blogs participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party. You can register on each blog for their giveaway.

If you have been following along you know that at the end of this week there will be a drawing from my blog for a give away that includes my pattern “Holiday Moments”,( PEACE is one of the patterns in Holiday Moments) the Winter Special fabric kit and a spool of my favorite Red Madeira thread.

This is my thank you for being loyal blog followers all year long.

In order to qualify to be in the drawing for the free give away you MUST -1) Leave one comment, one only, telling me which New Year's Resolution you kept this year? If you didn't keep one, which one do you'd wish you kept?
One of my New Year Resolutions was to change my needle for every new project I started...a very practical resolution and one that was very easy to keep. I did manage to stick to that resolution, mostly...and there were no guilt trips if I didn't do it straightaway.
I'm looking forward to reading your stories!

2) Join my blog as a follower, by clicking on the link at the top right of this page that says "join this site"

3) That's it...no more tricks or finagling...

I will draw the winning name on Monday.
Have a safe weekend. Watch out for late shoppers.

Peace Peace Peace Peace

I am participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party Give Away.

Visit the 175 quilting blogs participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party. You can register on each blog for their giveaway.

If you have been following along you know that at the end of this week there will be a drawing from my blog for a give away that includes my pattern “Holiday Moments”,( PEACE is one of the patterns in Holiday Moments) the Winter Special fabric kit and a spool of my favorite Red Madeira thread.

This is my thank you for being loyal blog followers all year long.


In order to qualify to be in the drawing for the free give away you MUST -
1) Leave one comment, one only, telling me which New Year's Resolution you kept this year? If you didn't keep one, which one do you'd wish you kept?

One of my New Year Resolutions was to change my needle for every new project I started...a very practical resolution and one that was very easy to keep. I did manage to stick to that resolution, mostly...and there were no guilt trips if I didn't do it straightaway.
I'm looking forward to reading your stories!

2) Join my blog as a follower, by clicking on the link at the top right of this page that says "join this site"

3) That's it...no more tricks or finagling...

Let’s look at what you need to do next in making PEACE.

We have marked our circle on the red background fabric.
We have cut out our trees with a pinking decorative blade.
Now we need to make the rest of the trees.

Fuse an 8” square fabric for your trunks. I used a purply blue for mine.
Remove the paper from the fused fabric.

• Place the fused fabric fusing side up on the back side of your rotary mat and using a wavy decorative blade in your 45m rotary cutter, cut from corner to corner on the diagonal to make trunks for your trees. I make my trunks about a 1/2” wide at the bottom to narrower at the top.
• Place all of your triangle trees back onto a piece of release paper and tack fuse them in place.
• Place a trunk down the center of each tree and trim it to about 1 inch beyond the bottom of the tree.
• Using a hot dry iron press the trunks in place.
• Fuse a darker 8” square of green fabric .
• Using the wavy blade cut on the diagonal narrow strips

• Cut apart the dark green strips into leaf shapes and place three on each tree. Press in place.
• Fuse a 5” square of red or fuchsia fabric and cut it into small squares.
• From the small squares cut out small circles using very sharp KAI scissors.  Place three on each tree and press in place.

We will put it all together on Friday – See you then. Ho Ho Ho

PEACE - Man

Making patterns is a lot of fun.

You can do what ever you want.

I like that. I have never really liked it when people tell me I have to do things a certain way.
I have always liked to experiment and find my own way.

PEACE is that kind of pattern. By experimenting I came up with this design.
Peace is an easy and fun pattern to make.

If you have been following along you know that at the end of the week there will be a drawing for a give away that includes my pattern “Holiday Moments”,( PEACE is one of the patterns in Holiday Moments) the Winter Special fabric kit and a spool of Red Madeira thread.
This is my thank you for being loyal blog followers.

In order to qualify to be in the drawing for the free give away you must -

1) Leave one comment only telling me which New Year's Resolution you kept this year? If you didn't keep one, which one do you'd wish you kept?

One of my New Year Resolutions was to change my needle for every new project I started...a very practical resolution and one that was very easy to keep. I did manage to stick to that resolution, mostly...and there were no guilt trips if I didn't do it straightaway.
I'm looking forward to reading your stories!

2) Join my blog as a follower, by clicking on the link at the top right of this page that says "join this site"
 
3) That's it...no more tricks or finagling...

I thought I would share with you a few of the step outs for making the PEACE pattern.

First, of course, it is so easy when you buy my fabric kit – Winter Special - Holiday Bundle 1/2 yard of Winter Red and 1/2 yard of Grass Green fabrics for $20

I have used the Winter Red fabric for the background to PEACE.

The first thing you want to do is cut the 1/2 yard of red fabric into an 18” square.

Then fold the square into quarters and using the pattern piece, mark out a circle in the middle of the folded square.



This will be your guild for laying out your design.

• Use the 1/2 yard of grass green fabric to make the trees. 
• Fuse a 10” strip of GG for the trees. I only use WonderUnder #805 to fuse all my projects.
• Once the fabric is fused remove the release paper. Release paper is the paper that comes on the fusible web.
• Cut out three strips that are 3” wide by 18”
• Mark on one side of the fabric every 1 1/2” with an extra fine sharpie marker.
• On the other side of the strip, starting 3/4 of an inch in from the edge mark every 1 1/2”.
• Using a pinking bade in your 45m rotary cutter cut across the lines from one side to the other.
• Trim across the bottom of each triangle that you have just created using the pinking blade.
• You will need your 16 triangle trees for the wreath.

This should get you excited. Watch for more in my next post.

Happy Quilting today!

Christmas Give Away

I am participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party Give Away.

Visit the more hundreds of quilting blogs participating in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party. You can register on each blog for their giveaway.

I will be giving away my latest pattern -

• “Holiday Moments”.

• Along with it I will also send your way - the Winter Special -“1/2 yard of Winter Red hand dyed fabric and 1/2 yard of Grass Green hand dyed fabric”

• AND a spool of my favorite Madeira Rayon Thread in RED.

This is my way of saying thank you for a great year of blogging and for an even better year in 2013.


What do you have to do?


1) Leave one comment only telling me which New Year's Resolution you kept this year? If you didn't keep one, which one do you'd wish you kept?


2) Join my blog as a follower, by clicking on the link at the top right that says "join this site"

One of my New Year Resolutions was to change my needle for every new project I started...a very practical resolution and one that was very easy to keep. I  did manage to stick to that resolution, mostly...and there were no guilt trips if I didn't do it straightaway.

I'm looking forward to reading your stories!

2) That's it...no more tricks or finagling...

Comments close on December 17, ( I’ll be headed to Florida for Christmas soon after that) I will draw one lucky winners name from the group.

I will ship out your prize on December 18th, you might even have time to make one of the Wall hangings and get it on the wall by the 25th for that special day or to give as a gift!!


Thanks for taking a walk in the woods with me all year long...

I hope you will tell your friends about the hop and all you new readers I hope you will take a moment to go to the top of this post and click the “Join this site” button.

Happy Quilting

Birds and Flowers Part 2

Little Fused Art Quilts with Frieda and Laura – Birds and Flowers Part 2 starts today on the Quilt Show. Laura continues her lesson on making her little quilt, Birds and Flowers, follow along as she shows you how to build a nest for your birds. Even a bird brain can do this easy weaving technique.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to watch Laura and I make art quilts. It is just like taking a class with us, or being in our booth. We don’t hold back.

If you are not already a member I think you would really enjoy being one. The Quilt Show is a great resource for all kinds of quilting information. I watch all kinds of videos on this site and learn a lot from some great and very experienced quilters.

Press ON!

Left overs

I thought you might enjoy seeing the two little quilts I started at the start of this week.


Each of these is the tiny version of one of my patterns. The first one is the tiny version of Summer Afternoon done in pink. And the second one is the tiny version of Three Pumpkins. I make these tiny versions with left over's from fused projects. 


Nothing is ever wasted with fused fabrics.


A bit of a peek at the process.


Here is the quilt in the process of being quilted.


I like to leave plenty of extra fabric and batting around the design while I am quilting it, that way I have lots of fabric to hold on to and plenty to trim away once I am done quilting.





The design elements (flowers, leaves, stems) were outline quilted with 30# rayon thread and then the background area was stippled with 50# silk thread.





I thought you might enjoy seeing the back as well.





And finally the front.


This little quilt is about 12” x 9”





The flowers and leaves are made of my hand dyed silk and the background and binding are my hand dyed cottons. If you are interested in purchasing it for your own private art collection, contact me.


Tiny Three Pumpkins is the perfect wall quilt for fall.





I decided to quilt the background around the pumpkins with little oak leaves and swirls. I like to do this kind of quilting with a variegated 30# cotton thread.





I always sign my quilts in three places, obsessive I know, but I can’t help it. First I machine quilt 
my name on the front, then I sign and date the label, and lastly I sign the back with a black extra fine sharpie marker.



This little quilt measures about 14” x 10”. Cute isn’t it. Perfect for your studio wall or in the kitchen this fall to cheer you up.


Have a great weekend and stay cool.


Don't forget next week is my blog give away for Jane Sassaman's new book. 

Blooming Fun and Field Poppies

		Fun Fusing classes VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Two of the other classes I taught at NQA in Columbus were Field Poppies and Blooming Fun.

It is always fun to see just how creative my students are.

I learn just as much from them as they do from me.

Strips and Stacking

If only I was a supreme being, think of all the exotic flowers I could make.

Well, I kind of am. I can make my flowers anyway I want, any color I want, any shape I want and any size I want. They can have all kinds of do da’s and extra stuff on them.

But I digress. Let’s just talk about the Tulips and Daffodils from the other days post.

To make the Tulips and Daffodils for the class Trumpeting Spring that I taught last week in Saginaw, I use a few simple tricks of “fusibility” (I made that word up) to help make it easy and efficient to make my flowers. 


To create the tulips on my quilt “Tulips” I make the design down the middle first.

1. Remove the release paper from two fused fabrics, one light one darker for the tulip flower head.
2. Cut from each fabric color 1 rectangle that is 1” x 3”
3. Cut on the long edge of the darker colored fabric using a wavy decorative blade in your rotary cutter.
4. Place the darker fabric about 1/8'” over the lighter fabric on a piece of release paper and tack fuse together.
   Tack fusing is using a hot iron for just a few seconds on the top to hold the two layers together.
5. 
6. Trace the shape of your tulip onto a piece of release paper using a mechanical pencil.
7. Place the pencil side of the paper against the fused side of the combined rectangle and press with a hot dry iron to transfer the shape to the back of the fused fabric.
8. Remove the paper and cut out with a small rotary cutter or very sharp scissors.
9. 

Creating designs this way is so easy. And it makes designing fun, like a game.

Check out these leaves in my Darling Dandelion quilt from my book Fun Fast Fusies.


The ones behind the Dandelion are made the exact same way as the tulips.

First cutting out two rectangles of different colored fabrics and then fusing them together to make a base unit and finally cutting out the leaf shape from the base unit.

Making the flowers on the Daffodil’s quilt is really simple.

Use the same technique for transferring a pattern as I did for the tulips.

For each flower place the release paper over the pattern and stack the different sections one on top of the other, matching them up according to the pattern.



Designing can be liberating and very creative. You just have to let yourself go and enjoy the ride.

Trumpeting Spring

The weather here in Chicago land has turned really nice. We are enjoying warm and sunny days with very little humidity. A real gift.

That will all change as the summer progresses, but we aren’t in summer yet.

This past week I taught up in Saginaw MI. We did one of my favorite classes; Trumpeting Spring.

It is one of my favorite because it is a fusing class about Spring Flowers. I am so happy when the flowers begin to bloom in the early spring. I am always ready for warm weather and bright colors. I want to be outside in the sunshine like the flowers after the long cold winter.


Tulips
And Daffodils

Yellow and blue are so happy together. Caryl Bryer Fallert bought a version of Daffodils to hang in her yellow and blue studio. Are you a quilt collector too?



Tulips and Daffodils are the two patterns students made in class. Bright, cheery and fun. The ideas and inspiration for these two little quilts came from my own garden.

My garden spans the whole width of my back yard and I have Tulips and Forget Me Knots all over the garden in different places.


There are beds of daffodils also in the garden, but I have a great big bed of them under the family room window that faces south west. These are the very first flowers to bloom in the spring. I always pick a big bunch to have on my kitchen table to make me smile.



Here are a few pictures from class. Everyone had such a good time and did such a beautiful job. Of course my gorgeous hand dyed fabrics always make these so beautiful.




I hope you have a bright, cheery and fun quilting week.
 

I can smell the green

Spring is coming, I can smell it in the air.

March is the month of green for me, by the end of the month I can start planting peas and onions in my garden.

I will be eager to get out in the garden and clean it up, getting rid of all the dead winter junk I left behind in October.  I might even get some mulch put in place.

I read somewhere that if you put down damp newspapers under the mulch the weeds won’t come up through the paper. I am going to try that this year and hope for a weed free (almost) garden.



One of the flowers I love the most in my garden are the low growing and small beautiful blue Forget – Me – Knots. I made this little quilt several years ago and it was featured in Quilts and more.



I was inspired by those wonderful Forget-Me-Knot flowers that bloom for months in my ramshackle garden and somehow magically spread themselves all over the flower beds.

I love that about them.

I never know where they will crop up the next year. I also love the fact that they are BLUE.

• The first thing I did to make this little quilt was to make a quick sketch of what I wanted the quilt to look like.
• Next I fused up some turquoise fabrics to make the flowers from. I used my sketch to trace around the shape of the flower heads using an extra fine sharpie marker.
• I then placed the marker drawing against the fused side of the fabric and pressed with a hot dry iron. This is basically a printing processes and the marker will transfer to the back of the fused side of the fabric.
• I can then cut out the flower shape out, just inside or right on the marker line.

• I cut out from fused green fabric a group of elongated leaf shapes, like the ones that grow with the Forget-Me-Knots. I cut these free form with a decorative deckle blade in my 45mm rotary cutter.

TIP: Remember to always turn your mat over to the back side when cutting with decorative blades.

• I “auditioned” the leaves and flowers on different color background fabrics and finally settled on this yummy Pink Pulp fabric.

• I arranged all the flowers and leaves on the background fabric and fused them in place.
• Next I started “auditioning” fabrics for the border.

This rich blue fabric – The Blues - really caught my eye and become the border on this sweet and inviting little quilt.



Finally I had to quilt this sunny quilt. I choose to outline all the flowers by stitching - stitch in the ditch around each one then added little French knots to finish off the center of each bloom to act as stamen.

Free form feathers seemed to be the right thing to quilt in the border of this quilt, and stippling was the perfect compliment to the feathers. I quilted the feathers and did the outline stitching in 30wt rayon, and the stippling in YLI silk thread.

The last thing I did was add in a fused binding to finish this quilt. You can read through a tutorial of a fused binding by clicking the tab at the top of my blog, or review the video from a couple of days ago showing you step by step how I put on a fused binding.

I can’t wait for my Forget-Me-Knots to start blooming this year!