What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 

I finished my scrappy Christmas strings piece, as a table runner, maybe to be hung vertically who knows, I have a year to decide LOL! 

Pieced the back of the 24.5" XX 14.5" top, and got it ready for machine binding. A gold on green stripe all sewn by machine this time

sewn to the back, brought to the front, tucking in the raw edge for machine straight stitch finish with 

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welcome to my weekly creativity post... stress is taking a toll but here are a few things sewn this week...

Christmas hexie spiral prepped and ready to sew, Maybe into a little tree skirt 

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this week was one of making the most of moments. 

Ever have one like that where the bar was low enough to reach? lol 

Over the years I've made many many MANY quilts some of them Fall themed. 

Each quilt generates scraps even those made from scraps. I keep Fall themed scraps in a bag which was a jumble of bits and pieces.

perfect for when I feel out of sorts and just want to handle (SORT) leftovers to use

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it's been a week,  and I always try to live a creative life. Sometimes things get done/ finished, and sometimes they don't. I had two paper workshops start this week, the image above is from the journaling one. 

we were to just doodle and watch paint appear on paper. This prompt was swirls. I dragged a paint filled brush over an index card, playing with color and it was a mess! So I cut out a heart, and laid it on a clean card and wrote Life Is Messy.  

I  like the cut away on another card and ...

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July is a new month, and a new color of scraps to use....Purple! 

for a while purple was my favorite color. I got a purple camera, purple phone, wore purple clothes

Above is an image of my prep for another hexie spiral block, to work on at night 

First choose fabrics to use, cut 2.5" squares, next baste fabrics to the shapes

I wonder if you feel like I do when you finally finish a quilt... like you finished a term paper... relief! 

and a slight let down in the push to create...

so I took out my ...

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Spring Green Leaves  26" X 26"

 I will start this week with quilt making...

I've been working steadily on the Spring Leaf piece and it's now finished (needs a hanging sleeve tho) 

I will show some detail shots in a minute,

I got out my orange scrap bin, the bag of really small bits in a bin of small scraps, and saw tiny half square triangle blocks someone gave me a while back.... I began playing with them, now appreciating the more subtle colors.... and ended up making this

I had to make a few more from my ...

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it's about 18.5"  X  23" at this point, with about 20 blocks

 

this creativity post is brought to you by the color yellow (thank you Rainbow scrap challenge)

three bundles of hand dyed cherrywood fabrics, (Hobbyhouseneedleworks had them for a good price) 

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this was actually a full week of creativity for me...I'd like to invite you into my world, my happy studio space. I love my sewing machine...  

When I'm stressed I like to sort fabric scraps then take the smallest of them to the machine and make order out of the chaos. My scraps are all shapes, all sizes, all color values and patterns. The focus color of April is yellow, so I pulled out the yellow scrap bin, and started sorting. 

In my bin was a bag of blocks, improv starts, left overs. A treasure chest! I ...

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see the fashionable ladies who lunch???

This was Project Quilting week, meaning we were given a prompt of "wearable" and one week to design, make and finish a project. She said we could include clothing fabric

cupcakes, fat chefs, chocolates!

repurpose a wearable

like an old Christmas apron?

or make something to actually wear, and I needed an apron so...

I picked fabrics starting with the fancy chefs, and fussy cut some strips to use, started piecing them large enough to cover the apron...

I cut around the apron with enough to fold under to stitch to the edge of ...

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Creativity... how do you use your creativity? This week I had to come up with 3 meals a day and I don't like food prep. This week I sewed a bit on my star puzzle.. putting together disparate blocks into a whole:

First I took star blocks sort of the same size, that I made with Christmas scrap fabric, to try a pattern (over the years) added to them to make it people size. Then decided to join them with an irish chain block, in a vintage gold with gold metallic fabric. 

I sewed them in rows making the ...

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I've been trying to catch up on the things I wanted to do this season,..

we are just about  cleaned up from the long illness although DH is still coughing, and I am just feeling safe to turn my head to art again! 

quick sketch

 I missed you! 

My paints paper brushes and ink pens have been used, starting with 2 tutorials (beginners)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRxRkMx3etA&t=43s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Q8tObxPF0&t=931s 

Surprisingly the best I felt was when I was painting... here are some Christmas card inserts for  friends ...

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I am trying to get back in studio to make things. I wanted to paint cards, bead ornaments, and sew. I haven't had time to do anything til this this week. I dragged out the scrap bag of Christmas fabrics, and found 6 star blocks the same size.

I think I made them each to test a pattern and just used the same bag of scraps for all... I decided to make a single person quilt for the bed... so I added in a couple more stars

then tried to find a fabric to insert in spaces between. Amazing ...

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A nearly completed quilt this week. 24" X 26.5" 

made using this tiny pattern, a pile of pretty scraps, scrap of batting, and effort

we are still in a sick house, 2 medical appts later, a run of antibiotics, 2 plus weeks of contagion that continues as all the sheets, towels, surfaces, etc must now be cleaned. All doctors called it a virus and how it got through distancing, masks, and glove wearing when outside, we don't know. It's knocked dh out and all the heavy lifting, cleaning, dog care, and cooking falls on me. Now he ...

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welcome to this week's creativity round up... I spent more time with needle and thread this week. 

The turquoise/aqua color palette sang to me, of peace, comfort, soft beauty and clear skies. This little improvisational piece is finished, and fits my bedside table beautifully. 

it started with the 4 log cabin blocks... tiny scraps and color variations, one sewn to another, round and round then trim and sew the 4 blocks together. I had little triangles in the box, so those were done in an improvisational way. Flying Geese.

I wanted color balance  so I continued to add ...

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I love color. I love making. All my life I've loved making. I remember as a very young girl loving the feel of art supplies from crayons, to fabric, to weaving potholders to see a pattern emerging. I took lessons at the rec center in embroidery and stitched on my bell bottoms in high school., I did ceramics and made jewelry with macrame and beads. I sewed all my clothes. I painted and stitched and tried every craft I got my hands on. 

I had no formal art training in school because I spent all elective hours on band ...

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just a test of my posca pens

I've been sewing, painting and sketching this week. This is my little round up of each.... 

I got stuck working to turn a set of 12 RSC blocks into a person sized quilt this week, so I took them off the design wall and put up another set I did last year, and loved them! 

however I found only 10 blocks  so I quickly made two more in colors I like, 

yellow/gold

and

purple for RSC color of the month of April

and began to think of how to make these ...

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Mandala hearts  14" X 18"

Welcome to my creative round up for this week... which includes a finished Valentine quilt, more blocks for my stay at home round robin, some paintings and a hand bound book to in which to draw and paint. 

(remember to click on any image to see it larger)

let's get started with the Valentine quilt for this year, shall we? I have made one for each year DH and I have been married, some are bed sized, some are tiny, some are wall sized. I used to show them all in a lecture I ...

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four 8" blocks made with a new technique

 

I decided not to renew my paid membership to "the quilt show" this year. That means I had to quickly watch the show by Gylene Fitzgerald  before it was unavailable, and learn to use her ruler. So I did...

practicing with the RSC color of the month, dark blues
I made the four pineapple scrap blocks shown in the first picture. I don't love them or the process but it's a possible block for the RSC this year. I made them in dark/bright blue scraps

she also taught how ...

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Finished and what a feeling of relief and accomplishment! It's big and heavy to me. I used to make lots of bed quilts both hand quilted and machine quilted but I'm older and parts of me are injured making this finish a wonderful feeling! I am calling it Christmas Ornaments for now but no label is made yet.

Milo: can I get on Mama??  (Mama: nope)

 I started this last Christmas by drafting my own octagon and finding fun special holiday fabrics to cut

piecing around them pineapple style with pretty holiday scraps, squaring them to 12.5 ...

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Welcome to this week's creativity round up, where I've been obsessed with finishing this big bed quilt!

I took time each day this week to listen to the lectures sent by Art Apothecary, on ways to be more creative, and the health benefit to making art. Pictures to follow on the above quilt but allow me to share one little drawing exercise meant to encourage your own wisdom and inner muse.

we were to think of a question or problem to solve. write it down. choose a color to begin (red was mine) close our eyes and just ...

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