Sean's Christmas Quilt

I have made Christmas quilts for my family, beginning with my son's adaptation of The Grinch That Stole Christmas.  I made one for my daughter, showing her in her bed with sugarplums (her desired toys) dancing over her head.  My daughter has twin girls, so I used a pattern from Quiltmania.  It had reindeer heads cut from Christmas fabric.  The antlers were based on their hands.  My son has 2 children.  For Ellie, I made a quilt adapting The Night Before Christmas in Hawaii.  This was a favorite book of her mother's, who grew up in Hawaii.  Now it's Sean's turn. I had already made him a robot quilt for his bed.  The Christmas quilt I designed has a UFO theme.  The body of the quilt has 3 parts.  The sky has robots flying in.  The second part is the living room, with a decorated Christmas tree.  The floor section is littered with toys.  It isn't finished yet.  I plan on a narrow gold/yellow band to separate the middle from the first border, that will be composed of 3 X 7 bricks cut from the featured fabric, then another small border from fabric I haven't yet purchased. He won't be able to sleep under it this Christmas, as I plan to hand quilt it and today is December 8th!

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Rosie's comforter

I have made several comforters, using a crazy quilt method to assemble the scrap fabrics.  I use a fat batt, hard to find but I bought one online.  I start out by cutting a straight edge on the two pieces I want to join, and then sew them on the machine.  There is usually not a straight edge to add the new piece, so I use the rotary cutter and make one.  The pieces have lots of different shaped edges, but I continue to use the ruler so that I can add new pieces.  I make them in columns that I later join together.  I assemble the comforter with a backing, fat batt, and the top.  I then use a large eyed needed and some thin yarn and tie it.  I leave an inch of the backing hanging out, turn in an edge, and then sew this down on the top to finish the piece.  The comforters are very warm, and not much trouble to make. The first picture is a detail, showing a heart that I made in Jude Hill's class, and the bottom one shows the comforter.  You can see some of the yarn ties if you look closely. Off the Wall Fridays

left panel of Stonehenge piece in progress

I am working on the left panel of my Stonehenge triptych.  So far I have 2 figures sewed down, and in between what I hope will be recognizable as a sheep.  I am thinking of the quilting patterns to use, and I figure I will apply the spirals and concentric squares that I have used on the other two pieces.  They came from a picture of a Pictish stone that I found online.  I plan to face the three panels and hang them from one piece of lathe when they are finished.

Progress on Market day at Stonehenge

I have finished two of the three pieces that will make up my Market day at Stonehenge triptych.   Although the Picts came after the builders of Stonehenge, I decided to use two designs I found online on a Pictish stone, the spiral and concentric squares as quilting designs.

quilts for the family

My best work

Market Day at Stonehenge

I used some hand dyed fabric that I had bought at Paducah from Wendy Richardson for the background of the piece.  I wanted to do a piece based on stone circles.  I pieced together the background using a raw edge applique and embroidery stitches.  I looked through my stash for brownish fabric for the  large stones.  I hand quilted the piece using embroidery floss.  I am going to make this into a triptych.  I put a road made from purple sari cloth in the bottom right hand corner that will connect with  a piece on the right. I will also have a similar size piece on the left.  Rosemary

Off the Wall Fridays

A Beast journal for Rosie

My granddaughter was nine years old today.  She loves creative writing, so I bought her a nice writing journal and  made a fabric cover for it.  I made an animal, like Jude Hill does in her Patchwork beast class.The face is made from a piece of raw silk that my dad brought back from Japan in the 1950s. I had used men's ties to dye it. I think the journal will hole many "beastly" stories.

Off the Wall Fridays

Dragonfly in Amber

I finished another of the Gabaldon covers.  This one is Dragonfly in Amber.  I didn't use gold as the background, as I had a beautiful piece of dupioni silk, rose colored, and thought it resembled wine. The gold is from a discarded necktie.Off the Wall Fridays

Fabric art based on Diana Gabaldon's Outlander Series

I am very fond of the Outlander Series, and I also think the cover art from the books is fantastic.  I have been working in a series using Dupioni silk 6 inch squares as the base.  I have appliqued and embroidered the pieces.  I have finished 3 so far:

I have 5 more to go:

I can figure out how to approach all of the pieces except The Fiery Cross.  As you can see, the 2 stags are very small.  I was thinking of making them separately, maybe using wash away stabilizer and then applying them to the piece.  I don't think I can use the washaway stuff directly on the piece, as it is silk. Off the Wall Fridays

Speaking of Fibers 2013

I was very excited to be juried in to the Speaking of Fibers 2013 show of Missouri Fiber Artists.  I have 3 pieces in the show: A Saint Louis Story, Fantasy Garden, and Garden at Noon. On top of that, today I discovered that the St. Louis University Art Museum has chosen Saint Louis Story for the cover art for the exhibit! I am flabbergasted!

Off the Wall Fridays

townhouses and kaleidoscopes

My art quilt group has a table challenge.  We are to make a self portrait on one part, and put what we are working on on the table on a second part. I finished the work part, and that is what is pictured.  I still have to render myself on the other half.
When I finished, I felt like fooling around, so I opened Kaleidescope Kreator and uploaded the townhouses, and also my dragon quilt.  I don't like to use the program with people, being adverse to picture grandchildren

Off the Wall Fridays

joined at the hip, but I do find using my quilts makes some interested designs.  I might use the design for greeting cards.  I think it would be neat to make a clock base, if I knew where to order one.  Anyway, here are the houses, the dragons quilt, and the kaleidoscopes.