Not Afraid of Color

For part two of my creative week, I have two things to share. The first is my Stay-At-Home-Round-Robin quilt, "Spring Bunnies" is finished! Yea! 

I made this into a spring theme this year, figuring out how to adjust prompts to fit into that!

"Spring Bunnies" 39" X 47"

We have had 6 prompts, and I've posted that week's blocks each time, with pattern sources and close ups. This week I will just share some close ups of my choices

The first prompt was "spool" blocks, and mine is in the image below... I did one with flowers as a vase

This image also shows the   star blocks mine are flowers), and pinwheels too

 

square in a square blocks hold precious mousie fabrics

below are two bird blocks done as square in a square too

hourglass blocks are done in sky fabrics

more flying geese form a butterfly

it was a puzzle to figure out how to piece all these blocks into a unified whole top!

The star "flower" blocks have a sun button in them

I added in cute little appliques to make me happy... see my snail smiling? (for Joanne)

I made the "sticks" for my 3-D pinwheels with metallic braid appliqued in place. Two fabrics per blade, folded and caught in seams... pattern is in original pinwheel post.. Note two different greens used as background for interest. That adorable tiny daisy fabric makes me happy!

All that and a dancing bunny....

this was very heavy and difficult to quilt on my little sewing machine, and my shoulders hurt now...the binding was one of my fave fabrics,

wee little purple blossoms before it was turned back and hand stitched to the backing fabric. Another lesson learned... I used a pink with leaves batik for my backing. It was nearly impossible to hand stitch the binding through it! I added in the sleeve before the binding, catching it in the seamline.

I decided next time I do one of these, I'm doing rows. Simple rows.

this is like a recipe that has all good ingredients but the final dish doesn't taste great... I like all the components but not the total thing really.... live and learn and move on. 

hanging in the family room...

 

Things I like, those pinwheels! my center bunny! the spool block as a vase, and those birds.

Next up, my hand stitching hexie scrap project is growing!!!

47 hexies in each petal!

5 petals sewn on my tiny hexie project... following colors of rainbow scrap challenge... this month's color is green...

I posted on Part One of my week, my finished Project Quilting quilt... the prompt was "fears" so I made this in one day

the post, with two paintings as well, is   (HERE  ) or just keep scrolling down. Please visit and tell me what you think....thanks!

All in all, two finishes in one week is a lot for me, I'm taking a rest while I do Sketchbook Revival next week and focus on drawing and painting!

SAHRR

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

finished or not

 

 

Welcome to this week's sewing round up... The pic is of a block by Lilyella done with EPP onto paper templates. I am into fall colors now that our trees have begun to wear them...

EPP is done in sections onto paper, and this time I glue basted them

 then stitched them together with a whip stitch
into a kind of kaleidoscope block

Which I'm trying to decide how to set

I enjoyed this music this morning as I typed this...autumn morning bossa nova 

when I finished the block, all the seams meeting in such a pinpoint place center were difficult to tame. I sprayed them with water and pressed them going around like a pinwheel and the block laid flat

pattern souce

thank you to Jocelyn  https://canadianneedlenana.blogspot.com/  for the pattern source & inspiration

Now for RSC, the color of the month to use in scraps is Light/lime green, or as I call it "neutral"

and I didn't realize that was the color until I had just an afternoon to make something... I showed all the sweaters a couple weeks ago in a post 

I want one like this!!! As a poodle lover, it's adorable to me

No I'm adorable mama!

I took this one out to start quilting this week... it has a lot of light green

and I found a diamond dotz kit to finally try... I had to organize first using one of my bead trays and digging out a light box

this really is so much fun... sparkly crystals that instantly stick in place, kind of like following cross stitch and paint by number had a baby and it sparkled!

and I painted a lot, that post HERE, for lots of pretty colors of the season and a tutorial

that's it for this week... and my next goal is to quilt the Kool Kaleidoscope that is ready to baste

Linking to

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
lovelaughquilt.mondays

buttonhole filler around center, backstitch, flystitch, featherstich

I am taking a class thru blueprint with Sue Spargo.
so much to learn from experts, right?
I have been doing embroidery since I was about 7, and made a Christmas gift for my mother.
When we were allowed to wear jeans to school, I embroidered the legs of my bell bottoms, until it was mostly crewel threads holding them together. I sure wish I had those today, wonder what happened to them?
I've done this a long time, but there is always, ALWAYS, something to learn...
At first I just watched, but realized being kinesthetic learner (touch) I needed to make up a little scene to practice on

wool on wool

I'm still in the class so I need to finish that today if possible, and try to take enough notes to remember how to do the intricate stitches after blueprint closes down. Thanks NBC for that.
The above image us fly stitches on petal, leaves and feather stitch on stem. Some French knots and straight stitch for grass

This is one of her woven stitches, create spokes and weave round and round. The outside is maybe crested stitch.
I already can't remember all the stitches I've tried.

For one of the first times in my life, I could not learn a stitch too. I tried and followed, I slowed the video, I tried and tried and tried. Never looked like hers

I put little hexies to try stitches on

Now I'm learning how she uses beads. Yes I've done a lot of this, but her techniques are different from mine. I also dug through some embellishments to maybe use

herringbone stitch and french knots, back stitch with thick thread

and some thick misbehaving metallic threads to weave through a closed fly stitch. Oh I'll do that again for sure!

 She didn't say to do that, but she inspired me with her woven stitches to do it my way.
I fell in love with the way she used coral stitch to secure an edge while adding a bead. The hole shows, I usually tip them but I love the orderly way they frame that wing!!

I decided to try a closed fly stitch around a hexie using bead soup, a mix of styles and colors.
To Do today, work on learning more stitches
To Do today, sew waistband buttons back on DH's shorts
To Do today, finish the binding on the "life is messy" improv fused piece

Also getting embellishments

Ain't it the truth!!!

by Randa Milford I think

Just before the illness took hold of my life, we drove to Golden CO to see the quilt museum and walk around. We really like Golden and the stores are nice to Milo.
 The museum is beautiful and we were lucky to have a docent walk around with us and talk about the quilts. We learned how the curator chose from the large number of entries too. They range from hand pieced and quilted to a modern version of just cutting hexies and fusing them to a background

don't think I'd call this EPP

so here are a few pictures to give you ideas for your next work... apologies for not always getting pics of the maker's names, I was very cloudy thinking from getting sick.
I liked the way she floated star shapes swirling around the border, and the colors


I think the maker here is Karen Fisher.

this was to look like rocks and it's very inventive in it's layout and shapes.




 Each hexie is a different shape, yet they join on one side.











I believe this was made by Beverly Miller

I loved the impact her color placement made, the light to dark placement, the overall confetti effect and edge.

The light ones blend to look like dots are appliqued but they are pieced like all the others











Isn't this combination of hand piecing hexie's and applique charming?

I believe the maker was Janet Finley












a unique setting for a Pasagalia quilt. Fresh unified color scheme, values matching so that you see the whole piece not disparate colors, and the little flowers escaping into the border
I really like the quilting on this! It's difficult to choose a quilting design for these quilts that take so long to piece. The texture and line created in the final joining of back and batting to the top, is what makes a quilt and why we love to touch them. What artistry and vision these makers have.
The back room held a special exhibit of one woman's work. She left all her quilts to the museum in her will... what a grand idea.
What a riot of color in this little display. The museum has a store inside that had the largest array of EPP books I've ever seen. Many I've never heard of before.
Our docent invited me to join their EPP group. Golden is about 40 min away by bad roads but I think I will join them and meet other people as intrigued by detail as I am. I'll let you know how it goes!