Take a look WAY back at my July 24 posting.  The little Peppermint Pinwheels project is finished.  18.5" x 36"

I started with a fat quarter of muslin with leaf prints (acrylic dye, real leaves).

I was inspired by the book Cultural Fusion Quilts.

Hand quilted with big stitch and pearl cotton.  Batting used was Quilters Dream "Dream Orient".  Accented with polymer clay buttons made by ME. 

Store Anniversary Sale

On August 1, I will have owned Cotton Fields Quilt Shop in Washington, NC for ELEVEN years!

There's a big sale going on Aug. 1-8.  If you are interested, all the particulars are on my store blog.

http://cottonfieldsnc.blogspot.com/

Peppermint Pinwheels

The colors I chose don't look much like peppermint, but that's the name of the pattern in the book.  I finished the two blocks that I made using the leaf print fabric.  Fun and easy.

I'm planning on making some sort of small composition with just these two blocks.  I needed to audition some fabric.  

I just LOVE this book!  There will be more "Peppermint Pinwheel" blocks in my future and at least one more pattern in the book that I plan to explore.

Slowly but Surely

Remember this one?

It started as woven strips.  Then I designed the overlay to expose as much of the "weaving" as I could.  NOW it's finished!  I added red zigzag around all of the green edges, some red paint, and quilted with yellow thread.  I finished the facing this week.  It's title is "Now and Venn".

The weaving began as an exercise at our "Artrageous Quilters" meeting.  We were challenged to make something and bring it to the next meeting.

At that next meeting, we made leaf prints, using real leaves and acrylic INK (not paint, not dye).

I printed one fat quarter of muslin that day.  It has been sitting around ever since, waiting for inspiration.

Last night, I decided to try out another pattern from Cultural Fusion Quilts by Sujata Shaw.  (I am a huge fan.)  I found a batik to pair with it, that had similar colors and a leafy design!  I cut and sewed, cut and sewed.

The fat quarter was only enough to make two blocks like this.  I need to press each section, trim and sew.  Fun to do, I will explore this pattern again. Wonder how long it will take me to get things ready for the next showing here?

Row by Row

I haven't been getting as much of my own sewing done as I would like, because I am getting the shop ready for the 2015 edition of the Row by Row Experience.  

Each visitor to the shop between June 21 and Sept. 8 will receive the pattern for my row:

The row pattern is FREE, but there are all sorts of other row by row items to tempt the shoppers.  There are collectible fabric license plates!

There are fabric kits for people who would like to make a row just like mine!

There are pins!

There is even an official mascot!  Bobbin the Robbin!

Each shop will award a grand prize of 25 fat quarters to the first person to return with a FINISHED quilt of at least eight rows.  My prize is a gorgeous batik bundle from Anthology Fabrics.

Let's have some fun! 

Orange Again

I finished this up last week, but forgot to post a picture.

Preview of things to come:  I had some nice left-overs from the first wonky rail fence quilt from the Cultural Fusion book.  I was using mostly red and yellow French prints that I bought from French Connections, here in NC.  When I saw them in NYC, I bought a few more FQ.  

I had a picture of a quilt, credited to www.materialobsession.com  called "Fractured", that I had saved oh, so long ago.  The other day, a friend showed me a copy of the very same picture.  So, I went to a file of "saved ideas" and managed to put my hands on it.  THAT'S what I'm doing with the left-overs!

This one's a little more involved than Sujata's idea.  Because they are 9-patches, it isn't just a matter of making the same block over and over or making mirror images.  I was getting mixed up, so made myself pictures using my old version of EQ.  And remember, these are left-overs, so by necessity the individual blocks are only 3".  I've got a handle on it now and when my mailman brings the next fat quarters .....

Orange

I've had this piece basted for a while.  This week it was time to quilt!

I went round and round and round until I ran out of orange thread.

With the lights off, you can't appreciate the colors, but you can sure see the texture created by all of the stitching.  I bought more thread last night so will probably finish today.

Quick Post

Here's just a glimpse of two new works in progress.  More later ....

Making Lemonade

A while back, I took a short painting class one evening and was less than happy with the results.  For the good of mankind, I will not show you the painting.

As a sewing and crafting fanatic, I couldn't "waste" that perfectly good canvas, though.

A couple of posts back, I showed a new spiral in progress,  I made it to fit the size of the canvas.  Last night I quilted it and this morning I mounted it on the canvas.  Now I like this piece of art work MUCH better.

And since I sew, quilt, knit, crochet, and make jewelry, I don't feel too bad about not being a painter. 

More Birds

No, the spiral isn't finished yet.

But this bird quilt is!  I was unhappy with the machine quilting mid-way through and put it away for a while. When I took another look, I still didn't like it, so ended up picking out a lot of machine quilting in the sashing around the birds.  Once that was done, I was able to finish it up rather quickly  And I like it now.

Wait and See

I started this spiral in a class a few months back.  Today's the day to finish it!

I'm planning on mounting this piece on a 12" x 15" canvas, so midway through the process I placed it on parchment paper with guidelines.  As you can see, I'm just about done with the piecing.  I'll layer it on batting, do a bit of quilting, then add a few embellishments before stretching it on the canvas.

At Last!

I started this when I taught a class on my "Hexagon Table Topper".  Here are the original pieced sections, ready for the embroidery to begin.

I don't know exactly why it's taken so long ..... but last night I finally finished.

Close-ups:

Maybe there's been too much knitting going on?

Little Art Exhibit

Here's my entry in the 2015 Little Art Exhibit.  It's an annual fundraiser benefiting the Beaufort County Arts Council here in Washington, North Carolina.  Each participant is provided with an 8" x 10" canvas and create a finished piece that will be on exhibit and available for purchase. 

Two friends, Mary and Sally, had played with woven ideas recently and I wanted to get in on the fun.  I wove my strips on top of a piece of fusible interfacing laying face up on my ironing board, then zigzagged all of the raw edges with "smoke" invisible thread.  I fine tuned some of the ins and outs along the edge with scissors, then zigzagged twice around with purple thread. I dabbed the edges where white still showed with my black Sharpie.  I spray painted the canvas RED before attaching the woven piece.  I was toying with the idea of beads or other embellishments, but I think now that it is DONE.

Split Personality

Here's another great example of how I am pulled in so many different directions.  Hanging above the ironing board is my challenge piece for the Artrageous Quilters along side a little finished top made from a printed "Block Party Studios" panel and free pattern.  I've got to keep the shop samples coming!

Here's a little quilt that should have been finished a LONG time ago.  It's one of my original patterns "Four Square Hearts", and has 2010 on the pattern back!  I've used it as a teaching sample several times.  Finally, it is basted and ready to quilt.

AND, when I'm not sewing, I might be working on jewelry (taking another class right now) or knitting.  Last night I finished my third pair of hand knit socks.  I just love them!!

Show and Tell

I know that a lot of you can identify with this.  Too many projects at one time means SLOW progress on each one of them.  Then, magically, several things are completed in quick succession.  Hooray!!!

The first thing that I have to show off is the quilt I designed for our annual shop hop in February.  It had to remain a secret until Feb. 4, the day the hop started.  Now it can be shown!  The name of the pattern is "Star Play" and it is available at Cotton Fields Quilt Shop.

I had a great time making this large wall quilt.  It's my version of the quilt featured on the cover of Cultural Fusion Quilts by Sujata Shaw.  The majority of the fabrics used were French prints that I had been hoarding.

Close up:  I machine quilted with a walking foot and variegated thread. Straight lines, 1/2 inch apart.  It took a WHILE.

The paint ship challenge quilt is also finished.  It's 12 inches wide and 63 inches long.  It's also machine quilted with walking foot and variegated thread.  The 12 inch wide quilts from this challenge will be on display together at the Crystal Coast Quilter's Guild show in Morehead City, NC in May of this year.  They will appear at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Virginia next February.

The title of the quilt is "Inner Light".  Here is a close up of the quilting and a little bit of bead work I've added to the center.

What else?  I've also made a small quilt top from a pattern called "Plume" in the book Fat Quarter Style.

AND

I've finished knitting a second pair of socks and started a third.

Yes, I HAVE been sewing Part 2

While I was taking glamour shots of the shop hop quilt (secret until the hop starts on February 4), I decided to snag a few pictures of other works in progress.

When last we saw the paint chip challenge, it looked like this:

  

Now it's ready for quilting.  Long and skinny, the challenge quilts will be displayed as a group, like banners.  All are 12" wide and length was supposed to be between 60" and 72".  Mine is 64" long.

Then there's the hexagon table topper.  It's my pattern and this is my third, started while I taught a class.  Here's what it looked like in the beginning. 

And here's how far I've gotten with the embroidered seams.

Of course, we all get side-tracked.  I like to knit and for the longest time I have wanted to learn to make socks.  Here is my first one EVER, made with Jeanne's pattern from Knitting Addiction, Kitty Hawk, NC.

By the way, Jeanne will be back at Cotton Fields with her YARN TRUCK again on Saturday, February 7.