Four-Patch Kaleidoscope

Doesn't this look like SPRING?  So sweet and pastel.  I am glad that I chose the yellow over the pink;  I think that more pink might have made it TOO sweet.

In the end, I wimped out and didn't do anything too special with the borders.  The outer border HAD TO be the floral print that the 4-patches were created from.  I did take the time to put corner blocks in each border, but mainly I wanted to get the quilt top done.  It is bad enough to have as many unfinished projects as I do, but it is worse if they are in bits and pieces.  I will make sure that I have enough fabric for the binding set aside, then it is safe to leave this project for a while.

*** Oh, in case I forgot to mention it before, this pretty floral print is a product of Kona Bay Fabrics. 

The crayon batik will be finished and ready to show off tomorrow.  

In the Garden

Wow, I'm really enjoying the crayon batik ... big stitch quilting with #12 black pearl cotton.

I've finished stitching around most of the shapes.  I need to do something in the background and may switch to yellow thread so it doesn't overwhelm the rest.  I wish the detail was easier to see.  Here is a close-up taken right after I started.

The March 3 deadline for the "Walk in My Garden" challenge is coming SOON.  I've made progress tonight and may be ready to start quilting soon.

The garden quilt will be machine quilted, then I will add various embellishments like the felted flower centers, beads and yarn.

Crayon Batik

Here's what I started with.  Sally had seen instructions for making a faux batik using crayons and black dye.  Of course we had to try it out.  The first step was to melt crayons and paint them onto plain muslin.  I made a very simple sketch and colored it in.  We found that we had to work fast because the crayon thickened quickly as it cooled.

The next step was to crumple up the fabric to make "cracks".

After the fabric was smoothed out again, it was sprayed with black fabric dye.

The dye was allowed to dry thoroughly, then was ironed between sheets of newspaper to remove the wax.

It took many layers of paper.  At first, a LOT of wax came off.  Here is what it looked like after repeated ironing between newspaper:

A couple of the colors blurred a bit with ironing.  Overall, I am happy with the effect.  Next will come quilting and embellishment.  The original source suggested outlining with black permanent markers to emphasize shapes.  I think that stitching will accomplish the same. 

Yellow Kaleidoscope

Yes, the yellow won in the end.  More contrast with the four patch blocks.  All of that pink might have just been too much pink.

So, the rows are together and I know what fabrics I will be using in the border.  Maybe I will make fancy corner blocks to finish it off.

Auditions

Today was the first day in a week that I was able to plug in the sewing machine.  I still had a few of the little four-patch kaleidoscope blocks to finish.  Next, I have to decide how to put them together.

I love to set quilts on point, but decided to do something simpler with this little quilt.  I will alternate the pieced blocks with plain blocks.  What should the plain block be?  I had been considering two pinks, chose one, then decided to also look at a pale yellow.  There is a nice aqua stripe that I will use as the inner border either way.  Because of the way the repeats for the blocks are cut, I have plenty of the matching floral print for the outer border.  Here are my choices:

Now I just have to make up my mind and start cutting.  

Challenges

Guess what?  The SHATTERED quilt is finished!  It is in response to the challenge "I am _______" for the Greenville, NC guild show in April.  I really, really enjoyed the process, using tons of free form big stitch quilting. 

The colors show up more vividly in the close-up shots.

The bad news is that there is another challenge, this one due the first weekend in March.  Just like a school project, I've known about this a long time, but just recently got serious about it.  The theme is "A Walk in My Garden".  Last night I took out the materials that I had gathered earlier.

With Baby's approval, I pulled out the acrylic paints, fabric medium, stencil brush and freezer paper to stencil stems and leaves.

A while back I had felted a roll of different colored wool.  I sliced it and I think that the result will make interesting flower centers.  I also cut and fused some more leaves.

I like the direction this is taking.  I'll have to do mostly machine stitching and quilting, so I think there is a good chance it will be ready in time.   

Hoppin' Along

Today was the first day of our seventh annual shop hop.  Alice and Vickie were the first shoppers in the door at 9 am.

I can finally reveal the shop hop quilt.  Each store owner chose a different star pattern and designed a quilt using that star block.  The block pattern I chose was "Hope of Hartford".  Here is the finished quilt, which I have named "A New Hope".

The first day of the shop hop was busy and fun.  The weather was cooperative and that's always a concern.  Three more great days to go!