In Progress

I finally finished trimming up the HSTs leftover from this quilt top.

I arranged them simply into a baby quilt.  I'm planning to quilt it to accentuate the zigzag that is formed in the negative space.

This is now the fifth quilt top I have awaiting quilting.  Better move these WIPs along.

Fabric Dyeing Workshop

There are so many talented ladies in my quilt guild, and this weekend I was privileged to learn from yet another one.  Kim Eichler-Messmer is a professor at the Kansas City Art Institute.  She makes wonderful quilts, many inspired by the midwest landscape, and she uses all her own hand-dyed fabrics.  She generously offered to do a workshop on fabric dyeing for a lucky few guild members (okay, I'll admit, I was sitting next to her at the guild meeting when she had the signup sheet, and I may have taken advantage of that).

We met in her studio space and dove right in.  Kim taught us how to do three different dyeing techniques.  Here are my low water immersion and solid shade dyed fabrics.

Next, Kim showed us how to do a gradation dye.  She uses this technique a lot in her work, and I can see why!  I did a two color gradation from yellow to turquoise.

 Dreamy!

The whole day was such a treat.  Many thanks to Kim for sharing her space and her expertise with us!

An Homage

This doll quilt is an homage to Lauren of Aunt June fame.  Or rather, to my favorite quilt of hers. 

My towerall is much smaller, but otherwise a shameless copy of the original.  I had permission though.  Lauren was kind enough to show me how to create the towerall from strips in one of her Improv Studio classes at Harper's (if you're local to KC, you should try to catch one of these - a new improv technique each month).

I did some heavy quilting on this, and boy did it distort the top.  It seems spray baste is no match for this kind of texture.  I had to trim it a ton to square it up in the end.  Maybe I should have pinned it a bunch too. 

I  backed it with a vintage sheet, 'cause that's how Aunt June rolls. This one is staying with me!

Personalized Shirts - Two Ways

I discovered, when my son turned three, that kids love shirts with their age on them.  It's a way to tell everyone how old they are now.  I think it's only cool with the 10 and under set, but with them - great birthday gift.  I've made them each year for my own boys, their friends and family. Here is one I made today for a little cousin who has his first birthday coming up on Halloween. I used the traditional fusible web, machine applique method. 

I've been wanting to give reverse applique with knits a go, so I tried it out on a stegosaurus shirt for my five year old.  And I've found my new favorite way to personalize tees. It's so easy, since raw edges are no problem with knit fabrics.  

There are a lot of tutorials on the web describing this method, but here's a brief run down of what I think it the quickest way to go.  Trace your image onto freezer paper.  Iron the paper to the front of the shirt.  Use spray baste to temporarily adhere a contrasting knit fabric to the inside of the shirt (the wrong side).  Stitch around the image outline on the freezer paper.  Tear away the freezer paper, and trim 1/8 inch from the stitching to reveal the contrasting knit fabric.  You can also trim away the excess contrasting knit on the inside of the shirt.  So easy!  I will definitely be doing this again.

Roe Baby Quilt

I was commissioned to make a baby quilt for a new family.  The customer was kind enough to tell me specific things she liked about other quilts I have made, so what we came up with is mash up of some of my favorites, which is fun.

I used the color progression of this quilt, with the circular quilting of this quilt (which is actually the same type of quilting that Jolene used in the original quilt which inspired me).

 Finally, I included a personalized version of the pieced back in this quilt.

 

 And I got use my new tags by Gutentags!

 

It finished at a large crib quilt of 48 x 60, so it'll serve this baby for a long time.  I hope it's just what she wanted!

Slow Growth

My latest paper pieced project is growing - very slowly.  I'm trying to decide how much bigger it should be.  It may be a pillow, or perhaps a wall hanging.  Not sure yet.

I can report that the papers are fairly easy to remove, using the Sewline pen, if you are gentle.  I eased the fabric away from the papers before pulling the papers out.  So far, so good!

Quilts on the Quad

We had a gorgeous day for the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild's first quilt show.  The organizers did a fantastic job, and the show was full of stunning quilts.  Here are just a few.

I have to show some closeups so you can appreciate the quilting, in particular. This is a quilt by Carla of Lolly Quiltz, quilted by Angela Walters.  Amazing!

 Mary Anne's quilting on her Kona challenge quilt adds so much.

 And wait until Shea does a full reveal on this one on her blog soon.  I adore the quilting!

Sheryl's quilting is always staggering.  This quilt was draped over a water feature. 

I've said it before - best guild ever.