A lucky find at local Quilt Show!

A friend asked me to volunteer for the set up of a local quilt show. I have to admit that I didn't really want to, but I showed up. Shame on me, cuz I made some good contacts in the quilting and art world! I look forward to developing these contacts and relationships in the future.

Local groups set up booths on the actual day of the event, including my Eugene Modern Quilt Guild. I stopped by the booth and found a baggie full of cut half-square triangles in 1930s types of fabrics for 25 cents!!! I snatched those up and have sewn them together, making them one of my most recent "works-in-progress":

A pile of lovelies!

Close up shot of the actual fabrics

I can't wait to play around with them some more to find out what they'll become! I know that there will probably be stars involved, and I believe it needs some red added to it, don't you think?

1st Place at the Local County Fair!

Unbelievable! I've never entered anything in the county fair in my life. I had a few items sitting around and thought, What the heck! Here's the winner in the "Quilted Tableware" Category:

   

Bright Reds & Whites

Friendship Star centers

Reversible back

Another New Project

I'm starting to make some cute aprons, and this is just the beginning:

I love the birdcage fabric. This will have 4 scalloped pockets when complete. (Pattern by Vanilla House Designs, "Pocket Aprons" #P115)

Linking up with creative people like YOU via:

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Analyzing a quilt and finding surprises!

One of the first quilts I became attracted to at the recent Sisters Quilt Show (Oregon) had lovely colors. 

As I gazed at the Churn Dash block design, I began to notice some detail that I hadn't been aware of upon first perusal. I knew there was something about it that caught my eye and held me there. The intrigue caused me to inspect it more closely.

Here's what I discovered as I focused on the opposite color corners in each block (pink and orange): those Churn Dash blocks aren't just "wonky." Each Churn Dash is actually made up of four Friendship Star blocks. It's much easier to see them in the white stars to the bottom left and right of it. How clever!! Have you ever seen this design before, or made it? I love how the base half-square triangles give it that "wonky" look! If you know the name of this particular pattern, please let me know.

This little "twist" helps me to understand how design can make a big difference in a quilt's appeal.

My sincere apologies for not having the name of the person who made and quilted this lovely piece.

DON'T MISS my previous post on July 19 to see a fabulously homespun, paper-pieced quilt :)   

Especially if you're a CHICKEN FAN like me!

It's link-up time!

Quilt Show Feature: Homemade Paper-Pieced Farm Quilt

I thoroughly enjoyed the Sisters Quilt Show (Oregon) on July 12. My strategy: start as soon as it begins in the morning, before it gets REALLY HOT and crowded, which is 9 a.m. officially, though I sometimes arrive a little before.

The creativity displayed throughout the town is like visiting an outdoor art show. Even my husband enjoys looking around for about an hour (then he checks out to a quiet place to read until I'm done). I grazed around the show with my sister and niece, marvelling at the ideas, skills, colors, patterns. 

One of the biggest highlights of the show this year was a special jewel that I almost didn't find. It had become very HOT, as usual, and I was tiring out. I knew that once we left, we wouldn't be returning that day, and it's just a one-day show. There was one corner that we hadn't looked closely at kiddy-corner to the fabric store (Stitchin' Post), so we wandered over. That's where we saw this:

With creator and designer: Lisa Wipf of Salem, Oregon

DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS!!

This creative woman paper-pieced every block. Not only paper-pieced, but she designed every one of them as well!! Then she personally quilted it!

See the hens with the farmer holding the bucket of feed in the center block, surrounded by hens??

The outermost border also features hens, in various poses and colors. Note the larger blocks featuring pigs (top left), goats (below pigs), and, even though it may be difficult to see clearly, to the right of the pigs is a woman behind the clothes she's hung on the line! Wow!!!
 

Notice the cow with the sunflower block (top left), sheep block with barn in background below that.

The detail in this particular block is incredible: There's a sunflower in the middle. To the right of it, in the same block, is a beehive. If you look REALLY CLOSELY, you'll see yellow with black center stripes which are paper-pieced tiny bees!!! Note the quilting design: cows, pigs, chickens, bunnies, sun & more.

On the back, she included some leftover random hens:

Here's a close-up of the woman hanging out the laundry, including quilts hung with clothespins! There's a few bees buzzing above the line as well. Notice the bird on the clothesline post on the right!!


Here's a close-up of the farmer:

All I can say is
WOW!!I'm so glad we persisted and saw Lisa's quilt! It made our day. I hope it makes yours, too!

Hand Dyeing, New Tablerunner, & Quilt Show

Hand Dyeing

I've wanted to dabble in hand dyeing for a long time. It looked like fun! So I took a class with Lynn Koolish last Friday at the Sisters, Oregon Quilt Show. I brought 6 yards of prepared-for-dyeing (PFD, as opposed to pdf!), which I also prewashed and dried. I cut this yardage into 1 yard or smaller quantities so that I ended up with at least 8 separate pieces to "play" with. At least 13 women in the class participated, sharing materials and having a great time. We experimented and learned from one another. Here's a sampling of what I created:

Blue: folded and placed in 2 cup plastic container with dye. This is probably my favorite because of the patterning and variation of color.

Grapes: I painted the grape motif with a corks that another woman had glued together in the shape of a bunch of grapes. I used a sponge brush to paint the leaves, and sprayed the background lightly with yellow.

Chartreuse Lattice: I sprayed the background lightly with yellow, squirted lines of orange (which bled), dotted purple with a squirt bottle, and drew the lattice with a sponge brush. 

Spaceships??: I used a natural sponge to "blop" with purple. I took my bottle cap to stamp the pink circles with my gloved hands, which resulted in "bunny ears". I added some blue with the natural sponge, then drew squares with a sponge brush in green.

Aqua Spirals: Aqua paint on natural sponge, painted with purple spirals.

American Flag??: I didn't mean to imitate the flag, but there you go! If I had turned it upside down, it would look different, right? This was the best technique, I think, though I do like what happened with the folded fabric. Created with a fabric-wrapped PVC pipe ("rag-roller") for the green. Red squirt-lines of paint in left corner were scraped with a plastic thing-y used for texturing walls or cakes. Used natural sponge to make light blots of red on the green.

Wild: Green rag-roller, red scraped with plastic texture tool as well as rectangle sponge blops, squirt bottle blue spirals & stars. Surely there's a use for it...somewhere....

Mop-Up Rag: Suggested by the instructor. I used it to clean up spills, dye that bled through to the plastic tablecloth below my projects, and to blot up areas of too much dye on other projects (note the spirals & stars).

Aqua: fabric was scrunched tightly into another plastic container of dye. The color is lovely, reminding me of a blue sky with some clouds (look closely). The patterning isn't quite as dramatic as the folded piece above.

*Just for fun, vote on which one of the above you like/prefer, if you were shopping for a hand-dye. These are amateur attempts. Use the title under the one(s) you like.

Have you done any hand-dyeing? Have you enjoyed the process? Share some of your creations!

My Creation: New Tablerunner

It's been a busy summer, including some stitching. I started this tablerunner at least 6 months ago. I really like the "hot" colors:

Close up view

The total view

Now I need to find the backing and binding fabric.

Quilt Show: Sisters, Oregon

I apologize to all the artists whose names I regretfully didn't take time to write down (or photograph) to give them rightful credit in the photos. Over 1500 quilts, of all sizes and types, were displayed outdoors & indoors throughout this small Old West town. These are a sampling of some of the ones that took my fancy. Enjoy their talents and inspiration!

View of quilts hanging on the side of Stitchin' Post Fabric Store.



          

     


     

   

     




    

     

     


          

     

If you know the names of the patterns of any of these quilts, please share them with me. I'll post more details later!

Linking up with creative friends like you!

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