1. I fused the quilt top to some batting, then added some backing fabric. The pins are there to help hold the backing in place. This is the first time I really got to look at this thing vertical,as it was too fragile to move to the design wall until this point.
2. Grabbed some scraps and fused this little piece so I could test out quilting threads.
3. Smart cookie that I am, I wrote the name of each thread after I quilted the sample – made choosing the final threads easier (as an aside, I spent NO TIME at all putting this practical piece together and yet I see a house – do you?)
4. Final thread selection!
5. Quilting commences! I really like the pointy quilting on this orange decanter!
6. More quilting – I’m SO GLAD I added the fabric on the right decanter in this picture!

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Still Life Art Quilt Commission – Day 3 is a post from: Candied Fabrics New in the shop: Versatile Messenger Bag Pattern

It all started last Spring, at a party we were hosting. Kay is the clarinet player in the Redlands Symphony Orchestra, and she fell in love with this still life quilt I had made many years ago, from a class I took with Robbie Eklow. How many years ago? Hmmm…7 or 8? I’m not really sure!

Anyway…she has this bar cabinet that is the focus of her living room, with lots of bottles on top, and she was really taken with this still life, as she loves the way the bottle shapes overlap. Before we could meet to talk in detail, they decided to up and move, so the project got put on hold for several months. We finally met a week or 2 before Christmas and talked about size (24″ x 32″), shapes and colors.  She took some fabrics home to see how they looked in the space, and brought them back the following week. We talked again, I started sketching and pulling more fabrics, and when she left I had a sketch:

some fabric:

and a due date – January 9! They’re having a house warming on the 10th, so I really would like to get this done for her before then. So today, I started cracking the whip. I used my EQ6 program (a simple vector drawing program I’m more familiar with than Illustrator…remember the word? Simplify! I know how to do what I wanted to do with that program, so use it  and move on!) to trace pictures of several wine bottle and decanter images from the web, played around with overlapping them, and came up with a composition I liked:

The EQ program prints out a pattern (on 12 sheeets of paper) which I will now tape together, then I’ll make a pattern with release paper (what’s left when you iron wonder under on to fabric) by tracing the paper pattern with a sharpie – the release paper is somewhat translucent. I’ve got the ground and horizon colors figured out, so I’ll get those cut and then I start playing with colors for the bottles!

I’ve learned through the years that I can spend a LONG time on the computer trying to figure out what  colors to use, but that usually ends up getting revisited when I’m using the fabric. In general, I’ve done away with patterns altogether, but as I don’t have a lot of time and I needed to play around with overlapping shapes, it was in this case worth it to take the time to make the pattern (she says hopefully)

Still Life Art Quilt Commission – The Beginning is a post from: Candied Fabrics New in the shop: Versatile Messenger Bag Pattern

Well, I WON! WaHoo!I was just chuffed, and feeling a bit justified…these little houses have been bouncing around in my head for months now, and I just haven’t found the time to make them. Well, that contest just lit the fuse, and if I didn’t make them, I was going to EXPLODE! That was the real prize…having the fire to see these guys through to completion. However, the prize itself is awesome…a few books that are on my Christmas list, some specialty Modge Podge (dude, I don’t even have regular old Modge Podge, so the specialty stuff…who knew it existed, but I’ll bet it’s awesome), something called a stuff bucket – woohoo, a stuff bucket, sounds awesome! Obviously, I’m stoked!

Still excited over my mini modern houses, I did a guest post over at Natalia’s Piece n’Quilt blog, summarizing the development of my 3-d work – that was fun! The last of the presents that needed to be mailed are in the mail, now – on to making some commissions!

But 1st – one more look at these cute little houses!

The Results are in! is a post from: Candied Fabrics New in the shop: Versatile Messenger Bag Pattern

Any old who, it ticked away in the back of my mind for awhile, but I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to construct the quilts, but in the meantime worked on my free motion sketching skills making the bags and journals. When I tried using Peltex in the quilt sandwich in this quilt, I knew I had the construction method I wanted, then it was a matter of finding the time, and Bob’s your Uncle, my Botanical Sketches series:

There’s a video of me stitching a Black Eyed Susan here. This was one of the movies I had playing all weekend long in my booth. A common question was whether or not I marked on the fabric first – No, I do not. I mean for these to truly be sketches, to show that these are done by hand, with spontaneity.

I’ve finally got them listed in my Etsy shop. Pictures of the whole series are in my gallery, but here are a few more, cause I love them so:

Botanical Sketches is a post from: Candied Fabrics New in the shop: Versatile Messenger Bag Pattern

Inspiration: Simply Robin is a post from: Candied Fabrics New in the shop: Versatile Messenger Bag Pattern