JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

Christmas eve and I just finished and delivered a slipcover job for my friend, Jan. It came out so nice. I am sorry that this cell phone photo does not do it justice. The fabric is a lovely berry red textured with sandy gold tones. There is even a matching blanket (not in the photo) for her dog, Suerot...did I spell that right? Another happy client.

Merry Christmas to all!

SO EXCITED, SO EXCITED

I am working on a quilt for a competition. I don't know if it is bad luck to show it ahead of time. So I am only showing it to my close friends.

The second image is the quilt in its current state. It is still pinned and basted. Alot more to do.

The title of this quilt is NIGHT MUSIC, as the theme for this competition is MUSIC.
The quilt measures 40 x 30.

I hope to make the water look like a bar of musical notes.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Join me in my excitement!

Dreamin ' Of A White Xmas!

The PZ International Women's Club is having their annual Christmas Meeting and have challenged us to a hat contest. This is my entry. "Dreamin if a White Xmas inCosta Rica!"

"Helping Hands" Quilt

I am 99% finished...but couldn't wait to show my friends.

Quilt is 36" x 46"

I learned alot with this project. I would almost like to do it again just to change some of my techniques...I said "almost"..I am not totally crazy.

I have my next project sketched out..so stay tuned..not yet ready for publication.

In the meantime, I have a few more upholstery jobs to keep me busy...my bread and butter work...helps pay for my next cut of fabrics!

Summer is just around the corner. You can feel the days getting longer and the weather getting hotter. We had a small quake last night. They are most common when the seasons change.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement.

SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL, EAT BANANAS?!!

Stopped work on my "Helping Hands Quilt" to do a few paying jobs. This is a baby quilt and matching bag that was ordered from a friend. These baby quilts and carrying bags have been a good seller for me. The monkey idea is new! I have two more in progress, one pink for a girl and one gender-nuetral, multicolored quilt. Next I am on to sew curtains and chair cushions. Busy. Busy.

Photos taken with camera phone. Ugh.

Helping Hands More Definition..But Still A Ways to Go

More quilting done to cat.

Dog's face has added batting

Started to quilt a background design that has a scissors, thimble, thread and pincushion. Not sure how much I like this but there is so much blank space that needs to be filled. The darker background lines represent thread circling around each image. I hope that in the end I like this. With each step you get more concerned about screwing something up.

I have yet to quilt the hands, face and blouse. I want to proceed cautiously.

This week was the International Quilt Festival in Houston. So I continue to be inspired by fellow quilters. Perhaps one day!....

"HELPING HANDS" Pieced

Well everything is now basted into place. Would you believe, the easy part is done! The next step is the scary part for me. Think I will take a little break before I tackle it.

Helping Hands in Progress

Once again I need to apologize for the poor quality of the photo. It is dark outside and I am using my phone camera. One day I will need to get a real camera with a flash to take high quality photos. But I wanted to share with you my progress. I have finished piecing the background (thank you Roberta for the squares) and I am working on the quilt itself. I am using the bow tie pattern...it is helping me to use up a lot of scrap material and it is adding more color to the piece. A bit of a pain by the time I get down to piecing 1 inch triangles...but I am pleased! I hope you are enjoying following my progress.

Rainy Day Progress Report

It has been raining for about 5 days straight...ugh!...so I have been spending my time working in my studio...yeah!...I am so excited to see the progress on my quilt in a quilt "Helping Hands".

Thanks to my friend Roberta, I have plenty of muted 1.5 in squares which I am using for my background.

I am saving the hardest part, the quilt, for last. This will be hard because I have to sew the design in at different angles to make it look like it is draped over her legs. The simplest way would be to cut designs and fuse them down, but I would like to see if I can piece like a real quilt. This would give it added dimension. But not sure if it is doable.

How do you like my helping friends? They still need some more work to make them a little less cartoonish.

Stay tuned as I progress.

Helping Hands

For over a year now I have wanted to do a quilt of a quilt. I have seen several in the past and they have always appealed to me. I have tinkered with a couple of ideas but none worked until I came across a photo of a girl sewing. I used this as my jump-start, changed the fabric to a quilt and then added a cat and a dog to the mix. I love the way it is progressing. The drawing as shown is 3 x 4 feet.

The picture is somewhat of a self portrait since I am always using my teeth to cut a thread...yuck!!... but if you look closely, the cat is sitting on the scissors, and that is why she has to use her teeth!

Stay tuned as I progress with this project. after all what else can you do when it id raining 24/7?

Finished "Lady In the Mask"

Finished...always the best part of a project.
Well, second to imaging the project.

The Lady in the Mask

Working like mad. I am pleased with my progress. The peacock feathers in the mask came out great. I actually had fun quilting them.

The background is quilted in teeny tiny feathers with a larger design in the lower left to break up all the white space.

The peacock has tiny reflector beads hand stitched on the body. Eventually there will be a transparent mask over the face.

I want to take the brown frame and make it thin with another outside border in the same background fabric.

Sorry about the quality of the photos. I am using my phone camera.

Stay tuned for the finished project.

Work in Progress - Starting Lady in the Mask

A fellow artist asked if I would take one of her paintings and recreate it as a quilt. I jumped at the chance and I am posting some images of my progress. Thefinished project is to be a surprise gift for her husband. So SSSHHHHH!

The first step was to select a color scheme as her artwork was done in brown pencil. I identified a palette of teal blues or purples and decided to go with the blues.

Next the image was enlarged on graph paper.

My third step was to create several feathers. I knew if I was successful with the feathers I would be inspired to go further.

Then I let my obsessive, compulsive nature take over and I started to work...Stay tuned for the results

Too Blue

This is a quilt of two blue herons. Once I started this quilt I was inspired by a story line from Amy Tan's Book "The Joy Luck Club" ..."This feather may look worthless but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions."

The background of this quilt once again used the watercolor pieced technique using 2" squares and blending colors. The birds were were machine quilted and appliqued onto the background. More machine quilting was done to simmulate clouds and then additional hand embroidery helped to define the images.

Enjoy!

COLOR MY WORLD

COLOR MY WORLD is a watercolor art quilt inspired by my friend Roberta. Roberta left me a ton of precut fabric squares and instructions on making a watercolor quilt.

It is called a watercolor quilt because each piece of fabric is treated like a dab of paint and you try to run colors or design lines from one square to the next to create a slightly distorted but flowing pattern.

THANKS TO ROBERTAs generousity, I created this watercolor art quilt measuring 18" x 30". If you look closely you will find butterflies, a frog, bees, flies, ladybuys and 2 hummingbirds! Enjoy.

Collage

I recntly went back to my files and compiled a couple of collages to showcase some of my quilt projects. I thought that I would post these pictures to my blog site for future reference.

Birds In Flight

This is my latest quilt project.

BIRDS IN FLIGHT

I used a technique called FRACTURING. An overlay design is created to identify fracturing lines. You use these lines to redefine the graphic by changing colors or tones.

I used a fractured background of just blacks and whites and then extended the fracture lines through the birds and fractured the colors into blues, greys and purples. The final design was a little too busy so I tried to define the lines around the birds with black embroidery and used the purple banner as a softener.
It all sounds rather complicated. Well, it was...but I learned alot.

If you can not read the banner¨, it says ¨BRIGHTEN YOUR JOURNEY IN THE COMPANY OF FRIENDS¨

MAKING FACES!

I finally finished my animal quilt entitled MAKING FACES. As my friends know, I am a dog lover so this project was dear to my heart. I am the mother of 4 rescue dogs and 1 planned adoption! I learned some new quilting techniques and had a lot of fun with the design. This quilt is 36" x 55" and machine quilted.

This is a photo of my sister Anita and her dog Buddy in the swimming pool!! I then made it into a 12" x 12" quilt. She finally received her birthday gift this past weekend so now I can share her photos with you. I love the way it turned out. Happy Birthday sis!

A FEW SMALLER QUILT PROJECTS

Niece's Wedding Gift

I just returned from my niece's wedding in ARIZONA. This is a before picture of the quilt I made her as a wedding gift. I was very pleased with the way it came out. Unfortunately the photo/photographer did not do it justice. The finished quilt has eagles silhouettes flying high in the sky and an armidillo in the foreground. The prickly pear cactus and rocks are 3D. There are also two matching pillows (not shown.) I guess I need my sister or niece to send me a better photo. BEST WISHES TO BRIDGET and DAVE