Still learning

I know I shouldn't be, but I'm always amazed by how much I learn when I try a new technique.

I wasn't fully happy with the way the grass was turning out.  After listening to Geff's suggestion, I reworked the grass.  It was a definite improvement!

I added in some sand along the river, worked with the rocks a bit, and added some silver highlights to the river.

Next up will be some beads.  Then, I'll finish off the edges and figure out which frame to put it in.

What can possibly be better than a shared hobby with your spouse?

This is fun!

I'm having a lot of fun quilting the painting. It is almost therapeutic.  Plus, I'm actually learning a lot about machine quilting in the process.  So far, I have the trees and the river quilted, and I'm starting to add in the grass.

I can't wait to finish this one...and to start on the next.

Although, I think I will quilt the art quilt next...then have more fun with quilting Geff's paintings!

Continued fun with paint

Tonight, I finally had a chance to start sewing on the fabric paintings that Geff did last week.  This is going to be fun.  And, addicting.

I first sandwiched the first two paintings.  We'd gotten more muslin last week for the backing, and I have plenty of left over batting around.  I used spray adhesive instead of pins, and since I was working on the new ironing board cover that Geff was nice enough to make happen, I put a plastic bag over the ironing board when using the spray adhesive. As an aside, I've needed a new ironing board cover for over a year, but I never remember when I'm in a store that actually sells them.  I'd gotten tired of having to watch so that I didn't iron on a waffle pattern onto the fabric like I did when I was heat setting this painting--which was when my ironing board cover still looked like the following:

I so appreciate having a new ironing board cover that I will make sure that I protect it!

In any case, once I finished the sandwiches and had given the adhesive a chance to set, I decided to start with the patterned painting.  The first decision was: which machine to use?  My every day HuskyStar machine?  Or my heavy duty Singer machine that I use for machine quilting?  I chose the Singer because it works better with more than one layer of fabric.

I finished about half of the patterned painting before jumping over to the scenery painting.

I'm still trying to get the amount of control that I want with the Singer, but I'm fairly happy with the progress so far.

Tomorrow, after I have had a chance to buy a few new needles, I will continue working on it--this is definitely fun!

Fun with paint

Geff has been having fun with the fabric paints that we got at the Sew Expo.  Tonight, he finished his third painting.  It is now drying.

This photo is of his first painting, which he did a few nights ago.  I just finished heat setting it, and as soon as I buy some more muslin for the backing, I'm going to start quilting it.  I especially like this first painting.  It is almost hard to believe that it is done on plain muslin.

Here are the first two paintings after being heat set.

I am definitely looking forward to more of these!

Sew Expo--So Many Ideas

We went to the Rocky Mountain Sew Expo today at the Denver Merchandise Mart.  I always love to see what is new.  And, this year, I particularly wanted to see some art quilts and threads.  I was definitely not disappointed.  Although, I was surprised a few times.

One booth had a number of applique art quilts, similar to what I'm working on.  They were really nice, and they all were framed.  I was surprised, though, when I looked at them closely.  There was no sewing on them.  They were just fabric ironed on to other pieces of fabric.  They looked great, but I think I like the addition of threads to the fabrics.

The coolest thing we saw was the fabric paint.  We came home with enough for Geff to try it.

And, I bought two combination packs of threads as well as some boucle embroidery thread.

 

And, with plenty of colors and sizes and types to choose from, I started sewing on the art quilt.

It was definitely fun playing with the different thread sizes.

The mountain is almost done now.  I need to finish the snow and the trees.  And, when I'm working on the trees and the water, I plan to figure out how to use the boucle embroidery thread.

A very small amount of progress

I worked on the art quilt off and on all day.  It is coming along.  It takes a while to cut all the detail pieces.  I am, however, happy with how it is starting to look.

Starting an art quilt

Today, we went to visit the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden. The Front Range Art Quilters Guild had a special exhibit there that runs through July 1.  The quilts there were inspiring.  From one that looked like an early gangster, to a three dimensional hummingbird, to a few that were totally abstract.  There was one especially that spoke to me, entitled the organza dress.

Fortunately, I came home inspired to be adventuresome (at least in the area of quilting and fiber arts).  I took a while to find a photo that also inspired me (the one to the right is a fuzzy rendition of the original photo).  It was from last year's birthday trip up Mount Evans.

After printing out the photo, which I'd used Kodak's Easy Share program to create a "coloring book" version (which is why the photo looks blurry), I needed to determine the size of my fabric art quilt.

I decided that when I was finished, I wanted to put the art in a black frame that I'd gotten a while back, so the size of the finished piece needs to be roughly the same size as an 8x10 photo.

Now that I had the size in mind, it was time to create a simple sketch.

From the sketch, I created the initial canvas.

Once the canvas was complete, it was time to start adding in details.  I still have a ways to go, but it is time to stop for tonight.

Fun with scraps

Over the years, I've had a tough time throwing out the small bits and pieces of fabric that are left over from various quilting and sewing projects.  Even pieces as small as an inch and a half square wound up in a plastic storage bin.  Until the plastic storage bin overflowed and the pieces wound up here, there, and everywhere.

Last night, I decided I needed to make a quilted note card in honor of the 4th of July.  And, I knew just where to start:  the overflowing plastic storage bin.

A year or two ago, I made a patriotic runner out of off-center log cabin squares.  I had cut too many inner squares.  And, of course, I'd saved them.  I dug through the plastic storage bin and pulled out a bunch of the squares.  It didn't take me too long before I figured out how I wanted to arrange them.  Once they were ironed into place, I realized that it was still missing something.  So, I looked through my tin of trims and found some thin red rick-rack.

Not bad for a handful of scraps.

Tonight, I revisited the bin.  I'd noticed several pepper-themed fabrics last night and decided I wanted to do something with at least one of them.

After playing with the three different prints for a while, I finally settled on the print with the yellow background.

A plain black background, an oval of the pepper fabric, and some back frilly yarn, and I have another quilted card ready to be placed on a card.