Ombre Oaks Part 3

I'm having fun quilting away the leaves.  The inner leaf is slightly darker than the fill thread for the outer leaf.  The inner fill is circles, swirls, and paisleys. 

The outer fill is fans with a few lines going up them.

The picture below is one of my favorites because you can really see the different black textures in the leaves.  The outer leaf is black leather.  The inner pieces are leathers, taffeta, velvet, and satin.

More next week.  

I am happy to say this quilt safely made it to the National Quilt Museum.  I CANNOT WAIT to see it hanging in the museum!

Suzy

Ombre Oaks - Part 2

I found out yesterday that this quilt is a finalist in the New Quilts from an Old Favorite contest at the National Quilt Museum....my quilt will hang there!  I can't wait.  I'm so excited!  Let's now talk about it's making some more.  Here's where I left you.  I had a gradation of oak leaf blocks.  Now to find the perfect fabric for the large block.

Here were what I had a large enough piece of....orange?  NO.

No turquoise.

Love this, but no.

 This fabric was the original intention....NOPE.

What did I end up with?  A light pink batik that worked perfectly.  I drafted an oak leaf and started filling it with feathers and swirls.  I again used leather, taffeta, satin, and velvet.  It was a blast to see it come to life.

I wish you could see the different textures, but it's hard in a photograph.

I am so excited to see it hang in the National Quilt Museum!!!!!!

I hope you get to quilt today and have a fantastic Thanksgiving!
Suzy

Ombre Oaks Part 1

When you get inspired, you get inspired.  Even though the deadline was just a month away, I was inspired by the Oak Leaf and Reel block contest in for the New Quilts from Old Favorite Quilt Contest at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah.

You had to take this block and do something new with it.

Sometimes the ideas just strike and you have to make them.  This happened to me and thank goodness there was a quilt retreat already planned in the month!

I started with an oak leaf idea an a piece of Frieda Anderson's Hand-dyed fabric in pink.

I made some really small oak leaves.  These are cut out of leather!

Then I made a bigger one.  Also leather.  And taffeta, velvet, and satin.  It was an experience working with these materials, but they add so much amazing texture!

When the block got bigger I added some dots inside too to fill space.

And the largest has lots of fun elements.

Now I have this much complete...you'll have to come back to see what happens next!

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Free Motion Friday - Quilting Vintage Part 4

When I last wrote, this was as far as I'd gotten with my quilt.  I discovered a problem when I got to the satin.  I used various marking tools on a test piece of fabric and discovered that you can't mark satin as when you get it wet it causes a problem.  My hubby suggested I try my iron off pen.  Unfortunately that leaves a wet line too and it didn't go away when I heated the satin!  So...now what???

 I knew I wanted to mark something....here are some ideas I went through.  The LOVELY copy and laminating lady at my school saves all the extra laminating pieces for me to use for drawing quilt ideas.  It's how I test things...

So, how did I get here?  My friend Lori had the answer.  Doctor paper.  It's the paper you sit down on at the doctor's office. Essentially, really thin tissue paper.  I have a roll I've had for years.  Golden Threads paper works well too.  You mark what you want to stitch on it and then you pin it to your quilt.  Then you sew through it and since it's so thin it's easy to rip away.  YES, I did have to pick out some tiny pieces with a tweezers, but since there was no other way it was worth the effort.  There were only a few.  DO NOT mark complex designs with doctor paper or you will have a ton of tiny pieces to pick out.  Ask me how I know....

Here's the tracing and very careful pinning.  Fortunately it's translucent so  you can see through it okay.

Then you sew on the lines.

Here's what it looks like after sewing.

Then you carefully rip away the paper on the outsides.

Finally, carefully pull off the small strip.

And the final results after all the paper has been removed.  Now to fill in the areas.  Come back in two weeks to see what's next...next week I'll be doing a fabulous Free Motion Friday post from Houston at International Quilt Festival!  I can't wait!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy