Inspiration is Everywhere

This amazing image is a HUGE painting on the wall of the Iowa Museum of Science.  I totally forgot to take a picture of the sign about the artist.  I love it's modern feel.

I took this picture at the zoo.  Love this birds bright colors!

I love the texture of this coral.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Island Batik Ambassadors Looking Back, Vintage Challenge - Part 3

It's time to show you the third part of my Island Batik Ambassadors Looking Back, Vintage Quilts Inspiring New Creations Challenge.  

I am making a New York Beauty type block, but I have to admit that I greatly dislike sewing curves.  If I can, I will applique them every time.  So this time I set out to do this on purpose.  I started with an arc that goes under the triangle arc.  I used tape on my paper pattern to hold the piece in the right place.

Then I added the orange curve to go on top, also using tape to hold it in place.

 Pins came next.  Upon further reflection I would glue this piece in place instead.

I then did my favorite double blanket stitch on the orange.  It turned out well.  I did move a little, which is why I would use glue next time. 

Here's the back after the stitching.

I trimmed away the extra purple.

Now I have all these gorgeous Island Batik fabrics (from the Plum Delicious line) to assemble...

I also pinned my triangle arcs to the background fabric.

Come back next Wednesday for the reveal of the top!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Free Motion Friday - A Little Paint and Little Applique Test Block

When I was making my blocks for A Little Paint and  Little Applique, I finished this block and it just didn't want to play nice with the others.  It's a bit darker in value and it just doesn't pop against the medium gray background.  So I made another block in the same pattern for the quilt, but this block became a test block. 

What to do....this quilt is going to be quilt as you go and the blocks are not all the same shape, so how do I make the blocks mesh together?

I started by simply stitching about 1/8 inch away from the edge of the applique.  I know I'll need to go back and do some stitching in the paint eventually.

I decided to try stitching this in a slightly lighter gray thread.  It lightens the background and lets you see the quilting clearly.  It also shows EVERY mistake....but this is a test block and I like how it looks, so I'll probably go with it for the actual quilt.

I then did a curvy echo line about 1/4 inch wide.  I plan to split the block into roughly four corners and quilt them all differently.

 I then stitched three echo feathers.

Then I added some curvy points to the feather and outlined it.

Then traveling along to get to the next one.

And it continues...

Here I tried to make it look like the one went under the edge of the applique.

I added a second echo line as a stopping point.

Around the very edge I decided to echo all the points.

All stitched out.  It gives such movement!

First corner done.  Come back next week to see more progress.  One reason I chose to do the echo in the corner is that I'm not quite sure where this will be cut off.  

After a chaotic week at work so far, this brought me some serenity.

I hope you get to quilt and find your serenity too today.
Suzy

Island Batik Ambassadors Look Back, Vintage Challenge - Part 2

For the center of the block I'm creating for the Island Batik Ambassador's Looking Back, Vintage Quilts Inspiring New Creations challenge I needed to create the block below for the center of the quilt.  I knew that I didn't want to try to piece this so I decided to applique it instead....but how.

I started by folding my background square in quarters and my four side pieces in half so I would have marks to line up in the middle.

My arcs are a little too big, so I marked 8 inches, where the corners should be.

I then started pinning my arcs onto the background square.

After all four arcs were pinned in place, I checked the square for size to make sure it came out 8 inches and the corners were aligned well.

You can see that I am indeed an over-pinner and I used a lot of pins to hold my pieces in place.  It worked, but upon further reflection I think I would glue it in place next time.

Here I am carefully blanket stitching into the corners.

Here's the back before trimming.

And the final block after trimming.  It turned out just as I wanted and I couldn't be happier!

Here's the back after trimming.

Stay tuned later this week to see what I'm doing with all these pieces!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Leftovers Inspiration

What happens when you give a quilter a paper takeout container to bring home her leftovers?  Well, she thanks you for being kind to the planet, but then she has to draw all over it with the crayons her kids have been using.  It was fun to work with a limited colors palate (green, orange, and red) and see what I could come up with.  

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Island Batik Ambassadors Looking Back, Vintage Quilt Challenge - Part 1

I'm having a blast working on my Looking Back challenge for Island Batik.  I'm going to keep the block a secret for now, but check out how I'm making these curves.  I've decided to applique them down instead of trying to piece them.  Curves and I get along better that way.

I started with a square larger than my curve.

Then I cut the excess off leaving a 3/16 inch seam allowance.

Next, I painted the seam allowance with starch (I used Best Press, but anything will do.  I then ironed it over the curve to set the shape.  The curve template was made by ironing three layers of freezer paper together and then cutting it to size.

Here's the final curve with the paper still on.

When I pulled the freezer paper off this is what was left (a gorgeous print from the Plum Delicious line!)  I reused this same template for all 8 curves that I needed this shape to be so I only had to make it once.  Bonus!

Working with Island Batik fabrics is such a joy.  More next week on this fun project.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Free Motion Friday - Two New Books to Play With!

So my friend Lori Kennedy lives not too far from me (in the same metro area) and though we've never managed to meet up (we really need to do that sometime!), we've had quite a few conversations about Free Motion Quilting and other things quilt related.  I was excited when her first and her new Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3 books arrived at my door!  And there was a present....a small spider web and spider :)

I've been reading Lori's blog, the Inbox Jaunt, for a long time, and I can't wait to try something from these books!  That will probably happen within the next 48 hours because who can resist?  I'll be sure to share about it.

Seriously....how cute is this spider!

It was a busy day and I haven't had a chance to look through everything yet, but look at this sweet dedication from Lori...

I can't wait to read them over breakfast tomorrow (or as you're reading this lol).  

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy