AP&Q Mystery Quilt Block 4

This weekend I finished block 4 of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine's "Mystery Quilt 2012". The instructions for this block are only available online here. For this block, I used the warm colors of pink, orange, and yellow.

Good thing I finished this one, since today, I got my latest issue of AP&Q in the mail. Not only is block 6 in it, but they say that block 7 is online (although it's not there just yet). I've got some catching up to do and only 2 1/2 weeks until I go back to school/work.

Happy stitching!

June block pieced

Here is my CQJP June block after I pieced it. This is for my older son. On the fabric piece to the left of his photo, I wrote his name and birthday. (Maybe I'm being silly, but for privacy, I blocked out his birthdate in Photoshop.) I will be using black embroidery thread to stitch over his name and birthday.

That's all for now. Happy stitching!

AP&Q Mystery Quilt blocks 1 -3

I've never made a "mystery quilt" before, but when American Patchwork and Quilting magazine announced that it would be doing a mystery quilt throughout 2012, I decided to play along. I have lots of scraps of 1930's fabrics from the quilts I made for my two young nieces, so I'm using those for this quilt. I made the first block this winter, then I got busy with school, so this summer I just made blocks 2 and 3. I haven't shown any pictures yet, so here you go:

 The purple, pink, and green is block 1 (February issue).

 This one, with the primary colors, is block 2 (April issue).

Block 3 (June issue) is pink and blue.

Happy stitching!

Progress

For my next four CQ blocks, I want to include a photo on each block. On my "Crazy for Roses" quilt, I used iron-on transfer paper to get a photo of a rose onto one of the blocks. I didn't really like that method, because it left the fabric with a plastic feeling.

For my Anniversary quilt, I tried something else. I bought some "Sew-In Colorfast Fabric Sheets for Ink Jet Printers" by June Tailor, Inc. These are 100% cotton, supposed to be machine washable, not that I'm planning on washing my crazy quilt :)

First I scanned my favorite photo from our wedding, and a portrait of each of my children when they were 3 months old. Then I used Photoshop Elements to resize the photos and convert them to black and white. I put all four onto one document and printed onto a Fabric Sheet. I like the feel of this fabric sheet so much better than the iron-on transfer sheet I used last time.

Now I just need to cut the photos apart and put each into a block!

In other news, I just finished sewing the binding onto the quilt for my niece's second birthday. I used 1930's reproduction fabrics and modeled the quilt after Amish Bars quilts. The quilt is draped over the sofa, so it doesn't look straight.

Happy stitching!

May block finished

I finally finished my May block for CQJP 2012 last night. Here are closeups of the seams:

I added two sizes of Swarovski pearls onto the lace; smaller near the seam and larger near the outer edges. On the gold feather stitching, I added flower-shaped seqins and seed beads.

I sewed large transparent beads onto every third herringbone stitch.

Small mother-of-pearl buttons are attached with seed beads.

If you recall, this block for my 25th Anniversary CQ is a reminder of the trip Mike and I took to Italy and Greece in 2010. The cameo button represents our time in Italy on this trip. After we visited Pompeii, we toured a cameo factory. The cameos there were absolutely gorgeous, but rather pricey, so I didn't buy any. Besides the cameo, I also added transparent heart-shaped beads to this seam.

Here's my beaded version of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece.

Happy stitching!

May block continued

I have been working on my May block, with hopes of finishing it soon so I can get working on my June and July blocks! Good thing I have more time in the summer to play catch-up!

I added the piece of lace to the lower left side. I think it adds so much to the block. I also added a piece of off-white ribbon to the upper right patch. I added the year we took this trip to Italy and Greece using acrylic paint and rubber stamps.

I'm done with my embroidery. Next I'll be adding beads and buttons.

Here's a close-up of the stitching in the upper left side. I was only planning on doing the two darker wavy lines, but I spaced them too far apart. I added the middle line with variegated silk ribbon to tie the darker lines together. It was a happy accident, and I like the look of it.

This is the ribbon I added to the upper right side. I couched it with a straight stitch, using "Wisper" thread (it's 70% kid mohair and 30% nylon). The thread is a bit fuzzy, but you can't see that in the photo. The French knots are silk ribbon. The straight stitches will have beads added to them.

 This is the lower right seam next to the center white patch. I used gold metallic thread to couch some "Very Velvet" thread. I love that velvet thread, but there's not enough color contrast with the satin fabric. Live and learn, right?

 Embroidery thread to couch the right side of the lace down.

More embroidery thread to make herringbone stitch for this seam. You can also see a close-up of part of the year.

Happy stitching!

Quilt Shop-Hop finds

There's a large quilt shop-hop going around my area of the state...32 shops are participating. If you go to every shop, you can be entered to win a new Bernina! Not that I expect to go to all of them ~ there are other things I need to do this summer!

Thursday my husband and kids were all gone, so I decided to go check out two shops I've never been to (although they're both within 40 minutes of my house). What a mistake that was! I ended up buying more fabric for projects!

I need more projects as much as I need a hole in the back of my head. I'm just hoping to get these done before they are added to the UFO pile cabinet.

When I was with my DH, 3 kids, and another family in Montana and Wyoming last month, I fell in LOVE with the Rocky Mountains. I came home wanting to redecorate my entire house in a mountain-cabin theme. Hubby wasn't gonna go for that expense, though. So when I saw these two different projects, I couldn't resist.

This first is a Santa with woodland creatures panel. I just wish it had a moose. I fell in love with moose after we saw one of these majestic animals up close and personal while hiking in Grand Teton National Park.

Besides the fabric panel, I bought two of its coordinating fabrics, the blue/gray mottled piece and the plaid. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it at the store, besides make a wall hanging. The saleslady was very helpful and gave me some suggestions, so I bought what I thought was a good amount of each fabric.

The funny thing is, last night I sat down to work on this blog post, when our power went out. It turns out the transformer box in front of my neighbor's house caught on fire!!! Not from a storm, but just from so much use these past few days (we've had temps in the low 100's and no rain). Since the power was out for three hours, I had the chance to draft what I think I'll do with this fabric. My goal: to be done by THIS Christmas. If it's not done before I go back to school August 17, it's probably not gonna get done in time, though.





Then at the second store, they were having a sale of 30% off all McKenna Ryan kits. 30%! I love the look of her quilts but have never tried one. This store had two kits from her "Out and About" series that I liked. With this series, you can make a few of the 12 X 12 inch blocks, or you can make the whole series of nine blocks and make them into a larger quilt.

The quilt shop I was at only had a few of the blocks in this series, so I bought two. The one on the left, with the bears, is called "Dinner for Two" and the moose on the right is called "Knee Deep." I already know where I want to hang these when I'm done, and if I can find one or two more from the series, I might buy those as well. (We'll see if any of the other stores in the shop-hop have them.)

I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

And no, I haven't given up on crazy quilting. I'll post more of my progress on that another day.

Since it's so hot outside, stay in and do some quilting. Happy stitching!

"Love" art quilt

I started making this journal-sized (8.5 X 11 inches) art quilt awhile ago. I wanted to make something totally out of my normal comfort zone of traditional quilts and crazy quilts. Last week, my husband cut a dowel for me so I could hang it up in the kitchen.

I loosely based the design on a page of "The Book of Kells", an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels which was made sometime between the 7th and 10th centuries. I saw a few pages from this awesome book when we were in Ireland in 2008. I was so enamored with the Book of Kells, I bought a souvenir book with lots of photos.

For the background of this little quilt, I used some gold paint on muslin fabric. At this point I layered on batting and quilted straight horizontal lines. Then I layered on a few different red and gold fabrics. The two gold crosses are made from Angelina, with a button in the center of each. The red circle is actually a Bounce dryer sheet that I washed several times then painted with red acrylic paint. I beaded two lines from the red velveteen piece down to the red circle.

The verse is printed on Extravorganza. For the letter "G" I used foil paper in a method described by Deborah Boschert in the February/March 2009 issue of Quilting Arts magazine. To attach the Extravorganza, I simply sewed six beads on, one in each corner and one in the middle of each of the longer sides. I used rubber stamps to write the word "agape" (which means love in Greek).

Here's a close-up of the verse with the foil G:

Happy stitching!