Blame it on Bonesteel

Yup, gonna lay blame right there on the floor at Georgia Bonesteel's feet.  Yesssiree, Bob!  I will also thank her for helping to define my style of quilting.

When I was first getting started in learning about quilting and developing my own technique for stitching these fabric sammiches together I looked at a lot of different styles and techniques.  To hoop or not to hoop?  Square hoops versus circular hoops.  Machine or hand quilting.  Which is best?  Which is worst?  What is right?  What is wrong?  The opinions on the subject were endless.  I even got caught up in the whole how many stitch per inch quest.  37,000spi (stitch per inch) are just too damn many.  I'm happy with my measly 8-9spi and on some pieces 10-12spi count thank you, very much.

One day early in my quilting explorations I picked up a book at a flea market, Lap Quilting With Georgia Bonesteel and I was hooked.  I loved the hoopless approach to piecing, and the elegant, yet free flow of the stitches.  The look of Ms. Bonesteel's work left an impression on me that I enjoy to this day.

Through much exploration and many started and failed projects as well as one very large project I am perpetually striving to finish (a whole 'nother blog entry on that one!)  I finally settled into my own style.  Now as I have mentioned before I do so love the whole dorky handmade look of hand stitched quilts, so I focused on that look for my fabric arts. 

Through trial and error - many, many errors mind you - I have come to the conclusion that I prefer to machine piece and hand quilt.   Which is just fine.  I will continue to play with the whole machine quilting idea and keep trying to improve my techniques.  But for now that cotton log will lay in a box until I get back in the mood to start wasting thread and time on it.  Good thing it is just a crappy quickly pieced nothing I will eventually give to the dog.  Otherwise I'd be embarrassed to admit I made it.  He will love it.

For now I hand quilt and for each quilt I adjust my stitches to match the look of the quilt, big and bold for some of the baby/crib size, smaller and finer or the wall hangings, the quilt itself seems to help me decide what it wants for stitch size.  Artists will understand this concept, trust me.

Well, it is time to pin another quilt and show off my latest completion.  

Peach Out Apricots!
Morg

Wagging the Quilt



Doggie Quilt


Life is built on best intentions...and so was this quilt.  My second attempt at scrap quilting I originally made this quilt at a prize for a model dog club championship.  Obviously it didn't turn out quite as planned, although I did learn a thing or two about strip quilitng and measurements.  Yeah, rulers are used for more than scratching your ass. 

This particular quilt was made with scraps from the soap bags my friends The Johnsons gave me and I backed it with a wild violet, cream and green floralish print I had gathered at the former Pamida in Vermillion, South Dakota.  I have since successfully created more quilts with this basic scrappy theme, but with greater success and non wagging corners...LOL!  Machine pieced, hand quilted, I drug this thing all over the place including the Sioux Falls Airport (I had to sit in the lobby because my pins and needles would have set off the metal detectors - Post 9/11 security measures).  One of the few "travel-alls" as I call them, I like to have a quilt in tow pretty much where ever I go because you never know when you are going to have a chance to quilt.

My friend, Melissa won this delightful prize and soon this quilt became the cotton hug for her dear little Chinese Crested, Bria.

When Bria crossed the Rainbow Bridge, this quilt was sent with her to comfort her until she is reunited with her mistress.   Bye Bye Bria....you were a legend in your own time.

Peach Out Apricots.
Morg

The Cute the Cat and the Ugly

The FIRST scrap quilt I ever made...

The adorable little baby is my nephew "F." The cat is Bijou and the quilt is the teratogenic nightmare I made for my best friend and her darling son some years ago.  The whole quilt is one big scrappy experiment gone delightly awry. 

The back is a piece of brownish, yellowish floral fabric from the Pamida store in Vermillion, SD which is no longer in business and the fabrics for the quilt top came from my dear friends, The Johnsons.  They are soap makers and these fabrics were all left over pieces from their soap bag packaging. 

I used fleece for batting because I was in the mood to sew and had no idea what else to use and it was there and it was a big enough piece to fit my needs so it was pressed into duty.

The quilt itself is hand stitched using the stitch in the ditch method and was machine pieced. 

For a first shot at quilting and establishing myself as an Ugly Quilter, I have to say it is a personal favourite and "F" still enjoys sleeping with it.   

Peach Out Apricots,

Morg

Kelpie Quilt - Breakin' the law (image intense)

The Kelpie Quilt is a different sort of design for me. Sometime ago my hanai* sister, Carra, had used this design for a hobby site of ours and I was quite taken with this design.  I decided about 5-6 years ago I was going to make this design into a quilt.  I just had to learn how to quilt and figure out how to put the whole thing together into a cohesive design.  Sometimes things have to gel for a while before I complete them.  As it was during the gelling period I got in on a fabu sale on designer sheets in a rainbow of colours, which I had specifically picked out for this and the matching project.  When I finally did start this project I chose not to use regular quilting cotton, I went with my marbled sheet material - a big no no or so I am told.  Whatever, it was there and I used it.  

When I first started this quilt I did the kelpie centre piece.  I did it my way...that is I duct taped the print out to my living room window and then proceeded to duct tape the fabric and start tracing with my handy dandy - untested Crayola Washable Markers.  After I was finished with this process I had to leave things for a while because I didn't know what I wanted to do to finish the quilt...so I let the middle section sit for a year and a half...then when I got ready to work it again, I ironed it to make it flat - GASP!  

At this point I went for broke and used black, brown and green on the rest of the quilt units, what the hell I figured.  If you have not guessed, I am a quilter who likes to bend, break and generally cause mishap and mayhem with the rules.

Design stitched into Moss Green panels

Design stitched into Turquoise corner squares

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Overall the design came together perfectly and quilting was fast and fun and I was able to finish the whole quilt in about a month's time.  It was bound in denim - which the quilt's new owner chose for the binding, at first I wasn't sure, but it really brought the whole quilt together nicely.  Note: denim is interesting to work with...

Click to view detail

The backing fabric was done in the marbled turquoise and shows the full design of stitching. 

Click for detail of Back and stitching.

As you can see from the images, all the Crayola Washable Marker ink came out, even after sitting for a year, and being ironed...I washed it on hot and let it soak overnight.  I couldn't be more pleased.  For the Win, Crayola!  For the WIN!

I am currently designing the companion piece: The Phoenix.

Peach Out Apricots!
Morg

*Hanai loosely means: to be adopted in Hawai'ian.

Raggedy Quilt

 

 

Shredded Home Spun

This quilt presented itself as a surprise in a box.  I quickly recognised its potential and finished it up in a matter of a week or two.  Snipping the seams is a ginormous pain in the wrist!  But the results are oh so worth it for that shredded look and feel.

Created from homespun cottons this quilt is a smaller lap quilt I finished for my mum.  She likes this one and uses it quite a bit.  I think I forgot to mention this thing will shed like a persian cat for quite sometime due to the way the seams are treated.  Ooops.

Fun and Fuzzy

Peach Out, Apricots!

Morg

Recycle It!

I started this quilt top some months before I actually assembled it and started the first quilting stitches on 4 July 2009.  The material for this quilt was gathered from my dad's worn out button down shirts.  I had him save them up for me for probably close a year, maybe more before I finally was able to find just the right pattern for them.  I found this pattern at one of the bestest Quilt Pattern Site on the intertoobs:  http://www.quilterscache.com  

 The pattern I purchased was: "Scrap Squares" which is still available for sale in the Tiny Store.  Support the site - buy a pattern or make a donation, please.

The batting is a old woven wool blanket that had come to my possession from who knows where...as I have the great fortune of being "the obtainer."  That is I have a tendency to see usefulness in the mundane and often am able to provide others with stuff they never knew they were looking for.  LOL.

Moose on the loose!

The backing material was harder to find as I wanted something with a moose flavour as my dad is into moose.  Who would have ever guessed?  It was by chance and happenstance that I was at Hancock Fabrics in Lincoln and there it was...the fabric I had been looking for for the back!  I bought a couple yards and then I was set.

I recall it was an early summer day before I started working at my current job I cleared a space in my living room, turned on an episode of NCIS and started putting this quilt together.

It was that 4th of July, the first holiday I volunteered to work at my then new job and I have not looked back.  It took about a month or so total to quilt.  It's about three and a half feet wide by nearly six feet long.  It's a LONG lap quilt.

The colours are a little washed out here, it's actually quite vibrant.

 Peach Out, Apricots!

Morg

Boldly Quilting Where I've Never Quilted Before!

Still strippin'

Thought that might get your attention.

I originally saw the design for this quilt in an advert in one of my roommate's quilt magazines.  Being the cheap skate that I am, I decided to wing it on my own and give it a little twist.  The results were this quilt.  Since I did not have the guidance of the instructions I went about this design a little differently.  I looked thru my stash to decide the width of the strips and then just sort of started sewing and piecing. 

 The quilt went together surprisingly quick and I was able to take it to work and pin it that same day.  Good thing I showed it off before I actually fully pinned it as I had managed to screw up the flow of the lines and had to rip out and hand piece a large section of the quilt back together.  Thank goodness it was a slow day.  ;) 

Once again I used the tumbling cows on red field for my backing - effectively using up the remaining stash of this delightful fabric. Well worth it for such a bold quilt. 

Sometimes you can shout with a whisper.  I feel the colour scheme and design of this quilt does just that. I hope the receiving child person enjoys this quilt as much as I did creating it. 

Go Bold or Go Home!

Peach out, Apricots.
Morg

Eleanor Burns made me do it.

Cross stitch quilting

The idea intrigued me: Making a quilt from a cross stitch pattern.  Some time ago I had picked up a booklet by E. Burns instructing how to make a Cross Stitch Quilt.  The patterns Ms. Burns utilised were of course pretty vintage flowers and stuff.  No such nonsense for me, no way.  I had to make something different, something unique...something that would drive me crazy.  I managed to find my dog cross stitch pattern books and decided that I was going to do a Great Pyrenees like my dear friend Staci's dog, Diesel.

Now began the search for the right size fusible backing material just like Eleanor's examples...I finally found what I was looking for online, only I decided not to go with the one inch squares (which as we all know would end up as half inch squares when all the seams are sewn) but with two inch squares which would be slightly easier to work with...or so I thought.

Choosing the fabrics proved to be a challenge, but a fun one.  I went with a green for the background because Diesel likes to lay in the grass, red for a border as he wears a red collar and a crazy polka dot for the back because Staci doesn't have a favourite colour, she likes them all.

Assembling the squares was insane.  One row at a time, each square was placed and every three rows or so I would run it all over with a hot iron to adhere the fabric to the gridded interface...then came time to sew it...

I will not be labour the details of this misadventure and the times I swore if I ever even finished this quilt I'd never do another one as long as I lived!  EVAH!

Six months of letting it "steep" and I was ready to tackle the quilting of this monster.  I went with the stitch in the ditch method of hand quilting and I was surprised as how fast it went.  I usually stitch about a quarter inch in from the seam but this time I went right along the seam line.

All in all, I couldn't have been more pleased with the resulting quilt and the look on Staci's face when she unfurled it - priceless.  The dog image is roughly half the size of the real Diesel and the quilt itself is about as big as his whole body.

Diesel - Quilted