So this is an experiment. In the latest Quilting Arts Magazine there was 5 day challenge. Day 1 you paint fabric. I love my green squigglies. I don't like my flowers but that's ok cause this is an experiment. Day 2 you layer this fabric with organza and quilt it with rayon thread then you use a heat gun on it and see what happens. So I am on Day 2 today. I'll post the results when I get it done. Also working on a Mother's Day gift for my mom. I'll have to post it after I give it to her. I must say it is GORGEOUS! I can't wait to make another one.

So if you don't know what Lutrador is, I'm sorry! It's so fun! I have had a piece of it in my studio for over a year and didn't know what to do with it. I finally watched a DVD from Quilting Arts.com on using it and it was so inspiring I didn't even watch the whole thing before I started playing! So it's polyester that they put on the bottom of box spring mattresses. It's quite stiff, transparent and it melts.

I started with about 18"x 12" piece and colored with oil pastels. They didn't blend well so I packed up my 3 kids and ran to Lowe's after dinner (cause I was on fire!) to buy some mineral spirits. That did help them blend a little better. I wish I had pastels that you could blend with water. Someday. I also used my Tsukineko inks to add color. The white spots on the picture are where I dropped more mineral spirits and it was like bleach. Cool.

They I used a leaf from my own sycamore tree as a stencil. I used a stencil cutter to burn/cut the Lutrador around the real leaf. Then I placed the real leaf underneath my colored leaf and did a rubbing with a gold paintstick to get the veins on my leaf.

Then the picture on the far right is a heat gun that I used on the Lutrador leaf. I placed in on a cookie sheet so it wouldn't burn anything else. It burned holes in the lutrador as it melted. Thus the picture on the right.

Here is the finished quilt. I wish I had made it a little larger and maybe put borders but this is all the fabric I had and I really wanted to use it. I did make one yellow leaf. I am really happy with the leaves and hope to play more with Lutrador soon.

I am still learning this whole blog thing. So my words and my pictures don't match up exactly how I wanted. I hope you get the gist.

So I know it's been a while since I posted. I really want to be more regular with this. This month the challenge from my group was aerial view. I wasn't excited about this at all until I learned about reverse applique. I instantly was inspired to do a view of the Snake River, which I grew up next to. So this is my first "draft" of the quilt. Already it is changed. I took off the rocks. I am going to put on real bead rocks that are smaller. I put up two pics with differing backgrounds. I want opinions on which one would be better. My plan is to quilt the fabric on the bottom and attach the river quilt on top. Haven't had a lot of time this week to quilt with kids and being sick. Leave me a comment on your opinion.

New quilting

This is a quilt I made in honor of a wonderful anniversary trip that my husband took me on to McCall 2 years ago. We went fabric shopping together! and we picked out these fabrics. Outside our hotel room were these gorgeous tall trees. So now I need to bind it and my quilt group suggested that I do it in a fabric that picks up all the colors but not in black. what are your suggestions?

This is called Spring Explosion. I did the top in 2006 and had no reason to hurry and finish as I usually do with quilts. So it's been in the closet waiting till I had time to go to Mom's to quilt it. I am very pleased with how the quilting turned out and it really makes it pop! As usual the photos don't do it justice. I used a pink holographic thread from Superior to do the flowers and they sparkle just enough. I love that thread it never breaks on the large machine! I always quilt smaller than I intend to but this one turned out just right. I feel I am making real improvements in my quilting. I want to bind this one in the same green as the border to make it unnoticeable. What do you think?

Apology

I haven't posted in a long time and my friend pointed it out. Well, my camera broke and I didn't want to buy a new one until I could afford a really nice one that would take inspiring photos, alas, I cannot afford to not have a camera. I am missing out on my small children's lives. So we bought a small "cheaper" camera this week. I am taking off to my mother's to quilt this week so I will post what I finish when I get back. I'm sure there are not many followers of my blog out there. But it's fun to write.

Frustration

This is a technique I've wanted to try for years. It's Norieko Endo's idea.  You take your scraps and chop them into itty bitty pieces with your rotary cutter then sprinkle them on a piece of fabric and put tulle over the top then quilt the heck out of it!  One night I was extrememly frustrated with my son, who is having a really hard time and we just don't know what to do but find help, which we are.  So chopping up the fabric with my rotary cutter was very stress relieving and then making something beautiful brought me such peace!  I wish I would have made the middle of the flower smaller but I love how the colors fade from light to dark. It reminds me of a tropical flower in front of the ocean. this one is very heavy and made my sewing maching make lots of noises.

Star Trails Over Bolivia

Ok so I didn't even know where Bolivia was until I saw this show called "Art Wolfe: Travels to the Edge," on PBS.  It's my new favorite.  He is a photographer that travels the world taking these amazing pictures.  WHile in Bolivia he took a picture with a long exposure (8 hrs) of the stars crossing the sky while shining a flashlight on a cactus.  The stars left their "trails" through out the night and it was so inspiring.  So this is in honor of that show.

My wonderful husband gave me felting tools for Christmas. This was my first try at using them. The cactus is orange wool roving with yellow fuzzy yarn bits felted to cotton fabric. Then fused to the background.   You can't tell in the picture but the cactus is fuzzy and in Art's picture they looked that way.  The background is commercial batik with Ricky Tims "Razzle Dazzle" thread that I put in the bobbin. I 've had it for years and been too scared to put it in the bobbin. Well it worked great!  It was so much fun and really stands out in the quilt.  I also used Superior Threads gold holographic thread.  I didn't really finish the border to my liking yet.  I wish my star trails would have been more curved and I think it needs 2 more small cactus in the background but I ran out of time.