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. 

This is blog is a journey for me. Most of my fellow art quilters are doing these. I wanted to keep a running record of my journal quilts that I am making this year. I made a goal to make one a week. So far I've only made 4 or 5. So I'm behind already. SO this is something that will push me to complete a journal quilt a week and you can see the why's and how's of each one.

Journal Quilt: A quilt measuring the size of a paper (usually) that is used for experimentation and practice of technique's and ideas.