Now that the world has calmed down a bit, my creative juices seem to be exploding. This is a good thing. I had a number of years where I didn’t really work on anything, and now I have a lot of ideas that I am working on.
This first quilt was actually done in 2022 but finished in 2023. During the summer of 2022, a friend posted on Facebook that her service dog was killed in a tragic accident. I had been following her adventures with this dog, and I was devastated for her when I read the post. I really felt that I had to do something to memorialize her dog for her. I decided to use the technique I learned from an online course with Sandra Mollon.
First I had to go through her photos and find a picture that was clear enough to use for the quilt. I chose this one of Scootie.
Once I picked the photo, I changed it to black and white, enlarged it on my computer and printed it out onto regular paper. Then I traced it onto freezer paper and ironed the freezer paper onto a base fabric.
Once this is done, I picked fabrics from my stash to use in the portrait. Then I begin to build the base picture with these fabrics.
Once the image is complete, I attached it to the background – which for this one I quilted prior to adding the image. Then I begin to thread paint the image.
Once the thread painting was complete, I added the border, hanging corners and label.
She was so surprised when she received it and happy with her gift.
When your team makes it to the Super Bowl!
The second quilt was also started in 2022, but finished in January of 2023. My friend had given me a jelly roll of beautiful green fabric – Green is my favorite color. I am pretty obsessed with log cabin quilts, so I decided to use this jelly roll to make one. The colors were all similar to the colors of the Philadelphia Eagles jerseys over the years, so I pulled some white and grey fabric from my stash to go along with it and made it an Eagles Log Cabin. I finished it just in time for the 2022 Super Bowl which the Eagles played in but sadly lost. I used my embroidery machine to quilt. Very happy with how it finished.
A Baby on the way.
For my next quilt, our extended family had a baby due in March, and I had a cute jelly roll in my stash (can you tell I really like jelly rolls?), and I needed to finish this one quickly, so I made another log cabin quilt. I quilted it with a matching quilt design to the fabric of little animals. When I received the invite for the shower, the same animals were on the invitation. I was happy that it matched the theme of the baby’s room. This was a Riley Blake fabric line.
A little handi work
One place on the internet that I tend to get lost in is Pinterest. There are so many ideas out there, and I want to make most of them. I needed a bag for a deck of angle cards that I had purchased, and I saw these amazing hand sewn bags on Pinterest, so I decided to make one. I have PLENTY of fabric to choose from, and lots of sewing supplies, so this little bag was made entirely of items I already had on hand.
I used hand-dyed fabric – some that I had sun dyed years ago and some from a friend that was destashing some of her hand-dyes. The tie is recycled sari silk. The entire bag was stitched by hand.
Donkey’s to the Rescue
Close to my house is a small farm called The Farmette that rescues donkeys. Last year, I helped sew some wreaths that they offered for sale at their annual fundraiser. After I got to meet the founder of the rescue and some of the donkeys, I decided I wanted to help them in some way with their fundraiser this year. I thought a portrait quilt of one of their donkeys would be a great auction item.
Once again, I looked through their Facebook page for a photo to use for the quilt, and I choose this one. It was clear and she had such a nice expression.
After I chose the picture, I repeated the same steps that I did for Scootie’s quilt. I changed the photo to black and white, blew it up on my computer and then traced it onto freezer paper. The color pallet for this quilt was much smaller, because the donkey is pretty much grey, blonde and white. After I ironed the freezer paper on to the base fabric, I began to “paint” with the fabric.
After all the fabric was fused, I auditioned a few backgrounds and asked for some help from my friends.
For this quilt, I chose to attach the image to the background before I started thread painting.
Once I decided on the background that I liked, I started the thread painting. The thread for the body was so dense, that I decided to quilt the background before I finished the middle.
I had been practicing a quilting technique called McTavishing, which is a dense all-over quilting filler, and I thought it would look good for the sky and give the quilt some subtle interest. I am very pleased with how this turned out.
The finished quilt.
Very happy to say that the quilt reached the reserve that was set for the auction at the fundraiser and all the proceeds went directly to the rescue.
