Rags N Quilts

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I showed you the parts a while back. Now that they gone here are the completed cards.  The August theme was ‘fan’.  When I think of the word fan, I see a sea fan!

I hope all you Moms out there are enjoying the kids being back to school!

I have been playing in the studio this holiday weekend. Working on my latest wholecloth, the Seahorse appliqué, and a new design series.  This new series of patterns will be sized to fit perfectly on one of Vicki’s gorgeous hand dyed fat quarters. The applique pieces will be large , so it will be a quick and easy project that can become a wall hanging,  a decorative pillow or even mounted on a canvas if you like.

So do you want a peek?  I thought you would, here you go a piece of the pattern.

So look for more about these later in the year.

And another project I’ve been working on is a small painted piece. A several months back, Irena asked if I would paint another small piece for her upcoming book.  She sent me a small piece already quilted…it is one of her digitized designs.  Well she needs it by the end of the month, so I figured I’d better get busy on it.

This is the piece as she sent it to me…it’s all white…that coloration in the photo is from the light.

I added a little more quilting….and yes, I missed a spot, it has since been quilted in

And here with some of the color

Amazing what a little color can do!  Another couple hours of painting and this puppy will be done!

At first I thought the design looked like a flower, sort of. But the more I looked at it, it reminded me of a Ferris wheel, so I’m calling it “Carnival”

Hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend too!

Today I worked some on postcards due next week for the latest MQR swap.  The theme this time is “Fan”

The first thing I did was print some fabric. I took white PFD , a rubbing plate from Cedar Canyon Textiles, Portfolio oil pastels, and Jo Sonja’s textile medium.

I printed my fabric by rubbing the oil pastels on the fabric placed over the rubbing plate.  Then I used the textile medium instead of water to blend the colors.  After that was dry, I heat set the fabric with a hot iron, then washed, dried and pressed it.  Now the colors are permanently  set and the fabric is ready to be used.

Then I cut  some shapes out of foam, pulled out some of my previously dyed cheesecloth, and the other fabric and embellishments needed.

The cards are all together now and I’m working on the embellishments.  I’ll post them in a few days when I’m done.

In the meantime, any guesses on what my interpretation of “Fan” is?

I have added the EQ7 file for my “GO” Garden quilt over on my website.

Enjoy!

I thought my garden needed a couple more critters. Using only the Circles, feathers and the stem, this

becomes a garden kitty!

And what garden would be complete without an inchworm… just circles and 1 stem cut up for the legs and antennae.

So these fun, quick little shapes are becoming a quilt… combined with sashing made from the ‘triangles in a square” die and the 3 1/2″ strip cutter.  As soon as I  scan the appliqué  blocks into EQ, I’ll make the pattern available on the free EQ designs page of my website, so stay tuned!

Last week we had storms most all day nearly every day due to a silly tropical depression that stayed parked right off our coast.  So, since I couldn’t use the longarm and wasn’t in the mood to piece one day, I decided to play a little game  in between working on the painting for my new Fiberactions challenge piece. I posted of preview of that new piece over there.  Just follow the link above to see it.

The game was to see how many garden style applique combinations I could come up with just using parts of 3 “GO” dies.  I used the feathers die, the circles die, and the flower die…but only the circles, stem and leaves from that die.   So I dug out some scraps and started cutting and arranging.  The collage below shows what I came up with before I stopped for dinner.

And I’m sure if I spent more time I could come up with even more.

Every time I use my GO cutter I love it even more!

For those who bought (or will be  buying) the Seasons of the Moon patterns and kits, I have added a full size layout guide for each of the patterns.  You can click it and enlarge it to HUGE!  Much bigger than the regular size page included in the pattern.  You can find them on my website here. You’ll need the password included in your pattern pack to access the pages.

I finally got the patterns listed in my website shop.   As you all know by now, I designed these patterns to use the beautiful hand dyed gradient fabrics I bought from Vicki Welsh.   As things happen, that led to a collaboration, which led to this…. Vicki now has the kits in her Etsy Shop.   It’s all about choices, so here they are:

1) kit with pattern and background gradient fabric,  available from Vicki’s shop

2) kit with pattern and all fabrics needed to make the quilt top, also available from Vicki’s shop

3) pattern only, available from my website shop.

So, make your choice, then make the quilts!  Be sure to send me a photo of the quilts you make from these patterns. I’d love to see your creation!

And on their way to Vicki to be joined with her beautiful fabrics into kits!

So keep an eye out for her announcement  shortly that they are available for sale.

Today is the reveal of the Fiberactions  ”Memory” challenge. This is the story of my quilt for this challenge.

I knew from the beginning what I would portray for the “Memory” challenge. For those of us who live along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the events of April 21,2010 marked the beginning of a profound change in our lives.

(oiled Kemp’s ridley sea turtle rescued from the Gulf of Mexico;photo courtesy of Florida Fish and Wildlife,used with permission)

I hand dyed my background fabric and cheesecloth. The turtle bodies are hand painted batting, their shells are a combination of both hard and soft structure Tyvek painted with Lumiere and then heated.
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon and the subsequent, ongoing oil spill created an environmental disaster of epic proportions that will be felt for years to come. The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and it’s wetlands are the nurseries for countless species of wildlife. From shore and sea birds, to shrimp, oysters,and fish…including tuna. Dolphins, whales and endangered sea turtles. And we will all be touched by it in some way, be it large or small, before all is said and done. For me, it is very personal.

Now, head on over to the Fiberactions blog to see the fabulous quilts by the other artists of our group.