Persimon Dreams Challenge - 11-6 Vivid and Vivacious

I’m sequestered away in my house trying to avoid the Coronavirus.
Thankful that I love to sew.  This was a fun challenge for me.  I like bright colorful fabric an so I had a lot of stash to choose from.

I drew a simple sketch of flowers and leaves then choose  fabric for my background and main flowers.  I created the main flowers using Kaffe Faccett’s Aboriginal Dots & Wonder Under using raw edge appliqué.  The pink flowers, leaves and stems are painted using All-Purpose Ink by Tsukineko.  This is the first time I’ve used this ink.

I painted 2 layers of white before adding the pink & green.

Once I had my color on I used free motion to stitch the flowers and leaves.  I added an extra layer of batting behind the centers of the purple flowers.  This helped to support the heavy stitches and added a little extra poof to them.

After creating the main lines I continued stitching outlines and stems.  I realized I had a couple missing stems and so I went back to painting and added a couple stems and some more highlights.

Once I was satisfied with the look I added backing and a small purple binding.

Persimon Dreams Challenge - 11-4 Bird in the Air

 I feed the hummingbirds and love to see them flying around my Garden. One of my favorite flowers is the fuchsia.   My fuchsias are also a favorite of my hummingbirds.  I’ve decided to make a pillow cover and try my thread painting skills to create a hummer in the fuchias.

First I found a photo of a hummingbird and enlarged it to the size I wanted to create. I used it as my model to create the picture in fabric. I choose a very natural looking Batik fabric for my background and sorted through my fabrics and selected the colors i wanted to use.

Next I cut out the humming bird to use as a pattern.  Then choosing my fabrics and cutting out the shapes first the bird,

Then adding the plant and flowers.

I used fusible fleece stablizer to help support the stitches.  I hooped each section as I stitched.  I also added some silk fabric as to give the shimmer that I wanted in my bird.

After I had completed my stitching I added some shading and detail with Intense Pencils and fabric Medium.   I used Canvas to make the back of my pillow, inserted a zipper and made a little dark green cording of a batik.

 Finished and on my couch.

Persimon Dreams Challenge 11-3 - Put a Heart On It

Week three of the Persimon Dreams Challenge.  The title is put a heart on it.

I started the week with the thought of doing a collage from a photo of my dog.

It was a great idea but harder than I realized to get it right.  After spending 2 days working on it I decide I needed another idea that was simpler to complete.

For the past couple years I’ve been saving salvage edges from my fabrics.  This is a good opportunity to experiment with them.  Here’s the stack I started with.

I used a piece of white quilting cotton to form a base and stitched a group of my salvages onto it playing right sides together then flipping and pressing before adding another strip.

I’m glad I tried this.  In the future I will cut my salvages a little wider.  Probably about 2 inches.  This will make it easier while giving me a better look at the actual fabric.  

After stitching all of the strips I squared up my piece.  Added an appliquéd heart, stitched on using a blanket stitch.  My batting is a scrap of insulbrite.  I’ll use this as a mug rug.  I used a piece of fabric to back it and it’s done.

Persimon Dreams Challenge 11-2 Team Colors

I’ve had a busy week and so I needed a simple project.  Challenge title is Team Colors, hum . . .  For me that’s a hard one.  I’m not a sports fan.  Love watching my grandkids sports but this is ski season for them.  Finally my inspiration came, Home Team.  My home team.  I need a arm cover for my chair to use to hold all my tools and stuff when I’m doing some hand sewing.  Since my sport is sewing I think that works.  A quick Pinterest search came up with this site.
https://lillyella.com/tutorials/mini-maker-station/
It’s a great tutorial on making an chair arm cover and accessories.  The thing I like best is that the accessories are held on by magnets.
The base is a little quilt three layers quilted and bound just like your bigger quilts.  There is a metal strip down the middle section which will allow me to attach the accessories with magnets.  The accessories will follow.

Here is my finished mini makers station.

#pgseason11, #projectquilting

Persimon Dreams - Project Quilting season 11

Today is the first day to a new season of the Project Quilting Challenge.  I haven’t participated in a couple years. I’ve been looking forward to being able to take part this year. Today they announced that there would not be a viewers choice. We don’t get to vote on which quilt we like best. I am a little disappointed. A couple years ago I won two challenges.  I like seeing how my designs were received.

The topic for this challenge is “Notably Numeric’. The first thing that came to my mind was the numbers on the houses I’ve lived in. I’ve decided to create an art quilt using the picture of my current house. Now it’s time to get started.

 I live in a Craftsman style house built in 1926.

I used my computer to change the perspective.  I was able to change it to black & white and increase the light which helped to show the shadows.
My car is parked on the street most of the time so I did the same to it.

After printing out my photos I used my printer to enlarge the house to the size I wanted.  With the car I reduced the photo size.  I used these pictures and copied the major lines onto freezer paper.  This gave me patterns for each section of the house.  Most of the fabric pieces were backed with wonder under so they could be easily attached to each other.  I started with the house and plan to add the background later.

Oops, I forgot to take pictures along the way but I like the way it’s coming along.  This photo is before I started stitching.

And the final complete with backing and binding.  Most was done using Batik Fabrics, Aurifil & Isacord thread.  

Persimon Dreams - Spring Challenge "May I ?"

 
Its been awhile since I completed a Quilt Challenge and the title "May I ?" creates lots of images in my brain.  We have had a very wet spring here in Seattle.  Everyone's impression of Seattle is rain but this year we broke all the records.  Now that we are near the end of May the sun has finally come out and it couldn't be more beautiful.  The northwest is an amazing place when the sun is shinning.  My yard is in full bloom.  When I think of May I look forward to the flowers and color so when I saw the challenge I had to make something showing off the beautiful colors nature provides.  I have a collection of watering cans that I take inside for the winter but May is my time to bring them out and spread them around my yard.

This is my Inspiration:
The Rhododendron in my yard is in full bloom.

 I want to capture an image of the Water Can and the color in the flowers.
First I had to choose the shape of the Can that I want to reproduce.  These are just a few of the cans that are in my yard.

 

One I had chosen a photograph of the can I wanted to use I used my Printer to enlarge the image to the size I wanted to work with.  Since I only have a little household ink jet printer this can be a challenge.  I ended up with 2 images that were then taped together to create my final design.

First I traced the outline and divided it into sections.  

This would give shape & color variation to my picture.. 

Then I traced each section onto a piece of freezer paper.  Its like putting together a jig saw puzzle.  

The numbering makes it easier to reassemble the pieces.

Starting with a piece of fabric about 12 inches by 12 inches  I put Wonder Under on the back of each square. I then ironed the freezer paper shape on to the front. This method gives a cutting line to cut out each shape.  I added a 1/4 inch to the pieces that were to be behind other pieces.  

For the foreground I cut on my original line.  I assembled the water can on a Teflon ironing sheet.  The original image of the can is under the sheet of Teflon. 

After removing the freezer paper from the fabric place a piece or two at a time in to its space
and then press them into place.  

Once its assembled it can be removed from the Teflon and placed onto the background fabric.

 

The Flowers came from a single piece of fabric.  They aren't Rhododendrons but they do capture the color I wanted. I backed them with Wonder Under and then cut out each individual flower.

 I played with the placement of the can and flowers before the final pressing. 

I added more detail  such as spout of the can so it stood out from the flower.  

 From here I added batting to the back and then stitched everything down.  

I then continued to use thread painting to enhance the design.  

I also use Derwent Inktense Pencils to add more detail to the images.  I'm in love with these pencils.

Finally I added my backing fabric, Quilted the background by following the lines in the fabric design.  I added a border and binding and this is my completed project. 

 

  My finished quilt is 22 inches by 22 inches.

Here is a close-up of some of the details.

Project Quilting Season 8 Week 6 "Time is up"

I'm back again.  I took a couple weeks off from the Quilt Challenge.
It's hard to keep up the momentum and finish 6 challenges is 12 weeks.

This is my entry to this weeks Challenge.
It's a 14 x 16 inch wall handing.

I have to admit I was a little brain dead & at a loss for ideas.  I decided to take the challenge topic literally and keep it very simple.  I created the hour glass with light weight clear vinyl, there is a small piece of clear plastic tubing in the middle to create an opening for the little seed beads to flow through.  The hour glass was the last piece attached to the quilt after appliquing on the words.  The binding was created by piecing small strips from my stash.