Well, since I gave a sneak peek of this quilt yesterday on the design wall, I thought I'd go ahead and update it with the top finished. It still needs to be sandwiched, quilted and bound.

I'm throwing in a step by step for some of the process, as well.

I started out with a panel of bird pictures, all camped out in the branches of one tree. There are 12 bird pictures on the panel and duplicates on the other half of the fabric.

In deciding how to arrange these I remembered I had a paper-piecing pattern for three birdhouses. I checked and they were about the right size for interspersing with the birds.

This is the pattern cover (bad photo):

I made up four of each style with a consistent sky and a mix of siding and roofs. I had to make one extra for the final layout.

I didn't want to use buttons for the entrance holes like the pattern indicated, so I used a process that I had done on a birdhouse quilt several years ago. Here's the method I used.

I set my machine stitch short (2.0) and set needle down to 'on'. I used black thread throughout.

I started with a plain house:

Then I used black pen to draw a circle on the back of a square of black fabric.

This was centered on the front of the house, right sides together and pinned in place

I very carefully stitched on the lines around the circle

With tiny, sharp-point scissors I cut a whole through both layers leaving about 3/16 from the stitching line

From whichever side the stitching showed best I snipped right up to the stitching leaving very narrow fringes

You can see how finely cut the fringes are

Pushed all of the black fabric through the hole to the wrong side of the house

Used a wooden tool to smooth and press the opening round and flat

Took to the pressing surface and steam ironed completely flat

Cut a length of wooly or eyelash yarn in light tan (amout 3 inches)

Drape it on a second square of black mimicing the curve of the bottom of the hole

Lay the birdhouse on top of the yarn, allowing just a fringe to peek out

Carefully top-stitch around the hole very close to the edge to secure the yarn and the backing in place

Trim the two layers of black about 1/2 inch from the stitching

One house done

Return houses to the layout

Trim all the birds to a standard size (mine were cut at 5 x 6 inches) and cut the birdhouse blocks the same

Assemble the top

Borders of complementary fabric were added

After quilting I will finish this with a black binding.

The top measures 27 wide by 32 tall and will be a wall hanging for the fireplace.

UPDATED 4/11/17

I finished this off by quilting around one main bird in each panel and around each birdhouse:

I attached a hanging sleeve to the top border and bound it with black.

Here is the finish:

I like this very much!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PDT

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I've got a great new addition in the quilt studio! I first found this item in the Nancy's Notions catalog but, while at the Sewing and Stitchery Expo the end of February, I found it at a better price.

In my studio, I have no room for a design wall without moving out half the furniture. But this portable wall comes in several sizes. I got the 72x72 size. 

Not only is it free-standing, it is light and portable. It breaks down in about 5 minutes and all fits in its own little duffel bag that is about 6 inches across and 18 inches long.

You can see the wall here from the front.

It has a flannel cover, four outer braces, two cross-braces, and two legs with their own braces.

Here is a view from the other side.

In this side view you can see the legs and braces.

In this back view, you can see the cross-braces that hold it taut.

Because it breaks down so easily, I can leave it up while at home but take it along to set up at quilt workshop days and on retreat.

Sure easier than trying to arrange blocks on the bed or floor.

I set it just outside the quilt room on an unused basement wall.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 10:51 PM PDT

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Three baby quilts in a row? What's up with that?

Our church donates to a local pregnancy clinic (Hope 360) and our quilt group that meets at the church makes donation quilts for them to give the new babies.

We have made Passages quilts for the local hospital for several years but Hope 360 is only a couple years old. Other ladies in our group have already donated several baby quilts but I had never done so. I decided to make some and, since I didn't have other projects waiting, I quickly finished off three of them.

The quilt today is from a tutorial by the Missouri Star Quilt Company. They called it 'Dizzy Daisies'. 

In the tutorial, they used a line of fabric that was quite subdued in coloring. I wanted to go bold and bright. I chose, from my stash, 5 bright pinks, 4 bright oranges, bright yellow, bright green, bright turquoise and crisp white.

The petals of the flowers start out as 5-inch squares and are snowballed on three sides - two white and a yellow - using 2 1/2 inch squares. Then these are joined together with the yellows together to make the flower.

The blocks were joined with 2 1/2 inch white sashing with green cornerstones. Then the turquoise border was added - also 2 1/2 inches wide.

I quilted the orange flowers like daisies (all of the flowers got spiral centers):

The pink flowers got rose-type petals:

The vertical sashing was quilted first with vines and leaves. Then the horizontal sashing got rows of tiny flowers:

The turquoise border has dragonflies printed on it so I just quilted with loop-the-loops down the length.

The binding matches the border and the backing is green flannel.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 5:40 PM PST

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A quilting supplies catalog arrived in my mail box just as I was looking for a pattern to make another baby quilt. One pattern looked very complicated but the notes at the bottom said it was only three blocks and showed them. All were made from squares and half-square triangles and only five fabrics required: black, a dark and a light of color one, a dark and a light of color two.

Well, I did some calculations to see what size of blocks and building units it would take to make a baby quilt between 36 to 40 inches. I cut all the units to finish at 2.5 inches. Therefore the blocks would be 7.5 inches.

Then I went off to find fabrics and was delighted to run across a set of fabrics I bought to use together and they met the criteria precicely. I had a black with tiny roses, a tone-on-tone dark green with leafy shapes, a light green with sweet peas, a dark pink with open flowers and a light pink with small white flowers.

I calculated the number of each unit I needed and cut/sewed them. Then the blocks were assembled. I needed 13 of one block and 6 of each of the other two blocks and they lay out in a 5 x 5 grid.

The assembly that makes all the cane weaving look requires that there be no sashing between the blocks.

Ready?

Don't you love it?

I used a light green flannel on the back and did large meander quilting.

A border around the outside would have broken up the pattern so I just finished it with a binding in the black floral.

Finished size is 38 inches.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 3:17 PM PST

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When I heard of the sudden devastating loss of a friend's husband I wanted to send a sympathy card to her right away. In looking through my supply of cards I found I had none suitable.

I started picking up random scraps from the bins on my desktop and thumbed through a couple of pads of printed vellum sentiments. The pieces I settled on were: an embossed black cardstock from which I had sometime punched a heart, a strip of dotted paper, a narrow scrap of grey paper, a lightly patterned paper, a diecut square frame, a vellum sentiment and a torn strip of text-printed tissue paper.

I arranged and shuffled until I came up with this arrangement and then adhered everything together on a folded white card base:

I loved how the dotted strip exactly fit into the heart opening. I also love how the tissue text ends with the words 'by heart'.

After 49+ years of being together, this sets the perfect tone for what I wanted to express to the widow.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 9:10 PM PST

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Final Finish!

I am officially caught up with all of my UFO quilting and sewing projects. 

The fabrics for this quilt were pre-cuts from a fabric line featuring a garden theme. There weren't enough strips for the pattern so I added in a few from my stash and also provided the creamy background and border from the stash.

The pattern is from a book on quilting with precuts and I cut it down considerably to end up with a lap quilt size.

I quilted with an over-all pattern of vines and leaves. I love using this when I am working with garden or flower fabrics.

I won't stay without projects for long though. I already have fabrics and patterns set aside and can't wait to get cutting again. And then there's that big fabric sale going on this weekend....

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 11:54 PM PST

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ANOTHER FINISH! I'm on a roll now.

I did a repeat of the Twizzle pattern used for Pixie Sticks - this time using Teal, Green and Purple. This gave it a tropical look to me leading to the name 'Tropical Twist'.

I gave this one a wide border matching the background and used that for the binding as well. This makes the pattern float above the background.

Here is the background fabric. It reminds me of coconut husk so fits the tropical theme.

Because of the pattern on the background it did not lend itself to the converging lines quilting that I used on the other quilt. So I just did stitch in the ditch quilting and called it good.

This quilt will go to the hospital Passages program.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:14 PM PST

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Today was an all day (9 am to 4 pm) quilting session at the church. We do this two Saturdays a month September through June.

My project for the day was to work on quilting one of my donations quilts that will go to the hospital's Passages program.

The pattern I started with was a free download from Craftsy.

Although it was designed with four sections of color running top to bottom I didn't want mine to be that big so I cut only three colors. When I laid them out in these vertical bars I didn't like it so I mixed the colors all together.

This has such a modern, graphic look that I decided to quilt it with converging lines running top to bottom. It really reinforces the modern look.

The name came about because these colored bars remind me of those sugar-filled straws that children so love.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 5:57 PM PST

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I've been working hard on getting caught up with quilt projects that just need the quilting and binding done.

The one I finished today was made from a pattern I tore out of a magazine soon after I started making quilts. When I bought the main fabric with those swirls of teal and brown I went right for this pattern even though it was featured in purple and black. 

This is actually a very simple pattern - one big block in the center with 4 snowballed corners - 8 squares around the sides with one snowballed corner each then joined into pairs - 4 squares in the corners. I alternated between the teal and the cream in placement.

The sashing in stripe has all the other colors in it and I used the same brown in the cornerstones as the snowball corners.

When I was ready to quilt I designed some art deco corners and a scalloped center motif. I made 36 copies of the line art. I would pin one into a corner and free-motion stitch through the paper and then tear it away. It took a lot of practice to figure out how to stitch the corner without too many back-tracks.

I did the same with the centers.

I am now down to 3 'Works In Progress'.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:20 PM PST

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Some quilts I absolutely fall in love with before I even start stitching on them. That was the case with this one - just because the fabric was so yummy!

I bought a wide stripe black floral from the bargain bin and realized that at home I already had a black with little rosebuds that would look great combined with it. Once I found a pattern I liked, I chose the yellow, green and coral in the florals and in my stash. I added in a white with tiny dots in yellow and coral for the background.

Before I even started sewing this, I realized I had enough of the floral, yellow and green as well as the rosebuds and big florals to make another quilt and cut this one to sew up (showed back on August 14, 2016):

So, I got sidetracked and made several other quilts along the way but I finally got around to finishing up this originally cut one!

You'd hardly know they were the same fabrics, would you?

The coral and white really changes the feel of it.

In the original wide stripe fabric there was a funky separating stripe running lengthwise. I cut that 2 1/4 inches wide and used it for the binding.

For the first time, I bound from back to front so I could topstitch the binding. This left the back binding with a narrow black stripe that helps separate it from the large orange polkadot backing.

I call this one Grand Floral Parade because the large blossoms remind me of the Rose Festival.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 7:32 PM PST

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I'm so glad I discovered this form of art. I had read a lot about art journaling and viewed others' work but the multi-media, and mostly abstract, stuff I was seeing was just not speaking to me.

Then I saw some Bible artwork by Sandy Allnock (she used to run Operation Write Home for whom I made cards for servicemen) and knew I had found the focus I wanted.

The key for me is that I have a verse in mind and can draw artwork specifically for that page. It doesn't have to be frame-worthy nor does it have to be hidden away in an art journal with other random art. It has purpose - a devotional focus.

I experiment with lettering styles that I would have no reason to study were I not trying to marry the text to the illustration.

For this page I reflected on Isaiah 35:1.

I wanted to illustrate the profusion of blossoms so drew (from memory) a wide variety of flowers. I also made the desert cactuses bloom in the mid-ground.

I searched a font library for 'flower fonts' and sketched several to use, repeating them down the text for continuity.

I came upon this scripture by thumbing through the concordance in the back of my Bible the other day. I'm going entry by entry making a note of phrases that evoke an illustration in my mind. In the first session of this cataloging I have reached the middle of the 'C's.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

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I signed up for a mystery quilt for New Year's Day.

Prior to the day of, we were provided with guidelines on selecting 6 fabrics that would contrast and blend well in the pattern and how much of each to have on hand.

Then, over several days we were given cutting instructions for various colors and instructed on labeling them.

On New Year's Day the designer released instructions every few hours - 'stitch A1 squares to B2 triangles to create X number of usits that look like this' (for example).

Of course, nobody could actually sew as fast as the instructions were published as many steps were time-consuming or complicated.

It took me about a week to finish, including layout and assembly of the quilt top. I then had to wait for the next quilting get-together at the church to use the big tables to sandwich the quilt. That caused another delay as bad winter weather cancelled the first scheduled session.

Finally, I got it all together and then this week I got to quilt it. I did this with loopy vines and leaves all over the top.

The name fo this quilt has a two-fold origin. One is the arrows pointing this way and that over the pattern. The other is the fabric selection.

You can see in this close-up that there is a leafy forest floor, a wood grain and a sweet little country plaid. I also used a green and a blue as well as a dark brown with gold circles.

I used the dark brown for the backing and the little plaid for the binding.

On to the next.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 1:21 PM PST

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When I have read through this section of scripture in the past, I have always zeroed in on the phrases 'the hairs of your head are numbered' and 'fear not'. This time I wanted to focus on the fact that God treasures us and finds us to be of great worth to himself.

I looked up photos of sparrows on the internet to get their shape and coloring right. I wanted to make sure they looked like sparrows and not like robins, hawks or parrots! Good photo reference is essential.

I had just thumbed through a book on botanical drawing and took a few photos from the back pages. In that, I studied the structure of a branch that I could incorporate into the drawing for the birds to perch upon.

I drew with a pencil, traced with fine-line pen, erased the pencil lines and added colored pencil to the drawing.

Various lettering styles were pencilled in, inked and colored before I added lots of doodle swirls and colored them.

I used my favorite color to lightly color the sky as my finishing touch.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 2:23 PM PST

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I trolled Pinterest for Bible Journaling ideas when I first started and have combined several for this scripture. Some used the keyboard or the staff for other scriptures.

The roses were sketched in from memory of some I once saw. I used the lines in the journaling border as a guide to drawing the keyboard - very handy. I looked up 'treble clef' to get the shape and shading right.

The handwriting on the scripture is my own and I used notes for all the dots over the 'j' and 'i's.

My extra-fine line pen is getting low on ink so I moved up to a wider tip for the inking. It lends more weight to the drawing over the coloring.

The colored pencil work was used primarily on the roses, leaves and goldenrod, but I did use some smudged color on the staff, treble clef and scripture.

You'll also note that I started dating the artwork above the reference at the top of the page. I went back to my already-posted pages and added the dates on them as well.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 9:18 PM PST

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As soon as I started considering this scripture for Bible journaling this was the image that popped into my head (no pun intended). I had to do some searching to find a reference photo for it as I could not remember what it was called.

I made the colored areas match the lettering on the scroll, used a variety of greys to shade and model the head, and did the same for the scrolls.

Because the phrase 'whatever is' was repeated over and over in the scripture I turned it into a simple bulleted list with this phrase as the header.

I put the reference into a 3D box to mimic the sculptured head.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:54 PM PST

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This will be a scripture that is familiar to most, although I learned it in the KJV when I was a child and this version sounds 'not quite right' to my ear. But since I am doing my work in an NIV Bible I stick to that in the art and quotes.

I first drew the lantern in a sketchbook and then looked up a photo to see where I had gone wrong. It was mostly right, though I had forgotten those supporting bars along the outside.

After the lantern, I drew in the path and followed that by the various roadside materials.

The lettering is my own invention, too.

I went back to a single page illustration as this called for a more vertical layout.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 5:33 PM PST

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Ooooh, I love it when a project comes out exactly like I planned it!

Last time I had my Bible journalling out I made a note of several scriptures I wanted to illustrate and did some rough pencil sketches in a notebook. So, when I got ready to work today, I already had a starting place.

I selected Psalm 139:17-18 to illustrate with a beach scene.

As usual, I completed the sketch in the Bible with fine-line black pen and used colored pencils to finish it.

I don't know why the photo does not show it, but on the lettering (the wider parts) are double lines with purple colored between them to match the distant hills.

This was drawn and colored completely from the imagination. The only reference I used was a look-up of a photo of a sandpiper so I could get the pose correct.

I added lots of little dots around the critters and around the last words in the quote, "the grains of sand", to join them to the illustration.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 9:06 PM PST

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