My First ATC

Well this certainly has been a learning process! I now know what I do and don't want to do in making these. I need to move my flowers over next time around so they are not so close to the outer edge. The rick rack covered the leaves up somewhat. But I am not even certain I like the rick rack so will have to think on that one. I did like finishing the edges off with the buttonhole stitch. After I had the top piece done I fused it to a wool backing. The fusible gave it some stiffness. I had said these were to be in our style. Since I work a lot in wool I thought I would go that route. Making around 12 of these I am beginning to think it would be a lot easier to embellish a larger piece of fabric and then cut it into 12 pieces. But I know that is not the purpose of our small group doing this. I believe the purpose is so we each have a little bit of each other!

Blood Done Signed My Name

I have still been working along on my bible blocks. Mostly on my breaks at work. To tell you the truth I will be glad when I am done with these. They have been really time consuming and are not something I want to work on so I have to make myself work on them. But they are Mariah’s age 12 quilt and she is going on 14 soon so I need to keep at them! This is my latest one.

More on ATC's

Wow! Thanks for all the great ideas on the ATC’s. This is all new to me; but I am excited about giving it a try. Quilt Pixie you gave me some great ideas on getting these cards stabilized. Thanks! I also love the thought of stitching the edges down with embroidery thread or pearle cotton. That would work great with the wool. I hope to start on one this weekend and see how quickly the process goes. I think they will be somewhat time consuming since I will be doing them by hand. I will need around 10-12.
It is supposed to be hot here this weekend and for once we don’t have any baseball. We have been a family of kayakers for quite some time. The plan is to get out on the water this weekend for a nice slow paddle. This will be dependent upon the rains today. They are supposed to be heavy and could bring the water levels up. If that is the case we will have to travel a ways to paddle on a lake!

Artist Trading Cards

My Tuesday night group has decided to do an ATC swap for Christmas. For those that don’t know ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards. They are small quilts the size of playing cards. We will make one for each person and they are to reflect your style as a quiltmaker. The drawing above is my initial idea. I want to use fabric as the background and wool for appliqués as I work in wool a lot and believe this would be a good way to show my style on this small work. I have never worked in such a small scale before, so I am definitely intimidated by it. I usually work on large blocks with large appliqués. I have never done this before and have no ideas on how to finish them off. I can’t imagine binding something so small. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Quilt top is Done!

My quilt top is done! After our scare with our dog Bullvye this summer I felt the need to make record of him in our life. So I took the few doghouses I had made earlier this year using Tonya’s methods and it grew from there. This has been so much fun and my family even likes it! I usually work in dark colors so it is always a stretch for me to work with such bright fabrics. I have an additional dog house to put on the back that has our outdoor cat Annabelle in it. She always gives him a run around the property when he goes outside. In fact we think she actually enjoys the chase. On the label I will put a picture of Bullvye and his story so-far. You know that can’t be much, he definitely leads a dog’s life!

Christmas quilt

I have to admit that I am really having fun with Tonya’s free style letters. They are like potato chips. Once you get started you can’t stop. I have sat all other projects aside while I go with my ideas and these letters. Before I did the doghouses I did the Christmas quilt above. The stars are from Bonnie’s site http://www.quiltville.com. I loved how she had used the plaids. I have a huge stash of plaids and since our retreat theme this year (you can find out all the fun stuff planned via Linda’s blog http://www.tippeca-needle.blogspot.com) is “snowed in” using only your stash, I thought this would be a fun example. Once I finished the top I knew I needed to add some words to the border. “Love came down at Christmas, Stars and angels gave the sign”. Since I couldn’t stop at just one quilt I moved on to the doghouses. I am still going strong! Next quilt up is based on “Ham and Eggs – A day’s work for a chicken; A lifetime commitment for a pig”! I have a great chicken feed tea towel I bought in Paducah that I am also going to incorporate into this quilt. I can’t wait to get started!