Loose Change ~ Completed

Wanted to post a few of the completed pictures of the Loose Change quilt.  This quilt turned out very nice!  So if you are thinking about a very easy pattern to start your quilting out on, or something you want to finish in a weekend ~ this is it!  

And by the way, Spool is having an awesome Cyber Monday website bash!  Go check it out 
http://www.spoolquilt.com/

Hunter's Design Studio weekend sale also:
http://huntersdesignstudio.com/

Bad Ass Quilters Society Stitch Corp Unite ~~

It’s gotten cold here and lo and behold, it's snowing. Rightfully so since it is Northeast Ohio AND it is winter!  This morning when I woke up, I really had a hankering for a bowl of oatmeal.  Not the kind you nuke in the microwave, but REAL oatmeal cooked on the stovetop. The kind that my mom used to make.  I remember every winter morning my mom would get the old Franklin fireplace started and we’d bring our clothes down that we would be wearing that day to school and drape them over our chairs in front of the stove.  She’d have the TV trays ready so that we could eat our hot oatmeal by the fire!  What a glorious memory of days gone by.  Although I didn’t have any oatmeal in the house, I settled for sewing in my jammies and a piece of toast with wine jelly!

While sewing, I got an idea to blog for you fine people about the Bad Ass Quilters Society Stitch Corp. Excitingly, I have been asked to be one of their team members! As Maddie writes on her website:

 “It is our intention to fill our Stitch Corps with the best and most innovative individuals who like to share their process, their opinions, their outcomes and their samples with the wider world.”  (http://www.badassquilterssociety.com).

I feel so honored, and dare I say "badass," to be a part of this amazing project. So today I'd like to blog about my first project for the Stitch Corp. 

The pattern is Loose Change by Hunter's Design Studio with Pointillist Palette – Sorbet Colorstory fabric.   At first glance of the fabric I said to myself “Ok, I do like these colors, but hmmm it’s going to be a bit boring if I only have 5 colors to work with.” As I turned the fabric over I let out this squeal of delight!  The fabric is gradient colors….so 5 colors is not accurate by any means!  You will see what I mean as we go thru the process and see the final quilt.

            









This quilt pattern is easy peasy also!  So if you need something very quick and easy to work up in a weekend….this Loose Change pattern is the bomb. 

 Step 1. I cut off the salvage as stated in the pattern.  I then cut these into strips.                                    

Step 2. I cut Pennies from one end of each strip.  Pennies were reserved for later in the final assembling of each strip.

Step 3.  The background strips (navy blue) were randomly cut according to the directions.  It was also good to follow the directions and only do 5 at a time and see how they lay out. 














I used my design wall to pin everything onto which also helped me later to figure out where the pennies should also go. 


 As you can see in the right hand picture, I pinned up the strips so that the bottom section could be viewed. This made it easy once again to see where the Pennies should go.

            

Here in these next two pictures are my sections of 5 strips getting ready to be put together and then the last section of strips to be added.

I will be quilting this over the holiday weekend and will share a finished picture and some of the quilting process.

This was a very easy and fun weekend project!  This pattern can be found on the Bad Ass Quilters Society website under Quick Quilts for Christmas or on Sam Hunter Designs.  You can find the fabric and patterns at Spool with Maddie Kertay being Owner of this shop. See links below!  Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!  Hug your family and enjoy the time you get to spend together this holiday season.

Safe travels!

Bad Ass Quilters Society:
http://www.badassquilterssociety.com/quick-quilts-for-christmas/

Hunter's Design Studio:

http://huntersdesignstudio.com/

Spool:

http://www.spoolquilt.com/module/search_content.htm?form_version=2&showSearchResults=1&search_keyword=Pointillist&btnSearchSubmit=Search

Classes, classes, classes!

I know a few of you ask questions on what techniques I used for designing and creating my art quilts.  Although it is simply a raw edge fusible applique, I do use paint, inks, and threadpainting for much of the detailing.

As I was perusing the Quilt Festival catalog back in August, I thought it would be fun to use some different techniques in future quilts.  I will blog about each class, the teachers, and the techniques that I have been inspired to use.  I will share pictures of my samples and share websites for easy access, in case you want to enroll in one of their classes.

Monoprint, Mask & Stamp Fabrics – Teacher Cecile Whatman of Unique Stitching www.uniquestitching.com.au

http://uniquestitching.wordpress.com/

This was a very fun and inspiring class. Cecile is from Australia and regaled us with many exciting stories!  Our many questions and her open personality let us get to know this wonderful teacher over the course of her class. I could have just sat and listened to her talk all day…gotta love that Aussie accent!

She introduced us to quite a few new things.

1. PFD fabric – prepared for dyeing (Fabric is prewashed or purchased as “PFD”). 

2. Gelli Plates – gel printing plate, new paints and why some paints are used over others.

3. Texture plates – you can see the images these plates leave on the fabric in the picture below.

4. The Jacquard Textile paints work very well with this monoprinting technique. These paints are transparent and otherwise show the fabric from behind.

5. Lumiere paints -  they are opaque, mostly metallic, and pearlescent. They can be used on top of the transparent paints for bolder accents or to cover the area with a certain texture which would not show through the fabric. They can also be used alone for an all over coverage.

The paint is poured sparingly onto the Gelli plate and then spread by a roller.  You then can make your masterpiece with texture plates or you can even use stamps, combs, or your fingers to make the design you desire.  You then put your fabric down on the Gelli plate and press it down on the plate.  Peel your fabric off the Gelli plate after a few seconds, Voila!  Textured Prints!

These samples show different colors on each sample, but you can create your blocks as you want them. I probably will use these samples in some quilt blocks and will cut sections of prints that I want to adorn.   

The top middle sample piece was actually made by rolling excess paint onto a piece of the fabric.  Instead of wasting this paint on paper towels, clean your roller out on a fresh piece of fabric. This technique can make some of the most interesting pieces!  Unless you want to use paper, as you will see in the next few classes, that might be interesting also.

The stamp technique is using a stamp or stencil on top of a background, as seen in the middle left sample with the feather.   It’s a very easy technique as most of us already have stamps in our scrapbook supplies.  You can do this when the background fabric is wet for a more faded look, or when dry to get a very distinct image on your fabric.

Lastly the masking technique is where you want to cover up (mask) part of your fabric or design so that no color will show up in that area.  For an example you could cut a piece of fabric or paper and lay over the feathers (mask them) and put another color over the top of everything else.  When you lift your “mask” from these feathers you would see the under color orange that was originally there and any other color you added would not show up in that area.

So go check out Cecile’s blog and take one of her exciting classes…you will be happily buying Gelli plates and paints to finish up a much needed collection of art fabrics!