Quilt

This is a small quilt I just finished. It's about 20" by 24". The flower is from a photo I took and made into a negative in Microsoft Picture It. The colors are more the ones I like that the regular image. I printed it on Tyvek and machine embroidered it to the hand dyed background. Then I hovered an iron over it to melt parts of the Tyvek. Be sure to do it safely with good ventilation if you try it. Also, if you print on Tyvek, only use an inkjet printer. A lazer printer would melt it and make a total mess.  It seemed to want echo quilting.

Because the print comes out as a rectangle and a flower usually isn't, I used machine embroidery to complete the petals that weren't printed.

Take a Stitch Tuesday

This week it's Chain Stitch with www.pintangle.com  The stamped image is from a styrofoam plate I made just using a pen. It's a leftover from taking a meal home. I love to reuse rather than throw out things. They are good for experimenting with shapes, because if they don't work out, you really haven't lost anything. The main vein and outside are the chain stitch.

Chain stitch is another regular for Crazy Quilt.

It can be whipped over, threaded, or stitched over an earlier row.

Using unusual threads adds a whole new look.

Addition

I meant to say that the quilt is about 15" by 12" small enough to try things and large enough to see the work. I liked the idea that it combined all the things I love to do-machine, hand, couching, quilting.

Quilt

I had too much to do but couldn't resist the Stupendous Stitching class at www.craftsy.com The time must have been perfect for me, because I did the 11 episode class in a little over a week. It gave me the perfect chance to use the threads, yarns, cords that I can't resist buying.

Thanks everyone for the comments. They make my day and things have been challenging again, so they really help.

Quilt

When I worked for Aardvark Adventures in Livermore, California, we carried a kit of papers painted with colors to do transfers of the color to synthetic fabrics. I did the center piece to test it and for a sample to go in the catalog we sent out. I finally finished it into a small quilt.

The flowers are ultrasuede and machine stitched down. The lines have hand stitching that I recently put in to emphasize the bars of color. It's machine quilted.

Sadly, Aardvark is no longer open, as she has moved and gone on to other things. I really learned a lot working there. It was a fun place being surrounded by all the things I wanted to play with. It was mail order before things were available by the internet.

Take a Stitch Tuesday

It's Detached Chain stitch this week for the challenge at www.pintangle.com It makes a nice addition to other stitches used in crazy quilt.

Here it is using weird yarns and a ribbon. It would make good texture in a piece.

This also has a regular chain stitch and the detached one used grouped to create a motif.

More grouping and adding extra stitches to it.

Purses

One of the charity projects Columbia Fiberarts Guild is doing is to make tote bags for women and children who have to leave an abusive situation with only what they can carry. Here are two of the prints I used to make a bunch of bags. I am so lucky to be in a loving marriage.

On TV Linda McGeehee made this type of bag on a show for Martha Pullen. It was so neat I had to try it. Of course, I didn't decide until I no longer had the show and had to figure out the details on my own. She does have a pattern on her website for sale, but I was sure I could do it. It starts with two long rectangles of fabric with a zipper in each end. Then you fold it not quite in half and put on a strap-cool idea.