Moon Song

This was my challenge quilt for Challenge #38....I know...I just never got it posted because I was away and then ill. Enough excuses...I just wanted to share it. I really enjoyed this challenge. I used metallic hand-dyes and commercial fabrics. I used trapunto and reverse applique as well as regular applique. It has angelina fibers and hand beading. Thank you so much for creating these great challenges. My goal is to do one in the one week window...Donna from Sea Ranch

Juvenile Sandhill Crane

I have just joined this group, and want to show my juvenile sandhill crane, based on a photo a friend sent me from Florida...

Here is the photo, outlined to help make my pattern.

I have been doing fused "feathered friends" for several years now. It is a great project for fabric play, and a wonderful way to use scraps in a creative way.

Every feather is applied individually, and they are only attached at the base, so the feathers fluff out and add dimension to the piece.

I loved the way this bird was just striding along, and it seemed like he needed a pair of flip-flops. It is Florida, after all.

The fishin' pole is a piece of bamboo, tucked under his wing.

The piece is about 14" x 21"

I am really happy to be in this group. I love challenges, and really enjoy seeing what everyone else creates.

Marilyn Foulke

marilynfoulke@gmail.com

Moonlight on the Goldfish Pond

I joined this group hoping that I would teach myself just to jump right in and quickly do a small project. I'm afraid this one took me a while longer because I had to figure out how to accomplish it....and I had so many ideas, it was very hard to pick just one.

Quite some time ago, I was a Chinese watercolor painting showing the moon reflecting on a goldfish pond. When I lived in Connecticut, I saw the moon reflected perfectly on our swimming pool. I thought I'd try to recreate this in a small quilt, using the shots I took of my goldfish prior to May 13 of this year.

At first, I thought I'd use the metallic lame sheer, the one which reflects irridescent. That didn't really work very well, so I tried a number of things and finally chose the sheet form of Angelina (the name for this product escapes me at the moment). I discovered that if I did it completely round, it really didn't give the feeling, so I added some Angelina fibers sticking out around it.

I originally was going to use a piece of blue organza over the top to darken it to make it look like night on the water. However, the organza and other dress sheers were too opaque. I finally settled on two layers of navy tulle. That alone seemed a little flat, so I ripped up pieces of sparkle illusion in a turquoise color and layered these underneath.

The water plants are made from eyelash yarn. The goldfish are fused and painted with Dyna-flo paints and their fins are a silk organza which I stitched over.

One of the fun things about this piece is that I realized that it can be viewed from any direction, so I am going to put hanging pockets on all sides.

I can't decide how I'm going to bind this. I usually like to use a traditional binding. I have only done one facing, and I wasn't pleased how it looked on the back of the quilt. Any suggestions or discussion of which would be better (faced, bound, or even satin stitched) is especially welcome. The measurement of this piece is 18 3/4" H x 13 5/8".

Thanks! Lisa Broberg Quintana

Elephants and Lions...Do You See A Zebra?

Elephants and Lions...Do You see a Zebra?I did reverse applique on the beige Lions and the grey Elephants...and cut the scraps into 2 1/2 inch squares sewed blocks 5x5 squares and cut the squares into circles...also cut circles in background using Cheryl Philips Cut Around tool sewing the patch circles into the background.

I finished the top on time....my hang up was what to bind with and how should I quilt this...I put it altogether and did my old stand by serpentine stitches vertical and horizontal...(use this a lot).We then went out of town for a few days and I finished the binding in the car....

Taking a Little Trip

Taking A Little Trip....How did the bears get to the lower Peninsula of Michigan...Animal Kingdom...I do have a finished quilt that falls into the #38 FFFC. I have posted it in our photo's section. "Taking A Little Trip"(55 1/2x 47 1/2). This quilt shows about 40 ways for the Bear to cross from upperMi to lower Mi. (the yellow brick road (across the Big Mac Bridge), motor cycles, trucks, sail boats and swimming are just a few of the ways for the bear to get to lower Mi) For those of you not familiar with Michigan...I live in the Upper Peninsula and the Mackinaw Bridge connects us to lower Mi. One day the DNR on a radio show talked about the UP bears crossing to lower Mi... well creative minds of my Art group decided we needed to have a challenge showing how the bears crossed over to lower MIchigan.These quilts have been in MCQA (my guild show), Marquette Public Library,andMichigan Quilt Network show this Sept. I've not been good at FFFC deadlines I will try hard to make this one!! Janice

# 38. Blue Bird of Happiness by Candy Farmer

This is my 'Bluebird of Happiness" for Challenge 38. Materials: 100% Cotton background fabric, screen print with dye paste and over dyed with fabric paint. Fused silk accents. Bird printed on blue polyester chiffon and hand stitched to background. Simple hand quilting and embroidery with silk thread and seed bead eye. Machine overcast edging. 4"x6" postcard. Your comments are welcome.

Cow Girls at Sunflower Branch

Besides dragons, I have always had a lot of cows in my life, especially having raised several from calves and milking by hand during my teen years. So, when the challenge said animals, I thought I would do a few funny cows.My original idea just had the cow girls in poses, but then all the sudden I remembered a piece by Kathy York, and the girls decided to hang out at the Sunflower Branch.

I used variegated thread with a free machined zigzag applique technique. I think it works well for this piece because it is more cartoon like. I am not sure about the zigzag for other things. Surprisingly enough, it actually is less noticeable...if you look at the ladies and also the stem, even though there are some bright colours going on, the full view shows that the thread actually blends into the background more. I think that this piece might have actually wanted a solid applique stitch, though. It might have helped to give it a more comical feel like cartoons.

detail

The quilting is an all over sunflower connected by vines with leaves. I did the trapunto part of the challenge behind the girls and the sunflower.

I think if I did this type of thing again, I would have more contrast between the cows and the background so they would stand out more.

How's a Girl to Choose?

This was a fun challenge. Sorry the batteries were all gone and didn't get pics until today. Quilting will be done this week sometime. Didn't want to be too late again this month. The second photo shows the 3-D leaves that will be attached after quilting. They are now quilted onto fleece backing and really add some great dimension.

Started thinking about which animal print to use and wound up dipicting these tigers, each with different patterns. Hand dyed background and leaves. Commerical prints. Fused. Will post the finished quilt later.

Comments and critiques welcome and appreciated.

Bubba, the big headed dawg

Bubba is a pure bred Old English Sheepdog. His mom is one of my dearest friends, and we've all watched over the past year as our 10 year old buddy has started to slow down and we know that his time with us is finite. He has survived lymphoma, a rambunctious younger brother, Travis, and a household that also includes some feline cousins.
Bubba's eyes have always intrigued me, so I've tried to capture his wistful face.
The layers are fused applique, Fabrico marker, fabric paint, and stitching.... and this will be his mom's Christmas present this year....
Comments of course, are welcome!

The Hunter and the Hunted

This was a really fun challenge for me. I have taken several classes on free-motion embroidery and decided it was time to try it. The wolf is entirely done free-motion, I did layer fabric behind the threads, that was to tell me where the color change or the eyes/nose etc. were. Once the wolf was done, what do you do with him? So put him on a green background and added a tree which gave the wolf a "home". The quilting is all done free motion as well. I truly had fun on this !

Love to hear your critiques, thanks, Jeanne

Moose

This piece utilized several techniques that included freezer paper stencil on a silk screen for the shadow moose (Lyric Kinard's quituniversity.com class). The front moose was transformed using Beth Wheelers difusement maps tutorial and digitally printed, I used trupunto to bring it forward more. The background is paint sticks on a hand painted background and the thread work added.

Sweet Schnauzer
16" x 20"
fused, thread-painted, FMQ

This challenge came along about the same time that I had a commission to do a pet portrait of this special little dog. He was a much loved pet who died this past summer and two friends decided his owners needed a portrait. So I combined the Fast Friday Challenge and the commission. I finished the portrait including the quilting and a black border but failed to take a picture - something I rarely forget. So I'm posting the little fellow before the piece was finished. This photo was one of many I took to audition backgrounds - this was the winner! His owners loved the quilt as a remembrance of their precious little dog.

Your comments are always welcome. Thanks.

Sewing Caddy - Front

This had to do double duty. I found out about HIA's challenge at the same time as the FFFC and it was due today so I combined them.

Their rules were: Use their embroidery design and make a sewing caddy.

I used a picture of my cats watching the squirrels to make my design and then I thread painted it. The eye was reverse applique and for the dimension I used three layers of batting under her hips and hand appliqued it onto the background..

Sorry for the wonky setting! I took this photo in the Dora canal and changed the color with photo editing software. The thin aqua border around the photos is chiffon and the background fabric I bought on the same day I took the picture by coincidence. The large aqua border is chiffon overlaid over ugly free fabric picked up at a guild meeting.

Windblown Dinner

Windblown Dinner
Gail Myrhorodsky



I finished just over the limit this time! Hope you like my little hungry bird who came to dinner. The flowers and bird are direct FM embroidery. Vines and leaves are quilted and painted. It actually started as a much larger piece about 36" square. I cropped it down to about 14"h by about 12" w. Background fabrics are some of my hand-dyes. Hope you like it.

Just Passing Through

My entry to challenge 38 is titled "Just Passing Through". Some quilts insist on being made - this was one of those for me. For those who don't have the time or inclination for the "why", the details are these: 22" wide x 18" high; trapunto-ed bear totem (creating reverse trapunto for the somewhat subtle bear footprints on the right); reverse applique in the arrow. Things I would do differently - I would limit the Seminole border to one pattern instead of four and I would be more careful about keeping the pieces symmetrical.
For those who want to know the story behind the quilt...
My husband and I jog every morning. Since I run twice as far as he does, we start out together and then go our separate ways. For me, that hour each morning is my most valuable design time and I have created at least 90% of my quilts to the rhythm of the run. Last Friday my thoughts were on the FFFC posted that morning by Cynthia. I kept considering possible designs and rejecting them - nothing seemed to be speaking to me. About three miles into my run I looked up and saw my husband headed my way and I knew something must be going on. When he reached me he started lecturing me about daydreaming and not paying attention to my surroundings. Indignantly I demanded to know why he thought that was the case. Instead of answering he pointed to the ground by my feet. There in the sand, as clear as could be, were two perfect, fresh sets of grizzly bear prints heading back in the direction from which I had come. It was obviously a mama and near grown cub and they had gone through Thursday night sometime. We followed the prints back about a half mile to our barbed wire fence and there we could see where they had gone through. There were big clumps of grizzly fur caught in the barbs. Following the tracks back the opposite direction we found that the two had passed pretty close to our house during the night but thankfully, unlike last year, this time they had not hurt any of our animals. I decided I was meant to do a bear totem quilt. I talked to the folks at Game and Fish to see if I could add a few strands of grizzly bear fur to the piece but, as I suspected, since they have recently been re-listed as an endangered species, even picking the fur off the fence would be illegal!

"Tiny Giraffe" (10" x 13")

This is based on a graphite drawing I did for drawing class. The image was converted to sepia tones and printed on fabric. I will be putting this in a pillow top, so the edges are not yet finished. I love animals, so this was a great challenge. Those who know me will be surprised that I didn't do a cat!

The Lion King

Off to a slow start, the Lion King is still a work in progress. I had planned to do tiger cubs based on a Japanese wood block print purchased in Yokohama some 30+ years ago, but alas I could not find it. During the attic search I did find this somewhat ancient batik that was purchased about the same time in the middle east. This proud lion seemed rather regal, thus the name of this entry. I wanted to frame the batik in a nontraditional way and so cut some “wonky” borders, added a little animal textures and a few wispy things to create a little more interest and this is the end result. I still need to do more quilting on the “border” and have binding to add, but wanted to post this in a timely manner. I really enjoyed working with the sharply contrasting colors and the African feel to this piece. Thank you Cynthia for this challenge. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

African Sunset Ch#38

Wow, I finished before the deadline.
This piece was a lot of cutting. First I place a piece of my hand dyed fabric, then a piece of black fabric. Sewed on the paper side of the stabalizer and then cut it out. A lot like Sue B's upside down applique.
It measures 21x24".
It was a fun challenge. I do have quite a bit of depth in the piece, although hard to see in the picture. I think it needs some eyelashes on the left side :)
Thanks for the wonderful challenge Cynthia.
Now I'm off to view the other work, which I haven't looked at yet.

Fried Chicken

When I started this quilt I had intended to make a phoenix rising from the ashes. My husband said "too expected - why not a burned chicken" - therefor "Fried Chicken. The chicken is made of several layers of fabric starting with an upholstery velour topped with net stuffing to shape the leg and thigh. The top layers are organza - manipulated and burned. The wing is loose on three sides and made of purple embossed sheer. The quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted. Now that I see this on screen I realize it needs a lot more quilting which I will do when I once again have more than 5 min. Soon I hope. All critiques and criticisms are welcome. I love to have all the input I can get.

I have now added more quilting and cropped the bottom of the quilt. I think this is an improvement. What do you think?

Pat Havey