Trangles Blowing in the Wind

I am late!! Charter my server's new modem had problems and kept crashing my computer...between a computer tech and charter repair... I was finally back on line on the due date for this challenge.

I found this small block all triangles and since I was late... decided to use it for the one shape

challenge. a little box of "dog-ears" (tiny triangles) saved for a future use :) A piece of misty-fuse..sprinkled with the "dog-ears"...covered with sparkled net and ironed down and quilted with triangle embroidery stitches. The edge finish I used the one I use for my fabric post cards ...yarn held next to the edge and stitched with embroidery stitches. The post cards have a stiff interfacing and the finish also worked well with the softer edges. Light and dark windmills on the piece... I added some beads and sequins in the center of the windmills. I'm thinking I didn't need them..they are not triangles!

Rainbow Haiku

My First Haiku

A rainbow

And now there's two
Rain and sun

We've been getting lots of double rainbows this Summer and Fall. After the rain and sun together it's hard to capture the second rainbow with my camera.

The rainbow's come across the sky and disappear into the trees behind my back yard.

For my Rainbow Haiku...I'm thinking abstract....I used all scraps from other projects, the rainbow colors are from Batik scrap-bag purchased at an IQA show, green at the bottom scraps from pine trees I was cutting for postcards.

The sun trimmed edges from a 50th anniversary quilt. All scraps sewn to a rainy grey background.

Serpentine quilting on layered background, next the "trees" at the bottom ..blue eyelash yarn across the top for rain. Sun and rainbow colors finish my abstract Haiku.

Chicken's in my Willow Tree!

My inspiration for this FFFC#49 Challenge came from a conversation at breakfast with a group of friends. We were talking about willowtrees. Early in our marriage we had this huge willow tree in the back yard....at Night our neighbor's chickens would come and roost in the willow tree!!!

The new "Super 8".....this sounds like a quilt!!!

My life has been on the bumpy side for some time... my inspiration is there but, I just can't get

myself started. This whimsical quilt has been good for me...it's not quite finished..(I need to do a bit more quilting and the binding). I started with a night-time sky with/stars and sewed the moon into the background using Cheryl Phillips Cut-A-Round tool. Next layering the sky,batting and backing...quilting a serpentine stitch in both directions.the rest of the design was all fused and I painted around the chickens with Lumiere/pearl white paint.

I know I'm very late for this challenge.....I went on line and saw that the new challenge #50 is comming out this week!!!! Where did the time go....SORRY.....Janice Simpson

Pizza Hot Little Pepper/Button Mushrooms

I had two ideas for this challenge... my first thought was pizza and the other idea is still lingering... so...will have to make it too!! Maybe??? I used Cheryl Phillips ...Cut-around tool to cut my pizza and crust...fussy cut fused peppers and real buttons for the "button"mushrooms . Zigzag stitches on peppers, crust and cutting lines on pizza.

My other idea a deep purple/black background with metalic spider-webs and spiders...

deep in the woods. Three Batik mushrooms free-hand cut and leaves fused.. and some stamped leaves and silk leaves. Mushrooms quilted with metalic thread ..

raw edge finish with irregular shape.loopy stitch over yarn on edges

"DEEP IN THE WOODS"

April May and June

#44 Flower Children "April, May, and June"

The children are dancing about in silk flower dresses on a quilted background. I rolled the edges to the back...mitered the corners and stitched from the back.

The dolls I had made for some doll pins and they were unfinished. So....I fashioned their dresses from silk flowers and beads...fabric markers for faces and shoes. I sewed the dolls onto the quilt. (16 1/2 X 12).

Under the Sea Reflections

April Fools !! AKA …"Under the Sea Reflections"
I got started soon as the Challenge was announced…Today..Thursday before the new Challenge will be given I finished #43…Yes!! The beading...

For the water reflection I matched the flamingo's right side of fabric to the wrong side and sewed the pieces together …used fusible and then fussy cut the plants and birds ironing this to grasses on top and a under-water looking batik on the bottom plus several fish.

My stitching..fancy yarn for underwater plants, stitching around fish, birds and Plants. A couple rows of bobbin stitching with razzle- dazzle thread.  For my non traditional edge finish I used Terry Grant's zig-zag over cording… I used a wider zig-zag width and varigated thread. (I made the edges kind of wavey) I've used this method once before and I like the narrow zig-zag and solid thread.
Great finish for small art quilts!!

Prevent Forest Fires

Today I posted my #42 FFFC...not too fast or on scheduel..I did make it all today..my photo does

not show the "real quilt".I could not pick up the black sparkled net "smoke" over the forest fire.

We went to Florida the day before this challenge was set...I had been snow dyeing black and red

acrylic paints for another project. I did not have time to finish the snow dye before we left home ...

so..I just poured off the melted snow and let the container sit in my laundry room.

I had crinkled up the fabric before dyeing and when I checked it when we got home the fabric was crinkled

and dyed black & red.

Perfect for manipulated fabric fire!!!With fabric glue and red metalic pieces I added

little strikes of fire... and sewed on some deer in the burned forest. The top blue skies and misty &

black trees. (My second thought was to make the sky bigger and put the fire into the blue and not

streight across)Too late!! Any way I quilted vertical lines and next added the sparkled black net for

smoke...hand stitched with embrodery thread. I cut the net bigger than the top and let it puff and

pleat as I sewed it on....I can't get the smoke to show on my photo.

Fractured Flamingos

I started this quilt with another quilt I was working on..pink full moon..I had the moon too big and not enough sky so when I cut out the center of my pink moon I then sewed the blue circle back into the pink little strip and began to slice this piece up ...got out of my stash of flamingo fabric and cut and sewed more circles and strips of blue and flamingo fabrics....cut and sew...cut and sew...and here's my version of Fractured Flamingos!

Blueberry Pancakes

I chose the Bisquick box for the colors Yellow, Blue, Red. All the pieces are cut free-hand with scissors..I fringed the place mat and raw-edge finish on all edges.

For the vase I used a sheer scarf and white sheer fabric for the water line on the vase.Leaves and stems cut from Gold(yellow)
embellished red velvet. One button flower and the large rusty-red flower was a gift from my secret pal..I cut the clip off the back and glued it to the stem.

The last ingredient...the syrup...I poured acrylic paint onto the pancakes and tilted the quilt to let the "Syrup" drip. I want to put a bit more "Syrup" on the pancakes...but the first "syrup" has to dry or it will drip off the plate. This was a real experiment not sure it would work!!

The fork is fake fur.

When I started reading about this challenge there were lots of references and good ones too...I wanted to get started on my challenge so I skipped down to Pamela Allen...She is a favorite of mine..I kind of do her style and always did the free-hand scissor cutting because...I can't draw but I can cut...And I did cut the edges of my quilt uneven!!

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

Meet Me In 2287: 60,000 years

Outer Space ...I posted Malacandra(Mars quilt description from CL Lewis bookPerelandra)an already finished quilt & fit the theme. My plan was to finish anew FFFC...well it's almost finished after a few distractions....I thought Iwould have it finished before the new FFFC #38 came out... very soon..The nameis "Did You See This?" or "Meet You in 2287" (60,000Years). The name aloneshould get some interest going!!The idea for this FFFC came from an e-mail telling me to watch the sky's for the month of August. On August 27th Mars will be close to the Moon and we could see it ...well we had a cloudy night. Well I did see this very bright "Star" Mars next to the Moon during August evenings. This will not happen again for 60,000 years...I printed the words from my computer onto fabric and next cut the large circles..the Moon and Mars...the Earth much smaller(only 34,649,589 miles from Mars) has a sketch of the United States..these were attached to the background fabric with an iron-on and various fringed yarn. The MilkyWay across the quilt is angelina fibers attached with Misty Fuse.A few silver stars attached with beads and quilted stars with silver metalic thread.I wrapped the front fabric to the back for the edge finish...edges not too streight...OK for the universe!!!

posted by Designs by Janice Simpson at 8:03 AM 0 comments

Labels: "Meet You In 2287" 60, 000 years

Real Ghost

This is my "Cheater" Quilt made for the Journal Pages.

They were not private investigators or apprentice ghost-hunters, to be sure...Simply two gentlemen interested in...

The Supernatural.... These words printed on silk using computer..free form cut.. edges burnt with a sodering iron..misty fused to the quilt. I sketched my ghost and ghost hunters on a small tablet while traveling. For my ghost I tried several methods...paint netting..and lightweight iron-on interfacing (Transparency)and I chose the interfacing. The ghost was ironed down and outlined with glue and foil.The ghost and ghost hunters were free-form cut with sissors..a raw edge finish for the ghost hunters. The quilt is my original design.

I wanted to finish a quilt for this last challenge and hope to do better in the next round.

Janice Simpson

That Dog "Gone" Quilt

My UFO was made from a ugly fabric exchange. (the little flower's red,orange,yellow,green...ugly?). I folded the UFO in half and cut wedges.

Wedges from both sides of the UFO are in both fans. In my stash I still had some of the dog fabric....I scattered little dogs around That Dog "Gone" Quilt and on the ends of the fans with a fusiable and stitch finish.I also used eye-lash yarn around the fans.

I'm not sure if I like the UFO or That Dog "Gone" Quilt better. (Done is better!!). I know my quilter friends here in Marquette would be upset with the cut up designs on the fans. I like the idea of cut and sew you never know what you will get....

Janice

The Jean's Bag AKA "Cut-Off Legs"

I'm always cutting "off legs" for my family and just couldn't throw them out...maybe I can do something with them!!

I sewed the legs together using decorative stitches and verigated thread.

Bag lined with millenneum 2000 fabric (got to use it somewhere)...

Bag handle part of an old metal belt...

Bag closure..a plastic paper-clip.It closes over back and front...when opening: clip to back of bag.

Embelishments:

Block printing with wooden blocks purchased at the IQA show in Chicago.

Two really old buttons given to me from my sister (Garage Sale Nut and Flea Market Fanatic) . She got them from a Flea Market or was it a Garage Sale??

An old doll pin I made many years ago.

Left-over beaded coins on the bottom of the bag.

If I had more time I guess I could add more embelishments!!I'm just happy to be on time. Janice Simpson

I've thought of other ideas for these "cut-off legs...marbel bags, crayon bags, camera bag,ect.ect.

Recycle "Keys"

I finished this FFFC on time but was leaving for the IQA quilt show in Chicago and didn't have time to take a photo and post.

For the background I used a muslin machine practice piece. The hotel "keys" my husband made holes in them for me to sew them on...old car keys and even an old skelton key..and a couple of old buttons. We were following our grandson Jack around for his college Tennis... he's in his first year at Lake Superior State. Maybe I should have named it Keys to Tennis!! Size is 9 x 17"

Janice Simpson

You Could Be A Multi-Millionaire

I found my spam when I signed up for Publishers Clearing House Sweep-stakes!! Everyday a new e-mail...Millions waiting for me.

The first page I designed using letters and graphic's from Print shop's Art gallery. ..The second page also from the gallery..I just added the words Don't enter contests on line....Spam...Spam...Spam. I had these pages printed and ready for the FFFC and we went out of town again....

So here it is late but done with-in the weeks time limit. I finished off my Spam with Batiks.

I'm printing out the words on the second part as they are so small but a perfect connection to my spam.....

I was planning to send you a rabbits foot for good luck, but the Animal Rights people said no way! So I decided to send a horse shoe, but all I could locate was a cow! Then I decided to send a 4-leaf clover but I just couldn't find one! Finally, I settled on a penny I've carried it around since childhood but then I needed it for sales tax....

So if your hoping to receive a token of good fortune from me, all I can say is...

Don't enter contests on line...Spam...Spam...Spam

Pink House

This quilt might fall into a "cheater"...I started with a UFO. When we were on a cruise...while visiting Dominica.. I took a photo on a moving bus thru the window of the pink house. I found the pink leaves on another Island ..St Lucia..with the plan for a Architecture quilt. I enlarged the photo and printed 4 parts on 8 1/2x 11 fabric sheets and sewed the parts together. And added the pink borders...pressed and my steam iron dripped water spots on the printed house.....so into the UFO pile it went..... With the announcement of Architecure... a rescue plan came with crayons and shiva paint sticks and quilting with different colors of verigated threads. I'm late posting as I did not have my photo or my statement ready before we went out of town for a few days...

SPOOKY AUTUMN

This photo is my Fast Friday Fabric Challenge....I've been trying to put my photo's and description on FFFC Blog I hope this will be successful...the second photo is how I hang it from the corner with a plastic curtain ring.

SPOOKY AUTUMN ... Details I wanted to do this first challenge as I will miss the next one I will be in Houston Oct.23 thru Nov 6. I made Spooky Autumn and decided it needs to hang by one corner. Size 13x12 the top(the tent shaoe) 131/2 x13 the bottom (the v shape), just one plastic ring to hang. The size came to be quite a surprise to me as I just trimmed the edges with my rotary cutter and no ruler. First I pieced the top and put together with backing and batting and quiltedit. Next I added fused halloween fabrics..ghosts, pumpkins, black cat, spider-web, bats and a long snake-like strip across the quilt.To this I stitched fluffy yarn and the double faced leaves I stitched only down the spines and curled the edges I hand sewed a plastic spider on the web in the leaves.I finished the edges with an overcast stitch and added more fluffy yarn to complete the quilt. By the way...upon examining my quilt I have two white dots!! The ghost has two little white eyes...LOLOL


Janice Simpson In Marquette Michigan...Let me know what you think...I've changed the name from "Spooky Fall Colors" to " Spooky Autumn"