CCQ Challenge - 2026 - Red, White, Blue and Gold - Part Three - Patriotic Lady

This is a continuation of two previous posts about the making of the CCQ challenge piece, the Patriotic Lady.

I made the face, neck and hair with 4 shades of skin tone and selected black and gold for her hair.  After I finished it, I attached it all to the background with a tiny zig zag stitch.

The final item that I needed was the star wand.  I remembered that I had a 1/4" bias tape maker and 1/4" double sided fusible.  I found a nice shade of gold and made it and attached it to the top.  This was also added with a zig zag stitch.

I quilted the top in spirals and stars with gold colored thread.  AND I used my new BSR and Bernina 770 to do the quilting.  I love the new machine and especially the laser light that lets you see exactly where the needle is going to stitch.   I quilted the body with thread to match the clothes, face, and hair. 

 When that was all done, I hand stitched on the embroidered star at the top of the wand.  It was bound with blue striped fabric.

She's 24" W x 39" L.

I hope you like it!

Finishing a friend's inherited UFO projects

One of my quilting friends recently lost her sister, who was an avid quilter and made hundreds of quilts for charity.  The family went through her quilting room and found a ton of unfinished projects.  So, my friend  put the projects into baggies and has been handing them out to some of us to finish and donate to charity.

I picked up 2 of them.  The first one was made entirely of Fairy Frost, a line of shimmery fabric that was popular a few years ago.  I added 2 large borders to make it the 50" x 60" size that they used for donated quilts.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before I passed it along.

The second one was so close to being finished.  There were 20 12" blocks all done and the backing was sewn together.  All it needed was to have some sashing cut and then sew it all together.  I decided to use only 16 of the 12" blocks to keep the quilt a reasonable size.  It ended up being 58" x 58".  Here is the completed top:

My friend and her family will quilt these tops and I may get them back to finish up the binding.  And I hope whomever gets these quilts likes them!

CCQ challenge 2026 - Red, White, Blue and Gold - Part One

Clark County Quilters (CCQ) issued a challenge for 2026 to celebrate both the 50th year of the guild and the 250th anniversary of the USA.  The piece had to be done in red, white and blue with stars and stripes, plus gold.  It couldn't be wider than 24", and the length was not limited.  I immediately thought about doing a lady with striped bottoms, star sunglasses, and lots of glitz.  Here are my sketches of ideas:

I found a picture in my sketch book and used that to draw my design to scale.  In order to get the face the right size, I took a picture of it and resized it in Photoshop.  I also posterized it so that I would have the 4 values that I needed to make the face realistic.  Here is the sketch and face to scale.

I started working on the pants first (shown above and detail below).  I knew that I wanted them to be red and white striped, and I used my chop and drop method to make them.  (Actually, I forgot the first step and didn't add the blobs of fabric before adding all the trim!).  I think they turned out very cute.

The next thing that I made was the top and sleeves.  I used 3 shades of blue blobs and trims to give it some kind of shading.  I also added gold thread to add that spark of shiny gold.

I hope you like it so far!

Leftover improv - Part One

I had a little bit of dark, mossy green left over from the art quilt that I made for my brother and sister-in-law, so I thought that I would randomly piece it with some other greens in my stash and see where that would lead.  I just kept adding, inserting, making straight and curved edges and tossed them up on the design wall.  Here it is after a couple of days of playing around.  I had no idea what was going to be made from these pieces.  Sometimes, just playing around with fabric is just plain fun!

Somewhere along in the process, I decided that a little bit of black and white striped fabric would add some life to the otherwise dark piece.  I cut 1" strips and inserted them to show 1/2" in some areas, and 1/4" in others.  

I have to tell you that it was a bugger to sew together.  Some of the seams were curved, some were straight, there were inset and Y seams.   I had to chop some pieces off, add some pieces here and there, and make more units to fill the large empty spots.  It was a good thing that I had an audio book to listen to so that my mind was in a calmer zone while I struggled to sew this piece together.  Even so, I did have to rewind the book a few times when I realized that my problem solving brain had overtaken my listening brain.

After it was sewn, it emerged as an aerial landscape.  So, I went with the feeling of a landscape and started adding hand embroidery stitches.  I started with white.

It is actually much darker than the photo shows.  Anyway, I hope you like it so far!

CCQ Challenge - 2026 - Red, White, Blue and Gold - Part Two - Patriotic Lady

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of the challenge piece for the CCQ Challenge for 2026.

After making the clothes, I made the shoes.  

And next were the arms and legs.

Then it was the face, neck and hair.

The top as it looked at the end of those stages:

I hope you like it so far!

Quilt give away day and organizing quilt storage

I went through my stash of quilts and am always surprised at how quickly they accumulate.  My storage closet was way out of control!

I had my husband take off the closet doors and install shelves (I stole them from his garage set up).  Then I went through all of the quilt storage bins, all of the old toys, old paper supplies, pictures, genealogy records, and wrapping paper.  It's so much more organized now!  There are 3 bins of bed and small art quilts.  The top shelf is for all the rolled art quilts and a roll of batting.  The bottom shelf holds the genealogy records, sewing and serging equipment and supplies.  Wrapping paper and guest bed supplies are on the 3rd shelf.  And one bin is for batting.

Anyway, here is all the stuff that is getting donated or gifted:

I am so glad to be able to downsize.  Although, I still have 2 bedrooms, the closets in both bedrooms, the hall closet and the under counter storage that are chock full of my quilting, sewing, and art supplies.  Should I be embarrassed?  Well, if you're a creator, you decide!

Sheer class with Kathy Kerler

My guild, Clark County Quilters, recently hosted a class led by Kathy Kerler on how to use sheer fabric overlay to make a wall hanging.  It was a really clever way to add applique without having to sew around the edges first.  The quilting stitches held the applique in place!

I have been challenging myself to make fiber art pieces WITHOUT lime green and decided for this piece to use turquoise shades.  A few people in the class were shocked that I didn't bring green to the class.  

The piece was put together in the class with fused fabric pieces cut out on her cutting machine.  I used both circles and stars.  Then, I quilted around all of the motifs in the class.

I'm not sure if it's quilted enough for me yet.  Anyway, I hope you like it at this stage.