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.

Knitted slippers sole repair

My sister made me a pair of knitted slippers using the old family pattern that our Mom used.  I've made several pairs myself, but currently only have the one that my sister made.  She was VERY SMART and knitted an extra pair of soles.  I've replaced the worn out soles at least 3 times already and am so thankful to have that spare that I can swap out.

All I have to do is remove the yarn stitches holding the sole to the slipper and pop back on the spare pair, using the green yarn again to stitch them together.  When I'm all done, I take the removed soles, add new non-skid fabric on the bottom and put them away for the next time I need a new sole.  Here are the fixed slippers:

I hope you have someone in your family that will make you knitted slippers (or hats, sweaters, etc.)  Its such a nice gift to have... and one that keeps on giving.

Commission Wall Hanging - Final

This is a continuation of 2 previous posts about the making of the commission wall hanging for my brother and sister-in-law.  

The piece was quilted on my long arm in several colors of thread and with curvy lines in most places and some stones in other places.  

The quilt ended up so even at all of the edges and corners, that I just cleaned them up and finished the edges with facing.  It ended up at 34" W x 40" H.

I hope they like it and I hope you do too!

Commission Wall Hanging - Part Two

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of a commission piece for my brother and sister-in-law.

After I placed the upper left section on the design wall, one of the pieces stuck out like a sore thumb.  I had saved all of the freezer paper pattern pieces and used it to draw another stabilizer piece, then switched out the offending fabric.  It looked much better.  Can you see it too?

While the upper left section looks very dark and like one fabric, it is actually 5 different fabrics.  I think it'll add some subtle texture to the piece, but it was a lot of work for not much impact.

I worked on the lower left section next and cut the swirly curvy moss green middle piece to make sure that I had enough fabric in the right color before I cut up the entire yardage.

The next section was the upper right.

Then part of the lower right.  I changed out the fabric on several pieces many times while trying to introduce some more white/light turquoise.  

Here is the completed top.  I hope you like it so far!