Using a Freehand Drawing as a Quilting Element

I'm working on the quilting of a wall-hanging that has a bird image in it. (The bird is sitting on the hand of a person.) In thinking about how to quilt the piece, I got the idea that it would be neat to quilt a parrot flying in the background in a non-contrasting thread color...sort of a ghostlike image that wouldn't distract from the overall piece.

I found a photo on the internet of a parrot beginning to take off and made a freehand pen drawing of it. Some liberty was taken in abstracting the body/head to simplify the overall image. Then I took a test quilt sandwich (muslin/batting/muslin) and sewed the drawing (again freehand) with feed dogs down. Silver metallic thread was used on top and a colorful cotton (coral) on the bottom. It came out very well!!!

You can see the progression in the photos below from drawing to front and back of stitched test sandwich.

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Visiting The Hague and Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Paris!

Since late March, I've been planning an international solo trip that included meeting up with friends. The planning is what makes a trip an adventure, and it was definitely fabulous -- now that it is in the rearview mirror -- so to speak. During my two weeks abroad, the sights visited included the: Mauritshuis, a lovely art museum (The Hague, Netherlands) Binnenhof (The Hague, Netherlands) Delft (Netherlands) Kasteel de Haar, a castle (Haarzuilens, Netherlands) Museum Speelklok (Utrecht, Netherlands) Walking Tour of Amsterdam (Netherlands) Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Dutch Resistance Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) De Oude and Nieuwe Kerks aka old and new churches (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Anne Frank House (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Sainte Chapelle/Conciergerie (Paris, France) Giverny - Monet's residence at one time (outside Paris) Versailles (outside Paris) Musee d'Orsay/VR Event titled 1874 Impressionists First Exhibition...

New Project in Progress

I'm working on a new project with multiple layers and shapes of different colored organzas. It is an interpretation of lighting on an ice rink...from a show I recently saw. There is a lot more stitching to do, but I like how its coming along. I'm learning organzas are not easy to work with especially when you layer them and have overlaid edges. The fabric also tends to ravel easily. This post also linked to http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com .

Fabric Basket - Pretty Easy

This basket was made in Jane Hall's half-day course at IQF 2014. The greatest amount of time involved in making it--was cutting and sewing the strips together. Otherwise, it went together easily and quickly (3 hours). These baskets are a great holiday gifting idea that you can match to family and friends' home decoration color schemes. They're fun and useful besides.

Cay Denise

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