Finished Projects

After I finished my post yesterday, my friend Mary came over with some gifts for me. We had cut some branches from my magnolia tree to make wreaths for her craft fair last weekend, and look what she gave me!

This wreath has a straw base. The leaves are sprayed with hair spray. I think it is beautiful! We cut some more branches so she can make more wreaths. She also brought my door prize from the craft fair- look at this lovely purse in fall colors! (The painted artificial gourds were purchased at the Cotton Company in Wake Forest last weekend- aren't they cute?)

And it is on the table that features my finished quilted tablecloth. I am so pleased with this project. Before quilting, the hand-dyed, embroidered fabric would not lie flat, but it makes a perfect table-topper now.

Here is the topper with one corner flipped up to show the back side. It will be reversible- the salmon/yellow batik will be perfect for spring.

I bought two other pieces of dyed vintage linens at the Artistic Artifacts booth last spring during the NC Quilt Symposium. They are destined for quilting, as well!

Not today, though. Another Stampin'-Up demonstrator brought one of the die-cut fabric tops like Susan's for me to quilt. And she wants it fast! So, of course, my thread broke about every eight inches when I started quilting yesterday afternoon. I think I will take another walk, hope for another deer sighting, and then get to work on the quilt.

Wednesday Works-in-Progress

Got back to a little long-arming yesterday. First project up was a piece of hand-dyed fabric that I purchased at the N.C. Quilt Symposium in May from Artistic Artifacts. Judy from Virginia brought a large selection of vintage fabrics and fibers hand-dyed into luscious colors. In fact, just about everyone I knew saw me at her booth as it also had fabric paint, art quilt supplies, collage kits, you name it. This piece has chain-stitch embroidery forming vines and leaves. I was using it "as is" for a tablecloth on a large wooden table in my kitchen. However, it did not have enough "heft" to lay flat on the table, the edges were fraying, and I was afraid some of the embroidery would wear off.

Solution: I used a similar shade of coral fabric for a backing, Warm and Natural batting, and a TieDye variegated cotton thread to quilt it! The first picture shows the part that is quilted on top, and unquilted below.

I basically followed the vines and leaves, adding loops and more leaves in the bare spots.

I guess this piece can be reversible if I want to use the less intense color. The bobbin thread was a medium brown "Bottom Line" Super-Bob.

This one will be done when it gets a binding.

Then I quilted another charity top for the Capital Quilters Guild "Quilts on Wheels" project. At the September meeting, the quilts from a summer challenge called "Iron Chef Challenge" were presented. The block party chairs gave out bags of "ugly fabric," and the participants had to use at least one of the block party designs for that year. The challenge quilts were amazing- none of them looked ugly to me. After the challenge show-and-tell, many of the "ugly fabric" quilts were donated to the guilds charities. I will be doing four of these.

Here is the first one. I would call this a good lesson in "value" as the colors are not as important as the contrast. To lesson the impact of the lavender solid fabric used as the background in the star blocks, there are several strips of sashing. I still would not have used lavender, but this top turned out to be a nice, soft little wheelchair quilt. I used an olive green Madeira trilobal polyester thread, did an informal feather around the border and freeform quilting everywhere else.

At first I thought this was a pieced backing, since many people are using stash fabrics these days for quilt backings. But, no, it is a print with four different reproduction-type prints.

I don't know the makers of these challenge quilt tops, so I hope some CyberBee members will volunteer to do the bindings.