WINNERS

WOW! I am so thrilled to have won three ribbon for my entries in the Quilt Vegas 2013 quilt show in Henderson, NV.

This is the 23rd show put on by the Desert Quilters of Nevada. These are my very first entries to be judged by a certified judge. Edith richmond Dyke of Toledo, Ohio. She has been a certified judge since 1985.

  

                                                                                                                                     

This is Falling Leaves, I posted this awhile back.

This one is call Aboriginal Suns

This one is called Heat. 

FMQ Friday

Its time to link up again to Leah Day's FMQ Friday. I have missed a few Fridays. It is not that I am not quilting its just trying to remember to take more pictures. I have also been busy trying to decide what projects to take back to Alaska with me. I have a 5 day retreat when I get there and I want to make sure I have all my projects together.  My husband always shakes his head and laughs at me. I don't pack clothes I go back with a duffel bag of quilting items.

I have been trying to get the hair on Express Your Love done before I leave. Well I did, sort of. I have really been good about not ripping out any of my quilting. But after going back and rereading what Leah said about not liking hers I found a place on mine that I just could not live with.

My eye was being drawn to the top strand of her hair. That bottom fill in under the feather was really driving me crazy. So I had to take some of it out. Rip, Rip, Rip. But a more positive way to look at it would be "Redesign."

                                                                Much happier now

So on to her body. I have given this a lot of thought. I am going to remove her eye and keep her dark. Her lip may also come out.  I am now having to decide on the thread color. It will either be black or if you look closely you will see a thread sample of pewter at the bottom.  Can't decide.

I also finished quilting my Falling Leaves quilt this month. I am going to enter this one in our Guild quilt show this month here in Las Vegas.

                   

HAPPY QUILTING

FMQ FRIDAY: HER HAIR

FMQ FRIDAY: HER HAIR
After a weeks visit with the Grandkids, what fun we had, I am finally back to stitching on my Express Your Love quilt.

It has taken me awhile to decide what I wanted to do in her hair. Three of the strands will have the flying geese, and not sure what to call it but I put half of a feather on either side.
There was too much black in the flying geese for me so I added micro stippling, and did some thread painting next to the half feathers to give her hair added texture.

I have not figured out yet what I want to do with the remaining strands of her hair yet, but it will come to me, soon I hope. LOL

I have come up with an idea for her body, but that will be another post.

She is getting done faster than I wanted so not sure what I am going to do when she is finished. I am having so much fun doing her, not going to like it when it comes to an end.

UFO Sunday Getting It Done

Every time I think I am getting caught up with my UFO's I find a new project that I want to start. Because I travel back and forth from Alaska to Las Vegas I can't keep up with them. The list just grows and grows. So this year I have decided to really work on getting my tops quilted. Now that in know way means I will not start new projects. My WIP pile is huge so why not add a few more to it.  LOL

I started this small throw in 2012. It is a BQ pattern. I did embroidery appliqué in the blocks. The leaves are by Kreations by Kara.  I love her designs and love fall leaves.

                          

I am ecco quilting around all the leaves. I have not decided what will be quilted in the rest of the spaces, but I will have to have some leaves there too I think.

Linking up with UFO Sunday with Leah Day

FMQ Friday: Express Your Love

I am very slowing gaining confidence in my free motion quilting. I have tried all the suggestions that Leah Day has given us since the project has started. Some have come easier than others. Those are the ones I have put into my quilt.
All of my thread has been Isacord so far. I decided to go with Micro Zippling, McTavashing, Concentric circles in the sun rays.
I love the flying geese stitch that was introduced and I hope to add it to her. I am very excited to see what will go in Leah's for her hair and body. It is hard to wait for the next idea from Leah.
Thank you Leah.

UFO Sunday

I have not posted in awhile because I often do not take pictures of my quilts and projects until they are finished. My new quilting machine has been fun to learn on and so I finished a Husker Cow for my grandsons birthday. It gave me a chance to play with different threads before putting "Express Your Love" on it.

 I love the buttons on the utter.  My grandson has a things for cows which no one knows for sure why, and of course he loves football and the Huskers.  He has a great sense of humor and should find the buttons on the utter very funny.


Here is the progress on my Goddess. I did the micro zippling in the brick as Leah suggested. However I still am not ready to try Boomerangs. Just not happy yet with my practice samples. But I had to laugh at myself because it took me a week to get over the fear of trying McTavishing and put it into the quilt. I was on a thread mission at the Road to California Quilt show last month and found this beautiful variegated Isacord thread called Saffron. I love that it has just enough white in it that blended in so nicely with the white that was used in the outline.

Today I am tacking the concentric circles.  I chose to do these in Isacord: Autumn Leaf. It picked up some of the color in the Saffron.

I am enjoying this quilt so much and it is giving me so much practice on patterns that I have never tried. Thank you Leah Day.

Express Your Love

Express Your Love

I have been away from my quilting for a few days. Went to the Road to California Quilt show in Ontario, CA. Wow the quilts were fabulous and I came home with some new paints that I am anxious to try on my quilt, fabric, thread and a new quilting machine. I won't have that for a few weeks and I am so tempted to wait until it comes to work on her. But I think that will get me to far behind so I will just press on. LOL

Here is where I am on my Goddess

I painted the water on the Earth using the Jaquard paint it went on without any trouble. I was not to fond of the stiffness after it dried. So I am hoping that the new paint I pick up at the quilt show will work better for me in her hair.  I do like how the Ocean Current quilting came out.  I have decided not to paint the green, but I picked up some new thread and hope to add one more color of green to the land.

I didn't want to add any more words to her so my remaining ribbons will be filled in with micro stippling. I outlined the edges with a tight satin stitch and used a purple thread. 

My Affirmation Goddess Quilt

I now have a good start on my Goddess. I picked the affirmations that I wanted to use and still have a few more to put on. But I am very pleased with the progress so far. I not sure if I will fill all of the ribbons with words, or phrases yet. 

WIP: MY AFFIRMATION QUILT

Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013

I finally stated Leah's wonderful Express Your Love Goddess quilt. I have her traced and the outline stitching half done.  Over the past few days I have been thinking about the words I would like to add to her. I do know that at the top of my list is "I am enough".  I was not sure if calling it an affirmation quilt would work so I looked up the definition and found two that seemed to fit

l. Noun: A statement asserting the existence or the truth of something

2. Noun: The act of affirming or asserting or stating something

Here is the rest of my possible words, or statements

l. Intentionally seeking good

2. Breathe

3. That was then, this is now, breathe

4. As you think, so you are (Buddha)

5. Open heart, open mind

6. Open up your mind

7. Life is fluid, things change

              

FMQ FRIDAY WITH LEAH DAY

This is my first link up with the group. I am so excited and I hope that I can keep on top of this. I am getting ready to leave in the morning for the winter. I will be spending some time in Las Vegas. So I have not been able to start my Goddess. The fabric is packed. But my goal is to start her as soon as I get settled. So I started quilting this quilt before Christmas, and of course the holidays slowed me down. This quilt will be waiting for me in the spring when I return to Alaska.

I am really have a hard time figuring out how to do this blog thing. So when I linked to the FMQ Friday post and you click on my name it sent you to the wrong post. I sure hope this works and if any of you can help me figure all this out that would be so cool. LOL

Since I have not been able to figure out how to grab a button for my blog page I have put the link   below to get back to Leah's page.

So you can click on it and it will take you back to her.

FMQ FRIDAY WITH LEAH DAY

Every wonder what all those strange nonsense letters stand for?   I came across this and some I added. As I hear or come across more I will add them.  I thought it would be fun to post on my blog. Please share, and if you know of any that I don't have please leave a comment.

Acronyms used by quilters

• BOM = Block of the Month
• BOW = Black on White
• DSM = Domestic Sewing Machine
• FART = Fabric Acquisition Road Trip
• FOB = Fear of Binding
• FQ = Fat Quarter
• HST = Half-Square Triangle
• HSY = Havent started yet
• LA = Longarmer
• LAQ= Long Arm Quilter
• LQS = Local Quilt Shop
• MAQ = Mid-Arm Quilter
• OBW = One Block Wonder
• PhD = Projects half Done
• PIGS = Projects in Grocery Sacks
• PIMPs = Projects I-Mis-Place
• PP = Paper Piecing
• QAYG = Quilt As You Go
• QST = Quarter Square Triangle
• RR = Round Robin
• SABLE = Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy
• SEX = Stash Enhancing eXperience (or eXcursion)
• SID = Stitch In the Ditch
• SnW = Stack and Whack = pile up and cut all at once block pattern
• Squishy=Envelopes filled with swap fabric or gifts sent/received in the mail
• STASH = Special Treasures All Secretly Hidden
• TGIF = Thank God It's Finished!
• TOT = Tone-on-Tone
• UFO = UnFinshed Object
• VIP = Very Important Project
• WHIMM = Works Hidden In My Mind
• WIP = Work In Progress
• WISP = Work In Slow Progress
• WWIT = What Was I Thinking
• WOF = Width of Fabric
• WOMBAT = Waste of Money, Batting, and Time
• WOW = White On White

Well it is that time of the year to make those New Year resolutions.  So I think I need to add a few just for quilting this year. Oh those endless PHD's = projects half done, PIGS = projects in grocery sacks, UFO's  = unfinished objects, and WIP = works in progress, need to be done. So I am going to try to get at least one a month completed.  My second one is to take one day a week to spend some time practicing my free motion quilting on my home machine and the last one is to try and create at least two original pieces this year. Happy New Year, and happy quilting.

My Quilts

This quilt is not an original, but I am very proud of it, so I am including it on this page. It was seen by quilt shop owners from all over the country. It was displayed in Northcotts booth at Market in Utah, 2011. Vic Dadika, sales rep saw my quilt at one of the local quilt shops in Las Vegas. (Quilt Boutique) and asked if he could take it with him to Market for the booth. What an honor.

This is a small section of a quilt called Greensleaves by Claudia Clark Myer. The pattern was in American Quilters Magazine , Jan 2011. It is made with Northcotts wonderful fabric called Stonehenge.

            

Vic Dadika holding up my quilt at Market          My quilt Alaska State Fair, 2011. Second place

                                                     Colorful Curves: By Lorraine Allers
                                       
 I used ombre fabric and a variety of free motion quilt designs. The curves were cut free form. Each section was quilted with designs from Leah Days Free Motion Quilting Project. This is my first small quilt using her designs.

                                                Lupines On The Kenai By: Lorraine Allers
 I manipulated a photo I took of some Lupines going on the road side in homer, AK. I took different sections of the flowers and used photo shop to change the appearance of them. The other blocks are paper pieced palm leaves. This quilt took a first place and division ribbon at the Alaska State Fair in 2008
                                           

Chick on a Stick: By Lorraine Allers

This was a challenge from my favorite shop in Alaska

It was National Chicken Dancing month and we had

to design a quilt for it. 

  

                                                         Brewtus By Lorraine Allers
This was taken from a photo of my sons dog. It measures 8 1/2 X 11 in.  It is four layers of fabric. I thread painted it. This is a Maria Elkin technique. This was entered in the Alaska State Fair and was awarded a First and Division Champion ribbon in 2010
                                       

                                               
                                                Purple Grandparents by Lorraine Allers
                                                   
The same technique to make Brewtus was used in this small quilt. This quilt is 8 1/2 X 11. It was made for my Granddaughter who insisted that we were purple.

Chewy By Lorraine Allers

This 8.5 X 11 quilt was made for my Grandson Jon Dodge. This is his dog Chew. It was made using the same technique and the Purple Grandparents, and Brewtus. It was his 2012 Christmas gift.

I have always envied those who write, draw, play an instrument and thought oh how I wish I had a talent. Then one day a good friend said to me that we all have a talent of some sort. It was just a case of finding what mine was. Over the years quilting has become my love and my talent. I love being able to express myself through my quilts. It is an on going process and I continue to learn from the wonderful teachers and my quilting friends.  I have been quilting for over 15 years and feel that my knowledge is still limited. Creating originals is still a challenge and a fear for me. The idea of failing at creating something that is original holds me back even though I have made a few attempts I have a long way to go.
I love quilting