I think I have a bad case of Gnomes on the brain. Two weeks ago it was all about Owls. I started 2 owl quilts and created the print Owl Girl. Now it’s Gnome time.
I like that the gnome looks as if I forced him to stand still why I drew him.
Gnomes can be such jerks.
The print size is 13″ x 19″ , with a image size of 9″ x 15″. It is a limited edition 30 and is done on archivial paper. Check it out at my Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16763989
So, trying to decide on this months pattern was hard for me. I just couldn’t come to grips with doing a Thanksgiving pattern. I thought pilgrim or maybe turkey, but I just couldn’t. Then I thought, hey I’ll go P.C. and doing a Native American design, but I’m not Native American so is that really P.C.. I finally went with a somewhat traditional sampler. It’s a bit folk artsy. I hope you enjoy it.
Remeber, click on the image to see the full size version.
I have just arrived home from a trip up to Santa Cruz, CA. I had so much fun that it’s hard to be back home. I got to see me daughter, and I taught a weekend long class at The Crafter’s Studio, http://www.thecraftersstudio.com/ .
The first day of the class was the hardest for my students. They where either new or rusty with their hand sewing skills. There was a lot of contorted fingers, shoulders, and faces as they tried to get their own personal technique with handling the needle, thread and cloth.
The Crafter’s Studio supplied bolts of fabric and an awesome huge box of scrap fabric to choose our fabrics from. They also supplied scissors, stitch ripers, pins, needles, hoops, embroidery thread, quilting thread, batting and pretty much everything we needed to make our quilts.
The second day was very interesting. Unlike the awkwardness of the first day, on second day they all looked like pros. I believe they where twice as fast with their needlework on day 2. They jumped right in where they had left off without any help from me.
We where joined by one of my online friends, Megan. She spent a couple hours with us. We quilted and she knitted.
Do you recognize the little Black Bird Quilt? When they get done with the finishing touches I will post their finished quilts.
Megan brought 3 pieces of embroidery she had made using my free embroidery patterns. I have a lot of online friends and it was so much fun to meet one of them in person!
So, what’s the best way of topping off a weekend of visiting my daughter, and crafting for 2 days solid? Why, going to see a talk by David Sedaris of course. If you are not familar with Mr. Sedaris then become familiar with him ASAP. Once, while listening to one of his books on tape, I laught so hard I actually pee’d my pants. There, I said it and I am not ashamed.
Like a lot of stitchers, I have I put off using a thimble for a long time. A finger covered with a thimble never felt right. But, the more I quilted and embroidered the more raw my right hand middle finger got. One night my husband caught a glimse of my finger and was shock. My finger was raw and sore. What made it worst was that I am allergic to nickel, which is in most needles, so my finger also itched.
I promised my Husband that I would find a thimble I could work with. Metal thimbles are out of the question. They also contain nickel (allergies) and I have big fingers and they never seem to have my size. Next, I tried a leather thimble. I loved it, but before long (just one quilts worth of stitching) the needle was able to punture through the leather. The leather had also stretched out of shape. Next, I tried a leather thimble with a coin in the figure tip. This worked well, but once again the leather stretched out of shape.
At a recent quilting show in Long Beach my husband spotted a rubber thimble. The sales lady told me that no needle could go through it and it would always keep it’s shape. There are ridges on the top and sides of the thimble for the needle to rest into. I really like that the thimble is rubber, so it is pliable.
I have been using this thimble for 2 months now. I pretty much use it every night. I love it. My thimble is called a P.Q.F. Thimble. You can check out this thimble at http://www.customthimbles.com/ . They show you how to measure your finger to get your own custom sized thimble. And I believe they have a lifetime guarentee. My thimble cost $25.00 and I have never regretted the purchase.
It’s been so long since I posted the stitchery of the people who have used my patterns. I let is build up and now there is tons. I found the following but will be looking for more.
Enjoy!
Eclectic_chica :
My daughter had received some beautiful scrapbook papers from a friend. Included in these papers was a bird and floral motif that I really liked. I decided to create a quilt using the scrapbook paper as my inspiration.
The inspiration piece had a dark back ground. I chose a black fabric with a slight gold print. I also did my usual embellishment of embroidery. The inspiration piece was much plainer.
The more I worked on this piece the more it looked like German or Dutch folk art. Still, with my embroidery, and the colors it adds, gave it a Mexican folk art look.
I played with negative space on this small quilt. I kind of like it. This quilt took me a week of evenings to complete. The finished size came out to 19″ x 19″. I am really enjoying work on these smaller sized quilts.
You can click on the quilt image to see a larger version.
This print is called Owl Girl. I was actually thinking of calling it “Owl Maiden” or “Owl Clan”. I am kind of interested in giving this girl the story of being part of a group of people where the owl is their talismen. It sounds a bit “Wicker Mannish” like I know, but I find the idea of modern people wearing their animal “spirits” in a everyday way kind of fun.
Owl Girl at Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16063208
Yes, I can make a hand sewn, appliqued quilt in one day. I didn’t start this quilt with time in mind, but as I progressed I could see that it would in fact be finished in one day. I knew I wanted to work small because I enjoyed creating the sample for my quilting class, ie The Black Bird Quilt.
In making a quilt in one day it helps to have an old drawing of a titmouse already to use.
It also helps to have just purchased a rose print fabric, in which you can cut the flower and stem out and then applique onto you quilt.
I used a single embroidery thread to help make the ouline of the titmouse look like the sketched line.
This tiny quilt measures 12″ x11″. This size just happened since I do not plan my quilt sizes before I begin creating them. If it needed to be functional it could be either a very big coaster or a very small placemat.
My Etsy Feed