Notebook Quilt

Love Apple Quilters is having an October challenge making a "Notebook Quilt." Seemed like a perfect way to try out a technique I learned several years ago at Quilt University. The technique involves a tracing of a photograph and machine applique. (You should really take the class--it's fascinating!)

Wanted to incorporate my flowers into my quilting, so took a host of pictures looking for one that was simple enough to finish in a limited amount of time. My fifteen year old hibiscus proved to be a perfect candidate. Of course, this past summer wasn't very sunny, so the leaves are a less than perfect. Was excited for the chance to use some of my hand-dyed fabrics, but putting scissors to them was not easy!

Got to work, tracing, cutting, stitching, outlining and trimming. With very well-written directions, the learning curve was kind and I made only a few mistakes and easily recovered.

Here's how it turned out:

Happily finished putting the last few beads to realize that the challenge required the object to be oriented in a vertical position. Ugh!! With the excitement of finally doing a project I had waited to do for over a year, getting my flowers in fabric and using my hand-dyed fabrics, completely forgot to look at the directions one more time!

Hope the kids don't realize I didn't follow directions! Perhaps I should listen to myself when singing the virtues of reading the requirements before starting the project!

Working My Way Through the Rainbow, Part II

Finally the schedule allowed me to finish dyeing my rainbow! Seems a dead-line tends to inspire me the most. Tomorrow, I'll meet with the art teacher to show her what fabrics have been collected from Love Apple Quilters and dyed.

Tried for the first time dying so many fabrics at once. Thinking seven vats is pushing it a bit, so will stick to five in the future.

So, here are the colors marinating....

And here is the final result.

PFD vs. Muslin

Comparing how the different fabrics take the dye.

Even purchasing brand new gloves did not prevent me from having one blue finger....

Dare I say, I'm "dyeing" to do this again?

Putting the UGH! in Ugly

Had the privilege of selecting a game for Love Apple Quilters last guild meeting. Regularly scour the internet for games suitable for workshops, but thought this game would be perfect to involve the whole guild.

About 30 of us all brought one yard of the ugliest fabric on our stash. Amazing how one quilter's "ugly" is another quilter's "treasure." We tore our fabric in two, keeping one half and passing the other half around the circle. The passing and tearing went on for three more turns. The challenge was to make a small wall-hanging out of what we acquired, without adding any other fabric.

Here's what I got:

Sort of redefines "ugly," doesn't it?

Looked at those five fabrics for two weeks before being inspired. Started to grow concerned when they started to look nice together...except for one. The small squares just did not fit in the abstract pattern of the block print fabric, no matter what pattern I picked.

So, I decided to tea dye the odd ball. Well, hours in a tea bath did not make much of an impact. Tried coffee next, without much success. Turned out a brown pencil did the trick! Pleating the fabric to show only the complimentary squares seemed improve the situation.

Here's what I made:

Thought a fitting name would be "Tile Work in King Neptune's Privy." Our teenage daughter is horrified I would use the word "privy"--fearing the Quilt Police will revoke my license, this quilt isn't making any public appearances, so she can save her embarrassment for a future event.

Here are a few of the other contributions:

Such a talented group of ladies! (No names were used to protect the innocent.) By the way, the first entry pictured won!

Working My Way Through the Rainbow--Dyeing Fabric Part I

Aside from quilting, I have another guilty pleasure--I love to dye fabric! Although I have had the girls involved in past dyeing sessions, opted to indulge myself while they were at camp. (That way meals/activities would not interfere with the process. My sweet DH could bring dinner home if he was hungry! LOL!)


Had taken a class on Quilt University with Marjie McWilliams and loved her excellent instructions and bonus lessons. With my fifth grade art project on the horizon, decided to incorporate her techniques to dye the donated muslin. While I had the dye out, seemed like a good time to add to my fat quarter collection, too.

Only have five vats, so I decided to breakdown the rainbow. Here are the first five colors in the vats resting:

The colors were so vivid!

Of course, I didn't have enough gloves to protect my hands--youngest DD operates or practices dentistry on her stuffed toys and "needs" them. My left hand was affected the most by the dyes and my sweet DH commented on "catching my red-handed"--groan!

Here are the final products:

Yardage for the fifth grade art festival project.

Fat quarters for my collection.

Very pleased with how the fabrics took the color and look forward to my next session! Will go shopping for more gloves before then so that my hands aren't "bluetiful."