Peacock - #4 August

It was getting close to the end of the month and I was getting worried that I was not going to actually get anything quilty completed this month.  Luckily, I just finished something last night.  Nothing like cutting it close!

This peacock is a completed project for the day guild brown bag exchange.  It will go to live with its' new owner at the December meeting.

If you look really closely, you can see a dark blue peacock body in the center.  Then there is a bit of green body.  Then the big tail feathers surround the bird body.  Finally, there are two borders.

I used tulle for the first time with this project.  It didn't do everything I had hoped it would do but now I know what I could use tulle for next time - something that has larger underlying pieces and the item getting covered by tulle is not shedding in the beginning.

Peacock

I decided to create a peacock wallhanging out of the thread that included peacock feathers from the brown bag exchange.

With every project, you learn something.  There was a lot of learning with this project.

The thread with the peacock feathers was shedding when it was by itself.  I put a piece of fabric behind the thread art.  I put dark blue tulle over the thread.  I sewed with a triple stitch around the feathers with a variegated teal to try to bring the feathers out more.

Even with the tulle covering the thread art, the actual peacock feathers were still shedding.  I asked an art quilter at guild what she does about the shedding.  She suggested something sticky behind the thread art that is shedding.  She also said she doesn't use tulle any more.  She uses a really thin, shimmery fabric.  It has a closer weave so nothing gets out.

Up close, the peacock looks really cool.  I think the quilting in the body of the peacock brings out the green like the green on real peacocks.  I did put the really bright green thread on the main body because the body and the neck fabric were so close in value and color.  Even before quilting, the body and neck blended into each other.

But as soon as you get any distance away from the peacock, the body of the bird just disappears.  The colors are too similar and you lose the bird.

If you are any distance at all from the wallhanging, you do not see the peacock at all.

I am really bummed about the peacock fading away because the colors are too similar but I guess that is the way it is going to be.  Dale suggested outlining the bird with a really light thread but one line of thread around the body of the bird is not going to be enough.  I think the wallhanging looks cool when you are up close to it.  But when the new owner takes the wallhanging out of the bag at the December meeting and holds it up for everyone in the guild to see, they are not going to be impressed because they cannot see what is in the center of the wallhanging.

I didn't want to spend too much time on a label for a wallhanging that I was going to give away so I tried to make the label with the automatic lettering on my domestic sewing machine.  I am not too impressed with how the machine makes the words and sentences.  I am glad I tried it so that I now know I do not want to use the domestic machine to make labels for all quilts.

I also tried a new way to do binding.  I wanted to machine sew the binding on and not do any handwork to get the binding attached.  Dale's aunt said that she was shown how to do piping binding.  You sew a 1 1/4 inch section to a 1 5/8 section.  The smaller piece is the most visible part of the binding.  The larger piece becomes the piping.  Then you stitch in the ditch between the piping and the visible part of the binding.  The sewing is supposed to match up on the back where the binding is sewn onto the back.  I pinned and pinned, and pinned some more, but the sewing on the front did not line up perfectly with the ditch on the back where the binding was sewn onto the back of the quilt.  Again, something new that I am glad I tried.

It really was a lot of fun to create this peacock.  Part of the beauty of quilting is learning.  I have a lot to learn!

Brown Bag

I must have been feeling like I didn't have enough to do . . . or, I was feeling like I wasn't very involved in the two quilt guilds that I attend.  I decided to participate in the brown bag exchange in both guilds.

Brown Bag Exchange is supposed to be an anonymous exchange.  Of course, since there is supposed to be some mystery, everyone involved tries to figure out who has their bag before the December guild meeting.  As a participant, you place some of your fabric into a brown grocery bag that is handed out by the person running the exchange.  Then, another participant receives your bag of fabric and you receive another person's bag of fabric.  It may not be a straight across trade.  Since there are many people involved, you could wind up with any bag.  For day guild, you have to complete an item from the fabric in the brown bag you received in time for the December meeting.  For night guild, you only have to complete the quilt top.

In July, I picked up a brown bag of fabric from the day guild group.  This is the fabric that was in the bag that I received:

Included in this bag was also an interesting bit of thread art that included peacock feathers.

The peacock thread was really cool but I really had no idea what I was going to do with it.  I had to think about it for a couple of weeks.

In August, I picked up a brown bag at the night guild group.  This is the fabric that was included:

Now . . . a quilt project must be created from these fabrics and completed by the December meeting to present to each of the fabric owners.  Fun!

Lunch Bag - #1 May

Dale has been packing his lunch to work in his backpack in a plastic bag.  That has been disturbing me but I haven't done anything about it.  This month, for his birthday, I made him a lunch bag.

This was the second bag that I completed as a lunch bag.  It took a long time to figure out how to do the pockets inside the bag.  I wanted the pockets to hold Dale's water bottles.  This bag does have enough pockets inside to hold 3 of Dale's water bottles.

Dillon's Heart - #3 July

In February, I created a blue scrappy heart for Dale and one for Keegan.  I did not make a heart for Dillon since he was not yet born and we did not find out his gender before he was born.  I did end up making Dillon a scrappy heart like the other fellers in the family - but in July.

I learned that it is difficult to have a 2 year old help with the quilting on a domestic machine.  At the end, our quilting lines were pretty crooked.

Bibs for Trackside - #2 June

Really part time, I work at Trackside Quilting in Laurel, MT.  It has been suggested that we make samples for the store to help move merchandise.  I created these bigs following a pattern in Quilter's World.

I don't think they have helped sell all of that month of Quilter's World.
I did learn that before I attempt needle-turn applique again, I should receive general instruction.

Dillon's First Swim

This weekend we went to Havre for the birthday party for Mom's 60th birthday.  Even though Mom's birthday is not until next month, we decided to have the party early so my sister could attend before heading back to school in Missoula.
While we were in Havre, we stayed in a hotel with a pool.  This is the first time that Dillon has been in a pool.  He is young enough that he didn't care.  But happily, he didn't cry either.

Keegan is an old pro at swimming.