Sew Cool......

I took a break from the tee-shirt quilt today and spent a little more time with my portrait quilt! I used spray adhesive that was friendly for the sewing machine and sprayed the pieces in place on 2 yards of muslin as a base...

I then set my sewing machine to the zig zag stitch and used matching thread to embrider around each color.

I finished outlining most of the color blocks with matching color thread and i am pretty happy with the results! I look forward to adding his nose and hat tomorrow (i hope) and giving him a body within the week!

This is what I got so far!

Let's give thanks-
Thank you warm sun- you make being outside so bright and enjoyable.

Frustration!!!

Worked on the tee shirt quilt for what seemed like forever this evening- I was putting in the vertical navy strips between the columns....

It looks ok- but when I attached one certain column to another I kept coming up with about an inch difference!!!

I ripped the seam apart and sewed it again- sill didn't match up!
I don't know how to fix it- I might just need to trim the block down- anyway it is so frustrating that they are not matching up!
I'm done for today and hope to put the border on the front tomorrow.....

Let's not forget to be thankful though..... Thank you soft pajamas- I appreciate your stylish pattern and jersey knit.

Tee-Shirt Quilt

I have not been as productive as i had hoped this afternoon. I thought i would post some pictures of things i have been working on.

I had mentioned the portrait quilt in my last entry and wanted so show some progress that has been made! I am not sure if my method of doing this is the most efficient, but so far it seems to be working- After projecting and tracing the image onto some paper i figured out how i was going to cut the stencil with an exacto knife to make it so the different color fabrics could be layered over one another. This produced some pretty confusing stencils.....

after i cut the stencils out and traced them onto the fabric with a fabric pen, i carefully cut out the pieces with my exacto knife... getting something like this once i layered them on top of one another...

I have not attempted to sew them together yet, but i am excited to see what they will look like! I will use the zig zag stitch on my sewing machine and do it really tight making it almost a solid line of thread. I recently bought some basting spray, so instead of pinning the different pieces in place, ill just be able to spray them, which will make it so much easier!

Ill keep you updated, this is just something i am working on in my spare time and hopefully ill be able to submit it to the Quiltcon quilt contest in february located in Austin Texas!

http://www.quiltcon.com/

I am also working on another quilt as im working on this portrait quilt. I am making a tee-shirt quilt for my friend jessica. It is my first tee-shirt quilt and so far it is going pretty smooth! I cut out all the fronts of the shirts (saving as much material as i could so later i could cut them to size) and then ironed on some interface to make the shirts so the jersey material didn't stretch.

I cut them into 15 inch squares and laid them out in a pattern I liked- alternating color and white to make a checker board pattern-

I then cut strips of navy blue fabric that i will use for the sashing. This will frame each tee-shirt square with color and make the quilt look more uniform. I cut the navy material 3 inches wide and 15 inches long (the same size as the squares).

I then sewed one strip to the bottom of each square (all except the bottom row where a boarder will be sewn)

Next i sewed the columns together. So i have 5 columns of tee-shirts and laid them on the ground so the next step will be easier...

I think tomorrow I can sew 3 inches of the navy material between them (running down the length of the quilt) making a boarder of navy around each block. and Ill sew a boarder of 5 inches of the navy all the way around... i hope i can finish the top of the quilt tomorrow!!!

and my daily thanks...

thank you garage sales where popular fashions from the 70s that have died (but now once again are in vogue) can be bought for 25 cents. swoon....

My Portrait Quilt!!!

Today i look forward to continuing to work on my mt first portrait quilt. I was inspired by Luke Haynes....

http://lukehaynes.com/

He seems to blur the lines between the craft world and art world. Mainly, since i finished grad school i have found so much pleasure sewing and quilting and the repetitive and metatative techniques involved, however i have missed the critical thinking involved with the conceptual work that is made in an MFA program. Anyway, i think luke does a good job using a quilt as a photograph or painting. Attemping to use his techniques i hope to create a balance between the technique that i love and using as an outlet for some of my thoughts as well.

But, lets be honest, i have never made a quilt like this, and there arn't really any instructions on luke's website.... so i decided to see if this kind of quilting is even possible for me! this is the picture i chose to do....

and then i went into photoshop to make the colors more blocky and able to be quilted- and now it looks like this....

I am in the beginning stages. i projected the altered image on my wall and traced the outlines onto some roll paper. I have started to cut the pieces out to his face and layered them on top of each other.... I have alot more to do, but im excited and it actually is starting to look like a face when photographed from above!

Anyway, i am thankful....

Thank you delicious cherries for making the morning a little easier to handle....

A New Beginning

I started a blog years ago and then not so long after i started it i neglected it and then more time passed and i forgot the password and was unable to post anything new. Today i am committing to this new blog. I will use it to keep me honest- posting new work, ideas, images i like, recipes, travel photos, songs that make me groove, beautiful things, works in progress, anything that meets my fancy. It is my blog of inspiration- and a place where i can trace my thoughts.

I have heard about writing something everyday that you are thankful for- and i will do that on this blog too- basically ill do many things on this blog because imakemanythings.

thank you quilts for existing- all your pieces fit together perfectly and make me believe in puzzles that are challenging but are rewarding- ones that are worth the time it took to finish them.