Balloon Flowers

Last week Sue shared pictures from a Whisper Challenge.  If you followed along on Facebook, Barbara Wise guessed  Sue's quilt to be the Balloon Flowers.  So today we are sharing some process photos.  This is the inspiration photo that Sue used in creating her quilt.

The technique used for the background is one developed by Terry Kramzar.  It has the look of square in a square blocks but without any seams.  The blocks are backed with fusible batting, quilted, then the  small squares are appliqued on.  If you look at her website, you'll see this technique as a background for many of her quilts.

She also has her own ruler to make placement of the square easy.

After completing the background, the stems and leaves for the flowers were added.

The flowers were cut from gradient fabric that came from Colorways by Vicki Welsh. After cutting out the shapes, details were added with Inktense pencils.

The stems and leaves were stitched first, then the flowers were placed and stitched.

Here's what the back looked like after all the stitching before the backing was added.

The final quilting is stitch in the ditch between all the squares.  Below is the finished quilt.

The process made this a fun quilt to make.  Check out Terry's website for examples of how she uses this technique in her work.

Giveaway Winnings!

Last week Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber had a spring giveaway on her blog.  Vicki is a fabric dyer and sells her hand dyes in her Etsy shop.  Periodically she cleans out the studio and gives away some of her excess fabric.  For 6 days she posted groupings of fabrics (warm, cool, gradients, etc.) for that day's giveaway, which also included a product from Misty Fuse - either Misty Fuse itself or a goddess sheet (pressing sheet).  Commenting on each post got you entered into the drawing.  Sue was the lucky winner of the Tuesday giveaway of "cool" fabrics and a goddess sheet.  Look at the array of fabrics she received in the mail!

The blue piece at the top is a half yard gradient (folded to show the variation).  The green & blue pieces to the right are all about fat quarter size.  The others are of varying dimension.  Easily 3 yards of fabric!  Thank you, Vicki!  These will surely come in handy, and will be great for screen printing!
 

UFO Busting for June

We're a little late with this post, but it's time to link up with Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber again for June's UFO Busting report  in our quest to get some UFO's out of the studio.  Click on her badge on the sidebar for a direct link to her post about it.  At the end of every month Sue is doing a post about what she's accomplished that month, and linking it to Vicki's.

Sue's report:
Once again I have finishes to report, but as last month, they just aren't the things in the UFO pile!  It seems that new deadlines crop up every month, so most of what I am doing is new start projects.  But they are small so I am mostly able to finish them. My report for June follows.

For my end of month count, this is where things stand:

• Projects in progress May 1 - 7
• Projects completed -2 1/2
• New projects started -3
• UFO's trashed - 0
• Projects in progress May 31 - 8

The new starts/finishes are:

Above, 2 sample rows with fish screens for Artistic Artifacts' Row By Row H20 shop hop.

I made 6 postcards like the one above for a postcard swap.

This piece, which I blogged about a few days ago, is the 3rd start, but not quite finished.  I am working on some stitching in the background, so this will take a little bit longer. 

For the rest of July, I am off to quilt camp with Elizabeth, so it's likely there will be more starts and few finishes.  But I am taking at least one UFO along, so maybe there will be some finishes after all!

May UFO Busting

It's time to link up with Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber again for May's UFO Busting report  in our quest to get some UFO's out of the studio.  Click on her badge on the sidebar for a direct link to her post about it.  At the end of every month Sue is doing a post about what she's accomplished that month, and linking it to Vicki's.

Sue's report:
I do have to say I feel like I am accomplishing things, because every month I have finishes.  They just aren't the things in the UFO pile!  It seems that something new crops up every month, so most of what I am doing is new start projects.  But they are small so I am also able to finish them.  I'm finding it good practice and a help in defining my "style".  As noted in a post several days ago about a class Elizabeth took with Jane Davila, it's not quality, but quantity (practice) that helps your work improve.  So, my report for May.

For my end of month count, this is where things stand:

• Projects in progress May 1 - 8
• Projects completed -3
• New projects started -2
• UFO's trashed - 0
• Projects in progress May 31 -7

The new starts/finishes are:

May Flowers, made for a local art quilt group challenge.  More in this blog post.

A commission piece I made for a friend to give as a gift. More about this in a blog post here.

And the picture above is a sneak peak of a piece that was accepted for a Quilting Arts magazine reader's challenge, so no more on this one till fall.

That's it for May.  At least I am down to one less project in progress.  But coming up in June - 3 new start/finish deadlines!