Inspiration

I'm still making my Monthly Landscape Art Quilt (see below for a peek preview), but for this month's Goal Setting Party at A Lovely Year of Finishes, I'm starting a new project.

Prayer Flags

I was actually going to skip the August goal setting because I wasn't inspired. I just couldn't get into anything - new or old. Not a good place to be. And then I started reading one of my many e-books: Prayer Flags by Quilting Arts Magazine. This was it! This is what my creative soul needs right now.

A project needs a plan to get things going, whether I choose to follow it or not!

Since Tibetan prayer flags, a Buddhist tradition, are hung in groups of 10 and come in 5 colours that represent the five basic elements, in August I'll be making at least one group of 10 prayer flags. Here are the colours and what they represent:

• Blue is for space;
• White is the air;
•  Red is fire;
• Green is water; and
• Yellow is earth. 

As Vivika Hansen DeNegre writes in Prayer Flags, "the words and symbols printed on the flags (the prayers) are spread throughout the universe as the flags flutter in the wind. Everyone who is touched by that wind is touched by the prayers. The wind spreads the intentions through the world, extending happiness, goodwill, and peace."

A Prayer Flag Project Button

Quilters have been making prayer flags for many years now. The Prayer Flag Project is "a collective project spreading peace, good will and kindness, one flag at a time..." It's been around since June 2011. Check out the blog for more information on participating and making prayer flags.

After I was inspired, I started making a list of the prayers and the flags I wanted to create - for specific people and ideas. I may be at this for a while. I want to make flags and hang them up in my back yard before winter comes. Since my garden isn't what I would like it to be, it'll be beautified by the prayer flags.


August's Monthly Landscape Art Quilt 

It's one of my friend's birthday in August. She requested a landscape quilt of her kayak and gave me a beautiful photo. I hope I can do it justice.

What I learned:

• Don't give up on inspiration. Just be open to receiving it!

The information about prayer flags is from the book, Prayer Flags.

This post is linked to A Lovely Year of Finishes,

Fireworks for July's Landscape Art Quilt

Here is the result of my Monthly Landscape Art Quilt Challenge and the 2015 Lovely Year of Finishes...Fireworks in July.

Fireworks in July (14" x 8")

Canada Day is the 1st of July. I must admit that I haven't braved the heat and the crowds to see the festivities and the fireworks on Parliament Hill in a few years. After my rather muted June landscape, I was ready for some colour and sparkle. Here's my journey.

Parliament before the appliqué

I found a couple of photos of Parliament and cut out the shape in a grey fabric. I put a black fabric behind it to make the grey stand out.

I did some thread sketching of the parliament building with grey thread on grey fabric, which, not surprisingly, didn't show up. I was, however, able to use the stitched outline as a guide for sewing with metallic thread in the bobbin.

Thread painting with metallic thread in the bobbin 

After starting over the sky on my last landscape art quilt, I was more careful with this one. I cut out the colours I wanted in long, wavy strips to blend them into each other. I didn't want to deal with the buildings or landscape around parliament, so I just made it black. It's great to be making a representation, and not trying to copy the real thing.

I've learned that in a landscape quilt, it's important to minimize the details and get to the essence of the image. If you're not sure what to cut out, just ask yourself "What am I really trying to show here?" In this instance, it was the parliament building, the sky and the fireworks. Nothing else was necessary.

Embroidered and beaded fireworks

I embroidered the fireworks using as inspiration my favourite embroidery book, The Beginner's Guide to Freestyle Embroidery by Christina Marsh. One of the projects actually includes fireworks. I used the shapes of the fireworks but not the same stitches. For the two largest fireworks, I appliquéd fabric as a background and then embroidered over them. I really like the glittering stars of the yellow firework.

I then FMQ by echoing the fireworks and following the curves of the sky.

The last step was beading the fireworks. I didn't have any mauve beads, but the ivory beads on the mauve fabric look mauve as they reflect the colour around them.

I used a new technique for finishing the art quilt. Instead of binding it I created a facing for it. Here's the link to the tutorial by Terry Aske. It worked out well. I'll probably keep using this technique whenever I don't want a border and binding.

Fireworks in July Landscape Art Quilt

I took some lovely pictures of the quilt one morning outside of the building at work. I thought I was finished, but I forgot something...the Canadian flag! I've looked for a couple of days, but I can't seem to find any small Canada flag pins. The flag will be at the top of Parliament as soon as I find one!


What I learned:

• The wavy strips for the sky worked really well. I joined the strips using narrow ends. I learned a lot from my first attempt last month!
• Using metallic thread in the bobbin is really easy and gives such a lovely result.
•  I liked using a facing instead of binding the piece. It gives it a clean look. Thanks to Terry Aske for the tutorial.

What's coming next in the Monthly Landscape Art Quilt Challenge? You'll just have to come back and see!

Thanks for dropping by.

This post has been linked to A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, WIP Wednesday, Let's Bee Social, Free Motion Mavericks and Link-A-Finish Friday with Richard and Tanya Quilts. Check out everyone's work.

Snippet Flowers in a Vase

It's time for the June Goal Setting Party of The Lovely Year of Finishes Challenge.

Based on what I've learned to date, my goal should be something I want to finish or that I have to finish within the month. Since I have no June deadlines for any of my projects, this leaves me with a choice. Let it be a wise choice!

This month's goal is a UFO that I started in 2008 (although it could be older). It was part of my Common Thread Quilt Guild UFO Challenge list – the Snippet flowers in a vase that I couldn't find! I did find it some time in April (under the bed, with another quilt that was ready to FMQ) but I really, really didn't like the borders. Now the borders are history and I had a great time thread-painting it.

It just needs a little more thread painting and then it'll be ready for new borders and quilting.

I started this quilt years ago after watching a quilting show on television (I think I was home sick). I don't think I was quilting then, but I've always had a fabric stash. I bought some kind of adhesive, ironed it to the back of the fabrics and started cutting snippets. I remember using a White Rose flyer for ideas when making the flowers.

It was probably made within a year, but I had no idea what to do with it. I knew I had to sew it to make sure that the snippets stayed on. That's why it was put away. Now that I can FMQ, it's time.

I started by following the outlines of the flowers, but eventually got more creative. I read somewhere that when thread painting, you can (and sometimes should) go outside of the area to create an effect. I love it when someone tells me that I can sew or colour outside of the lines! I think that it was quite effective.

I’m not sure what fabric I'll use for the border. I think I want to make it look like a framed picture. I also want to add texture to the vase and table, ideally with some shading.

Come back at the end of June to see the finished project!
Posted on Quilt Story and WIP Wednesday. Check out the other posts.

Just finished on time!

Yikes - nothing like quilting until the last possible second! My May challenge at A Lovely Year of Finishes is done. With one hour to spare :-)

My brother will be thrilled since it was his quilt, made by my mother, that I finished repairing and re-quilting. Tomorrow I will wash it and should have it ready for him by mid-week. He's waited a long time for this.

What I learned:

• I knew it would be difficult to finish this project on time because working on someone else's quilt is just not the same as working on my own quilt - even if it was my mother's!
• I'm glad that I did put this quilt as a challenge - it was the best way of motivating myself to get it done.
• Thank goodness for being able to borrow audio-books from the library. It's taken at least three books to get this project completed.

Check out the finishes at A Lovely Year of Finishes.

New Challenge for May

I thought I would take this opportunity to update the challenges I listed in my March post, when I started participating in A Lovely Year of Finishes Challenge.

To date, I've been able to finish both my March and April challenges. It seems that the trick is to choose something I want to work on as well as something that can very realistically be completed. It also helps when there’s another deadline for the project!

One type of exchange block 

Update
I mentioned in my March post that I had blocks to prepare for the Frayed Knots Spring/Summer Garden 2015 Block Exchange. The task was to complete 23 blocks (mine are all 9” by 9”) with the garden theme and pastel backgrounds. At the time I had 10 blocks completed. Last weekend, I decided to tackle the blocks. I chose another pattern to work on to help with my motivation. After making 4 of the new blocks, I discovered that they were all too small (X*!Z&#!!!!) Yup, too small.

Another type of exchange block

My extra blocks

I rechecked my calculations because I had adapted a pattern – they were correct. So, if the pattern is correct, that means that my sewing isn't. Sure enough, I've been using my ¼ inch foot and generally not caring if it was accurate or not. I figured that as long as I was consistent, who cared! Well, I’m sure that the ladies receiving my blocks will care…..so, I tentatively made another block using a “scant” ¼ inch. It worked like a charm. The good news, my 23 squares are finished and I have a whole bunch of extra squares for my own quilt. I’m sure that I can make a row of slightly smaller squares and no one will notice.

To re-quilt

My challenge for May is to finish re-quilting a quilt my mother made about 20 years ago for my brother. My mother hand-quilted it but about half of the quilting has become undone. I've already re-stitched some of the blocks and I now have to complete the hand quilting. My mother made this quilt before she took any classes, so she wasn't using hand-quilting thread.

Since the quilt has been lovingly used, it just needs a little TLC. I've had the quilt for over a year and keep procrastinating…..so this challenge will make my brother happy.

What I've learned:

• When deciding on a project for a challenge it’s important to be realistic and motivated.
• It's good to under promise and over deliver (I am working hard on this one).
• In the end, it doesn't really matter if I achieve my challenge goal, but I do enjoy having something specific to work at since I can sometimes be a little bit scattered in my approach to quilting. I'm like a cat easily distracted by shiny things! It’s also a good reason to celebrate my successes. 

Check out other quilter’s goals at Lovely Year of Finishes May Goal Setting Party.

April Challenge Completed

I did well this month. For the April version of the Lovely Year of Finishes, I wrote that I would complete my South-West art quilt from 2010, since it was also one of my Common Thread Quilt Guild UFO (Unfinished Objects) Challenge projects. I was hoping to finish it for our May Guild meeting, but ended up finishing it for the April meeting.

Landscape quilt completed

To be honest, I only had about an hour and a half of embroidery left to do, but I did have to FMQ it and bind it. I just have the label to make before it goes to its new home – my daughter’s room. She’s my biggest fan :-)

I couched most of the grass area located in the bottom third of the quilt. I used three kinds of novelty yarn and then embroidered some areas with different colours of floss to represent various grasses and flowers. Since the view is from afar, I just added splashes of colour rather than individual plants.

At first I didn't like the sparkles within one of the novelty yarn, but then as I finished the piece and worked on completing the lightning, the sparkles look like they are reflecting the lightning.

Grasses using mostly couched novelty yarns

I wasn't sure how to quilt this piece since I didn't want to take anything away from the landscape. I did do some thread painting / FMQ around the lightning to help emphasize it and create a little more contrast where it begins.

I then quilted around the different parts of the rock to emphasize it. I finished by doing a little bit of quilting in the sky to create some mouvement within the clouds.

Thread painting and FMQ the lightning and sky

What I learned:

• As always, when I’m not sure what to do, it’s best to leave the project until the answers come to me, either through ideas but more often by looking at how other quilters have handled that same issue.
• I used a fine brown permanent market to touch up some of the thread that was showing on the rock. It’s allowed since it’s an art quilt!!!
• I really love the way this came out and how much I enjoyed working on it, once I knew what to do! I suspect this is the beginning of many more landscape quilts.

Check out the other finished quilts at the Lovely Year of Finishes – Finishes Party.