Home Wallhanging

Working with wax pastels that are water soluble for this little project.  I started with a pencil drawing (sort of in the right background, you can see), this is going to be a small wallhanging, so I cut my background fabric larger than the finished product.  I would like the finished project to be about 16 X 20.  Luckily for me this was a local challenge that the size was dictated as small! Small, I can do!

The upper portion will actually be the walls of a room.  Here I am auditioning some fabrics for pieces.  When I fuse I try to stay with hand dyes.  I don't hand dye myself, but I support other quilters who hand dye.  I support them A LOT, a lot more than I actually fuse. The green is a hand dye, obviously the polka dot is not.  The background fabric is white PFD (prepared for dyeing) from Dharma Trading Company.

I have colored in one of the walls, and I made a darker line to make a corner for the walls, at least that was my intention.  The fused pieces are not fused down yet, I want to finish the painting part before fusing.

 The basket and one wall painted in.  I am still auditioning colors and working through ideas.  The straight lines along the middle will be wood flooring.  Eventually.

 You use the wax crayons to color in your area, just like first grade!, then you use a paintbrush with water to blend in the colors.  The left side has been gone over with water, the right side has not.

 I have a package of Neocolor II Watersoluble wax crayons available from Dharma Trading Company, they are available in different size packages.  I don't think 40 is even the biggest package.  If it appears from this post that I am highly organized and have pre-planned all these details out, let me assure you, that is not the case. Except for the pencil drawing for planning, I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. 

 After I painted the first part of the wood flooring, the bottom half came out darker.  No worries!  Just add more crayon to the lighter section and paint over again with water to darken.  There is nothing on the bottom left, as this is where the table will be sitting.  See?  Planning. And the shadow at the bottom is probably my hand or the camera strap.  Maybe I should start editing my photos.

I am starting to fuse down the individual pieces now.  I didn't mean to fuse the line in the center at this point, but, this happened and I had to work around the center line.  Sometimes, I'm in a hurry to get to the finished product!  

Detail of quilt wallhanging and shelf.  I have a little stuffed owl sitting on my bookshelf in my sewing room, I bought him on Etsy awhile ago.  I don't think I'm capable of making one as cute as this.  But, maybe, one day, I'll just have to buy all the supplies and see.

This is quilted in this photo.  The theme was 'No Place Like Home' which I put on the little sign.  Some of the fused pieces were tacked down with stitches before quilting, some with the quilting.  I went around the little quilt on the wall with quilt stitches so it pops.  The floor lines were stitches before quilting.  I showed my husband, he didn't get that it was my room.  Big Sigh.  I have a cup 'a on the table and my trusty Kindle.  I don't really have a chair in this print, but it would be sweet if I did.  I will have to trim, bind, and add a sleeve.  But this was really a quick project.  Took me longer to think about it than put it together. I'm not sure if the table needs a little more on it, but I can still add since it is fusing.   

Moving on, I have been eager to get all these darks into a project.  I have the perfect quilt in mind, using that circle cutter in the back.  Most of these fabrics are Kaffe Fassett, I haven't decided on the neutral, it will be one of these in the front.  These are the ones that made the cut.  And that shadow again, I'm not sure why it keeps popping up, I'll have to check my camera, but I'm sure it is the operator.          

So Many Projects!

I have this project together.  It doesn't have a name yet, and I have to quilt still; but it's together, yay!  Today I'll get a back, I'm thinking just black.  It will be a wall hanging due to the odd size and the tree painting, the back won't be shown.  

I mitered the corners.  Yep.  Me.  I hope to never do it again.

I've been working on Bee blocks.  This is a wonky star for one of my Bees.  I have overcommitted, totally.  But, enjoying them immensely.

This is a photo of the Coloseum (duh) I took on my trip to Rome in 2008.  I enlarged this photo to a 16X20, and reversed in the copying.  I have a lot of projects going and finished of photos from my trip to Rome.  It was a fabulous trip, and I could go on and on about it if you would allow me.  Just tell me to shut up if I start talking about it.  

I traced the image to butcher paper, and used bleach pen and discharge to put the image on black rayon.  This process was in Quilting Arts Magazine January 2010 issue.  Of course, when I was ready to start, and had ordered all the supplies, got the plexiglass, I couldn't find the magazine with the article and the directions, and I had to search on line, email the author, get another article, yada, yada, yada.  When I was finished with the whole thing, I, quite naturally found the magazine with the article.  I stretched the black rayon over a canvas, and popped it into a frame.  I added a bit of Tattered Angels Mist to the frame so it wasn't just black.  It is going on my studio wall.  The first thing I'll hang in there.  I'm slow about decision making for the walls.

This is a pencil drawing I did yesterday of my next project that is supposed to be done by March 25. Hey, I still have a week!  Luckily it is only 16X20.  But I haven't moved past the pencil drawing yet.  

Here are my supplies to get started on this project.  It is a wallhanging challenge with a local quilt group I'm in.  I've had 2 months, and I'm nothing if not a procrastinator.  

Project with Swap blocks

So these were blocks I received from a block exchange.  They are all wonky log cabin style.  I provided 2 pieces of fabric to each lady, they added the rest.  It is a very pot luck color frenzy.  My original idea for these was a Denise Schmidt stlye log cabin, but it was looking less and less like that was happening.

I put some of the blocks up on the wall and liked this grey Kona Cotton as a backdrop, and still I was not sure what was going to happen with they gorgeous blocks.

During my studio move, I pulled out all my Sky Dyes from Mickey Lawler that I had spent a wad of cash on in previous years.  Aren't they gorgeous.  But at this point they are just sittin' folded up on the shelf not doing anyone any good.

So, what if I pair up some of these wonky blocks with this beautiful tree painted fabric.  My firefighter son came over, and he said it looks like a forest fire.  Something I had never seen, but I'm not arguing.  He also claimed the final product.

And here is where I have wonked up the wonky log cabin blocks even more.  Added a few more Kona Cotton solids to the mix.  Now, to put this bad boy together.  I want to slice and dice the tree painting, but I'm scared.  It is a gorgeous piece, not sure if the slicing will do it justice.  And once sliced, that is it.