Monday, October 30, 2017

OMG - October Finish



Another Goal Setting Party For Me! I got this Nautical Mini Quilt Pattern at Jedi Craft Girl. and finished getting the top put together.



And it is well on it's way to being quilted! The anchor is embroidered with blanket stitching and all the square in a square have been quilted. I just need to finish the free-motion on the side, bind and label it! That could be my goal finish for next month! woo - hooo! But I may just have to add to that goal :) This one is way too exciting Not to finish in the next couple of days!

Join me at Elm Street Quilts for a Monthly goal setting party! And see all my quilty friends work as well!


Friday, October 13, 2017

Joining a Quilt Guild

An invitation to a quilt guild is an honor of sorts to me. As a novice, being surrounded by so much creativity and talent is a Huge inspiration.

Attending may be somewhat mundane at times while listening to budget items, but the atmosphere is enthusiastic. You are surrounded by people who have the same love of textiles as you!

Martingale has a divine article asking and defining three questions as to whether you should join a guildo. Have a look at it and check out the eye candy there as well.

I visited a local guilt guild by invitation; to say the least, I was ecstatic! I entered and was immediately welcomed at signing in. And Oh My! There was a round table chock full of Free- fun for the taking quilters items. Just a couple of examples were quilting books, pre-packaged patterns, finished blocks, partially completed quit projects with instructions in the bag and of course Lots of Fabrics to choose from! What could be more welcoming!

Enter a raffle for a couple of dollars for some great prizes, enter a raffle for wearing your very own hand-made, stitched name tag or enter the raffle for a Block of the Month. Each member has the opportunity to win all the blocks made for the month by entering their own. Each block you make gives you that many entries into the drawing.

One of the guild's fund raisers is a quilt made collectively by all the group. Here is the 2017 Raffle Quilt by the Calvert County Quilt Guild. Called  "Aztec Sunrise"; it was made from the Cinco De Mayo quilt pattern by Karen K. Stone, pieced by their guild members, and quilted by Allison Korb - also a guild member. Check out their page. They have a much lovelier photo than I could capture.



A Library for sharing, guild pins to wear and Show And Tell were some of the other attention capturing events! There may even be lectures by some semi-famous quilters.

To list some of the fun there are:
- Mystery Quilts
-Summer & Christmas Social parties
-Workshops
-Quilt Retreats
-Raffle Quilt involvement
-Challenge Quilt projects
-Charity Quilt projects
-And Lots of other community projects

Plus, you get to Make an Even Bigger Friends List! Why Not?

Here are some of the Goodies I Rescued from the Gift Pile. Do you see anything here that makes you smile? What would you make?


 
 
 
 

Each week I wish to make a post about the Rescue Pile and what is being constructed with the acquired items. Stayed tuned and leave me a comment on what you might make.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Saving Mother Earth - Art with Fabric Blog Hop

                                    


My wish was to follow with Native American tradition in creating something for my grand daughter. Dolls were created for the little ones out of perishable items that were on hand such as corn husks, pine needles and sometimes furs. Even though they were perishable, they were still intricately adorned and helped in dealing with stress, teaching important life lessons and coping skills. Over the child's growth the dolls wore out, signifying the growth of a young child into adulthood. You can read more at Native American Dolls , Indians.orgTribal Directory and Smithsonian Institute - Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies has a wonderful instruction tutorial to read. It is absolutely full of information!

Little girls Love their dollies and Little girls Love their mommy even more so it was decided that she needed a dolly of Mommy!

My grand daughter lives with us and to ease her stress and transition of being away from her mommy, we've decided to create a dolly she can play with, dress up using cast-off items, found and recycled objects that were on hand - even though they are not necessarily items used such as the pine and corn husks of the past - they are still on-hand. Some of the embellishments have special meaning and significance to  my grand daughter, such as a necklace her mother gave to her. It got broken so it became a piece of the dolly memorabilia.

In the construction of Mommy, I free handed a template, cut out and sewed the body. The hair was bits of leftover binding from a quilt project. Of course Mommy needed a face so we used a good photo to transfer to fabric and sewed it on. Mommy also needed a heart to show how much she loves her own baby girl. From there, it was dressing Mommy time. Grand daughter can add clips, clothing and all sorts of accessories to Mommy when she desires. Mostly she just likes dancing with her and snuggling with her at night.

Her underclothing was created from the sleeve of Grandpa's old shirt and other clothing from bits and pieces of grand-daughter's out grown clothing.

The concept is definitely not a new one and there are widely known dolls that are available for purchase as well. Resources to purchase a doll similar to mine are Daddy Dolls & Hug A Hero which are most notably recognized with their association in making dolls for family members of our Armed Forces. Or you can use your imagination and start creating one of your very own!

What sort of items would you save in creating your very own doll? It is quite interesting to hear what others from different age groups and areas would chose.


Another artist that I wanted to mention, although I've not created a work as such, is Louise Baldwin.
By using found and recycled objects she creates a combination of hand-stitched and machine embroidered works of art. You can read more about  Loiuse Baldwin Here  and Here. There are many of her works that are an inspiration and to pick only one would be difficult. Two of my favorite works of inspiration are "Wednesday" and "For Indoor Use Only".

 You can also use the technique used by Louise to create a treasure from trash.

Some ideal items to save are food packaging, mailers, used postage stamps, domestic animal feed sacks mixed with various fibers and fabrics to create your own collage.


If you would like to check out some previous editions of the hop check out http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/p/art-with-fabric-blog-hop.html.

For a complete list of participants in the blog hop, please visit each of my quilty friends below, And don't forget to visit the wonderful host Alida at Tweety Loves Quilting.

Monday, October 9th, 2017

Tuesday, October 10th, 2017 

Wednesday, October 11th, 2017 

Thursday, October 12th, 2017 

Friday, October 13th, 2017 

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

October OMG ~ Beach Baby

I Cut these out Back in July! O MY! And my wish is to get them put together into a cute little quilt top! You can find my original post at A Little Beachy Fun and the pattern I want to use by Amanda at Jedi Craft Girl.

Thank you to Patty of Elm Street Quilts for the year long encouragement to get our projects started, worked on and completed! No goal is too small!