Be Joyful

At the hair salon I work at we do a Secret Santa exchange and I got the same co-workers name I had 3 yrs. ago. I made her a wall hanging for the salon and it's still hanging there across from the shampoo bowls. I Facebook messaged her adult daughter and asked what her Christmas decor style was because I wanted to make a Christmas wall hanging. The daughter suggested golds and I decided to make a gold version of the "Be Attitudes" book of mini quilts by Art to Heart/Nancy Halverson. I have made several of these little quilts because I love the lettering/messages and they are whimsical, fun and easy to make. The golds were readily available at Pine Street Quilts, my Tuesday job, and I had fun doing a gold monochromatic color scheme. I don't have a lot of gold embellishments because I lean toward silver but I found a few gold beads for the end of the Santa hat and I had brown beads which became Santa's eyes. I used a Q-tip and some blush to add color to Santa's cheeks. We do the gift exchange on Friday so I get to enjoy this little quilt until then. Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a creative, healthy and abundance 2012. Laurie :)

Cardinals at My Bird Feeder

While working at Pine Street Quilts, I stared at the fabric with the cardinals and decided I needed (wanted) a piece of it for a wall hanging. Ken feeds the birds outside of my sewing room window and the male and female cardinals have been showing up and I thought a cardinal quilt was timely for the season. I gravitate toward florals but told myself that florals/girlie prints and winter do not go together and I chose wintery, outdoorsy and woodsy themed fabrics. My pattern is a free download from Blank Quilting called "Duquesa" which I tweeked a bit. I love this pattern-when it is in its original size from the pattern it has a 4' x8" flying geese block. This one is a 3" x 6" block and I have also done a mini 2" x 4" block. The math is pretty basic to convert the pattern smaller!! I used a piece of hand "rusted" fabric from my art quilt friend Pat Bishop from Appleton in the center area under the red silk leaves. She was at quilt retreat and warned me that it will be hard to quilt because it was such a heavy weight fabric. She was right and I had to do a minimal amount of quilting in that area. I usually add bling to my work but since this represents winter and the outdoors it didn't seem appropriate so I added a few silk leaves and in the close up photo I show the cardinal button I added to the center of the quilt. I tend to select bright colors and when chosing fabric for this quilt I found I was lacking in golds and rust tones but I made it work (Tim Gunn!!) and was able to pull fabrics from my stash to complete this quilt.

Card of Hope

I have a customer in the hair salon that I have known for a few yrs. and she stopped in the salon last week on the day I am not there because I am at the Quilt store. She told the salon owner she just found out she had lung cancer and wanted an emergency short haircut. I wanted to reach out to her by sending her a card since I couldn't talk to her personally that day. I thought why not send an art card instead of a store bought card!! I found out online green is the color of hope and I happened to have some predone green batik strips to make her card. I free motion stitched "hope" in the cheekbone area and kept it subtle and did not add any bling. I then flipped it over and added lots of inspirational messages and dropped it in the mail. I received an e-mail from Sharon and she loved the card and the thought behind it. So art can be a form of inspiration and not just an aesthetic image.

My Newest Hat

 I discovered this funky hat pattern at Keep Me in Stitches Quilt Shop in Appleton WI, my hometown, and where my quilt friend Jacqi owns the shop. The pattern is called "We're All Mad Here" by The Quilted Fish. www.the quiltedfishpatterns.com. I decided to make the hat in Christmas colors and it called for 3 fabrics and double fold bias tape which you could have substituted bias cut fabric. There is Fast2Fuse or Peltex in the brim, sides and top of the hat and there is about 25% sewing and 75% hot glueing the parts together and securing the ribbons and do dads. I purchased some holiday wire ribbon and I had a large sequin Christmas thingie which I took apart and only used 5 strands to get the vertical frou frou!!. I need to get a plastic headband to actually wear it since a hairclip wasn't enough to hold it to my head.

The second photo is a different view of the hat from the top. This project went way too fast compared to the other hats I have been making. I said to myself "I'm done already?!!" I will wear it to work at the quilt store and the hair salon the week before Christmas and on Christmas Day with my family.