Besides Quilts

On my continued search through old photos I found several photos of projects that are quilt and fabric related. Again, I apologize for the photos, some of these are projects from twenty or more years ago… or long before the Internet as we now know it!

I didn’t worry about the projects being original back then, many were made before I had a fiber art business (or computer) and were only gifted to family. So I did use other designs and/or traditional patterns. If any of you have been crafting for ages, like me, you may remember making items like these. I know hot pads are an item being made by many traditional and beginner quilters these days still.

The photo albums below were made over forty years ago. I’d forgotten I once knew how to crochet!

Machine satin stitched, appliqued sweatshirts – before I knew what applique was.

Little quilt name tags (These were for sale).

I made this to go on a gift tote bag. There may be a pattern but at the time I just made it up.

This was an original design quilt in a hoop (a gift for a principal).

While my kids were in elementary school the joke was that I should have my own parking space because I was there so much, as a volunteer. Every year I made some type of “thank you,” end of year quilt for both of my kid’s teachers. At that time being there offered me the opportunity to place items for sale in the faculty workroom. I made a lot of tiny quilt pins, many from fussy-cut commercial fabrics but the ones I share here were all hand painted originals on fabric. I really loved making these little pins (I may have shown some on my blog in the past).

The angel was made for a special friend.

As I went through the photos I started to remember many more projects I made but never took a photos of. I’m so glad photographing projects is easier now.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane with me, and if it has given you any crafty ideas, all the better!

Painting with Fabric

I have been scanning some old quilt related photos. “Old” as in before camera phones so we didn’t know how good (or not) the photo was until it was developed, so please keep that in mind as you look at these images.

I got into watercolor style quilts after meeting Gai Perry, the guest artist at our local quilt show. Oh my gosh, it was fantastic to see her quilts in person. I had a copy of her book – Impressionist Quilts by Gai Perry (Soft Cover Book 1995), but I think I gave it to a quilt guild. It is still available in a few places online.

I’ll admit that some of my pieces do stretch the technique a bit or are combined with other quilt/patchwork styles. I don’t have any of these pieces and didn’t keep good records. Some were finished and sold or given away and others were sold as tops only.

This was my favorite and I think the most successful.

I loved the challenge of finding fabrics that would “reach” to the next for a smooth transition.

Where the contrasts come together to create a hard line can make a good frame or shape.

For my parents – Mom liked teddy bears and dad accidentally collected pigs.

I took an easy road to finishing by using large triangles in the corners of this piece. I did finish this and my folks kept it on the back of their rocking (the grandbabies) chair. I don’t have a photo of it finished but I did hand quilt it; that was before I did machine quilting.

My tiniest watercolor sold at a guild auction and was won by one of my Continuing Ed teachers.

Cat on a Mat (top only). I have mixed feeling about this piece but it was fun to use all those cat fabrics.

With the piece below – the fabrics don’t “reach” into each other, so technically not a watercolor but still has a little bit of that feel. Made before I bought Gai’s book.

The next two photos are the same quilt but the first one shows that it is quilted (hand quilted). The upper area in part was inspired by Margaret Millers Block Bender style and the lower right area is watercolor. My thought was an abstract quilt of birds flying over the ocean. A lot of hours of play/work!

Below is not a watercolor quilt but a cathedral window that my late aunt made for one of her daughters. She came out for a visit and I gave her hundreds of squares of fabric (I think 4.5″) and this is just one of the quilts she made with some of them.

Now for the sweepstakes giveaway…

The winner of the 6.5 inch squares is Julie K.

and the winner of the hand painted fabric pieces is Cherie M.

Fabric winners please email your mailing information to me and I will send your fabric as soon as possible. If I don’t hear from you within five days I will draw again.

I’m wishing all of you a safe and happy New Year, with time to art around!

Five Techniques for Painting Fabric

I learned a lot while painting these fabrics so there are plenty of things I may do differently even though I really like the results. A couple of the techniques I will absolutely make again, probably for use behind embroidery work.

Here again are the painted fabrics in the giveaway and the video is below.

And here are the 6.5 inch squares (96 of them), also in the giveaway.

I hope you’ll share this post with anyone you know who may be interested in a chance to win either of these fabric bundles.

Reminder – The giveaway/sweepstakes ends on December 27, 2021, and I’ll post the two winner’s names on this blog December 29th, so if you’ve entered, please check to see if you are a fabric winner.

Here is my How-to video…

Happy Winter Solstice!

Thanks and Fabric Giveaways

I’m so happy that I have been able to share my artwork, thank you for supporting me and commenting. I’ve learned a lot from many of you too.

I received two surprises not too long ago, one was an email from the kind person who purchased one of my painted and stitched panel. Below is the project she made with it; prefect for this season. Thank you Lynda! I love seeing how others incorporate my art into theirs.

The other surprise was happy mail from Karen G, who sent me a large piece of her own eco dyed fabric. The background is more a taupe color than shown in the photo but the photo does show the wonderful texture she achieved. Thank you, Karen. I just don’t know how I’ll ever be able to cut into it! If you have a question for Lynda or Karen leave a comment and hopefully they will see it.

A couple days ago I painted fabric using some different objects and techniques, and though I did film the processes I haven’t had time to edit the video. I hope you can get an idea what the fabrics look like from this photo. The smallest piece is approximately 18″ x 12″ and the largest 19 1/2″ x 15″. The darker blue is 28″ x 8 1/2″.

I will be giving the newly painted fabric and 6 1/2″ squares of commercial fabrics away to two separate winners later this month. The winner’s names will be posted in the December 29 blog post. I hope to share the painted fabric video next blog post (but I’ll be getting my booster soon, so we will see).

The commercial squares will be six pieces of a rainbow of colors along with some black and whites. Here is a sampling… Pinks, reds, and greens.

Sweepstakes/giveaway begins Dec.15, 2021 and ends at 9pm (Pacific Time), Dec. 27, 2021.

To enter: You must live in the US only (no international entries). One entry per person. NOTE: (If applicable) If your name is drawn as the first winner it will be removed for the second drawing.

Leave a comment that you would like to win the painted fabric either/or the fabric squares and include your first and last name (or last initial).

After December 27^th I’ll use a random drawer and announce the winners on my next blog post.

Winner/s will email me their mailing information and I will mail the fabric packages ASAP. If I don’t hear from the winner within five days of drawing date, I will run another random draw. Good luck!

There was a Crooked House Cat

The little House Cat quilt is finished or is it? The peanut gallery is having a problem with the fact that is isn’t straight, well, specifically that the hanging tabs are different lengths. What do you think?

My thought with this piece was that the cat was sitting on fleece pad/blanket (green fabric) and it’s not straight or perfect so when I added the border, I just went with the shape.

I do have ideas for how I could make the hanging tag appear even but I’m not sure I’ll go there…maybe after you tell me your thoughts.

I’m really happy with the hanger though. It’s made from my paper clay version of catnip leaves on the left, and on the right, part of a cat toy; I added more feathers, yarn, and a piece of reclaimed jewelry.

My kitty, Kona, donated two more eye brow hairs and I’m pleased with the face.

I’ve been accused of slacking on my labels, oh well, here’s this one (just fused on). As I mentioned in an earlier post – After ripping out her first eyes I knew where the label was going, and it did.

This piece is approximately 16″ wide (the hanging dowel) by approximately 17″ tall, and may be for sale.

The weather here has been cool with even a little rain today, which we really need. So the kitty “resort” hasn’t gone outside and even though there was sun yesterday, somebody wasn’t a bit happy about not being able to go “outside” into the resort!

I had a studio dog by my side (usually laying on my feet) for over eight years and she never demanded what this cat does, LOL!

Look for a fabric giveaway/sweepstakes announcement next post. Until then I hope you enjoy the season and stay safe.

Potato Patato and the Winner

Do you say poyn·seh·tee·uh or poin-sed-uh? Apparently either way is okay, depending on who you ask!

It would be an understatement to say I love flowers and have used them a few times in my artwork. Winter always makes me think of the poinsettia plant and so it’s probably no surprise that once again, I’ve made a poinsettia project.

Here are my new pieces; a notecard and tag, and the video showing how the card was made. I think it would be fun to use this idea for an art quilt too or to change it up with any other type of flower. Ideas, always more ideas.

If you watch the video, thanks, and I hope you enjoy it.

And The Winner of the Leaf decorated box with a surprise inside is – Sylvia Wallace! Congratulations, Sylvia, please email your mailing address to me at fiberdesignsbyann@gmail.com

I understand the end of the year can be a busy time but I’ll have one more sweepstakes/giveaway, and of course more art in December, so if you’re up to it I hope you’ll stop by again.

Stay safe and be good to yourself.

Changing Ways

I laugh when I think back to the days when I would only work on one project at a time, start to finish, and they were usually pretty big size (quilt) projects. Now I’m usually working on at least three projects at a time. Maybe it’s because I’m older and there are so many things I still want to try.

I was hoping to have this one finished but some days just don’t go as planned, I’m guessing you know what I’m talking about.

This is the mini landscape in a leaf that I designed a while ago. The sky and water are my hand painted fabric, the other pieces are commercial fabrics. Below are some of the process steps. As I worked on this I thought about how I would be so much more comfortable doing all of it by hand – the applique, even the quilting. I have always felt happier, more in control, doing hand applique and quilting. All of my early miniature landscape were made by hand, and ti’s the way I have taught mini fabric landscapes to students. But now that changes day to day and I’ve had to change my ways; raw edge fusing, machine quilting and sewing have allow me a better chance of getting projects done in my lifetime!

To begin – The little landscape pieces were positioned on Wonder Under, pressed and the leaf cut out. Usually I would remove the paper and then cut it out but in this case it was easier for me to cut it out with the backing paper still on the back.

I measured and cut freezer paper about the size of the finished quilt and pressed it onto the black background fabric. Next I positioned and held a cardstock leaf pattern on the freezer paper and drew around it, then I extended the landscape lines out from the edge of the leaf. I numbered them from furthest back to the most foreground piece.

I cut them apart and removed the pattern and freezer paper. Next I pressed/fused the leaf in place on the the background fabric. and ironed the freezer paper pieces in order, back in place (like a puzzle), leaving a little gap; a bit of trimming was required so there would be a gap. BTW – This could be the makings for “stained glass” style quilt too.

Then I used a Chaco liner and drew in the gaps. I drew quilting lines for the sky, and then wiped them away, and tried a few more times until I found a design I liked.

Here the leaf, sky, and landscape extension lines have all been quilted – blue thread for the sky and a gray for the landscape. I started to close quilt using color thread within the extension sections, out from the landscape elements and sky, but it was not a good day for that…

Early on I knew it wasn’t a good day for me to be quilting. But instead of quitting for the day like I should have, I ripped out colored thread quilting and grabbed black thread. I’m thinking about dry brush painting some of the outside edges of the black quilting. I’ll have to think on that after I finish all of the black quilting… we’ll see!

Reminder – Next post I’ll be announcing the Leaf Decorated Box winner.

As winter and the holiday seasons approach I hope you will be safe and find some time just for you.

That’s Interesting

“That’s interesting” is sometimes the comment my Mister gives when looking at my art. He has been incredibly supportive through all these years of my art making, but sometimes when he doesn’t “get it,” or care for the art piece, he knows how to be diplomatic.

I found it very interesting that because the subject of my House Cat piece is familiar (our cat modeled), everyone here decided to chime in as to what I could or should do to make it better. They had valid observations and suggestions but got a big “NO, it’s done” from me.

And here’s why – After I finished quilting and thread painting a bit more, I decided not to bind it but to face it, primarily because the piece is odd shaped. But after I trimmed it I noticed one of the eyes was fraying… one of the eyes I tried to free-motion outline to get the fabric to stay down only to cause a lot of thread build up.

I never could cover the raw edge, so out came the seam ripper, scissors, lint roller, and hours later both eyes were removed.

Looking at this I want to say “Poor thing!”

Now with the thread removed there was quite the perforated eye shape in the fabric, both the front and back. I figured the only thing I could do was hand embroider the eyes. I would have liked to have added more embroidery but between the floss and quilt sandwich I couldn’t get the needle through any longer. I thought about painting more reflection in the eyes, but – NO, I’m done!

But of course I had to add more thread painting and whiskers.

Initially I made whiskers by burning felt and stretching it and painting gesso on them, but in the end I used my cat’s found whiskers and eyebrows (I’d been saving). I’m still waiting for a couple more eyebrows. I haven’t decided yet, if that is clever or gross!

I’ve been looking at it too long and see all that could be better but it has been a fun project; from painting the fabrics to making the pattern, and stitching it…and as always I learned a lot. When I have the hanging dowel ready I’ll share a photo of the finished piece.

REMINDER – I have a giveaway going on; if you are interesting in entering but haven’t yet, please check out last weeks blog post for details. Be sure to tell me you want to be entered (in the comments of that post), so I’ll know you want to be entered.

A Fix and Giveaway

This little piece has been on my design wall unfinished for a while. It was a cut of a larger piece of hand painted fabric that I free motion quilted just for fun. I can’t even remember if I filmed while I was quilting it. I couldn’t figure out how to finish it, to fix it until a few days ago.

I’m happy to say I fixed it and you can see what I did here…

The November giveaway, sweepstakes item is this little leaf decorated box. It’s hard pressed paper and only the top is decorated. I used painted (mop-up) fabric leaves, a couple papers, burned matches, grave vine, and gold paint spatters. It measures 6 1/2″ x 4″ x 2 5/8″ tall. It could be used as is or it could be painted, papered, or embellished in a multitude of other ways. But there’s more… I’ll be putting a little something extra inside the box.

If you are interested in a chance to win the leaf box with surprise inside just follow the rules below. The winner’s name will be announced on my December 1, 2021 blog post.

Sweepstakes/giveaway begins November 10, 2021 and ends at 9pm (Pacific Time) November 28, 2021.

To enter: You must live in the US only (no international entries). One entry per person. Leave a comment that you would like to win the leaf box with surprise, and include your first and last name (or last initial).

I’ll use a random drawer and announce the winner on my Dec 1 blog post. Winner will email me their mailing information and I will mail the leaf box with surprise ASAP. If I don’t hear from the winner within five days of drawing date, I will run another random draw. Good luck!

It’s November!

It’s interesting to me how time can seem to go by slowly and other times so quickly.

I was exciting to be trying some new things (for me anyway) on the gel print plate. I made one print and for some reason decided to clean my plate; nothing would work, I mean nothing! So after hours of trying I grabbed my sewing machine oil (I didn’t have baby oil), and first trying a wipe but later switched to a dish cloth, I was able to get it pretty much clean. I sure hope it still works when I try more.

Here is the print – Jacquard Textile Color on cheesecloth. For it being a quickie, I’m happy with it.

So time got away from me and I couldn’t print anymore, for now.

I’ll share a few more of my older quilts, apologies for some of the photo quality.

Simple Miniature Snowscape before it was quilted. I altered the water fabric with paint

Hand appliqued and quilted, with hand painted sky. On the design wall, bad photo.

When I look at that landscape now I wonder how the water could look like that when it was hand quilted. Maybe it just looks worse in the photo. If my hand quilting wasn’t up to my standards, I would un-quilt, I did it a lot.

Rose for a challenge, it had to include one of the purple fabrics (I think the one next to the darkest). I beached and over painted the petal edges. I really like the background.

Made early on in my sky and water painting exploration.

Hand appliqued and quilted. That was great poppy fabric. Hand painted sky.

Remember watercolor quilts, I made a few. Machine pieced, hand quilted.

I feel fortunate that I starting making quilts long ago, I think really the best years. From traditional to modern and everything in-between I have had the best time exploring, learning, and finding more ways to play with fabric. I hope you enjoyed this little quilt show and if you have any questions please leave a comment, thanks.

I’ll be announcing another giveaway/sweepstakes soon, so I hope you’ll check back again. Stay Safe and quilt away!

Fiber Designs by Ann

Fiber art Design, Instruction, Sales