Gyotaku & Frutaku on fabric!!

I am not sure if I ever mentioned this, but I am the current president of our local quilt guild, The Santiam Scrappers. We meet once a month on the first Tuesday evening for our regular meeting and program and the 4th Saturday for several hours for sewing comfort quilts, learning new quilting techniques and so on.

I volunteered to teach today and decided that we needed to learn Gyotaku-gee-oh-tah-koo-fish impressions.  (I also brought fruit for printing, so the Frutaku is actually a made up name!!)

Some fish and fruit projects of mine above and below. The fish on the yellow fabric were made with our trout.

My fish made from a rubber replica!!

Not quite sure when gyotaku actually started, I have found references to the 1700's, but it did become more popular as an art form in the 1860's when the emperor noticed the prints and actually held special court to allow the fisherman an audience to show their gyotaku. Gyotaku started as a way for the fisherman to document their catch. They used ink and rice paper.

I thought it would be fun to do the same thing on fabric, so purchased some rubber replica's to use as models. My husband and I also caught a trout 1 1/2 years ago and I do use him as a model also!! He currently resides in our freezer.

So today there were 9 of us which include one members husband and one members daughter!! We all had fun!

Applying paint to the rubber fish!!

 

Working hard and showing new block!!

 

Projects drying

A row of Garibaldi orange fish!

Lovely pears!

Lemons

Projects drying

We worked with carrots too!!

A very happy, cute girl with a very cute fish!!!

Swimming over rocks (potatoes used as stamps)

Love the bubbles!

My Peas and Carrots!!

Mom and daughter with their carrots :^)

I would have to say that we had a successful day. Everyone who came had fun and went home with a new creation.

I bought a whole fish from the grocery store yesterday for around $3.00, a Talapia, and will be doing gyotaku with it tomorrow. You never know how people are going to react to a dead fish, so the rubber ones were best for today. Tomorrow is another story, just me and my fish!!

Happy Quilting everyone and keep those needles sharp!! Martha

2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge-February Feathers

So this is my first practice piece for our February lesson. Diane Guadynski is the teacher for the tutorial and I have a lot of work ahead of me. Lots and lots of practice is in order after evaluating these feathers!!

I've done feathers a couple times, but they were not free form, they were either from a stencil or a book of feathers which I drew onto the fabric. It takes more skill to do them free form I am finding out, but I will continue to practice and hopefully one day perfect it!! 

I did some drawing of feathers as suggested and I think I like the drawn ones a bit better than the sewn ones. Ah well, lessons learned!!

Here are some of my paper and pencil drawings. This is actually a fun activity while "watching" TV.

I am going to add two more feathers to my little quilt and found another use for my Quick Curve Ruler! The curve makes a perfect spine for my feathers! 

I measured two inches in from each side and placed the half inch mark on the bottom and the one inch mark on the upper outer edge. Then I marked the line within the cutting curved area from the three inch mark on both ends. I did the same for the left side which gives me two perfectly placed lines to quilt more feathers on.

I am now ready for more feather quilting.
Once I have this done and stippled, I will share again!!

Take care everyone, Happy Quilting and keep those needles sharp!! Martha

Quilting to the edge of the quilt

I struggled with quilting to the very edge of my quilts and wondered how everyone else did it. I looked in all my quilts books for the "how to do it" with no luck. I Googled quilting to the edge and still found nothing. Just how did everyone quilt to the edge of their quilts easily? How do you quilt to the edge, to the inner binding edge, without going over it, if there isn't a guideline?

I tried drawing a guideline, but that just did not work well. It still was a difficult task.

Maybe the instructions for quilting to the edge are out there, but I never found them. So I came up with my own method. And here it is!!!

Quilting Extensions!!

I cut 10 strips the length of a piece of fabric I had on hand. (I cut 10 strips because I can never work on just one quilt at a time!!) The strips measured 5" X 81". I cut two strips smaller to use with my smaller quilts.

I baste the quilt extensions to the outer border using the size of binding I am planning on for each individual quilt. Once the quilting is done, the basting is really easy to remove in preparation for the binding.

The little quilt below will measure 20 1/2" X 24 1/2" when finished. The quilt extensions have been sewn on and pressed. You can see that I do not trim the extensions to fit the quilt as I will use them over and over again.

This quilt has been layered, and I have already begun machine quilting it. Now I can quilt right up to the outer edge easily with the quilt extensions.

The process takes a little longer with the additional sewing, but so worth it!! My machine quilting is so much easier now!!

And now you know the rest of the story. This is why I named my blog Quilt To The Edge :^)

Happy Quilting and keep those needles sharp!!! Martha

Urban Nine Patch-one block done!!

A few weeks ago I saw a posting on another blog, I think it was on the Green Fairy blog, about joining the Urban Nine Patch Quilt Along. It looked like an awesome design, something fun to learn, and very different from anything I had ever tried.
I checked out the site, Sew Kind of Wonderful by Jenny Pedigo, and bought her Quick Curve Ruler in preparation for this online class.

Here is the actual address for the tutorial for the block:

http://sewkindofwonderful.blogspot.com/2012/02/urban-nine-patch-tutorial.html 

She discussed picking out our fabrics for this project and these are the choices I ended up with!!

 What really helped with the piecing of this block was Jenny's video on the sewing of the curves. She made it look so easy, and it turned out to be so!!! 

Here are all the parts laid out and ready to sew. The bottom curved section has been sewn in this picture.

Once I got the center nine patch, the curved sides, and the corners done, I could see that the block could be laid out two different ways.

Isn't it amazing how different the blocks look by simply flipping the outer pieces!!!

Here is the final block again with the printed tutorial next to it. You can see a photo of Jenny's finished block!! I had to print out the tutorial so I could follow the instructions page by page. Her outline was very easy to understand!! Thanks Jenny!! I have eight more blocks to make for this quilt and when it is done, I will share it here!!

Take care and thanks for visiting!! Keep those needles sharp!! Martha

Jack's Quilt

A few years ago, one of our best friends was expecting a grandson. My husband wanted me to make a quilt for the little person soon to be known as Jack.

This is his quilt.

I found out what colors the nursery was to be and decided on a simple triple Irish Chain. I didn't want to do a baby quilt, so decided on one that would grow with him. Most boys love things that have motors and go, so I thought that the four modes of transportation,  land, water, air, and of course, MOTORCYCLES would be the focus!!! (Jack's grandpa and daddy both ride Harley Davidsons!!)

I put Jack's statistics on each applique.I also machine appliqued so it would stand up to a little boy!!! Here's his weight.

We Love Nascar, so I had to put a race car in of course!!! Jack was born in 2008. Love the flames!!!

Here's the time and date of his birth :^)  You may have noticed a continuing theme of yellow and green. We are University of Oregon Duck fans and so is Jack's daddy. So what better colors to use than the ducks? I cannot think of any other suitable colors myself!!!

And the most important mode of transportation in his family, a replica of Jack's daddy's Harley Davidson motorcycle!! His length is on the bike.

This was a really fun baby quilt to make and a very special little boy. I know he will enjoy it for years to come!!

Take care everyone and keep those needles sharp :^) Martha