Floating Lilies!

I love blues.. When the challenge came out for Project Quilting, I decided I was going to make my quilt with some of my favorite blue fabrics.  I love blues...  I have heard that seeing the color blue causes the body to produce chemicals that have calming effects on a person.  Maybe that is why I love blues so much.  Some of the blue fabrics are from Chris' Dye Candy Fabrics.


I took this photo on my Mom's blue sofa.  I made this quilt with the idea that I would use it as a table topper, but my Mom likes it on the back of her sofa.  Both Mom and I love blues. The quilt could be used as a pillow topper on the head of a bed. It could be a wall hanging too. I just feel so calm and relaxed about it, that I would just use it anywhere!    

I finished the binding last night here at my Mom's house.  I took the final pictures this morning.  Gabby and Toby wanted to poise with the quilt too!


I took pictures of all the steps from start to finish.  I will post them this week while I am here with my Mom's house.   I will explain the construction process.  You may want to make the delightful floating lilies, so I will share it.

Another photo of Gabby and Toby.

I video tapped the quilting of one of the blue lily flowers.  It is about a 2 minutes long video.



What's your favorite color?


Marcia

Flowers for Project Quilting

The Challenge for the OFF Season Project Quilting is up and ready for you to create!  

Chris from Dye Candy Fabrics proposed the challenge.  Click on her name to see what she posted about it and follow the link from Chris to Project Quilting.

I am going to try to fit the challenge into my schedule!  It is time to create - try it - you will like it! 


I ordered some beautiful dyed fabric from Chris recently to make my Scattered Quilt.  I have some fat quarters that I will mix with my printed fabric and make some cool flowers for the challenge.  


I am thinking of doing something with my huge poppies from the Large Scale Print Challenge.  


They were simple and fun to make.  You can see how I made them on this Post.  


I invite you to make one or two or three or ten for the challenge too. Go for it --- the more poppies the merrier!  Let's pop with creativity and make fabric poppies!  


Enjoy!  Marcia

Marcia's Tiny Treasures Quilt - It's All in Your Initials!

Using a variation of my Scattered Quilt Pattern, I constructed a small quilt. I quilted it with my name all over the quilt in a wavy design.  You can see a video of the quilting at Work in Progress - The Quilting.  The quilt measures 30" X 32".  I attached the binding with an all machine embroidery binding and added a hanging sleeve on the top.   I hung it on the wall behind my quilting machine, where I then added all my tiny treasures.....  Pins from quilting events and pins from when I was a teacher.  Pins from Relay for Life including a photo of my Dad who died of cancer in 1996.  My Mom is currently battling cancer.  I pinned up my tiny crocheted items that I made years ago.  Then I added charms, pins, and necklaces from four generations of my family.  They all  have special meanings.  As I was going thru' my treasures, I found the little beaded pins from the 90's!  Can you see the American Flag and the Packer G?  I decided to group the items, but I certainly could have just put them up in any order. What a delightful quilt project!  The perfect spot for all the little memorabilia from the past. As I find more items, I will proudly display them on my quilted wall hanging. More photos in the Photo Gallery.  You can click on the photos to make them larger.

Thanks to Kim from Project Quilting and Barb from Quilts by Barb for inspiring us with this great Off Season Challenge .

You inspire others to create!

Having Fun in May!


Marcia        What's May for Me?

A Video of My Work in Progress for What's in a Name?

Marcia Ellen Wachuta 

   MEW 

Midnight Blue, Evening Blue, and Wild Watermelon are perfect colors for my name.  I love blue and it is nice to have a bit of reddish.  I think it adds interest!

Previous post shows how I made the quilt top using a variation of the my Scattered Quilt Pattern.

The video shows you how I quilted it.  I am freestyle quilting my name in a wavy line.  I make it look easy, but it's not!  Also I was running the quilting machine with my right hand and I was holding the camera with my left hand.  It's only 2 minutes long.   I had to video tape 4 times to finally get a fairly decent take!  Good thing I know how to spell my name. Enjoy!

Just having fun in May!


   Marcia

Where Creativity Blossoms Posted My Interview about Project Quilting!

Kim emailed all the participants a list of questions.  The interview was posted yesterday.


Click here:  Project Quilting Interview and photos of my projects.


Currently, I am constructing a quilted item for the OFF Season Project Quilting.  We get one month to create!   YES!  More information about Project Quilting on Kim's Blog - click on the link above.  
Click here for my Work in Progress Post:  The Color of My Name - Scattered Quilt.


These are the six quilted projects I created for Season Two.

Enjoy May!

Marcia

The Color of my Name - Work in Progress - Project Quilting - Off Season Challenge ONE

My colors:  Midnight Blue, Evening Blue, and Wild Watermelon

I added more blue of course...

I brainstormed a week....  Now it is Sunday afternoon a week later and I am finally starting to cut and sew.  I started with 10 inch squares of each fabric.  I also had extra fabric set aside for borders of the same fabrics.

Then I started to sew the rectangles together in random order into rows.

 Then I sewed the rows together.

Then trimmed the ends and saved them for another part.

 After sewing the rows together then I cut them into sections.

Then randomly rearranged them and sewed them back together.

This is where I added the extra strips I trimmed off in the begining.

Add some random border strips to bottom and one side.




Add another border strip to the bottom and one narrow strip on the top.  There are now borders on 3 sides only.  


Now it needs a "Pre Quilt Pressing" and it will be ready for quilting.


Stay tuned for more Work in Progress on Wednesday or Thursday....

Comments and questions are welcomed! Thanks!






Check the May for Me Celebration Page for more Prize Giveaways! 


For more information on Project Quilting click on the link in the side bar.

Follow me at my Crafty Sewing Facebook too! Thanks!

A Big Thank You!

My Big Thank You goes out to all who made Project Quilting happen!  To all the participants, the sponsors, the judges, and especially the organizer and creator of Project Quilting, Kim.  Also the general public for viewing and voting! And last but not least , my  friends and family who supported me through hours of crazy quilting ideas and creations which resulted in wonderful final projects for the contest. 

Project Quilting gave me permission to create... What I mean by this, is that I didn't have to follow a pattern.  I would come up with an idea and just start drafting it out on paper or in my head and just go with it!  Sometimes I would have to cut and sew and then rip it out, but I tried new things and really created the ideas that were spinning around in my head!  An extra bonus for me was that I watched a lot less TV at night.  I quilt customer's quilts all day and my only free time are my evenings.  Thanks to project quilting for filling my evenings with creative thinking! 

I am very please to have placed third in the contest!  Makes me smile!  Kim created a wonderful mosaic of my projects.

Watch for an April post which will include the photo directions for making a quilted tote bag from a small quilted piece like a baby quilt or quilted wall hanging.  Learn how to make it in April and do it in May for May for Me!

Do you have a small quilt you would like to make into a quilted tote bag?  Join us for the May for Me celebration!

Spinning Spiral Flower Bag and Quilted Reflection Bag - Project Quilting - Challenge Six

I made one large bag and one small bag.  I did the mosaic so you can see both sides of the bag.  Top Left - close up of the large spinning spiral flower.  Bottom Left  - one side of the bag with the three flowers and the quilted reflection bag.  Top Right - the large spinning flower and the refection bag.  Bottom Right  - view of the bottom of the bag, so you can see the connection of the stem from one side of the bag to the other side of the bag.

For challenge six, I used two large scale print fabrics (more than 1/8th of a yard of each one) and some stripes and plaids.  I cut them all up into skinny strips and made the four spinning spiral flowers - a large flower on one side and three smaller flowers on the other side.      So I took a large scale print fabric and cut it up and then turned it back into a large scale print fabric by raw edge appliqueing the flowers on the yellow fabric. Then I quilted it with swirls and wiggle lines and constructed a HUGE Bag from the quilted fabric. I also quilted some extra yellow fabric and made a "quilted reflection" of the large bag.  

I put two regular size pillows in the bag and took the photos and then I took a picture with only one pillow in the bag.  It is a HUGE Bag!

 There are no raw edges on the inside of the bag.  I bound the seams with the yellow binding too.


Here's Gabby with the huge bag.  Makes her look small.