Birthday quilt

This month was my daughters 30th birthday (I feel like it should be my 30th birthday!) I wanted to make her something special. I decided to make a quilted wall hanging with her boys doing the art work for the blocks. Before we went to visit them last spring for Easter I cut out several 8 1/2" white squares of fabric and ironed them on to freezer paper to stabilize them for coloring. When she went to work I had the boys color their favorite pictures, 2 each plus big brother did the center "Happy Birthday" block.

I heat set the blocks then pieced the top at home, the little back triangles on the corners of the pictures are 3- dimensional and are suppose to look like scrap book corners. The outside boarder fabrics reminds me of doodling. I wanted this top from the kids but not have the boarders "kidish" looking.
This is a little closer look at the drawings.

When my husband and I went back in Oct. I brought a large piece of white fabric and fabric paints. I poured a different color on a paper plate for each boy, they put their hands in it and printed them all over the fabric. When I lifted the fabric up the paint had gone through the fabric and onto the wooden picnic table leaving permanent hand prints. The fabric became the back of the quilt. I machine quilted the wall hanging at home and shipped it to Melissa in time for her birthday. She was very surprised and loved it. When I told her about the picnic table she said she had seen the hand prints and was wondering what she had done with the kids to leave those prints.

Quilt Retreat

The weekend before our quilt retreat Kay, Carla and I got together and natural dyed wool as gifts for the girls on the retreat. We thought they could use the fabric for our next years quilt challenge.It rained all weekend but stopped long enough for us to do the indigo dying outside. This is a picture of our blues and greens (Osage orange bark over dyed with indigo).

I always machine wash my fabric after dying it (if the color doesn't make it in the wash I don't want to use it for making quilts). After washing all the fabric I didn't know where to hang the large amount so I put up lines in my studio. As I looked at it when I finished, it looked like the prayer flags the Buddhist monks hang in Tibet. This shows some of the wonderful colors we got.

This gave everyone a nice color selection for their quilt.

This was a few pieces we dyed at the end when we mixed dye pots and over dyed. I love how all natural dyed pieces go together. Only "nature" can accomplish that!

This was my piece for this years bee challenge (I'm in the up in a balcony photographing it). You were suppose to make a block for every month. The block was to tell a story of your month. I had started making a quilt like that before and just continued on. My blocks were different dye plants and other plants that I use in that month. I designed and hand appliqued and embroiderd each block using my dyed wools. Some of the block stories are of the plants I picked with my grandchildren in Michigan and Florida, another one is from when I went to the dye workshop on the Navajo reservation (wild carrot). The ceder I embroidered when we we're in Seattle on a Native reservation. Ceder is so important in their lives, from the canoes they carve to the hand woven hats they wear.
When I look at this quilt I am reminded of so many wonderful times spent outdoors with my family and friends, hiking to pick the dye plants, simmering them in the studio early mornings, learning ancient family dying techniques with a wonderful Navajo woman and her family in Arizona, and embroidering the blocks while we traveled around America. My wool quilts are so much more to me than making something to keep warm with (although their very warm and cozy), their my way of telling my family stories.

The day was so beautiful I took my quilt out for a "photo shoot"! Lake Michigan in the background. (I still have to quilt this top)

This is Judy's piece, she button-hole stitched all the felt pieces by hand.

Mary made a "base" of crazy quilted blocks (her sewing machine did all the stitches, they almost look hand embroidered). She then sewed on Velcro to hold the small quilts she made to change for every month. This is a few of her months, she tried different techniques on the pieces.

May, she did hand applique and yoyos.

January, hand embroidery.

And November, a pieced "taco salad". Every year Mary makes a taco salad for us to eat while at the cabin.

Lillian made four pieces to represent the special things of each season.

Kay, "recycled" a piece she made in 1984. It was a group piece from a different bee. Everyone made 12 of the same blocks, each representing a different month. Then they got together and exchanged them and each put their on tops together.

We were at the cabin for almost a week so a lot of projects were made. Quite a few were snowmen quits. How can you not love a snowman quilt! This is a few of them, Kay made the red and black one and the little wall hanging (they still need to be quilted). I machine quilted a piece I started a few years ago. Lillian had given us all a large panel of snowwomen having a quilt show. I cut mine apart and pieced it with flannel sashing and added flannel boarders. It made a nice lap size quilt to curl up with this winter.

Close up of the blocks.

I did have a few pictures of the sunsets we had while there but somehow I deleated them, oh well, my camera never looks as good as in real life.

Happy Halloween! I love this holiday, just a fun day for kids (and big kids) with no gifts to buy. I only wish my grand kids were here to help celebrate the holiday.I had to show you this pumpkin I bought. It looks like it's a cross between a pumpkin and a cantaloupe. I think it looks like its covered with lace everyone else thinks warts.

Again this year a group of the top floral artist from all over the Midwest gathered and created floral art at one of the designers home. The theme this year was "Floral Art - Museum Inspirations", with over 30 exhibits through the candle lit trail in the woods. This is open to the public with the entrance fees going to charity. This gazebo is the entrance of the walk. I love it and want to build one in my back yard.

This is a beautiful hand made cement bird bath set on a old tree stump. The following pictures are a few of the exhibits inspired by the great masters in the art world.

Along the creek was this exhibit inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy (1956-). A British artist that collaborates with nature to make his creations. Works with twigs, leaves, stones, reeds etc.

Guiseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593) An Italian painter best known for creating portrait heads of fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, books.

Ford Smith (current). Introduced to painting at age 12 by elderly Japanese painter. He paints primarily landscapes.

The floral artist who lives here designs and creates twig sculptures through out the woods.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Spanish born but lived in France. He formed a style known as "cubism". His works reflect crisis and conflicts in symbolic terms.

Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860-1939). of Moravia. Czech art Nouveau painter and decorative artist known for his images of women.

I believe everything is natural (no fabric etc. only some wire).

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). A Russian artist is considered the original abstract painter (painting has no recognizable subject).

Peter Max (1937-) Born in Berlin. A multi-dimensional artist who works with oils, acrylics, water colors, dyes, charcoal.

Tiffany (1848-1933) Developed the Tiffany glass and with colored glass made vases, cigarette boxes, lampshades, and tile for walls and floor. This "lamp shade" had bit of colored glass worked in. It was beautiful hanging in the tree tops.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) French impressionist paintings of ballet dancers and other performers. He sold his paintings for a respectable sum.
There were many, many more wonderful exhibits along with homemade cookies, coffee, cider and other treats. If you'd like to know more, this is their web site www.naturescreativeedge.com.

Next week I'm leaving with my girlfriends for a week of quilting at our yearly retreat on beautiful Lake Michigan. I'll see you Nov. 10 with lots of "show and tell".

Home from Florida

We've been back home from Florid for about a week, I've been so busy at work (where I do all my blogging) I haven't had time to blog! I guess that's a good problem to have now days. My husband and I had a wonderful time babysitting our grandchildren.

I did finish all their new full size "sports " quilts, I did the hand work on the bindings while on the ride down and finished the last one while they were in school. Here they are with their new quilts, big brothers I made a couple of years ago is on his bed. Hopefully I have everyone set until they graduate from high school!

As soon as mom and dad left on their vacation we got out all of the Halloween decorations. The quilt on the left is a wall hanging I made for them a couple of years ago but the twin thinks it's his bed quilt and sleeps with it every night. Their watching TV as I took the picture.

The littlest one loved this Halloween kitty.

We went to visit all the neighbors decorations. Big brother played football with the neighbors, he's growing up.

The littlest one didn't quite understand this scarecrow.

It was 94 degrees when we got there and very high humidity we spent a lot of time in the pool. The youngest loved the shop vac and was so funny vacuuming with his swimming gear on. He is such a character, he could have his own cartoon show.

Very seldom am I awake at sunrise but on the ride home we start early. This was a beautiful sunrise over a farmers field with hundreds of wind turbines.

Earlier in the summer I dyed with this bright red hibiscus flower and wanted to share the pictures with you. I picked a bag full of the blossoms discarding any green parts.

Simmered them in a pot of water until the petals turned clear, you could see all the color came out of them and the water became like jello. Added my fabric and let it simmer an hour, left it cool overnight. The fabric was purple when I took it out, I tried to keep it but as it hit the air and I washed it, it turned a gray shade. Half of the fabrics I did a after rinse with a little vinegar which made it a truer gray and the other half a added a little ammonia to the rinse water and got this beautiful green.

This picture does not do the color any justice, they are different dark greens from different batches of the flowers.

Row by Row Quilt

One of the quilt bees I belong to are having a "row by row" quilt exchange this year. We started by making our own first row. We then met and exchanged them. Next Sept. we will get our own back with an additional 5 rows and lattice strips added from each bee member.

I have been collecting Halloween fabrics for years always planning on making myself a quilt. This was the perfect time to finally get my "ultimate" Halloween quilt made. This is my row I passed on with a lot of other fabrics they can use. We exchange rows every 2 months. You won't see yours until next Sept. A close up of a great fabric by Alexander Henry.

An old traditional piecing pattern called spider web, I embroidered in the spider.

Laura with a snowman themed row.

Close up.

Joni's row by row, goes with her living room.

Close up.

Cathy's black and white with a spark of tropical color.

Close up.

Jody's row by row, goes in her living room.

Close up.

Jamie's row by row with Christmas theme fabrics.

Close up.

My husband and I are leaving for Florida to babysit our grandsons for a week. Living in Michigan it is peak apple, squash and pumpkin time. I went to the farmers market today and stocked up on the produce to bring to the kids. I also finished the little ones "sports" quilts and have them packed in the car. By the time I finish packing I hope hubby and I will fit in.

Fiber Festival Weekend

A couple of weekends ago I invited some friends over and we had "Fiber Fest". The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny. We all worked on our own "fiber" projects, some playing with natural dyes all weekend. On the Wednesday evening before Carla came over and we began mordanting her cotton fabric (which takes a good 3 days to complete), then Kay came Friday night and we mordanted her wool fabric and yarn. Becky and Windi came Friday, set up their camp in my backyard and threw their linen in the mordant pot. This was everyone Sat. afternoon, taking a break and sharing ideas, Judy is showing Jody a cute wool pincushion pattern.

One of the first dye pots was onion skins, one of our favorites, this is Carla's cotton in first before the wool goes in and sucks up all the dye. We would give her fabric a "head start".

Kay checking out some of the first dyed fabrics. She's loving her wool!

Some of the wool fabrics (some with onion skins still clinging) and a couple of skeins of Kays yarn, 70% wool and 30% cotton. It is so beautiful in real life, the way the dye reacted to the different fibers.

Windi and Beckys camp, they do Renaissance reenacting and this is a traditional "tent" called a lean pee.

Becky with her raw sheep wool, she spent a good deal of time washing and sorting it.

Becky learning how to spin with a drop spindle.

Her first hand spun skein of wool!

Carla with the indigo pot. She was very careful not to get bubbles in the dye pot and ended up spending a lot of time in this position, dipping the fabrics and yarn.

Some of our fabrics, the green was originally yellow (goldenrod) over dyed with the indigo.

At night Windi and her friend TJ fired up their torches and made glass beads. They made some beautiful beads, I was so tired I didn't get a picture of them.

Some of the linen fabrics the girls dyed. The fabrics with the tie-dye look Windi wrapped around blown-out goose eggs and dipped them in different dye pots. She dyed her fabric and eggs at the same time. She's very clever.

Carla's cotton fabrics.

Becky's linen.

And Windi's eggs, the front left one she cut out a feather sticker and stuck it on before putting it in the dye pots.

This was a basket of "favors" for all who came, the white premordanted fabrics had daffodil bulbs wrapped in it, ready to plant to use for the first dye pots of the spring. The yellow wool fabric shows the color I got with my daffodils. And of course we had a big bowl of chocolate to enjoy!

A little more Colorado

As we traveled and camped while on our vacation I collected different plants, wrapped them in my premortanted wool, simmered them in the dye pot for an hour or so, and then left them for a week in zip lock bags. On our way home from the workshop I opened them and rinsed them out in the mountain streams we camped by, I could not believe some of the prints, it was like magic. I saw this technique done on India Flint's blog http://www.prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com/ I'm not exactly sure how she does it, this is how I did it. Check out her blog, she is definitely a master at natural dying. She has also wrote a book Eco Colour.
This was my first bundle, I picked some sunflowers along the roadside in Nebraska, wrapped them up in wool and tied them lightly with string (the flowers wrapped around them were for photo purposes, then I threw them in the dye water). Simmered them a good hour, then left to set in the bag with some of the water for a week.

I had to do Aspen leaves and bark in Colorado.

And lichen.

This was one of our camp sites, we had tall cliffs on one side of us and a mountain stream in front.

I was in heaven.

At night we had a campfire along the stream, I quilted for hours.

At the next camp I began rinsing out my fabric bundles in the stream along our camp.

This was the sunflowers, they didn't have much color so I put them in the cochineal pot before I unwrapped them and simmered it awhile. Now they have yellow blobs with the red around them.

Before I left home I wrapped up eucalyptus leaves and stems, (I planted them in my garden this summer). I simmered them, then opened them a week later. Oh my goodness they are unbelievable.

The fabric turned a pale yellow, the leaves left different orange, rust, and deep yellow prints. This picture does not show how wonderful it is. When I hot home I did two more each one better.

And here they are hanging to dry at our camp, left to right, lichen over dyed with wild carrot, lichen over dyed with Navajo tea, eucalyptus and sunflowers over dyed with cochineal.

Another river we camped on. Camping in the Rocky Mountains every night is a wonderful experience, we were on different river or mountain lake every night. Of course we never stayed in "commercial" campgrounds, we camped in the wilderness, in "God's Country".

My fabric rinsed out from the dye workshop, left to right sage, Navajo tea and rabbit bush.

Lichen, cliff rose and wild carrot fresh and dried. It amazes me all the color you get out of the desert plants. More than I can get out of my Michigan plants without an after rinse.