Willow, a Tutorial

Here's a tutorial on how I made my "Willow" art quilt for the SAQA Benefit Auction.

Background fabric.

Patches fabric.

Patches fabric with fusible on the back.

Background fabric that I marked into a 1.25" grid on the diagonal.

1" square patches being cut from the patches fabric.

Square patches transferred to background fabric and kept in correct placement.

More square patches transferred to background fabric. 

All the patches in place and fused to the background.

Layer the top, batting and backing and begin quilting.

Add more quilting, and more quilting, and more quilting.

Keep adding lines of quilting until they are +/- 1/8" apart.

Audition fabric for a silhouette.

Sketch of bouquet.

Fuse dark brown silhouette fabric to fusible.

Cut willow tree parts from paper and audition for placement.

Audition dark brown and gold leaves.

Audition dark brown and white leaves.

Decide to go with all dark brown silhouette.

Fuse tree and leaves in place.

Cut and make more leaves.

Fuse everything in place.

Free motion quilt the tree and leaves.

Continue quilting.

All quilted and ready for trimming.

Trimmed to 12" square. Facings are cut and the long edges ironed down.

Ready to apply the facings.

Facings are pinned to the front and ready to be sewed, turned to the back, and finished with hand stitching.

Finished front.

The back with hanging sleeve and label.

Ready to mail to SAQA.

  

  

Crop Dusting and Springtime

Mr. Matt the crop duster.

He flies so very low.

Coming around for another pass.

County line fence row on County Line Road.

Paul said the yellow weeds are "John Deere" grass.

Heading home!

"Bumbo" and Life

I am trying to streamline the process of my "Lily" class; so I sent the background fabric through the printer and printed a grid onto the fabric. ... (I think I've found another way I'll like better yet. Pounce with a grid!)

Anyway, here's "Bumbo!" I used a light creamy thread to free motion embroidery highlights in and around the elephant.

Next I layered the backing, batting, and the top. Oh, the fun of straight line quilting.

Then I decided to do some more stitching, highlighting in and around the elephant again.

The back is complete with a label and a hanger.

"Bumbo"

6.5" X 10.0"

Cotton patches fused to a cotton background.

Heavily quilted with Superior's Thread.

$75.00

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It was so pretty on Saturday. The boys pulled out the "Leagle Eagle" ultralights and flew over to the neighbors fly-in for lunch.

Paul took me for a Saturday evening drive and stopped along the way for me to take pictures.

This cattle corral is just up the road from our place right next to the iris field. I need to go back soon to capture more of the iris' in bloom.

Of special interest to Paul was the corn emerging through the ground.

We stopped along Joel's fish pond before heading home.

  
 
 

"Lily" Class with Magnolia Quilters of Orange Grove

I was right "proud" of all these quilters who took my "Lily" class on Saturday.

They got right down to work and cut strips from their fused fabric.

Then they cut squares from the strips and made small colored piles.

After arranging the squares onto their background fabric and cutting out and arranging the black silhouette of a lily and the borders; they began quilting.

I was so pleased with their end results.

Ablaze

I'm working on a new piece for my "Ablaze" series.

More inspiration can be found at these Linky Parties.

2016 Heatwole Sewing Retreat & Planting Corn

Our 2016 Heatwole Sewing Retreat is now history. If you missed out, here are some links that tell of our time together. 

Barbara's blog  "QuiltinGal."

Polly's posts "PollyHeatwoleYoder."

My posts "JuliaHeatwoleGraber."

I love being with Mother and my sisters. 

It was a fun and fantastic week.

Paul came to Chattanooga to pick me up and enjoyed being with us the last day.

This past week the men started planting corn in some of the drier fields.

Kirby and Stacy enjoy riding with their Dad after school.