Happy Thanksgiving

It is Tuesday Archives at Val's Quilting Studio. The theme for this week is Turkey Quilts.



The first is a paper pieced turkey I made into a wall hanging maybe 7 years ago. It is 15" square. I have it hanging on a tension rod between the molding of two door frames. (Colors are a bit off.)

The second is a 3-D Turkey Wall Hanging I made 2 or 3 years ago (I did not put a label on the back). I cut the Dresden fan pieces using the AccuCut. I used a large yo-yo for the turkey's chest and made a stuffed head to sew on that. 

There are so many things I am thankful for--and being able to sew and quilt are included in my list. Happy Thanksgiving!

Jelly Roll Link Up

It is Tuesday Archives at Val's Quilting Studio. 

I  made a pillow with jelly roll strips.

This came about after a strip exchange. The strip exchange involved the people sewing jelly roll strips together to to make 18"  by Width of Fabric pieces. We actually exchanged our sewn strips. You can read about how I made the pillow HERE.

Can't wait to see what others have made with jelly rolls on the link HERE. 

Joining Crazy Quilt Journal Project

The e-mail I received said,

"Prepare to be inspired! Welcome a little craziness into your life every day!"

Well, my days tend to be crazy (any way I cut it); so I registered to join the Crazy Quilt Journal Project for 2015 hosted by Kathy at Shawkl Designs.
What interested me was that Kathy stated in one of the rules that, "blocks should challenge your individual skills. Work to expand your artistic views and improve your technical skills." I liked the idea of working in this manner and that joining a group would incline me to better set my goals and artistic time.

If you are interested in registering to join, 

you have until December 20, 2014 to do so. 

Go to www.cqjp2015.blogspot.com

Read through the all the Tab Pages before making your decision.

Tuesday Archives at Val's Quilting Studio

FALL

That is one theme Val is focusing on this Tuesday Archives on her BLOG.

I knew of one Fall quilt that I would re-post from HERE.

I began this quilt after taking Susan Purney-Mark's class "Give and Take" 2 years ago at the AQS Show in Grand Rapids, MI.  I quilted it using techniques I learned in Sally Terry's class at the same show. I put the bindings on this past October at a quilt retreat. And now it is on my couch as a lap throw.

Revealing Urban Lights Quilt

The art quilt group, Four-in-Art, of which I am a member, has their quilt reveal today. 
I finished my quilt as the 11th Hour drew near (at least for me).

I had so many ideas running in my head for the past few months. I took photos of city lights while driving through at night, lights at a baseball game we attended, and many other places. Nothing seemed to strike my creative muse, so I did not start my project early. 

I started with one paper piecing idea, but it didn't make me want to finish it. I was going to put 4 of these blocks together. I liked the look of it in the EQ7 program, but I changed colors around and that stopped me. I may go back to this design some day.

Hexagons interested me. I thought of city lights and realized that during the daytime hours I usually see the yellow, green and red of traffic lights as well as red tail lights when people brake. So I began a traffic light. I thought the small areas of color in the traffic lights looked a bit like hexagons (when I am stopped at a red light). So I tried that and this is as far as I got. They looked more like soccer balls to me.

But at night, lights of all colors seem to blur together-especially when they are farther ahead of me. I began working on some ideas in EQ. I worked with hexagons that represented, to me, the lights I see at night while driving in the city. I liked the first design below,  but chose the second design because there were less hexagons to make. 

I made a slight change with a border and the red hexie out of the box, so to say. I thought it would draw the eye from the green to the red, thus keeping a bit of my theme of the traffic lights. So, with that explanation, here is my finished 12" x 12" quilt, Urban Lights.

Perhaps your next trip into the city will have you looking at the lights differently.

Thank you for taking the time to visit. Take a look at the blogs and the reveals of the other in the Four-in-Art group: 

Amanda Kattner blogs at www.whatthebobbin.com

Betty Ayers has a  Flickr site is https://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2/with/12251011196 

Elizabeth Eastmond blogs at www.opquilt.com

Nancy Myers blogs at patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com

Rachel Riley blogs at rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com

Simone Bradford blogs at  quiltalicious.blogspot.com 

Anne at Spring Leaf Studios (I left Anne's link out when I posted the other day. Sorry, Anne.)