Patchwork Breeze: May 2017

5/31/2017

Funky Friends Photos Found and Giveaway

My last blog post was about the Funky Friends Factory stuffed animals made by Island Batik Ambassadors for the Island Batik display at Quilt Market this past week. I wasn't able to find any photos of my stuffies and the other IB Ambassadors' stuffies on social media.

Thanks to Pamela, from Pamela Quilts, I was able to see photos of my two stuffies on display, along with many other Funky Friends. You can see the photos HERE on Canton Village Quilt Works.

I enjoyed making the stuffies. If you are interested in sewing something a bit different, visit Funky Friends Factory HERE. Sign up for the newsletter and Pauline has a free pattern for Honey Teddy.

Follow her blog to see the new patterns and other activities she has going on. While you are there, grab one or more of the free patterns on her blog (Felt Cupcake Pattern, Christmas Hat Sewing Pattern, Knitted Sheep Pattern, Gingerbread Man) and watch video tutorials showing how to easily make these patterns. Gaining confidence by using a free pattern will help you choose a pattern to purchase to make for a gift or donation. The next pattern I want to try is Hannah Hedgehog.

Giveaway!
I have Island Batik fabrics left from the Funky Friends Factory stuffies I made. Enter through the Rafflecopter form below. There are 2 entry chances. I will choose the winner on June 5, 2017. Unfortunately, I can only mail to United States addresses. If your name is selected and you live outside of the United States, I will email 2 of my PDF quilt patterns to you.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5/25/2017

Funky Friends at Quilt Market

While reading blogs this morning, I came upon Bea's post about Funky Friends at Quilt Market. While the snow was still flying, the Island Batik Ambassadors were asked if we would like to sew some stuffed animals for Quilt Market 2017 using Island Batik fabrics and Funky Friends Factory patterns. I said I would sew two, Stu the Sea Turtle and Dilby Duckling. I sent the finished animals to Island Batik in March.

The patterns were fairly easy to sew. The size of the stuffies were larger than I thought they would be. And that was helpful in sewing all the pieces together. In fact, I haven't sewn anything like these in a YEARS! And it was fun.

With all the things going on in life, I completely forgot about the Funky Friends until I saw this photo on Bea's post. There in the front was Stu the Sea Turtle, that I sewed! I tried searching for other photos of Funky Friends to see others that were made. I found a few, but not my Dilby Duckling,.

So, I will post the pictures I took before mailing the stuffies. If you spot one of my Funky Friends out there on the internet, let me know!

5/21/2017

Design While Recovering

As I recover from hip replacement surgery, I had to find something creative to do. I received an email that mentioned Design Seeds, a blog I haven't visited in months! I thought this might be just the activity for me because I am suppose to lay pretty much flat or low with a pillow propping me slightly. Once each hour I am to use the walker to get 10 minutes of exercise on the main floor of the house.

It doesn't surprise me that I can't find the email I read last evening. I did a Google search but could not find the photo that inspired me. I did save a copy of the photo from Design Seeds.

Along with the photo, color cards (showing colors found in the photo) are provided. This is the quilt I designed.

Using EQStitch, I drew the 12" x 12" block for paper piecing. Some of the blocks were flipped. I will put this in my file to work on once I am able to get up and sit and sew.

Check out Design Seeds and create a quilt for yourself. You can find photos on the blog listed by color or seasons in the atlas tab.

5/15/2017

Half of May-Gone?

It is the middle of May and I liked looking back at the photo gallery on my phone. Sometimes I get so involved with the things of life that I forget what I have accomplished in crafting. The first part of this post is about those things of life that took precedence over crafting and sewing.

The last weekend of April was our youngest daughter's wedding. It was wonderful to have all my siblings and nieces and nephews attend, since most of them live out of state! I had time to visit with my brother and his wife from New Mexico. We don't see them all that much. It was fun to see all the cousins dancing together that night. They come from Washington, Florida, Tennessee and Michigan. I was so pleased with my dress and hairstyle. And I was able to do some walking without my cane (no dancing). Hip surgery is coming in May!

As any good parents would, my husband and I made the card box our daughter wanted. My husband built the box (18" x 12" x 12") with a lid that locked! I painted it. I found and painted the frame and made a chalkboard inside of it. I gave my daughter a few chalkboard inserts with font styles and some blank chalkboard inserts. I was very pleased that she figured out how to get the font she wanted chalked onto the insert! Yeah! A budding crafter.

After returning home from a long wedding weekend, I found some lovely tulips in bloom in the garden. I decided to cut them to enjoy in the house. I wanted to get them before the deer got them as they did last year. The donut was a nice treat for me, too.

I took photos of the centers of the tulips. I think I will try using my Kaleidoscope Kreator program to turn them into fabric shapes for projects and add the filigree embroideries to them.

I finished two honey bee blocks for the Queen Bee of the Gridsters before I left for the wedding. This is one of them. Rachel is a beekeeper and has a tutorial to make these blocks HERE if you are interested in making any.

I received all of my Queen Bee blocks from my fellow Gridsters by the first week of May. I am working on a design for a pattern, so I am not revealing all of the block. But just a peek for you now.

I can tell you that the blocks on my design wall look spectacular together.

The builder arrived the second week of May to begin putting vinyl siding on our house along with replacement windows on the south side! It really looks nice, I have to admit. And as we age, my husband and I will be happy we don't have to stain the house every 2 years or hire it out. I have to say the hardest part was trying to find the color we both liked!

I put some of that life aside and got busy sewing. I made two placemats with hedgehog fabric for a gift. I had a fat quarter, so the fronts have strips of stash fabric that worked with the print which you can see on the backs of the placemats.

I used the embroidery from EmbroideryIt to make some more coasters. I found with felt, it is best to use a large needle (size 14) for little thread breakage, atleast with my machine,

I skipped a few stitches and added some letters to make this dish towel.

I used another embroidery for the applique on this potholder.

A little basket I found at a thrift store became a pincushion.

I sewed a sample row of my pattern for the Christmas Caroling Row Along coming this fall. I can't show the row yet, but it did sew up easily. I have to work on writing the pattern to submit in early June.

So thankful I have sewing as a stress reliever as well as satisfying my creative tendencies. How about you?

5/01/2017

Four-in-Art Reveal

I couldn't be happier that I finished this quarter's reveal early.
Our group of art quilters has a yearly theme (light) and quarterly sub-themes (light in the darkness).

I had a few ideas for this small quilt...the night sky with stars, the moon - or both, light in the windows of city buildings on a dark night, a flashlight held under a person's chin, a dark room with a partially opened door, the light from a house window shining on the dark ground outside as well as a dark flower with white streaks in the petals.

The design I created for "Light in the Darkness:"

I had a roll of 2-1/2" fabric strips gradations of white through black. I thought of a beginning point of light spreading out as it shines and how the brightness diminishes the further it goes-like the distance one can see with headlights while driving a car at night, or a flashlight in the dark.

I was able to make the wedges using the gradations of the fabric strips from white to dark gray on a mottled black background. I quilted white lines only in the wedges of light to indicate the direction of the light. I see nothing in the darkness outside of the shining light.

The quilt measures 12-1/2" square. I sewed folded triangles into the corners which allows me to put a wooden skewer into each pocket, allowing it to hang on a single picture hook on the wall.