Sunflower Photo Quilt Revision

A couple weeks ago I wrote about wanting to redesign a quilt that had been on my design wall for quite some time. I posted a picture of  a photo taken of one of my gigantic sunflowers,  which I printed on cotton fabric and organza and pinned over the section of the quilt I didn't care for anymore. This week I made the change permanent by ripping out some seams and freed the balance of the quilt, which I still liked. I also flipped around the organza photo piece so it was the mirror image of the photo, which gave it some nice transparency layers as you can see in the closeup below.  The blue lines you see on the outer edges of the sunflowers are where I'm planning on machine quilting.

Next I added new strips to both sides of the layered photo and pieced it all back together again.   I also did some machine quilting in the center of the flower.  

Below is the original photo taken last September of my 7 foot tall sunflower, with a diameter as large as a dinner plate.  

Ethnic Ceramic Masks

Today I am finally making the transition to wearing regular shoes and am going to be able to start driving myself around again.  YEAH!!  No more surgical boot.  However, that boot was really protective of my recovering foot.  I feel a bit naked without it.

I've been way too busy with getting caught up with teaching my middle schoolers and  firing   all their projects around the clock to get to any quilting this week.  So I hope you enjoy the pictures of my students' masks and will be inspired by them.

Sunflower Quilt with Photo and Organza Overlay

During my foot surgery recovery, I've been looking a lot at two quilts on my design board that I knew needed something different.  Last week I talked about rearranging one of them and am really excited about the direction  that one is now going.

Yesterday, I played around with making changes to the other one.  I covered up the previous focal  point, which was a screen print of flowers, on which I did a lot of machine quilting (oh well) and replaced it with a photo of one of my  gigantic sunflowers that I grew this summer.  On top of that I placed an organza version of the same photo.  So if it looks a little distorted, it's due to the organza being slightly shifted on top of the opaque photo and seeing the other photo below.  I think it  just makes it a little more interesting.  I had read about this technique a long time ago in a Quilting Arts magazine.  For more information on this technique check out Wen Redmond http://wenredmond.weebly.com/holographic-images.html.

Here's a closeup of the two photos overlapped.

New Quilt from Old Quilt

I was so excited last week about getting my stitches out of my foot and thinking I'd be wearing regular shoes and driving by now.  Well, it didn't turn out that way.  I had not healed as much as the doctor had hoped.  So I'm still in the boot, but did get permission to return to work, so will be back teaching Monday.  My sweet hubby is still "driving Miss Jeannie" so we will see how it goes.  Next doc visit is Tuesday.  Hopefully that visit will have a better outcome.

Meanwhile, I've been struggling with what direction to take this quilt on my design wall.

I really like the drama of this whole-cloth dyed piece, made last March, but just couldn't figure out how to quilt it, and move it towards its journey to completion.  As many artists expres, it wasn't speaking to me. So after looking at it on my design wall during my recovery the last few weeks, I decided to cut it and rearrange it.  So, here is my new version of it.  To me it resembles a Martian landscape with an aurora- filled sky. 

Using yarns and water soluble stabilizer, I made the swirling oval shape shown below. I think I have a better idea of  where I want to go with it now.  Let me know what you think.

Vintage Sewing Patterns and Neelde Packs

I'm looking forward to tomorrow when I get my stitches removed from my foot surgery!  Yahoo - can hardly wait! Lovely, huh?

It's almost a new year, but it's always fun to look back.

A few weeks ago,  a friend of mine from my guild invited me over to her house to look through some fabrics, notions, etc. that she obtained from helping an older friend (102 years old) move from a house to a residential care center.  My friend, like many of us quilters , has more than enough fabric and 'stuff' and did not want to collect any more.  There was a lot of Tulle, some velvets and other fabrics, cool vintage patterns and needle packs, and lots of rick-rack.  It was fun looking through everything.  I graciously accepted all of it and donated most of the fabrics to our new, fledging drama program at school for costumes.

I love the old, vintage patterns. I guess I remember similar patterns sitting on my mom's sewing machine, when I'd hang out with her as a little one, while she was sewing.  Here's a couple I really liked in particular.

There was no date on this one, but there was an NRA logo on the left lower part.  I found an interesting website, http://wesewretro.com/2011/11/how-to-date-vintage-mail-order-sewing-patterns/ that explained the NRA logo was not the National Rile Association, which was my first thought, but rather it stood for the National Recovery Administration which was  part of the New Deal under President Roosevelt. Patterns with this logo can be dated  to between 1933 and 1935.  Another interesting thing about this pattern, is that none of the pieces have any markings on them.  They are totally blank, so you need to guess which is the skirt front, back, etc.  All the instructions for cutting and sewing, few that there are, are printed on the back of the envelope.

This pattern is from 1931 and all the pieces are labeled and there is a separate instruction sheet.  Pretty snazzy jammies!

Below are some very cool needle packs, which it seemed were quite popular.

These two are from grocery stores. I found some offered on EBay that stated they were from the 1950's.  Both are from West Germany.

This beauty was in really good shape.  It was in a parchment paper envelope with a paper inside the booklet itself. It was made in Japan, probably in the 1950's, from what I can gather from visiting a variety of websites.  There are some of these that were made in Occupied Japan as well and are labeled as such.  Below is a picture of the inside as well.

Hope you enjoyed this little trip back in time.

Merry Christmas Everyone

My wish for everyone this Christmas is that you get to spend some time with family or friends that you love, can relax with, and really be yourself.  In addition I hope you get some time to be creative.  I'm  still embroidering Christmas gifts, which I guess I better finish today, and have had time for working in one of my sketchbooks, something I usually don't ever find time for.

Everyone has been so helpful to me as I recover from foot surgery done on the 16th.  I'm not used to, nor do I like, people doing everything for me.  I am much more comfortable  being the doer.  So thank you to all my friends for your good wishes, casseroles, phone calls, etc.  My husband has really stepped up to take over the shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc.  He's a great guy and I'm so lucky to have him.

I could show you a picture of my lovely black surgical boot, but I'm sure you've seen one before and you know what they say, "If you've seen one....."  Instead below is a picture of my favorite card received so far this Christmas, sent my my sister-in-law.  I believe they bought them in Africa, where they visited this past year, although there was nothing printed on the back of card to verify that.  I just loved the strong simplicity of the design incorporating fabric collage.

Foot Surgery and Almond Brittle

Today I am recuperating from having foot surgery yesterday.  I had a bunionectomy and had to get the 2nd toe straightened out.  The doctor shaved some bone off of the big toe and inserted it into the 2nd toe, after removing some scar tissue and cartilage there.  He also  removed a nerve between the 2nd and 3rd toe.  Sounds like fun, hey.  The surgery went very smooth and all the staff at Sierra Vista hospital were awesome. They really took great care of me.  My husband has been great too.  So I've been sitting with my foot up and putting ice on it.

Knowing this surgery was coming up., I did all my Christmas stuff earlier this year than ususal.  I must have made  about 8 batches of almond brittle to give to friends and relatives.  Everyone seems to love this stuff and it's easy to make.

Ingredients:  1 stick of butter (1/2 cup),  1 1/2 cups of raw almonds ( I get the ones at Trader Joe's for $5.99),  1 cup of sugar.

Put all the ingredients into  a heavy saucepan and turn up the heat between medium and high.  Stir often, towards the end you will need to stir constantly.  It will go through all sorts of changes in texture.  Turn up  heat a little higher after the butter is melted.  Be sure to use a metal spoon to stir it.  I once used one of the white plastic spoons and it melted into the brittle.  It looked like I had added macadamia nuts because of the white melted chunks.  We still laugh about that one. When it looks like carmel and it's starting to bubble, it is done.  Pour it onto a cookie sheet, spreading it out.  Let it cool and then break it up into delicious chunks of brittle.  Soak the pan and spoon in very hot water to clean it.  

Well, back to my other chair with more ice and some pain pills and taking it easy.