Twisted Log Cabin

I made a 2nd Twisted Log Cabin quilt, again using my hand dyed gradated fabrics, but this time with a BLACK and grey background.  My original TWISTED LOG CABIN quilt post is still my most popular  post on my whole blog!  Unfortunately though, that quilt is ruined because I used a yellow chalk  to mark quilting lines and it would NOT come out in the washing machine.  =c(

I can't believe I haven't uploaded a photo of this quilt yet!!!  I still haven't had a chance to get a decent photograph of it, but today it is raining, so an indoor photo will have to suffice . . for now.   

 Here are all of my paper pieces printed out, and I colored them using colored pencils so I would know which fabrics to use in which position.

 My cut-out colored paper pieces, and my LIST

 and here are all of the fabric pieces to start the sewing!!   I just LOVEEEE the organization part of this quilt!  (I know I am sick)

 Here are all of the finished sewn triangle pieces laid out on the table.   Thank GOD they all fit!!! ;c)

 This is what my floor looks like next to my sewing machine when I am paper piecing ;c)  I just go and snip the excess fabric off using scissors.

The back of the quilt looks cool too.  But now it was time for the hard part - pulling out all the paper!  Here are some photos of me pulling out some of the paper pieces. 

 The finished center/top.  I added some black borders to this to make the quilt rectangular.  I wanted to do some fancy fun feathers to this ;c)

 Here I start the quilting in the black/grey areas, little half feather motif.

 I just loved the way this center pinwheel looked once it was quilting!

Here are all of the finished black/grey areas!

and. . this is a horrible photo,  (i promise I'll get some better ones ASAP) . . but I wanted to get a picture of the colored areas.   I wanted the colored pinwheels to really POP. .  even stick out a little bit. . so I did a very simple motif in this area.  I did a curved sorta outline around each "petal" and then did a curly-Q in the center.  I liked the way it turned out!

In the borders/outer black areas, I did a very tight feather motif.  I actually DON"T like what I did in this area as much. . .BUT. . It is a very dense quilting design.  . . almost TOO dense I think.    I feel that if I made the outer feathers a bit fatter I would have been more satisfied ;c)

Signature Memory Quilt - printing on fabric

Remember THIS post? This was a fundraiser quilt for a woman who is adopting a little girl. Each person donated to the adoption fees by purchasing a block. Each block uses a different font and I printed the "signatures" on 6.5" blocks of white fabric.

I attempted to make "snowball" blocks, BUT the resulting quilt doesn't look like snowballs. For the corner triangles I cut up charm squares from Kona cottons.

I've had these charm packs for a couple years or so, and thought this project would be the perfect project to break them out. Now I know that for snowball blocks you should NOT use a variety of lights and darks for the corner blocks - lesson learned BUT, I still think it's very colorful and pretty ;c)

I spent alot of time working with the layout for this quilt, there were around 80 or 90 "blocks" and so I went for 90 blocks in a 9x10block layout.

The problem is that typically you can only print 8.5" x 11" sheets. That means that you could print FOUR 3.5" x 5" photos, TWO 5"x 7" photos but these are too small, and any other size you would have to waste SOO much fabric if using a whole sheet.

So this is how I do it:

Right click on the photo you want to print (my signatures were saved as .bmp photos.) Click print. Then when it asks you what size you want to print click on "custom size."

Then it will let you define the custom size of paper you want to print. Mine were 6.5" x 6.5" for a 6" finished block.

Make sure you are working with CLEAN white fabric backed with freezer paper. I press the freezer paper to the fabric in large sheets, then cut. Once all of the blocks are cut, I will go over the freezer paper one more time with the iron to make sure it is nice and "stuck" to the fabric before it goes through the printer.

TRY not to handle the fabric backed with freezer paper too much before you put it in the printer. I took a business card and picked up the cut blocks trying to keep them flat/straight as I GENTLY laid them into the printer.

I recommend printing a practice block to see what side goes in first/top.

If the freezer paper is not good and stuck, or if it has been handled too much, it will come loose from the freezer paper and jam up your printer. this is NOOOO fun believe me!!!

So just be very careful when you're printing.

I know there is bubble jet set and other solutions you can apply to your fabric to make it "colorfast." I have tried every method in the book, my printed fabric will STILL fade with every wash. I do NOT recommend washing your printed fabric. After all, it is JUST printer ink, it's not procion mx dye and is not intended to actually dye your fabric.

You CAN use the iron-on transfers, but these are sticky and will gum up your needle. I find they are difficult to quilt through and leave an "ugly" residue on the fabric. Another option that I DO like is screenprinting. Walmart will screenprint photos for you and leaves a beautiful smooth finish and is very easy to quilt and extremely colorfast.

Here's the finished top!:

anddddd a side view ;c)

And the hanging sleeve ;c)

In Rainbows

Rainbows over Charleston, West Virginia, October 31st, 2009.







On my way to work Halloween morning we witnessed the most beautiful rainbows. Talk about inspiration!!! These were the biggest brightest rainbows I've just about ever seen. My husband says the rainbows look almost like a tornado because where the rainbow met the skyline it was so bright it looks like the rainbow was trying to suck up the color from the world.


The conditions were perfect. We left the house and the sky was dark and there was a very light drizzle. It was warm and there was a light wind. When we going over the mountain you could see sun shine on just the tips of the hilltops. This picture shows the dark sky, the rainbow, and the sunshine jussssst at the very tip top.







The back of the sky was beautiful too!




ISN'T GOD AMAZING?!!!!!!