I’m taking a break from my hand-pieced star quilt and other crafty projects to build my new website, www.laurawestkong.com. So technically this qualifies as a work-in-progress. See how it’s coming along here. If you’d like to watch it grow, drop by every other day or so to see what’s new. Hopefully the summer sunshine will help my website bloom!
I like to doodle in meetings and stuff. When I’m stressed I tend to doodle skulls … lots of them. Not because I’m dark or morbid, but just cause they look like they’re clenching their teeth to keep from exploding. It makes me feel as if I’m not the only one.
Here are some recent sketches I did on my computer. Then I dressed them up a bit. First I tried it sugar skull style. While I do like sugar skull art, my personal style is a bit simpler, so I went with a single bow.
I tested the design on some different fabrics. This combination was one of my favorites. I didn’t cut any bows or teeth out of fabric yet, that’s a paper bow I cut out of some junk mail.
I’m thinking of trying a dimensional appliqué bow. In a few weeks I’m taking a workshop on making dimensional fabric flowers for art quilts. That might be fun to use with the skulls.
Although the teeth are what inspire me to sketch skulls in the first place, I am leaning towards leaving the teeth off, at least for this one.
(Maybe I should give her a sunbonnet and I could call it “Bees in my bonnet”.)
I almost didn’t post the star quilt for you today. I broke my needle a few days ago and didn’t have another right on hand to continue. Sometimes the strangest things get in the way of progress. It’s not like it was the last needle on earth.
What did motivate me to get another needle out was that I decided to post this quilt today and didn’t want to leave that last star hanging halfway on, halfway off. So here are my 19 hand-pieced stars for your viewing pleasure.
In case you’re curious, how exactly does one break a hand-sewing needle? (a good quality needle by the way) Very much like one breaks a needle on the machine. Too much pulling and tugging and … snap! Nickel-plated steel needle vs glazed cotton thread: Thread wins by KO!
Here’s the latest installment of the Star Quilt Saga:
Last week I went fabric shopping specifically for neutrals. I actually came out with exactly that … a bag full of neutral fabric … well, except for that one bright orange batik. I couldn’t resist.
Some of the neutrals are already in the quilt top: 2nd row from the top on the outsides of the gold/pink star and the yellow star on the ends.
My DH commented about this being a “normal” quilt. … Not that it’s “abnormal” (I checked to make sure), just that it looks like a quilt rather than the artistic-painted-beaded wall hangings I usually make. I actually like that comment, it made me laugh and it shows that he really does pay attention to what I’m doing with all that fabric.
Till next time. …
Two weeks now and I’m still star crazy (not stir crazy yet). Here’s what I’ve completed so far.
One week ago I took the Seven Sisters Workshop with Don Beld (quilt maker, historian, antique quilt collector, and founder of the Home of the Brave quilt project) at Citrus Belt Quilters. I especially like his rule that in hand-piecing there are no rules. Everyone was pleased to be able to finish one impeccably accurate star unit. I finished the pink on black star in class and have been working on the others since then.
When I started out I meant to use a lot of black fabric in the background, but I quickly tired of the feeling of sewing blind that I get even in good light when working with black fabric. Usually I just ignore it and pretend that I can actually see what I’m doing, but I want to take this quilt in a different direction instead and mix it up with some taupe and beige.
Above are a bunch of the diamonds that I’ve cut out in preparation for making more stars. I’m going to just keep making stars until I decide that I’ve made enough stars or maybe just plain had enough, whichever comes first.
… I am now a hand-piecer. Check it out!
At Quilt Festival in Long Beach this weekend my daughter and I took the Art Portfolio in a Box mini workshop with Jamie Fingal at the Quilting Arts Make It University. Lotta fun! Here’s our progress so far. I always knew there must be a way to decorate those wonderful little mint tins!
Check out the Quilting Arts blog for a recap of Long Beach Quilt Festival and Make It University.
I was hoping to finish the machine appliqué on this quilt by today and to then start on the hand quilting the following week. Actually the appliqué was done in about a day and a half, and I am about 90% done with the quilting as well. I astonished even myself at how fast this quilt is coming together. I’m not going to show you the full view until the binding is applied. I may even make a beaded fringe. I’ve got some lovely beads in this color palette.
I miss the excitement and intrigue of those days when I would piece together a unit and immediately pull it out from under the foot to find out if the corners matched. These days I don’t even look at my piecing until I have a stack of them lined up on the ironing board ready to be pressed.
It’s not that all of my corners match each time, although they do match most of the time. Usually that’s good enough for me. And busy prints with less contrast between them do help in hiding those seams that are off just a bit.
In fact, Mr. Seam Ripper is joining Mr. Broom singing Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” (on that Swiffer Sweeper commercial).
But, I digress … back to WIP Wednesday. Above right is one of the quilt projects I’ve been working on this week. I’m almost done with the piecing and will soon get to start on the appliqué. Stay tuned to see my progress and the final result. =(^_^)=