Darla's creative expression...

Some more quilting going on here

2012-02-02T03:37:00.000-06:00

Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt.

The center square of the nine patch is the red. Each square in the nine patch is 5", so when cut in half down the middle the red creates a beautiful controlled accent. I free-motion quilted this king size quilt on my industrial treadle Singer 31-15 setup. The last picture is showing the pinning process on two banquet tables.

2011-08-22T06:31:00.000-05:00

Laura's Sweater

Here is a picture of the sweater I knit for Laura for her birthday this year. I found the pattern on http://www.ravelry.com/. The pattern name is Shalom. It was a fun and relaxing knit. I used Bernat Softee Chunky yarn. I haven't got a picture of her wearing it yet; though she said she liked it. Love ya Laura. Luv, Mom.

2011-08-18T01:38:00.000-05:00

A New Bag for the Birthday Girl.

What do you give a 15 year old girl for her birthday when she already has a great deal of stuff?

Well, make it handmade. No one else will have the same thing :) This is the bag called Birdie Sling by designer Amy Bulter. I hope this fit the bill for a perfect birthday gift for a girl who has lots. I even put in a hand knit sweater and chocolate too. Love you lots m'dear!

2011-06-28T10:05:00.000-05:00

Four Patch Stack and Whack Quilt

This quilt makes me think of the song, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. But, of course you will get a Garden of Roses Quilt. :) Tammy pieced it. I quilted it for her. She did a terrific job, and I enjoyed quilting it.

A closer view of the vine border.

A look at the back of the quilt. You can see the quilting a little bit more defined. How cool it that!

2011-05-22T23:09:00.005-05:00

Retreat! What a Treat!

Saturday I attended all day long quilt retreat. Such a fun and motivating event! It's nice to see all the smiling faces, hear the laughter, see the projects that everyone is working on, and join in the celebration with one another in making progress or completing another piece of fabric art.

Here is an embroidered alphabet quilt that I have all pieced together and is now ready to put in a quilt sandwich for hand quilting.

Here is the most of us. I didn't get everyone in the picture I see now. The empty chair in the front of the picture is where I was set up.

Quilting is wonderful, but quilting with friends is absolutely more wonderful! :)

2011-04-05T02:25:00.003-05:00

Laura's T-Shirt Quilt

Here is a T-Shirt quilt I pieced and quilted for a customer. She brought me 22 T-shirts to put into the quilt. A couple of the blocks I pieced from a couple of shirts that had small logos on them. The sashing is black Kona Cotton that nicely sets each block apart from the next and frames it well also. Laura's school colors are Royal Blue and Yellow, so the borders of quilt brought these colors in. In high school, Laura was active in volleyball, cheerleading, and environmental projects. What a neat memory to have.

The backing is a marbled black quilted with a varigated thread in a meandering pattern. The texture of the meandering is so appealing. I was still working on hand sewing the binding at the time of this picture.

Each block was 14 x 14 inches of T-shirt reinforced with lightweight interfacing. The quilting then really puts it in place. This quilt will last for many, many years. The quilt is reversible and work in to many decor ideas. The overall quilt size is 93 x 93 inches. Laura's high school memories are stitched to good use and will keep her warm for years to come.

2011-03-19T05:53:00.003-05:00

Spring is coming!

My goodness! I see that the last time I posted was back in January when we here in Wisconsin were in the heart of the winter. Well, now it's March and we are having some warmer temperatures making the snow melted and the mud to appear. Oh well, pretty soon we will be seeing the tulips coming through. A couple weeks ago I spent a week in Sun City, AZ soaking up the sun. Ahhh what a nice treat it was to bask in the sun. It felt so nice. I had a wonderful time visiting several of the quilt shops in Sun City, Cottonwood, and Sedona.

2011-01-06T04:24:00.003-06:00

A Charm Quilt

A charm quilt is a quilt with one identical block used over and over. In this charm quilt a square block is used. I free motion quilted a swirling feather design over the whole quilt. I'm not sure on the exact dimensions of the quilt anymore - it was lap sized though.
Detail of the front of the quilt.

The over all free motion patterning stands out more on the back on this quilt.

2010-12-16T03:24:00.003-06:00

Black and Tan Friendship QuiltAnother one has come off the long arm quilting machine. I machine quilt on a Gammill Classic Long-arm. This is a customer's quilt who wanted to see thread contrast in her quilt. The quilt measures 86 x 90 inches. She choose a neat pattern using the high contrast of black and tan.

Close up of one of the blocks.

The all black back side really tells the story.
My customer was impressed and happy with her request for thread contrast.
Happy customer = Happy me. :)

Spin-Off

2010-11-29T23:03:00.005-06:00

Spin-Off Magazine

In the mail came the latest issue of Spin-Off, a magazine dedicated to the home spinner. I saw several projects in this issue that I would love to do. I spin with an Ashford Joy Traveler spinning wheel. I'm currently spinning the fleece that I purchased at the Shepherd's Harvest Festival held in May this year at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo, MN. The fleece is a Blue Face Leister cross that has good crimp and a nice softness to it. I love the natural charcoal of the spun wool too. Now the hardest decision of all - What do I knit with this wool? I think I will have enough for a sweater at least.

Felted Clogs

2010-11-24T10:27:00.004-06:00

Oh the warmth of wool! Felted/fulled wool!

I recently got a pair of these wonderful Felted Clogs knit up and felted/fulled and ready for our Wisconsin winter. The wind is just a howling outside today! My feet always tend to be cold. And when my feet are cold my whole being feels cold, I just want to go cuddle up under the blankets to get warm. With these Felted Clogs though my feet stay oh so toasty warm!

This particular pattern is from Fiber Trends called Felt Clogs. I used Nature Spun 100% wool yarn by Brown Sheep Company that I purchased from Sue Vergin's Yarn Shop at Brush with Wildlife near Ridgeland, WI.

All ready for wear!

The above picture shows the clogs before felting in a top load washing machine using hot water. See how big they are in comparison to my foot. The blue and pink yarn is held together double when knitting the upper part of the clog. The green is held double also for the soles.

Now here they are all felted. Notice now they are the size of my foot. Oh the magic of what hot water and agitation in the top loading washing machine will do. I like how the felting makes the blue and pink a more muted mix of color.

A Frugal Quilt

2010-11-08T17:49:00.003-06:00

Do you know what I mean when I say, "Being frugal gives me personal satisfaction." It makes me giddy and all smilely. :) Here is my frugality coming through in quilting. I must admit though there is much in my quilting that is not frugal. Name brand quilt fabric lines tend to run around $9 to 10 a yard now days. The story of this quilt begins at Goodwill. I found the pieced top in the linen section for $1.99. Someone must have given up on quilting and it never got finished. I bought it and brought it home to finish. The backing is a garage sale find. It is a repurposed fannel bedsheet. It had never been used; tags were still attached. For $2 I thought it would work nice for a backing. The binding was leftover from another quilting project so I used that from my stash. I quilted it myself on a Gammill Long Arm that I have at my house. Generally the expense of making a quilt runs into $$$, but this particularly quilt throw cost me less than $10. Now that is frugality at its best.

Bye Bye My Little Sweetie

2010-11-02T05:47:00.004-05:00

Lucy

May 2008 to October 29, 2010
Lucy was doing what dogs do on Friday evening, sniffing out a recent rabbit road kill and didn't make it out of the way in time when she was hit by a vehicle. She is so missed. It is so painful to lose a pet! She usually didn't go by the road, but I suppose the smell of that rabbit was just too much, and she had to go and investigate. She was such a good little doggie! Bye bye my little sweetie.

Marchin' of the Quilting Pins

2010-10-28T18:24:00.004-05:00

Here is a quilting project that I quilted on my treadle Singer 31-15. The middle picture shows a glimpse of the machine. This project is unique in that I quilted it from the back by following the preprinted quliting design. You can see the light blue quilting pattern that I followed with a sage green thread. After I finished quilting and binding the quilt, I then washed it, and the light blue quilting pattern disappeared. I cannot seem to find this 108 " temporarily marked muslin backing anywhere now. I bought this piece from an internet quilting site. I'd really like to get some more but have yet to find it again. At the moment I don't have a picture of the front of the quilt. I'll get one soon to share.

Bronson with his cake and quilt

2010-10-23T23:35:00.003-05:00

I didn't notice until after I uploaded this image that Bronson had his eyes closed. Oh well. Here he is standing in front of the quilt I made him with his graduation cake. Graduation was back in May. I am just getting around to adding some pictures to my blog. Each strip of the quilt has his class picture from K through 12. The pictures were scanned and then printed on fabric especially made to print on using an ink jet style printer. I was happy with the way they turned out. I think he was happy with his graduation quilt also. The backing is fannel. The front is various quilt fabrics that I had in my stash. Maroon and Gold are the school colors. The quilting is a basic meander through the quilt while avoiding going over any of the pictures.

Daisies in the ditch

2010-06-27T19:44:00.003-05:00

As I was walking out to the road to take the picture of the field of round bales, I noticed the daisies in the road ditch and had to share pictures of them with you.

Make hay while the sun shines

2010-06-27T19:23:00.004-05:00

To a farmer you have to make hay when the sun shines - literally! Everything gets set aside when "the hay is ready to go." With all the rain recently we were getting later and later. When the forecast showed a few days of no rain and good sunshine, hay making was full steam ahead. It is baled now and ready to be advertised for sale. Here is a picture of the round bales dotting the field. Now we've got to get them off the field so that the second crop can get to growing.

Looking forward to spinning - Shepherd's Harvest

2010-04-16T23:14:00.002-05:00

Shepherd's Harvest May 8 and 9, 2010
Washington County Fairgrounds, Lake Elmo, MN

Yeah well, it's more than spinning. It's that and more - everything fiber and fiber related. Last year was the first time I attended this event at the Washington County Fairgrounds and have been looking forward to going again this year. It was such a neat experience! Watching some of the sheep being sheared, looking at the many breeds of sheep, goats, and the angora rabbits, the alpacas and more, seeing what the vendors brought, listening to the folk music, smelling the wonderful foods, and touching the rovings and yarn hanks. Oh my! It was a rather chilly day when I went last year, but all the better to wear your wooly sweater, mitts, hat, and/or scarves. Throw on you wool and come out on May 8th and 9th.

Lily's Baby Sweater

2010-03-29T21:40:00.003-05:00

Another one of my quilter friend's daughter had a baby girl, Lily Samantha. I knit this adorable little girly pink sweater for her. The yarn is Bernat Softee Baby. The pattern I used is the Top Down Seamless Raglan Sweater by Carole Barneys. This is a free pattern on the internet. It is very well written. The size is about 6 months. The garter rib stitch pattern gives the sweater a wonderful texture. Just the daintiness a little girl should have.

Jameson's Baby Sweater

2010-03-27T19:54:00.006-05:00

A baby gift I knit for a quilter friend whose daughter had a baby boy.

I used Bernat Jacquards - Jade Jacquard .

I liked how the faux fair isle stripping worked out. The pattern I used is published in the January 2010 issue of Creative Knitting, page 61. I made the biggest size & by the looks of it the sweater will probably fit him when he is around 1 year old. I choose not to knit the hood on the sweater. Buttons are wooden. It's just right for a little boy who lives in the north woods of WI.

Do you make bags/purses?

2010-02-04T10:14:00.002-06:00

I have really taken to making bags/totes/purses lately. I found this terrific site that has all sorts of bags tutorials, so I had to post it on my blog to share with other bag lovers (and so I could find it again myself). The link is on the left side of my blog called DIY Bag Lovers. Enjoy and have a good day. I'm off to a Quilt Retreat for the rest of the week!! Yippy! Quiltin', Gabbin, Eatin', and Coffee to keep me going strong. :)

The Ultimate Shop Hop Tote

2010-01-11T22:28:00.004-06:00

Here is the "Ultimate Shop Hop Tote". I purchased the kit this past year at the Minnesota Quilt Show. The fabric saying panel is here. http://www.blockpartystudios.com/shopping/detail.asp?itemID=661 Another version for the kit is also on the site. The directions to put the tote together are straight forward and easy to accomplish. It's the pretty reds that drew me in to this tote, and the fact that the quilt sayings are pretty much true "I never met a fabric I didn't like." Click on the picture and you may be able to read more of them. See the great big rick rack. It was amazingly big. Neat tote.

Pillowcase Galore

2009-12-28T13:40:00.003-06:00

In the past several years I have managed to collect up some pretty neat pillowcase fabrics, but it wasn't until recently that I realized just how much I had. Some are flannel and some are not. Anyway I pulled all the fabric together and made a batch of 40 pillowcases! - How 'bout that! They make such nice gifts. I have even used them as the "wrapping paper." Pillowcase are fun to make for those in your life with specific interests/hobbies such as trains, cows, horses, boats, sewing machines, camping, etc. The list is endless really. I use 3/4 yard of the main pillowcase fabric (cow fabric in picture), 1/3 yard of pillowcase cuff fabric (black fabric in picture), and 1/4 yard of accent fabric (hot pink in the picture). I used enclosed or french seams so no raw edges are seen on the inside of the pillowcase. I used my Singer 115 treadle to sew these pillowcases. The Singer 115 was badged in 1917.

Some more quiltin' on the treadle

2009-11-25T17:04:00.004-06:00

Diana made the tops and I did the quilting for her. They are both so nicely put together. They are approximately 40 x40 inches.

The quilting doesn't seem to show up very well. The inside of the blocks are a loopy meander and the outer most border is a heart leaf design with a loopy meander.

Treadling along...

2009-10-04T19:04:00.009-05:00

Happy Fall Y'all!

Fall is upon us in Wisconsin. The leaves are really changing, the temperatures are in the freezing range over night, and the frost is on the pumpkins.

I recently attended the River Rat TOGA (Treadle On Gathering and Academy) in mid September. I demostrated free motion quilting using the treadle sewing machine. I treadle quilted a quilt for one of the Treadle On members who made his first quilt ever. Jim pieced it using an antique handcrank.
Below is a picture of the finished quilt. We've got the binding sewn on but not turned and hand stitched to the back. We ran out of time that weekend.

Below is detail of the free motion quilting. In the blocks, I did the basic meandering, and the sashing was an overall leaf meandering.

Well, there you have it. Leave me some comments. :) I like you know you are out there. :)

Finished the Quilt!

2009-08-25T11:48:00.002-05:00

Here is the back of the quilt. It is a buttery yellow toile. It's just gorgeous. I really shows the detail of the quilting too. I love to look at the back of a quilt just as much as the front. :)
Now a picture of the finished quilt. It measures 91 x 105 inches. A group of us who call ourselves the MNWISMJUNKIES (Minnesota Wisconsin Sewing Machine Junkies) got together in March and pieced the top together. Our group enjoys the older sewing machines including treadles and handcranks. Then I took the quilt home and quilted it using my industrial treadle sewing machine. It has a deeper harp/throat and a nice bit area to quilt - that's what makes this machine so appealing to me. We "loosely" followed the pattern in the archives section of www.northcott.com if you are interested in making one for yourself. It is a free .pdf download.

Good grief Charlie Brown - its been a long time posting

2009-08-25T11:35:00.004-05:00

I seem to go in spurts in posting on my blog. Many times I don't feel that I have anything exciting to share or even contribute to a learning experience. Many of my projects remain unfinish as I jump from project to project, see new ideas to make, buy new fabrics that I think I am going to quilt up. Then weeks, months and even years later I come across the purchase and think "Oh goodness I was going to do "this" with "that"", and it never materialized. Does this happen to you?

Lately though I have been under a little time line to get some quilting finished - I do better with other's things :) I have been quilting a door prize quilt for our treadle group that meets in September on my Singer 31-15 treadle set up. This is a tailor's industrial treadle machine that dates to the 1920s. I enjoy the process piecing and quilting on a treadle sewing machine. It also adds a small amount of exercise to the process too.

Watermelon Pincushion

2009-04-23T22:54:00.001-05:00

Every quilter/sewer needs a pretty pincushion or two! This one I made to look like a slice of watermelon, seeds and all. :) The pink flesh of the watermelon is felted wool. The green rind is a section from a salvaged chenille bedspread with holes in it that I dyed with green Rit Dye. The tiny white rickrack is a garage find. The black seeds are actually black headed pins. I have some black seed beads that my quilter friend, Diana, gave me to sew on. This will be the finishing touch. I made up my own pattern - see my paper pattern in the picture. I've got two more cut out ready to make up.

A Quilted Treasure Bag

2009-04-20T01:15:00.005-05:00

Here is a treasure bag I created a couple months ago. It is the perfect little zippered bag for most anything. This pattern has gotten "lots of mileage." The pattern is called Abby's Treasure Bag by This n' That. The instructions are clear and easy to follow with pictures/diagrams for reference. I purchased the pattern at The Country Schoolhouse Quilt Shop in Superior, WI.

Baby Albert's Color Box Sweater

2009-04-18T14:29:00.005-05:00

Here is a little baby sweater I recently finished. It is for my niece who is expecting in June. Her baby shower will be this next Saturday. The sweater pattern is from the book called Book 1: The Knit Stitch by Sally Mellville. The pattern is called Baby Albert. I made the 6-9 month size using Drops Paris 100% cotton yarn from Garnstudio. It is a really nice yarn that I purchased at Yellow Dog Knitting on Bastow Street in Eau Claire, WI. I really like the primary colorway for this sweater. Hopefully, it will see lots of wear.

Winter is Calling! Stamp-a-Stack Card #2

2008-12-16T19:47:00.003-06:00

The set is a retired Stampin' Up! set called Winter is Calling. I really liked it a lot and had to have it back then. I'm glad I got it then because now it is retired. But would you believe it, this is the first time I have used it though for a card. What a bummer that it had to be retired! It reminds me of a vintage postcard.

The In Colors for 2008 were used, Riding Hood Red and Kiwi Kiss. The long scallop punch was used and also the Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder. I like the colorbook technique - meaning staying in the lines, so this card was great fun to do. I used the AquaPainter to pick up ink off the top of the ink pad.

A couple of weeks ago when I stopped at JoAnn Fabrics, I noticed that the red/green color combo this year was similar to the colors of this card. There were tins, napkins, trays, etc of this color combo. Enjoy.

Let It Snow card

2008-12-12T21:39:00.004-06:00

Laura and I had a Stamp-a-Stack card class on the 4th of December. A Stamp-a-Stack means as person who signs up receives materials to make 3 cards of each design. A total of 12 cards. Laura was the "girl in charge" and so she chose the projects to stamp. This is the Card #1 of 4.

Let It Snow Card used the Stampin' Up! set called Two Cool Dudes. The dry embossing is accomplished with the Cuttlebug using the dry emboss folder named Snowflakes. The Cuttlebug is just the coolest stamper's toy!!! Cardstock used was Night of Navy and Whisper White. Dazzling Diamonds was used on the embossed snowflakes for sparkle, which unfortunatly doesn't show up very well in this picture. The snowman is cut out and mounted with Dimensional Dots for a 3D effect. The envelope flap is also embossed with the Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder. Navy grosgrain ribbon embellishes the center strip of the card.

They are felted and very warm!

2008-12-12T21:32:00.005-06:00

There just is not anything more comfy on my feet than these felted clogs. I usually have cold feet but after I started wearing these felted clogs now have cozy warm feet. I posed my left foot so that you can see a side view and the variegating effect.

Felted Clogs

2008-12-07T20:18:00.003-06:00

I recently finished knitting these wool slipper clogs. I used a blue variegated Lopi Yarn and the FiberTrends pattern for Felt Clogs. This is my second pair. The first pair I literally wore the heels off. I got 3 seasons of wear from them. If I had been more diligent and patched them when I first noticed heel wear I would still be wearing them.

I wear them everyday in the winter. This is a picture of the slippers before they are felted. I wear a size 10 shoe and they are monstrous looking. I'll post the after felting picture later.

Happy Birthday from the dog and cat!!

2008-05-29T11:42:00.004-05:00

Here is a card idea. I had received a card with the picture of the cat and dog on it. I think it was maybe a thank you card. Anyway the dog and cat were just too cute, so I cut it out and created a birthday card with it. So this makes it a "green card", right? :) Recycle! The stripes pattern in the background is from Designer Paper from Stampin' Up! So actually the only stamping done is the saying and the "paw signature". How cool it that?!!

thoughts for today

2008-05-29T11:27:00.005-05:00

Tu-Tu Teriffic Birthday Card

2008-05-21T21:30:00.006-05:00

Here is a birthday card made for my cousin, Selene, who turned 9. It was a fun card to create, and I think she enjoyed it too.

Stamps: Stampin' Up! set - Retired Tu-Tu Terrific.

Supplies: SU! Cardstock Pretty in Pink, Pixie Pink, and Whisper White. Blender pen. Swirls Cuttlebug dry embossed background. Nestabilities scallop oval and straight oval cutting sets. White organdy ribbon. Clear rhinestone brads. Dazzling diamonds on the tu-tu (which you can hardly see). Stampin' Sponge along the edge to add definition.

I purchased my nestabilities from The Stamp Shoppe. They also carry the dry embossing folders for the Cuttlebug.

Spring TOBE blocks received

2008-05-16T22:31:00.003-05:00

Here are the Spring TOBE (Treadle On Block Exchange) blocks I received in the mail on Wednesday. These blocks were all made with people-powered sewing machines (treadles or hand cranked machines). The block is 6-1/2 inches square. It is the half-square triangle with unbleached muslin used as one of the triangles. On the muslin half, each sewer writes her/his name, location, type of machine they used, and then the event (in this case Spring TOBE 2008). My block lays on top of the pile. I used an industrial Singer 31-15 treadle to make 36 blocks for the exchange.

I purchased the Singer 31-15 machine with the intent to make it my free motion quilting machine. It has a nice open area between the needle and the pillar post and the table top also adds extra area for hand movement and adjustment of a bulky quilt in progress. I just have to keep practicing. :)

A Charm Bag is created...

2008-05-14T19:06:00.004-05:00

Oh what fun it is to create bags! A handmade bag like this is great to take shopping - quilt fabric shopping that is. *grin* I sewed this bag up using Charm Squares (Country Essentials Spring Charm Pack) from Connecting Threads and a pattern from the August 2007 issue of McCall's Quilting. The pocket on the outside front is a perfect place to hold my cell phone and keys. I did alter the pattern a little, as I used Heat and Bond between the layers instead of batting, and I added pockets on the inside. It measures about 12 x 16 x 4 inches. They are quick to make! Are you ready to use your Charm packs up now?

good afternoon

2008-05-02T13:21:00.003-05:00

Gotta just post something quick here.

After work today, I need to finish my Spring TOBE 2008 quilt blocks. Gotta work this weekend so not much going on. It is a deary day here in NW WI - rainy and overcast.

I'll post pictures later. Take care, darla

A blog begins...

2008-04-28T00:13:00.003-05:00

Hi There, Well it is time I create a blog. This was something that I probably won't be posting to every day but instead when I have things to "show and tell", questions I have, tales to tell, etc. It is just a fun place for ponderings. :)