In the Shop

Finally!

"Arizona"

Just in time for summer vacation travel. I hope everyone tries one and sends me pictures of their finished products!

Discharged fabric with a gelatin monoprint fabric textile overlay.

My  babies, I hope they find good homes!

Art Quilt Kits

All the kits are now listed. 

The last days of school are upon us.

We move in 1 month....if my husbands orders ever get here.

The summer is planned and busy. 

The orders better get here soon or it messes up all the plans, new house, new school, time with extended family. That 60 day notice they tell you about in the military? Crap. We have never been given our notice 60 days notice in 13 years of being a military family. We know we are moving but when its not official you cannot get the go ahead to do anything until it comes through. Here is to crazy and trying to ignore the future.

Passageway

"Passages"
Thread can make all the difference! Gold metallic, beading, variegated green DMC, Coats and Clark rayon variegated green Invisafil in tan and  Valdani variegated threads in browns. This was done without a hoop and as you can tell I am still figuring out my beadwork!

Inspiration

Mountains, trees, life, dinner, time,sitting, space, love, family, togetherness, green, blue, brown, change,glass, mirror, plentiful, messy, full, glass houses,trendy, moving, wind, rain, stars and snow.
Inspiration. Where does it come from? How do you pick just one thing to move forward from? Life is your oyster. Is that not what we tell our children, each other and ourselves. Now days it seems to be all about being a winner. Not being a loser. Learn to fail, it will happen often. Be gracious and giving. Do your best but sometimes it will not be good enough.

My absolute favorite way to get inspiration is from a book. The 15th page of my favorite book on the 7th sentence.  You can pick your own book or have someone pick it out. Look for the 7th sentence on the 15th page. How does that sentence effect you now? What is going on in your life that, that sentence has value?

My second way to move forward on a project is to get down a dictionary and close my eyes, open the book, meander around with a finger, open my eyes and like magic there it is.

I have done this since I was a little girl. Spin a globe placing your finger on the surface lightly, where did you end up? What comes to mind when looking at the place that you have arrived at.

A true artist tells you that there is never failure, only opportunity for a broader spectrum of interpretation.
A quilter will tell you its a failure, cutting is wrong, stitching etc. what they wanted did not come to fruition. So move past that my fellow quilters and become an artist.

Crazy Quilting in Little Steps

Starting with a 4x6 piece of Muslin

Adding on a 2nd piece, you stitch through all 3 pieces fold over , press and repeat

My moms mothers day card

Turn into a card or finish a few and make a pillow or finish alot and make a blanket

My favorite stitching book that I still don't own...

Art Quilt Kit Before

Discharged Fabric with Gelatin Monoprint using textile paint

Metal Chains and Wool Roving

3 yarns

Sulky,Aurifil,Beading thread Beads and  Silk Square

Indigo Dyed Dryer Sheet
Commercial Fabric
Hand dyed Fabric

Kit as a whole
All the kits will include things you see here. They are all individualized though, so no two have the same things in them. Excluding the thread, but I will talk more about that at a later date...
All are easily transportable.
You provide the batting, backing fabric, binding and border fabric and needles.

The Art Quilt

The art quilt is a new endeavor, a chance at something new. I started making art quilts in 2005, at first I was just unsure of what I was supposed to be doing.  I like traditional quilting and felt and still feel that it is therapeutic to follow the rules and have an item that is purposeful.

After the 3rd art quilt I made, I just gave up. I went into the next one with no goal, only the intention of learning new skills.  This turned out to be the way to travel...finally letting go and just working on new skill sets. I have fallen in love with this kind of quilting and wanted to share it with everyone. A traditional quilter gone rogue...

This is a current art quilt I am working on.

I am going to sell pre-assembled art quilts in my shop Burnt Toast Ranch.

For this project I picked a word --Passages and sewed until it looked like a passage. 

My life, my soul for others to see.

"Passages"