Giveaway Winner!

Below is the comment that was drawn out of the hat to win the hand-dyed fabric- Congratulations!  Please email me your address (artndlfb@gmail.com) and I will mail you your goodies!

ruebarbSeptember 15, 2014 at 6:26 PM

Your ornament tradition makes me smile. I am sure that there are many of us who have tried this tradition and failed to keep it up as life changed through the years. I made similar ornaments throughout the years for my kids, and a few select others. I enjoyed the making as much, if not more than, the recipients enjoyed the gift. My kids, now grown, have their boxes of handmade ornaments from me, and some made by their own hands to use on their own trees. Now, with a grandchild, I need to dust off the old ideas, add some new one..........thanks for sharing your tradition.

DESIGN: Taking My Art with Me! and Giveaway

Being creative is not a hobby; it is a way of life.

I love making art quilts, but what I love even more is using my art quilts in wearables. I have used two of my 12" x 12" art quilts to adorn my iPads.

This is a challenge quilt for the theme incandescence. You can read about how I made it here.

This second challenge quilt is for the theme Celestial. You can read about how I made it here.

For both of these art quilts, I created custom iPad skins for the outside from a photo of the quilt. I love how both the outer skin matches the wallpaper.   

With the same photo of the quilt, I went to Spoonflower and created custom fabric.  If you have not read about Spoonflower, you can read more about it here. With my custom fabric, I made a heavily quilted mini quilt for the outer case and another mini quilt for the inside of the case.  I adhered the two mini quilts together to create a strong and durable case.

Below are the insides of the iPad cases.  The key to making these tablet cases are two-fold:

1. Both mini quilts must be heavily quilted.
2. I use wax on the outside to help the fabric weather anything it could encounter.
   

When iPads first came out, I made a case for my first generation iPad  , I still use it today and it has very little wear on it (the photos below were taken after I had been using the case for about two years); you can read about it here. 

Thanks for reading my blog today.  Leave me a comment and I will pick a person to win these three fat quarters that I hand-dyed (2- cotton, 1-velvet). Check my blog Tuesday at 5 pm (EST) for the winner!

I have another blog posting today about Quilting Arts Holiday 2014.  I talk about my love affair with homemade ornaments.  Though most of the ornaments I show on the post are for my pre-art quilting years, I wrote the post more so to talk about our holiday traditions.

Quilting Arts Holiday and Giveaway

Christmas, my child, is love in action. 

Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas. ~Dale Evans

I am very excited to be part of Quilting Arts Holiday. My article shows you how to make the ornaments on the cover of the issue.

Most of my life, I have had a love affair with homemade ornaments.  I am the youngest of five children and when my older sisters and brothers began to have children, I began making ornaments annually for my nieces and nephew.  I always gave the ornaments at Thanksgiving dinner, so I have vivid memories of racing around Thanksgiving morning, sewing, gluing, painting the last bits of the ornaments.

I have such wonderful memories  scouring the newsstands every year looking for holiday issues of magazines to come out to find the perfect annual ornament.  I still have these old magazines and look through them each year.

When I was in college, my creative skills and my pocketbook were very limited and the ornaments showed these lackings; often, I did not even have enough money to make an extra ornament for me to keep.  Here are some of my early ornaments:

1984: These were obviously from a kit.

 
Mid-80's: Santa made from sawdust. 

 

1990: A gold lame angel  (what was I thinking!?).

1991: Cinnamon stick painted Santa.

Then came the years that I could afford to make the ornaments, but I was working so many hours at my job, I looked for cute and simple.

2000: Snowman, Angel, Santa, Teddy Bear felt stuffies.

2001: Snowman, , Santa,  Deer are made from muslin, stuffed, painted and then added rusted wings.  

2002: A conical Santa (it was tough getting the beard/face detail on camera)

 

2005: A snowman made from vintage quilts.

 2006: This ornament pattern was from an issue of Piecework magazine.

I also began to make to make bags to store the ornaments.

 

The other part of my homemade ornament love affair are the ones that were made for me.  

These are some of the many homemade gifts that my college roommate (and still very dear friend), Maria, has made for me over the years.

 One of my art doll friends made these Julie McCullough ornaments for a group of us.

This is an oldie, but goodie; I received this clothespin soldier when I was in college during a secret Santa exchange. I treasure it every year when I put it on the tree.

As I look back on all of the ornaments that I made, I am most proud that I created a tradition that went on for over 30 years.  Each of my nieces and nephew received a box of 'Aunt Kathy' ornaments when they moved out of their parents' home; they talk about how much joy it brings when they decorate their trees annually.

Thanks for reading my blog today...I hope you enjoy Quilting Arts Holiday issue!  Leave me a comment and I will pick a person to win these three fat quarters that I hand-dyed (2- cotton, 1-velvet). Check my blog Tuesday at 5 pm (EST) for the winner!

Quilting Arts Holiday

Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, 

doesn't come from a store. ~Dr. Seuss

The Grinch probably knew he could get tons of great ideas in the Quilting Arts 2014!

I will be part of Quilting Arts Holiday issue blog hop, my blog for the hop is on Monday. Here's a list of all the blogs to check out and get some Holiday inspiration.

• Friday, September 12, Vivika Hansen DeNegre, http://quiltingdaily.com/

• Saturday, September 13, Lyric Kinard, http://lyrickinard.com/blog/

• Sunday, September 14, Claude Larson, http://randomactsofpiece.blogspot.com/

• Monday, September 15, Linda Laughlin,  http://notesfromstudiob.blogspot.com/  and Kathy Kerstetter, http://artndl.blogspot.com

• Tuesday, September 16, Lori Miller, http://lorimillerdesigns.wordpress.com/

• Wednesday, September 17, Melanie Testa, http://melanietesta.com/blog/, and Liz Kettle, http://www.textileevolution.com/index.php/our-journey

• Thursday, September 18, Susan Brubaker Knapp,  http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/

• Friday, September 19, Lisa Chin, http://somethingcleveraboutnothing.blogspot.com/

• Saturday, September 20, Sarah Ann Smith, http://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog

• Sunday, September 21,Catherine  Redford, http://catherineredford.com/

DESIGN: When in Doubt, Dip it in Dye

See that any time you feel pained or defeated, it is only because you insist on clinging to what doesn't work. Dare to let go and you won't lose a thing except for a punishing idea.

Guy Finley

Last fall when I was on our annual quilt guild's retreat, I bought a couple 'jelly rolls' of fabric.  Excited to have cut fabric, I got home and put together a sweatshirt jacket (my favorite things to wear!) Once it was pieced and quilted, I just did not care for how it looked. What to do? What to do? This is what the fabric looked like:

I took the plunge (literally) and threw it in a bucket of red dye. When I pulled it out- I liked it- I really liked it! I decided to add purple cuffs (also dipped in the red dye) and topped it off with a couple of Dorset buttons. And presto-chango...I have a new fashion favorite! What do you think?

Have you ever finished something that you did not like the finished product? What did you do?