Quilt Alliance - Animals We Love

Every year the Quilt Alliance has a contest and auction to raise money for their nonprofit organization. They were established in 1993 with the intention of documenting, preserving and sharing the American quilting heritage. 

I have participated in their contest every year since I first discovered it in 2010. Creating a quilt based on their theme always invigorates me and brings me back into quilting. This year the theme was, "The Animals We Love." Recently we have frequently watched the Mexico themed movie, "Book of Life". After chatting with my husband, who is of Mexican ancestry, we came up with the idea of a sugar skull bull, a Muerto Toro.

I started the quilts with improvisational piecing of black and white fabric. I wanted the background to be neutral, but also have contrast to the bright colors that would be placed next.

Then I freehand cut the basic shape and large shaded areas of the bull face in bright, fanciful colors.

Once I was happy with the general layout, the large pieces were machine appliqued on with matching thread. Then I freehand cut the small applique accents to the bull face.

The background then became a little too quiet and I needed some color impact. I quickly drew out flying geese on a narrow strip of paper to foundation piece on.

That linear flying geese looked incredibly abrupt placed into the improved back. I did more chopping and moving so that it flowed better. The color shapes became representative of  fans cheering the Toro on in the ring. Since marigolds are traditional at Dia de los Muertos, there is a giant bloom on Toro and petals thrown from the crowd. It is now realized that Toro is no longer a fighting hero, but has fallen and moved into the next world.

All the small applique bits are hand embroidered on with perle cotton in unique touches.

Large Swarvoski beads are couched on to Toro's eye and falling tears.

Bright and in your face graffiti machine quilting covers his face and the crowd. 

The remaining background of black and white are lovingly hand quilted in big strokes with perle cotton.

I love Toro and was sad to see him off, but I hope he raises lots of money for the Quilt Alliance. And I maybe fully intending on buying him back at the auction!

I am entering this quilt and blog post into the Blogger's Quilt Festival on Amy's Creative Side. If this quilt is one that you love, please consider voting for it. XO

How To Soothe The Soul

This past week we had a sudden death in our family on my husband's side. It was a shock that I think we are still reeling from. I am quite the emotional sponge - I stopped reading and listening to the news back when I was pregnant with our second daughter. It's very hard for me to disengage my emotions and carry on. However, when my husband rushed to his hometown with our eldest daughter, the house was TOO quiet at night. I decided that "working" may be the best for me.. so I completed my quilt for Project Quilting. Our theme was a tool prompt, and we had to incorporate 4 pieces of inspiration.

I present "And Sew It Begins.." I depicted the sewing machine and scissors in a literal format. I crocheted on the bottom of the machine (my third tool) and lots of free motion stitching (my fourth tool). It's a cheery little piece. I'm debating if I want to display it my studio as a reminder that art is a great way to work through my emotions.

In my opinion the best & worst thing about life, is that it goes on. The sun comes up, the children need to be fed, and our lives continue.. The loss of Darlene is deeply felt in our home and we wish peace to all who knew and loved her..

Iron Craft #14 - Postcards

For this week's challenge on Iron Craft

we were challenged to make a postcard.

(We could enter it into a swap as well!)

I decided to do a quilted postcard,

big surprise, eh?

Did you know you could mail a fabric postcard?

You most certainly can.

Though I wouldn't want it to get ruined and

I would mail it in a nice cushy envelope.

For my theme, I choose Utah - where I currently reside.

I can't say it's my "home".

I guess in my mind I'll always be a Southern California girl..

Anyways..

What do you think of when you think of Utah?

Probably not what I think of.

Your perspective changes once settle in a place.

When I think of Utah, I think of BIG landscapes.

The Salt Lake is BIG.

The mountains are BIG.

The valleys are BIG.

During the spring, we will have miles of green valleys

below snow capped mountains.

And that's what I quilted..

Hope my swap partner likes it!

The Hunt

Can I tell you that I'm in love.

I was absolutely planning on selling this on Etsy.

I can't do it.

There on the bed it will reside for the Easter holiday.

Don't fret, I'm not completely selfish.

I'll be making a few more in this style as

stretched wall art or postcards.

Love, Love,Love..

Hope you do too!!

Iron Craft 13 - Animals

On Iron Craft this week, we were tasked with the theme of animals.

Well..right now all I can think about is Spring!

Here is my mug rug of a chocolate bunny.

What's a mug rug?

Oh it's a fabulous little gift I finally heard about earlier this month.

It's a coaster for your cuppa' joe and some cookies!

Want some more inspiration?

Search "mug rug" on Flickr, Pinterest, or Google and

you'll have a plethora of ideas.

Hot Coffee, Mississippi

For this week's Project Quilting,

we were tasked to be inspired by a city's name.

It was not supposed to be based on what

you knew of the city (ie. the Eiffel Tower in Paris),

rather the name itself was supposed to invoke an image.

After Googling "funny city names" and blushing over

some poor taste names, I decided on Hot Coffee, Mississippi.

I knew immediately that I wanted to do a quilted collage

of an ode to my favorite brew pub - Starbuck's.

Say what you will about the chain

(in my old home of Queen Creek, AZ there were 3 in a cross-street..no lie!)

there have been many mornings that my sanity

was saved by their candyified coffee.

My quilt is modest - it was another one done in nap.

I was excited to have another excuse to

some free motion embroidery.

Starbuck's, how I do quilt thee..

My Little Turkey

As my business has grown over the last year, I've felt myself putting projects for family & friends on the back burner so I can get a little more work done. This was heartbreaking for me. The point of running my own business was so that I would be at home with Isabelle (and future kids), and give more to those I love. So each weekend I "try" to set aside all work, and only do projects for those I love. It's not a perfect system, and this weekend I slipped. A lot of the photographers I had orders from HAD to have items this coming week, that meant I HAD to work overtime and then some. With all that said, I was bound and determined to create a dress for Isabelle for Thanksgiving. My original hope had been to sew 2 ties that matched for her cousins; had great visions of the family photos. Sorry Brycen and Bailey, the ties are probably not going to get done in the next 48 hours. I'm sure they'll forgive me.. Well after some Wii and pumpkin pie..

The pattern I used was Olive Ann Designs : Jump-N . Purchased it at one of my favorite local fabric stores, Material Girls over in South Jordan.

And I'm still on my corduroy kick; using a heavy wide wale green cord and small wale chocolate brown w/ matching green polka dot .

I made some changes, and honestly now that I'm done I will make more changes to the next one. I am not a flamingo fan, so that appliqué got axed. Also..

* Isa is skin & bones, so her body measurements put her at size 1. However, I didn't take into consideration that she has my head. Big heads means big ideas! It is super hard to get it over her head and tears usually erupt. For the next dress I will either push the sleeves out more or increase the width of the neck.

* It is supposed to be reversible, but honestly with 2 cords it makes it very bulky. With the next one I'd either use only 1 heavy fabric or not intend to make it reversible.

* Your bobbin thread color is important!! For this reason I will probably not use the polka dot side as wearable option. The bobbin thread color is distracting to me though I'm sure Isa is unaware :o)

* I added a machine embroidered turkey on the bottom for a little added holiday decoration. The original had that flamingo.. I bought the embroidery pattern at SWAK Embroidery

If I had more time to spend on the dress I think I'd be slightly happier with it. It really only should have took around 2 hours to sew, but with a toddler yelling "Go Diego, Go!" and deadlines looming over my shoulder.. I said this Turkey is done, stick a fork in it!