So Excited to Share!

I haven't had a finished quilt in quite awhile! Just my pages in my Art Journal challenge and they are a bit behind too! Life has been busy! 

So I'm so excited to share my finished quilt from the 2013 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I really love how this quilt turned out. 

The pattern is called Russian Rubix by April Rosenthal for Prairie Grass Patterns.  I just fell in love with this pattern. It was so fun to make. I'm kind of a math geek so I was intrigued by how April figure how to work this pattern. 

The 2013 Rainbow Scrap Challenge (see my side bar) only included 11 colors so I added 5 additional colors so the quilt finished with 16 different colored rings. 

I added 3" borders to frame the quilt and give it a bigger dimension. This quilt finished at approx. 48" square.

At first I debated making 2 of each color but changed my mind. I pieced the extra orange block on the back.

I love the scrappiness of this quilt. It is fun to look at all the different fabrics pieces and remember where they came from or were used before. The binding was also made with pieces from each color in the quilt.

Bonus ~ the backing is also from my stash!

I quilted each octagon with a pinwheel design using thread that matched the color of the ring. In the negative space, I FMQ part of a design I found online. I adjusted the design to fit the inside of each ring. The border was straight line quilted in 1/2" rows. Hope you like it!

I'm linking up at SEWjo!

A little catch up

Although I am a little behind in my challenges, I have caught up on my Art Calendar Challenge! Thankfully, I have been recording the important highlights of my day on my iPhone notes so I wouldn't forget what happened each day when I finally had time to work on the calendar. Here it is! January all filled in.

My February calendar page was influenced by our visit to Maui, Hawaii! I was captured by the Hanu...green turtle in Hawaiian. We didn't see any upclose and personal but you can spot them from the beach...their shell looks as if it is floating on the surface and then their head pops up.

This picture was taken before I started working on recording the events of the days...not many days left before March! Where has the time gone?

Have you been keeping up with the challenges, QAL, etc that you sign up for? I still plan on working towards making up what I missed. The weekly art journal challenge comes a little too fast...we will see how much I do on that one.

Just when you think...

...that life is going to slow down...it keeps throwing punches! With my full time teaching assignment coming to an end just before Christmas, I thought...after the Christmas and New Year's Holidays, I will be able to do 'my thing'...meaning of coarse, spending time quilting and getting back to blogging. 

Well, things didn't work out quite that simple.  Just before Christmas, we got news that my MIL wasn't doing well and needed to have surgery. To complicate things...she lives on the family farm in a remote area of Norway. She was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital and then transferred to a bigger hospital due to her situation. She ended up with 2 surgeries and after a good time in the hospital, was transferred to a nursing facility near the family farm. News did not sound good as she was very weak and on many medications.  To further complicate things, my DH and I have been planning a trip to Hawaii for about a year and we were to leave at the end of January. So, a decision was made that we would make a extended weekend trip to Norway to see her. 

We made our travel arrangements and the very next day, we got a call that our DD1 was hurt and that we needed to go to the ER. We spent the rest of the day in the ER with her waiting on the physician, tests, and results before she came home with us to be 'watched.' The next day she was not doing better so a call to the ER resulted in a return trip, more tests and a referral to an ophthalmologist. Then a second opinion and being fitted for a temporary correction device until her brain can heal. Yes, it was scary and she is doing better but complete healing could take a year. Thanks to our great friends that took her for a second opinion and helping out, we were able to go to Norway to spend time with my MIL.

Winter in Norway isn't the best time to travel. We arrived on time in Stavanger and my SIL picked us up from the airport. We headed directly north to the family farm only to find the ferries stopped due to bad weather. We turned around and spent the night at my SIL's place. We set off north again Saturday morning to once again find the ferries stopped. The ferries didn't start running again until late Sunday afternoon...too late to go north. My SIL was able to take off work on Monday and we headed north, stopped at the family farm and then headed to the nursing facility. We finally were able to get to visit with my MIL! It was good to see for ourselves her condition. Although she is very weak and can not get out of bed without help or walk, we are hoping she can regain enough strength to move to less than 100% managed care. It was a marathon day as we all needed to get back to Stavanger that night. It was well past midnight when we got back to the city for an early 6am start to the airport to fly home. On a positive note, we had time to visit with our nephew's and their families. 

Arriving home, we had 3 days before we left for Hawaii! Packing once again and off to the airport for 2 weeks in beautiful Maui! More on Maui later. 

When I got home, (to cold and snow) and finally picked up the mail (my battery was dead after so long in the cold without being started)...it was a glorious mail day! Not just one but TWO surprises from Annie! Annie is a fellow quilter, blogger and just so talented. I can't remember exactly when I started following Annie's blog (http://freezeframe03.blogspot.com/) but it has been a while! At the beginning of 2013, while reading Annie's blog, I was introduced to the 365 day calendar journal challenge. Annie's pages are fantastic but some of my favorite pieces Annie creates are her postcards. 

Here is the one Annie made for me!

Isn't it just lovely! The details are amazing and the quality of Annie's work is impeccable. I did mention 2 surprises! Annie also does fantastic envelope art. She has this fantastic stamp...the Sissy stamp...that she creates with. 

Absolutely gorgeous!

A mail day that put a smile on my face!

Well, all the travel and watching the Olympics when I can, allowed me to get quite a bit done on my hexie quilt (shown above). I hope to show you more soon. Thanks for sticking with me on this very long post.

A New Year!

I finished my January Art Calendar Journal and here is a 'before' picture. 

With all the snow we have gotten this year already, my journal page depicts falling snow. 

It reminds me of being a kid and looking up into the blue sky to catch snowflakes on your tongue!

I've also done a bit of work on my Rainbow Scrap quilt but not enough to show pictures! Coming soon...hopefully!

Do you do vintage?

Do you like to go antique shopping? I love to see what I can find or sometimes just be inspired. No way do I have the knack as some of my friends do. Especially my friend, Melissa. Check out her wares at Megillicutti on FB. 

Others too! You know who you are!

In any case, over the Christmas holiday when we all go up to WI for a few days, one of our favorite activities is to go antiquing. This is what I spied at one of the shops.

A quilt made from many different textiles...mostly wools but with lots of different textures. The backing was a lightweight silky type fabric of some sort. It was turned, not bound and tied, not quilted. 

I couldn't get that quilt out of my head. 

I was anxious to try to work with different textures. I knew I had some upholstery samples and some other old scraps that for some reason I hadn't gotten rid of so I dug them out. 

 My Textiles Squared quilt.

not exactly my favorite colors...

The tapestry type fabric is a upholstery sample someone gave me (I think), the burnt orange is a brushed corduroy, not sure where the solid blue came from but it some sort of upholstery fabric, as is the blue print, the cream is a heavier weight of linen and the green has a crinkled texture. 

I used a light weight flannel as the middle layer and sewed around the edge and turned it right side out. I tied the quilt together at the center of each square using some left over yarn.

The backing is a light weight silky fabric with a pieced strip of gold satin left over from one of the gowns I made my DD1 during her HS years. 

I top stitched around the edge to give it a crisper finished edge. 

The best part of this 'just have to try it out' project was that it all came from boxes of odds and ends stuff (except for the flannel).

Now that that's done, I can move forward to new projects...

but I may revisit this with some woolens...someday!

A little update

I'm excited to say that I finished binding my 2013 Art Journal pages. I showed last month's pages in my last post...but now I have altered a old book cover to bind all my calendar pages. It's a finish!

I cut away the original binding and pages of a book I found at a thrift store. Using sticky back canvas, I covered the front and back book covers. I used some spray on fabric dyes and water to make a water color effect for the background. I had some chipboard letters and numbers that I glued on and cut a piece of a doily for the upper corner and added some stamping. 

I made eyelet holes on each page and used 2 large keyring thingys  to hold all the pages and the covers. (yes, one is black and the other white)

I'm pretty pleased with my very first Art Journal. I'm planning on doing another year...although I am already behind. Trying to finish up some other 2013 challenges...like the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Since there was no color for December...that left me with only 11 blocks...since I only made one of each color, I wasn't sure what to do...make more of each color or add more colors...so I decided to add a few more colors...like gray, light pink, hunter green, navy blue and peach. 

(I did make another orange block which made end up on the back or orphaned.)

After a bit of rearranging to make a pleasing to the eye arrangement, this is what I ended up with.

I will add some white borders to this quilt. I just need to replenish my stash of Kona White first. 

My first challenge for 2014...I have joined Journal52 ~ a Art journal workshop. A weekly prompt is posted and some ideas. 

This week's prompt is Up, Up and Away~soar into a new year.

Here is what I came up with.

Incorporating a quilt pattern and a bible verse. 

The back of my page are some clippings from magazines. 

I am using watercolors which is completely new to me...I'm looking to experiment with different art forms over the 52 weeks...we will see how it goes. For now, week one is done and I am pleased!

A few finishes from 2013

Finally I finished the 2013 Art Journal Challenge! I made 12 months of quilted calendar pages. 

Here are a few I haven't posted yet. 

November all filled in.

December before...

and after!

I am now working on binding these pages together in an altered book. January pages to follow soon....still working on a few more loose ends from 2013.