Apr 25, 2016

Freddy Moran's visit to Sacramento

I was lucky enough to take a class from the famous artist/quilter, Freddy Moran, Saturday in Sacramento.
I invited my friend Natalie to go with me, and that made the day even better :)
This is the house that Freddy built :)
She doesn't measure, at least hardly ever, and she doesn't consider herself a sewer either.


Here's my freehand house on the left, along with one of my trees on the right.
Freddy says that if something doesn't fit, add some more fabric to make it fit, and the extra fabric also adds some interest.


Freddy and me:)
Freddy has a degree in Fine Arts, raised a family of 5 boys (6 if you count her husband), and she says she was very successful at that because they are all grown up and all have jobs, lol!
Freddy started her career with textile arts when she was 60, she's 80 something now.


Here's my little house and a wonky star and a tree that I made in class Saturday.


This is one of my favorite quilts of Freddy's.  
The buildings come off the sides, and it isn't bound.
Freddy creates a background, often from flannel, because fabric sticks really well to it.
She then creates her masterpiece by laying fabric on top and gluing them on with a purple glue stick that dries clear.
She takes the finished quilt to the quilter (that hasn't been sewn or appliqued) and she tells Carol, "if  any piece falls off, just stick it back on where you think it looks good!"


 This is a close up of one of her small quilts.
The background is sewn together, and she cuts fabric or images on fabric (flowers) and glues them onto the background.
Freddy loves the living dead too, hence the skulls.


Freddy said that she has never bought a piece of muslin and never will.
She takes great care in producing pretty backs for her quilts.
Alexander Henry fabrics are very beautiful and interesting, and Berkeley, California, has a Crate and Barrel outlet where they sell Marimekko fabric for $5.95 / yard.
Freddy buys a lot of her backs there.


Another favorite of mine is this cow quilt!
Freddy has lots of "parts".
That's fabric that she she has cut into shapes, she has them in containers separated by color.
She grabs those "parts" and places them until she likes the arrangement, then  glues them down and lets her Carol, her quilter, machine quilt them in place.
Did you notice that the cow's tail is three dimensional?


 This is the bag of the cow quilt.




This is a close up of the machine quilting, where you can imagine the pieces being attached to the flannel background, by machine quilting.




During the day, we had our sewing class, and in the evening, we had a talk and trunk show by Freddy.
It was great!
Notice the stack of quilts?
I didn't count, but there were 30 or more.


Freddy said that she collaborates with her friend Gwen Marston.
Together, they make about 30 quilts a year, not including the machine quilting.
Freddy and Gwen can make a quilt a day, with their combined creative genius!!!


Freddy's "parts department" also includes little blocks that have been put together, otherwise known as orphan blocks.
She uses the parts for her quilts.
Another favorite quilt of mine that she made is called "Parts Department".
It's a kaleidoscope quilt with lots of little girls holding hands, pinwheels and much much more.
It's really cute! (I couldn't find a photo of it)



Freddy told us that she takes all her fabric out and refolds it every 3 months, so that she knows what she has.
What a great idea!!!


Here are my little blocks that I sped through!


The wonkier the better, it adds a lot of interest.


You don't trim until you figure out if you want your quilt to have horizontal or vertical rows, or if you are going to make a kaleidoscope quilt.



Freddy loved this background fabric!


I think this block is too matchy matchy, but if I put it with crazy, wonky blocks, it will add interest.



Isn't this the cutest photo?  
I took it off the internet, it looks like a self portrait.
Freddy's vests that she often wears are made by an artist in Berkeley, and are made from quilts.


The biggest thing I learned from Freddy, is don't be hard on yourself, or critical about your work.
Never show anyone your quilting mistakes, they will never notice them anyway.
Be crazy and try new things in quilting.
You don't have to follow everyone else's rules, make your own.
I am still talking about quilting, lol!
This quilt is called "Little House in the Big Woods".
Do you see the little house in there?
This is the quilt that Freddy built, and I am going to make my own version of it.....someday.....


Freddy signed my book, and do you know what she wrote?
"Red is a neutral."
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Apr 18, 2016

Maisie's tooth fairy envelope

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Guess who lost her first tooth!
That's right, 5 l/2 year old Maisie :)


This is Maisie's rendition of the tooth fairy.
It looks like she's hovering over Maisie, who's sleeping in bed.
The tooth fairy must also be in the sky, because there's a cloud :)


I chose a textured white fabric for the background.



All finished!
Those swirls in the sky took a while to embroider :)



These little envelopes don't take very long to sew, it's the embroidery that's time intensive.


The little pocket that holds the tooth.


Here's the flap when it closes over the envelope.
I'm sure that you've read about the other tooth fairy envelopes that I've made, but Maisie can leave the tooth fairy a note in the envelope.
If Maisie's really lucky, and has been a good girl, the tooth fairy might even leave her a note and maybe even sprinkle some fairy dust in her hair :)


I left out a huge detail....I forgot to embroider the inside of the cloud blue.
I used one of my acid free scrapbook pens and colored it in.
Easy peasy!!!



Little Miss Maisie loves it!!!



Apr 11, 2016

Reagan's Tooth Fairy envelope

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I asked my 5 year old granddaughter Reagan, to draw me a picture of the tooth fairy and this is what she sent me :)
Don't you just love her little rainbow colored dress?


I transcribed (copied, lol!) her tooth fairy onto blue fabric, the same shade as her marker, and collected all the colored floss that matched Reagan's drawing.
I also wrote myself a little note so I wouldn't have to keep referring to the photo on my phone.


I backed the fabric with a woven iron on pollen.
It gives the fabric a stiffer feel, more body to embroider, and the threads won't show through from the front.


Isn't this the cutest one hour basket?
My friend Leanne made it for me, I keep my current embroidery project in it.
She loves embroidery and I think of her when I use it.


It's all embroidered, what do you think?


I added the little flap for the envelope and a button to cover the velcro stitching.


The pink pocket is intended for the tooth and Reagan can leave a note to the tooth fairy in the envelope.
If she's really lucky, maybe the tooth fairy will leave a note for her!
Maybe there will also be some fairy dust under her pillow :)



All wrapped and ready to mail :)


Reagan loves it!!!



Apr 4, 2016

Quilt and Art Show

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My mom and I entered our creations at our church's talent show.
My mother's name is Elizabeth, and she has the artist gene :)
She is a sculptor and a painter.  
She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia when I was a young adult.
I was able to go to her graduation ceremony, it was very exciting!
In the center of the table, a little to the right, is her Anne of Green Gables.
Both of my parents are from Prince Edward Island, where the story of Anne takes place.
Mom  has sculpted over 500 Annes, and she uses the red clay from the South shores of PEI.
She doesn't use a mold, she sculpts them by hand, and uses some little tools.
The little girl wearing the Snow White dress is my 2 l/2 year old granddaughter, Lucy Jane.
She painted it for my daughter Lindsay, but I loved it so much that she painted one for me!
That's true love :)
The painting on the extreme right is my son Sean proposing to his girlfriend, Kari.
It's their wedding gift, but it's a surprise....shhhh!!!!


 My mom's talented in so many different ways.
When she was a teenager in the late 40's, she used to sing on the radio, like Patti Page.
She's also an excellent gourmet style cook.


I showed my quilts.
My Paper Doll quilt is one of my favorites, it's designed by Lori Holt.  
Lori only ever taught her appliqué quilts once, and I was fortunate enough to take three classes from her.  I could have taken some more, but had no idea what I could do with all the quilts!  
They are only worthy of being wall quilts, each and every block is sewn by hand, and there's lots of hand embroidery too.
To the left is my barn quilt, which is really scrappy and colorful :)


To the right is my Thanksgiving Dinner quilt, another Lori Holt appliqué quilt.
This one was easier because the pieces are much larger.
The other appliqué quilt I made is "The Comforts of Home", it's hanging on my wall at home for everyone to see.


I hope you've enjoyed my little art show!

Here's an addendum to last week's post about my Hazel Hedgehog baby quilt that I made for my granddaughter Taylor who was born on February 18.
You can see the post here.
Taylor received her quilt and burp pads and she loves it all!!!


Mar 28, 2016

Hazel Hedgehog

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I love making baby quilts, they're the perfect size!
One of my favorite parts of making a quilt, is choosing the fabric :)


Alpha bittys making finding pieces a breeze!


A few hours of cutting and sewing, and Hazel the Hedgehog (designed by Elizabeth Hartman) has come to life.
Isn't she cute?


I machine quilted and bound her, and hung her outside for a photo.


Aren't the fresh green leaves and blossoms beautiful?
There was a really perfumed aroma too.


This is the back of the quilt, it's a soft minky.
I didn't put any batting in the quilt, it's really light.


I made 4 burp pads to match, about 9" X 14".
The pink and gray animal print is what I used for the binding.


I backed the burp pads with the same minky I used for the quilt back.
The print looks like little dandelions that you blow in the wind.


I like to roll up the burp pads and tie them with a ribbon.


Since the quilt was lightweight, I was able to tie it up also.


The quilt is on its way to a special baby girl :)


My next baby quilt will be "Fancy Forest" by Elizabeth Hartman, in blues.