Creative Life Sampler

Cozy Crazy Quilt  It's been a while since I've gone to the linen closet to share an early creation, circa pre blogging years. This quilt was created several years ago for a graduating high school student.  I have used this crazy quilt block at least a half dozen times. In this case, I chose corduroy fabrics for their durability and texture. It was backed it with polar fleece for a cozy feeling. If you are interested in other samples of this crazy quilt block, check out "Crazy Quilt" under Labels in the side bar.    

 The Final Reveal (9 of 9) This is my final post in a series that began March 18th, with the introduction of my fabric choices for this project. But the whole thing really started in January when the gentleman who commissioned this piece gave me a list of qualities inspired by his dear wife: Accomplished Adventurous Athletic Centered Engaging Groovy Joyful Loving Reflective Vibrant. Items that are meaningful to her were chosen for the quilting stage. A presentation board was created to show the clients the layout and color scheme with fabric swatches and an overlay for the quilting designs.  This was a thoughtful process on both sides of the experience. We went through some final alterations after the initial presentation, including the addition of this element in the quilting stage: Can you think of anything more romantic and considerate than your partner compiling a list of your best qualities and honoring you with a piece of art to immortalize them? It is meant to be a tri...

Quilting Stage (8 of 9) Moving along on my commissioned wall hanging. I'm now in the process of quilting the top of this piece and I thought I'd share a few details. Open spaces were deliberately designed into this piece with the intent of filling them with images that are meaningful to the person that is described in the list of qualities. This is where I've polished off my drawing skills to create items on these mini canvases. They are little hints about who this individual is...  Enjoys journaling   Reading Cooking For some items, I used extra batting to give them dimension. This technique is known as  trapunto quilting. In other areas I'm pulling out some of my favorite textures to fill in spaces. And some blocks have a combination of techniques. When all the quilting is done, the edges will need to be finished off with a binding. There's a few more boxes to check on this quilt, but it's almost ready for the big reveal. 

 Modern ABC Sampler Finally finished hand quilting the ABC sampler that was started back in January as I was getting ready to give a workshop on reverse appliqué. It gave me plenty of practice.  For this original design, each block has a letter in a different typeface and is placed in a simple checkerboard arrangement. They were all executed with the reverse appliqué technique, however, the "i" is double reverse and the "x" has two more layers of reverse appliqué. I have called this: “V,M,Q,G & Other Letters” as a tribute to the Ventura Modern Quilt Guild, which inspired me to explore text and lettering in fabric after a prompt to create text for our 2020 charity quilt.  (View the quilt:   https://creativelifesampler.blogspot.com/2020/02/vmqg-charity-quilt-this-is-not-my-quilt.html  )  That group challenge to guild members has led me to create several pieces that incorporate text and type in the design, and generated lots of ideas for future p...