Lost in Convergence

I really wanted to make something beautiful from the fabric my kids made but I feel like my plan did not quite materialize quite as I had hoped.

I followed the instructions in the book. Here is how it went (in pictures.. bad photos are courtesy of my cellphone!)

I took the spiral on the right to work with - the colors are a touch more muted now they had been washed & dried. 

Erm ...... I was really unhappy with the result. (To me it just looks like a little bit of a mess.) So I began to play with the arrangement. 

No ....

Sigh .... 

Envision telling my girls "I've cut up your beautiful fabric darlings but it isn't working." ... cue lots of tears and disappointment.  

This last one (above) was my favorite but I still didn't feel that it was pretty enough. So the next day I bravely took a rotary cutter to it and made 4 large log cabin blocks with a purple peppered cotton. I was so much happier with this result. 

I'm still going to try the ideas from the convergence book again. Perhaps we will take the knife to these smaller pieces of fabric next.

Kids Art Quilt: Tie-Dye Fabric

After finding a Ricky Tims Convergence Quilts book I thought it would be fun to do Tie-Dye with the kids and then turn the fabric into some quilts.

We used Tulips One-Step Tie-Dye Kit with 12 different colors in it. It was extremely simple to use and very little mess for dying with small children. I would highly recommend the product.

We used all the dye up. The instructions said we should leave the dye to set for 6hrs ... so we did - I wondered if it would allow the colors to bleed too much - but they didn't. 

We had a little bit of dye left so my eldest had fun squirting the leftovers onto two strips of fabric. 

The other great thing about the Tulip Kit was that is came with lots of different pattern ideas. 

We played with explosions, crosses, stripes, swirls and bulls-eye designs. 

We were too shy with the dye on the larger pieces of fabric. They look cool but I worry there is too much white on them for our 'convergence' quilt plan. 

We also took the opportunity to make some tie-dye t-shirts for Father's day that everyone wore proudly!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend too!

Our other kiddy led fabric projects have included:

Kid Painted Teepee

Kid Painted Garden Picnic Blanket

Kids Art Quilt - Blotter Art

Kids Art Quilt - Throwing Paint

Kids Art Quilt - Spraying Paint

Kids Art Quilt - Shaving Foam Paint

Kids Art Quilt - Watercolor Circles

Kids Art Quilt - Spin Art (WIP)
Kids Art Quilt - Sharpie Art Quilt
Kids Art Quilt - Fabric Building Blocks
Kids Art Quilt - Sun Painting (WIP)
Kids Art Quilt - Bess Beetle
Kids Art Gallery Quilt

WIP: Kids Art Quilt: Turning Your Kids Paintings into Unique Fabric

Here is my 5 year old's first fabric line. We couldn't be more excited!!



The fabric is printed using Spoonflower.

Here is the original painting - all the fabrics are from this one painting. 

I scanned the painting and imported it into iPhoto. I changed the tint, contrast etc to make a pink & blue version of the painting. Then I uploaded the 3 different files to Spoonflower. 

You can see here how changing the repeat of the fabric and the design size can change the look of the fabric. 

The first thing I did when the fabric arrived was to wash it. It was a tad stiff from the printing process. I washed the fabric in a little synthrapol on a standard warm wash - I also added a little fabric softener. This certainly helped to soften the cotton quite a lot. I'm looking forward to sewing with it - but at the same time terrified of cutting into it!!

Spoonflower is really easy to use. I'm so excited by the potential of all the kids art projects being turned into wonderful unique fabrics. I still can't believe one painting made all these different fabrics.

 

A Quick Quilt

The church contacted me to let me know there was a baptism coming up for 7 year old boy. Thinking that a 7 year old boy would not appreciate a playmat - I decided to make  a quick Twin sized quilt to welcome him into the church community.

The front of the quilt is very simple. Soft deep blue flannel with his name appliqued on the front in a bright green fabric. The quilt has a contrasting orange cotton binding.

I quilted the quilt with a simple swirly pattern. Putting together the quilt (not including the binding) took only 5 hours. And for someone who usually spends a great deal of time & effort on quilts I felt nervous that the result would be lacking. 

Although simple this quilt feels gorgeous - the wool batting, flannel & light quilting design gives is a warm yet very flexible feel. I hope the little chap will enjoy wrapping himself in it.

The bit I am really pleased with though is the back. I pieced the back out of colorful fabric from my stash. The wonderful thing about Freddie is that the quilt leaders have measurements marked along them - which enabled me to get the backing totally lined up - the strips came out perfectly horizontal. The colors remind me of lego somewhat.

I have been asking a lot of people about their opinion on patchwork seams and if they should be pressed open/flat or pressed to one side. There seems to be some debate about this regarding this in the quilting world. But I have decided that pressing your seams open on the backing does make a huge difference. Just look how flat & cleanly that backing sits - even with such light quilting. Delicious!

School Auction Quilt

Our kids go to a lovely preschool. Every year they have various fundraisers and I donated a quilt for their silent auction. After speaking to the family who won the bid they decided they wanted a 'purple, modern quilt with flowers'. I do not have a whole ton of modern designs on tap so I consulted my bookcase. This design is based off of the Peacock Blue quilt that can be found in Brave New Quilts. Though I replaced the tear drop peacock motives with flowers.

This is the quilt that I had quilted with roses, leaves & ribbons in week 7 of my Longarm diary. I really hope that the family will be happy with the result.

Bee Purposeful: Navy and Aqua Chevron Striped Quilt

Back in July 2013 Little Miss Shabby asked for participants in a quilting bee that would fundraise for her churches mission work.

I am simply floored and humbled by how much I have learnt through the process. 

In August we made Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks. I thought this would be a piece of cake - simple squares - but I was made to eat my words! Here are the blocks I contributed to September's Quilt.

How cute does the final quilt look?

In September we made Churn Dash blocks. Toni was the quilter for October.

Again I learnt how little I knew about piecing. My blocks are above and the finished quilt is below. 

In October it was my month to choose a pattern and be the quilter.  I hummed and haa'd and bugged Corey with lots of silly questions. I finally decided on a Navy & Aqua Chevrons. Here is the finished quilt.

I quilted each white chevron in a different design. 

And here is the back. Using up 3 left over strips. I am really working on making my backs a bit more interesting. I see lots of quilts out there which have clever backs - and I will be putting a lot more thought into my backs from now on.

In November we made Flying Geese for Carla.  My blocks (below) have been lost in the post somewhere and have yet to make it to Canada.

But here is the quilt that Carla put together.

And January was our last month - and we made these 'Not Quite a Sawtooth Stars' and sent additional fabric along with this block (see mine below) that Jody is going to make into a larger medallion for the center of the quilt.

My biggest disappointment was obviously my geese not flying all the way to Canada. But I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this quilting bee and I hope to be part of more in the future too.

Memorial Quilt: Bear Paw Shirt Quilt

When I was first given the materials for this quilt I was a little scared. I had no idea how to make this pile of shirts into a beautiful quilt for the family.

The lady who wore these shirts used to be the mayor of our town. With every Memorial Quilt I make - I feel so privileged that the families entrust me with their loved ones clothes.

Preparing for this quilt took a long time - in ladies shirts there are many more darts and seams that in a typical mans shirt. Some of the shirts were made of very sheer fabric and they all needed interfacing. I use the lightest interfacing I can find - I like ' '

I quilted this quilt on my new Fusion - Freddie using a design I call an 'octopus flower'. I loaded this quilt on day 5 of having this new machine which was either brave or foolish. Perhaps both. 

The family wanted to use the quilt in their house in Vermont - which is a traditional farmhouse. I wanted the quilt to be of a traditional origin - so we decided on the classic bear paw block. The Bear Paw is a very easy block to put together - and very easy to chain piece as well. I sewed my blocks together on point.

With every quilt I make I find it hard to stand back and be totally pleased with my finished project - I can always see where I could have improved something - but with every project I take on I learn so much. I can't wait to make more memorial quilts for families in 2014.