Louie for Use It Up Blog Hop

"Louie 2," 23" x 14", made by Pam Geisel, Apr. 2018

Welcome to the final day of the Island Batik Ambassador Alumni's "Use It Up" Blog Hop! The Alumni are former ambassadors who still love to use Island Batik fabrics and we decided to have our own little blog hop to use up our Island Batik fabrics. (Not going to happen any time soon for me as I still have a lot.)

For this blog hop I decided to revisit one of my previous quilts and remake it using Island Batik fabrics, so let me introduce you to Louie. Louie is a barn owl and one of the resident raptors at the Glen Helen Raptor Center in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

I used the eight fabrics in the back for the background, blending from light to dark and added some brown couched yarn to every other square before piecing. The three cream colored fabrics in the front were used to make Louie. I couched the same brown yarn along the tree branch and some white handspun yarn around Louie's head and where the binding meets the quilt.

As always, you can click on any of the photos to see them larger and if you missed any of the other "Use It Up" posts you can find the links to them here.

Blog Hop: Island Batik Ambassador Alumni's "Use It Up"

The Island Batik Ambassador Alumni (quilters who used to be ambassadors but aren't currently but still love Island Batik fabrics) are hosting a blog hop. Each day this week, we’ll feature one or two quilters and their projects using Island Batik fabrics. Be sure to follow along every day as we have lots of great quilted projects to share with you.

Here’s the schedule with links to the blogs:

M 4/16 - Lemon Tree Snippets

Tu 4/17 - Seams To Be Sew & Mary Macks Blog

W 4/18 - One Quilting Circle & Seams Like a Dream

Th 4/19 - Tammarinis & Kathy’s Kwilts and More

F 4/20 - Inspired Layers & Kissed Quilts

Sa 4/21 - Purrfect Spots & Patchwork Breeze

Su 4/22 - Me!

Project Quilting Wrap Up & PRIZES!

Project Quilting entries (top row, left to right): Yellow Springs Yarn Bomb, Peaceful Ocean Waves baby quilt, Shine; (bottom row, left to right): Rain(bow) Drop, Mug Rug Quilts, 3D Flying Geese quilted postcards

There were 667 quilts were made in Season 9 and 52 people participated in all six challenges. I was one of the 52 who did all six. My personal goal this season was to be colorful and use rainbows when possible. (My instincts were pretty good as half of the Viewer's Choice winners featured rainbow colors.)

I like Project Quilting because it challenges me to think differently and I've made some of my favorite pieces for the challenges. I also like that there's a chance to win prizes, and this year I won two of the randomly drawn "Ultimate Weekly Sponsor" prizes.

From the Bold & Brave Challenge I won a $50 Gift Certificate from Therm-o-web. With my art quilts I can go through a lot of fusible web, so that will come in handy.

From the Mellow Yellow Challenge I won a plethora of goodies from Wise Craft Handmade including a signed copy of the book Wise Craft Quilts, a set of English Paper Piecing templates, a 5" Ruby Ruler, and a quilt pattern of my choice.

Season 9 of Project Quilting is over but now it's time for the monthly off season Project Quilting Challenges. There aren't prizes for these challenges, but you do have a full month to complete them. The theme for April is "April Fools."

So a big thanks to Kim of Persimon Dreams for hosting Project Quilting, and a special thanks to Therm-o-Web

3D Rainbow Flying Geese - Project Quilting

Two quilted postcards, curved and straight, 6" x 4" each, made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 9, Challenge 6: SCRAPtastic, Mar. 2018 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Challenge recap for "SCRAPtastic":

Your project must use a MINIMUM of twelve (12) fabrics, no matter how small the piece. You, of course, are welcome to use more than 12 if you wish.

So many ideas, so little time. For this project I got into my Project Quilting "Focus Through the Prism" Cherrywood fabrics, although that group only had seven fabrics so I added a light purple, a medium purple, a dark green, plus the red batik at the top and the black fabric to have 12 fabrics.

The "Flying Geese" started as 1" squares that were cut in half diagonally and then attached to the background by sewing them through the middle and leaving their points unattached, so they can curl up or whatever they want. I couched black yarn over the thread that sewed down the triangles.

I couldn't decide on an arrangement of the Flying Geese triangles and I had a whole extra set so I made two postcards.

More on Rainbow Flying Geese Curved and Straight

= = =

Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the SCRAPtastic link up.

Four Reversible Quilt Related Mug Rugs - Project Quilting

Four reversible quilt-related mug rugs, 10.5" x 8.25" each, made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 9, Challenge 5: A Stitch in Time, Mar. 2018 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Challenge recap for "A Stitch in Time":

Literally or figuratively interpret the idiom "a stitch in time saves nine"

So seven years ago I bought some little fabric panels with a print that had comfy arm chairs with quilts on them, plus the same quilt with all twelve blocks showing, but I didn't know what I was going to do with them. So for almost every Project Quilting challenge since then, I'd take the fabric out and look at it and see if the current challenge inspired me to use them. 

All of the quilt sides

All of the chair sides

Finally this week inspiration struck. The literal interpretation of "Stitch" (it's hard to see in these photos but there and some lines printed on them as if they were hand stitches).

What would these fabrics become? Mug rugs!

I quilted them (with no backing) then fused them together so the quilt on the back was the same as the quilt on the chair, then I bound them.

Stitch - what holds the quilts together. Time - I wish I had time to sit in that comfy chair and sew! Nine - one of the quilt patterns has a nine-patch variation.

= = =

Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the A Stitch in Time link up.

Rain(bow) Drop - Project Quilting

"Rain(bow) Drop," art is 4" x 5" in a 5.5" x 6.5" (exterior measurements) frame, made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 9, Challenge 4: Mellow Yellow, Feb. 2018 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Challenge recap for "Mellow Yellow":

"Yellow is a color that frightens many quilters. It's true, yellow sometimes can overpower a design. But it's also a happy color, so focus on that this week."

Personally I'm not afraid of the color yellow...I live in Yellow Springs after all. But I did learn in my graphic design years that yellow doesn't have a lot of shades to it like the other colors so it doesn't have as much contrast and you can only make it so dark.

For this project I painted some drops of color in a tear drop or egg shape (subconsciously thinking of the drink Mello Yello or it's competitor Mountain "Dew"?) 

I fused this to a yellow background then quilted around the raw edges with white thread then free motion quilted in the white spaces between the colors.

I added 11 seed beads in matching rainbow colors going across the drops. I put it in a small black frame which has an easel back and can go both horizontal or vertical.

One interesting note about quilting with the color yellow: I no longer buy any yellow thread. If I have a yellow fabric and I want to quilt with a similar color on top of it, I use my tan thread which will look yellow enough.

More about Rain(bow) Drop

= = =

Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Mellow Yellow link up.

Shine - Project Quilting

"Shine," art is 4" x 5" in a 5" x 6" (exterior measurements) frame, made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 9, Challenge 3: Bold and Brave, Feb. 2018 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Challenge recap for "Bold and Brave":

Your project should be about bravery: Try a new technique! Honor someone's courage! Conquer your own fears!

Being a graphic designer, when I think of "Bold" I think of typefaces. I did a Google search and there are many inspirational memes encouraging people to "Be Bold." I decided to use the word "Shine" but instead of making in a bold typeface, I chose a script typeface.

To play up the bold theme, I painted some fabric with a boldly colored rainbow splotch then embroidered the word on top of it. I don't do embroidery and my sewing machine doesn't do embroidery so this was the brave part: I did it with the sewing machine by free motion. 

I printed the word out the size I wanted it then traced it in reverse on to the back of the fabric and using my free motion foot, I went over the outline several times with a white thread. When that didn't show up enough I did it, this time from the front, with a varigated shiny blue and green thread. This also didn't show up enough so I did one single layer with navy thread, so you could still see the other colored thread behind it.

I fussy cut the whole thing around the rainbow shape, fused it to a hand-painted navy fabric with stars on it, machine quilted some lines shining from the rainbow cloud, added some subtle shine by hand sewing blue sequins to the background, then I put it into the frame.

More about Shine

= = =

Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Bold & Brave link up.