Dogs on Quilts & Dog Art Quilt

I've finally got my act together and am ready to enter the Pet's on Quilts Show hosted by the lovely Lily Pad Quilting! 

Girls are you ready?  Perk up and look lively!! 

Here we go!  If we are meeting for the first time I'd like to say welcome and I'm so glad you've come!  So are the girls!! 

Katie and Sammy are two high energy, quilt loving, golden retrievers.  Katie is on the left, she's a little over 5 years old.  And Sammy is just a pup coming in at a little over 1 year old.  They are posing for you today on my most recent finish, the Rainbow quilt, which I admit is getting a ton of use even in the summer. 

For the Dog Themed 'Art' Quilt category, I am also debuting my whole cloth painted quilt.  I think I am going to call this one "Puppy  Dreams," but don't say I didn't warn you that the name might change a million more times. 

Yes, you guessed it, that's Sammy in fabric and paint!!  I have to say that I am totally in love with this new process and the freedom of multimedia!  

It all started with the introduction to painting on fabric through an event that was hosted by my Art Quilt special interest group.  It was honestly one of those moments in a lifetime that you feel a spark ignite and all you want to live for is for painting on fabrics. 

Ok, so maybe it wasn't that strong, but I did pretty much order my own set of fabric paints within a week and then got to work.  I decided to start with a picture I took of Sammy for a challenge called "Darling" issued through the Creative Tuesday Co-op.  If you want to be inspired or to feed a need to continuously create, then I highly recommend the group!!  

Once I was satisfied with how Sammy looked, I heat set the paint and got to work on adding fur texture through quilting.  I admit the quilting was a bit nerve-wrecking, but I am so pleased with the results!

Even with the quilting progressing nicely, I still had to do something with the plain white background.  You see Sammy embodies puppy hood... never stopping, runs everywhere, she's loud, she adores toys, and I might even venture to say that hiking and swimming are her favorite things to do.  So, I needed a background to match her personality.

Here's a close up of raw edge appliqued green fabric to create a mossy ground.  The texture is finished off with more free motion quilting and a few dabs of paint for drama.

I also added bits of raw wool roving in blues and greens to create the effect of the wind swirling around her.  The last touch was to cut those flowers out of white lace, tack them on, put a pearl bead in the middle, and then a touch of orange to help them pop.

Yes, I really enjoyed bringing this quilt to life!  And I'm happy to be sharing it with you today too!

And because I couldn't resist just one more picture of our little ham.  Here is one more of Sammy from my instagram feed.  I'm @cwiltex if you want to follow along there.

It was a pleasure to have you over!  Wishing you sunshine and endless creativity!

My Big Huge Weekend Recap

I have found myself lately with a lot of three day weekends.  And it's been wonderful!!  This weekend was no exception.  I also have to admit that I find myself ignoring the computer as much as possible over these long weekends (looking forward to catching up with you and your blogs!).

So, what do I do with all this free time?  I have no clue.  It always seems to go by too quickly, but thank goodness for digital cameras to catch glimpses of the excitement. 

I feel like this is my book report on what I did this weekend...

I finished the last of the flowers on my crewel project and worked on the borders.  I can't wait to show you more of this tomorrow... because yes! I finished this and even made it in to a pillow!!!

I am finally working on rehabbing an old sewing table I was given.  I'll give you more of the back story another day, but here I cleaned it, primed it, and yes... I have even painted it a bright inspiring color!!  More to come in this saga!

 I changed out the old dingy and puppy chewed laces on my kicks.  Loving the bright party blue!!

I went to the Sheep and Wool Festival.  Bonus, was getting to share it with my mom and sister (in love).  It was awesome!!

I got to see a baby kangaroo

I loved this picture of a llama decked out with feathers.

I got up close and personal with sheep, goats, llamas, and even alpacas!!  You haven't lived until you have pet an alpaca!!!

I was inspired by a sea of deep amazing colors in every direction!  It was a place to really touch your way through... I've never felt so much soft yarn in one place.

I came home with a few goodies for myself.  A few green and brown wools to work into my fiber art piece. 

And I picked up some baby alpaca wool and am working it into a nice long and soft scarf for myself.  I am loosely following this project, but am thinking more scarf than shrug.

And there you have it.  Things I didn't grab shots of.... Cold Stone ice cream in cake batter flavor, an amazing steak cooked up by my very own Mr. Happy, puppy wrangling -- Sammy gets her stitches out this week, bathroom remodeling, and goodness knows I'm forgetting probably a ton of other things.

I guess this could also be called my Big Huge Teaser Post... since I have so much more to show you on most of these projects.  

Hope you are off to a great start this week!!