Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Oak at Sunrise

The greatest achievements were at first and for a time dreams. The oak sleeps in the acorn. 

James Allen






I excited to finally get to participate in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.   Amy has created a big event in the quilter's blogging world and if you want to see a lot of great quilts hop over and check out the link above after you read about My Favorite Quilt.

 I would like to welcome all new visitors to my blog.  If you haven't been here before I hope you will take a little time to poke around a bit.  It has been a busy fall for me and I have been in several blog hops.  There are tutorials and free patterns that you can check out and some pictures of quilts, flowers and landscapes for eye candy.  I hope you enjoy them!

I couldn't decide at first which quilt to show.  If you have been reading my blog lately you have already seen this one.  Since I didn't get anything new finished I thought I'd share it again along with how it came to be made.



Oak at Sunrise


Several years ago I was in charge of a Guild Challenge.  I had read about an idea for a challenge on one of the internet groups I am in and decided to use it.  Everyone drew a bag that contained two crayons.  They could use any value of the crayons, light to dark, and add a background fabric.  My two colors were a golden yellow and a rich dark brown.

The idea of an oak tree came to me.  I drew inspiration from a number of pictures and drawings of oaks and came up with the tree.  I don't usually do a lot of applique but this seemed to flow.  I had a small selection of yellows that gradated in color and added several batiks and prints to the mix.  I tried to convey the sunrise sky behind the tree and the darkness still in the foreground.  The flying geese in the side borders reflect the idea of light rising.



Variegated Cotton Thread used for Quilting


Straight Line Quilting around Geese and Borders



Rayon Thread used for Satin Stitching


Freemotion Quilting done on my Longarm


Vintage Paisley Print on the Back

Quilt Measures 31 3/4" Wide x 36 3/4" Long

Techniques:  Satin Stitched Fusible Applique,  
Pieced Flying Geese and Background

Made and Quilted by Patricia Lines

Categories:  Wall Quilt, Applique Quilt, Two Color Quilt


That's the tale of my Oak at Sunrise Quilt #510 in the Festival.  I hope you enjoyed it!

 If you made it this far take a peek at the previous post for a HAPPY HALLOWEEN smile!!
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Happy Halloween

Blade: There are worse things out tonight than vampires. 
Dr. Karen Jenson: Like what? 
Blade: Like me. 



Here's a little something special I saw a few years ago when I was out and about.  I think that today is a good day to share it.  It made me look twice and then go grab my camera!


Out for a Bite
Come a Little Closer Darling!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Roads Traveled

You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world. 

William Hazlitt



 I traveled farther this month than I ever have before.  I have wanted to travel far and wide since I was a child but have not been able to for many reasons.  Having four children that needed things like food, clothes, college, and so on put a real long delay in my travel plans for some reason.  LOL  Now that I am a little further down this road of life I find that I am now longer interested in going to some of the places that I once wanted to go and see.  I no longer want to see what it would be like to go skydiving either.  I can't say that going to Las Vegas was very high on my list of places to visit but seeing the Grand Canyon was.  I only got to see it from the airplane, so perhaps another trip to the west is in the future, but I did see a part of it.  

Hoover Dam

 Hoover Dam was something that my husband wanted to see and we saw that as well as the beautiful new bridge that now crosses the canyon in front of it.

Bridge at Hoover Dam
Bryce Canyon was a place that I had heard about and seen pictures of and we saw that as well.  I'm sure it would be wonderful to hike some of the trails there and see more of it but there are limits to what can be done in a short amount of time.  


Bryce Canyon after Sunset
We also drove the high and somewhat nerve wracking road to Boulder, Utah to the Anasazi museum there.  The canyons and cliffs there are awesome. 


Long Narrow Highway

No Guard Rails

Very Long Drop Down the Sides

  The biggest surprise was taking Route 9 back to Vegas.  it goes through the southern end of Zion National Park and the mountains there left me speechless.  I am sure there are plenty of you who have been to these places but the landscape is so different from Georgia that I was just blown away.  I have been through the Great Smokey Mountains a number of times.  The differences between the landscape of mountains is amazing.  I must say that I prefer the mountains that have trees.  I saw some like that in Utah too.  It was a little too late to see the aspen trees in their golden glory but we did manage to find a few that still had their leaves.

Pretty Leaves

Young Aspens with Graffiti

 I took over 1100 pictures.  I really love my new camera.  We drove the Scenic Byways and I took many pictures from the moving car like some of the ones above.  They turned out great without any blurring in the foreground in many of them.  I'll have to share a few more soon.  There are a lot to look through.  It has a great nighttime setting that made the Vegas lights look awesome too.

 I took another trip this weekend that I'll have to tell about later.  I hope to get back to quilting this week too so maybe you want get too bored with my vacation pictures.
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Sunday, October 21, 2012

Winding Around

Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths. 

Johann von Goethe




Can you guess where I've been?


I am home again after a trip of a lifetime for me.  I have been to the desert on a horse with no name plane and to many mountain tops in a car.  Some of them were so steep that I feared for my safety while still being inside the car!  Standing near the edge was even more of a challenge since there frequently was not a barrier between me and a looooooooooooooong drop.  I'll have more to say about the trip this week after I load pictures (I took over a 1100) and do some editing.

I  mentioned that I got a great gift for my birthday a few weeks ago.  Here's a picture of my new picture maker.  Needless to say I gave it a workout this week.  I haven't even begun to use all of the features it has yet.  The information video is 110 minutes long.  I want to get with the grand twins to see how the video feature works.  I have more studying to do on it first.


Nikon D5100


Today's news is that I have to announce the 3 winners for my Giveaway.  The delightful number generator pick the following:





















Congratulations to Charlene S., Bonnie 58 and Annette they each win a pattern!

I'll have more to say later.  We didn't get home until after 9pm last night and my body isn't sure which time zone I'm in yet.  I think I need a nap!

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Friday, October 12, 2012

Random Thoughts Thursday

If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, you're not going to get very far. You simply won't. The journey has been incredible from its beginning. So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness. 

Sidney Poitier



Our Maple is starting to turn red

Maples were by far the favorite fall tree in my comments on the Glorious Autumn Block Party Post.  If you haven't read the tutorial there you should check it out.  You can download the pattern for the block too.

Cindy over at Live a Colorful Life has a linky party called Really Random Thursdays.  I will be adding this post there today.   She has a video link to The Piano Guys there today.  I had seen them on TV a few days ago.  They are AWESOME.
Asian Lilies, they are even brighter Orange than this!
So here are my Really Random Ramblings for the day.   I have had a few really busy weeks with blogging.  It has been a lot of fun and a lot of work.  I am planning to take it a little slower for a week or so.  I have some commitments in the real world that require my attention.  I'll let you know about them a little later.

 This week as been a little cooler with some temperatures in the 50s at night.  A sure sign Fall is coming.  It will be back up in the 80s during the daytime for a while still more trees are starting to show some color.  I can't wait to take a ride through the mountains of North Georgia but that is still a few weeks off.
Pansies


My Dear Husband has planted some pansies in the flower pots around the yard.  He works very hard to keep our yard looking good.  I thought I'd share pictures of the flowers and some a few other things from our yard.
Elephant Ears
My youngest, 20 something son, called and asked why politicians can't give a straight answer to a simple question.  My response was that it was because most of them are lawyers...  He went on to question why the government can't get things done.  My response to that was that we are governed by committee.  You know the one about a camel being a horse built by committee right?  I'm not airing any political alignments here, not going there at all, just trying to share what I've learned over the years with my son.  Frankly, I'm a little shocked that he came up out of his AI studies to notice there were debates going on... oh yeah, he saw it on Facebook.
They were huge this year!
As long as my arm!
This one had a slit in it so I tucked
an apple tree leaf in it for scale.
Speaking of Facebook, I still can't figure out how to do much on it.  My personal page I can work with a little but the one I've set up to link to my blog (which I haven't done yet) works differently and I can't figure it out.  There are some things I can't figure out on Pinterest too.  That's as far as I go with social networking.  I don't have a smart phone yet so I'm not even touching tweets or instagrams or 1001 other things out there.  Not even sure I want to.  All this stuff takes more time which leaves less time for quilting.  Right?
Angel Trumpets
An Inside View

 Our Angel Trumpets always bloom late and usually get killed by the frost before most of them even open.  We've had only 4 blooms so far.  My son's is below and it is mostly done blooming. I think he inherited my Mother's Green Thumb.
Many blooms are on the ground already.

A delicate Pink

Can you hear the Angel's Trumpet?
A feast for the senses.
Giveaway details in the previous post. Sign up!
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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Leafs Me Happy Blog Hop

I Think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast'
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Joyce Kilmer, Trees

Welcome to my day on the 

Leafs Me Happy Blog Hop





A big Thank You to Madame Sam at Sew We Quilt for making this hop happen and another Thank You to Cherry at Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio for being the head Cheerleader.  If you want to see all the blogs that have been involved during this hop the list is there.

Here is the list of everyone that is on board for today:



Now I believe the reason you showed up here today was to see what I have to share.  While you are here please take the time to have a look around.  This is my THIRD blog hop in a week and I have added several tutorials and pattern downloads that you might like to peek at.  Please leave a comment on them and let me know what you think about them.

I LOVE TREES!!!  Just in case you couldn't tell from the poem at the top of the post.  My living room is decorated with a tree and leaf theme.  I'll have to share some pictures of that soon.  My favorite quilt that I have made is of a tree.  Here, I'll share a picture of it.


Oak at Sunrise
So when I saw this hop was open I quickly signed up to participate.  I even had an idea of what I wanted to do.  This the design that I drew and stitched out to test it before putting it on a customer's quilt a few years ago.  I played with it and changed it a little but I still had all my design work.

 Here's one of my design sheets.
Original Design for Longarm Stitching

 Here are the samples I stitched out back then.  I had to see if it would work.

Stitched Samples

A  Closer Look


Planning to Make Pillows from These

 I traced the leaves onto fusible webbing.  I used a couple of sheets.  Then ironed them to some of my favorite fabrics, batiks of course, and cut them out.

Traced Leaves

 Then I pulled out a 12" pieced of graph paper and played with the placement for a while.

How Many Will Fit on a 12" Block? 

 I tried out several backgrounds, made a decision and then I ironed them on.  I had thought I would use a lighter background but the leaves just looked kinda plain.  I love for my quilt projects to have a sparkle and the black did that.

Ready to Stitch

 Stitching adds a lot don't you think?
Variegated Cotton 50 Weight Thread

These were all cut from the same fabric.  Looked like a leaf to me!

Oak Leaf Wreath

 I'll probably add veins in the leaves when it's quilted.
You didn't think I could stop with one did you?
A Different Look
I chose a different batik and a different arrangement more like the stitched ones.  I added some acorns that I freehand cut because the center looked empty.
Rayon Twist Thread
Oak Leaf and Acorn Dance

Use a Stabilizer

 Tip for Machine Applique:  Use a good tear away stabilizer.  This is my favorite because if you can't get it all out it becomes soft after washing.  Leaving it behind the leaves will give a slight trapunto effect.

RinseAway by HTC  Leaving it behind the Leaves will add Dimension 
Now how about a Giveaway Or THREE.  This one will be open until Midnight, October 20th.
This will give some of you who are late to the party a chance or two to win too!

Three Drawings
Just leave a comment about what you like about trees or leaves or my blog.
For a SECOND Chance be follower of my blog, new or old, and leave a second comment saying that you are.  I'll draw for THREE winners.  One for each pattern.  The two on the edges are paper pieced.

 Linking with Freshly Pieced
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Monday, October 8, 2012

A Day for a Win!

Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle. 

Annie Besant


I was looking for a quote with something about a 'win' and I found this one.  I had to use it because it seems to perfectly describe my adventures in blog-land.  This weekend I was trying to get all the details and instructions all in order for the Something Wicked post and I kept encountering obstacles along the way.  Everything eventually got done, even though when I was almost through with the instructions I hit the wrong button and lost everything and had to start over, the post went up and the pattern and instructions are available for download.

I have learned so much techie stuff in the last few weeks with these blog hops.  I'm sure I will use these tools for many things.  I only started blogging frequently around  Memorial Day and it has been an adventure already.  I am meeting new people and making new friends that I hope to get to know better and better as time goes on.  Maybe I'll even get to meet some of them face to face someday.

Now to announce the winner of my Giveaway for followers.  It is #7 Gwen.  Congratulations!

I had a delightful surprise in my email today too!  I WON!  Electric Quilt Company had a blog hop last week and I will be receiving both EQ7 and Judy Martin's Star Power software.  You can read about the EQ Fall Blog Hop and follow the links there and discover some really neat and unexpected things that can be done with EQ7.

Now I'm going to have to figure out what to do with another copy of EQ7.  Any ideas?

Are you keeping up with the Leafs Me Happy hop?  There are an astounding number of blocks being shown.  Can't wait for you to see what I came up with.   I and a few others are falling into the last but not least category.

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Sunday, October 7, 2012

Something Wicked Block Hop

...the taste of chocolate is a sensual pleasure in itself, existing in the same world as sex... For myself, I can enjoy the wicked pleasure of chocolate...entirely by myself. Furtiveness makes it better. 

Dr. Ruth Westheimer


Halloween


Well, I can't give you chocolate but I can give you another Wickedly Delicious paper pieced block today. 

It is at last my turn on the month long block hop and I hope you like the block I have designed.  
Before I show it to you I want to say a big THANK YOU to Soma at Whims and Fancies she is and has been doing a great job with this block hop.  As soon as I saw the logo for the hop I knew I wanted to participate and what I wanted to make.

 I have mostly used paper piecing to create elements in traditional blocks that are difficult to rotary cut.  I have also made things like five pointed stars and a bird that were designed by someone else.  Designing this block was fun!  I was surprised at how I could create a block from an idea in my head with just a little time doodling in EQ7.  I didn't even refer to a picture while I was doing it either.  I actually came up with several versions.  Maybe I'll share them sometimes.  

 EQ7 is a great program to add to your quilting library.  I started using it as EQ4.  It just keeps getting better and better.  Now you can even edit pictures with it.  I'll have to talk about it some more another day.

So let me introduce you to Dr. Whoot.  With a name like that I probably should have given him a bow tie (Dr, Who fans will know why).  I didn't think of it until after the block was done.  Maybe in the next version.


Dr. Whoot

I hope you like him.  Be sure to check out the other blocks being revealed daily through the end of the month.  They are all 10" finished blocks so you can make a big quilt with them.  

 You can download the Pattern here is Page 1 and here is Page 2 and Instructions are here.  Download ALL THREE to get everything needed for the block.

 And just for fun how about a little chocolate after all.  This was served at a shower I attended Friday.   No recipe but I bet you can figure it out.  It was a so good!
Strawberries, marshmallows, cherries, and pretzels on a
swizzle stick drizzled with Yummy Dipping Chocolate.

If that's not enough to make your mouth water then I'll tell you that my sweet husband gave me a bag of Lindt Lindor Dark Chocolate Truffles on my birthday.  Gotta go now... I here one or is it two of them calling my name!
Yeah, I'm being WICKED!!!

I'm Linking to Sew Many Ways, Patchwork Times, Sew Happy Geek, Plum and June,
Freemotion by the River, Quilt Story,
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