Felice Quilt Designs

      October was the month for lots of quilt shows, but the one that has been on my bucket list is the Houston International Quilt Festiva l. This show really got my mind rocking and my heart beating! The quilts were beautiful. The vendors had the latest fabrics and it made you feel like you need to run to your sewing room and start something immediately.      Welcome to Texas!       The shopping opportunities were huge. I picked up a wool and cotton palette for the quilt I will start when Tuscany is complete. I'm on the last block, but the biggest one. AND lots more!!!!  (If you are interested in seeing parts of Tuscany you can do that on Instagram or Facebook for Felice Quilt Designs.)      If you have not had the opportunity to go to Houston for this show I recommend it for whatever style of quilt you create. You will see photos of all styles. There was even a wool on cotton quilt with lots of embr...

What a beautiful, sunny day for stitching with window light. I have been working away at the embellishment part of the Vegetable Quilt.  In my last post you saw the dying and cutting of the pieces. Today I will show you some embroidery work on the vegetables. What a difference! With beautiful Valdani Threads, fun cotton prints and variety in stitches used I really think those of you that are working with wool appliqué should jump into combining fabrics and threads to enhance your works. You won't regret it. Felice Quilt Designs 2014 Felice Quilt Designs 2014 There are a lot of beautiful patterns out there that have just the wool and perhaps a button hole stitch. Don't hesitate to look into you tubes, blogs, library books, and even an embroidery app, that you can put on your cell phone, to jump start your creativity.  Here's a photo of the shapes before the cotton and embroidery and one with a block with it. Felice Quilt Designs 2014 Felice Quilt Design...

After two days in the basement I can see the light of day.  It's been a rewarding couple of days of gathering the colors of RIT dye I needed, plus a few other colors that were tempting for future projects. Then I cut the white, never again to return to white, felted wool into the sizes I wanted. I went to the basement with my mason jars lined up, black marker for labeling the lids and rubber gloves so my hands wouldn't become rainbows.  Mixing the dyes was like mixing acrylic paints. It took me back to when I was teaching Art One classes the basics of color theory. It's a fun process.  What I have been doing is using very hot water in the jar, add the dye, stir in a little salt and then a little white vinegar. Those were recommendations from the package.  The next step is to wet the wool with hot water and submerge it in the dye. Depending on the value of the color you want you leave it in accordingly. Some colors were in the bath for 5 minutes while others f...