Felice Quilt Designs

     Good Afternoon! It's Tuesday and we had a beautiful sunny, high of 50 degree day yesterday, however today is very gray. Our new weatherman on the local TV station mentioned rain for today. So far, there's no rain but I'm not rushing out the door as I did yesterday to get out in the sun and get things done around town.       How's the weather where you are? Any signs of flowers coming up? I can't wait. Love my flowers!      Flowers and living things are on my mind recently, but the focus is on Italy. I travelled there a few years ago and would love to return sometime, especially to Tuscany. Memories of winding hills, vineyards, flower boxes in windows, hillside towns with amazing doors and stone work are images I think of. You all know the colors that shout Tuscany. Burnt orange, deep and light greens, blue Tuscan skies, sunflower yellow. I could go on.      Since there isn't a trip planned in the near future I decide...

It's ZERO degrees outside, however my mind is far from the cold temperature. Tomorrow I am heading down the highway.....for a total of thirty minutes..... to our yearly NEORQC Quilt Getaway.  My friends and I have been attending this event for approximately twenty or so years. It gives us a chance to see other quilters that come from all over NE Ohio and a chance to spend time together doing what we love to do. We usually sign up for Studio, a class where there is no class! We do take time to peak in at the classes and see what beautiful work they are doing. We have taken classes and have created quilts and learned techniques, however now we focus in on what technique we favor and just do our own thing! With snacks and refreshments packed, I am finalizing what supplies I must have for my projects.  I have fabric cut into 12" squares to stack and cut because I'm making a twin size quilt for my seven year old granddaughter. Which rulers, cutters, threads do I need? ...

  I'm flying back from a quick trip to the Sarasota area of Florida after spending three days visiting friends. A few days away from snow and cold temperatures was a special gift. For my plane travel and time relaxing on the patio I brought one of the blocks for the Coral Reef Wall Quilt to work on. I have threads, needles, kids scissors (due to security!) and the block of beautiful blue felted wool. I made sure all my pieces were fused on before I left early  Sunday  morning. While on the flight down I was able to whip stitch all the shapes in place. That's the point I get excited about completing. While driving from the airport we went over a few bridges and the water looked great. We continued through the center of town and an art show was taking place on the circle and I saw booths of paintings, photographs, and sculptures. I realized that the people there are very interested in the environment that surrounds them as much as those of us in Ohio enjoy the differ...

Happy New Year!!!! So, what have you been up to since all the decorations are down, the friends and family visits have come to an end? I'm thinking, LET THE YEAR BEGIN WITH A BURST! A burst of projects that is. In Northeast Ohio we are having a rainy, gray day but I said to Charlee, the Border Terrier that rules our house, that it was time to go get the mail. Our mailbox is down our long driveway and she loves any opportunity to go for a walk. I grabbed my hooded jacket, got her leash and off we went to the mailbox.  I totally forgot that I had ordered Strips of Fun by Patrick Lose from The Missouri Star Quilt Co. Well...it was there in the box! I quickly said to Charlee, hurry up and let's check this out. Here it is  Don't you think it's a wonderful rainbow of inspiration on a gray, Ohio day?  I have my sketch ready and will soon draw the pattern and get the stitching started. My idea is to create a Coral Reef Quilt that ...

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...

Machine quilting with black thread on black felted wool is kind of crazy! I sat there with lights all around and it was really difficult seeing where I had quilted and where I should go, but in the end it worked out fine. I wanted to place all the bright colors on a solid background for the Circle Sampler piece so all the embroidery stitches would stand out. What do you think? I guess I could try white next time and perhaps a pastel palette. There's so much you could do with a sampler. Sampler shapes could be strips, hearts, eggs, flowers, frogs, you name it! Do any of you have any sampler of stitches you would like to share? Post them here and share. What can you do with a Sampler?  A pillow is one option, but I often thought about making a handbag with it. How about a Laptop cover?  I think I would be safe in saying you could produce blocks for a sampler then sew those blocks on a wool jacket.....nice...I think I should try that. Here's the finished Circle Sampler. T...