Creatin' in the Sticks

Friday, June 5, 2015

Star Spectrum - H2H Charity Quilt Challenge

Hi all!

Time has been getting away from me and I have been absent from here both in writing and reading.

I miss both so much. I feel out of the loop.

Special occasions require hair stylists to work a little overtime and between proms, graduations, and mother's day, May was quite busy.

I've been working out of town on weekends (tis wedding season)

and I'm afraid my blogging has suffered. I only have one more wedding this summer and I will be ready for "normal" to return.

In the meanwhile

Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

is hosting

the

Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.

Star Spectrum

is my contribution for 2015.

(The wheat looks happy this year. This photo is out in front of our house.)

This reverse rainbow star burst quilt was made from 5" charms I've been cutting for my scrap organization. I used Kat's tutorial over at diary of a Flutter.Kat as the inspiration for the blocks.

Star Spectrum is 54" x 54"

Because I am so close to the deadline for the finish, free motion quilting in a meandering pattern was the quickest way to go. I used Auriful thread 50wt #2615.

Star Spectrum will be donated to Happy Chemo, an orgnization that provides quilts and comfort for chemo patients. Emily of Em's Scrapbag has been collecting quilts for this cause for awhile and has set a goal of providing 1500 quilts to Happy Chemo. She's already donated more than 600 quilts and the H2H quilt challenge is helping to make here numbers grow.

Happy Chemo has a great blog for Cancer patients

and you can click HERE to check it out.

If you would like to see all the quilts donated during the Hands 2 Help Challenge

click here for the

Big Reveal.

Have a great weekend, It's been raining so much here that I haven't even planted my garden. Can you believe that? We had over 10 inches of rain in May (a record).

My garden hopes to be off the porch and in some dirt tomorrow.

This picture was on May 23rd and the plants had been there 3 weeks then.....

Monday, May 25, 2015

Righty Tighty - Monkey Wrench–A Focus Through the Prism Project QUILTING Challenge, May

My reality has been crazy lately and work has been taking me away from blogging lately.

I have been sewing here and there, though.

During the month of May I accepted a challenge from Kim over at Persimon Dreams

and

Righty Tighty is the result.

The Challenge: Monkey Wrench

Each final project should read predominantly as one color in the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or violet.
A ROYGBIV hand-dyed color bundle of fabric must be purchased from Cherrywood Fabrics Hopefully you already have your bundle but you can join in the fun anytime … just make sure you have your quit done by the end of the month!
You must use ONE fabric from the ROYGBIV challenge bundle in each quilt which should correspond with the color you want your quilt to ‘read’.
Any other fabrics from your stash may be added.
You must use the month's block
Quilts must finish 20” square.
Share the story behind your quilt and how the block ‘Monkey Wrench’ was the inspiration.
Your quilt must have a name.
Pictures of your FINISHED 20” square quilts must be LINKED UP by 11:55pm CST on Sunday, May 31st (Trisha’s actual birthday).
A 4" quilt rod pocket will need to be added to the back of the quilt before you send it to me January.

After the challenge was posted I went to work right away drawing up my plan in EQ7. I wanted to go industrial and really wanted to contrast the traditional quilt block with an actual monkey wrench. I wanted to work with dimension and add shadows to the blocks.

This is what I started with.

Hubby pointed out that my wrench looked more like a crescent wrench than a monkey wrench.

So I redrew the wrench and now it is correct. lol

The quilt block monkey wrenches are paper pieced and the wrench is appliqued.

Cherry Wood Fabrics Blue from my ROYGBIV bundle was used for the paper pieced monkey wrenches.

The dark blue background added a little contrast with tiny flowers in an industrial setting. It's from Connecting Threads.

The black and white stripe worked perfectly for the screw adjuster on the wrench.

I worked with shadows again trying to make the blocks more industrial by making the monkey wrench blocks look more like nuts holding a box in place.

The quilting is block type stipple. I just meandered in square shapes instead of curves.

Here is a picture of the back to show the quilting.

The binding is blue measuring tape fabric from the She Who Sews series by Quilting Treasures.

Monkey Wrench–A Focus Through the Prism Project QUILTING Challenge, May

Righty Tighty

Made by Carla in Dodge City, Kansas

http://www.createinthesticks.blogspot.com/

Size: 20" x 20"

Prism color: Blue from the ROYGBIV fabric bundle by Cherrywood Fabrics

Paper piecing and machine applique

Quilting - block shaped stippling by me on my domestic machine with Aurifil 50 wt

The photos needed to feel industrial and I had so much fun getting out of my "pretty" comfort zone.

This quilt represents many challenges I had in my head.

Now I've put them to fabric and want to work with shadows and geometric design a little more.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Friday (or so) Finishes

I haven't been sharing much

but I have been sewing a little.

I finished this quilt top for the

Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge.

There is Miss Molly, my little (big) helper.

Out here in western Kansas the wind never stops. To take a photo of a flimsy, you must allow for the wind and just get on your knees to take a shot looking up. lol

I finished this bed quilt for a friend.

She had the denim squares and the blue fabric and asked me to put them together for her niece.

This will be for a high school graduation gift. It's big enough for a full sized bed, but will be plenty large enough for a dorm room bed for next year.

My friend had purchased the denim squares from an individual. I think they were all supposed to be 6" but some were larger and some smaller. Ugh. That was a challenge.

Some even had spandex in them. Another ugh. I didn't use those....

My friend will let me do the designing and purchasing next time she needs a quilt. This one took WAY longer than it should have.

My friend also wanted a quillow (quilt with a pocket to fold it into a pillow) for another niece.

This time I chose the fabrics... wink. This is for a photography buff who is graduating this month. The camera fabric is Michael Miller. I used minky fabric on one side and camera fabric on the other.

I was queen of my modern block party in April and have been receiving blocks in the mail. It's so fun and I hope to start putting the quilt together as soon as all the blocks arrive.

Have a happy May day!

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Have a Latte Blog Hop - PERK POWER!

Welcome to Creatin' in the Sticks

and

my stop in the

Have a Latte blog hop.

How 'bout I pour you a cup of

Perk Power?

That's how my grandparents always made coffee. I remember waking up at their house and smelling the coffee perking on the stove. That was the best smell...

I've been exploring new techniques and made the coffee pot and the handle of the coffee cup with bias tape. Perk Power was made similar to the quilt, Love You to Pieces, a finish in February.

Perk Power

was created with

Clothworks fabric collection,

"Have a Latte"

by designer Dan DiPaolo.

The sashing is Robert Kaufman Kona cotton in black.

The quilting is whimsical swirls (thanks to my friend Vickie for inspiration) and straight line quilting from the pot to the cup to draw the eye all with
Aurifil 50 wt #4012