A New Day Has Dawned

It's not perfect, but it's mine....and now I'm making greeting/note cards using the photo images of some of my one-of-a-kind, original design art quilts. Here's just a sampling. I edit here to correct an oops....the sunbonnet sue's are not my original design. I made a quilt using a Betty Alderman design. These three Sue cards were made from pictures I took of my quilt.

I took Holly's advice and am fine-tuning my photos. Still taking baby steps, but I'm seeing an improvement. The light bulbs arrived last week and they really make a difference as does the steadiness the tripod gives the camera. Just haven't figured out where to keep this stuff stored. It's now in the living room...the 4"x8" foam board is propped up against the front door. Dearest is objecting strenuously. He is such a neatnik. But, we only go into the living/dining occasionally, so I really don't see the harm. Never mind that the top half of the door is see through (and now you can't see through). He says we (meaning me) will work it out. I've asked for his suggestions, so perhaps that little gesture of compromise will warm his cold, cold heart just a smidgen.


Anyway, I had a strong urge several months ago to get serious about photo transfer. I first photo transferred the art cards "Pretty Ladies in Smart Hats" onto fabric sheets and want to make purses and use their fabric image on the front of the purse. Will get there someday. Anyway, I did get my "tiptoe thru the tulips" art card photo transferred onto fabric sheets and am now putting that fabric into art quilts. Here's my first. Not yet quilted...that's a tomorrow project.




I was inspired to do this after seeing the beautiful work Gunnel does. Check out her blog. A real treat.


And, finally, the genius continues to work....No, I'm not the one who came up with this ingenious idea. Saw this on one of Nancy's Notions programs. But I think it was very clever of me to try this idea. I have so many scrap fabrics from other quilt projects that I just cannot bear to stow or throw away. They are gathering and gathering, and etc and etc and etc.


So, Nancy's ideas was to take various strips of fabric (my 12 strips were 12" to 24" long and 2" to 6" wide) and sew them together in such a fashion that you can cut on the 45 degree angle to make bias strips. I then cut 2.25" wide bias strips then sewed them end to end. I like the double folded bindings, so the final picture shows the binding folded and basted and pressed ...ready to be sewn around a quilt.




You can see from the picture a general 45 degree layout. Can you believe that I got 280" of bias binding from these 12 scrap strips of fabric. That's enough to bind a 70"x70" quilt or (3 ) 20"x20" doll quilts! I think my pink and purple combination will be just delightful for a little girl's doll quilt. And look at the reduction in fabric scraps.



I think I'll try a blue/green combo next! That too is a tomorrow project. Mondays...never blue around my house!

Marty