Pixel Play - Project Quilting challenge 10.4

Our challenge this week was "Pixel Play".  At first I was not excited by the idea of coming up with a pixelated design.  But then I remembered we only need to be inspired by the theme. We do not necessarily need to create a literal interpretation.  

I recently attended a workshop with my local sewing group on Gloria Loughman's technique for making tiled backgrounds.  I had been thinking about how I could adapt this method to create a mosaic quilt design.  

Mosaics are similar to pixelated images since both are made of tiny little pieces to create a picture or design.  And with that, an idea came into my head and I was ready to go.  

I made a sketch of my idea, then my sister-in-law, Lise Hoffman - a true artist in so many mediums - cleaned up my sketch and gave it more style and finesse.  Thank you Lise!  Perfect!  

Using my light box, I traced the drawing onto the paper side of a sheet of Steam a Seam fusible webbing.

I rummaged through my scrap waste basket - those "too small to save" pieces that were destined to be filling for a dog bed - looking for pieces that might still have some life left in them and sorted those by color.  

A selection of those were cut into even smaller confetti sized pieces.  Using tweezers and a straight pin, I placed the pieces inside the shapes of the drawing to create the flowers and stems.  For the leaves, I chose one larger scrap and cut the leaf shapes from that.  Periodically, I used my Clover mini iron to fuse the pieces (covered by a Teflon applique sheet) into place. 

Once all the flowers, stems and leaves were complete, it was time for the background.  My initial plan was to create a tiled background, similar to what I had learned in the workshop.  But as I started putting the "tiles" in place, I decided that was one element too many and I needed a simpler background. 

I used scissors to cut around the drawn outline of the design, removed the paper backing and fused the entire thing to a piece of green fabric.

My next step was to put some batting behind the design and add some thread sketching to give some definition to the flowers and to hold everything in place.  Then I cut away all the extra batting to help create a trapunto effect behind the flowers, stems and leaves.  

Even though I was really happy with the way it was all turning out, I thought it could use just a little more pizzazz, so I added the curvy border with an ombre fabric.  

Stitch some outline, echo and dense quilting around the main design and feathers in the border and ta-da, all done!

Confetti Cone Flowers

Size:  approximately 11" x 15"

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Check out all of the entries for this challenge at 

Project Quilting - Pixel Play

click the link and then scroll down the page to find the entries

Bigger than a Bread Box - Project Quilting challenge 10.3

For the latest project quilting challenge we were given the theme "Bigger than a Bread Box".  Our creations could be anything, as along as they met the size requirement of one measurement larger than 16″, and another measurement larger than 9″.

I was inspired by the breadbox idea and decided to make a cover for my sewing machine.  

Since I would be looking at this pretty much every day, of course I had to use my favorite fabric - Cherrywood hand dyed with a little bit of Ricky Tims hand dyed thrown in.

I started by making strip sets and somewhere along the line I thought it might be fun to add some decorative stitching.  Which led to the idea of stitching out all of the decorative (leaving out the utility and various alphabet) stitches my machine has so I'd have a reference right there on my sewing machine cover.  

Well I seriously under estimated just how many stitches that meant and just how much time it would take.  I quickly realized I would need more strips so I cut the sets I already had in half.  I filled each of those strips with a decorative stitch and I still had a LOT of stitches left.  I added the grey stripe between strip sets and more decorative stitches, this time closer together so I could get them all on there.  Once more I ran out of room and I still hadn't used all of the stitches.  But now I was committed, so I included one more strip set and two more grey stripes for the top. 

225 stitch outs and four days later, I was finally ready to put all the pieces together.  Whew.

It was a lot of work, but in the end, completely worth it.  

Stitch Library Sewing Machine Cover

Size:  23" x 11" x 10"

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Check out all of the entries for this challenge at 

Project Quilting - Bigger than a Breadbox challenge

click the link and then scroll down the page to find the entries