Lovely Silk

Silk

This lovely pack of SILK was on the FREE table at Quilt Guild last night!  I could not believe my luck!   

The sari silk I bought a few years ago is too thin to sew into a quilt, but this will work nicely!   Most of this is sturdier, but I may still need to stabilize some of it ...  

I was thinking of making a crazy quilt, using the AccuCut Die, but now I'm thinking a different pattern might work better -- more like the Kantha quilts?  Or maybe a rail fence?  We'll see ... 

 

What about this 2-4-6 pattern would work well with this silk?

Quilt Jam 3 - Red Tailed Hawk Sailing Down the Canyon ...

Red-Tailed Hawk, Revised

 

The first version.  

On the right-hand side of the beach, there is a form that from a distance looks kinda like a camper van, with the roman glass as wheels.  Not what I was going for, so I replaced it with something more beachy [See top picture].  The hawk remains the same. 

 For Quilt Jam #3, I wanted to create a landscape quilt with a red-tailed hawk flying up above ...  

 

Here's a detail of the hawk, done with a simple fusible applique and free-motion stitching over the top to hold it in place--with a few extensions of stitching for the wings.  I am very pleased with the way the bird came out!  I was dragging my feet on that because I didn't want to mess it up, but it worked out marvelously!

It's actually probably more accurately a silhouette of an osprey (aka fish eagle) with the proximity to the water.  But it still gets at the same meaning in the song.  ;-) 

There are a few songs this scene describes for me:

A) "Red-tailed hawk sailing down the canyon ..." from the song "Before I Go" by John Hiatt.   

Lyrics here.    Because it's another John Hiatt song, I can add it to the Stolen Moments Series, too!

This song always reminded me of my dear friend Sandy, a budding naturalist, who owned a canyon of her own at one time.  She died far too young.  This song came out shortly after she died unexpectedly, and it felt like this song was her talking to me from the great beyond ...  telling me she was ok, and not to worry.  Sigh! 

 

B)  Hawksong by Shawn Mullins.  Lyrics here.  An oldie but a goodie!

I used this tutorial to make the landscape background.   It is similar to the Pat Bishop workshop from last fall.

Lone Star Tote Bags

 

Lone Star Totes 

Remember those lone stars I was making back in April at a local quilting class?  I finally decided what to do with them!    It's the perfect solution for orphan blocks.

I bought some sturdy blank $3 tote bags from Hobby Lobby. 

  

The faded glory Americana Star, in honor of America 250.

 

Here's a clearer picture of the free-motion (freehand) quilting as seen from the back side.  

  

There were 2 "Green Fire" Stars like this one.  I love that center fabric! 

 

 

Here's the Blue Star version.  

 

 

All 3 stars were quilted with this general design.  

I free-motion stitched the star blocks to some felt I picked up on the FREE table at Quilt Guild one night.

The felt doesn't unravel which means you can leave the edges "free" with no special treatment.  This also makes it easy to sew it to the tote bag.  

 

I left to top edge open so it can act like an extra pocket, too! 

I may donate a few of these to the Boutique for the Fly In Quilt Show in July.  

I'll keep one for myself, too.