Pencil Holder of the Gods

I fabric collaged a Norse mythology pencil holder using an empty tea tin. Vikings, trolls, ravens, runes....it's like a desktop mini-Valhalla!
The fabric was attached with heat fusible web. turns out you can iron it onto metal- who knew?? (pro tip: don't try to hold a piece of metal while you're ironing it!)
Finished with glued on embellishments. quick, simple and fun. Not all fabric projects have to be sewn!

Black Arts and Crafts

Up next, a little something I whipped out for an XXXmas present last year....behold the world's first and only (to my knowledge) BLACK METAL PENCIL HOLDERRRRR!

To make it, I used a cardboard snack tin as empty as our bleak existence itself. I took scraps of sufficiently grim and nihilistic fabric, and cut them out into rectangular shapes using a rotary cutter and ruler. I measured the dimensions needed to wrap around the tin, and arranged them on top of fusible webbing in the most depressing configuration. Then I tacked them into place with the iron (using a Teflon cover sheet to protect it.)
After trimming the big rectangle of fused scraps to size, I attached it to the tin by fusing it down with an iron as hot as the flames of burning hellfire. Then I decorated it by gluing on various 3-dimensional collage objects whilst contemplating the futility of it all.

At last, my quick and easy no-sew gift project was ready to hold the implements of doom, when they are not being used to write curses and morbid song lyrics! These make a great gift for everyone on your unholyday list!

Needle de los Muertos

A while back I found some great Dia de los Muertos fabric online, and HAD to get some even though I didn't have any immediate plans for it. (I'm sure that's never happened to any of you....right??)
Recently I've been doing more embroidery and hand sewing projects, and got sick of digging around for the right size needle. Then it hit me: these Muertos loteria "cards" are a good size to fit on the cover of a needle book!
I whipped out a few by using the escape hatch technique (similar to how I made the band patch xmas ornaments), using some batting scraps and sacred heart fabric for the lining. Then I fused the loteria cards over the turning slit, and sewed the felt pages in down the center. Voila! I think they turned out pretty cool :)
There are a few in my etsy if you need one.

update: DONE!

....well the top, at least. 14 months of literal blood, sweat and tears later, I finished my block-of-the-month quilt!
I think it was a bit above my skill level, but I powered through it anyway. I learned a few things along the way: paper piecing, set-in circles and curved piecing, Y-seams.

 I also learned I will never spend this long doing someone else's pattern again! It was frustrating to not work on my own designs for so long, but I'm glad I did this because I improved my sewing skills and I have an amazing, show-worthy piece at the end of it.

I think working in animation for so many years has given me some good training for this type of activity: attention to detail, tolerance for repetitive work, patience for long-term projects, the ability to do as many revisions as necessary to make work turn out right.

This behemoth finished out at 88" square with the pieced borders. I may add another small border to the outside so I can do a wider binding with piping. I still need to piece a back together too.

For the first time, I'm going to send something out to be professionally quilted. After investing this much time and money, I don't want to risk messing it up.....so eventually I will be shopping for a good longarmer. If there's someone you recommend, I'm taking suggestions!

Back when I started this project last January, I pictured myself finishing it a year later and being recovered from cancer, divorce and all the other horrible things happening in my life at the time. And while I have made some progress, unfortunately the quilt is farther along.....I guess you can't set deadlines for some things :(

above photo by Claire Jain

Just a crappy little quilt

This is one of the first quilts I made a few years ago. At the time, I wanted to make something cute, simple and original....but every subject I wanted to do (video games, heavy metal, tattoos etc) had been quilted before. Then I thought of the one thing I was SURE no one had done yet! (so far I have not been proven wrong on this.) I also like the idea of something being simultaneously cute and repulsive. And thus was born what you see before you. It was done in fused applique (or should I say, crapplique?), machine pieced and quilted.

I entered this in the 2010 Austin quilt show, where it won 3rd place in the novice category. I was feeling pretty good about this....until I realized there were only 3 entries in the category! LOL. At least I can now say I'm an "award-winning quilter"! 

Power quilting!

The animation studio I work for, Powerhouse Animation, has just released POWERLINES, a comic book-style collection of original work by our staff artists. Rather than drawing something, I made a small appliqued quilt using our company logo and colors! The book will premiere at Austin's Wizard Con this weekend with a limited number of signed copies, and will also be available on our website soon. For more details, please see this post about it on our blog.

what I've been up to

So I've been working on this insane block-of-the-month quilt since the beginning of the year...it's not my usual style, but before starting  this I realized I had not done anything very impressive over the previous year....mostly just lap and baby quilts that I made as gifts. When I saw this BOM pattern on the Quilt Show website, I was drawn in by the unusual design and brilliant colors. I decided to make it to level up my quilting skills, and have a show-worthy piece. (I did add my own touch by changing the background to black.)
It's all paper-pieced with a lot of fused applique. I have been learning a lot; mostly that any mistake that requires me to redo something will not happen again :)
I'm currently a month behind on it, but considering I was in cancer treatment till May and I had to get ready for the Austin quilt show last month, I would say I'm not doing too bad!

This is all the blocks through August. Finished quilt will be about 88" square.

VIKING METAL QUILT

this is a small (17 X 20") piece I made last year. it's based on a 30-foot tall sculpture of Viking swords in Stavanger, Norway that comemmorates the battle of Hafrsfjord in the year 872.

The black part is fused applique, and I used the "escape hatch" technique for the self-binding irregular edge. I slit the back to turn it, and covered up the cut with the hanging sleeve :)

In retrospect, the swords look a bit puny....should have cropped in closer. I may revisit this theme again in the future.

a "controversial" quilt

Last year when I was diagnosed with cancer, the gals in my Modern Quilt Guild bee secretly made this for me as a surprise....I took it along to my weekly chemo treatments for months. (and yes, I did succeed in giving the middle finger to cancer!)

This weekend was the Austin quilt show, and when I entered it I didn't anticipate any problems. However I was contacted by the show's  organizers, who were concerned about possible issues with the City/ venue finding it offensive (and possibly removing the quilt and/or not renewing the show's permit.)

At first they suggested putting up some sort of screen in front of the quilt with a warning/ age statement sign, but I suggested I could make a matching block with an asterisk to strategically cover up one letter. We agreed this was probably the least hassle-y solution.

When I dropped off the quilt for the show, I had the asterisk safety pinned in place at all 4 corners...but when I saw it hanging, the cover was only pinned at the top edge like a flap, so the truly curious could have a peek at what was underneath.

Despite all the hassle, I got quite a few compliments from people who were glad it was submitted. I was also told that it received a number of write-in votes for the "viewer's choice" award :)

Below is a group shot at the show with myself and some of the people who worked on it, followed by a glamour shot on Town Lake (photo by Bobbi Brekke).