Ended Official BYC Mini Contest - "WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY?"

[Kiki]

Congrats to all the winners!

 

[PouleChick]

I had lots of fun reading about all your hobbies and getting to know everyone a little bit more - great competition! I was also super excited to be a winner . Sadly I looked at it after getting Sallys message (and drooling over her amazing soaps!) and saw that postage to France is silly for a bar of soap - nearly $15 . I have messaged her and she is happy for me to donate it to someone else.

I'd like @Blooie to have my soap - her posts on this thread were so touching with the stories of her life and her grandchidren woven into some of her hobbies! I think you deserve it - I really hope you enjoy the soap you sound like a lovely lady with a big heart and wicked crafting skills

 

[N F C]

Bravo @PouleChick what a nice gesture Happy Holidays!

 

[sassysarah]

Congratulations to everyone!

 

[Blooie]

I had lots of fun reading about all your hobbies and getting to know everyone a little bit more - great competition! I was also super excited to be a winner . Sadly I looked at it after getting Sallys message (and drooling over her amazing soaps!) and saw that postage to France is silly for a bar of soap - nearly $15 . I have messaged her and she is happy for me to donate it to someone else.

I'd like @Blooie to have my soap - her posts on this thread were so touching with the stories of her life and her grandchidren woven into some of her hobbies! I think you deserve it - I really hope you enjoy the soap you sound like a lovely lady with a big heart and wicked crafting skills

Um, you’ve accomplished what all of BYC has hoped for for years....you’ve left Blooie without a thing to say - totally speechless!! Thank you so much for the kind words and the generous gifting of your prize! I Just don’t know what else to say.....

(In reality I’m a grumpy old lady who sits on my porch with a bottle of cheap whiskey and a shotgun across my lap, yelling at little kids to get away from my property!)

 

[N F C]

(In reality I’m a grumpy old lady who sits on my porch with a bottle of cheap whiskey and a shotgun across my lap, yelling at little kids to get away from my property!)

NOT! I think you've confused yourself with your neighbor

 

[Blooie]

@Blooie
I really really like some of your quilts.
Moonlit Garden is absolutely gorgeous.
Also very impressed by The Albatross.
All the others you’ve posted look lovely but not necessarily my taste.
I know this is a how long is a piece of string question; I often get asked about the lamps I make....
Approximately how long would it take you to make a quilt with the detail level of Moonlit Garden of a size suitable for a double bed?

Seriously, I’m impressed. I see all sorts of good quality arts and crafts when I go to the fairs with my lamps. You could share my table any day.

I forgot to respond further as I said I would, and I apologize. Moonlight Garden was one of the fastest quilts I’ve ever done. It’s kinda hard to explain, but basically you find a main fabric with lots of detail on it...that becomes the top foreground part where you’ll cut your “window”. In this particular quilt, that was the autumn leaves fabric. Then you find a fabric that tells the story, and that’s the background fabric, in this case a blue gray fabric that represented an overcast moonlit sky. You find a placement you like, then start cutting into that foreground fabric, following the design of the leaves or flowers, or whatever the pattern is. In Moonlight Garden, I chose a place that was off center, drew a big circle with removable quilter’s pencil, and started cutting around the leaves....not all of them, just a few....leaving that all important seam allowance.

When I had the shape I wanted cut out, I flipped the fabric over and folded down the seam allowance. I cheated and used a little Fray-check to tack the fabric down in places where it was bound to start unraveling - leaf points, where the leaves came out from the circle, and any place you feel you need a little extra fray protection. I hand basted the entire thing, going around the flat parts of the circle and the leaves.

Then the magic begins! Lay your background fabric down until you’re satified with its placement as seen through the “window” created by your creative cutting. Trim away excess and baste the raw edges around to the back, or even use a light touch of fabric glue, remembering of course that you’ll need to able to quilt through it. (You won’t need to remove that basting...it’s just there to prevent unraveling of your background and won’t be seen anyway because your foreground covers it.) Finally baste the two layers together and either hand or machine appliqué the foreground cut out to the background, snip any visible basting, and quilt as desired. A Quilt with a View! I did it all by hand. I have never liked, will never like using a sewing machine. They hate me, and I ain’t too fond of them right back!

Any fabrics will work with this. Try a sunset background and a wheat field foreground and it’ll look like the setting sun is kissing the standing wheat. For Christmas use a bold poinsettia foreground over a dark fabric that looks like a snowy night....you’ll create the impression of a poinsettia in a window on a snowy night. See what I mean? In this kind of quilt, rather than trying to make the fabric conform to what you want, you are letting the fabrics tell you what they are. I can’t explain it any better than that. As for how long it would take to make a bedsized quilt like Moonlight Garden, that’s pretty speculative. Making one where the “window” is centered on the bed will take far less time than trying a repetitive series of blocks. It will also depend on the size of the bed, and keeping your “window” in scale.

I was standing in the quilt shop owned by my longtime friend Julie Owens. We were buddies long before she opened Big Horn Quilts. We met in an on-line quilt chat room when re realized that she lived close to where Ken and I were moving. I guess tha was back about 25 years ago. Anyway, we were going someplace and I was waiting for her to tie up some loose ends, killing time by browsing her selection of quilt books when I ran across a book called “Quilt with a View” I believe, and the entire technique intrigued me. So I went home and tried it with a simple design and some fabric I had on hand. Moonlight Garden was the result.

Thank you. Remind me to answer you more completely when I’m not trying to type on a phone bouncing down a bumpy, snow covered road in a pickup truck!

I did.

NOT! I think you've confused yourself with your neighbor

You’re right!!

Sorry I hijacked the thread with so much quilting information. But I figured the contest was over, and I wanted to give as complete an answer as I could.

 

[LlamaGirl4]

Congrats to all the winners!

 

[Shadrach]

I forgot to respond further as I said I would, and I apologize. Moonlight Garden was one of the fastest quilts I’ve ever done. It’s kinda hard to explain, but basically you find a main fabric with lots of detail on it...that becomes the top foreground part where you’ll cut your “window”. In this particular quilt, that was the autumn leaves fabric. Then you find a fabric that tells the story, and that’s the background fabric, in this case a blue gray fabric that represented an overcast moonlit sky. You find a placement you like, then start cutting into that foreground fabric, following the design of the leaves or flowers, or whatever the pattern is. In Moonlight Garden, I chose a place that was off center, drew a big circle with removable quilter’s pencil, and started cutting around the leaves....not all of them, just a few....leaving that all important seam allowance.

When I had the shape I wanted cut out, I flipped the fabric over and folded down the seam allowance. I cheated and used a little Fray-check to tack the fabric down in places where it was bound to start unraveling - leaf points, where the leaves came out from the circle, and any place you feel you need a little extra fray protection. I hand basted the entire thing, going around the flat parts of the circle and the leaves.

Then the magic begins! Lay your background fabric down until you’re satified with its placement as seen through the “window” created by your creative cutting. Trim away excess and baste the raw edges around to the back, or even use a light touch of fabric glue, remembering of course that you’ll need to able to quilt through it. (You won’t need to remove that basting...it’s just there to prevent unraveling of your background and won’t be seen anyway because your foreground covers it.) Finally baste the two layers together and either hand or machine appliqué the foreground cut out to the background, snip any visible basting, and quilt as desired. A Quilt with a View! I did it all by hand. I have never liked, will never like using a sewing machine. They hate me, and I ain’t too fond of them right back!

Any fabrics will work with this. Try a sunset background and a wheat field foreground and it’ll look like the setting sun is kissing the standing wheat. For Christmas use a bold poinsettia foreground over a dark fabric that looks like a snowy night....you’ll create the impression of a poinsettia in a window on a snowy night. See what I mean? In this kind of quilt, rather than trying to make the fabric conform to what you want, you are letting the fabrics tell you what they are. I can’t explain it any better than that. As for how long it would take to make a bedsized quilt like Moonlight Garden, that’s pretty speculative. Making one where the “window” is centered on the bed will take far less time than trying a repetitive series of blocks. It will also depend on the size of the bed, and keeping your “window” in scale.

I was standing in the quilt shop owned by my longtime friend Julie Owens. We were buddies long before she opened Big Horn Quilts. We met in an on-line quilt chat room when re realized that she lived close to where Ken and I were moving. I guess tha was back about 25 years ago. Anyway, we were going someplace and I was waiting for her to tie up some loose ends, killing time by browsing her selection of quilt books when I ran across a book called “Quilt with a View” I believe, and the entire technique intrigued me. So I went home and tried it with a simple design and some fabric I had on hand. Moonlight Garden was the result.



I did.



You’re right!!

Sorry I hijacked the thread with so much quilting information. But I figured the contest was over, and I wanted to give as complete an answer as I could.

Thanks for the detailed response. I think the quilts I mentioned are stunning. I’ve assumed you sell them (?) You may get a PM one day if that money tree I keep watering ever bears fruit.

 

[Shadrach]

Sadly I looked at it after getting Sallys message (and drooling over her amazing soaps!) and saw that postage to France is silly for a bar of soap - nearly $15 . I have messaged her and she is happy for me to donate it to someone else.

I did the same. The postage is silly money.