Wear No More

 Created for Project Quilting 15.5 Wearables challenge. 

I was on a road trip with my husband, Frank, on Sunday when I read this latest challenge. "RULE ONE: your project must be wearable, or have been made from previously worn items, or have another connection to clothes, shoes and fashion accessories." 

A very different challenge. We were to return home Tuesday evening, so I needed to have a good plan. I made lots of wearables in my past after learning to sew in 4H. I earned myself 3 days at the Wisconsin State Fair when I was in High School, so I did have some skills and made most of my own clothes for many years. 

I learned to quilt about 35 years ago and it's been my passion ever since. So, I had no desire to make something wearable. But, because I can see everything as part of a future quilt, I do have a collection of things that were once worn. 

Maybe denim for a background and some 3D flowers on top. 3D flowers seem to be a theme of mine. They've been made of many materials in the past and I knew I could come up with something.

I returned home and immediately started by cutting pieces from worn out jeans using a pinking blade on my rotary cutter. I simply layered them on a foundation square and top stitched them down. I probably made this more complicated than it needed to be, but, hey, it was fun.

I found a bag of previously made flowers in my magic dresser of future embellishments. I rejected all those that were not made from wearables and ended up with this collection.

You might say these were not started and finished this week. That is true. However, I consider them embellishments that I made instead of purchased. I decided on a wreath shape, and used hot glue to attach them. Sounds like cheating, but I am the artist and it works for me.

Here are some closeups where you can see the variety. There are t-shirts that had been hand dyed. Mesh bags that Matilda Jane clothes came in. (The bags were never worn, but the clothes certainly was and still is.) Those big beads that came from the ponytail holders my daughter used to wear in high school. Various other clothes that may have been worn by members of my family or hoarded by me after someone abandoned them at a garage sale because I thought the fabric was interesting. Buttons. An old chenille robe that I dyed. 

I wanted to add some leaves, so went looking for materials. I found a couple of things in a stack of cut off pieces from t-shirt quilts I had made. These are cotton and make great rags. I was thankful to find something green. A bridesmaid's dress and lining and the white net underskirt. And one of those Matilda Jane mesh bags. I layered them in different combinations to give me a little variation in color and stitched leaves. Then cut thin strips to form some twining vines.

Okay, one more thing. This is pretty heavy. Layers of denim and lots of flowers. So, I decided to forgo quilting. Instead I took a piece of cardboard and topstitched the front and back together around it. And I did stitch through all of it including the cardboard in a few places near the flowers to, hopefully, keep it from sagging in the future. Then I hung it on the wall by using straight pins through it all in each corner.

Once again, something it would never have occurred to me to make without this great challenge.

Made by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, WI

24" x 24"

A Garden of Diamonds

 Created for Project Quilting 13.4 Mining for Diamonds challenge.

When this challenge came out, I thought, "Trish has been in my brain." I'd been seeing a diamond quilt in my head for days. Of course, the quilt in my head was bed size and this one needs to fit in the arrangement I’m making for the end of my hall and one week of time. So, maybe a diamond background with something on top to make it worthy of my wall.

I started making background diamonds while working it out I my mind. Flowers lodged in my brain and refused to leave. Not “In Silhouette”. I’ve already done that twice. 3D Flowers are one of my things. Haven’t done any in a while and they’ll look great in my hall. But they cannot go on a background of brightly colored diamonds. 

New plan. Diamond flowers. I started with strips of fabric cut with a wavy rotary cutter blade. I ran them through the ruffler attachment on my sewing machine to gather them, and sewed them in layers around diamond shaped bases. Add some beads for flower centers. Pretty fun.  

By now, I’m running out of time, so the background is one piece of fabric quilted in diagonal lines to create a diamond effect. Stems were made of assorted green fibers twisted together. I fused green fabrics together and cut them into diamond shapes for leaves. Finished the binding just as time ran out on my Friday. 

We were on the road at 8am this (Saturday) morning and I got some pictures just before we left.  Our 10 year old granddaughter, Pip, did us proud today in her biggest basketball tournament of the year and I’m so glad we were there. We should be home by about 9 pm and I’ll add in the links and pictures and get this posted. (I’m working on my iPad and need my laptop to do that tricky stuff and, of course, it picked this week to refuse to work unless plugged in.) Tomorrow it’s back to the tournament. Life is good. I’ll get to that other diamond quilt one of these days.

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, Wisconsin.

14" x 33"