New Life on the Outside

 Created for Project Quilting 15.3 Inside Out challenge.

When I saw this challenge my first thought was a simple rag quilt. After all, I had a stack of flannel squares already cut and I'm trying to use up all that random stuff.  And it fit the challenge. I even started it, but after a couple of hours I was bored. I reminded myself that Project Quilting was created to inspire all of us to do something special we wouldn't have done. So I dumped the rag quilt and decided to honor the challenge.

I have lots of things INSIDE baskets and boxes and drawers that I thought I might take OUT someday to be part of a quilt that would make me happy. Things that were too cool to just throw out, because, hey, I've made some pretty special quilts in the past using things any normal person would have thrown away long ago.

I decided to start with this one. It's an old picnic basket with selvages and shreds, which are strips of  fabric too skinny to be sewn in with a seam. Basically, anything less than 1 inch wide. I thought I could make a background. I cut squares to use as foundations, then took selvages and shreds that were "white" from INSIDE the basket and brought them OUT to live forever in my quilt. I made a decision to not iron or clip the loose threads from anything that came out of the basket. After all, I was looking for a very casual, raggedy look.  I laid them on one at a time and used one line of stitching down the middle of each, then sewed the squares together rail fence style.

I chose more pieces form the same basket, but decided I needed a little more pizzazz, so I went to my dresser full of treasures.

 

Yes, It's a dresser. But only the top 2 drawers are full of cool things. Fibers and ribbons and miscellaneous trims. Anything I thought was interesting enough to possibly use in the future.

That shiny red thing on the right is the foil bag from the Smithfield ham we ate last week. Don't judge. It might be something really cool in a future PQ quilt. I took miscellaneous stuff from INSIDE here and brought them OUT along with more selvages and shreds and created the vine running down my quilt, then wound pieces around my fingers and stitched them down to create the flowers. It's starting to make me happy! Now for some leaves.

  

I chose a collection of greens from INSIDE both the basket and the dresser and brought them OUT, then cut them into shorter pieces and sprinkled them on a piece of a damaged vintage tablecloth that I had previously dyed green. I laid a piece of solvy (water soluble stabilizer) on the top and used lots of free motion stitching to hold the pieces in place, wet it down to dissolve to solvy, and cut out leaves.

After stitching the leaves to the quilt, I figured I was getting close. Maybe some viny things. Pieces of fibers and ribbons curved around and scouched down. Almost there. 

I found another box with lots of flowers and yoyos and whatever that I had previously made. I usually have an idea and just start making parts. I preview them on the quilt and decide what stays and what does not. Often pieces are left over. 

I found a few little flowers INSIDE this box that wanted to come OUT and be added as the final touches on my quilt. Kind of like little flower buds .For some reason this closeup is upside down and for some reason I can't turn it right side up and it's my bedtime. :)

So, in the end, I have a quilt that makes me happy. I used some of the things that have been languishing INSIDE my sewing studio and brought them OUT where they can be enjoyed. 

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, WI

16" x 32"

Sky Colors

 Created for Project Quilting 15.2 Sky Color challenge.

I started with a quick pull of fabrics I thought fit the Sky Color theme.

I simply cut a 5 inch square from each, then stacked them in 3 separate piles. One pile was cut at 1.5 inches, one at 2 inches and the last at 2.5 inches. I worked with one pile at a time putting the top piece from one stack on the bottom and sewing them all back together. 

After all were done, I mixed them all together and made them into 3 new piles. Each pile was cut  perpendicular to the first cut, again using 1.5, 2 and 2.5 cuts. then sewed them back together working on one pile at a time and moving one piece from the top of one stack to the bottom.

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, Wi.

11" x 33"

Easter Egg

 Created for PQ 13.6 Flying Geese challenge. 

Of course, I did flying geese for 13.5. So my challenge this week was to find something new to do that would work for the remaining space on my hallway wall. It needed to fit next to that 8.5 x 11 piece I did for the last challenge. And since I never want to make pieces that will hang side by side the same size, it needed to be smaller. Why not the same size? Because if they're not hung perfectly, it's really obvious. Precision hanging is not my superpower. Why invite frustration if you can avoid it?

I thought of geese in the round, but didn't want a square. Not the right fit for the space. Maybe an oval with geese in spiral. After sketching, I decided on 2 spirals going outward with lights and colors reversed on the second spiral. 

Not the most fun paper piecing I ever did. Some of those pieces are really small. Also, I will confess, this is not one of my favorite pieces. In retrospect, I think only 2 colors, or 4 with 2 on each spiral would have been more dramatic. No, I am not going to make another.  And, note to self, when you sketch something kind of complicated, always make a copy of it before you cut it apart to paper piece.

Many times with these challenges a name for the quilt has popped into my head early in the process. Not so this time. Not a clue. As I finished it, I thought it looked like an Easter egg. So Easter Egg it is.

I have been staging the PQ 13 quilts together on a spare bed. I forgot to account for the light switch, so my planned arrangement went out the window. Finally I ended up with this. A great memory of this season of Project Quilting. 

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, WI.

7" x 10"

Yoyos and Geese in Rhythm

Created for Project Quilting 13.5 Rhythm and Repetition challenge.

When I saw this challenge, I thought it was perfect for this busy week.  Trish has done a really great job with the challenges year. Of course, she always does, but this year she pretty much hit what I needed to meet my goal of a really great display at the end of my hall. And, as you know, it's all about me.

I had some time Monday and Tuesday, but needed to be ready to leave town early Wednesday morning. Rhythm and Repetition! Easy! I grabbed a sheet of paper and sketched some geese flying across it. Paper pieced them in rainbow on black, then looked for a great background fabric. 

OK. So I'm not into one background fabric. Or one of anything. I'm the, "Why would anyone use 5 fabrics when 50 will do?" type of girl. Or, at this point, old lady. And it's only noon on Monday. I need to make this more interesting.  After all, it's for MY wall. So, I took another piece of paper and drew some lines on it and paper pieced a background. 

OK. I'm not out of time yet. I thought some black circles would add some extra interest. I would make them from black fabric and fuse them on. Of course, my iron picked this moment to die. Wouldn't heat. Thought about giving it up, but then I realized I could make yoyos and they wouldn't require heat. Printed some circle templates and threw some black fabrics and bright buttons in a travel sewing bag. 

Today we drove from Wisconsin to Cincinnati. Cloudy most of the day. Perfect for some hand sewing. I made yoyos in graduated sizes. (You know, rhythm and repetition.) 

I attached them with bright buttons for centers. The criteria here was size and variety because enough is enough and all this structure is getting to me. I really needed something random, so I added that one little car I found in my button collection. 

Obviously, my sewing machine was not available in my car, so I had to attach everything by hand. I don't object to some hand work, but if you put these on by machine, you can hold the yoyo in place, add a few stitches, then put the button on top, hold it straight and stitch it on. By hand, the first stich doesn't hold anything straight and you have to fight with every stitch to keep the button the way you want it. Good thing I had lots of free time in the passenger seat today. By the way, it's really fun to sew these things on in your lap. I only sewed the quilt to my pant leg once, after all. I used my phone as a tray to hold the buttons and yoyos and only had to remake a couple that got lost. When I find them eventually and I'll have a head start on another project. Or the next owner of our car (which is being traded in for one that's supposed to manufactured next week) will get a bonus. Maybe they will inspire the new owner to become a quilter. You never know.

I made one row and decided I needed another on the other side. Kind of wanted to put all the bigger ones on the same end, but they didn't fit right there, so I reversed them. Great rhythm. Very happy with the end result and it's only Wednesday night. I'm here in my hotel room texting with 3 sisters, a brother, and my daughter and finishing this up. (And my oldest granddaughter just chimed in, too.) Life is good. Off for sibling time for a few days. Never enough of that.

So, after all of this, I'm looking at my piece and thinking maybe I should hang it the other way. You know, vertical instead of horizontal. For some reason I think I like that better. Sometimes quilts have a mind of their own. Hmmmm. 

I'm not home and can't check out what this does to the arrangement that is now 5 quilts big to go on the wall in my hall. I had thought this would be the last one and PQ 13.6 would be a stand alone project. When I get home, I'll check that out. Some buttons would need to be shifted, but I think I could just turn them a quarter turn, hold them in place and stitch by machine. And 13.6 would probably need to be added to the wall. We'll see. For now, I'm good.

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, Wisconsin, and on the road between Poynette and Cincinnati.

I don't have a tape measure here, but I'm guessing the size is pretty close to 8.5" x 11" since that's the size of the paper I started with.

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"

Good Morning, Capri!

 

Created for Project Quilting 13.2 In Silhouette challenge.

I saw this challenge and thought I'd made the perfect quilt a couple of weeks ago. A Tree for Me  would have fit perfectly for this challenge. I walked into my kitchen and told my husband he could take the quilt down from above the sink and I'd photo it and be done. He was willing, but I knew that was cheating. The quilt was On the Road Again which I had created for the Season 7 I need a Vacation challenge. 

Time to quit whining and come up with something new. I thought maybe a tall flower on a long skinny quilt would look good in the grouping I'm planning for the wall at the end of the hallway. I scouted lots of flower pictures and clip art, but nothing felt right. Maybe I could find a picture to use. Looking through my photos I found some pretty cool pics I took as we crossed the Mackinac Bridge. Maybe. Then I came across this one. 

It features my granddaughter, Capri, and Freedom and Froto, the bottle babies Capri and her sister Pip raised. Capri is our crazy animal girl and this picture is really her.  I would name the quilt Good Morning, Capri! 

The photo needed some work. The goat on top was jumping onto her back from the tree stump, but I thought having the goat standing on her back would make a better silhouette. The goat on the ground needed to move over so he looked like he was going to give Capri a kiss. And Capri is faced toward the camera, so she had no face in silhouette. I tried drawing her one, but I have finally learned that I am an artist, but that doesn't mean I can draw. Capri was playing basketball out of state, so I sent her Dad a message and asked him to get me a straight on profile shot of her. 

Perfect! I cropped out her head, made it the right size and it was just what I wanted. A piece of hand dyed fabric became the sunrise. I thought a tree would be a nice add, because I'm into trees and there are pretty good tree silhouettes in the original picture, but anything I tried just took away from the main focus, so I stopped there.

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, Wisconsin.

12" x 16"

A Tree for Me

 Created for Project Quilting 13.1 All The Colors challenge.

This is the greatest challenge ever! All the colors! That’s my favorite combination! I decided on a pretty simple squarey quilt. Also one of my favorites. Random sized blocks and free form using fabric from my strips and strings basket. 

Made kind of a cute little quilt, but I challenged myself to make quilts that could go together on the wall at the end of my hallway. I had a pretty cool autumn tree quilt hanging there, but sold it last fall. The quilt was called Confetti Fall and was made for a project quilting confetti challenge back in Season 7. 

So I wanted to add something extra to this one. Trees are also a frequent theme for me, so a tree it is. I built it on a piece of dark fabric. I love texture, so I pulled out brown things from my embellishment collection, which is just a drawer (or 2 or 3) full of things like ribbon and yarn and hand dyed fibers and found items like a plastic mesh bag from a ham or something. 

I cut out the tree and stitched it down on the quilt. Made the time for completing the piece twice as long, but I think it’s wall worthy. 

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.

25”x21”

Fussy Flowers

 Created for Project Quilting 12.2 - Fussy Cut challenge.

Fussy cut is so not my thing. I guess that's why you do a challenge. To inspire you to do something that you wouldn't otherwise. 

I searched my stash to find anything that was worthy of fussy cutting. Not much. Then, at the bottom of a pile I found a small piece left from some Spoonflower fabric that my daughter-in-law, Kim, had given to me a few years ago.  It was made by manipulating a picture of one of my quilts. 

There were pictures of a shredded flower, so I fussy cut them, then made string pieced triangles to fill in the background.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.
11" x 28"

Illuminated Argyle

 Created for the Project Quilting 12.1 – Illuminating + Ultimate Gray challenge.

Illuminating and Ultimate Gray.  So not my thing. That's only 2 colors and one of them is gray, which is not really a color at all! 

The next day as I passed through my living room, I saw the Argyle Answer hanging on the wall. Hmmmm. I made this one for the PQ9.2 Triangulation challenge.

This could work. So I went looking for grays.  In spite of them not being my thing, but I did have quite a few in my collection. Lots of equilateral triangles in gray and one row of illuminating yellows giving it some life.

Quilted with randomly spaced diagonal lines in various shades of yellows and grays.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI

18"x41"

Fly Away

Created for Project Quilting 11.4 Birds in the Air Challenge.

I knew I was short of time for this challenge, so a table topper seemed to be the thing.  I made three birds in the air blocks, then added some extra half square triangles and called it a day.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, Wisconsin.

Go Team Granddaughters!

Created for Project Quilting 11.2 Team Colors challenge.

It's the middle of basketball season and there's nothing I would rather do for entertainment than to see my beautiful granddaughters play basketball this time of year.  And this is the weekend of the marathon basketball tournaments!  Five tournaments in 2 days! Three tournaments today! 9 total games, and we got to see at least part of 8 of them.  I was so proud of all of my girls.  Tomorrow 2 tournaments with 2 girls and we have it figured so we can see at least 4 games.What a great weekend!  All our girls (at least the ones who play basketball (The littlest one will be 2 months old real soon. Whatever she wants to do is fine with me. :) were awesome. They are learning so fast.)

Anyhow, back to Project Quilting. When I saw team colors, I knew it had to be black and orange. In Poynette, all our teams wear black and orange, and I grew up in Belmont, WI, where the colors were also black and orange. I created free form log cabin blocks in black and white using strips and strings from my stash. I added strip pieced circles from my stash in honor of the basketball players in my life.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.

31" x 31"

Triangle Sequence

Created for Project Quilting 11.1 Notably Numeric challenge.

I decided on a triangle sequence as the inspiration for this challenge. A triangle sequence is pretty simple.  1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4, etc.  I created a triangle with this sequence, then decided to multiply it by 4 to make this little quilt.  

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, Wisconsin.
23" x 23"

Threads in a Row 2.0

I created this quilt for the 2nd Annual Project Quilting Mystery Quilt Along created by Kim Lapacek of Persimon Dreams. I have always loved a good mystery quilt and couldn't resist getting involved with this one. And Project Quilting is super fun, so I was ready to get started!

When I got to clue 6, I was quite surprised that this quilt was spools of thread. I have to admit, I never saw that coming.  It reminded me of the quilt below that I made for the Project Quilting 9.5 A Stitch in Time challenge.  I called that one Threads in a Row (Ready to Sew), so this one is called Threads in a Row 2.0. It is going to Kim (who also happens to be my daughter-in-law) to become part of a lap quilt. After all, she does have a wall in her house that is filled with pictures of spools of thread...

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.
27" x 64"

Chocolate!

Created for Project Quilting 10.6 Craving Chocolate challenge.

You gotta love a chocolate challenge! This is super simple. Just chocolates raw edge appliqued to create on oversize box of chocolates.  I'm retreating this week, so I've also enjoyed plenty of the real thing!

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.
15" x 32"

Abecedarius for the Birds

Created for Project Quilting 10.5 Abecedarius challenge.

I really wanted another small Dresden Neighborhood quilt, but when I saw this challenge, I didn't see any way I could make one small enough to fit this challenge. Then I came across this box of alphabet beads and I decided to modify the original pattern by Kim Lapacek to accommodate 26 houses, one for each letter of the alphabet. Those alphabet beads could become house numbers. I would hang it in a different place than I had originally intended. 

So I got out a piece of freezer paper and divided it into 26 wedges, not worrying about whether they were equal in size or not. I laid some of those beads on the paper pattern and I saw birdhouses! The numbers would be the holes.

 

And they could be really small! So I changed to a smaller center circle and drew on random rooflines for small houses. I labeled everything so I could make them all fit back together.

My houses were a little asymmetrical, but I could live with that.  I love asymmetrical!

So my Abecedarius is for the birds!

Now for the true confessions. I went to play cards last night with this not yet finished.  I had a chance to hang out with my grandson for a couple of days last week and there are priorities, after all. I got up this morning and madly sewed on the birdhouse holes.  Time was running short, so I pinned the binding on the back and took pictures. I added the picture here and said I'd add the story later.We left for our youngest granddaughter's gymnastics meet. (There are priorities, after all.) It was a long drive and I did finish the hand sewing on the binding before noon, so, technically, I'm still legal.  I kept the picture that I took before the hand sewing on the binding was done, although I did take it and rotate it once I realized it was not quite right.

One last confession. I had 26 houses, one for each letter of the alphabet.  I had the beads all lined up in order. I decided to use them randomly since some houses were really small and I had a very limited selection of smaller alphabet beads. I sewed them on and for some reason had one letter left over. No time to look for the error. So my village of birdhouses has the same letter on 2 different houses. One letter is not represented at all.  It is what it is.  I thought about changing it, but I had no time before the deadline and now it's part of the story.  It will be interesting to see if anyone notices it when they see the quilt in my house.  I'm guessing they won't.

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, WI.

11" x 11"

Pixel Street

Created for Project Quilting 10.4 Pixel Play challenge.

I decided a while back I need a couple of mini Dresden Neighborhood quilts for my newly painted bathroom. The Dresden Neighborhood is a great pattern designed by my daughter-in-law, Kim Lapacek, of Persimon Dreams. Yes, that's the same Kim that created Project Quilting. All that talent right in my family!

So I made this little Dresden Neighborhood variation with only 3 houses. I gave them pixelated siding to fit the Pixel Play requirement of this weeks challenge and called it Pixel Street. I need one more tiny quilt to go with this one, so I'm excited to see what the next challenge will be.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.
10"x12".

Luscious Lane

Created for Project Quilting 10.2 Red, White and Blue Challenge

I had a crazy busy week planned, so I knew I had no time to procrastinate on the red, white and blue challenge. Strings are an easy go to for me so I made some red, white and blue string blocks and put them together to create a table runner with diagonal lines. I decided it was OK, but would be way more fun if I added some raw edge applique circles. 

I named it Luscious Lane because I thought it had the look of a Drunkard's Path.

14" x 36".
Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.

New Day of Hope

Created for Project Quilting 10.1 Hope Springs Eternal Challenge.

As I pondered the Hope Springs Eternal challenge, 2 themes kept running through my head.  Sunrise and Spring Flowers. Thursday morning I still hadn't made a decision when I saw this view from my deck.

I took it as a sign. Decision made.  Every new day signals a new beginning and new hope. Note the swimming pool in the lower left? I'm hoping for lots of fun swimming there with my grandkids this coming summer. And the other little structure down in the lower right? The orchard goats are hoping to use that as a shelter on their summer vacation at our house.

Enough rambling. Back to the challenge. I found a sunrise fabric that I dyed a couple of years back, added an appliqued sun and black for the horizon. I quilted some rays from the rising sun, then created a tree using fibers.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI. 28"x12".

Shredded Squares Pillow

Created for Project Quilting 9.6 SCRAPtastic challenge.

I had to laugh when this challenge came out.  I have a saying.  "Why would anyone use 5 fabrics when 50 will do."  A challenge for me would by using less than 12 fabrics in a quilt.

However, my week had even more challenges than usual. Big baby shower at my house on Sunday and leaving for a quilt retreat on Wednesday afternoon.

I thought a pillow would fit the bill. I'm still using strings, but wanted them to be skinny, so I decided to use some shreds, which includes selvages and any strip of fabric under about 1 inch. I cut black to use as foundation squares and added shreds, top-stitching them into place and leaving the raw edges. I squared them up and sewed them together for the pillow.

I had made the white one a while back.  Same technique.  I thought it was a little boring when I got done so I appliqued the flower on top.  The raw edges kind of fluff up with use and I occasionally give it a little haircut when it gets too stringy.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI. 16" x 16".

Since I'm here I'm also going to show off the handiwork of my beautiful granddaughters, Cedi, Capri and Pip, ages 11, 10 and 6. They helped host the baby shower for my daughter and made all these amazing cupcakes to match our farm animal theme. Cedi and I baked 5 different kinds of cupcakes and the 3 of them made 5 different fillings, filled them all and did all the decorations. They had to leave for a few hours in the middle of the day Saturday and I was instructed not to touch the cupcakes.  They made a gramma proud...as they always do.