A Day in My Youth

 Created for Project Quilting 17.4 Of Another Era challenge.

For this challenge, I close to go way back to my childhood. I grew up on a dairy farm and was one of 13 kids. I did milk cows before school when I was a teenager and I'm sure it made me a better person, but it wasn't my favorite thing. I learned to sew in 4H and made many of my own clothes. It was where my passion for sewing began and I even won a trip to the state fair for a few days and modeled my dress in the daily style shows there. 

So, I decided to go back to those days and looked for some garment fabrics in my stash. There were a few, but, fortunately none that old. Polyester was the hot new thing then! I did find a few pieces that I thought I might use for an embellishment or something one day.  

I cut squares from them and stitched them together. And it was not fun. They slipped and stretched and I wanted to go back to cottons. I pinned every seam and I very seldom pin anything when I make quilts. When I got ready for binding, regular cotton did not go with these shiny fabrics and there was no way I was going to make a binding from any of the fabrics in the quilt. So I found some satin ribbons and braided them together and hot glued them on. Yes, I hot glued them to the quilt.....

Then, being me, I thought it needed a tree. This tree represents the apple tree that was in our back yard. I was home for hide and seek and home plate was under it when we played softball almost every night after chores. I never became much of a ball player, but I have many fond memories of those games. 

My youngest brother was 12 years younger than me and when he was about 4, my older brother decided this tree would be used to play monkey in the tree. That meant my little brother was put on a low branch and my big brother would ride up on his horse and grab him, then gallop back to the starting spot. Pretty scary for me to think about today, but nobody got hurt and it was great fun.

The tree trunk is miscellaneous fibers twisted together and stitched down. The leaves were made by sandwiching snippets of green fabrics between 2 layers of water soluble stabilizer and adding lots of stitching until they stayed together. 

Diane Lapacek, Poynette, WI

12" x 15"

Shade for My Horse

Created for Project Quilting 17.3 Year of the Horse challenge. 

The year of the horse is being celebrated in the upcoming Chinese New Year. Instructions were to "find your inspiration from the turn of the year, in the animal, in our hopes and desires for the near future". I was not inspired by the horse or the hopes and dreams of the near future.

I clicked on the link provided by Trish and discovered that red is used in almost all Chinese New Year decorations. Red is something I can be inspired by. So I went with that. Since I'm the scrappy strip quilt lady, I opted for string blocks using as many red fabrics as I could find and adding in touches of gold because all the images of the Chinese New Year included pops of gold. I sewed them together in rail fence fashion, then quilted it with gold metallic thread because it seemed appropriate.

I liked it, but thought it needed something. Not a horse because I'm not into horses. Maube a tree. I like textural trees and have added them to several quilts in the past. But did this fit the theme this time? Well, yes. I made a ltree and added it to my quilt. Next summer that tree will provide shade for my horse. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And I have a quilt that will go on my wall and make me happy.

Created by Diane Lapacek, Poynette, WI.

16" x 20"

A Tree on Plaid

 Created for PQ 17.2 Scads of Plaid challenge.

I wanted to create my own plaid for this challenge. I have made several quilts over the years using Ricky Tim's convergence technique and have always thought it had a plaid vibe.

So I dug in my hand dyed fabric for a piece with enough colors flowing across it. I forgot to take a picture of it before I started. Sorry. Anyway, I cut 4 squares from it and converged them according to Ricky's instructions. 

I liked it, but, being me, I thought a tree would make it better. So I pulled lots of fibers from my supply, wound them together and stitched them down to make a tree, then appliqued it on. I bound the quilt and called it done.

Created by Diane Lapacek, Poynette, WI.

21" x 19"

Squirrely Kim

 

 

Created for the Project Quilting This or That bonus challenge. Full disclosure here. Kim is my daughter-in-law. When she was dating my son, they would come for dinner at our house once a week. Then the guys would clean up the kitchen and I taught Kim to quilt. I helped her learn the basics and then she inspired me to be more creative. The ideas flying through her head always amazed me. They still do. So I got her bundle. Actually, I got Trish's, too, and Kim bought them both for me for my birthday in January. I decided to make both of them in the style of me. I love super scrappy. And Squarey has been a favorite of mine ever since Kim made a Squarey quilt for her bed many years ago. So Squarey it is for the Kim bundle. 

Then, because I could and I love textural add-ons, I added a tree. I used multiple fibers and twisted them together and stitched them down to a foundation, cut it out and sewed it on.

And I thought it should have a squirrel (or three), so I cut some out from the squirrel fabric in the bundle and fused them on.

In the interest of full disclosure, here's the rest of the story. I originally hung this quilt the other say so it had a branch coming across from the right instead of a tree. I took photos and was playing with them when I decided that I liked it turned this way better. It meant removing a couple of smaller branches that would have been too low on the tree when turned this way. I also had to cut away the hanging sleeve and add a new one to a different side. And I had already fused down the squirrels. I heated them up with the iron and pulled them off. I wasn't sure how it would work, but it was fine. There was only one spot that I ironed with a paper towel over it to remove the excess stickiness. A quilt is never finished until it's finished, after all. 

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, WI.

35" x 27"

For the Love of Birds

 Created for Project Quilting 15.1 Bird House challenge.

For this challenge, I decided to create some little birdhouses hanging from a branch. I started by making a background, then layered and quilted it.

I sketched a branch on a piece of brown fabric, then added texture by taking assorted fibers and twisting them together and stitching them down. I cut out the branch and stitched it to the background.

I added small birdhouses cut from orphan scraps to give them a quilted look. All the birdhouse holes are hearts because I heard birds really like hearts.

Created by Diane Lapacek, rural Poynette Wisconsin, where the wind is blowing and drifting my LONG driveway in...again.

20" x 30"`

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”

Seasons

Seasons was created for the Project Quilting Season 7 Seasons challenge.

I really enjoyed making Confetti Fall, so I decided to go with similar techniques for this challenge.  A bigger, wider tree.  More confetti for spring, summer and fall.

But what to do for winter?  I went looking in my collection of old craft supplies from my days of mad crafting and found a jar of snow-tex.  It was kind of hard, so I scooped off the top layer and threw it away, then added some water and stirred.  Perfect!!!!  Supplies can sometimes last for years without using them!

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.
20" x 38".

Confetti Fall

I created Confetti Fall for the Project Quilting Season 7 Confetti challenge.  

First I made some confetti in fall colors. by whacking up some of my smallest scraps.  I scattered them over a piece of water soluble stabilizer, then added another piece of stabilizer on top.

  

I added lots of free motion stitching to hold all those little pieces together, then swished the whole piece in water to dissolve the stabilizer.  Now I had a piece of leaf "fabric" made from confetti.

To create a background, I selected one of my hand-dyed fabrics and added assorted fibers and shreds of fabric to create the tree shape, then layered and quilted the whole thing before cutting my leaf "fabric" in pieces and stitching it in place.

31" x 35"

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.