Peas and Carrots

Created for Project Quilting 13.3 Kitchen Influence challenge.

I'm still looking for a long, skinny quilt for the collection that will go on the wall at the end of my hallway, so my first thought was to go for that. And for some reason, circles were in my brain. Hmmmm. Maybe peas and carrots. They're circles. They're food. I think this works.

So I made some circle foundation pieces and used selvages and super skinny pieces for the peas. Because the carrots were bigger, I used strips and strings for them. (It really had nothing to do with how long it took to make the peas. NOTHING.) I could have made them each from one fabric, but my motto is, "Why would anyone use 5 fabrics when 50 will do." Adds time, but also adds interest to any project.

So, I probably shouldn't go here, but I will. See those diagonal dark lines in the background? I had this together without them, and felt it needed something more, so I looked for embellishments. I tried some different things and decided I needed this burgundy ribbon, but only in the background. Way harder than if I'd added it before the circles.  Also should have quilted it before adding the circles. Oh, well, what was I thinking?

I will admit to waking up today thinking, "You are not going to get this done!" We have had a crazy busy week. Appointments. One vehicle in the body shop and needing picked up. The brand new truck that needed a minor fix when we got it that had to be taken in. A lunch with a couple sibs. My 97 year old mother-in-law who still has her own apartment needed a visit. Lots of basketball for the granddaughters. (10 games total, we saw 7.) All those things that make life worth living. I wouldn't have missed any of them. So, I added those lines this morning and sewed the binding on. Took it to the 10 year old's basketball tournament. Not the best tournament I've sat through, but our Pip did hit 3 3 pointers today. Go, Pip! She is 10 and hit her very first one in a game last weekend. I'm very proud of her. I hand sewed the binding between games and got it all done. Life is good! Very good! 

But, looking at these pictures, I see where some of those background ribbons don't really line up. I'll probably fix that, but not today.  I might add some beads, too, but not sure yet. For now, I'm done. 

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, WI.

48" x 12"

 

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”

Ab Intra Garden

Created for Project Quilting 12.6 Ab Intra challenge.

For some reason I forgot to look at what the challenge was this week until the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Of course, I had to look it up right away, then laid awake thinking about what I could do. I had a fairly busy week because I have been planting lots of seeds in my basement.  I have a great space down there that was built as a mother-in-law suite by the previous owners. It's now my quilting studio complete with kitchen, guest room and sunroom. 

I use the oven in the downstairs kitchen as a germination chamber. I replaced the light bulb with a curly florescent and it stays at a pretty steady 72 degrees with high humidity. Perfect for germinating. I germinate lots of things in little cups with damp napkins and it seems they all were ready for planting at once. They need to go back in the warmth of the oven until they pop through the soil before being moved to my sunroom where the temperature is in the 50s most nights. So, I have 3 flats in the oven, 3 on top of my upstairs refrigerator, and 1 on top of the water heater.

So it's no wonder my mind went to gardening. I remembered I had done some quilts using a garden path block back in 2015 when we used it as a project at the Quilts by Barb Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend where I taught. Project decided. Go back to sleep. Babysit little grandchildren on Tuesday and see my sisters for the first time in many months on Wednesday and the week is slipping away. Especially since all those flats are calling for attention and there are more seeds ready to be put into soil.

So a simple table runner using the garden path block.

I had some border fabric with apple trees a friend had given me, and, since Lapacek's Orchard is part of my family, I stack n whacked some up for the centers of my blocks. I had a fabric with stones in my stash, so that became the paths and assorted greens created the rest of the gardens.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.

14" x 44"

And here are the garden path quilts I made back in 2015.

   

   

Ok, I know the pillows don't match. I didn't have a picture of this one, but wanted to include it and these are the pillows that were on my bed... with a different quilt.

Crazy Pins

 Created for Project Quilting12.5 You're Crazy challenge.

For this challenge I made a pincushion. I had some pieces of hand dyed vintage linens hanging out by my cutting mat. They may have a spot in a future project. Something to do with leaves and hexagons.  We'll see if my vision can come to life...  

Anyway, these pieces looked like they could work for the You're Crazy challenge. There was some hand embroidery involved and assorted lace on the edge of some pieces. Perfect. So I pieced them together. Sometimes I just laid the lace edge over the top and top-stitched it down. I liked the crazy quilt look and made a second piece for the reverse side of my pincushion.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.

4"'x4".

Table Trails

 Created for Project Quilting 12.4 Snail's Trail challenge.

I figured a simple table runner fit my bill for this week. I started some blocks and soon realized that a snail's trail block is a pineapple block with a different coloration. Why did I never notice that before? I decided to use strips of varying widths because snails never travel an even path, just like many of us. 

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, WI.

16" x 32"

Monticello Hexies Bag

 Created for Project Quilting 12.3 Virtual Vacation challenge.

Virtual Vacation was an interesting challenge for me this week.  First of all I was off for a three day road trip to pick up jars for Lapacek's Orchard. We can lots of applesauce, apple pie filling, apple butter and jams and jellies at the end of every season. We were out of jars, so we made a trip to the manufacturer in Arkansas to pick up more. Not the most exciting road trip ever, but better than any other road trip I've been on lately.  I have been making some hexies for a future hexagon quilt and packed them up to work on while in the truck. Great idea! Problem is I forgot to put glue sticks in, so I didn't get alot done. Oh, well. 

Anyway, I decided I could use a better bag to keep my hexie project in while on the road. A bag was quick and easy, so it fit into the rest of my week, which should have included a day babysitting for my littlest grandbabies, but Frank had to spend 5 hours clearing the driveway this morning so we could get out. No grandbabies for me today.

My daughter heard about this challenge and she told me I should use Monticello for my virtual vacation theme.  She lived in Virginia for 10 years and we took road trips to see her 3 times a year. Coming and going we passed close to Monticello and I said it was something I thought would be interesting.  I'm a gardener and we have a family orchard, so I thought it would be my kind of thing.

There is a standing joke in my family that Frank's idea of sightseeing is to drive past. So, we were near Monticello a few years ago and Frank said we could check it out. We pulled into the parking lot and there was half an hour to closing.  Obviously, this would not be worthwhile. But Frank now says we were there. (No wonder I've stuck with this guy for 44 years!)

I found some scraps of upholstery fabric I had dyed for a previous project and made a bag. My hexie supplies fit in it perfectly and I made sure to put in a few glue sticks. It's ready to go when we head for Monticello. Or maybe I'll work on those hexies when we go to watch the granddaughters play basketball or to babysit the little grandbabies or even just to the store. I believe this will be a long term project.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, Wi.