The Argyle Answer

Created for Project Quilting 9.2 Triangulaton Challenge.  

I'm currently possessed by string quilts. I can't get enough of them. So I knew this needed to be one. This is the first time I have used an equilateral triangle as the basis of a string quilt design. 

I quilted uneven diagonal lines and when I was searching for a name, all I could think is that it looked like argyle, so The Argyle Answer it is. 

Created by Diane Lapacek
near Poynette, WI.
18" x 41"

On Rowan Creek

Created for Project Quilting 9.1 Hometown Proud Challenge.

I knew I was facing a challenging week this week. I would be gone from Monday noon until Thursday afternoon.  So I needed to come up with an idea quickly and it had to be simple enough to complete on time.

I grew up in Belmont, first state capitol of Wisconsin. It is also home of the Belmont mound and Joy Lake where my family held many annual campouts.

I have lived in Poynette for the last 38 years, so it is my current hometown.  It has several really great things going for it. Of course, my favorite is Lapacek's Orchard which is owned by son, Jared and his wife, Kim. There is also Rock n Wool Winery owned by my nephew, Shaun, Creek Bed Country Pharmacy, the MacKenzie Enviromental Center, and the state game farm that raises pheasants to release for hunters. We also have Lake Wisconsin and the Schoenenberg Marsh.

I put all these ideas into my brain and went to bed.  I woke up thinking about Rowan Creek. It is a trout stream that runs right through Poynette.  This was an idea I could work with. I happen to be possessed by string quilts right now. I finished a couple and have no less than 3 in progress. Ideas keep popping into my head and I just have to try them out.  So I decided to do a simple string quilt table topper based on Rowan Creek.

I started with foundation squares of soft n sheer and laid them out on my countertop, then drew a creek winding across them. I marked which areas should be blue to represent the water and strip pieced those areas, then added browns and greens along the banks of the creeks.

I thought I should add some houses. Since Bourn Creative says orange is the color of joy and creativity, I decided all the houses would be orange. Either that or I found some blocks and partial blocks in my orphan block drawer that had orange houses on cul de sacs that I had inadvertently made while attempting to make this quilt.

It is my firm belief that every good orphan block will find a new home and that time ripping these blocks apart just because I used a creative alternate plan to put them together would a waste of time.

So there it is. On Rowan Creek in my home town of Poynette, WI, where I have been creating for the last 38 years.

Created by Diane Lapacek.

18" x 35".

You Are My Sunshine

I was involved in the Sunny Sunflower Block Exchange awhile back.  (Actually, it was 2014!) I finished putting this together last fall, then apple season got in the way and I procrastinated about getting it posted.

This was a super fun block exchange.  I love my quilt!  Thank you to Shannon Linde for hosting and thanks to Kim Lapacek for taking these fabulous pictures.

I gave this quilt to my daughter, Karma, because she told me it belongs with her Sunflowers Make Me Happy quilt.  Works for me. 

What Happened to My Time?!!????!??

Created for Project Quilting Season 8 Time is Up challenge.

This quilt represents what happens to your time when you have much to do and lack focus.  It's never happened to me, but I'm interpreting it for a friend....

I started by fusing a clock on a cool piece of tie dyed fabric.

Then I cut it up and sewed it back together. This seems to be a favorite technique of mine in the recent past.  I often use it if I have something I'm working on that I don't particularly like or just to make something more interesting.  In this case, I liked the clock I started with, but I still think cutting it up made it more interesting.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.

25" x 25"

A Farmers Life in Denim and Flannel

Created for Project Quilting Season 8 Well-dressed Man challenge.

I had really limited time this week.  Seems like that's been a theme this Season.  I got an early start on my Sun Prairie Heritage Quilters challenge this year, but the challenge was Hexagons!  Lots of hand work.  Lots of hours. It had to be in by March 1 and Kim (yes, that Kim) said she would deliver it if I had it to her by 4 pm Tuesday, February 28.  I sewed madly to the end and was only a minute or two late.

When my husband, Frank, showed up to his bachelor party some 40 years ago, one of his childhood friends had blown up a picture of him as a small child.  He was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt in the picture and they said he was still wearing the same shirt. I believe he's still wearing it today.

Fortunately, since it was already Wednesday and I had places to be all day Thursday and Saturday, denim and flannel calls for simple. It happens that I had some squares of denim hanging out on my UFO shelf.  Another time saver.  I cut squares of flannel plaids to match, and went to work. Since just squares was kind of boring, I added a circle to each square and alternated the denim and flannel blocks. The circles have no particular relationship to the theme of the challenge, but I seem to have adopted a go cutter, at least temporarily, and it gave me a chance to try it out since I had a circle die.

In the interest of saving time, I decided to make the quilt rag style with seams exposed on the back of the quilt. This was fun! When I ran out of flannel squares, I decided the size was just right.

Done!  I'll probably clip all those raw edge seams so they fuzz up a bit more when I put it in the washer and dryer.

     

     

Just so you all know, yes, Frank still typically dresses in denim and flannel, but back when I went to my first quilt retreat with a bunch of friends, I came back to my space and found a candy version of my Frankie in his speedo attached to my machine.  Maybe that's a quilt for another day...

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.

Scrappy Fun

Created for Project Quilting Season 8 Brighter the Better challenge.

I've been making things from shreds for a long time.  Shreds are the smallest strips of fabric, often left at the end of a piece or when squaring up a piece of fabric. Selvages and anything narrower than 1 inch is a shred.

For this project, I used squares of black fabric as foundations. I simply laid down shreds and top stitched them in place, then put all the squares on another piece of fabric and top stitched around the edges of each square.  I decided it needed a little more fun, so I cut out circles and either rotated or switched them and top stitched the whole thing onto another piece of fabric.

Finally, I layered it with batting and backing and quilted it together with a few lines of stitching, then put it in the washer and dryer to make the edges fuzz up a bit.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI.
17" x 30"

Dancing Fire

Created for the Project Quilting Season 8 Tune in to Texture challenge.

What a fun challenge!  So many possibilities!  I found tons of inspiration in just a few minutes without leaving my basement.

The challenge was to pick something that I could get done this week.  I decided to go with one piece of hand-dyed fabric and overlay the texture I found on the bottom of a flat that bedding plants came in.

I found some ready made 1/4" black bias tape that was left over from the days when I taught a stained glass quilt class many years ago.  I started fusing it in place and figured I'd make some wider bias for the heavier lines in the inspiration flat.  My bias tape makers were visiting my daughter-in-law, Kim, so I asked Frank to bring them home.  Before he arrived I decided that I liked the look without the wider pieces added.  About that time, I was also really starting to feel like crap, so I decided enough is enough.

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