Playing Favorites - 2016 Quilt Alliance Contest

The 10th annual Quilt Alliance contest theme is "Playing Favorites" and all quilters, regardless of their style (traditional, modern, art) or technique (longarm, hand quilting, applique, pieced...) are encouraged to enter a 16" x 16" quilt celebrating their favorite technique, style, pattern or whatever you most love about quilting. All concepts are fair game -- let your imagination run wild!  Read guidelines here and enter your quilt here.

American Foursquare, 16"x16"

What do I love most about quilting?  I love creating my own patterns and unique designs. Mixing traditional and contemporary techniques. I love a quilt that is an organized mess, with raw edges and ripped fabric.  I love crazy quilting with a mixture of fabrics, embroidery and embellishment.  I love beads.  I love applique.   I love playing with color. I have a career in historic preservation and am drawn to old house, dilapidated barns and historic architecture.
 

My Baltimore Album Style

Finished and mailed on the postmark deadline... Good by sweet quilt enjoy your time with the good folks at the Quilt Alliance before eBay finds you a new home.

My Baltimore Album Style by Amy Munson, entire quilt measures 16" x 16"

Hand quilted and embellished with novelty yarns and beads. Each block measures 4 1/2 inches square. 

Inspired by at nearly the last minute...

I went back and forth on doing a quilt for the Quilt Alliance this year.  Life is always busy all around and adding one more deadline felt like it could be too much.  So, yesterday I decided to give it a go and get started.  I had the idea and had found my inspiring quilt.

I am in awe when ever I see a Baltimore Album Quilt.  The lovely applique, the variety of colors and the vast variety of block design.  I even took a class in needle turn applique in the hopes of one day creating my own.

With the Quilt Alliance Inspired by challenge,  I am creating a Baltimore Album Quilt my way,  with raw edges, novelty yarn, hand and machine embroidery as well as a few beads. 

Here are the first few blocks.....
And yikes,  the deadline is June 1.......I will be a busy quilter the next few weeks. 

Inspired By

Gearing up to start my quilt for the Quilt Alliance yearly contest.  This year the theme is Inspired By.  What to join in the fun?  Then check out the quilts over on the Quilt Index and pick one that inspires you, make a quilt and send it in.  For all the nitty gritty details check the Quilt Alliance web page. 

I clicked through thousands of quilt and finally settled on my inspiration (I think).  

This lovely Baltimore Album Quilt dating from 1850 - 1875 isfrom the collection of the University of Michigan. 

Quilt Alliance Entry Start to Finish

In 2013 the Quilt Alliance will be celebrate 20 years of documenting, preserving and sharing quilt history.  Twenty was the selected theme for the 2013 competition.  Pondering on the theme lead me to think about what I was doing when I was twenty years old.  I spent the entire fall semester of my junior year in college studying art history in Florence, Italy.    I walked past the Duomo every day.  Most days trying to quickly navigate my way through the squared to get to class on time.  I remember one particular day telling myself to slow down and take it all in and remember the amazing sights I walked past every day. 

I would have liked to use a photo I took but none really would have worked for what I had in mind.  So I found this photo on line taken by a gentleman, Denis Jarvis, and allowed for a very generous use of his photos.  I cropped the photo and had it printed on fabric via Spoonflower.

Next I created a raw edge pieced border that continued the colors and texture from the photo.  I used a variety of fabrics from prints to batiks and tulle.

I used my embellisher machine to punch all of the raw edges down to temporarily hold them to the muslin foundation.   Love how the fabrics are lining up with the photo. 

With the fabrics punched in place I embroidered all of the seams 

In progress shot of the embroidery.  I love the soft edge that the embellisher creates when joining the fabrics.  I just leave most of the wisps and fraying fabric in place under the embroidery to enhance the soft easy color transitions.

With the embroidery complete,  I saw that somethign was needed to break up the sky in the photo.  So I used hand quilting to extend some of the embellishment lines through the background as well as quilting around various elements of the Dome.  I also added some dark stem stitch lines to the photo to sharpen up some of the elements. 

hand quilting in progress

The binding is a dark brown fabric and creates a nice frame for the entire piece.  I absolutely love how this piece turned out,  it brought back fond memories and great enjoyment in doing all of the hand work. 

Just need to add a sleeve and the label and this beauty will be ready to ship off to the Quilt Alliance to be auctioned off this fall. 

Quilt Alliance entry update

I finished up the borders on my Quilt Alliance entry and it is now onto pondering over how I want to add some embellishment.

And I had a great little helper

Sticky Tape Flowers Tutorial

As promised here is the tutorial on how I made the flowers on Bricks Mortar Fabric Thread.....

What you will need: 

• Fabric for the flowers – 2 shades of yellow fabric, one for the front and one for the back
• Steam a Seam 2
• Flower Stencil I used the stencil Double Chrysanthemum from Laura Murray Designs
• Sticky/Scotch Tape
• Embroidery Floss I used DMC size 8 Pearl Cotton in Variegated Mustard
• Embroidery Needle
• Seed Beads I used vintage beads available from Old Stock Supply on Etsy
• Beading Needle and Thread
• Sewing Machine with Free Motion setting
• Iron
• Scissors
• Pencil
• brown colored pencil or fabric marker

Directions…

1.       Select main fabric and back fabric for flowers.  I like to use a lighter tone for the back so the pencil marks are easy to see. 

2.       Make your fusible sandwich.  Take a swatch of main fabric big enough to fit selected stencil and press firmly on to the Steam a Seam 2 sheet.  Steam a Seam 2 is unique that it is slightly tacky and will stick to the fabric without ironing.  Cut out the swatch and then press the back fabric to the other side of the Steam a seam.  So you will have a sandwich of fabric, fusible and fabric now follow the directions for the product and fuse the sandwich together with an iron. 

3.     Trace the stencil or draw your own flower petals onto the back fabric.  Keep in mind if the patter is not symmetrical it will be viewed from the opposite direction when flipped over to the right side of the fabric. 

4.       Cut out the petals to the flower and try to keep them in order.  It was difficult with so many petals I ended up numbering them so I would not get confused.  Also, I cut just to the outside of the pencil line so the pieces were a bit bigger.  Don’t worry too much about the pencil markings as this will be on the back of the flower. 

5.       Next lay all of the petals in place where you want to attach the flower….

 

6.       Then use sticky tape to hold down the tips, be sure to leave the center clear of tape, that is where we are going to sew them down. 

7.   On the center of the taped flower use your sewing machine and sew around in a circle a few time being sure to catch each petal with a few stitches.  The yellow flower that I am touching has the petals stitched down. 

8.     A tip I found in Allison Aller’s Crazy Quilting book was to use colored pencil to shade the flowers.  Super tip, a few lines of the brown pencil really gave the flowers a realistic touch…. Then I used the pearl cotton to create the embroidery knots to cover the machine stitches.  I used a variety of dark colored vintage seed beads to fill in the center.

Bricks Mortar Fabric Thread

My entry for the 2012 Alliance for American Quilts is finished, just need to put on the label and hanging sleeve.  I will be a bittersweet moment again this year to pack up my quilt and send it off,  I just love how the quilt turned out.   Even got my husbands stamp of approval with his comment "Now, you are keeping this one right?" 

Bricks Mortar Fabric Thread

Bricks and mortar are the foundation of a home just as fabric and thread are the foundation of a quilt.   

 A close up on the 3-D flowers that I have dubbed "sticky tape flowers".  Each petal is cut out individually then attached and embellished with embroidered knots and seed beads to create a incredibly realistic looking flower. 

A tutorial on the flowers is in the works. 

40

My Alliance for American Quilts entry has been nagging at me to finish it up....

I decided to add some flowers, and after some discussion with a fellow quilter on not having just the right color yellow to create some flowers that would pop against the brick background.  She came through with a bag of "screaming" yellow colors that really popped. 

The flower petals are individually cut out and then attached to add a little dimension to the flat brick.   

I have some beading to do and embroidery I would like to add,  but overall it is coming together.   

In other happening around here,  I celebrated my 40th birthday at the end of March. Not much fan fair and very few "over the hill" jokes. I did bake myself a cake...Strawberry from The Cake Mix Doctor. 

:)

The winners in the 2011 Alliance for American Quilts contest have been published in the April/May issue of Quilter's Newsletter.....

Check out my quilt, Sunflowers on the Plains, hanging out with some spectacular quilts...

Home is the Quilt.....

President's Day has become the day I get the bulk of the work done on my entry for the Alliance for American Quilts Contest entry. 

Here is what I have so far for the 2012  the theme is  Home is where the Quilt Is.....

I am playing with the idea of how bricks and mortar are like fabric and thread both making up a home.  I don't know if I quite achieved what I had in mind.  Maybe because I usually add embellishment and I am just not sure if this quilt needs it or it is just me wanting to add more.  Maybe this would be a good background and add something to the foreground.  Arrgh, I dont know,  better just let it sit and simmer for awhile....

Alliance for American Quilts

The Alliance for American Quilts has the gallery of quilts entered in the 2011 contest up and ready for viewing. All of the quilts will be up for auction on ebay starting on Monday November 12, 2011 and ending on December 12, 2011. All proceeds from the auction support the Alliance for American Quilts and their projects.

My entry is #107 and while viewing my quilt you can hear me read my artist statement.

Sunflowers on the Plains

My 2011 entry for the Alliance for American Quilts Contest. The theme this year is Alliance: People, Pattern, Passion.

Sunflowers on the Plains

I live in North Dakota, one of the least populated and thought to be the least visited states in the Union. Located in the upper Midwest , it is a vast and sweeping landscape. From the fertile Red River Valley in the east, abundant with fields of wheat, corn and sunflowers to the vast plains and rolling hills leading to the Badlands in the west, there is a majesty in the patterns and people of North Dakota.

Nothing could be more lonely and nothing more beautiful than the view at nightfall across the prairies to these huge hill masses, when the lengthening shadows had at last merged into one and the faint after-glow of the red sunset filled the west. Theodore Roosevelt

Progress

I finished the hand embroidery around the flowers and added a bits of novelty yarn around the leaves with my embellisher. I also ran the embellisher over the seams of the landscape to tack them to the muslin foundation. I am still undecided on what if anything to add to the landscape, maybe a bit of machine embroidery.
Next up is the machine embroidery to add some highlights and definition to the leaves and flowers as well as permanently hold all of the yarn in place.

Quick Quilt

I was not planning on doing a quilt up for the Alliance for American Quilts this year. 2011 has been filled with one cold after another for the kids and myself. Abby had surgery last week to get her second set of tubes. So I thought I would take one thing off my plate and not try to do a quilt. The theme this year had me stumped as well, Alliances: People, Patterns, Passion, I mean how do you represent that all in one quilt. I pondered on a few ideas but none seemed worthy of pursuing.

Until I started thinking about me and the people and patterns around me and where I live and what I do.


It is still in progress, but should be finished in time to mail off by the deadline
I will be adding embroidery and beads to the sunflowers as well as novelty yarns to the leaves and landscape.

Commission Quilt

I recently finished a commissioned quilt. It was a gift for a gal who reads my blog, so I have not been able to share much about it. It is very similar to my 2009 Alliance for American Quilts entry Crazy for Beads with a few changes.

New from Old

All of the quilts entered in the Alliance for American Quilts New from Old contest have been posted on the Alliance for American Quilts site. Go check them out, it is great to see how everyone interpreted the theme.

Here are a few photos and detail shots I took of my entry before I sent it off.

I hope some of you get a chance to see this quilt in person, photos just don't show off all of the beadwork

The beaded pink flower (in the photo below) on the top right in this photo was make using the beaded flower technique from my beaded flower tutorial on YouTube.

I added one beetle. I am working on a pattern booklet full of various beetles, bees and butterflies and I am sure this one may make an appearance in it.

A few of the flowers (top right in previous photo and bottom right in next photo) I beaded ended up hanging over the edge and I did not want to take out the beading as I finished it. So I added some free motion stitching to firm up the raw edge and cut them out to allow them to hang over the edge

Victorian Homes

My 2009 entry for the Alliance for American Quilts Crazy for Quilts contest, Crazy for Beads, has been included in an article on Crazy Quilting in the June 2010 issue of Victorian Homes.
My little quilt was included as a modern example in the article Crazy Quilts, Then and Now.


Amy Rouleau Munson

Abby's Garden

I have put the finishing touches on my entry for the Alliance for American Quilts New from Old Contest.

I love with how the little quilt turned out, but as always with my creative process there are things I would do a little different. I has several occasions where I had a design or embellishment additions were an after thought and then I had to figure out how to handle the changes.

Old from New Update

Work has been slow on my 2010 Alliance for American Quilts entry. I am so glad I started to early, with two kids, work and keeping up a house on top of it all I am amazed I can find time be creative.
I am nearly finished beading the sashiko motif in the lower right corner of the block, if you look close you can see the pencil marks of what I have left to complete. I am not thrilled with how the beads are laying, at close inspection they seem a bit wonky. I sewed each bead on one by one in the sashiko design, but if I think I would like to try to alternate a black bead and a clear bead of the same size and sew them on using the beaded back stitch in a nice straight line.
I have a few more flowers I would like to cover with beads and then the rest will have just a touch of beads. I will add a few more bugs, like the beetle on the red fan blade and then it will be on to finishing.

I have found several other bloggers sharing their progress and ideas for the New from Old contest...

Allison Aller created a beautiful block Granddaughter's Flower Garden.

Barbara Curiel is working on a block using a vintage hankie.

Gerry Kruger is creating a block to honor her grandmother and her granddaughter. With photos of each at the age of 16 Incorporated into the block it will be quite the treasure.

Mary Stori created a wonderful quilt Penny Rug Revisited

If there are any other bloggers sharing their progress on a block for the Alliance for American Quilts let me know, so we all can ohh and ahh over your creation.