Salt and Sand Blog Hop

 Starfish or more accurately Seastars were my inspiration for my project in the Salt and Sand Blog hop, organized by Carla at Creatin’ in the Sticks. 

My starfish is hanging around in the rocks, usually, it's in my bathroom.

 

Did you know that all starfish resemble stars, the most common only have five arms, although some of them can grow up to 40 arms?  Interested in reading more fun facts about Starfish check this out.

Thread selection, not all of these made the cut

I drew out the shape of the starfish and traced it onto my fabric with a Clover Air Erasable marker. 

little bubbles

 I free motion quilted a star in the centre of the starfish radiating the bubbles out into the arms. There are some tiny bubbles in these arms, I used Aurifil #4666 40 wt variegated thread.

For the background, I used Superior Thread #4037 Twist and free motion quilted some curved lines trying to give the effect of underwater mountains. I added a few delicate water plants using Aurifil #3817 40 wt. I wanted the starfish to be more pronounced and the background to stay in the back, I think I accomplished that.  The piece is 10'' by 9 1/2'' and I used my favourite batting  Hobbs 80/20.

Want to see what fun my fellow bloggers are having in the salt and sand?

                                                                    March 25

Quiltscapes

Beaquilter

Stitchin At Home

The Joyful Quilter

Scrapdash

Freckled Fox Quiltery

Quilts Fabric and Thread Tales

                                                          Words & Stitches

Project Quilting 12.6 Ab Intra

 Up until this morning, I was not going to do this challenge. This week's challenge is Ab Intra, or "from within." At first glance, I think the theme is a little intimidating and I have too many raw emotions to contemplate putting them into this. 

But, you know there is always a but somewhere. While having a coffee this morning I thought of this challenge and how we as quilters give freely and put our heart into all we do. We are all stars! 

 So the challenge started at 7:27 AM, nothing like the last minute to do this.

a fabric pull of scraps began. I thought of my inner heart and fresh beginnings. Of course, green being my favourite colour didn't hurt

Not much time for anything else, it was put the head done and sew.

by 9:20 I had made progress

Keeping the pedal to the metal, well maybe not metal. But I was going full out.

11:45 AM

I can't believe I made it. Simple straight line quilting echoing the shapes. This little piece finishes at 7'' by 7''. Need to go small when there is no time to spare.

And so I have 6 for 6 done! 

My Crazy Tulip Patch

This week's Project QUILTING challenge is You're Crazy, which is inspired by the late 1800s “crazy quilt” movement.

I am not into crazy quilting at all. Plus a couple years ago I cleaned out fabric that I was no longer interested in ie: velvet. So my take on the crazy quilting challenge has a more modern feel to it. 
I first made a small crazy patch using my scraps of quilting cotton.

my rotrary cutting mat is not in the best of shape as you can see in this picture, this is my second one and I will not buy another of this brand

I drew out a tulip on freezer paper and cut out my tulips.

one pink tulip

If one tulip was good then why not three and each a different colour. I pulled out my Sulky threads to do the machine stitches on them.

three different tulips, I used some of the stitches on my machine for embellishment on my tulips.

The leaves and stems were cut from some extra fabric that I had prepped for an earlier project using the 'Crafted Applique' method. I keep the extra pieces between sheets of wax paper and use them when I need a quick piece. I didn't have enough of the darker green and thought what the heck a little variety in my leaves would be fine.

the back shows the quilting nicely. 

I quilted the background with small loop de loops as I didn't want the quilting to steal from the tulips themselves.

Without further ado let me introduce you to 'My Crazy Tulip Patch'.

I consider this an art piece

Spring is on its way and soon the tulips will be up and blooming.