July 7, 2009
Star Spangled Fourth
It seemed appropriate that I should do a Twilt celebrating our country’s birthday. I took a very simple approach to “Star Spangled 4th” and choose lots of blue fabric with stars for the central panel. The red star and stripe batik complemented the blues. For contrast I added the white stripe. I quilted an X pattern across each blue square and used a red straight stitch to quilt around the white patterns in the batik.
Then came the fun of searching through my buttons, pins and charms to find the embellishments that I sewed into the center of each blue square. My favorite find was the Polymer Clay Flag pin.
I hope that you and your family had a fabulous and safe holiday weekend!
For more info: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts : Flickr Twilts Page.
June 30, 2009
Twist and Twilt
Silk and Linen are the focus for this Tuesday’s Twitter Quilt, “Twist and Twilt”. The ribbons and the twisted blocks are made from silk ribbons and silk fabric that was scrunch painted. The painted fabric was also used for the flower. The blocks are folded and basted to a backing fabric before the top was pieced. After the quilting was finished, I mostly stitched in the ditch, the ribbons were laid out and twisted as I applied them to the Linen block with a running stitch of #8 pearl cotton. Each petal and leaf of the flower was shaped using a candle to burn the edges.
The shapes were than applied using a running stitch with pearl cotton and embroidery was added to the leaves and flower center.
Credit goes to Yvonne Porcella who introduced me to the techniques through her books. She is a fabulous artist.
For more info: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts : Flickr Twilts Page.
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June 2, 2009
Twilted Trees for Twilt Tuesday
The colors in this Twilt are just fabulous. I couldn’t have been happier. They just seem to glow. I plan on making a larger version of this pattern in the future.
I have wanted to try this design for a while and a Twilt is the perfect way to test it. Two different sizes of 3D triangles were used to create “Trees” .
I am reminded of the mountains and forests in the late summer or even fall.
The picture below shows what the piece looked like before I rolled the bias folds of the triangles. 3D triangles can be used without rolling the folds because they are already finished bias edges.
I often pause at the construction stage because most of my designs could be used with out the rolling. Still, the curves add another dimension and so I go ahead and roll and stitch.
As you read this I am on the central coast of California for the Central Coast Quilt Shop Tour. I will be demoing my technique at The Quilt Attic after nursing my adult daughter after she has her tonsils removed. Ouch!
For more info: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts on my Flickr Twilts Page.
May 26, 2009
Red White and Blue Twilt Tuesday
Yesterday was Memorial Day here in the US and I was inspired to dig out my red, white and blue fabrics and work on a patriotic Twilt. As you can see I have collected quite a few batiks in those colors. “Stars & Stripes” went together pretty quickly. Twelve 3D triangles point to a single 3D square offset from the center. I had rejected the muted strip with stars but when I laid it out I changed my mind. 
The 3D square and triangles are grid quilted and then the folds are rolled. Straight lines of quilting echo the stripes of the star stripe fabric. What have you been working on? I love to hear. Have you started your own Twilt project. If not, you should give it a try. I am enjoying myself immensely.
For more info: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts on my Flickr Twilts Page.
May 14, 2009
A Twilt from Jules Quilts
Please visit Jules Quilts and check out her fabulous contribution to the Twitter Quilt….Twilt project. I love it! Thanks Jules! “Curves Conquered“
April 28, 2009
It’s Sweet and Simple this Twilt Tuesday
I just got back from the Seven Sister’s Quilt Show in San Luis Obispo, California and was worn out and didn’t have a lot of time for this weeks piece. But, that just goes to show how quick, easy and satisfying these little Twilts can be.
I started with a embroidered paper pieced basket block from my unfinished project stash. This was a left over piece from a couple of little wall hangings I made at least 15 years ago. It was too pretty to waste. 
I sewed the lot cabin strips on through the batting and back as I worked my way out to the outer edges. There are several Liberty of London type cotton lawn. These are very soft, light weight fabrics with wonderful prints. The added flowers are plastic molded flowers from Australia that have just been waiting for an opportunity to shine. I was quite satisfied with this project.
I would love to see your Twilts. Drop me a line and I will be happy to link to your Blog or send me a picture and I will feature it here. For more about Twilts see Twitter Quilts….Twilts.
April 21, 2009
Twilt Tuesday Brings Just a Hint of Summer
The Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2009 is still going on so please visit Amy’s site and the over 400 entries and my entry, Memories & Merlot, as well.
It was over 90 degrees here yesterday and is supposed to be again today. Then it should cool down to normal spring temperatures again. That was enough to remind me that Summer is just around the corner.
“Just a Hint of Summer” features an embroidered Sunflower of hand dyed silk ribbon, pearl cotton and beads on crinkled batik fabric with lots french knots in the Sunflower center.
The sunflower batik has beads added and the purple insets are pieced of multiple purple batiks.
I hope that you have been working on a Twilt or two. These little pieces have really sparked my creativity in so many unrelated ways.
Read more: Twitter Quilts…Twilts.
April 14, 2009
Lost in an Asian Garden
I did something a little different with this week’s Twilt. I kept eyeing this older Asian print that probably was produced in Japan when they first started printing fabrics for the quilters. The funky colors and old fashioned designs were calling to me. What can I say, I just let go and took a larger square of the fabric, sandwiched it and started quilting. I used regular stitching in black on the strippy areas and free motion on the flowers. I am not a particularly good free motion quilter so this was practice as well. I tried out a new product that I picked up a while back by Sew Slip. It’s a fairly large smooth sheet that temporarily sticks to the table and has a hole where the needle goes. I really will use it again. I feel like it helped.
Once I finished the quilting, I bound the piece and then started embroidering and beading. I haven’t done that in a long time and I forgot how much I miss the hand embroidery. I used french knots in the centers of the big flowers, feather stitch on the leaves, chain stitch around those round things and straight stitch, lazy daisies and beads on the smaller flowers.
I got ‘Lost in an Asian Garden’. Have you made a Twilt yet? They’re a great opportunity to practice a technique, use a small sample from that class you took and never finished, revisit a technique you have missed or you add to the list. For more about Twilts: Twitter Quilts….Twilts.
April 7, 2009
Twilt Tuesday: That Old Fashioned Feeling
Cathedral Window Quilts are supposed to be my specialty so I thought it appropriate to do a Cathedral Window Twilt. It uses the same quilted finish as Layers of Lavender and really did only take a day to complete.
The subtle fabrics I found really give this piece “That Old Fashioned Feeling”.
March 31, 2009
I’d Rather be Twilting
"Flutter By"
The embroidered Butterfly was in my collection as a sample so I finished the embroidery and made it into a tiny little Twilt. So, I have a Twilt on a Twilt. Buttons are used to hold it in place. I added some Butterflies from my Button and Bead collection. The curves that form the Butterfly’s wings are 3D triangles with rolled bias folds.
What a nice way to continue to welcome Spring. Don’t you think?
For more info: Twitter Quilts….Twilts
Snips and Bits from Shelley's Studio 