freestyle friday

The Zen of machine quilting

I have seen and read about the zentangle craze and since I am a manager in my work life and have sat thru many a meeting - I have perfected my doodling skills. So when I saw that someone had taken it a step further and free motion quilted with the same method - a light went off and I said "I can do that!"

I googled royalty free zentangle patterns and did copy the guitar and the piano from that - it was royalty free so I hope that it's legal to do so. But all the doodles and lines are from my imagination. This was really fun and freestyle for sure.

zen music
10" by 12"
$35.00
http://www.etsy.com/listing/89244968/zen-music-art-quilt

Tuesday's Tile - Wisdom or Gold

Hi, Sharon here. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Quilter's Tile - Wisdom or Gold?

8" x 8"

©2011 Sharon V. Rotz

Today's tile combines a variety of techniques. In the background of the piece, I've used Shiva Artist's Paintstiks over texture plates and Dye-na-Flow paints to vary the color of the fabric. I then took the fabric to my machine and added some decorative stitches using metallic thread. (Some of the over 200 stitches that my machine will do and I usually never use. What great options, I need to expand on this.)

For the writing, I dropped the feed dogs and machine quilted the words.

To finish off this tile, I went green and used recycled items. The borders strips were strips from old ties  and the buttons cut from an old suit coat.

Freestyle Fridays - barn window

I am going to try to try something new every week to challenge myself - something that I have either never done or have dabbled in before but want to try something different.
I want to lay caution to the wind and just go for it :):)

and I will try to post what turns out in these adventures in quilting every friday - thus the title "Freestyle Fridays"
(I may not make it every friday but will try) sometimes life gets in the way

I started out with a piece of orange fabric that was just not going to be used the way it was - too bright - too orange. I had a spray bottle of bathroom cleaner that has bleach in it and sprayed the fabric, let it dry and pressed it. that got me the look  I wanted. Then had a length of knitted yarn that I started and never did anything with, so I cut that apart and used it as a tree branch. The rest just sort of fell into place. I cut strips of some sheer like fabric in shades of wood colors for the window and barn walls. I also added other bits of yarn to the branches for more texture and depth.

more yarns were couched together to make a nest for the button red bird to sit and I then added some leaf buttons and regular small brown nails on each wall. 

The little spots of what looks white on the window frame is the camera reflecting light from the sequins of the fabric. (Not sure how to fix that)

view through the barn window
16" by 15"
$45.00
http://www.landscapelady.net

Tuesday's Tile - Red Leaf

Quilter's Tile - Red Leaf

8" x 8"

©2011 Sharon V. Rotz

In the midst of Christmas activities, a friend and I got together for some quilting playtime.

After watching Frieda Anderson and Laura Wasilowski  with Nancy Zieman on Wisconsin Public Television, Pat and I set out to have our own fusing adventure.  (By the way, I'm so thrilled to call these three talented quilters my friends. Frieda, Laura, and Nancy are all so enthusiastic about sharing, don't miss it if you have the opportunity to learn from them.)

  

Back to my quilting. Using pre-fused fabrics, I arranged and fused these pieces directly to the batting. Then I did a bit more fusing to add details. So quick and easy with great results. Another fun day.

landscapelady art quilts for sale

 to purchase these and other pieces go to my etsy shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/landscapelady

or email me at mcquilts@hotmail.com

 Seaside friends
$75.00

this 18 in wide by 28 in art quilt has a young woman sitting on a stone wall with the beach in the background. A bird is perched by her side and she seems quite taken by him. There are rocks on the beach in the background and seagrass in the foreground. I used mostly pastel batiks and the border is an earthy tan/brown color. There is a sleeve on the back for hanging (which is made of a home dec floral print ) and it is signed on the back. All of my quilts are one of a kind originals.

Comstock covered bridge
$90.00

this original and unique piece is 11.5 by 21.5 inches and was inspired by a beautiful covered bridge in vermont. It comes with a tag with the following info:

Comstock Covered Bridge, Vermont
Built in 1883 by Sheldon and Savannard Jewett
It has a 60 foot span over the Trout River on Comstock Bridge Road,
just off Highway 118 near 
Montgomery 

I used batiks for most of it and have cut out ferns and fusible appliqued them down around the rocks. The water has painted rapids and I have quilted it all down with decorative threads.

Old Man of the Mountain
$45.00


This unique 10 in wide by 14 in long quilted art quilt is of the old man of the mountain in the white mountains of new hampshire who met his demise in 2003. I have stitched the words old man 1805 (which is the date of the first recorded sighting of the old man) - 2003 at the top part of the sunset sky. Decorative thread was used to quilt his features giving some texture to the piece. The back is sort of a rust color with a leaf motif and has triangles of fabric to hold a dowel or stick on the top to hang and the bottom for stability

Tuesday's Tile - Wonderful Counselor

Quilter's Tile - Wonderful Counselor

8" x 8"

©2011 Sharon V. Rotz

Today's Quilter's Tile is made of marbled fabric which I cut and added around a center marbled piece created by "Lost Marbles" by Debi Huff.

I added writing with a Pigma pen and handstitching.

The edge was finished off with hand beading.

Tuesday's Tile - Constellations

Hi, Sharon here, with another Quilter's Tile.

Quilter's Tile - Constellations

8" x 8"

©2011 Sharon V. Rotz

And then the little angel flew off to the stars

 where she lived with Greater Bear, Smaller Bear

 and all of her other animal friends.

Looking through my sketchbook, I found this little angel and she was the inspiration for this whimsical quilter's tile.

Often I start a project without a plan, well, maybe I should clarify that to without a drawn plan, just an idea in my head. For this project, I actually used a sketch that I had in my sketchbook. I did flow with it and make changes along the way. (For step-by-step, stop by my blog)

How do you work? Do you make a pattern and make all your mistakes (or changes) on paper before you start?

Bartonsville covered bridge quilt

This past summer hurricane Irene devastated Vermont (where I live). We lost many covered bridges that had been here for over a hundred years. One of those bridges was the Bartonsville bridge, you may have seen the video on tv with the bridge being swept away in the storm. If you would like to see it there is you tube video of it here , so of course I had to make a quilt of the bridge.

another couple of photos I found interesting was a before and after of the bridge

                                                

                                                amazing what the power of nature can do

If you would like to see more photos of my bartonsville bridge please go to my etsy shop - click here

landscapelady introduction

Hello fellow art quilt lovers! My name is carol mcdowell and go by landscapelady for my art quilt business. I am new here so thought I would tell you a bit about myself. I am 54 years young, have two dog "children" and live in Vermont. I work full time but spend as much time as I can creating. My roots are in patchwork having gotten the quilting bug - omg, I guess it's been 30 years ago. Funny I don't feel that old, must be all the quilting has made me feel younger:-) the past ten year I have found art quilting and particularly landscapes to be my forte', although I do feel the need for a good ol' fashioned patchwork once in awhile - usually putting a different twist on it. For example right now I am working on a simple mariners compass and used a border of little chicks and of course had to stick a rooster on it as well. I will post a picture when it's done.
I sell my quilts at my etsy shop. The prices are probably way to low for the work, but you have to start somewhere and right now I'm happy just getting a little "pin" money (or should I say fabric money)
I am new at blogging, so please bear with me. I have also started a blog at http://landscapelady.blogspot.com/

My first post is not so much about quilting but about a special gift. If any of you have a grand or great grandmother that is a story teller you should read it:-)

Anyway, I'm very happy to find a place to be able to interact with other like minded quilter's and look forward to sharing projects etc.

My etsy shop is at http://www.landscapelady.net
You can find me on twitter As quiltscapes
And Facebook as landscapelady

Winter is here in the northeast and soon the chickadees will be at my bird feeder.
I made these two little quilts in their honor.