Donna's Quilts

Checkboard Sampler quilt--machine quilted.

Ohio Star Scrap Quilt - hand quilted. This was my first ever, quilt and was queen sized.



The quilt had just been pieced in this picture. Tracy wanted a 'family tree' quilt with embroidered names of all six children and mom and dad. They wanted Darcy Anne's block to stand out. See above.
Family Tree Baby Quilt for Darcy Anne, who lived almost two weeks


Art Class quilt for Shona. (Not quilted yet, in this picture.)

Completed Banners

Ministry banner for Tres Dias I was given a friend's husband's clothes and a small line drawing of Jesus praying for a man. I made a soft sculpture rather than a flat applique. Click to see the detail on the boots and belt.
Banner Logos Speech and Debate. I made this banner for my children's speech and debate club. The sword is hand appliqued from satin. Cody Stevens drew the sword (picture was about 5" long). The kids told me what they wanted and I did a computer mock up of their ideas. The fake suede was excellent for this project.


My sister wanted me to do this banner for carrying in a parade and displaying outside her booth at the Renaissance faires. She had already had a simple blue parachute banner with the lettering. She asked me to 'jazz it up' so you could see it from a distance.

After some questioning, I discovered she loved red and since she would use it at fairs I thought I would aim for a 'castle' look. I added tabs, red top and bottom borders and gold fringe, braid and rope. I was determined to enhance the lettering. At the bottom, you can see it was pale gold on blue. You certainly could not see it at a distance. I used shiny red fabric paint for that.

Also, she asked me to put her logo on it. The design was the size of a business card logo. I enlarged and used fabric paint to I was almost finished with the lettering in this picture. It is a bit wrinkled due to being made of parachute cloth. We ironed it out afterwards.


These are mini banners to give the clubs who visited our teenagers' square dance club.


The first practice piece for 12 Names of God banners I machine appliqued and sewed for our church. My friend, Shannon Mucha, drew the pictures I requested and then I blew them up large and appliqued them with gold lame on Satin. I will be uploading the complete set of finished banners in the next week or two.

Donna's Quilts

Checkboard Sampler quilt--machine quilted.

Ohio Star Scrap Quilt - hand quilted. This was my first ever, quilt and was queen sized.



The quilt had just been pieced in this picture. Tracy wanted a 'family tree' quilt with embroidered names of all six children and mom and dad. They wanted Darcy Anne's block to stand out. See above.
Family Tree Baby Quilt for Darcy Anne, who lived almost two weeks


Art Class quilt for Shona. (Not quilted yet, in this picture.)

New Projects I'm working on

Lena's quilt is almost done! Then I will be able to finish Brenan's quilt. I hope to enter this in our church art show this Oct. 31. You can see my earlier work on just the blocks on older posts.
This is my other entry for the art show. It is a 3 dimensional rendering of Andrew Rieth's water color painting. He painted the piece on an 8x11 piece of paper and I blew it up with a copier to 18 x 24". I'm using reverse applique and layering techniques of the Kuna indians to sew the designs. I'm using trapunto techniques and boutis to stuff each part of the picture though not all the pieces have been stuffed yet in this picture. In fact, this is only about a 1/3 of the whole piece.
This is a mock up (just folded cloth and cut outs of horses trees and fence posts) of a wall hanging that I'm going to do, on commission, for the Spendlove's new home. The mountains and hills certainly won't be so pointy and I'm buying special batiks with some artwork already printed on them for the mountains, sky, and pasture.

I always said that when the kids grew up, I was going to do custom wall hangings for people, as a home business. I discovered, a few years ago, that I was pretty good at designing cloth pictures when I was doing row quilts where each woman traded quilts for a year and worked on each other's quilts. Shannon Mucha said..why wait? I asked my dear hubby about it the next day and he said wondered how I would find a 'client'. I told him not to worry. I was sure the Lord would bring someone along who needed something new and original. How ironic it is that we were having this discussion on the way to help paint trim on our friends' new home. Gee...I wonder who needs a new piece of wall art? Hmm...Can you believe that it really didn't occur to me until I was on the floor painting trim to ask Kim if she needed anything? Voila..my new home business is born! Of course this is very much just a starting place.

I've done lots of custom projects over the years: baby quilts where they just told me, "we like these colors, and want this theme etc."banners for various ministries, and themed quilts to give as gifts to friends and family. I not only get good ideas for designing these, but also, have learned so many techniques for quilting, applique, embroidery, and beading, that I can do just about anything I can imagine. So the Spendloves agreed to commission my first one. Hurrah!


Kim wanted three main colors--the ones they painted most of their main living areas with: Deep purple, tan, and a darkish spring green. They had no art work to go with the new colors they painted with--she just loves those colors. The theme will be the Colorado Rockies.

We will add a pieced border (herringbone pattern) and possibly a scripture border on the bottom. I don't think she wants any rows of quilt blocks added, just the picture and border. I'm pretty good at lettering too which is fun. I have tons of experience with banners and even do soft sculpture. I may try to work that into her wall hanging as well as embellishments for the pasture. It may end up being about 4 x6' since they have a very large living room wall opposite the fire place, because they have a vaulted ceiling. It will be fun to see where we end up!

Completed Miscellaneous Projects

Wedding pillows designed by me for my second oldest son and his wife using French 'boutis' quilting method.

My daughter in a civil war era ball dress I made for her. A lot of hand work was involved in this dress. It had boning and 40 hand sewn eyelet holes, and six rows of hand sewn bias tape, plus eight rose corsages.

A secret Easter gift--a decorated gross grain ribbon flower on a purchased blouse.
This is a skirt that I made using a ruffler foot--no pattern needed!

Mom and daughter decorated aprons using yo-yo flowers. I purchased the denim aprons as I was in a hurry. Baby Lena was born two days after I finished these!

How to make a Miniature Vintage Refrigerator

This refrigerator starts out as a block of wood, just about anything will do. I think I used pine 2 x 4's. For the body cut a piece 5" tall x 2 7/8" deep x 2 3/8" wide. If you have to stack and glue to get your size that's all right. If you have an old refrigerator to copy and measure, that's great, use it. Refrigerators will vary a little on measurements. I know the old ones were smaller than today's refrigerators.

The door is 3 5/16" tall x 2 3/8" wide and 1/4" thick. I used basswood.

The drawer is 1 1/4" tall x 2 3/8" wide and 1/4" thick. I used basswood.

The bottom grille is 3/8" tall x 2 3/8" wide and 3/16" thick. I used basswood.

You will need some basswood 1/32" thick for the gasket and bottom and 1/16" thick for the back grille.

Once you have gotten all of your pieces cut to size make a pattern to use for the top of the body. If you have access to a band saw or scroll saw use it to round off the corners on the top of the refrigerator. If not get some 100 grit sandpaper and sand the corners off. Soften the front and back edges just a bit. Don't keep them sharp.

**Important** Please dry fit your pieces to your pattern to keep the rounding off from going to far. Dry fit your pieces together while you are sanding to make sure they will fit . You want a space between the door and drawer about card stock thickness. A little more between the drawer and bottom grille. The bottom grille should be even with the bottom of the body. Adjust your pieces now before the painting and gluing.

After you are happy with the body match the door to it. With sand paper, maybe 220 grit, round the face of the door. Soften the edge that will be towards the body, leave the outside and inside bottoms alone. Keep these sharp.

Go onto the drawer. Keep the inside and outside bottom and the top edges sharp. Round the face to the sides just as you did with the door.

I copied a refrigerator that had a round center pull on the drawer. I used my Dremel to cut into the basswood. I used an engraver cutter. Unfortunately, I couldn't undercut the center circle enough. When trying I just kept making the center smaller and I thought I should stop while I was ahead. Thinking about it now I should have taken the center out and replaced it with a dowel that had a small circle glued to it. You can do either.

The bottom grille is sanded just like the drawer. I glued on 3 pieces of half round to make it look like a grille. You can make half round from 1/16" x 1/16" basswood strips, sand 2 corners round on one side. Glue these evenly spaced onto the front of the grille. Round them off towards the sides.

Use Rustoleum white and black for the painting. The grille will be painted black, the rest is white. Give everything 2 coats, let the paint dry between coats.

Now sand, using 220 grit. The body is going to take longer if you used pine or even if you stacked basswood. You will have to paint and sand to cover the grain and where the pieces were glued together. We are painting a couple of coats then sanding to a smooth finish. It will take a few days to do this. As you start getting a smooth finish start using a finer grit sandpaper, up to 300 or 400 grit. You are after a smooth porcelain appliance finish. You stop when you are satisfied, do not sand the final coat.

While you are painting and sanding you can make the back grille, gasket, and bottom.

Trace around the back of the body onto card stock. Measure in 3/32" to 1/18" around to top and sides. Cut out and place onto back of body. If you need to change the size do it now, you should have not more that 1/18" of the body showing.

When you like the size, trace onto 1/16" thick basswood and cut out. Remember to cut on the line or your piece will be bigger than you expect. Dry fit this, if it's the right size paint it black.

Trace around the bottom of the body onto card stock. This piece's edges are even the the body. Trace onto 1/32" thick basswood. Dry fit and trim if needed. Paint black.

Trace around the door onto card stock. Measure in a 1/16" around the top and sides. Cut out and place against the door. We want this gasket to be just inside the door, not too far in, enough to see that it's just a bit smaller. When you are happy with that, trace onto 1/32" thick basswood and cut out. Dry fit, make changes if needed. Mix your Rustoleum white and black to make grey and paint the gasket.

I used Testor's silver enamel to paint a line on the bottom of door and top of drawer, around the circle and the knob of the drawer. I used masking tape to do the lines.

I use wood glue to glue the parts together.

Glue the bottom onto body, keep the edges even.

Glue the back grille onto back of body. Make sure you have an even margin of body showing on sides and top.

Glue gasket onto front of body. Keep an even margin of body showing around top and sides.

Glue on door, drawer and bottom grille. The bottom grille is even the the body, not the bottom piece you glued on.

For the handle I used 1/16" thick basswood. I traced a circle 1/4" round. I cut this in two so each piece was 1/4" x 1/8". The next piece is 7/8" long from 1/16" thick basswood. One end is cut just like the 2 other pieces (1/4" x 1/8") to fit between them. The other end is long and straight for the handle pull. I have a diagram at the top of the page. Glue these 3 pieces together. Sand round the end of the handle pull tip. Paint this silver. You will have to do this a few times with a little sanding between coats to get a smooth aluminum finish.

I used super glue to attach the handle, be careful.

If you have any questions about this project, please e-mail me and I will be glad to help you.

Kris

Summertime and the living is........ FUN... with grandkids!!

You're right...it's fall not summer...but see if this post won't remind you of what it was like just a few short weeks ago..when it was really really hot! 

Tim, the kids, and I had two great visits this summer with Amanda and the grandkids.  Matthew was able to come down for Rebekah's graduation but most of the time, he was in Russian language school in Texas, so Amanda was on her own for a few months before they packed up and moved to North Carolina.  She visited her parents in Sugar Land and her grandmother in Huntsville too.

Amanda and I got to celebrate Mother's Day together this year.  It seems like only a few years ago, that I was struck with amazement at having all these little babies around and now I'm amazed that we have all these grandbabies!  One minute you are a mom and the next...a mom-in-law...times 2!

In May, right after graduation, we realized that it was Colin's birthday and since I had been rather busy with the graduation, I forgot all about getting stuff to celebrate his birthday. I was busily sewing  his gift but had not thought about having cake and candles ready. (I learned how to make an allergen free birthday cake this May!)

Necessity is the mother of invention though and here you can see that Colin, now three is quite happy with our 'impromptu' patriotic birthday. (We borrowed Rebekah's graduation party decorations which were 'Texan' in theme.)  Since Colin is the proud son of a Marine, this seemed an appropriate theme for his little party!  I sewed him the cutest cowboy costume and got him a hat, but I can't find the pix to post at the moment.

Summertime is a great time for birthdays..but also for swimming and for watermelon.  The boys, it turned out, love watermelon and here...you can see why! Ride 'em cowboy!  Silly me..and I thought you were supposed to eat them!

Brennan, I'm afraid this is one toy you won't be taking home with you!

 One nice thing about being at Grandma's is that their Aunt Rebekah and Uncles' Jacob and Christian  are here to play with them when everyone else is tired out!

Jacob took good care of Brennan while Amanda and Christian entertained Colin when we went to Candy Cane Park one afternoon.

Amanda stayed with us a couple of weeks over the summer all told.  We went to the park, 'swam' in our jacuzzi, and Tim gave the boys rides on the riding lawnmower.

 However, sometimes the most entertaining part of the visit was just eating lunch!

Colin thought lunchtime was a lot of fun too...especially if Grandma had the camera..which of course I did!!

 And after lunch, we all watched Winnie the Pooh until Brenan fell asleep. And sometimes Grandpa would read Colin a story from the same book that Grandpa, Daddy, and Uncle Jacob all loved...Richard Scary's Best Storybook ever!

 There's nothing quite like a summer with grandbabies!