The Green HIlls of Ireland

My sisters and I got together one week in October to see if we could make landscape quilts. That is we all got together, but only Charlotte and I worked on landscapes. Janie had did some really cute quilted Hum-bug bags and Margi had a big craft show coming up and needed to continue to work on that. Below is the quilt that I made. It is vaguely based on a photo of County Galway in Ireland. I have never been to Ireland but have always wanted to go there. This may be the closest I will ever get....
I used almost all hand dyed fabrics that I dyed using acrylic colors in my microwave oven. I wet the fabric, squirted paint on it, then squished it around with my hands (wearing rubber gloves, of course), wrapped rubber bands around it, squirted some more watered down paint on it, stuck it in the microwave to get really hot, then set it outside to dry. The hardest part was waiting for it to dry.....
These are my brightest colors....

My mediums....

and a stack of all the hand dyed fabrics. I did not use all of them, obviously...so.... I see another landscape quilt in my future.....

This is the first night at Charlottes house... Larry took the photo of all of us. Janie and I were exhausted from the drive (9 hours) but were so glad to be there we perked right up and sat there talking until late...

The girls are ready to go shopping....We hit Jo Ann fabrics first thing in the morning!

Looks like we are checking our wallets....hmmmm maybe not...

Shop, shop, shop....sew many fabrics...sew little time....

What were they thinking when they designed this one?????? ewe....

Granny found a good one! Go Granny!

shop, shop, shop.....

Lord.... Make me a bird... but not on my fabric....

And we end our shopping with a little (fuzzy) holiday inspriation.... sorry I made you fuzzy Margie... I had a wrong setting on my camera....my bad...

And last but not least....Voila! Granny Bell! Aint she cute?

OMG! I quilted the whole da....darned couch!

This project has taken me 5 long months to complete. There have been many ups and downs during the process, but it is finished now...YIPPEE!

I started with a basic kaliedescope quilt in shades of brown, teal, blue and beige. I used MANY spools of thread, many yards of fabric, and many hours of my time.

I apologize for the quality of the photos below. Some are better than others...they got much better after I cleaned the camera lens...nuff said... Check out the rest of 'em!

The quilt back is made of leftover fabrics from the front and from fabrics I bought for the front but did not use.
Below, is the foundation of the couch. I quilted whole cloth in muted golden brown on the arms and the same fabric in dark brown on the front. I tacked it down in several places so it will not shift as so many couch covers do, but the tacks are easily removable when I need to wash the cover.

Here, the quilt is simply laid over the seat cushions and back.

VOILA! Add the cushions and as you can see, I have quilted the whole couch!

The ENTIRE couch...

This couch is in my sunporch and it makes a great bed. Which is what gave me the idea to quilt the couch in the first place. It also gives me a great place to snuggle in while watching TV!

This is a closeup of the arm treatment...

Closup of cushions...They are all zippered covers so they are easily removed for laundering. Sooooo.... I can now wash my couch..... cool...

more cushions

Closup of some quilting. I used the meandering free motion quilting style because it was the easiest one to master and I wanted fairly dense quilting because this quilt will get a lot of use on my sun porch!

And last but not least.... my remote control and eyeglass caddy! I used to just keep them on the arm of the couch and they either wound up on the floor or in the couch cushions!

This was really a huge project and at times I was discouraged about finishing it. My 3 sisters have teased, cajoled, and encouraged me to keep going on it and I thank them all for that.... I would not have finished it without them!

Big thank you hugs to all of you!

I should be posting pictures of my completed (YEAH!) quilt, but I have not photographed it yet. Those pics will have to wait until I finish the pillow covers so I can get the whole effect.

We just had a few days of rain after having had sunshine for about a month. During the dry spell, we installed a 'doggie door' so the dogs can come and go outside as they please. Then it rained.....and rained.....

News flash! Dogs don't wipe their feet!

So I started shopping for an absorbent rug that they would have to walk across to dry their feet when they came in. Long story short...I could not find anything in the price range that I was willing to pay. I have been using some old beach towels layered together and they do a pretty good job as long as they stay put (which is not very long). So I decided to make a rug with pile thick enough to wrap up around paws as they stepped inside.

I shopped for the least expensive all cotton fabric I could find.

Below is an example of what I found for $1.99 a yard on clearance. I bought 10 yards and 3 yard of the turquoise for .99 a yard and cut it all it to 2 inch wide bias strips.

Each bias strip was ruffled down the center by zigzagging over a strong thread. I found that I could ruffle it as I sewed if I just tugged on the cord in short tugs while sewing.
I started in the center and sewed an 8 inch strip of ruffle in the center of a 54"X48" piece of canvas, then turned to continue sewing the ruffle beside the first piece. Being careful to but the 2 ruffles up against each other.
And continued going around and around with the ruffle. I added a bit of turquoise ruffling.
Stitching down the ruffles was not difficult until I was about half way thru the project. Then it started to get heavy and more difficult to manage.
I persevered and managed to get 12 yards of fabric into my rug!

When I cut the strips of bias, they tended to get tangled so I made rolls out of them and thought of a way to make that work for me. A basket, an old long handled paintbrush, two clips and I was off and running. I ruffled 5 of these rolls (6 counting the turquoise)! Nearly fell asleep at the sewing machine as I sat there hour after hour watching it go under the presser foot.

This is the finished rug. It measures 31" X 48". It's not perfect, but it has a one inch pile and made of absorbent cotton.

I don't particularly like the brightness of the turquoise, but I expect after a few weeks of puppy paws walking across it with North Carolina mud on the, the color will tone down considerably!

I hope it washes well, but will post a photo after the washing!