Intarsia-the method I use for making a horse quilt.

I've made this same pattern, perhaps a dozen times.  It never gets old for me.  I really enjoy giving the horses life and movement.  Art is all about creating something that was never there before.  Creating is therapy and maybe a god complex of sorts.  We can't control things in our lives, but we can put fabric together and create things just the way we like them to be.  

I saw a new term at the the American Folk Art Museum in NYC.  I think it perfectly describes the method for making these quilts.  I took this photo of the description of the process.

Intarsia-is a method of butting fabrics up to each other to create something.  

When I make my horse quilts with the intarsia method, I butt the fabric next to each other and use a blanket stitch to carefully attach the pieces together.  The horse quilt above uses wool, cotton, and silks in the piece.  

It is going to be auctioned at a benefit for the Broken Arrow Baseball team.  In Kentucky, I donated a couple to the Mom's Closet for a benefit which was sold during the Kentucky Derby festivities.  #quiltersdoinggood

There's Almost Nothing You Can't Fix in Quilting!

I always like to tell people, in quilting, there is almost nothing you can't fix.  This is a quilt I have decided to give to my friend's daughter who is getting married.  This is a quilt I started in the 1990's.  I had the horses cut and adhered to freezer paper.  I had used a glue stick to make the edges turn under more crisply.  


With the popularity of Steam a Seam, you don't hear of freezer paper applique much these days.  Or, maybe it's a regional thing and in your area there are a lot of quilters choosing that technique for their applique projects.  Compared to Steam a Seam paper backed fusible applique, it gives a softer look to the applique.  


When I removed the glue stuck freezer paper from behind the batik applique pieces on the purple horse on the right (looking at the quilt)I tore part of the horse.  Over the tear you will see a butterfly.  The butterfly is fused on with Steam a Seam.  Steam a Seam has a definite advantage here.  Batik material is very tightly woven and therefore it tears easily.  Fusing the butterfly as opposed to appliqueing on top helps to bind the fibers so they will have less chance of tearing in the future.  


There you have it, nothing you can't fix.  This is the quilt I had intended to give to Mom's Closet for a fund raiser but just couldn't get it done. 

The Winning Purse Luncheon was sooo much fun!

The luncheon was lovely.  Just like a quilt show, the colors were bountiful in the room.  There were more hats here than anywhere I've seen.  The horses were well seen at both the paddock and the finish line of the track from our fifth floor Trophy Room veranda.  Yes, it's Kentucky and the south so it is a veranda.  

The "veranda" made it much more enjoyable to bet the ponies.  I did pretty well and won 3 out of 7 exactas-which basically means I broke a little better than even money for the day.  FUN!  

The Mom's Closet had so many donations that there were some pretty good bargains to be had.  Someone told me that one of my horse quilts last bid was 280.00 at the silent auction, but the auction was still going.  I had 3 people want me to take orders for the quilt, but, I am not in the business of quilt making, so I'm telling people the only chance you will get to buy one of these quilts will be at the Winning Purse Luncheon, next year.  The Dakota quilt was in a 20.00 a ticket raffle, along with 5 other items.  I was across the room, so I didn't get to see in what order is was chosen.  I understand from the girls collecting the money at the check out desk that both quilts went to people that were very excited to get them. 

I got a Coach bag, regularly 450 bucks for 220!  I'm not really a Coach bag kind of person, but, you get caught up in the bidding atmosphere.  In my quilting club, Northeast Quilting Friends, I'm kind of known for a certain green color that I like and use a lot in my quilts.  Don't you know, there was a purse made of that color that went for a lot less than my Coach bag, but, silent auctions are what they are and they end at a certain time and unless your name is the last one on the line, you don't get it.  

There were all kinds of silent auction items you could win, jewelry, purses, and gift baskets.  The big money went in the live auction.  Pat Day gave 2 guided tours of the back side of the track to people that went back and forth with the bidding and it settled well over one thousand dollars.  Pat said he would do two tours for that money if they agreed and they did.  

The food was excellent this year, a luncheon and hotdogs and sausages toward the end of the day.  YUM!!

Mark your calendars now for the Wednesday before the Derby and buy a ticket to the Winning Purse Luncheon.  They've already sold 8 tables for next year, and the Trophy Room isn't that big, so don't dilly dally about this event.  Call the Mom's Closet for more information. 

I got a hat and I'm ready to attend the Winning Purse Luncheon

Yes, I got a hat.  I think I was inspired by the Royal Wedding.  America has it's own big hat day, that's the Derby at Churchill Downs.  The first Saturday in May is our version of the Royal Wedding, I suppose.  Women don their best dresses and hats for the day.  

I'm going on the Wednesday before the Derby.  The Derby is just too much chaos.  You can't even see the horses, there are so many people there.  I will be in the Trophy Room on the Wednesday before.  We will be helping to raise money for the Mom's Closet.  It's a charity that gives women a hand up, not a hand out.  In other words, you must be making movement forward in your life, attending school and working.  So these women need help with their children and finances.  Each woman that in the program needs about 2,000.00 a year to help them through the year.  This includes financial aid for school.  This sometimes excludes them from the Food Stamp Program from the government so there is a pantry of donated items on hand for weekly help with groceries.  

Quilters through Quilters' Day Out, this year, gave about a ton of groceries to them.  My part in that was to bring them into our program and give them some publicity for the good work they do.


Now I'm donating, at least 2 quilts to the silent auction and raffle ticket sales.  I'm hoping to finish a third quilt, but, things keep coming up and I can't seem to get motivated to complete the third.


When your daughter has had cancer, things just change.  And I know it's up to her to make the moves, and I can't do it for her.  All I can do is pray and wish she was the Queen of Spain and every move she makes is done for her.  Nope, that is not her life, she chooses to live it in her room and not come out and not eat and life is not good right now.  Yes, she was dealt a crappy hand, but, life does go on and she's got to live it.  We are not her handmaidens.  She needs to reinvent herself and become the Queen of Spain.  Or just suck it up and get on with it. 

A little bit of quilting and some binding is all I need to do.

Race the Wind

Mom's Closet is such a worthwhile charity.  It's slogan is "a hand up not a hand out".  I like that thought.  It gives help to single women with kids that are working and going to school and trying to improve their lives.  These last two quilts I've made will be donated to them to hopefully make some money at an event that is being held right before the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

Dakota is Done-Race the Wind is Next

You've just got to love this no sew technique of fusing and cutting and ironing pieces together.  Whether you choose to go around each piece with a satin or zig zag stitch it's up to you.

Me, I like to think the things I make will be around for a hundred years, maybe that's dreaming, but, there are quilts that have survived that or near that, this is one of my favorite ones.  It's an anonymous quilt. PUT A LABEL ON YOUR QUILT!!  Then it will be able to tell even more of a story for history.

Off my soap box.

My next horse is going to have a combination of fabrics on it.  They are Japanese and Australian fabrics, with a little Kaffe Fasset for good brightness. 

Now, some of the Kaffe fabrics I've chosen are mostly black.  But, you have to have the darkness for the brights to pop.  There are some bright Kaffe fabrics, it's in the mane of this horse.

I'm a bit on the fence about the lion like dragon in the middle of the horse, but, this horse is the back horse in a pair of two.  It might stay or be removed once I add the second horse, which is visually dominant. 

More Dakota

Adjustments to Dakota

Dakota continued

Dakota continued

Another Horse Quilt-Dakota for Mom's Closet