Rainbow Crow

 Posting my Bag O' Stuffquilt the other day reminded me that I'd never posted the incredible one I received in this round of Baggos.  This awesome piece was made out of my gallon zip-lock back of random stuff.  Pretty amazing huh?  The artist is Dolly Smith, who is a FiberPirate and a very talented artist and quilter.  The quilt measures 17"wide x 39"high and is entitled Rainbow Crow.  She also sent along the story that goes with it which you can read at the bottom of this post.  Little did she know how much I love mythology, Native American stories and crows.  I count myself very lucky to have received such a beautiful quilt.

 Beaded snowflakes

 The beaded gift of fire and one of the rainbow feathers.

 The rainbow crow in all his beaded glory.

 The layered details are so fun to discover, I swear I find new ones every time I look at this quilt which is hanging up in my studio.  Very inspiring!

This is the story of Rainbow Crow, a Lenape Indian legend.

When the earth was young, Rainbow Crow had the most beautiful plumage and sweetest song of all birds. The land was warm, but it began to snow and all animals did not know how to live in the snow. Rainbow Crow flew to Sky Spirit for help.

Sky Spirit gave Crow the gift of fire. Rainbow Crow flew to earth with a stick of fire. The smoke darkened his feathers and burned his throat. When he landed on earth, fire melted the snow and all animals were warmed.

Crow wept. His sweet song was now a rough "caw" and his beautiful feathers were black. Sky Spirit came to Crow and said, "For your selflessness and generosity I give you the gift of freedom. You will never be hunted, for your meat is burned and smoky, your feathers are black and will not be wanted, and your voice is not sweet and soothing. But when the sun shines, all will see the rainbow in your plumage."

Crow was content. 

Thanks again Dolly!

Sweet Citrus Bells

Holy Cow! I finally finished a quilt! It's been a while, so this is a big deal here in High-Fiber-Content-Land .  A long, long time ago, I received a gallon zip-lock bag filled with fabrics,trims, beads and other bits, also known as a "Baggo" (a bag-o-stuff).  And I was to make a quilt out of it for an unknown member of one of the online fiber groups I belong to (Hi FiberPirates).  I also sent in a bag of my own stuff and had already received an utterly fabulous quilt back.  So this quilt is long overdue.  I actually made most of it in January. As in January 2011. Ahem. But then it sat there for a long time, because it was done to a certain point, and it just wasn't working past that, and I was just plain stuck.  I hardly ever get stuck like that.  But there it was. For months.

As you can see, I got unstuck eventually and finished it.  I couldn't tell you how exactly.  Just the passage of time, or maybe the pressure I put on myself to actually do it, since I was enjoying the Baggo quilt I'd received months ago.  It got finished, all except hand-sewing the binding, label and sleeve.  That took me another two months to finally manage.  Not sure what the issue was there, but at last.  It's done, and I'm pleased with it, and I hope Dolly likes it too.
The whole quilt came about because of the Tangerine Sours Altoids tin she sent some of the embellishments in, it really got designed all around it.  And several times I almost pitched that idea, of having the lid be on the quilt, but as you can see it survived.  As an aside, boy was that ever fun when I was flattening it...My teenager came running, rather alarmed at all the racket, "Mom, what are you doing?"  I paused, with hammer raised, grinning "Making stuff."  heh.

The lovely heavy bells made a wonderful tinkling sound as I finished hand stitching everything.  Here you can see some of the leaf beads as well as the leafy ribbon that I used out of all the embellishments that came in the Baggo.  There were a lot in there to pick from which made it fun.
So now on to finishing more quilts...

A Bag from a Baggo

 A fiber artist's group that I'm part of online (Fiber Pirates) does a fairly regular swap of art making known as a Baggo.  We fill a gallon zip bag with "stuff" and send it off to a central person who then anonymously hands them out to the participating artists.  We each are to make a quilt and then send the finished quilt to the originator of the Baggo.  This is what I got back this year from Dolly, in addition to an absolutely amazing quilt (which I haven't photographed yet, will share it as soon as I do.) 
A beautiful bag made with all the extras she didn't need to make the quilt.

It is all kinds of pretty.

 With lots of details and pockets everywhere, inside and out.

Counting myself lucky, I'm going to have fun using this bag!

Through The Curtain

Here is what I made with the Bag-o-Stuff aka Baggo that I received. A gallon bag of quite an assortment of very lively happy colorful fabrics. Mostly cotton prints, some velveteen, a piece of flannel, satiny stuff an African gold stamped print. I don't know whose this is yet, as no one has claimed it at the time I'm writing this. If no one does, I may just keep it, because I like what I came up with.

The first thing I cut into was the African fabric, and I cut around the motifs it reminded me of a curtain swag, so that got stuck up at the top of the design and I was off.

Included in the bag was a rayon or maybe some synthetic teal fabric with fusible diamond shapes on the back. So I cut those out and made a few more to add into the design. I sewed around them with metallic thread.

The velveteen got cut up into decreasingly smaller rectangles, these also got a diamond on top.

The central image is a small square of flannel backed with a bit of the purple satin. I think it looks like a boat or a flag. Here you can see some of the free motion quilting I did, airy swirls in the "sky, and watery wave curls in the "water".

Here's how the whole thing looks.

For some reason I don't recall now, I randomly started piecing the back together which I never do! But it was fun to use the fabrics that hadn't made it onto the front. Also you will note the "frame look" around the edge of the back, it is the facing which was completely and totally successful and easy thanks to Jaye's instructions, thanks for explaining this technique so clearly Jaye.

Baggo Cornucopia

I just received a great quilt in the mail from my Fiber Pirate friend Marie. She got my bag-o-stuff or Baggo in our recent swap and had to try and make something out of the crazy assortment that I had stuffed in there.

I think she did an amazing job, and I'm really looking forward to hanging this quilt up during my favorite season of the year, which is obviously, fall.

I love the wheat stalks and leaves shape. And look at how she used the hand-dyed fabrics for the pumpkin.

The details she added are really great, using the fuzzy eyelash yarn, and some leaves after the quilting was done.

And look at this amazing quilt label on the back. That's all machine embroidered, isn't it fancy?!

Thanks so much Marie!