hand painted fabric – Daily Fiber

SAHRR Challenge 6: Monkey Business

Posted on March 1, 2026March 2, 2026 by Laura Kate

This week is the final challenge for the Stay at Home Round Robin 2026 quilt along. Anja Quilts is our host today. She most generously and kindly suggested that we each choose a block for ourselves. That’s right, it’s Quilter’s Choice. This makes me happy, because now I can monkey around.

One afternoon, our little group was hanging around the villa in Costa Rica when we heard lots of rustling noises in the forest. Dashing outside (with cameras in hand) we were greeted by a gang of spider monkeys, working their way noisily across our view. Specifically, they were squirrel monkeys. Bill got some good images. He shared several, and I chose three to use in my “Monkey Round.”

It took me three days to come to a conclusion about a block to use. I will need three blocks for my row, each featuring one photograph. The centerpiece was easy – it will be an applique block of the brave monkey climbing out on a limb. But what about the others?

I started to think about monkeys in the context of quilting. In researching several standard quilt blocks, I learned that the Churn Dash block is sometimes called the Monkey Wrench – Eureka!

I traced the photos to produce a pattern for each “side monkey.” They will look like portraits in the center square of the churn dash blocks. My backgrounds will be left-over hand painted fabrics. After fusing and stitching down the cut pieces, I compared my two blocks to the photographs.

This should come out just fine. Next, I took a little time to prepare the center panel. I will have to paint a background for this one (no more leftover painted fabric.) But I did prepare the applique of the monkey.

He is standing on a pattern I traced for the palm fronds.

Putting the center panel aside, I got busy painting details on the other two monkeys. My textile paint of choice is Jacquard Textile. The paint dried quickly, allowing me to sew up the churn dash blocks using pieces I had cut yesterday. They finish at 7 inches.

Here they are side-by-side.

Finishing the center block will have to wait a while.

To see what other quilters selected for their sixth round, visit Anja Quilts.

We now have until March 25 to do all the finishing work in time to add our quilts to the quilt parade. That round will be hosted by Kathleen McMusing. I invite you to check back then to see how my Costa Rica quilt turns out.

quilting

Sunday Reveal: Baby has arrived!

Posted on August 17, 2025August 18, 2025 by Laura Kate

Ten days ago, my sister texted me with wonderful news: My niece’s baby arrived, on her due date. The newest family member is a little girl, named Roseanna Joy. Within days I had assembled the Oregon Natives quilt blocks and added the border.

This quilt is made in strip-piece fashion and finished out at 48 x 58. I’m pretty happy with the result. Using fabrics (mostly from Connecting Threads) that match (or approximate) the color palette provided by the new mom, I organized the quilt around ten applique blocks with images of creatures and plants that live in the baby’s home state. My daughter assisted me in designing and sewing these feature blocks.

Color palette provided

For those readers who may be surprised by the hap-hazard way that individual strips meet each other, let me say this: It’s intentional. An ecologist would call this style “disordered uniformity.” At the detail level, things seem to be chaotic, but when looked at from a respectable distance, patterns emerge. It is the way of nature.

Here is a quick close-up of the mammals, birds, reptile, fish, insects, plant and fungus that will greet little Roseanna.

Steps to completion still await me. I will need to make the label, assemble the quilt sandwich and do the quilting. That part is making me a little nervous, because I haven’t figure out what quilt pattern to use. Any advice from you experts out there will be appreciated.

Linking to Songbird Designs

hand embroidery, painting, quilting

Fun Friday Finished Blocks

Posted on July 25, 2025 by Laura Kate

The Oregon Baby quilt block creation phase is ju……..st about done. Today I want to share two blocks that I finished and two images of blocks that my daughter finished.

Let’s start with sketches: My first attempt at rendering a painted turtle didn’t work out very well in the applique process. It was too complicated.

While I loved the drawing, I decided to start over. Here is my revised sketch with some colored pencil enhancements.

and here is my block complete with applique, machine stitches and painted details.

(there is a little smudge of paint that rubbed off my hand. I’ll have to find a way to cover it up before sewing this block into the quilt.)

Next I sketched a fish common to the northwest: coastal cut-throat trout.

This was easy to applique, and required very little paint to render the fishy details.

Yesterday, I was thrilled to receive two photographs of blocks completed by Amanda. During the preliminary phase of the quilt design, I had shared two sketches with her.

She took these designs and interpreted them in her own style. In addition to applique and paint, she added some expert hand embroidery touches to these blocks. Her results really bring these cute animals to life.

In the meanwhile, I have sewn up all of the strip pieced blocks. There are only two more feature blocks to finish before the quilt top can be assembled.

I’m pretty happy right now, and feel confident the quilt will be ready to send when my goddaughter’s baby arrives in August.

painting, quilting

Friday Finish: Baby Quilt Feature Blocks

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Laura Kate

Hi, friends,

I’m thinking that it’s time to reveal the first finished blocks that I made for Oregon Baby quilt. As I described in earlier posts, these would be various animals found in the baby’s home state.

I started with the rufous hummingbird and the Oregon swallowtail butterfly. Here are photos showing the steps to completion:

Hummingbird:

Butterfly:

Oregon Swallowtail pencil sketch, a little color added

Slight exaggeration here: The butterfly needs its antenna . I will hand embroider this detail before I assemble the quilt.

Some of you may think that I omitted showing all the steps in the process. And you’re right. I had to turn the pencil drawings into pattern pieces before I could convert the design to fabric. Without going into tedious details, this work was done using tracing paper and photo copies. I also did zigzag machine stitching around the butterfly and straight stitching on all the edges of the hummingbird.

Now here is an photo of how these panels look next to the string-pieced blocks.

My apologies to those who are bothered by the wonkiness of the strips. Yes, it was deliberate. So sue me.

The fun will continue over the weekend as I translate more of my sketches into quilt blocks. Which will I choose next?

hand embroidery, painting, quilting

Friday Finish: Here Be Dragons

Posted on January 24, 2025January 25, 2025 by Laura Kate

After eighteen months in process, my multi-panel quilt that explores the dragonfly is finally finished. The painting and the assembly of the quilt took place in 2023. Then it languished while I fiddled around with hand embroidery. Finally, I made the commitment in December 2024 to get this WIP done. It took an opportunity to display it at an exhibition to set me in motion.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the role Bill’s photographs had in inspiring me. Here is a gallery of some of his dragonfly images.

I also did research into the creature, to better understand what I was seeing. I was always puzzled about the legs. In flight, they are not visible. When the insect is perched, one can see either one, two or all three pair of legs. Why is that? I learned that the legs are swiveled back and held flat against the body, just like an airplane’s landing gear. The dragonfly catches its prey in flight, grabbing hold with its legs. When resting, the legs have no function. Dragonflies cannot use their legs to walk. That’s why they seem so motionless when perched.

Anyway, the quilt is finished, except for the label and the hanging wire. It will go on display February 6, along with my Badlands quilt, at Prairie Moon Exhibition, The Center, Bartlesville, OK.