Stars Over America – Time to VOTE

You all made me hold my breath again! Only four entries uploaded to flickr by seven am this morning. Again many have come through in time for the deadline – we have TEN fantastic entries this week! For those of you just tuning in you can read more about Project Quilting Here: http://kimlapacek.com/2010/04/project-quilting.html and about the fifth challenge of Season 1 Here: http://kimlapacek.com/2010/07/season-1-challenge-5-stars-over-america.html CHALLENGE WINNERS: There will be two winners for this challenge – one for the public vote and one for the ‘judged vote’ – Diane, Barb, guest judge Nancy, and guest judge Sara. The winner of the JUDGES Vote will receive 4 fat quarters (their choice) from FabricAlaCarte AND a $10 gift certificate from the FatQuarterShop! The winner of the PUBLIC Vote will receive a pattern with instructions for the complete ‘Maggie’ doll, hair and clothing from Carolee Creations – SewSweet Dolls AND a $10 gift certificate from the FatQuarterShop!Voting closes at 7pm CDT on Friday, July 16th. OTHER BONUSES: A RANDOMLY Drawn Participant will win a pattern for Barb‘s Where’s the Point Quilt and second drawn participant will win the pattern for Diane’s Prairie Star Quilt. Don’t forget! Everyone that enters can decide if they want their name entered in a drawing for $50 off the 2010 Quilts by Barb Quilt – Papercraft – Scrapbooking Getaway Weekend! I will also be sending everyone their rank (somewhere between 1 and 10 – be sure you’ve emailed me {lapaceksorchard@gmail.com} your email address) and any critique’s the judges have about your creation. The top 3 scoring projects will be posted on my blog this weekend. PUBLIC WINNERS: I will also be giving out a prize to the public. You’ll find out how to WIN at the bottom of this post after you’ve checked out each of our challengers entries. And now here are all the entries – in no particular order… ***Please note – I have left the images smaller than I normally do as I’ve received some feedback that my blog was loading slowly – hopefully this will help that issue. I strongly URGE you to take closer looks at the project by checking out their submittals on the flickr group:http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/

Quilter: MoranArtandQuilts

The story of Dreams and Remembrance 19.5″ x 26″ I decided to do a literal interpretation of this week’s challenge. I found a fabulous piece of batik for the country and at this point cut out the stars, too. I then decided to give the stars some punch with the shadow colors behind them. I appliquéd all those down and thought it would be neat to write on the stars places I’ve been and places I’d like to see someday; hence the name. So I chose several places and marked them on the map by sewing down some thin ribbon. I knew this quilt needed more but because I have to leave today on a short trip I wouldn’t be able to get anymore done. My thought was to put a word or two along the bottom; maybe the title. This quilt really turned into a more personal thing for me with the destinations. It’s amazing how these projects can change as we work on them. Catherine from Columbus, OH

Quilter: Quilties

The story of ‘Fireworks’: My interpretation of stars over America is the fireworks that were blazing over America everywhere on July 4th (or 5th in Urbandale due to rain!) My boys had the best time with the fireworks this year and I am giving this to my three year old, Brennan, who saw fireworks for this first time this year. The background is a deep blueish, rainbow batik that looked just like the night sky to me, and has big flower bursts that look like fireworks. Then I used metallic silver and pink paint sticks to do some of the fireworks and thread play to do the rest. I used shiny rayon threads, that really sparkle and added a little more sparkle with beads and sequins. The silhouette on the bottom symbolizes with America with its trees and houses. Oops, the size is 16″ x 22″.
– Emma Thomas-McGinnis, Urbandale IA

Quilter: LoveBugStudios

The Story: This quilt is named “United Concensus”, and is intentionally misspelled because I intend to update this quilt with 2010 census data as soon as it is released. I knew I wanted to represent each state with a star on my quilt, so I designed this layout with 50 nesting stars. The smallest block is 2″ finished, and the largest is 12″. California is represented by the large focal blue block in the center, and Texas is the red block in the upper left, but don’t infer any political references in the red state/blue state representations! Those were determined purely for aesthetic purposes. Each state will be assigned to a star based on their 2010 census population, and a label will be added to the back with a legend showing where each state is positioned in the quilt. (I guessed at CA & TX because of a 2009 population estimate that suggests CA will continue to be most populous.) Each of the 50 star blocks were pieced using the liberated quilt method made popular by Gwen Marston. For the quilting, I decided to free-motion quilt the words to the National Anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.” It was really fun figuring out how to get all the words on there without running out of room, and ultimately I decided to just run the sentences together. I didn’t want the quilting to be a distraction, so it’s done in yellow, but there are some additional photo closeups to show some of the detail. To finish off this quilt, I took the finished top to my local quilt shop (Quilt Play in Grayslake, IL) and auditioned a few fabrics. I loved the blue polka dot that one of the ladies showed me, but then I found a red, white, blue, and yellow plaid that I couldn’t resist. So they both came home. Of course, with a liberated quilt such as this, a straight binding would not do, so I did wonky prairie points to finish it off. The Kona Snow (white) & the block centers are from my stash; the yellow was purchased along with the fabric for the prairie points. This quilt was made in Hainesville, IL and measures 43″ square (from the tips of the largest prairie points.)

Quilter: QuiltingDiva

The Story: When I thought about the challenge, I was trying to think about what is “America” to me… Growing up in Maine, I thought about the lighthouse. I also knew I wanted to incorporate fun, colorful, beachy fabrics. It is machine pieced, machine appliqué and machine quilted. I used my vast array of batik fabrics to imitate a nighttime sky and sandy beach. I quilted wet sand and star rays. It features 3 bright stars and a lighthouse with an embellished button light. The border is a soft beige star print to complete the theme. This quilt is being held by 2 oversized clothes pins I purchased at Joann Fabrics. These clothespins measure 7 1/2″ long. This quilt measures approximately 22″ x 20″ and was made in Tampa, Florida.

Quilter: Karen’s Crafty World

The Story: Well, as you can see, I took the theme quite literally. I thought of this idea as soon as I saw the challenge. All the fabric came from my scrap bag…which is really getting workout with these PQ challenges! I started out by finding a template of the US on line and then printed it out in poster size I cut it out to make a pattern. I then sewed a bunch of scraps together to emulate the flag.( I didn’t have a lot of royal blue fabric, so I used what was in the scrap bag instead of cutting into a new piece.) Once I had all the strips sewn together, I quilted it with a large stipple. I then traced my US pattern onto the piece. Before I cut it out, though, I taught myself a new technique called ‘couching’. I took skinny black ribbon (which is the other color I used for this quilt) and zigzagged (twice around) over it to make a nice outlined border. It ‘s a fun technique and I’ll definitely be using it a lot!. I also used this technique with the stars. After outlining the US and the stars, I then cut them out. I’ll have a posting on my blog (karenscraftyworld.blogspot.com) in the next day or two of the process pics. My nephew, Jack, who is 6, was over yesterday and saw the almost finished wall hanging and said, “Oh Auntie, I love it, can I have it?” I said, “Maybe….” ….knowing for sure now where this piece was going to hang (in his room, of course!) After I finished it the next day, I snuck over to my sister’s house while they were at the pool and hung it up in his room. He was thrilled to have it, and I think I was even more thrilled to give it to him! The US measures approx. 30×19 and the stars are approx. 8×8. All supplies came from my stash. I spent 0 dollars. I love that!!! This project was made in Elgin, IL

Quilter: Sarah b

The Story Behind ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ I created paper foundation patterns for the stars. I have been wanting to paper piece stars for years and this challenge finally gave me the opportunity! As an additional challenge to myself, I drew all the stars freehand and let them all be a little wonky. Then to add to the out-of-my-normal I crazy pieced the stars into blocks. I chose fabric scraps from the stash I collected for all my kid’s baby quilts. The blues are all my son’s though. 🙂 Some of the blues contains touches of a dark red and while. As my additional color I chose creamy tans. The “Stars Above America” theme lead me to the song, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” one of my son’s favorites. This will be a wall hanging in his room. I finished this quilt using the pillowcase method and then couched tea-stained fuzzy yarn to the edge. I machine quilted every 1/4″ or so, echoing the stars. I create in Colorado.

Quilter: PennyFabricArt

The Story: I started this by thinking about what’s classic American, and thought “apple pie.” Putting star patterns in pie crusts is pretty common, so I thought I’d make some placemats or trivets with starry pies on them – a set of Apple, Blueberry, Key Lime, and Pecan. I had a lot of that red, white & blue star fabric in my stash (that I had failed to sell in my destash shop!), so I was just going to use that for the background under the pies. But that ended up looking really boring. Since I had so much of that fabric, I decided to make a picnic blanket, with pies ready-made for the picnic! I used big easy star patterns from the Stars by Magic book, then appliquéd the pies to the finished quilt. There’s a layer of batting in each pie, which I quilted separately from the quilt, plus an extra layer of batting under each pie when I appliquéd them to the quilt, so they have a little 3-d effect. I whip-stitched some yarn around the edge of each pie to offset them a little like a pie pan edge. Apple: My Nana used to fold the pie crust in half and cut stars out like making paper snowflakes. I did that with this flannel pie crust to make the holes, then put a brown marbled fabric underneath to look like the apples. Key Lime: For the key lime pie I used a flannel print for the graham cracker crust, then appliquéd on little whipped cream puffs. Pecan: I couldn’t find a good fabric for the pecans, so I bought a bag of them, photographed them and laser printed them onto cotton sheets. Then cut them out and fused them onto a gold fabric with metallic flecks. Blueberry: The blueberry pie is a cool Kaffe Fassett print with stars cut out like pie dough and appliquéd on top. All the fabrics were from stash. I spent just under $10 on pecans (to photograph!) and the gray yarn. Made in CT, USA Measures 48″ square.

Quilter: Kathleen’s Quilts

The Story behind ‘God’s Grace’: My interpretation was very literal – I made stars over the word America.
The first step was to piece the word ‘America’ using 1.5″ squares of creams and gold/yellows. To add some color and to create a frame for the letters (and for the stars) I added 1/8″ border of red around each letter block. Seven flag blocks of red, white and blue hang below the word. I didn’t care for the look of the white stripes in the flags – too stark against the creams and golds – so I brewed some tea and steeped the blocks… no more white! For the stars to hang over America I made a gold background with staggered blocks of red. The stars are blue and filled with several layers of batting to make them puffy. To join the upper and lower pieces I added a strip of cream to the bottom of the gold and a strip of gold to the top of the cream.
Now for the fun part. The red blocks have letters appliquéd in them, upside down. The blue stars are backed with red stars. The flag blocks are backed with gold stars on a blue background. Turn the entire quilt upside down so the top is the bottom and the bottom is the top, and you again have “Stars Over America”! Or you can hang the quilt over a fence or railing and have a quilt on each side! Quilting is in the ditch on the gold half and along the dividing stripes. The cream half is quilted with random little stars. The stars and flags are hung with several strands of embroidery floss wound over red beads And the name…as I worked I found myself singing just one line from “America The Beautiful” over and over. ‘America, America, God shed His Grace on thee’ 43″ x 47″ Created in Cissna Park, IL

Quilter: SpringWaterDesigns

The Story of Americana Celebration: I love traditional patriotic quilts so for the Project Quilting theme Stars over America I used scraps of reds, whites, and blues, and added gold to make this cute Americana style table runner and named it Americana Celebration in honor of the 4th of July. I had to make a quick project this week because of other deadlines that I had to meet, so I used some quick cutting and piecing methods to put this one together. It measures 18″ x 36″ and is quilted in the ditch, and with free motion stars and loops in the borders. I used the same great patriotic fabric for the backing that I used for the inner border. I made this project in Jessup, Maryland USA ~ Dawn, Spring Water Designs

Quilter: KimsCraftyApple

The Story of ‘Galaxies Converge’: I took the ‘Stars over America’ Challenge to a more literal meaning – the actual stars over America – or the Galaxy. I started with one square of galaxy printed fabric, one of a glittery navy blue that reminded me of stars and then two separate squares from my hand-dyed fabric and converged them using Ricky Timm’s Method. Once the main part was converged I bordered it with a strip of black and then some more of the same fabric I used in the main portion. I cut out planets and stars from the galaxy print and appliquéd it into different portions of the quilt. I then fused three different colors of Angelina Fiber together to create sort of shooting stars or comets in the lower right quadrant of the quilt. I free motion quilted this piece with rays and swirls. Approximate Dimension: 36″ x 36″ Created in Poynette, WI

Public Prize!

This weeks randomly drawn (www.random.org) public prize will win this beautiful Rustic Wood Needle Case from midnightcoiler. Read below on how you have seven chances to win! SEVEN Chances to WIN! Entry 1: REQUIRED! Leave a comment on your favorite entry (or at least that you voted) and vote for your favorite on the poll on the upper left hand side of the blog. – ***MUST DO*** Optional/Additional Entries – please note – if you want to qualify for these additional entries you must leave a SEPERATE comment for each – if you already follow or are a fan, etc just leave comments saying each. If you write everything in ONE comment you only will have ONE entry… Entry 2: Follow my blog. Entry 3: Tweet about this fantastic contest with hashtag #PQstars(important or I won’t know you did it) Entry 4: Become a Fan of Project QUILTING on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ProjectQUILTING Entry 5: add my Project Quilting ‘Grab my Blinkie’ to your blog or blog about my giveaway (link your blog or post in your comment, please) Entry 6: Head on over to midnightcoiler and let me know your favorite item in the store! Entry 7: Sign up for my newsletter in the upper right corner of this page! *prizes can only be one by those in the US* ***Participants in project quilting ARE allowed to enter in the public poll/contest as well.*** This means you have SEVEN chances to win! I need you to write each of these entries as different comments in order to qualify you for all seven entries and include your email address. If you don’t include your email address I won’t be able to contact you when you win and I will have to choose a new winner. I will be picking the winner on Saturday, July 17th. Good luck to everyone and fantastic job!