Rustic Wire Quilt

 No needle required for this quilt!

 

SUPPLIES:

 a square tomato cage (plant section), chicken wire, 18 & 20 gauge wires, wire cutter, wire pliers, and gloves (you'll want them...the wire is sharp!).   The original galvanized silver finish didn't show up well against my light colored house so faux-rusted it with a Rustoleum Natural Rust spray paint kit.  Kinda adds some steampunkiness to it too, which is a little more in my deco wheelhouse right now.

The inspiration was from the April/May issue of Mary Jane's Farm.  The instructions required making your own blocks using a square board as a template and then wiring them together. 

Always looking for a shortcut, I figured a pre-fab "quilt" like a tomato cage, trellis, or steer wire would be even faster and it was!

Spider block is my favorite!

I made the spider by cutting four pieces of wire, overlapping them to look like spider legs and then gluing them together with a GIANT blob of hot glue.  After the hot glue cooled I then wrapped it with wire.

This project is perfect for a non-perfectionist.

By nature it will be wonky and rustic.  Tomato cages may look square, but they aren't.

Wire tends to have a mind of it's own too, so go with it.  

Simple shapes are best.

Sharp corners are next to impossible so add a swirling (call it an artistic effect) and go for rounded corners.

And here's a bonus picture that I PicMonkey-ed with and just thought I'd share cuz' I just love it.

Aren't the shadows cool?

Linking To:

Whatever Goes Wednesday #223 at Someday Crafts 
May Steampunk Challenge at SanDee & Amelie's 
Think Pink Sunday #166 @ Flamingo Toes

Chickens As Pillows

September 12th was my mom's 66th Birthday!

 

I purchased a 2lb. box of See's Chocolates (always a winner)

image from See's-you can order online too!

 

and accompanied those with two 12" pillows made from some left-over quilt blocks I had

Brrright little hens!

 

The pattern is from Buggy Barn Quilts located here in WA State.

Chickens in the sun

 

The hen blocks pattern, "Barn Chicks", is from Buggy Barn's Certifiably Crazy pattern book that includes 8 quilt patterns using their "crazy" method.

 

I love their "Crazy" patterns! It's sort of a stack n' whack method, but with cool designs.

They are great for a first time piecer/quilter as there's lots of room for error change.

Quality check by Bo

 

 

Garden Party Block

I've been downloading all the free patterns

for the Sew Hooked April Garden Party.

Actually sewed one too!

This is Day 5: Garden Party block by Monkey Beans

I do love paper-piecing.

I'm a bit messy, but that might have to do with why I love it.

Only 29 more to go and I'll have all of them done!

Sunny Day

We're experiencing some gorgeous sunny weather here in this windy little burg.  The warmth  is just perfect for working quilt tops.

My circle quilt from Make It... A Wonderful Life's tutorial.  I raw edge appliqued all the circles~much easier than I thought it would be and the edge looks very clean.

I used a CD as a template for the circles.  Normally holding a CD in place to cut, or even a ruler, would be very difficult for me because of the arthritis in my hands...then I discovered these beauties

Gypsy Grippers! 

 I first saw them at Craft Warehouse--the whole fabric cutting crew uses them and they let me try them out.  These little girppers are FABULOUS!  They strongly suction cup to an acrylic ruler (or CD) and you can use a full hand grip and weight to hold the ruler in place.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE these!  My ruler used to wiggle while I cut and my hand ached afterwards, but that is totally eliminated now with these little hummers.

Happy upcoming weekend!