Welcome to Heartsdesire

Welcome to my place! just wanted to share my art, my dogs and whatever else inspires me.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Another busy day in the studio, this little beagle was to cute not to turn into a quilt.  All pieced and ready to sew. 

Some days go so fast, you get started on a project and just get into the zone.  Before you know it the day has gone by and you have made such great progress.  Why can't all days be like that?

But for now putting my sewing aside and need to start packing.  Heading to the Bainbridge dog show to help out one of my favorite friends, and play with the dogs.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Just added this quilt to my Etsy store.

"To Cute" is 22 x 22 and is an original design of a Bernese Mountain Dog Puppy, so young he still has his pink nose!!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Enjoying a extremely rare moment of utterly blissful peace!  The puppies let me sleep in till 7:15 this morning, that's an hour and 1/2 late. They went out did their thing ate their breakfast and all went back to sleep and the hubby never heard a thing. 


Our home is an A-Frame which is all windows facing west.  We are surrounded by over 2000 acres of woods east and west of our wetland valley and we look out over Labrador Mt. Ski Center.  How wonderful it is to be cuddled up with a cup of coffee and simply watch what is happening out the windows. The hummingbirds are fighting over the feeder, a phoebe is setting up on the power line looking for his next meal. The cat birds are in the bushes rattling on as if they were husband and wife in a really big discussion about who's turn it is to set on the nest and our baltimore orioles is perched at the very top of the tree singing to the sun as it comes over the hill.

And it's over, hubbies feet just hit the floor.  But what a great way to start the morning and wonderful inspiration.  Finish my coffee and heading back to my little room to work on the next quilt.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

http://www.bobbincentral.com/

Love this thread folks! Glide by fil-tec. No hassles, less breakage, no lint, beautiful color and great great value.

I was introduced to it last year at MQX. I brought home 6 5000m spools and fell in love.

Satin Stitching in Free Motion by Debbie Butler Miller





My very short little Satin Stitching in free motion demo.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

I am always overwhelmed by the response I get when I post a picture of a new quilt. I look at the work by some of the countries most popular quilters and hope that someday mine will be as good as theirs, but in my own small little world I love what I am doing and so happy that I can take a photo of someones best friend and turn it into something that they will cherish.

So for now I will keep creating, keep working and am thankful for this chance to love what I do and do what I love.


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

"Please"

Just finished this Bernese Mountain Dog puppy portrait and it is available on my Etsy store.

 http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeartsdesireQuilts

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Just got some really cool news!!  My quilts are going to be featured on quiltstory.blogspot.com on July 13th!!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Just received this picture from one of my students of their completed work! Beautiful!!
There is still room in my studio class this weekend for anyone that would like a little extra help on their portrait!

Lesson #2; Portrait Class con't

 So, I have printed out my pattern with the use of a poster program and taped all the pages together to make my pattern. At 500% my pattern now measures 55 x 42.5.  (use masking tape it won't melt when you iron over it)  This is the right side.
Turn the pattern over and lay Heat'n'Bond lite on the wrong side of the pattern (if the patten is to large tape sheets of heat'n'bond together with masking tape) and trace the pattern on to the heat'n'bond.



 Now that you have traced the pattern onto the heat'n'bond, set it aside.
Now take your fabric selected for the "pallet" and lay it right side down. Now lay your pattern right side down on top of your pallet and tape your pattern to your pallet.

Turn the whole piece over and lay it atop a light box, this will enable you to see your pattern through the pallet and to place your applique` pieces in exactly the right place as if it were a child's puzzle.  With your original picture at hand for reference, begin cutting your pattern from the heat'n'bond (one piece at a time, or pieces will disappear on you) and select appropriate fabrics in color and movement to fit the picture. Iron the heat'n'bond to the wrong side of your fabric, peal off the paper, lay your fabric onto the pallet right into it's place in the puzzle and iron (I iron right atop my light box, I have been doing it for years without any problems)


My applique` is complete!

The next step is to sandwich my quilt. I prefer to use Thermore batting for my wall hangings. It tends to shift less and much less lint in my bobbin case as I'm sewing.

I then us a waster soluble thread to baste my quilt. With all the stitching that will be done it helps to keep the quilt flat and it keeps all my piecing in place. As you must know heat'n'bond doesn't always keep everything attached 100%.
 The best part of the water soluble thread is that when you are finished quilting and ready to block, just by getting your quilt damp makes all that basting go away and no thread to pick!

Sew here I go, time to Sew.....

More to come!

Friday, June 8, 2012

The portrait process, it starts with a picture.







It starts with a picture....

I saw this picture and couldn't resist, it called my name and said "quilt me"!

How could anyone resist this adorable face. Now to make the pattern.
  • I lay a sheet of overhead projector transparency over the top of the picture and with a fine point "sharpie" marker begin to outline the major features and color changes produced by light and shadows that I want in my quilt.
  • Then I scan the pattern and photoshop to turn the transparency image into black and white image.
  • now I have two choices when enlarging, but first remember that when enlarging any image that it must be done in percentages in order to keep your image in perspective.  If you decide for instance that you want you quilt to be a certain size and enlarge "to fit", the image will be distorted.  The first way to enlarge and the easiest is to take your black and white pattern to Staples and there you can enlarge your pattern up to 400%. The second involves a poster program I have on my computer which allows me to enlarge (still in %'s) as big as I want. The downfall of this is that it is printed out on 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper (which are numbered and have cutting lines) that must now be taped or glued together.  A bit of an inconvenience, however when you live 15 miles from the closest copy center and the price of gas what it is, I can live with a little inconvenience.
Time to go paste my pages together, more to come.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Sebastian raises $$$$$ for Berner Garde

Sebastian
 

Such exciting news!!! My quilt of Sebastian which I donated to Berner Garde Health Fund Auction to support canine disease research sold for $7650.00! 

This brings monies raised by my quilts to $14650.00 in just 4 years.