Friday, October 19, 2007

AJ's Birthday Star Hanging

Now this hanging has arrived at its home, I can blog it! But have just realized I didn't take any photos of it finished! So I have pasted some that AJ has taken. Back in February I signed up for the Quilt Studio 12 inch block challenge, my theme I choose was star. My first block was the Van Gogh inspired number here. So was scrathing my head over the second one, then I thought Andy Warhol, something along the lines of his Movie Star images. Then I thought, what am I going to do with this 12 inch block? And decided to make a hanging for AJ to put in her birthday parcel.

So this week it was AJ's birthday! Happy birthday my quilting buddy! We have never meet in real life, but through the powers of quilting have formed a friendship across this huge country of ours. I think she's a star as her TTC road has been a bumpy one and I do admire her grace, courage and positive outlook that one day she will hold her own baby in her arms. I can't wait for that day for her and her husband, it will come AJ! She is a wonderful person to bounce ideas and colour combos off, our taste is very similar, one day I hope that we will be able to go on a big fabric shopping crawl together! A true friend! :)


So these two shots AJ took. It was bit of an experiment to make as the image of her. I took the photo of her off her blog and hoped she wouldn't mind! Photoshopped it till the colours where how I wanted, then printed the image onto some fine calico that had been ironed with freezer paper. The colours where stunning, I was impressed with how well it printed. Then I sewed stripes around, in a wonky log cabin style. Then the plan was to sew little Star of David blocks in each corner, but I had run out of room at this stage if it was going to be 12 inches! So I popped the binding on and then quilted it. Had such fun quilting it, random stippling everywhere! I used a little paper star as a template, as in the first photo. It was really a nice little project to do. Now to think of what to do for the last one..... idea's?


13 comments:

AJ said...

Helen words are not enough to thank you...you truly are a fine artist!

That fabric shoping will be happening how soon I don't know...but soon!

Hugs and love AJ

Lily Mulholland said...

Very cool and what a great idea! No wonder she's happy!

Cass said...

Helen it looks great, well done

thehummingcat said...

Noice, different, unusual, noice :-)

Emma said...

This is great Helen! And the tiny quilting is so neat and even...

Natalie said...

I just saw this on AJ's blog - it is just amazing Helen, you are such a wonderful person to do this, it looks fantastic too.

Hmmm ideas for the last one, what about nursery rhymes about stars... "twinkle twinkle little star", "star light star bright" umm I'm sure there's more but my mind has just gone blank lol.

Little Munchkins said...

I thought of Andy Warhol straigtaway when I saw the quilt. It looks awesome!

Jo Raines said...

How cool! Love the colors and the quilting.

Andrea said...

What a wonderful gift idea Helen, and whtas a lucky birthday girl!

Unknown said...

I love this Helen. You are always opening my eyes to what quilting can be! I would never have thought of doing something like this in a million years.

And I had always assumed that you and AJ had met and both were from WA. Geez, I am behind the times aren't I. Can you convince her to come to the Sydney meet??

AJ said...

It's not me you have to convince Ingrid, it is my DH!! I'd be there in a flash if the budget could stretch that far!! I could make it but DH says there are other things more important...what could be more important than fabric!!!

Anonymous said...

No idea how you did this Helen but love the result. This is one of those treasure it forever presents.

Tracey @ozcountryquiltingmum said...

Oh, photo quilting fascinates me, but I have not had much luck with getting the image printed on the fabric, this is fabulous. Thanks for visiting my blog so that I could find yours, Tracey