Crooked Gulley Art Quilts

On to a new project! My DH wants a water feature off our patio. Not a small water feature... oh, no... he wants a big one! Like a pond! I thought it would be fun to make a table runner to get him in the mood. All of the fabrics in the runner are from other art quilts that I have done throughout the house, especially the dining/kitchen area.  I have used a pattern, but tweaked it to be the size and design that works for our table. Here it is... I've just started with the free motion. I'm doing wavy, fluid looking lines to represent the water. I'm hoping it will give the koi a sense of movement. I have an ivory, rust and gold metallic print that I am going to use to bind the table runner when finished. I think that edge will make a beautiful contrast. The table runner is 18"s wide and 5' long. As you can see, one of the fabrics has small dragon flies as part of the pattern. I have free motioned over them in a beautiful, shiny lavender poly thread. I wanted to ma

I am working on a vest made with strips of Bali Pops. The fabric is beautiful, the pattern is horrible. I'm not going to share the name of the designer because I don't want to cause waves. I will say that it is a "quilt as you go" pattern. Let me give you an idea of what I've been dealing with... You use the same pattern piece for the front and the back. You put the back on the fold, then use the same piece for the front and cut up the center front. Somehow having breasts makes this pattern not work so well! The front armholes are gaping, the center front separating  zipper does not conform to my body... it just fits weird. So, I put darts in the lower front arm hole pointing towards the bust. That took care of the gaping armhole, but the zipper is still a problem. I'm going to take it out, add facings and do some fun buttons. The pattern also has a Mandarin collar. That will finish it all off nicely.   (I hope) Moral to this story?  I should have known bett