"Salsa"
Original quilted wallhanging designed and stitched by Terry L. Lewis
39" x 54"
$300 plus shipping

I used a neat "shortcut" method of making drunkard's path blocks.The collection of orange and yellow polka dot fabric was heavily starched in order to make use of my new circle cutter. The starched circles where then pinned to the striped orange and yellow squares, then cut in quarters. The raw edge was covered by stitching bias tape (I made an assortment of blues and teals) face down to cover the seam. Flip the folded strip back to cover the seam allowance and top stitch. Arrange all those squares into your own pattern. Stitch the squares into rows and the rows into the quilt top. Add your borders. Create your quilt sandwich with batting and backing. At a weekend get-together with Eileen and her  Aunt Louis, I was allowed to experiment with Louie's longarm sewing machine to add the free motion quilting. That certainly sped things up. Serve with corn chips!

Not for Sale

"Tulips"

Wallhanging made from a Laura Heine pattern. Free motion quilting and thread painting finishes the quilt.

27" x 38 1/2"

"Girls in the Garden"

Original design and stitching by Terry L. Lewis

23" x 25"

$250 plus shipping

Pattern and directions: $15

My first grandchild arrived in the garden just before participants at a quilting workshop were asked to bring fuseable

designs to mount over the woven background we would be creating. At the same time, my garden was at the "pick and pickle" stage. Though my mother isn't able to join the harvest crew these days, my daughter had helped sow and reap while we took turns rocking the fourth generation of vegetable cookers. These events inspired the sketches which turned into the pattern for this little wall hanging. Though I thought I'd never part with it, now I believe I'd recreate it as part of a larger piece, should it leave my stash. It is embellished with thread painting to hold all those little bits in place.

"Halloween and Harvest" layout

"Pumpkins and Pilgrims" layout

"Seasonal Switch-out"

Original design and stitching by Terry L. Lewis

42" x 54"

Once upon a time I came up with the idea of making a quilt with interchangeable panels, one I could "redecorate"along with my house for the holidays. The result is this wallhanging which is made up of 12 unadorned muslin panels, each bordered in black. I chose the fairly generic green/black/blue swirled border fabric to frame the quilt and added a sleeve. Then I was on to the fun part: designing mini-quilts for each panel. It didn't take me long to realize I'd be wise to have some of the elements carry over from October to November. After all, this was a little more work than I'd bargained for. Once I got to November, I lucked out in finding a harvest panel. I made the Sunflower/Pumpkin/Corn center panel and two of the small panels from that. Yes, I felt I cheated a little, so I'll be working on some original patterns to add to the set. But don't hold your breath! The "Winter Works" is still on my graph paper. True to form, I'll probably finish that about the time the flowers bloom in spring. I used hook and loop tape at the corners of each little quilt to fasten them to the muslin rectangles. If you are interested in purchasing the patterns and directions, I've grouped them and priced them as follows:

"Pumpkin-carving Witch" and "Witch's Shoes"                      $15

"Pumpkin Row" and "Sunflower Square"                                   $15

"Apples and Oak Leaves" and "Bare-branched Tree"              $15

"Squash and Pumpkin" and "Flying Witch"                              $15

"Candy Corn" and "Peek-a-boo Ghost"                                       $12

"Blackwidow Spider" and "Haunted House"                              $12

"Scarecrow" and "Turkey"                                                             $12

"Pilgrim Boy" and "Pilgrim Girl"                                                     $12

Directions for 12-panel base quilt and assembly                        $8

 

"Late Harvest with a View"

23" x 18"

This little wallhanging was my first attempt at landscape quilting, and what a learning experience that was! I enjoyed choosing fabrics that mimicked the earth, the dried corn husks, and the distant sky and mountains. Referring to a photo, I added the deeper blues to the shadows. It wasn't until I added the fibers and the heavy thread work that the foreground took on a textured realism. I've created several other landscape quilts since then and improved my ability to  produce a squared-up product.  They currently rest in the hands of friends and family - whether they like it or not!

"The Road to Oz" 

"The Road to Oz"

Wallhanging consisting of piecing, ink-painted fabric panels, beading, applique, paper-piecing, other embellishments, and over-all threadwork. Homage is paid to L. Frank Baum an Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

45" x 57"

This may well be the best thing I ever dreamed up - somewhere over the rainbow - and finished! It is the result of watching the 1930's movie for the upteeth time, with a sketchbook in my lap, and having read most of the Oz books to death.  I'd even noticed "Oz" fabric was making an appearance on the shelves of my favorite quilt shops. The time was ripe for the creation of my version of the "Wizard of Oz" in thread and fabric. At first I was foolish enough to think I could applique the little Munchkins and all the characters onto muslin. Shut up! One attempt at turning under the edge of some fraying-silver-gauzy-stuff on the tin woodman cured me fast! And then I saw the nifty fabric inks being demonstrated. That made a lot more sense, since I can draw with greater detail than I can applique. The inks allowed me to paint the rainbow, too, though setting a curve into the sky was a trick. I learned some hard lessons about such things as y-seams and matching up corners, but all in all, "The Road to Oz" is even better than I'd envisioned.

Terry L. Lewis lives and creates in her ranch house studio out in the middle of nowhere and between Winnett and Grass Range, Montana. If you are interested in purchasing any of the quilts, or the patterns with which to create your own fiber art, you may contact her by e-mail at tlewis@midrivers.com or by phone: 406-428-2115.

Terry's Two Bits Worth about Dyeing

    TOO HOT TO COOK
        A memory to dye for....by Terry
She arrived at my house with her arms full of cloth,
Buckets and powders and masks.
Risked having a flat on our long gravel road
To line us both out with dye tasks.
We set up the "dye post" in our stiffling garage,
One hundred degrees in the shade.
The two of us mixed up our potions in jars,
Every bright color they made.
We knotted and twisted and tie-died that white
And left it to soak in the vat.
Meanwhile we tried stamping, cut stencils, and sprayed.
(The squares dried in five minutes flat!)
By evening we looked like a pair of peacocks,
"Dyeing" to see the reveal.
I think we drank dinner or had us some fruit ---
Too hot to cook us a meal.
We arose the next morning and pulled on our gloves,
Excited as two little girls.
When we opened those "gifts", the cloth had transformed
Into rainbows, explosions, and whirls!
The clothesline resembled a chest full of jewels,
Sashaying, applauding, bewitching.
We liked the old addage, "If you can't stand the heat,
For gosh sakes get out of the kitchen!"

Dyeing

A group of my sewing friends came over to dye silk scarves.  Unfortunately, I did not get pics of us dying or their scarves because it was about 5 days before Terry and I decided to blog.  I dyed 12 fat quarters prior to everyone coming, so we would have a variety of dyes prepared.


  This is my fourth time dying fabrics, and I am pleased with the results.  I simply used red, yellow, and blue.  I used the formulas from this excellent blog:   

Here is an example of the variation in color I got by crumpling a wet fat quarter and putting it in a quart jar of dye. This is color #9 above.

My silk scarf using color #8 above

Welcome to our blog

For 18 years Terry looked down on Eileen........her backyard, that is. They walked to school together, they joined Brownies (and ate) together, and they roomed together in college. Fifty years later the friendship continues. Now they walk to fabric shops together, they take quilting trips (and eat) together, and they room together for brain-storming whenever possible.