Saturday, March 2, 2024

I'm participating in IGQuiltFest this year! Here is a bit of Info about it!

Hi!

I am participating in #IGQuiltFest2024 this month, March 2024! It is a 31 day Festival on Instagram, hosted by @amyscreativeside . 

You can take part too, there are prompts for daily posts - and weekly drawings for quilty prizes. It is a fun way to connect with other quilters on Instagram. 

I am a bit behind on my posts, I posted my Day 1 Introductions photo today, if you visit @amyscreativeside, you can see the list of posts for the festival, and more information about it.

I thought it would be fun to share this bit of information with you!

Many Blessings to you,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk (my instagram page is @dblosczyk)

Sunday, February 18, 2024

First project finish of the year! Secret Lives of Pets Panel Quilt!

Hi, 

Hope your year is going well! I have just finished quilting and binding the Secret Lives of Pets Panel quilt (cat themed) and I just need to finish stitching on the label before I send it off to it's recipient.

Here is the project and some close ups of the quilting. It is quilted with my Qnique 14+ (15 inch arm) Quilting machine on a frame. I used my own quilting designs, it is all free motion quilting.

 
Full view Gidget and Chloe Panel quilt
Full view Gidget and Chloe Panel Quilt
Corner view of quilt
Corner View of quilt





















View of quilt - detail of Sulky Cat Yarn Ball embroidery design
Sulky Cat Yarn Ball embroidery design



Chloe detail - quilting
Chloe Detail





























































I used a Towa Gage to set the tension in my bobbin and that was a great help. It is quilted with 50 weight Superior Thread and 80 weight Wonderfil DecoBob thread in the bobbin (it is my go to bobbin thread!). I wanted to use up a bit of my thread stash when working on the quilt.

The yo-yo embellishments were left over yo-yos with inserts from the Spot-on Pillow project I made for Love of Quilting magazine. (You can read about it in one of my previous blog entries! You can make one too!) 

This quilt has been a joy to work on, and I loved playing with color and fabrics in my stash.

You can read more about the process in my previous blog entries!

What are you working on? Leave a comment if you like!

I hope this little quilt brings some inspiration to you!

Blessings,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk

Friday, January 12, 2024

Welcome to a New Year 2024!

Greetings!

I hope you are doing well and having a good start to the New Year. 


I have pretty much stopped making a list of New Year's Resolutions, but I do have an ongoing list of projects I am working towards finishing or hope to start.

Sometimes this list gets interrupted by opportunities that come along. I think it is good to remain open to new possibilities, especially when it comes to creativity.

That way, life always remains interesting! I do have a few things I want to continue doing: keep taking at least 4,000 steps a day, and perhaps a few more! I don't want to put myself under a lot of pressure, but I do want to continue to be healthy and improve my health a bit too.

I think life is an ongoing process, aside from the calendar!

Wishing you all a great New Year 2024. May every day be a start to a new beginning for you too!


Here are some photos of projects in process in my studio:

Fun panel gift quilt - I'm almost done quilting it!

























Improvisational Tumbler quilt - I have a bit of hand quilting to finish on it,
and some applique to add!


Check out my previous blog entries for more information on these 2 projects. I'm looking forward to getting them completed this year (soon)!

Blessings to you, wishes for a healthy, creative New Year!

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Gidget and Chloe, Secret Life of Pets Panel Quilt - a bit about my process in making this quilt!

Hi!

Thought I would write a bit about the most recent gift quilt I have been working on. It is a Panel quilt, the center panel is "Gidget and Chloe" from "The Secret Life of Pets" Movie. I purchased the panel a while back, with the thought of practicing my free motion quilting on it, and it just makes sense to make it into a quilt too!

Finished Gidget and Chloe quilt top on my design wall.




































I'm making this quilt for a young cat lover, so I added some cat embroidery on purple fabrics which coordinate with the center panel. I chose various shades of purple for variety. The embroidery was completed using my Brother SE2000 machine and my Bernette B79 machine. I added the Brother machine to my studio this past June, so I have been trying out its features. I used designs from Bernina and Brother for the embroideries. I also used a Sulky Yarn Ball Cat embroidery on the quilt - it is in the top left and lower right borders. I added text to some of the embroideries and combined flowers and butterfly designs with the cats. The pink border has a small butterfly print on it. 

Sulky Yarn Ball embroidery design on quilt


Quilt detail, rose embroidery


Quilt detail, Cat Face embroideries




Detail on Quilt, Kitty-Cat embroidered block


I purchased a light blue cat print to add to the quilt - I wanted to keep the quilt from becoming a pink and purple only quilt! The light blue print helped me extend the color story of the quilt. I then was able to add fabrics in complimentary colors that go with pink, blue and purple. 

I watched a fabric presentation recently where a quilt designer mentioned that you shouldn't pre-wash your fabric panels, because they can stretch out of shape. I discovered this is true, when I went to work with my panel. I had to trim the panel down, then I added purple strips around the edges to restore the borders.

Tip: I actually used a tip I heard about many years ago - for fabrics, there are always 2 sides. The dark purple fabric I used for the border had a print on one side - I liked the solid reverse side better, so I used it that way! I think this is the first time I have used this tip!

I picked out a lot of my fabrics intuitively - I thought why am I choosing polka-dots from my stash? Then I realized the center panel had a polka-dot pattern in the background - so it made sense! The polka-dot prints are Benartex fabrics I have had in my stash for a while, so I am glad they are finding a new home on this quilt.

This was a fun quilt top to piece together - I started with 6 x7 inch rectangles for the embroidery, and added 6x6 inch squares. When it didn't fit together, I just cut some of the squares to fit and let it go together. A fun, no stress process!

There was a bit of puckering around the embroideries, but when I began to quilt around them, it is disappearing. The quilt is on the frame, and gradually getting finished. It is a fun process!

I hope you enjoy hearing a bit about this quilt! I will share some photos when it is quilted and completed too.

Many Blessings to you!

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk



Thursday, October 5, 2023

My ornaments have been published in Fons and Porter, Love of Quilting, November/December 2023 issue!

Hi!

I have some fun news to share! My silk holiday ornaments with decorative stitching have been published in the Love of Quilting, Nov/Dec 2023 issue! 

Silk Splendor Ornaments displayed on tree




Silk Splendor Bird ornament











I love having them in the holiday issue. There are other beautiful projects in the issue to inspire you for the holidays! 

Also, instructions on making Scandinavian Star ornaments - I may have to try that, they look like fun.

Love of Quilting Nov/Dec 2023 issue















You can check it out at: https://www.quiltingdaily.com/product/love-of-quilting-november-december-2023-digital-edition/


Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk



Friday, September 22, 2023

Garden/Kitchen projects we have been working on! And a quilt top waiting to be quilted!

Hi everyone!

It is starting to feel like Autumn here, Happy Autumn Equinox! Only 2 or 3 Hummingbirds remain at our feeder. Lots of other birds have flown off (to migrate, I guess!). We saw a few Ravens in the area, and the Geese have returned, flying in formation over our house in the morning and evening. (We are near a river, which flows through our town.) I'm happy we survived the extra hot temperatures this year and it is feeling nice outside now.

I have been wanting to post for a while, have been very busy with a bountiful orchard this season. We have been harvesting, freezing, drying and canning fruit! I have been using the Steam Canning process with my Victoria Canner. It worked well, using the indicator on the top of the canner as an aid when processing. The process kept our kitchen from getting so hot!

Here are some photos of canning in the pantry (I apologize for the bad lighting) :

Canning - Apple Sauce and Fig Jam

Canning, Blackberries and Blackberry Jam

Canning Jars, Asian Pear Jam, Blackberry Jam and Applesauce

Caning in our pantry
















This is the most fruit we have had - so I have had to take time from creating in my studio to harvest and preserve. My husband has been helping with preparing the fruit with me and drying too. 

We had enough peaches to freeze (will make pie later), Stella cherries with extra to freeze, tons of Blackberries, for freezing, canning and I made some Blackberry jam and Blackberry fruit rollups. Also grapes - we made some rollups with Blackberries and grapes combined (if you use this combination you don't need to add sugar). Our raisins didn't turn out as well, too moist.

We even had a few nectarines and plums for eating. It wasn't a good year for apricots and almonds though (we did get a bit of hard frost). 

We harvested Asian pears and Apples (we gave away most of these to neighbors, friends and to a bakery in town). We froze some apples, then dried some and canned applesauce and Asian pear jam. I made the Asian pear jam without sugar or honey, since they were sweet, and applesauce without sugar, since they had a great flavor.

Then, have been harvesting our Chicago Hardy Figs! They do well in our area (zone 8b, Central Arizona, though this variety is hardy in colder areas, also). We dried some and I made some Fig jam (I added some honey, a bit of sugar and some molasses). I'll use the jam to make Fig Bars later on!

Today we will be making Fig roll ups and trying our hands at drying some Jujubes! (note: they both came out great!)

We also harvested Persimmons and Yali Asian Pears, here are some of the Yalis on our counter:

Yali Asian Pears on counter

Hand holding large Yali Asian Pear










We will be harvesting our large hard Pears, Utah Sweet Pomegranates and Pecans yet this year. All have been doing well! The heat seems to have kept some of the Codling moths away. Though, you still have to be careful when eating the fruits they like to eat.

It will be nice to have the fruit to use, especially since not every year is as good as this year has been! If we have more good years, we will share more food too!

I did manage to piece together a quilt top for one of my great nieces. She loves cats. I will write about that in my next post! Here is a photo of it on my design wall:


Pieced Gidget and Chloe Quilt Top



Wishing everyone a beautiful Autumn!

Blessings to you,

Denise A. Buchwalter-Losczyk