1. Howdy girl, 2. Tools just wanna have fun!, 3. detail scissors, 4. mmmm PIE closeup, 5. Project quilting challenge 3, 6. projectquilting Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Quilter:  Dashasel

Howdy girl

"Howdy, Girl"
Project Quilting Season 3, Challenge 3: Tools
blogged: dashasel.blogspot.com/2012/02/howdy-girl.html

I was lucky enough to win a little I-spy pack after Challenge 2 and this charm square of this cowboy just stuck in my head. As soon as the challenge was announced, I knew that I wanted to do something about cowboy tools. Aside from a lasso and spur, I wasn't quite sure my range of tool options were. I did some searching and finally decided on the following as my inspiration: lasso, spur, kerchief, and dream sack.

For the lasso, I used perl cotton thread to embroider. I like how the perl cotton is twisted, so it appears rope-like. My inspiration for the cowboy quote comes from all the Ryan Gosling Handmade photos that have been circulating lately. The image of the shirtless cowboy somehow connected with me and if he was to be empathetic to any of my quilting, it would be with quilting large quilts (which I called dream sacks) because I have a tiny-throated machine and often it feels like a wresting match when I need to do anything larger than 50"!

For the spur and kerchief, I framed the cowboy block. I read that the kerchiefs are frequently pretty large with the purpose of providing warmth. To warm up the cowboy, I gave him two framed layers and used a paisley print since I tend to associate that with bandanas and such. Of course, the nice cowboy kerchiefs are frequently made of silk. For the spur, I decided to use a block that looked like a spur.

Finally, for the dream sack (i.e., the blankets that cowboys carry with them to sleep on), I made the background of the quilt like a patchwork blanket and referenced it in the quote.

The colors of the quilt were based on some cowboy photo galleries that I found online-- all earthy colors. For quilting, I just did some simple straight-line quilting that echoed the patchwork.

It was a lot of fun to make this quilt and now I can have my own version of Ryan Gosling cheering me on as I craft! The quilt is 17"x21" and was made in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Quilter:  Pat Denino

Tools just wanna have fun!

Oh yes they do. After working all day, they like to put on their party clothes and dance.

Once I wrapped my brain around the subject of tools, this just became fun, and then more fun. I have no wonderful techniques to describe other than sharing a playful spirit.
24"x33"

Quilter:  Becky’s Blabber

Tool Time Quilt

The kids and I have been making "bleach" T-shirts on a regular basis for years now. It's the perfect thing to do on a hot summer day when the kids are bored to death! We take dark solid T-shirts, I let the boys arrange objects on their shirts (often making ones for me and my husband too), then use a spray bottle to spray bleach on them (to make the hands, above, I traced the boys' hands onto cereal boxes, and cut them out). As the bleach reacts, it leaves the silhouette on the shirt. I remove the objects, and plunge the shirts into a bucket of water once they start reacting, to stop the reaction. It's a whole lot of fun!

I decided to try this approach on my "tool time" quilt, using black fabric and tools that I use regularly, a knife in the kitchen, scissors in the sewing room, a hand shovel in the garden, and needle-nose pliers, for beading, and various other things.

I had to try a few times to get it right, and the weather wasn't exactly ideal, but I'm pretty happy at how it turned out. I figured batiks would be the best type of fabric to pair it with, and used up some of my scraps as well.

It's 24 inches by 24 inches.
Made by Becky in Pendleton, OR, blogged here: becky-beckysblabber.blogspot.com/2012/02/tool-time-projec...

Quilter:  Quilties

mmmm PIE

For the Project Quilting Challenge theme of "Tools", I chose pie-making tools as my subject. Pies are a big deal in my family; my mom is an expert pie-maker. We all love to eat pies on holidays. I have been making them for years and I'm fine at it, but it's never quite as good as my mom's pie. This year for Christmas she gave me a few tools of the trade, so maybe someday my pies will come close to the quality of hers!

I also enjoy making pies because it seems like such an old-fashioned homemaker-thing to do, so I made this quilt a little old-fashioned too with hand-quilting and a little primitive style. Because of all the hand-stitching I planned to do (and to give it a more kitcheny heritage) the quilt sandwich is made with kitchen-towel woven cotton for the batting. That made it a breeze to stitch through, but gave it a nice quilt weight too.

This mini quilt is 16" x 19" made by Emma Thomas-McGinnis in Urbandale, IA

Quilter:  Vicki @ Dotty Jane

Tennessee
12" x 12"
Our house is undergoing a facelift, so my most used tools lately are drywall and painting tools. Since white drywall mud on white drywall is pretty boring to look at, I used the pink to represent the mud. There is a brand of patch plaster that applies pink and turns white when dry:) The small circles represent drywall screws. Silver leafing was used for the knife. The quilting was mostly done in a free motion style. 
Blogged here:
dottyjanedesigns.blogspot.com/2012/02/project-quilting-ch...

Missed earlier Closer Looks for the Tool Time Challenge?  No Worries!

• Tool Time - A Closer Look, Part 1
• Tool Time – A Closer Look, Part 2

The 8th block of the Home Sweet Home Quilt Along will be posted later today!