Crazy Challenge!!

I am on the board of my local quilt group, the Northwoods Quilters, and Dorothy J. showed this unfinished quilt top she received from an anonymous quilter. She was at a loss as to "complete" the top. I said I had a vision and Dorothy said "go for it!!" I know nothing of the quilter and their background. I mean no disrespect to this individual but the seams were large and bulky, it was misshaped and there was a large solid white square in the center of the quilt. The eye was drawn to this white square for no reason but it dominated the quilt top in the wrong way. I decided to fussy cut large flowers from printed fabric-mostly Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I raw edged fused appliqued the flowers totally covering the strange white blob. I pulled out the oranges, blues, purples and yellows from the fun print the artist used in the pieced top. I selected medium to smaller flowers sporatically over the top. The quilt top needed to be squared up and the seams trimmed to 1/4". I will outline stitch the flowers in place and show it to Dorothy at our January board meeting on Jan. 4th. I would like to finish this quilt because I see tons of fun quilting and embellishing overload!! In the end, the quilt I received became just the background for some fun applique! I understand as quilters we were all beginners and I can't judge this person's technical skills. She has a good sense of color coordination and I love the bright psychadelic acid-trip print!!

I'm a Proud Mom!!

My daughter, Jordana, is the sous chef at Republic Chop House in downtown Green Bay, WI and her friend Abbey is the executive chef at the restaurant. They are featured in the January 2010 issue of You Magazine which is a local publication from The Green Bay Press Gazette newspaper. They are special chefs because the two head honchos of this upscale restaurant are both female. The restaurant business can be a "old boy's club" according to Jordana so these two talented young women in these positions rock!!! The restaurant has a website www.republicchophouse.com to get more info. Girls Rule Boys Drool!!!!!!

Merry Kitschmas!!!

I purchased this funny book "Merry Kitschmas" five years ago and have laughed and paged through it numerous times. I have noticed while watching the TV show "What Not To Wear" the holiday sweaters with all the frou frou is a fashion no-no. This funny book had a take on the holiday themed sweater/sweatshirt by being comical. I bought a plain red sweatshirt, sequin trim, metallic rickrack, rhinestones, dangly trim with Christmas ornaments and some iron-on letters. I'm not sure if I crossed the line into having the sweatshirt gaudy enough. It was a fun exercise in good embellishing and being over the edge. I left the ribbing on the bottom and the cuffs unadorned because of the bulkiness factor and the back alone because I can't see that anyway. Do you think I should "gaud" it up somemore? Maybe the shoulder seams or around the sleeve seam could have added sparkle. Merry Kitschmas!!

Stained Glass Stepping Stone

I like to share any worthy forms of art I enjoy, so today I am praising the stained glass steppping stones of my boyfriend Ken. He has been making stepping stones and garden benches for several years. This stone is a commissioned piece for a Christmas gift. The process is very maticulous from cutting the glass the correct size, grinding the glass edges, trying to get a curved looking line from a straight cut of glass and sticking all the small pieces to contact paper and flipping it in the mold. It is like a pineapple upsidedown cake not a mosaic piece where one works from the top and glues on pieces. If one piece of glass shifts then the there are flaws in the design. The cement process has several steps and then after 20-24 hours of drying time it can be flipped from the mold and grouted. It is so different that painting a picture or sewing a quilt. I'm so used to layering fabrics one on top on another and with stained glass in contrete it in a flat surface made to look dimentional. It has such a smooth surface when the stone is finished you can't help but touch it. I have several in my gardens in my yard and they are all original designs Ken created. You rock honey!!

Commissioned Quilt

I was commissioned to make a small wall hanging for a local friend. His intention was to have two intertwined red roses and his name and his friend's name on the piece. He allowed me to havecreative control of the project. I Googled images of roses to get the best details. I freehanded the drawing and raw edged fused appliqued the roses, stems and leaves. I used three values of red for the roses and did a small amount of permanent marker to detail the flower. I machine quilted the quilt and then added the lettering. The lettering font I find from going to Word Document and then drawing it out on graph paper. I use the same technique to apply the words as the rose. I hope my friend is pleased with the quilt!!

Tina Turner (The Quilt) Back From Her Tour!!

My Tina quilt was ""on tour" with Quilting Arts Magazine at the IQA Chicago Quilt show in April, the IQA Long Beach Quilt show in July and the Biggie IQA Houston Quilt Show in October and is back home in my studio!! I sure missed her!! I have a request for all of you in blog and Facebookland-I wish for Tina Turner to see the quilt I did of her. I am wondering if anyone knows how to do that? I tried on her official website with a downloaded photo and got nowhere. It would be so awesome to have a connection of some sort!! Thanks for any help!!

Menominee Area Art Council (MAAC) Winter Art Exhibit

The Menominee MI Area Art Council has been diligently enriching the community with artwork from area artists. Menominee City Hall officials agreed and have allowed MAAC to put up a seasonal display of artwork on the city hall walls. The first display started on Tuesday, Dec. 1st and will have a winter theme. It will switch to a spring theme in March. I applause city government for supporting community artists. On top of everything else it is FREE!!! I have a quilt that I consider traditional with a snowflake and evergreen tree theme. The photos are various views of the exhibit. Check it out if you are nearby!

www.laurieceesay.com

I want to share the news of my art quilt website www.laurieceesay.com. I've been thinking about it, listed it as a 2009 goal and decided to quit thinking and start doing!! I hired a web designer because I knew I didn't have the computer skills to get the job done. I hired David Walker, of David Walker Web Design, from Cincinnati OH, to create the site. He is a quilter, web designer and photographer. His website is www.davidwalker.us. David is very professional and listened to my requests as well as made recommendations and he gave excellant photography advice. I even picked up some new computer knowledge. It was a learning experience and now I can get back to quilting!! Check it out and let me know what you think!