Marilyn Monroe

My quilting friend, Cher Alexander asked me to do a quilt of Marilyn Monroe for a gift and I was up for the challenge. She wants to frame and mat the finished piece like a photo and put it in a 11 x 14 frame. The quilt is 8 x 10 plus a bit extra to tuck under the mat. Cher wanted Marilyn to have on a red halter dress and after agreeing to the picture I chose I went for it. Since it's small that means it doesn't take much fabric and there is not a lot of space to cover but the eyes, teeth etc. are too small to make out of fabric. I painted the white of the eyes and used a fabric marker for the dark almost black iris. I thread painted the teeth and went over them with white paint to define. I little white paint on the lips and as extra highlight were added also. I added just a smidge of light yellow shimmer nail polish to Marilyn's hair for sparkle and shine. It's a challenge to create a quilt of a famous person since everyone knows what they look like. I had a blash making this piece and kept thinking of Marilyn Monroe and her movies and her breathy airy voice!! I will give it to Cher asap. 

Holiday Pets Photo Contest

I have signed up on Facebook to be a fan of the business called Art Chix Studio. I find their embellishments are fun and intriguing. They posted a "cute holiday pet contest" and I entered Mickey, age 13, who in not dainty, but thought he could fit between the buildings in my Christmas village and Mia, age 12, who used to climb the Christmas tree and act all cocky. At age 5 she started eating raffia, thread in my sewing room, tinsel etc and had emergency surgery in Sept. '03. At Christmas time that year I discovered she was munching on the artificial Christmas tree needles and had another surgery. The vet told me Mia had PICA which is a disorder when people/animals eat non-edible things. So no more Christmas tree-real or fake. Some people say to get rid of the cat but she's such a fun little character I will give up the Christmas tree. I still decorate with table and wall items, lots of lights and lots of quilts. The website for this contest is located at http://www.artchixstudio.com/.

Christmas Postcards

I had a moment when I organized my studio and found this great Christmas themed batik. I decided to make 10 postcards since the Fast2Fuse was already cut out to size. I machine quilted and edged the cards with Sulky Blendables thread in the Christmas colors thread. I then had fun with gliiter nail polish and glitter/glue and flashed them up a bit. The back is a solid white with a hint of glimmer. I find that it's just easier at the Post Office to mail them in a envelope than to have the drama of hand cancelling and freaking the front desk people at the P.O.  Each card is slightly different depending on the fabric cuts-some are more green and some are more red.

Circles

This wall hanging started at quilt retreat. I picked some on my favorite fabrics and I like to work in reds and greens. I picked up the red with lime green dots this fall and just kept adding polka dot fabrics. I have one stripe and a tone on tone green that is a Kaffe fabric. It is not intended to be a Christmas quilt but more of a study of color complements and circular shapes. When the top was pieced I started playing around with two sheer fabrics as overlays. It was fun to use nontraditional quilt fabrics because it added transparency, shimmer and color changes. My quilting friend Mary Ann Provancher lent me her tool called "Cut a Round" which made circle cutting  the sheer fabrics very easy-I may have to buy my own tool. I then pulled out of the embellishment drawer the Angelina fibers to create more yet different circles. I purchased a product called Bo-Nash  Bonding Agent at the International Quilt Festival to bond the angelina to the quilt. I didn't think it really bonded the angelina to the fabric like they claimed. I ended up using fabric glue to re-enforce it. I added felt buttons which balanced the shimmery fabrics with texture and because I can't help myself-red and green rhinestones in 4-5 sizes!! I plan to hang it on the wall at work at Pizazz Salon in Menominee, MI.

Playing Around at Quilt Retreat

I made this small wall hanging with a lime green background and a red dress and chose to make another one while I was at quilt retreat. I intend to donate it to a art quilt auction next spring. It is raw edged fused applique and machine quilted. I have embellished it with traditional colored rhinestones, fabric paints, glitter/glue on eyelids and lips, and OPI gold glitter nail polish in the hair. I'm still contemplating something red in the hair-any thoughts on that one??