I Went to the Dark Side-Traditional Quilting!!

While working on tuesdays at Pine Street Quilts I kept sharing at the large floral print and loved it. I realized I could not use it in my portrait quilts except in a border and that seemed boring. So I used one of my favorite tradional patterns from www.BlankQuilting.com and is a free download. I have always switched up the design a bit but love the symetrical balanced look of the quilt. I skipped the extra borders and used more of the large floral. I found a fun stripe, which I love to have in my quilts, and the rest of the fabrics are from my stash. I like to buy the dollar store hawaian leis and take them apart and sew them on to quilts-I have some of those in this quilt. I found a large colorful lei at Hobby Lobby and that's where the large hot pink flowers come from. I have three colors/sizes of rhinestones, some flower themed beads, and some purple felt buttons as embellishments. I added a little purple glitter nail polish on the pink flowers for fun. I call the quilt "Fiori de Magenta" which means magenta flowers in Italian. I am fascinated by Italy and things Italian so that how it got the name. The quilt is 48" x 48".The second photo is a detail view of the flowers, glitter and felt buttons. I think I will enter this quilt in the Road to California show in a category I usually I don't enter. Then it's up to the jury people to decide if it's worthy. Back to art quilts!!!

Bubbly Blonde Heads to Madtown!!

Bubbly Blonde has been juried into the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI which is Sept. 8-10, 2011. I made this quilt because I love the 1960s fashions-Twiggy, pop art, Gucci prints, crazy eyelashes and frosty lipstick. I didn't plan a secondary them of circles but it just happened. I used an awesome Kaffe Fassett circular print and started cutting it up and appliquing it around the quilt. About the time I was going to quilt this piece I received a judge's comment about me not quilting enough on the face of the woman in that quilt. I purposely leave certain areas to show depth and dimensions but since she was a traditional quilter...I have a rebellious side that said "I'll show you quilting on the face!!" so I went nuts and the close-up view shows the details. I have flowers, rainbows, sunrises etc. Very free spirited!! I embellished with pale yellow nail polish, vinyl for the earring, large sequins from Christmas garland, Shiva Paintstiks and glitter. I have not had this quilt at a show yet besides my local library gallery so I am excited to display it and the Madison show and for the judges to be amused!! Those poor ladies just don't always get my vision and that's part of the mystery of my work. I hope everyone can attend this regional quilt show sponsored by Nancy's Notions is wonderful!!

Hoffman Challenge 2011-Follow Up

This blog post is an update on the 2011 Hoffman Challenge. My piece "Tahitiana" has been selected as part of the traveling tour for 2011-2012. YEAH!!! It is in Group C and when I looked at the current schedule this group will be at the International Quilting Assoc.( IQA) shows in Long Beach CA, Cinncinati OH and a variety of other shows. I like this because many people will view the quilts. In about a month Hoffman will annouce the Challenge fabric for 2012 and I can see if I like the fabric and then I can "challenge" myself to a new quilt. This photo is a close up of Tahitiana's face. I was challenged by the fact that I couldn't glam her up with glitter eyeliner and jewelry etc. because she was fresh faced and on the beach. So I had to let go of the "photo shoot/everything is perfect look!"  I hope the Challenge tours are well received and Hoffman continues to do this. www.hoffmanchallenge.com

Part Two: THe Gardens

As requested these are a few photos of my garden. The lighting may not be the greatest but the sun is out and it looks like a nice second day of the garden tour. The turn out was great for a Friday evening. This is my garden shed Ken made in 2009 from recycled materials. A pink theme prevails!!

This is behind the garage. A porcelain vine on a handmade twig trellis, bee balm, lilies, coneflowers, false sunflowers, russian sage, zinias and plenty more. There are blue birds nexting in the red birdhouse.This is the east side of my house. The twig chair Ken made from dead cedars, there are old wash tubs, a magnolia and all kinds of perennials and annuals. In the background is a flowering crab tree and a trumpet vine that formed an archway to the backyard.

This is my fairy garden using an old Weber grill, a few small rocks, a fairy and a gnome. Ken hand painted stones and Super Glued them to hardward screws for mushrooms. Crazy guy!!

"Quilt Garage" during Garden and Gallery Tour, July 15-16

The Marinette WI/Menominee, MI area garden and gallery tour is this weekend, July 25-16, and my garden/yard is on the tour. This in itself is very awesome sharing my flowers, garden art and the fun finds I have in my garden from my "picking" and shopping. I decided to turn the garage into a art gallery. Ken rigged some wire to hang the wall hangings and I have some tables etc. to display the smaller items such as fabric postcards, framed art and my two new quilt wall hanging patterns. This photo shows the quilted banner I made in the past which is my vending banner to idetify my quilt display. Did any of you ever watch the TV show "Malcom in the Middle?" The font from the credits of the show is so cool and I used it for my lettering. I have used this font in some of my other quilts because it is so funky. The font name is actually Funky Font 2!! The other photos are pics of the garage ready for the tour. Check it out if you are in my neighborhood. The Marinette Chamber of Commerce has info on their website about the garden and gallery tour..

Hoffman Challenge 2011

This is my entry in the 2011 Hoffman Challenge which I will mail tomorrow. The fabric was a large scale floral with a two tone muted green background. The flowers were purple and rose and there was gold metallic embossing. It was definitely a challenge due to the size of the print. I used some in the background piecing, the flowers in the borders,  I cut the small flowers out of the print and made a crown of flowers and the green background fabrics became leaves to go with the flowers. I used a raw edged fused applique technique and machine quilting. I thought there was enough activity so I did not embellish this quilt very much. I added some gold glitter to draw the eye to the flower crown and I used  fishing line and attached a ready made shell necklace which added a three dimensional affect. I used several fabric markers to define details in the face, clothing and hands. I call it "Tahitiana" after the tahitian women which inspired this quilt. This challenge is different from most challenges in that I send the quilt and if they like it, it is part of the traveling tour. And if they don't like it then they sent it home in Sept. My 2010 entry was accepted and I will get that one back in October of 2011. Wish me luck!!