I Can't Stop Making These Things!!

I love batiks and all the color combinations you can create with them and I love the new felt buttons available to us and I can't stop making these postcards!! These two cards are made as birthday cards for two of my friends who have upcoming birthdays. I will mail them in envelopes to avoid the post office drama of trying to explain hand cancelling and them being confused and overcharging me postage. I added some glitter to enhance the eyes area and added a "pretend" nose piercing! Now back to the brain busting quilt!!

No Brainer and Big Concentration Projects

The photo above is the no brainer project. I love making these strip pieced and raw edged fused appliqued fabric postcards. I have made many and was in the autumn mood and plan to send a few to my friends with fall birthdays. I found the fun felt buttons in a leaf shape at Joanns. They came in three colors and I sewed one of each to the postcard for a bit of texture and dimension. I added some  orange glitter/glue to the eyes and to make it look like a nose piercing.

Then the other photo is a teaser of my entry in the 2011 Joann Fabrics Quilt Challenge. It is the huge brain buster project that I only do 2-3 times a year because i want it perfect for a conpetition. I was one of the top 20 last year and my goal is to be in the top 10+. The rules for the quilt size is 36" x 36" minimum and this one is horizontal at 53" x 43." I have this attraction to orange since gardening season began and it's overflowed into my quilts as well. I wanted to work in the blue and orange color combo and it was a "challenge" finding fabrics that I liked at Joanns that had  prints with these two colors in them and finding enough batiks to do at least the face. I also was trying to find florals in blue-not easy! I went to the Madison East, Green Bay and Escanaba MI stores and finally felt like I had enough fabric selctions to work with. I'm used to going to my stash and/or purchasing extra at the local quilt stores and not relying on just Joann Fabrics for my fabric choices-perhaps that's part of the challenge!! I have all the applique pieces stitched in place and I am quilting the orange background in a circular "bullseye" pattern at the moment. I have plenty to do but the deadline isn't until January 2012 so I'm good. I setnit aside and do the no-brainer sewing. I plan to make another hat soon and more cards and the list never ends...!! I am never bored and that's a good thing

SAQA Auction Piece is Sold!!

     

This quilt sized 12 x 12 was my donation to the Studio Art Quilt Associates 2011 Auction. I call it "The Woman with Copper Hair."  I have been a member of this art quilt group for two yrs. + and thought it would be nice to donate a piece for their yearly auction which raises money for thier educational events. A lovely individual from Mountain View CA purchased my little lady and the woman with copper hair lives far from me in California.

The first part of the auction is done and Section 2 begins on Monday Sept. 19th. This is the website to access the auction-www.saqa.com

I would like to share my good news of me now being a PAM (Professional Artist Membership) which I had to apply for through the SAQA webiste. I did this in March and was not accepted. They didn't care for the borders on several of my quilts. I thought about what they said and I agreed and the majority of my new work has no borders. I reapplied in August with newer/borderless art quilts and I was accepted. This is a competitive thing for me that doesn't mean much to many outside of this group but I wanted it bad!!

Wisconsin Quilt Expo 2011

I want to share this book by Joen Wolfgram. When I spoke at the WI Quilt Expo on the Element and Principles of Design someone in my class asked about a great color resourse. I didn't think to bring the book so I'm hoping they go to my blog and see this post!! This book is a awesome and very visual and well worth a purchase.

This is a sample of the items I purchased at the expo. I love Sulky Blendables Thread and I got to share an elevator with the company owner and I told him how I loved his thread!! When I got to the Sulky Booth I was way excited to find they had created 42 new colors to join the already 84 colors. I bought 5 colors but wanted all 42 but couldn't justify $189!! I finally found the Silimide thread for sewing beads on quilts. The vendor I purchased this from is Bead Ranch from Oklahoma and it was a very fun and inspirational booth. The owner Sherrill and I had good karma!! I found these great floral prints in my favorite colors-pink and red. I have no idea as to what I'll do with it but I purchased a necklace/earring set at the West Towne Mall at Charming Charlies in these colors so maybe a funky hat or a garment.

I am having visual overload from my purchases and all the literature I grabbed. Then I also decided to buy my fabric at Joann Fabrics for their next quilt challenge. I am working in blues and oranges (complementaries!) I discovered these colors together are not common at Joann but I will go to my "local" store in Green Bay. Until next time..

Funky Hat Pattern

I was in Appleton WI on Monday and had a chance to visit Keep Me in Stitches, a colorful fun quilt shop, and my daughter Jordana spotted this cute hat with a ruffle on the band and a flower pin with a button in the middle. Jordana asked me if I would make her one in hot pink, black and white and I wanted mine in greens. I was pleased to discover the pattern was sized from infant to adult. There is fusible fleece for the brim and fusible interfacing for the body of the hat.

So here is my finished hat modeled by the lovely Erica-my hairdressing manniquin with my pink/red Halloween wig!! Once I read the directions the construction went well and it wasn't difficult. There is a buttonhole in the band to help anchor the flower and I've had my sewing machine 3 yrs. and didn't know how to do a buttonhole!! So I got out the owners manual and learned something new today. The flower went together in 10 min. and I used a large purple felt flower shaped button, a medium hot pink flower shaped button and a green small shank button to the center of the flower. I hand stitched a pin back to the flower and pinned it to the band where the buttonhole is. When I make Jordana's hat I will tweak it a bit to my liking. I really like the flower pin idea and plan to make oodles of them since Christmas is coming...