Quilting Arts Magazine's Reader Challenge Reject!!

Well I am having a month of rejections!! I applied for an article in Quilting Arts Magazine and was rejected earlier in June. My piece for the "I'm Not Crazy" for SAQA was not selected. They had 128 entries and only chose 20. I'm very bummed about this one because this subject is very personal to me and I put alot of emotion into that piece. Then I entered the Quilting Arts Magazine's Reader Challenge on Signature Color and there were over 150 entries and only 15 were chosen. I had a blast on this little 8" x 8" project including the beading around the binding. This will be a cute addition to my studio and it makes me smile. I'm just a bit unsure if I want to participate in these things for a while. It seems abstract art is trendy at the moment and representational art is on the back burner. I still love to made art and will continue.

Bella Rosa

I was making the last quilt I posted about and was having such a great time and I decided to make one in pinks with dark brown fused applique. Very similar but with a brown iris of the eye. I have glitter on the eyelid, glitter nail polish on the lips, rhinestones in the background and beads on the binding. The beads I chose didn't look right on the outer edge so I stitched them to the front edge. I did the same facial applique of the flower, sun and ying/yang and it shows up better on this quilt. I am making items for the Appleton WI Art Around The Park on Sunday July 29th in which I am vending. Appleton is my hometown and I know plenty of people in hopes of them coming to the art show to see my work. I'm going to put this pattern to rest for the time being.

Bella Gialla

This project began with me purchasing some Timeless Treasure Tonga batik Treat Squares in Gelato-it is this manufacturer's version of charm squares. The colors of purple, pinks, yellows and a few neutrals intrigued me.  The second photo is an image which is part of a large advertising postcard from a local beauty supply. The ad was not interesting but I loved the image of the woman-I loved the hair and the large eye with the eyeshadow. I then combined the two ideas. I added a row of my own batiks to make the quilt square and added a complete face witha nose, mouth and hair covering the other eye. When I draw this out I gridded 1" on the postcard and 4.5" finished. (The charm squares are 5" minus the 1/4" seam allowance.) I use my judgement to create the lines and eliminate others, like near the shoulder area, until I am happy with it. I raw edged fused appliqued in a dark burgandy batik. It is easy to apply the applique because I just follow the squares in my drawing for placement accuaracy.

The third photo is a close up of the face. I added a machine quilted flower and stem on one cheek and a sun on the other and a modified ying/yang on the chin. I named the quilt "Bella Gialla" because I wanted to use a color name and I like Italian words-it means "pretty yellow." I added some yellow rhinestones in the background and one pink rhinestone near the nose. I found these fun flower beads at Hobby Lobby and I used 5 different colors and hand beaded around the outside binding to repeat the flower theme. I added some gold glitter for eyeshadow-I thought I wanted purple glitter  but then realized there would be no contrast and yellow would repeat the yellow theme and it really sets off the eye. Also I decided to add some white batik and a pale purple batik to define the eye better since the eye was the focal point of the quilt. I'm glad I did that and love this little quilt (22.5' x 22.5".) The small amount of background was quilted with yellow/gold thread in a traditional diagonal grid design to balance the curves lines in the hair and face. It was easy to do since the squares were already there as a guide for marking.

I am happy with the balanced amount of yellow in this quilt without overkill which can happen. I will use this pattern again in another colorway in the future.