2012 Hoffman Challenge Entry Award Winner!!

I entered the 2012 Hoffman Challenge for the third year and I received an e-mail yesterday from the curator letting me know my quilt called "1940s USO" was awarded the Best Incorporation of the Challenge Fabric for the Mixed Quilt Category. Oh Happy Day!! I made this last November and could not post it until now! This was such a fun project. I saw the large  purple floral (challenge fabric) as 1940s curtain fabric and I am obsessed with 40s/vintage hairstyles and that's how it began. I used my "Black Bob" pattern and after researching 40s style make-up and eyebrow shapes I changed the eye shape, brows and hair to fit the decade. I was a paper doll junkie as a child and my daughter (who is also obsessed with the 40s) gave me a big girl paper doll book of 1940s fashions which inspired the hat and jacket with the big shoulders. I made vintage earrings with beads, trapuntoed a fussy cut flower on the hat and ruched some variegated ribbon through it, added flower shaped sequins and beads in the hat, added a bit of purple with pink tulle to the hat like a fascinator and a few rhinestones aroulnd the borders. I added a mini flange near the binding which I had never done before. Most of the other fabrics are from Pine Street Quilts in Marintte WI where I work on Tuesdays. I prequilted the Convergence background before I fused the applique on and then quilted the applique over the other quilting. My daughter named the quilt when I saw her at Thanksgiving and I stared at it in my studio until I mailed it in June. I am happy it will travel for the next year and lots of people get to see it. Soon the 2013 fabric will be exposed and I can try the challenge all over again!!

Swoon Color Wheel

Many of you may be aware of a new 24" quilt block named Swoon by Camille Roskelley. Her business name is Thimble Blossoms and she has a fabric line from Moda Fabrics called Vintage Modern-both the fabric line and the Swoon pattern is very popular locally at the quilt store I work at and my local quilt group. I discovered Camille's blog and she had made a scrappy Swoon bvlock which gave me the idea to use the color wheel colors in a scrappy Swoon because if sounded fun and I have some color theory teaching and thought it would be a good visual tool. It is an easy block-squares, flying geese and half square triangles (no Thangles just a line drawn diagonally through squares, sew and cut apart.) I did a minimal of stitch-in-the-ditch quilting and some radiating lines in the dark background. It killed me but no embellishments were added to keep it simple. Fun  and easy!!

So then I decided to make the same quilt block using "tints" of each color. I used the same color placement just tinted the color. I learned that I rarely use peach (light orange) because there was little of it in my stash. I used grey in the background since black with white added is gray. I quilted the piece with all curved and round lines. Not a grey fan but it is a teaching tool.

After the tint block I made a "shade" block in which all the colors have black added to them to darker them. I found out I had no burgandy in my stash and had to purchase some for this quilt. I think it represents a primitive/country/old fashioned look in quilts which is not my thing. But the finished quilt is nice even though one wouldn't use all dark colors in a quilt because there would be no contrast and the design lines and motifs would not show up much. I quilted this quilt in a combination of curved and straight lines and prefer oodles of quilting and like this quilt the best because of it. I hope it is useful to me when I teach color theory. I love embellishments and my rhinestone supply is calling me out "glue me on to those new quilts!!"

These three quilts showed me my strong and weak colors in my stash. Am I going to run out and buy a bunch of peach and burgandy?-no but it is fun to see where one unconsciousely buys favorite colors and discards others.

Yes these quilts are not artsy but functional. Sometimes that's okay. I am starting a crazy zentangled inspired art quilt at the moment and having so much fun using black and white fabrics from a block exchange from my quilt group.

Fabric Postcard Becomes a Birthday Card

I have not been in my studio much because it is summer and my garden is calling me and I am doing an art fair in my hometown on July 29th and prepping for that. But at my July quilt guild meeting a member asked if I would make two of my fabric postcards for her friend (and my neighbor) who will be 95 yrs. old in August. Now that's a landmark!!This woman is a petite little spitfire-always happy, an art appreciator and she wears her white hair in a bob with the trademark black headband!! She has suppored the local art community and I enoy visiting with her when I see her. My quilt guild friend wanted 1 card for the birthday girl and one to keep for herself.

I designed this pattern in '08 when I signed up for a fabric postcard swap and drew up a bob cut with a headband to make this postcard. I finished the fusing and realized the two images were slightly different-one was more centered and they have different foreheads-kind of like family members with similar DNA but different. I do not like one better that the other. I added a bit of fabric paint, fabric makers and silver/irredescent nail polish in the hair to enhance the image. They were fun to do but not enough to make vast amount for an art show!!

My studio is in dire need of cleaning and organization because I can not find my color wheel!! Later...