Carmen Miranda

This quilt began as a project at Pine Street Quilts, where I work, called Fair and Square. It is a 12 month block exchange and when it was my month I chose the required four fabrics of a floral batik, and the tone on tone magenta, dark orange and light orange. I knew I would do the placement with a large square in the middle. I did not know what I was putting in the middle  when I pieced it. As I was working on the piecing it, the fabrics gave me a warm tropical vibe. This lead to a Carmen Miranda fruity type woman which was appliqued using a raw edged fused technique. I was happy to have four star blocks for the corners. When one does these block exchanges you gamble on what you will receive from others interpreting your fabric choices.

This is the detail image of the woman's face. Originally I did not have the fabric behing the eyes and lips but I it needed enhancement so I chose a few solids for the task.

 I have a bit of hot pink glitter for eyeliner and some orange nail polish on the lips for bling!!

Carmen Miranda worn a lot of chunky necklaces and I chose to create it with embellishments. The 3 pink rings are reused bikini swimsuit rings I couldn't throw away, and the beads are from a Hello Kitty necklace from the $1 bin at Target that I took apart to get the majenta beads and some generic Walmart beads in hot pink. The rest of the necklace was created with multi-color ribbon ruched and tacked onto the quilt. I loved the coordinating colors and thought it went well with the quilt colors.

 

I remembered I have a Carmen Miranda cookie jar on my refrigerator and that made me smile!

I have combined traditional and art quilts techniques in this quilt

SunFlowerChild

My last post was the fabric, book and embellishments to create this quilt. I wanted to do a quilt with autumn colors and a woman with braids. I began with a Ricky Timm's Convergence quilt background. I machine quilted the inner border and the center of the quilt then fused the applique over the quilting because it would be more consistant and I wouldn't have to start and stop my quilting stich. As I was viewing the quilt I decided to add the

"ends" of the braid because I thought it needed it. I bought some variegated green boucle yarn and tore some dark green batik from the applique and tied it in a knot and hand tacked the ends to the bottom of the quilt to dangle. I finished quilting the piece once the applique was fused on.

I had planned to use the dark green batik for the binding but didn't have enough fabric and used this great tomato soup orange batik and am happy with the choice. The quilt was getting too green and orange was where I began. The green borders balance the energy of the center of the quilt and I am pleased with the results.

I used the paper flowers to form the flower ring. I added a sead bead to each center to attach the flowers-it was putsy but I love the affect. There is orange glitter on the eylids, lots of green flower beads on the green borders attached with green sead beads and a bit of white paint on the eyes to add zing. I thought that was enough embellishments and did not add the African beads I purchased at the quilt expo in Madison WI.
I made this quilt for fun and not to enter in a quilt show but who knows....

Elements of Design:
Line: Straight and Curved
Shape: Squares, Rectangles
Space: Positive from applique and Negative from the background
Color:  Anagalous Color Scheme from oranges, yellows, greens
Value: Contrast of background light/medium value and applique dark value
Texture: Paper flowers, braid ends from yard, beads

Principles of Design:
Emphasis: Woman with braids
Balance: Warm/.Cool Colors, Value Differences
Scale: Use of different fabric scales for variety, paper flowers are in scale in size of woman
Rhythm: Eye moves across quilt from flowers to face to braids and then to oranges in center of quilt
Contrast: Warm/Cool colors, Value contrast
Repetition: Flower theme, orange and green repeated in quilt with fabric, glitter, embellishments, quilting
Unity: All elements come together to have visual harmony

Time to do paperwork to apply for future quilt teaching positions....Later then to sew a cute hat before Sunday's quilt show in Appleton WI (my hometown!!)

New Inspiration and I Finally Learned What "Modern Quilting" Means!!

I managed to get some good quality quilt vendor shopping done while I was at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI last Th-Sat.!! My two lectures and my Portrait 101 Class all went well and am glad to take a little break from the deadlines and do a "no brainer" quilt. I found the floral on the lower left and fell in love because of the fall color combos and I love flowers especially sunflowers. I had been showing a few of my Convergence quilts in my lectures and realized it had been about 10 months since I did one. So I found three fat queaters in orange, gold and olive to add to the floral for the Convergence quilt. I have a great Kaffe Fassett spripe for a small border and at Pine Street Quilts yesterday, while working, I found two olive greens to use as the borders. I'm pumped to start this after the GB Packer replacement hat project (next post!)

This photo shows some of the embellishments I picked up at the Expo-Fall/Halloween themed buttons from Nancys Notions, paper flowers in a box from Ragspun from Brandon WI. This shop is very primitive and "not me" in colors but her embellishments rock and the owner is a sweetheart!!. The small bag of iridescent fall leaf beads are from The Bead Ranch in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Sherrill, the owner, is so helpful and she remembered me from last year. And the plastic box of bead is from Akonye Kena from Canada which distributes paper beads made in East and West Africa. Since Ceesay is West African I was intrigue!. The guy wore a heavy weight duck fabric kilt with combat boots which got my attention. So I hope to use these four items as embellishments without overkill. I am not sure if I will add a portrait like line drawing with raw edged fused applique. I will let the quilt speak to me!

The term Modern Quilting has been popping up in quilt magazines, at the quilt expo and online and the people I asked couldn't give me a definition of what it meant. Someone suggested going to the Modern Quilt Shop vendor booth at the Expo because the man there would be able to help me out. And he did-it is a simplistic version of tradional quilt blocks or applique. Usually one background fabric and few block fabrics/very simple child-like applique pieces. Any borders and sashings are removed similar to many art quilts-no embellishments also. Very functional-almost like modern art paintings. Do I like it-not for me because I like complicated not simple but to each his own. This vendor was very friendly and helpful!!

Portraits 101 Class at Wisconsin Quilt Expo

I am teaching a 3 hour Make and Take on my Intro to Portrait Quilts using my "Angelina" Pattern at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI on Sept. 7th from 1-4pm. The top photo is the original quilt that is on the cover of the pattern and on display at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette WI where I work.This class is a no sew class which means that the planning, cutting and fusing steps will take place and the students will finish at home. I mentioned that there is a pattern for the bob hairstyle plus a short spiky and a long wavy hairstyle option. So I used scraps, two skin tones, a brunette and a white haired example for the class samples for visualization. I added a few embellishments to the new quilts but not as much as the original. The idea was to help people who think they can not make a portrait quilt do so. I have designed the pattern to be simple with only three pieces for the face and neck, one piece for the hair and small pieces for the eyes, mouth and brows. The rest is drawn in using Pigma pens or Sharpies. The additional details come from the quilting and embellishing. I see this similar to the American Girl Dolls where you can customize to look like someone in particular or just have random fun!!I am humbled by the fact that there is already 18 people signed up for my class!!

This photo are the samples for the short spiky and the long wavy hairstyles. I used a busy border fabric in one piece and a calmer fabric in the other one to show variation. Also a dark inner border and a light inner border-see the difference? I like the dark border better because it sets off the portrait better.

The finished size is 18" x 18-" let me know if you are interested in a pattern because I can mail one or more to you. The pattern is $8.00 plus $2.00 shipping.

The website for the quilt expo which runs Sept. 6-8, 2012 is www.wiquiltexpo.com
 

Zendoodle

This is my latest quilt which was inspired by the black and white fabric challenge from my local quilt group, the outside border fabric named Fabric Doodle, Pinterest images and the drawing technique Zentangles. I fell in love with the fabric because I love flowers and circles but also noticed the black and white striped circle which went with the black/white fabric swap. I am intrigued with the drawing technique Zentangles, and have a few books on the subject, so I drew up a Zentangle style drawing and the idea was born. I fussy cut some flower images and made my own repeating the flower shapes from the border fabric. This fabric is from Andover Fabrics and is called Fabric Doodle. I am not fond of the entire line of fabrics but love this particular fabric. I added only one other color, the green eyes, to the quilt. I combined as many prints from the swap and added some of my own to have enough contrast to be pleasing to the eye. There was plenty of positive and negative space in this quilt. I used an awesome large scale white fabric with simple large black flowers as the face fabric. I quilted the face fabric with one flower defined on the left cheekbone. I quilted around the circle flowers in the borders and added black buttons in the border to add texture as well as secure the fabric because I didn't want to quilt a lot in the borders. I thought the quilt didn't need much embellishing because it was very visually graphic on its own. I added a bit of green paint on the irises of the eyes and some black glitter for the subtle tongue in the mouth. I combined Zen from Zentangles and Doodle from the fabric line to get Zendoodle for this quilt's name.

The second photo is a close up of the face and the flower detail. I love polka dots and stripes and made sure I included them in this quilt! I liked the checkerboard and zebra fabrics as well. The quilt is 39"w x 45"l and I used a 8" border to show enough of the border fabric. I will enter this quilt is upcoming quilt shows.

UW Platteville Sewing and Quilting Expo

I had the blessing of teaching at the UW Platteville Sewing and Quilting Expo on August 3-4 on the university campus. I taught "Color is Our Friend," "Elements and Principles of Design for Quilter" and "Embellishing 101." The organizer of the expo is Tisha Sandberg (she is the woman on the left on the second photo) and she is beyond fun, artsy and pulled off a great expo while having the responsiblities placed on her half way through the process. I  selected two quilts that I could spare from my teaching demos and picked my "Woman With Red Lipstick" quilt and was thrilled to see it on the gallery poster!!

This photo is Tisha and the woman who painted  quilt blocks on wood. There was a gallery reception on Thursday evening August 2nd and I was able to meet the artists/presenters at the expo. It  was a very nice time and beautiful quilts!

This was my other quilt in the exhibit called "Hera and Aphrodite"

I was able to visit the local quilt shop called Hidden Quilts and they have shop colors-lime green and orange which pleased me since color is my thing and lime green is one of my favs!! The owner had a very unusal coiffed hairstyle which was eyecatching and unique. She knew to carve a niche and customers will remember you!

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...

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.

SAQA "I'm Not Crazy" Exhibit Entry

Studio Art Quilters Association is having an exhibit titled "I'm Not Crazy" which explores mental health issues. I think the title  is offensive but whatever. It is the perspective or someone with mental illness, a caretaker or friend or family member of someone with mental illness. I have a very close friend who is Bipolar and is medicated to have balance in her life. This quilt is my interpretation of being bipolar-one minute she is happy, hyper bouncing off the wall and the next sad, depressed and angered. I used muted sad, dull colors to represent being depressed and, of course, the frustrated facial expression. I used bright colored fabrics with lots of chaos for the manic side's clothing, make up and jewelry. Her hair is out of control and her facial expression shouts "manic." I used lots of desciptive words on both sides of the personality in a subtle way in the background. I purposely went subtle because in society we don't want to talk about mental health issues and they are subtle and quiet  in our discussions. I found there is a two sided smiley face which symbolizes Bipolar Disorder and I added it to the quilt in the lower center of the quilt.

This photo is a closeup of the depressed personality.

And this is a photo of the manic personality. She's kind of "out there!" Her expression deminds me of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland!!

Cloeup of the Bipolar symbol and a few of the background words.

I embellished the manic side with hand made Sculpey clay beads, a beaded earring, rhinestones for pierced earrings, orange lame' in the hair to symbolize being wired, and some fabric paint. The intent was for excess and chaos in hair, make up, clothing and jewelry. The depressed side has a necklace made to buttons made from leather (pretty cool from a quilt show!), a few beads for the necklace and a rhinestone for the nose piercing. Both have a little fabric paint for details.

The exhibit aplication is online at SAQA's website the month of May and during the summer we find out if we made the cut then the selected quilts will travel for 2 years to the various Mancuso Quilt Shows.

This quilt is not meant to represent beauty but a social issue. I was thinking of entering it in the local community art show at my library which runs through the summer but I'm not sure if the social issue would offend people. I guess art can do that sometimes...

Victory Rolls

This is my latest quilt. I have been inspired by all the many hairstyle images on Pinterest. I love the 1940s fashions and hairstyles and there have been plenty of pictures of "victory rolls" and various pin curls and I wanted to do a quilt representing these ideas. When I went to Florida in January I found the large scale print, the dress print, the red wavy stripe and the purple tone on tone dot fabric and suddenly became inspired because I love flowers and I loved the "weird" yellowy lime green. So between the fabrics and my love of the 1940s this is what I came up with. The hair is my favorite part of the quilt and the most challenging. I was looking at images of curls and how the light reflects in certain areas and the shadows are in the depth of the hair and the pin curls. But how to translate that into fabric. I thought if I was doing this as a painting how would I approach it?? I began with the tone on tone dot fabric and had one big piece the size of the entire hair. then I visually sectioned off the highlighted (lighter) areas, the darker areas and the shadows or deepest and farthest away areas. I assigned 3 fabrics to each area and layered and fused them to the base purple fabric. I used a purple fabric marker to define the lines and then when I quilted it I defined it some more and I was satisfied with the victory rolls-it has definition and movement. I could have used fabric paint as a last resort if I wasn't getting the results from the fabric alone but I didn't need it. I have a paper doll book of 1940s fashions which helps me select the right clothing for my lady in the quilt. I didn't go nuts with jewelry just a simple earring make from a flower button and a few beads. The flowers in her hair are cut from leftovers from the large scale border fabric. Fortunately they were mirror images and I fused them back to back, tacked them down and glued a rhinestone to the center. There are a few red rhinestones in the background and a bit of fabric paint on her face for details on the eyes and mouth. She ended up looking a little like Lisa Marie Presley or Bette Midler isn the 1970s!.  I did contrasting quilting in certain areas-the striped background got circular quilting and the curvey floral of the outside border got striped stitching. I will enter it in upcoming quilt shows.

The second photo is a close up and a follow up of my last post to show the progression of the face as I begin the drawing, the fused applique, the quilting and the details.

New Quilt: Step A and B

This a sneak peak of my new quilt. I found this great chartruse, purple and red large print called June Bugs by Timeless Treasures while visiting Winter Haven FL and knew I had to have it. I love the website Pinterest and found inspiration from some of the photos plus I am obsessed with 1940s hair especially victory rolls so combined all these things and I have a new idea for a quilt!! The top photo is the drawing for the quilt and the second photo is the same area with the applique pieces cut and fused to the background. So the woman has green skin, purple hair, a floral 40s style dress, a red background and I used the funky big print for the border. The woman ended up looking like Bette Midler or Lisa Maire Presley!! I am almost ready to start the quilting process and will show finished photos when it is done. It already has a name-"Victory Rolls"

I have completed my entry for the 2012 Hoffman Challenge, an entry for the Studio Arts Quilters Association's "I'm Not Crazy!" Exhibit, Quilting Arts Magazine "What's Your Signature Color?" Challenge but I can't show any images yet due to the fact I don't want anyone to copy my designs so I must wait for the deadlines of April, May and July.

I've been busy and today is internet/computer day so that's why I have posted three different posts on one day!! Take care and be creative!

My Upcoming Teaching Opportunities

I will be teaching at University of Wisconsin-Platteville's 2012 Sewing and Quilting Expo which runs Friday and Saturday Aug. 3 and 4, 2012. I will be teaching "Color is Our Friend!" and "Embellishments 101" and lecturing on "Elements and Principles of Design for Quilters." I am not sure of the exact times of my clases but their website is www.uwplatt.edu/cont_ed and they have a Facebook page www.facebook.com/pages/UW-Platteville:Sewing-and-Quilting-Expo. which has the most recent info.

And I will be lecturing on Thursday Sept. 6, 2012 and Saturday Sept. 8, 2012 at Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI. I will be doing my "Elements and Principles of Design for Quilters" lecture at 1 pm each of these days. The quilt show brochure will be available this summer. Their website is www.wiquiltexpo.com for more info.

I hope to meet some of my internet quilting friends at either of these venues if at all possible!

Michigan Quilt Artist Invitatonal at Spies Library in Menominee MI

The 2011-2012 Michigan Quilt Artist Invitational themed "Art of the Kitchen" has traveled through Lower Michigan since Sept. 2011 and now my city, Menominee, has this awesome exhibit this April and May 2012 at Spies Public Library Gallery during normal library hours.  The exhibit is free to the public.There are 48 art quilts sized 20" x 24" either vertical or horizontal and I have photographed a few of my favorites. The first one is fun because it reminds me of Andy Warhol and pop art from the 1960s and 1970s.

This piece by Mary Andrews, one of the two creators and curators of MQAI, is awesome because I love rick rack, aprons and it reminds me of June Cleaver from "Leave it to Beaver!"

This quilt by Robbie Payne is great because she has mastered beading and there are LOTS of tiny sead beads in this piece!!

 I love this quilt because of the colors, the detailed appliques and the leaves protruding beyond the edges of the quilt. It is inspired by a kitchen wallpaper border.

This quilt is fun to me because it reminds me of a 1960s kitchen ! Love the colors and the background fabrics!!

This quilt is a seven layer salad and it puts a smile on my face because the artist used green pom poms for the peas and there are individual pieces of "cheese" scattered around the quilt. Very creative!!

And last I have included my piece because I had so much fun making it and exploring the difference between 1940s and 1950s kitchen appliances, fashions, hair etc. I love pin up girls and liked the '50s pastels with the black/white accents.

All the art quilts are very creative and amasing how 48 artists can interpret a theme in such a diverse way. check it out if you are in the area!!

Evergreen Quilters 2012 Quilt Show

 I entered four quilts in the Evergreen Quilters 2012 Quilt Show in Green Bay WI which was March 24-25, 2012. They are one of the few regional shows that have special art quilt categories-landscape/still life, figurative/portrait, surreal/fantasy and abstract. The two quilts behind me I entered in the surreal/fantasy category and I won both 1st and 2nd place!! I also won an honorable mention in the figurative/portrait category. It was hard to chose which quilts for this show because I don't do landscapes and abstract which meant my work fell into the other two categories. I also had a few favorites at the same time being juried into an art quilt exhibit in Escanaba MI. They chose one out of the three I entered so if I had a crystal ball I would have entered one of the quilts that did not make the Escananba cut.

This quilt I entered in the machine pieced, machine quilted by master quilter category and won 2nd place. That made my day since this quilt was a very challenging project. I used the 2012 Hoffman Fabrics Challenge Fabric since it was going to be used for the challenge but was too big for the rules. I chose to make it anyway and I will enjoy the ribbon!!

This quilt won Best of Show and I like it because it is in bright colors yet the technique is traditional using the Baltimore Beauty style of hand applique. I did not ge the artist's name. :(

 This quilt called "Boom-Cosmic Inferno" by Diane Auger was in the Abstract art quilt category. I love it because of the high contrast between the black/white prints and the bright rainbow colors. It looks like a double Ricky Timms' Convergence quilt with her own applique over it. I love circles and thus was drawn to this quilt. It only won an honrable mention but I love it!!

This quilt called
"Zippity Do Dad" was in the Abstract art quilt category by Linda Kuritz and won second place. It has actual working zippers with funky hanging do dads as zipper pulls. I love the string quilt technique and the irregular edge. Lots of activity but it is cohesive in theme. Linda had lots of work in the show and I was able to met her and compliment her on her creativity!!

The Green Bay guild had a great biennial quilt show with 22 vendors (I bought lots of batiks and a tote pattern.) I got to visit with some of my Appleton WI quilt friends and many others quilt friends even those from Marinette/Menominee where I live!! I had so much fun!!

Joann Fabrics "Quilt Your Colors" Quilt Contest 2011

I entered the Joann Fabrics "Quilt Your Colors" Quilt Contest last year and made the cut of 22 finalists and I mailed my piece to the Joann Fabrics headquearters for judging. Unfortunately it did not make the top 10 where all the prizes/money were. I was bummed and said I wouldn't enter the next year. The size requirement was a minimum 36" x 36" which I thought my quilt measured. It actually shrunk in the quilting process and was not the minimum size and maybe that's why it didn't make it any farther than it did. So after 6 months of thinking about it I decided to give it another try for the 2011 contest and go bigger with my entry. This is my quilt named "Sapphire and Topaz" and is 51" x 42." I wanted to explore the color combination of blues and oranges. This was a challenge using Joann Fabrics fabric because they did not have a lot of prints with both colors together in the fabric. I went to three Joann stores-Madison WI, Green bay WI and Escanaba MI, and finally was satisfied with my collection of fabrics for the project. I have a secondary theme of circles in the quilt-circle print fabric, circle appliques, circle echo quilting in the background and circle shaped felt buttons and sequins. I found a fun blue and orange metallic knit in the Hallowee section which fit nicely for part of the hair. I kept the face quite simple because the hair was the emphasis. There are also beads and buttons sewn to the quilt and a bit of fabric paint.

I received a phone call last week to let me know of 900 quilts mine made the cut of 22 which now are shipped to their headquarters for judging!! That made my day!! I sent my quilt to Ohio on Monday and the judging starts after April 1st and by the second half of April we find out who the winners are. The top 3 quilts are photographed and are featured on-line on Joann's website and in an upcoming sale flyer. So it's a waiting game now but I love this quilt-the oranges make me smile!!

SAQA 2012 Auction Piece and 4 x 6 Exchange 2

Studio Arts Quilt Associates (SAQA) has an art quilt auction every September to raise money for the organization. They encourage members to create and donate a 12" x 12" piece for the auction and this is the third year I have donated a mini art quilt. Above is my piece which I named "The Woman by the Beach." The quilts will be on display at SAQAs website www.saqa.com later this summer and there is an on-line auction.  I was able to find out the individuals who purchased my quilts and that was nice to receive an e-mail from them and thank them for choosing my quilt-it makes it more personal!!

I was still inspired by the soft blues, tans and yellows from the Florida mermaid quilt I made for my friend and went with them in this quilt. I modified my pattern to fit the required size. I pieced the background and raw edged fused appliqued the image of the woman to the background. I embellished with blue/turquise crystals for eyeliner. If I mailed it before the March 16th deadline  my quilt will be included in the SAQA exhibit that will be displayed at the IQA Quilt Show in Cincinnati OH.

On-line I discovered  through The Art House Coopertive an art exchange. It is called The 4 x 6 Exchange 2. All I had to do was enter for free, make any art piece sized 4 x  6 which would fit in a standard envelope, meet the March 31st deadline and mail it to the designated address. When they are all mailed the mini art pieces will be exchanged and I will receive one back in the mail. I will post this returned exchange piece when I receive it! I thought it was a nice coincidence that my fabric postcards were 4 x6 so I used my scraps from the SAQa auction piece and made this postcard. I embellished with fabric paint and a few rhinestones. I mailed it this week and it went to Brroklyn NY. Can't wait to see what I get!!