Quilting Arts Magazine Becomes an Ebook

This is Quilting Arts Magazine issue June/July 2011in which I wrote an article for the magazine called "Making a Fashion Statement!

 I am very proud of the article and the fact that I actually wrote it since that's not really my thing. I had five of my portrait quilts featured in the magazine and online at their website. This was a great experience and my first encounter with Pokey Bolton. Pokey loves my Tina Turner quilt and she has been instrumental in my quilting career advancement so this magazine is sentimental to me!! The magazine people were all very professional and friendly and it was not notch!!
 I recently received an email from Interweave, the Parent company of Quilting Arts Magazine, Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine and QA TV etc., and they informed me this issue of their magazine would be made into an eBook and I received a complimentary copy. Yeah!!

This is the new cover of the eBook and it is available on their website for all to purchase at www.interweavestore.com/portraits-in-cloth-create-portraits-with-fabric-and-stitch-ebook. This concept is new to me and just when you think something is done and finished it can be redeveloped in a different form. Thanks to all the technology changes!! Check it out!!
P.S. Do you know who Linda Ravencroft who paints fairies and has calendars etc. is? This eBook cover reminds me of Linda's artwork.
 

Happy Hippie Chick

This quilt is a result of me signing up for a block exchange called Block Lottery at Quilter's Haven in Menominee MI, My month was June and I selected four fabrics-the pink overall peace sign print, the pink tone on tone, an orange with pink dot and the cute daisy print with the black background. I knew I wanted to create a hippie chick/flower child image positioned in the middle and, after seeing the yurk quilts at the Wisconsin Quilt Museum Booth at the IQF Quilt Show in Chicago last June, I liked the long banner layout. I love star blocks so I lucked out and with my own block (upper right) I had enough star blocks for the corners and placed the other blocks in a pleasing matter. The flower block in the upper center is particularly awesome and I had to put it at the top!!

The hippie girl was inspired by an image from one of my daily calendars. I used all batiks except for the blouse fabric which is one of the four original fabrics. I used the hot pink and orange from the block in the "Hippie chick" letters. This is a good example of why I choose batiks for raw edged fused applique since the commercial cottons, especially the orange print, unravels too much. I wanted to repeat and reuse these fabrics but I am disappointed in the unraveling. I used a font common in the hippie era and hand drew the lettering then fused them to the background once the hippie girl was fused in place.

The fringe on the purse is batik cut into strips and tucked under the fused purse applique and then it hangs freely for a 3D touch!!

I used variegated thread and some fun decorative stiches on my sewing machine to duplicate trim on the bottom of the blue jeans and the blouse-this was fun and not the norm for a quilt to use these specialty stitches.

I hand beaded a necklace and two bracelets and glued a rhinestone choker for my hippie chicks "love beads!" I added a few felt peace sign buttons in the background and decided to stop with the embellishments. I considered adding more flower buttons but liked it the way it was and it had enough activity from the fabric prints.

 

This is a close up of the fabrics and the two decorative stitches I used in areas of the blocks I saw appropriate. I quilted this quilt with hot pink rayon  Madeira 40 weight thread which is lovely and does not break in the machine. I will use it as often as a can and it comes in lots of colors.

Witchie Poo 2013

This was a fun little quilt I wanted to make after purchasing the polka dot, mini stripe and the purple batik background fabrics. I used one of my patterns that has more of the woman's torso and gave her long orange hair and a witch's hat. I added the broom and some green skin and a witch is born!! I am in love with Halloween witches and women with green skin-this is my third green skinned portrait quilt-first my Victory Roll quilt, then a sample quilt for my Intro to Portrait Quilt pattern and now this one!!

I purchased a spool of Superior Nite Lite glow in the dark thread at the IQF Show in Chicago in June. The color choices were pastels and I used the pastel green thread for this project. It was kind of easy stitching all the applique down with only using one thread color and not changing the thread for each color of applique!! It really does glow in the dark but I could not figure out how to get a photo of it with the camera flash.

I embellished with some orange glitter nail polish for the hair and some iridescent polish for the eye shadow. I created some jewelry for my witch by gluing rhinestones to the quilt for a necklace and an earring.

I was in a hurry when I was drawing the pattern pieces onto the Wonder Under and forgot to reverse the pattern pieces. I thought about throwing it away but decided to make two witchy wall hangings-one the desired way and one in reverse which I gifted to my hairdresser friend Sherrie. She loved my other Pinup Witch quilt and I was not willing to part with her so I made Sherrie this quilt for an early birthday and housewarming gift. The day I gave it to her she had been having a bad week and I brightened her day-that's what it is all about!!

The quilts are small at 18" x  18" and I may consider creating a pattern but I am a little late for Halloween 2013.

Now if I could just figure out how to crop my pictures using my new computer-I'm so not tech savvy!!