I Changed My Mind and Made One More Bella Quilt!

 I posted when I displayed my last "Bella" quilt in the series that I was done with making these quilts. I changed my mind!! I am obsessed with the color wheel and I had been online purchasing these lovely fabrics from Pink Castle Fabrics so the two came together. Pink Castle Fabrics are from Ann Arbor MI and have a website www.pinkcastlefabrics.com and I had purchased 11 months of stash builder fat quarter bundles. I cancelled when it was time for the brown bundle-not my thing unless the browns are batiks for faces and skin tones. The fabrics are great because some are small polka dots, small tone on tones and some have white prints which seem "Modern" to me.

I chose to accent the face with the yellows, greens and oranges. To me warm tones dominate and push forward while cool tones recede and create depth. The color wheel has 12 colors and I selected 2 of each and one extra since the quilt has 25 background squares. I picked pink for the 25th color since it's my favorite. I like to position blue next to orange since it reminds me of my daughter because those were her high school colors. Weird, I know, but I like blue and orange side by side.

I chose black as the applique color to have the most contrast and black and brights are another favorite of mine! I machine quilted using 5 different variegated threads to color coordinate with the area needing quilting.

I quilted the face with one half straight lines cross hatched and the other half in circles because I liked the contrast of lines.

For embellishments I picked a monogamous color to coordinate with the area on the quilt it was being placed. The flower in the hair was orange, the background rhinestones are purple, red and plum, the nose rhinestone in gold, the eye glitter is orange, the lip glitter is green and the necklace beads are a mirror image of teals on one side and green on the other. the color blue is not represented in the embellishments.

I am considering making this quilt into a pattern.

Good News!!

This is my quilt called "My Friend is Bipolar" which I originally made for SAQA's "I'm Not Crazy!" exhibit. It did not make the cut for that exhibit but it did get accepted into the Sacred threads 2013 exhibit which was in the Washington D.C. area in July 2013. The quilt gets on their promotional postcard and is returned home-end of story-NO! I received an email from the curator of the Sacred Threads Exhibit stating the Mancuso Quilt Festival organizers want a 25 piece special exhibit at two of their quilt shows in 2014 and my quilt above was selected for this exhibit!! WOO HOO!!

The two shows are Quiltfest Destination Savannah (GA) in March 2014 and Denver Quilt Festival in May 2014. The Mancuso website is www.quiltfest.com for the official dates and other info on the two shows.

I am thrilled that my quilt that I put so much emotional energy into is getting recognition and more people from various parts of the country can see it!! This is not a quilt I randomly hang on the wall because the "manic" woman on the left is so frantic ad almost disturbing I can't look at her for a long period of time. I have made two quilts that have a social cause and this quilt proves that art isn't always pretty and it was stir our emotions. I have gratitude that my quilt has been selected for the exhibit and I can share it at these two quilt shows in 2014.

Just the Portrait Part of Quilt

This is a sneak peak of a quilt I just completed. When I attended both the IQF Quilt Show in Chicago and the Quilt Expo in Madison, the Wisconsin Quilt Museum in Cedarburg WI (which I have never been to) was displaying a yurt. A yurt is a portable structure traditionally used by nomads in Central Asia as their home. The yurt was covered in banner sized quilts and the museum was selling yurt kits encouraging quilters to make a quilt which will travel for over two years to various quilt shows. The kits were sold by seasons and had batting included-I chose the "Spring" kit which had three Jane Sassaman fabrics from Free Sprit. I chose those because of the great color combination of hot pink, lime green and blue. It also had great flower motifs.

The rules stated the quilt was to be 32" wide by 71" long and use the three fabrics included in the quilt. This is a size I have never made before. I drew up a design on graph paper with traditional quilt blocks and using my "Intro to Portrait Quilts" pattern I created three women to fill in the middle of the quilt. It was the first time I made a portrait quilt and had more than one person in the quilt.

I selected three skin tones, three hairstyles, three hair colors, three garment styles and each woman has one of the three theme colors in her clothing. I chose blonde hair to contrast with the black background, red/pink hair to repeat the pink in the quilt and blackish/brown to say consistent with an African American woman's natural hair color. I stayed away from browns (too boring) and oranges (warm tones clashed with the cool pinks and blues.) One woman got blue eyes to repeat the blues in the quilt and same with the green eyes.

When the quilt was nearly finished I like to look at it from a distant by taking a picture with my iPhone. I discovered the afro blended too much into the background. What to do? I laid some turquoise wool roving on the hair and decided it showed too much contrast and she looked like Bride of Frankenstein!! Then I tried a black thin yarn with sheer pieces of bright tricot knitted in and the colors where awesome but she looked like a black folk doll with braids and ribbons. No other of my yarns seemed to work. I ended up machine quilting it tightly with a Sulky shiny blue/turquoise variegated thread to look like a tight curl. I added some blue glitter nail polish to enhance it and I was satisfied with the results.

The woman with the afro got some "earrings" and the other ladies got glitter nail polish in their hair.

I may add some small rhinestones to the traditional areas of the quilt. The quilt is not due until May and that is why I am not showing the whole thing so no one tries to copy my design.

If my quilt is judged into the Yurt Display I surrender ownership of the quilt which is the hard part. I struggled for a few days with that rule and decided to give up ownership if the museum choose it. If not, yeah!!!, I get my quilt back and will enter it in a quilt show or two.

Crayon Challenge Quilt

My local quilt guild is having a crayon challenge which is due at the December 9th meeting. Any one who wanted to participate randomly selected a crayon. The rules were simple-no larger than 24" in diameter, no judging, ANY amount of the crayon color and it could also be a garment or non-quilt item such as a purse or tote. It way a very free and open challenge!!

I chose cerulean blue as my crayon color and I made this small (14' x 14.75") wall hanging. I have used the blue in the woman's eyes, jewelry and in the dots in the batik background. I also bound the quilt with the color but my photo accidently cut off the top binding and I was too lazy to retake the photo so this is what you get for an image of this quilt!!

Speaking of jewelry, I save my Mom and Grandma's jewelry from the 1950s and 1960s and this necklace seemed to work for this quilt. I bend it a bit narrower to fit and then hand tacked it to the quilt. The earring is a glued on rhinestone.

Other embellishments was some orange glitter for the hair, I used some of my blush from my make up case to give the woman a little color to her cheek and some white fabric paint to detail the eyes

.

I love the study of value in this quilt-I'm actually obsessed with color and value and I love the high contrast of the pale skin and the background value.

I used my usual raw edged fused applique technique to create the image of the woman and machine quilted and secured the applique to the background

This is a close up of the face. The quilts will be on display at Spies Public Library Gallery, Menominee MI from January 2-Mid February. This is free to the public during normal library hours. c heck out the awesome crayon quilt challenges if you are in Menominee MI!

Art Quilts Around The World: Macro Challenge

 I am involved in an online art quilt group called Art Quilts Around the World. www.aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com is the official site. We have a challenge every other month that one designated member selects. This challenge was called "macro" which means close up and the size of the finished quilt is 11.5' x 16.5." I chose to deviate from my normal portrait quilt style and I went out into my garden in late October. I live in gardening Zone 4 and I LOVE my castor bean plant which is an annual I purchase each year for my garden. I love this plant because it is huge at 10 feet by October and it gives a tropical vibe to my garden. I also love the reddish pink stems and leaf veins.

To make the quilt I photographed a leaf close up. I chose a green batik for the background and a magenta batik for the veins. I then thread painted the textured detail of the leaves with three colors of Sulky Blendables 30 weight thread. I used a pink color for the veins, a yellow green for the horizontal lines/borders and a medium green for the inner detail. The quilt kind looks like the inside of an umbrella or a spider web.

I selected a bright psychedelic print for the binding since the quilt was sort of boring to me. I thought about embellishing the quilt since it was plain but the actual leaf was not glittery or shiny so I left. Is this a favorite quilt of mine-no but it may fit into an abstract category in a quilt show. Maybe...

This photo is of the actual plant in my garden. I enjoy it's hugeness and am sad each fall when the frost takes it out.

The next challenge is "Art Nouveau" and I am again challenge not by the subject but by the limitations of the small size to show all the details of this style of art. This one is due Jan. 31, 2014.

This quilt was inspired by Michael Miller's fabric line called "Heavenly Pixies" which to me looked like fairies but whatever it was adorable!! The yellow print is also in the line of fabric. I chose to use my tried and true Blank Quilting free download pattern which name escapes me which I tweak a bit. the pattern is free from their website www.blankquilting.com. This pattern is simply half square triangles, squares, rectangles and flying geese. I am a fan of the double mirror image style placement for a quilt design-no row quilts for this woman since I do enough of those at the quilt store I work at. I fussy cut the pixie border fabric because it was directional which was easy enough. I chose all my personal favorites-red and lime green for the color scheme (Counterpoint!,) polka dots, stripes and herringbone!

In this photo of the center I decided to quilt with a silver thread to REPEAT the silver in the pixie fabric using a Madeira rayon silver thread. It is a wonderful thread that feeds through my sewing machine with ease unlike the Sulky metallic thread which is totally sparkly but a pain in the tush!! I used only curved and circular lines for the quilting.

I embellished with only silver to REPEAT the silver theme-I used silver rhinestones in two sizes in various areas and I have these clear with silver sparkly buttons from Joann fabrics and they were placed in the center of some of the blocks. The key to embellishing to know when to quit!! Then I added silver jingle bells around the binding and in a few areas on the quilt. It makes noise when I shake it! Very festive!!
I call it "Pixie McGlitter" because on Facebook there was a page that talked about picking your "Santa's Elf"' name. You took the first letter of your first name and the month you were born and mine was Pixie McGlittter. I was working on this quilt when the Facebook name thing was posted so that's  my name inspiration since it made me smile! It is so cutesie-poo I couldn't resist!!
I will hang it on my wall after Thanksgiving.

Throwback Thursday: I Remember Doreen Speckman

I had a huge mess where I store a lot of my quilts. These are my non-art quilts which consist of my various holiday quilts, my quilts for teaching examples and other quilts I love and have been making since the early 90s. I found these three wall hangings that were from Doreen Speckman's first book and I had a bit of nostalgia. Doreen Speckman was from Madison WI and traveled the world teaching quilting. She was very gregarious, full of laughter and famous for her Peaky and Spike combination of triangles pieced together to get an elongated triangle. I was living in Appleton WI and was a member of the Darting Needles Quilt Guild and a new quilter and Doreen Speckman was the guest speaker. I was extremely influenced by her work-I bought her book and thru the mid to late 90s made a ton of these quilts and gave plenty more as gifts. I loved Doreen's humor and she indirectly gave me permission to combine prints, polka dots and stripes which I wanted to do but had not seen yet. I was able to take two classes from her and she autographed her second book for me! Doreen passed away when she was only 50 years old in 1999 and myself and the quilting work felt her loss. So finding these memories of her were special.

The first photo is called Scrap Lilies and my label says 1995. I actually hand embellished tiny seed  beads to the quilt! I had hand quilted all three of these quilts-thank goodness I quit doing that! I also mitered the corners of the borders and who does that anymore!!

This second photo is a layout I make a gazillion times and we used templates-oh how times have changed!! I still use this little quilt as a table topper at Christmas and still adorn it!

This is the same quilt but in more "Laurie" colors-I was finding my groove! I still tend to pick lots of polka dots and black with brights. My technical stuff is pretty sad on these quilts-bad bindings and the corners aren't straight but you have to start somewhere!

I am glad I put labels on these because they are 18-19 years old and it seems like yesterday I made these. RIP Doreen!!

Bella Bordeaux: Last In The Series

This is number five in a series using my same favorite pattern and a variety of batiks in the background. I love this pattern because of the face and swirly hair and all the fun embellishments I am able to add to the quilt to make me happy! I also love Timeless Treasures Fabric Tonga Treats Batiks. They sell them as charm packs, jelly rolls or yardage and I picked up this one with the forest greens and burgundies. When I work on my color wheel class samples I discovered I had NO burgundy in my stash. I guess I saw it as a "country/primitive" color and since I like bright hues I never purchased any. Same is true to some extent with the forest green but when I found this charm pack it was calling my name because it is a variation of red and green and I love that!! I chose burgundy as my raw edged fused applique color because I have done this technique with forest green before and thought burgundy was my "challenge" color. As I worked on the quilt it reminded me of winter in the garden and holly berries etc. This is not a Christmas quilt but a winter garden quilt. I named it Bella Bordeaux which is Good Burgundy in Italian. I love the Italian language and the other quilts had Bella in their names and the color or the quilt added such as Bella Gialla and Bella Rosa (purple/pink.) The other two quilts were monochromatic values or yellow and the other one was in all blues without Italian names.

Since I live where there are no fabric or craft stores within an hour, and I wanted a sprig of holly and berries, what do I do??-I make my own!! I drew out the holly leaves on Wonder Under fusible web and double fused some forest green batik together, cut them out and with some Sulky Blendables Thread I stitched around the leaves and added the veiny details. Then to make the berries I used red, black and a bit of magenta Sculpy Clay and made my own which bake in the oven to harden. I used a toothpick to make holes to hand stitch the berries into place. I fabric glued the three holly leaves at the stem area only to the quilt so it is 3D and then hand stitched the berries around the holly. I took a little red shimmer nail polish to the berries to "frost" them up!! And wa-la who needs Hobby Lobby!!

I embellished some cute red, pink and green snowflakes to the background area and some white hologram iridescent nail polish to the eyelid and one white rhinestone for her nose piercing and Miss Bella Bordeaux is ready! I think I will hang her at Pizazz Salon where I work because the color schemes match!!

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!!

The Road Less Traveled

 

I joined an online art quilt group I discovered on Facebook and they have challenges every two months. The current quilt deadline is today and the theme of the challenge was called "The Road Less Traveled." The size of the quilts are 11.5" x 16.5" and we reveal our work on the blog site today at www.aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/artquiltsaroundtheworld and on our own blogs.

So what did I decide to do-I thought about what the road less traveled meant to me and it meant to do the unconventional things that other people aren't doing. I love to do portrait quilts and thought how can I combine portrait quilts with this challenge? Last February I was having the winter blahs and dyed my normally brown with blonde highlighted hair hot pink-that was not really conventional for a middle aged woman living in the Upper Midwest in a small town!! So that's how it started with a fun self portrait with my hot pink hair!! I do add the victory roll to my bangs so that was normal for me and hand stitched one of my pink hair clips that I actually use in my hair to the roll for a 3D look.

While I was thinking about this project, I attended the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI in early September and Chris Daly had a booth in which she sold hand dyed fabrics. I purchased some bright hand dyed velvets including a hot pink. I added this velvet as the hot pink hair highlights which was the second "road less traveled" idea of velvet not cotton for this quilt. It was easy to fuse and to work with on my sewing machine.

Then my friend Faith who is in her early twenties, and very fun and inspirational, is all about using Duct Tape for projects. I watch her make wallets, flowers etc. out of Duct Tape and found this 1970s themed tape and decided to use it as the binding on this quilt. Number three of the "road less traveled" is no traditional binding but use Duct Tape instead. I began with the pink hair idea and it percolated into more ideas!! I had fun with this project-which to me is the whole point of these challenges to explore new ideas but if it is not fun why bother!!

I'm not sure the quilt judges would love the duct tape binding if I were to enter this in a quilt show but it is an art quilt!!

The next challenge is called "macro" which will be interpreted as a close-up view of something and I have an idea and it is not a portrait quilt and it is due Nov. 30th. 

 

My Quilting Arts TV Taping Experience in Photos

 I drove to the Cleveland Ohio area for my two 9 minute segments for Season 13 of Quilting Arts TV on PBS. My friends Patti and Faith were my traveling buddies and were able to hang out at the studio in the green room while I did my thing. Patti took all the photos for me. The season, I was told, will be broadcast in January 2014. My segments will appear in Episodes 2 and 3. The entire season is taped in one week and the TV show has the process down to a science! The first photo is me with Katherine the studio manager. All needed supplies for the taping are put on a huge cookie sheet and I am organizing my items for the first episode and feeling nervous and out of my element.

One of the show sponsors is Bernina sewing machines and if we are doing a sewing demo we who have never used a Bernina, Jeanne from Florida and has a huge title I can't remember, shows us the ropes. I am in the middle of getting a crash course on the mother of all Berninas. Jeanne is amazing and the sewing machine was so easy to use. I sew on a Viking Sapphire as my home machine and on a Janome at the quilt shop. Like my outfit for the camera and no make up!! YIKES!!!

 

 Me again organizing my supplies and trying to not be nervous!!

 This is me getting my make up done which is nice since I'm usually giving the service not receiving it!! This season of Quilting Arts is being taped in HD and the make up artist had special HD foundation which lasted all day-I didn't want to wash it off!!

I taped the same day at Diane Doran and the make up artist left after she did our make up but left Pokey, Diane and I all samples of our lipstick, foundation and powder for touch ups.

 Getting episode two prepped.

 This is the green room where Diane and I laid out all our goodies. Pokey had the back table. The far room was where the sewing machines were.

Pokey taped all the episodes in one week and tapes all the intros at once then the editing people add the individual segments later. Pokey has her picture taken in each episode's garment so when she sits with each guest she has the correct garment on and there is cohesion. The photo is the bulletin board that allows Pokey to keep track of her clothes!!

Quilting Arts TV has a new set and I am sitting there to feel comfortable in this environment.

And here we are taping my first segment on my Intro to Portrait Quilt pattern.

 This is a view of the set pre-taping with the director, Kathy, and Vivica, the editor of Quilting Art Magazine, Helen, the DVD lady, Kathy's assistant, Pokey and myself.

This is me doing my sewing demo on the Bernina in the first segment. What do you think of my beautiful Shellac manicure! Had to keep it bland for the camera or I would have had something glittery and hot pink!!

And these are my hands discussing my Line Drawing technique. I made one glitch in the first segment but I nailed the second one!

 

This was a great experience! I was fearful of the 10.5 hour drive and my friends rode with me to help me feel more safe and then I had people to talk to on the journey.  One of my hair customers at the salon lent my her EXPass which allows me to zip through all the toll booths in IL, IN and OH which saved time and money!! Everyone at the studio was kind and there were no divas! It was easier than my nervous stomach was telling me and I hope to be invited back again in the future.

After the taping I asked Katherine, the only local woman, if there was a Joann fabrics in the area and behold the store headquarters was 13 miles from the hotel. Paradise to leisurely spend 1.5 hours in the flagship store!! All in all I have been blessed!!

Witch? Award: All My Blog Followers Can Vote Too!!

I posted last week about the local portrait contest. The City of Menominee closed down the location for the exhibit and receptions for code reasons and it was decided to move the voting and display process to Facebook. The artworks were photographed and now our names are with our work. I would appreciate your vote on Facebook at www.facebook.com/witch?award. When you see my self portrait click on LIKE and better yet click SHARE!! I am in third place on the second day and a high school kid who did a pencil drawing is winning and I am in third place. I want to win the $1000 to buy an iPad. Thanks for helping me!!

The Witch? Award

The Witch? Award is a local portrait competition/contest for any local artist to enter. The rules were to have an unframed piece sized 16" x 20." Since I am a quilter to follow the contest rules meant no binding. I added 3-4" beyond the required size to wrap the quilt around the frame. The contest stated that the work had to be based on a photo with a model release. That part was weird to me since I base my ideas on my drawings not photos. I have no grandchildren or anyone I had a decent photo of that I wanted to make a quilt about and the rules said a self portrait would work. The second photo is the photo I based my entry on. It was a quickie iPhone photo last summer when I had blonde in my hair and I was goofing around with my hair that day. I added more "chin/shoulders" and added the awesome pink/orange/lime batik for the background. I didn't add much for embellishments because I thought the art community might not "get" that part and it may look too crafty for artsy. I can always add my bling after the contest!

Creating a self portrait is a strange experience but I just kept looking at value, color and details and made the applique pieces. I struggled with the mouth and also hid my work from my boyfriend Ken because it was kind of embarassing to me. He finally had to look at it when he stappled the quilt to the frame he made for it. He though it looked like me and I have accepted it as another piece of my artwork collection.

The exhibit will be on display at the Crawford Building, Menominee MI from July 12 through August 9, 2013 weekends only and extended hours Aug. 1-4 for the local Waterfront Festival. The general public will vote on the art. There is an opening reception on Friday July 12th and a closing reception on Friday August 9th in which the winner will be chosen. No idea how many local artists create portrait work or how many people will vote so I have to just watch and wait!! The website is www.thewitch?award.com.

Artsy Chick Quilts: July and August=Gallery Season

Artsy Chick Quilts: July and August=Gallery Season: I rejoined the Menominee Area Art Council (MAAC) and they are exhibiting at the University of Wisconsin-Marinette Gallery in the Arts Buil...

July and August=Gallery Season

I rejoined the Menominee Area Art Council (MAAC) and they are exhibiting at the University of Wisconsin-Marinette Gallery in the Arts Building during summer hours M-F and during the Theatre on the Bay Production of the Sound of Music. The play runs July 18-21 and 24-28. There is an artist reception on July 18th from 4-5pm which I will be able to attend. I chose my piece "Bella Gialla" for this exhibit because it has not been in a local exhibit and the size was small enough for the area. I personally love this quilt and the pink, blue and yellow versions as well!!

This quilt titled "Hera and Aphrodite" is on display at Farmers and Merchants Bank, 1644 Ludington Street, Marinette WI 54143 during bank hours. It is part of the "MAAC Attack" exhibit by the art council members and is on display from now until the end of August. there is a n artist reception in July but I am not able to attend since I will be in Rhinelander teaching.

This quilt called "Menominee Mermaid II" and the one in the next photo called "Geisha" are on display at the Harry and Laura Nohr Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Platteville WI July and August 2013 in conjunction with the Sewing and Quilting Expo August 2-3, 2013 in which I am an instructor!! Love this gallery and the whole event!  The mermaid quilt I made for an exhibit that didn't happen in 2012 and my "Geisha" quilt was my entry in the 2010 Hoffman Challenge.

International Quilt Festival-Chicago

I had two weeks to get my act together because I am doing a 2 hour demo at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago this Sat. June 22. The show is June 21-23, 2013. I am thrilled it is returning to Chicago after being gone for 3 years. I decided to make a wearable art-like garment and I cut the sleeves of a denim jacket I wasn't wearing and thought I'd raw edge fuse applique my business name to the back for some free advertising! The front has several felt flowers with button centers. I did funky stitching with variegated thread around the collar, armholes and front opening and chose to stop and say that was enough embellishments. I will wear it the day of my presentation so if you see me at the show s

stop and say "hi!"

Modern Roue Chromatique (Modern Color Wheel)

I found a photo of this quilt on Pinterest and loved it because of the rainbow colors and I love a double mirror image symmetry style quilt. I tried to find a pattern source and I found the origin of the photo from Australia and several color variations but no pattern.

 This is the pattern I found on Pinterest but didn't want the blue color hues to dominate. I used graph paper and designed the quilt the way I wanted the colors with blue on the outer edges, red and pink the dominating colors and yellow and green in the center. This became my placement guide for the piecing of the triangles and squares.

I made 3 more copies of my graph paper color placement and taped them together which allowed me to visually view the full quilt.

I then made oodles of half square triangle combinations, cut out plenty of the white swirl tone-on-tone background fabric and many squares as well. I am not a fan of Thangles because it is a paper mess and not necessary. I use the method of adding 7/8" to the finished size of the square for the cutting size. For example this quilt had a finished size of 2" blocks. I cut the squares 2 7/8" and drew a diagonal line through the square and sewed two together 1/4" on each side of the line, cut on line, press to darkest side, and ta-da, a half square triangle.

The most difficult part of this quilt was the placement of the triangles-I hade moments of seam ripper madness. There is NO wiggle room because the contrast is so strong in this quilt!!

This photo shows the "pebble" quilting. There is lots of negative space in this quilt, as is many of the Modern Quilt Movement quilts, and I chose the pebble design as a contrast to all the angles in the piecing.

I will use this quilt a a teaching tool for when I teach color theory and the elements/principles of design classes.