Double Duty: 2014 Hoffman Challenge and The Witch? Award on Facebook

 This is my entry for the 2014 Hoffman Challenge. The fabric is the big floral fabric which I fussy cut and made a hat/headpiece out of as well as the floral fabric applique pieces in the upper left corner and the lower right corner. I was having lunch with my daughter Jordana, who is biracial, last winter, and she was telling me about the stupid things people in Green Bay, WI, where she lives, say to her regarding race. They seem to not be able to "figure" her out, they assume she is a Green Bay Packer wife/girl friend or say stupid things that ignorantly racist. I got upset by this and channeled my energy into this quilt. I tried to match Jordana's skin tone and make a quilt loosely based on her coloring and use the Hoffman /challenge fabric. I call it "Hybrid" not based on the combination of flowers, which is a term used in floral/botany studies, but the combination of races and skin tones. I was very upset and this was a great way to get my anger out!!
I embellished it with a few sequins/beads in the background, rhinestones in the floral areas and a flower bead for an earring.

Part Two: There is a local portrait contest on Facebook called The Witch? Award. I want to win the contest and would appreciate your vote if you are on Facebook. If you go to www.facebook.com/WitchAward and click LIKE on the photo of my quilt that locks in your vote. If you like another piece it cancels my vote-just saying...The voting goes until mid August I think. Thanks for voting!!

This is a close up photo of the face-I added a bit of actual blush to the cheekbones to make it look more realistic. The Hoffman Challenge will notify all entrants in August if their piece made the cut, and if so, the pieces will travel across the country to various quilt venues.

SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) 2014 Auction Piece

I have been a SAQA member for a few years and they do an art quilt auction beginning in September of each year to raise funds. They ask any of the members to donate an original art quilt piece 12" x12" and I created this piece I call "Human Harmony."

The deadline was extended from June 1st to June 15th and that gave me enough time to make something for the auction.

I started with the red batik with purple and gray gears. I felt like working with darker skin tones and blonde hair-as interesting combo but if it's good enough for RuPaul it's good enough for me!! I added the word harmony because I was being social/political in my mind while I was creating this and it spoke to be about human/racial harmony.

I embellished with two different yellow nail polishes for in the hair, one polish on the lips and another purple nail polish on the eyelids. I added rhinestones to simulate actual jewelry and a bit of white fabric paint on the eyes.

I'm glad they expended the deadline so I could commit to the SAQA auction project!

 

 

Coming Up Roses-Quilt! Knit! Stitch! IQF-Portand!!

 Happy dance! I made this quilt specifically for the International Quilt Festival in Portland Oregon this August for a contest called Coming Up Roses. This show will have quilting, knitting and stitching for this exhibit. www.quilts.com for more show details.

I began with the idea of a Day of the Dead style makeup and LOTS of red roses in the hair. I explored on Pinterest different types of Day of the Dead makeup. Lots were scary and sinister-I chose hearts and flowers. The nose looks like a spade from a deck of cards. I showed this quilt last month to a group of Grade 1-5 elementary students and one girl thought the nose looked like a chocolate chip. What a creative mind and I like that idea better.

The eyes had five colors of different fabric plus white painted dots, red painted dots and the "usual" eyeliner, whites of the eye, iris, pupil etc. I did the whole face, neck, hair  and clothes then concentrated on the roses because this was the purpose of the contest.

 

I googled clip art of roses and selected one I liked and make a mirror image of the rose as well. I cut out a bunch of roses from red batik and arranged them in a pleasing asymmetrical manner. I used a darker fabric marker to get the depth as well as stitching with a darker thread and then I used fabric paint in a lighter red to get the highlighted areas. It was all a concept of value which is my new favorite subject!!

 

I embellished three different sizes of pre-made red roses on the roses, hair and background, red glitter nail polish in the hair, a few grayish sequins to bling out the background.

 

I named this quilt "Rosita" thanks to my friend Patty N. for the idea. I wanted a Mexican name that had rose in it and that's how it happened!!