Bella Jordana: Salute to Women With Curly Hair

This is a new portrait quilt I made between preparing for the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I had drawn the design a few months ago and then let it sit for no real reason. When I attended the Quilt Expo in Madison WI in Sept. 2015 I found a charm pack with the "shabby chic" prints in a pink/green/turquoise/light brown color scheme. I unfortunately did not save the wrapper with the name. I thought of my daughter Jordana because of her curly hair and her love of these colors and the flowers. I pulled out the pattern and tweaked it a little and it came together. I wanted a Bella pattern with curly hair and I added an eyebrow, changed the face shape, mouth, nose width, added a separate eyelid applique piece and there is a full shoulder line.

I had some pink flower felt trim which I glued to the neck area for a necklace. I sewed three pink flower shaped buttons over the felt and added some glitter nail polish to the flower centers. I hand sewed pink beads to the rest of the felt trim.

This is a close up of the face. I quilted half of the face in a narrow cross hatch and the other in a curved echo stitch. I used only one thread for the ENTIRE quilting process-Sulky Blendables "Milk Chocolate" # 4011 in 30 weight. You can't go wrong with a thread named after chocolate!! The browns in this project did look like the brown in candy bars!! The rest of the embellishments include two large pink flowers from a large Hawaiian lei from Hobby Lobby taken apart with a button center, a rhinestone "nose piercing," hot pink chunky glitter nail polish on the mouth and a white fabric paint dot for the eye reflection. My favorite nail polishes are sitting in Houston watching for me so I will add some of those colors to the eye area when the quilt show is over and my box is shipped back home.  Should this quilt become my next pattern?

Halloween Trick & Treats Forum at IQF Houston 2015

I will be part of the Halloween Tricks & Treats Forum at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX coincidentally on Halloween. It from 2-5pm and #760 in the events catalog. Go to www.quilts.com to register and view the details. My title is called "Witches-Toil and Trouble in Quilt Making!!" I love witches and lean toward a pretty witch over an old warty ones! The two quilts in these photos are teasers of some of my quilty work! This wall hanging above called Bella Strega is my newest pattern and the only witch quilt I converted into a pattern. I will get feedback at the show and possibly turn other witch quilts into patterns. This pattern is available on my website at www.laurieceesay.com, at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette, WI and will be available at the Houston show.

This is a table runner I designed where I was inspired by silhouettes I saw on Pinterest and I already do a few on these silhouettes with historical hairstyles. I saw the phrase "Black Hat Society" as a spin on the Red Hat Society idea and thought it was a cute saying. I decided to add a wart to the witch's chin for the first time!

 

 

The other women participating in the Halloween forum are in alphabetical order:
1.  Pam Damour   www.pamdamour.com

2.  Nancy Goldsworthy   www.QuiltedDecorativeSttiches.com

3.  Diane Herbort    www.DianeHerbort.com

4.  Margarita Korioth  www.margacrafts.blogspot.com

5.  Cyndi Souder  www.MoonlightQuilting.com

Check us out at Houston on Halloween! Happy Halloween!!

Winter Bella: New Portrait Quilt Pattern

Miss Bella lives in Upper Michigan and I turned her into "Winter Bella" a few years ago when I created the blue snowflake version in the upper photo. I originally titled the quilt "Upper Michigan in January." While being on the teaching/lecturing circuit I would show this quilt as an example of a monochromatic color scheme quilt. I displayed it at Quilting Divas Quilt Shop in Green Bay, WI in 2014 as the "Honorary Quilt Diva Of the Month" and the owner and a few customers asked about a pattern. I was asked again to make it into a pattern in May at the Green Bay WI Evergreen Quilters meeting. I couldn't figure out how to get the applique pieces onto a 11" x 17" piece of paper. When I designed Bella Strega (the Witch pattern) I had an a-ha moment which helped me create this quilt into a pattern and renamed it "Winter Bella." In late summer I constructed a newer version in a gray and red colorway which hangs in Pine Street Quilts in Marinette Wisconsin. The blue version is currently on display in green Bay Wisconsin at Quilting Divas. The quilt is 18"l x 27.5"w and is a raw edged fused qpplique technique. For both color versions I collected as many snowflake themed fabrics as well as anything shiny or "icy" looking. I machine quilted it and embellished it with snowflake sequins, rhinestones, glitter nail polish and loose glitter/glitter glue. It is for sale on my website for $10.00. www.laurieceesay.com

 In the close up photo I used foundation paper, a snowflake motif  and variegated thread and machine quilted on the cheekbone/chin areas to repeat the snowflake theme.