Coloring Book Claudia

 I'm still working on my newest idea of coloring book portrait quilts. I made a version already which I showed earlier in December, or maybe November, and now I am influenced a woman named Claudia who took one of my classes at the IQF Houston Quilt Festival in November. Stroll down this post to see her photo! I started with wanting a curly Afro type hairstyle and I designer a different neckline and sleeve for the dress than the Coloring Book Callie deisgn. I mirror imaged the design for a change of pace. I selected 2 fun batiks with medium scale designs and a multi-color to pull coordinating colors for the eye shadow, lips, background and hair. The two quilts are the same until I quilted them.

 I was inspired by Etta James, RuPaul and Beyonce for the hair and it matched the gold in the dress fabric. I loved this deep turquoise batik for the background and eyelids and the mouth became red. I used some of the wonderful Cherrywood Hand Dyed Fabrics in the gradation of browns I have purchased for skin tones. LOVE!! I quilted the background in a 1" grid design and then in one direction from upper left to lower right I connected a diagonal quilting line-strictly playing around to see how it looks. I liked the look and will do this again.
I embellished with two different glitter nail polishes on the eye area as well as tiny rhinestones scattered in the background from a nail art kit from The Dollar Tree (cheap and a nice color variety!!)The nose got a rhinestone piercing and I finally used the little rainbow colored crocheted thingie I picked up on my travels for a hair accessory! I found some small size Christmas tree ornaments and I sewed one onto the ear area as an earring. Lots of bling!!

 The pink version is the same but the quilting does not have the diagonal stitching. I fabric glued a 3D silk flower to this woman's hair. I decided to have gray hair for a change and some people do have gray hair so it is recognizable.

This is the real Claudia from Houston TX and she attended my Whimsical Selfie Portrait class last November. I have been reluctant to design an ear applique up to this class because ears can look like peanuts in a shell!! Upon seeing Claudia's short hairstyle and exposed ears I drew up an ear pattern for her and this has kick started me to add ears to my future portrait quilt designs such as this new project. Why use Claudia's name? The "C" name flowed with coloring book...
This will be a pattern I write up in early 2017. I had not designed it in time to include it in my fall 2017 quilt show teaching proposals. My other design did make the cut. On to something new!!

Rainbow Cat Eyes

 I made this quilt for The Celebration of Color Exhibit for the IQF Chicago Quilt Fest in April 2017. I wanted to combine my love of color and portrait quilts but try something different. I was inspired by a few rainbow themed motifs on Pinterest. The quilt had to be a minimum of 48" which is larger than I usually work. Vertically the quilt is 48" and horizontally it is 55". It fell into the Modern category and has a ton of negative space which I echo quilted in the coordinating color of the motif above and below it-that was boring! It was!
I wanted cat eye shaped eye glass frames (because they are my favorite!) and lips on the motifs and I "moved" the color one over on the color wheel which by default created an analogous color scheme! You'd a knew!
This is different than my "normal" portrait quilts but I wanted to go more modern. I was told by someone close to me that it wasn't finished because there were no face details. Sadness.

 This is a close up of one of the faces. I thread painted brows, cheekbones, a jawline, a nose and lots of strands of hair to each motif. There are things to see from afar and then closeup. I used two different trims and machine couched them to the quilt for hair emphasis. I added rhinestones to the glasses to look retro. I hand sewed a leather button to the hair. I hand sewed beads to create an earring. The lips got fabric glitter paint or glitter nail polish. All had to be identical to appear repetitive.

This is another view of more of the details. I thought the face reminded me of the 1980s video from the band Wham from the song "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go! because of the neon-like influence. I love that song and it makes me happy and so do the cat eye glasses. 
I know art is subjective but my feelings are hurt by my friend's comments because I spent a huge amount of time on this quilt and want it to be selected for the IQF Chicago quilt show. Time will tell.....Whether it gets chosen or not I will be using it in my color classes because there is plenty of things to discuss with color in this quilt. :)

JIngle Bella: New Pattern Sample

 I decided to sew another sample of my new Jingle Bella pattern using a Moda charm pack called "Holly Nights." The current charm packs, especially Moda, do not have 42 different fabric squares like they did when the fabric companies first introduced them to the quilt market. I love charm packs because of the wide range of fabric print varieties. When I used this particular pack there were few light squares which I prefer for the face. I challenged myself to only use the charm pack squares and not go into my fabric stash and the face is less blended than I would have liked.

I quilted the entire quilt with one thread, a Sulky rayon thread #943 1549, after I attached all the applique pieces with black thread. This thread ran nicely through my sewing machine and gave a pretty shimmer that repeated the metallic gold in the fabrics.

 This is a close up of the face. I embellished with only metallic gold items I found some loose chunky gold "scatter" at Target for the eyelids; some gold nail polish on the mouth; a gold rhinestone for the nose piercing and some dollar store tiny nail art gold bling glued to the background.

 This beaded trim was an unexpected find this past summer while at a rummage sale. The plan was for the first Jingle Bella sample but I had over-cleaned my sewing room and couldn't find it! I found the trim months later and hand sewed it to the bottom of the quilt after the binding was sewn on-again very sparkly!!

 This is the original pattern sample also using a Moda charm pack but instead of traditional fabric it is whimsical. Same exact style of quilting. The choice of fabrics can really change the outcome and style of the quilts!

I changed thread colors in this project when I quilted it. As seen in the above photo I used a Christmas variegated thread on the face.
This pattern is available on my website www.laurieceesay.com for $10.00 Through PayPal.

Art Quilts Around The World Facebook Group Challenge: Science

 Today is reveal day for my Facebook group Art Quilts Around the World. The current theme is Science. I am not a big science person and had a hard time figuring out what to do with this challenge. When I was a beauty school student back in the late 1980s we had a textbook chapter on anatomy specifically the skeletal and muscular systems of the body. To cut hair one needs to know the bone structure of the face. As licensed cosmetologists we also are able to perform facials and therefore need to know what and where the facial muscles are located. So a shout out to beauty school is how I came up with my idea. 
I split the face in half and did muscles on one side and a regular woman's face on the other side. I discovered on Pinterest many images portraying muscles had the muscles in different bright colors to visually see them. I was all on board for bright colors so that was easy! The "normal" side has a neutral color palette.
I quilted the muscles in the accurate direction in which they would flex!
The "normal" side got a bit of glitter, a rhinestone nose piercing and both sides got beads for earrings and I used fabric pencils to enhance the eyes, hair and mouth. As I was working on this challenge it became fun and I really enjoy the finished quilt.

This is a closeup photo of the muscle side of the face-lots of tiny muscles!
The next challenge due January 31, 2017 is "I believe..." which is very broad based. I feel strongly about many things-the beauty industry, fashion dos and don'ts, politics and racial discrimination so I'm not sure the direction I will take this challenge.

Coloring Book Quilts

I have not posted in a while because I was busy before, during and after the IQF Houston quilt show. Such a great experience and I meet so many interesting quilters including five international students that were in my Bella Chroma full day class. 

I have a new lecture about how adult coloring books have inspired me to create quilts, portrait quilts especially, in the style of coloring books with a wider black line surrounding the applique motifs. The original quilt I made in this style was given to the IQF Houston silent auction and I can't find the photo. Sorry. I had squared off the tips of the hair and decided that was too much unnecessary work so I redeisgned the pattern and went with the usual pointy hair streaks. 

The photo on the top with the two versions is the revised design. Each quilt is 16" x 24" and has one fabric for the background. I decided to make two color ways-one with orange hair and one with red hair. Each has a fun colorful bold stripe for the garment. The facial features are the same. I wasn't sure if I liked the yellow color on the eyelids so when I was embellishing the quilts one got a gold row of rhinestone "eyeliner" and the other I totally covered up with turquoise nail art sparkly stuff glued on the eyelid.. The other embellishments were some pink glitter nail polish on the upper lip and a clear silver rhinestone for a nose piercing.

I will use this idea for a new pattern which I will write in early 2017. I am including it in my future quilt class proposals and see if the quilt teaching judges like it!!
 

 The coloring book idea began with this quilt's drawing. I connected and added black lines and expanded the background because I really liked the image.

This is another version of this pattern which became my Quilt Alliance charity auction quilt.

Do you like this new idea of the coloring book theme?

My Bella Pattern Revamped for Wonderfil Threads

I took my drawing of my Bella pattern and enlarged it to 24" square and adapted it to a more realistic version. Some things are similar but there are much more hair strands, skin tone shading and eye detail. I was asked by Wonderfil Threads from Calgary, Alberta Canada to make a wall hanging quilt. I have been one of their featured teachers and I receive perks from the company so I thought it was honorable to make a quilt, when they asked me, which will be displayed when the company vends at markets and festivals. The idea of pink hair came from me while working in a hair salon and reading all the ads in hair stylist publications and the trend has been vibrant colored hair. I chose pink because it's my favorite color! I selected blue/turquoise for the eye shadow because it was a color in the background fabric and it seemed retro-like in a 1960s kind of way. When selecting the lip color I stayed with the 1960s theme and chose a lighter pink to mimic the frosted lips of the decade a la Twiggy and Mary Quant!!

This is a starting point photo of the applique pieces fused and cut out and the background and binding fabrics chosen. The applique pieces are then fused to the background and with 7 different colors of hair it was a bit complicated! Could I turn this into a pattern-it would be hard to explain the process and order to fuse the applique pieces to the background fabric. The whole fusing process is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together!!

This is a photo of the details of the face. I used only Wonderfil Threads since this project was about their products. Some of the threads used were Fabulux rayon thread which has a beautiful shimmer on the hair; 40 wt rayon variegated for the eyes and mouth and Egyptian cotton "Tutti" in  variegated browns for the skin tones. I embellished with loose chunky glitter on the eyelid for "eyeliner," nail polish on the mouth and eye shadow areas; a rhinestone for a nose piecing and a variety of rainbow colored beads hand sewn to form a necklace. I will be sending this one onto the Wonderfil folks and plan to make another version for myself with a woman of color with red hair and green eye shadow!!

Modern Scrappy Portrait Quilt Class at IQF Houston

I will be teaching my "Modern Scrappy Portrait Quilt" Class using my Bella pattern at the International Quilt Festival in Houston Saturday November 5, 2016. The website is www.quilts.com to register and the Class is #703 and is a 6 hour class. The class kit will have 25  pre-cut 5" squares from Cherrywood Hand-Dyed Fabric for the pieced background as well as the Bella pattern. Cherrywood is the fabric company that created The Wicked and The Lion King Challenges that have been so popular! Their hand dyed fabric is so soft and buttery and I just wanted to pet them and ooh and aah over them before I cut the fabric into kits. We will be exploring the color wheel and placement of color to get more visual impact with the 25 different colors in the pieced background. The applique in a raw edged fused technique. I hope to see you there. If not The Bella pattern can be purchased on my website at www.laurieceesay.com

New Pattern: Jingle Bella

My Bella pattern has been very popular and I have used it as the subject of many quilt venues and guild workshops. I have designed a Halloween, a winter and a curly haired version of Bella. At my local quilt shop, Pine Street Quilts in Marinette Wisconsin, and while visiting quilt guilds the request for a Christmas/Santa hat Bella has been vocalized. I designed this quilt based on the requests and I love Santa hats and Christmas colors also! I purchased a Moda Fabrics charm pack and challenged myself to ONLY use the charm pack and not add other fabrics. The blues and turquoise threw me off a bit because they are not traditionally Christmas colors. I treated them as sky colors and the rest was easy. I did not embellish this quilt much because the whimsical prints had enough activity-just some fabric paint on the eye, rhinestones and nail polish on the mouth and eye. If you view the photo you will see a trim hand sewn to the bottom of the quilt to look like Christmas garland that is so cute and sparkly!! This quilt is on display at Pine Street Quilts at 801 Marinette Avenue, Marinette WI as a shop sample and the patterns are for sale there. I also have them for sale on my website www.laurieceesay.com through PayPal. I have been asked to design an Easter hat Bella-would you buy this version if it was available?

 

Art Quilts Around The World Challenge: Letters From Home - Menominee Michigan Lighthouse

 My Facebook art quilt group Art Quilts Around The World had it's current challenge reveal yesterday-I am late because it's a crazy busy time with my quilt teaching stuff. I am a day late and have a day off today so here goes. The theme was called Letters from Home and a stylized stamp of the area we live in. I had a very very hard time with this challenge because I prefer to make portrait quilts. The city I have lived in the past 9+ years is Menominee Michigan. The Menominee Indian Tribe is where the city gets it's name. I Googled images of Menominee Indian woman and got no results that interested me. The city across the Menominee River is Marinette, WI and they were named after Queen Marinette who was a Menominee Indian woman. Again I Googled images of her and she was photographed only as an older woman and I didn't want a quilt like that. So plan C is a lighthouse which is everywhere in my city. Menominee is on the bay side of Lake Michigan and near where the Menominee River connects to Lake Michigan. We have lots of water and thus have a lighthouse. I made a lighthouse quilt a few years ago for a local fundraiser and adapted that pattern to this quilt so my quilt image is not fully accurate to the actual Menominee lighthouse. I planned to use a white background and blue for the raw edged fused applique to give a nautical look then added red since red is on the real lighthouse. I added a small amount of blue glitter nail polish to the water area and some silver glitter polish to the sun area-the quilt didn't scream out for sparkle. It will be given to a local charity for fundraising purposes.

This is the name of my local newspaper and they use the lighthouse in their logo and the lighthouse is getting a facelift accoridng to yesterday's newspaper which was timely for this blog post. 
The next challenge is about Science which is not one of my favorites either. Any ideas out there? Maybe physiology, muscles or bones of the body, skulls Ala Sugar Skulls!!!

International Quilt Association's Celebrity Mini Quilt Auction Quilt

 I will be teaching again at the International Quilt Festival this November in Houston-it is the mother of all quilt shows and so much fun to be part of! I was asked to participate in the International Quilt Association's Celebrity Quilt Auction. I was asked to donate a small quilt which will be auctioned off at the festival. The group of quilts will have an area on display at the quilt show. The money raised helps support the activities of IQA. I am lecturing this Saturday September 10, 2016 at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo on "Adult Coloring Books Inspiring Quilts" and am intrigued by how coloring book motifs and quilt design have common elements.

The design inspiration began with this design I drew in 2015 for a texture challenge for my Facebook art quilt group.

 This is the completed quilt-love the velvets and lames!!

 I took the original drawing, changed the hair and added lines to connect areas as in a coloring book motif. I thickened the lines for the raw edged fused applique. I used black batik (Hoffman batik in the color Raven) Love it!! I selected the swirly stripe fabric for the dress; orange and hot pink for the hair; two pinks for the mouth; yellow and teal for the eye makeup and three brown gradations of Cherrywood Hand-Dyed Fabrics for the brow bone, face and neck. A large polka dot with a black background is used for the binding. I embellished with yellow rhinestones as a row of eyeliner on the yellow lid area; a hologram-like rhinestone for a nose piercing; a white matte fabric paint dot for the eye reflection and a bit of pink glitter nail polish on the upper lip.

I used the original drawing and I made this quilt this winter and it became a donation quilt for Quilt Alliance which raises awareness and money for Alzheimer Association. The theme of this display is "Favorite Things" I love pink and embellishments! This quilt will also be on display at the IQF Houston show in November in the Quilt Alliance booth.
I don't feel like a celebrity but I am happy to be selected for this fundraised!!

Adult Coloring Book Inspired Quilts: Lecture at Wisconsin Quilt Expo Sept. 10, 2016

 I am a huge fan of adult coloring books and it is National Adult Coloring Book Day! I was a huge fan of coloring books/crayons/colored pencils as a child. Nothing has changed because I still love all these things and anything artsy craftsy! When adult coloring books came on the scene a few years ago I noticed a correlation to my Line Drawing Style quilts. I have put together a lecture about how adult coloring books inspired quilt designs. I will be lecturing on this subject at the WI Quilt Expo on Saturday Sept. 10, 2016 at 8:30am. www.wiquiltexpo.com Early bird special!! 

 The photos in this blog post show how I selected a simple page from the coloring book "Coloring Creative Characters" edited by Tonia Jenny and Barbara Delaney from Book World and processed through to a quilt design. This is a teaser for the lecture so I'm not sharing too much today-see you in Madison!

I enlarged the page and assigned colors to my liking. In the top photo I made a small wall hanging in the Line Drawing style I typically work in.

In this photo I decided to add a border and used a fun geometric print from my stash. I pulled 6 batiks to coordinate with the border print and cut them into various widths and strip pieced them and ran this vertically as the background of the quilt. I used the exact applique as in the first project. It's cool how with the same motif but different backgrounds the finished quilts are so different! While working on these quilts I found more and more ideas which I will share in my lecture. I chose to demo a face motif but I will have other motifs in this lecture as well for people who aren't into faces like me. This idea is very inspiring and my brain is exploding from all the potential!!

Art Quilts Around The World: Vision Board-Hair Color

 Today is reveal day for my Facebook art quilt group Art Quilts Around The World. This challenge is called Vision Board. I thought about the white and black hair color I tried to have late last summer and I damaged my hair. It is still on my vision board as a hair color I want! Did I mention I am have been a hairdresser for 29 years and am challenged by this?
I first saw the hair color on Pinterest. My hair has been colored dark brown for years. In  hair color theory to lighten hair that has previously been dark one must bleach the hair. In doing so it can damage the hair because there are so many layers of hair. And in my case, my fine hair couldn't handle the bleach and my hair quality was compromised. I gave up and have been repairing and deep conditioning my hair ever since. 
This hair color became the subject of this vision board challenge. I selected red as my background, dress and glasses color. On Pinterest I searched vintage clothing because I love this too and found a great dress neckline and duplicated it in this quilt. The real dress would have a tab and button in the center on the neckline. 

 This is the close up of the neckline. I have found that red and black combination prints are not easy to find. I used a lot of this hounds tooth print in another quilt and now have an excuse to buy more fabric to replace this piece!! The black and white fabric used in the dress is so 1960s and I love it too!!

For embellishment I used a hologram and a slate sparkly glitter nail polishes to add shimmer to the hair. I added a few tiny rhinestones to the glasses, white paint for the eye reflection and a small amount of nail polish to the eyelid. I didn't over on the embellishments because the variety of fabric prints seemed like enough activity and I wanted the hair to be the emphasis.
The next challenge which is about a postage stamp that represents the area where we live in due September 30, 2016. I am exploring lighthouses, Menominee Indians or Queen Marinette.

A Tribute to Yvonne Porcella Quilt

 This quilt was made for a tribute to Yvonne Porcella call "Live Your Brightest Life" and a group of selected quilts (including mine!) will hang in an exhibit called Quilting in the Garden at Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore California Sept. 23-26, 2016.
I found out about this quilt challenge through Pokey Bolton's blog. Pokey was a great friend of Yvonne's and after Yvonne's passing this winter, of Stage 4 cancer, Pokey blogged about this challenge opportunity and I decided to create a 18" x 26" size quilt inspired by Yvonne's body of work. We were asked to write something for Yvonne's family-whether we knew her, met her through a class or quilt show or was inspired by her work. 
I never met Yvonne but knew of her because she was one of the pioneers in the art quilt world. She started Studio Arts Quilters Associates which I have been a member of. She taught and wrote many publications through the years. She was ill but made an appearance at the IQF Houston 2014 but I didn't see her there.
My inspiration from Yvonne is her use of bright bold colors; her integration of black and white prints with the bright colors and her whimsical style. She created a few portrait quilts and I used these four elements to create my design.
I was curious anyway to make a face fantasy-like and have a rainbow of colors swirled across the face while keeping the hair a "normal" color. I chose Afro puffs as the hairstyle because it is playful and I just love it!! The dress fabric is a scrap of a large scale floral print that shouts happiness. Is the woman black or white-is it a woman?
The background was inspired by the pop art images of 1960s artist Peter Maxx. He used the two tone radiating striped backgrounds in his art and I went with that using Yvonne's white and black influence. 
I knew the dress's neckline needed something white and black to tie it all together and I "auditioned" a variety of trims, fabrics, beads etc, and nothing looked right. I had to purchase the trim I used and it is the correct width of trim and the dots are to scale of the rest of the dress.

 I embellished the eyes with chunky glitter nail polish on the lids. I hand sewed white beads to the dress and the nose got a rhinestone "piercing," but the best part was finally finding my plastic fruit beads from some 1980s jewelry that I had misplaced. I save lots of stuff from the past-you never know!! I was intending to use it on my "Kitschy" quilt from May and tore up my house to find it. So it seemed right to have the fruit become earrings on this fun bright quilt!
Not an embellishment but I used black velvet for the upper lip and black lame' for the lower lid just to break up the continuity of commercial cottons/batiks.

 Here is another view of the quilt. As I was working on this quilt the national news story about the Orlando nightclub shooting had transpired. I was and still am shook up about that so I named this quilt "Pulse" after the nightclub in Orlando to commemorate.
Pokey Bolton confirmed my quilt would be part of the exhibit and she said Yvonne would like it too! Awww!
I can't wait to see what other art quilts designed as their tributes to Yvonne!!

Poison Bottle Quilt Along

I was asked by Misty Cole of Pick Your Brain Designs to be a guest artist for her Poison Bottles Quilt Along. I met Misty through Facebook and met her in person at the International Quilt Show in Houston in 2015. She had twelve of her quilting friends interpret her designs each month. She chose July for me to share my version of her quilt along. Anyone is invited to go to Misty's website www.mistycole.com to download the FREE poison bottle patterns to make a full quilt.

 I knew nothing about poison bottles so Misty gave me some insight which I will share with you. Glass poison bottles came on the scene between the 1870s-1930s. They were used to store cleaning products, insect killers and other liquids that are needed in the home but harmful to people if ingested. The biggest reason people accidentally drank poison was because many people were illiterate and couldn't read the labels and, oddly enough, dimly lit rooms (no electricity just candle light?) 
The poisons were stored in glass bottles because at the time glass was cheap enough to produce. The poison manufacturers began making their bottles in distinguishing colors such as cobalt blue, emerald green, honey amber (beer bottle color?) and black to help people separate the safe and non-safe products. The bottles had textured finishes on them such as dots, ridges and diamond. Words were added to state POISON, DEATH and NOT TO BE TAKEN INTERNALLY. 
I assume as these glass bottles were replaced by other cheaper materials they became collector items because of their beauty. This may be Misty's fascination with poison bottles!

This is my first bottle which looks like an old fashioned perfume bottle. I ran with my portrait quilt theme and added lips to the bottle. I chose a color theme or red/silver/black with a multi-colored stripe. I added red glitter nail polish to the lips for more bling.

This is the second bottle which seems odd laying on it's side horizontal. Currently no bottles are made like this because of the practicality of shelf space. I used one of my portrait quilt patterns and added eyes and hair to the bottle. I used some green sparkly nail polish on the eyes. I envisioned my bottles perhaps being some weird skin lotion sold by a snake oil salesman in the 1920s-1930s from a traveling wagon for women to dip into the fountain of youth!

I again invite you to www.mistycole.com to download the free poison bottle patterns to make an entire quilt with bottles!! Thanks Misty for inviting me to be part of your party!!

New Bella Jordana Pattern Sample

I introduced my newest portrait quilt pattern Bella Jordana last week and I am sharing now another sample of this pattern using the Moda charm pack called "Flow." I used a grayish black batik for the raw edged applique-I wanted more of a charcoal gray but I want to use what's currently in my stash! The left over charm squares were cut in half and sewed end to end (I used 20 of them) to create the pieced binding. I used a variegated gray and black thread to quilt and attach the applique to the background. I used a combo of green/blue/yellow/pink variegated thread for quilting the background and a light gray variegated thread for the face and neck quilting. I embellished the quilt with two Hawaiian lei flowers and a flower button for the hair accessory. Glitter nail polish is applied on the lips and eyelid. A few matching color rhinestones in the background and one for a nose piercing adds more bling. White matte fabric paint for the eye reflection. This pattern is now available at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette, WI and on my website www.laurieceesay.com

 This is the original quilt which i gave to Jordana for a Christmas gift in 2015. I used dark olive green for the batik and a fabric yo yo for the hair accessory.

 

 

 

This is the quilt that is on the pattern cover again using a Moda charm pack. I added felt trim and beads to create a necklace and Hawaiian lei flowers for a hair accessory. I blogged about this quilt last week for more details. Check out this pattern at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette, WI or on my website www.laurieceesay.com

 

Bella Jordana: New Pattern Available for Sale

I have designed a new portrait pattern in my Bella series. It is my salute to women with curly or textured hair like my daughter Jordana and named after her. It is different from the other Bella patterns in that the face shape in different, the mouth is simpler, I added an eyebrow and eyelid applique and, of course, the hair is curly instead of stright. The size remains the same it 22.5" square. It is available on my website www.laurieceesay.com payable through PayPal.

This is the quilt I made for Jordana as a Christmas gift and I used a charm pack. Not sure of the name of the charm pack but probably from Moda and a dark green contrasting batik for the applique. I created a yo-yo with two buttons as a hair accessory

This is the second sample of Bella Jordana using a charm pack from Moda by Deb Strain. I used a tobacco colored brown batik for the applique.I added glitter nail polish to the eyelid and the mouth. I hand tacked felt garland to the neck area for a necklace. I added pink beads on top of this. I used two silk flowers from a Hawaiian lei from Hobby Lobby with a button as a hair accessory.

 

My next pattern will be a Christmas themed Bella pattern which will be released in late summer. Thanks for reading my blog!!

2016 Hoffman Challenge Quilt: Summer Rainbow

This is my 2016 Hoffman Challenge entry titled "Summer Rainbow." The deadline to enter this challenge was extended from June 30th to July 5th so it was safe to post my quilt which I make over the winter. The fabric is digitally printed and for the first time there were two background colors, black or white, with a variety of different colored butterflies scattered about. I bought the black background but I cut out all the butterflies so it didn't really matter!!

I fused some Wonder Under to a large piece of the challenge fabric and fussy cut the butterflies out and began arranging them in a formation of a hairstyle. But I remembered making another portrait quilt with 12 quilt blocks from a block exchange and liked that hairstyle etc. The photo is posted near the end of this blog post. The quilt seemed like it was put in an odd category for entering in a quilt show because other people helped make the blocks so I never entered the quilt in a quilt show. I wanted to use the center portrait pattern again and this became my hair inspiration for this challenge! I separated the butterflies by color and placed the warm colored butterflies on the right and the cool colored butterflies on the left (mostly!) The small white butterflies became the "highlights" of the hair. I selected purple for the dress, a hot pink vinyl for the lips, a white tone on tone background that resembled a butterfly motif and a subtle floral batik for the outside border that compliments the colors without taking away from the portrait.

I used Cherrywood Hand Dyed fabrics for the 5 skin tones. I purchased another butterfly/bird/bug fabric and added the cute fussy cut hummingbird to the background. There are a few bees and dragonflies fussy cut and sporadically placed in the quilt.

I quilted the dress design as a continuation of the dress in the body of the quilt a la "coloring outside the lines!" The majority of the quilt is vertically echo quilted with a purple/hot pink/yellow/blue thread.

Embellishments include hologram sparkly nail polish on the brow bone and purple glitter polish on the eyelid, a mini pink rhinestone for the nose piercing, a purple Christmas ornament bead as an earring, some silver rhinestones in the white background and a variety of tiny beads in flower and butterfly shapes.

This is the original quilt.

Center of original quilt called Scarlet. I love the turquoise and red orange complementary color scheme!! I have to wait until July 18th to find out if this quilt is included in the 2016 Hoffman Challenge Traveling Exhibit. Time to go outside and play in my garden!