January in Upper Michigan

 I made this small quilt to celebrate winter where I live in Upper Michigan. I used my original pattern in which I made 2 square wall hangings last summer-one in purple/yellow and one with values of pink. I wanted to have a scarf that was blowing in the wind so I made this quilt in a rectangle shape. I cut 5" squares in variations of light, medium and dark values of blue including as many snowflake themed fabrics as I had (I bought a few extra!.) I changed my original pattern by adding an earmuff and the scarf and taking the hair to a closer to the head amount. I went total monochromatic with the color scheme-blue fabric, blue threads, and many blue embellishments. I found these great little hologram icecicle beads on my travels in Madison Wisconsin at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo and used them on this quilt. I have blue glitter on the eyelid, nail polish on the lips and scarf ends and a few rhinestones scatter about. I wanted an icecicle motif on the cheekbone area and created them this way-I Goodle searched icecicle images on the computer and when I found one I liked I drew up an image to the size I wanted. I then used Carol Doak foundationl paper in my computer and copied 3 icecicles-2 for the cheeks and one for the chin. Then I placed the icecicles on the quilt individually and stitches in a smaller stitch with blue variegated thread. When finished I removed the paper which comes off pretty nice compared to regular computer paper. I used a 2 color binding to accentuate the contrast of light and dark in the quilt. This quilt is just for fun and not for a quilt jury-somethimes I have to be be fluffy!!

The second photo is a detail version to show the icecicles on the face.

Commissioned Quilt

I was commissioned to make a small wall hanging for a local friend. His intention was to have two intertwined red roses and his name and his friend's name on the piece. He allowed me to havecreative control of the project. I Googled images of roses to get the best details. I freehanded the drawing and raw edged fused appliqued the roses, stems and leaves. I used three values of red for the roses and did a small amount of permanent marker to detail the flower. I machine quilted the quilt and then added the lettering. The lettering font I find from going to Word Document and then drawing it out on graph paper. I use the same technique to apply the words as the rose. I hope my friend is pleased with the quilt!!