Bonfire: Urban Bright Challenge from BasAss Quilters Society

BadAss Quilters Society is a page on Facebook which explores going against the grain of traditional quilters and the proper "rules!" The so called quilting police can be judgmental and this group has created a place for the quilters who are not good at following these rules and are artsy and doing their own thing! They have created a new challenge based on a line of fabric by Frond Design Studio called Urban Brights. The line had coordinating solids to use but sparingly.

I started with a design of a woman with long gloves and a rockabilly hairstyle with a scarf tied around her head.

I used 4 of the 5 prints with peace symbols as the background. One of the more subtle prints for the outside border, the print with the license plate for the dress and head scarf and the facial features fussy cut from one of the large scale prints. The hair, neck/upper torso and the face are from the accent fabrics. They are calling this bright fabric and I tend to disagree! I love brights and knew if I was going to enjoy making this quilt I would need to use the accent colors and sparingly was difficult for me! I flipped the red orange and the yellow fabrics and used the wrong side to get another value of those fabrics for the facial and hair highlighting.

In the last photo in this blog post I have a picture of the funky multicolored thread that can be turned into a rusched thread by pulling one of the threads. I purchased it at the IQF Houston show a few years ago. I used it once before but not to the extent I used it here. The challenge rules stated embellishments were okay to use so I got my bright fix by hand sewing this rusched thread around the border seam and was happy with the result!

This is my original drawing the applique pieces are derived from. I only draw one eye/brow and flip it from it's reversed side to the normal side to get both eyes for the fused applique. I decided to put the head scarf bow on the other side.

This is the ad campaign on Facebook on BadAss Quilters Society's blog.

This is my photo of the fabrics before I started using them. The upper left fabric is my outer border. I only used 3 out of the 6 accent fabrics shown in the lower part of the photo.

This is a face close up photo. I used fabric paint and markers to add definition to the face. A bit of glitter nail polish on the eyes for bling. The fabrics were pretty active so a bunch of bling seemed garish. The quilt is titled Bonfire because of the hair color. Redken, my favorite hair color company and retail products, has a demi color Shades EQ which is a bright auburn and that how I named it. When the quilt was finished I thought the woman looked like the actress Emma Stone. Thoughts....

The fun rainbow thread I used to embellish with!

The contest rules state to blog about our entry then apply on their Facebook page. The month of March is for applying and I will be begging everyone to vote for my quilt when the time comes available in April!

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!!

May 1994: A Blast From The Past

I was pulling quilts for an upcoming quilt guild lecture next week for a Portrait Quilt Trunk Show. I like to show a few of my first portrait quilts to explain to people that if the desire is there and the willingness to learn the technical and artistic aspects of portrait quilts anyone can do it. My first few attempts were not show stoppers!
In the early 1990s I wanted to make portrait quilts. I knew how to draw and I figured out with tissue paper to make the applique pieces. But there were a few setbacks. I needed to learn how to piece, cut with a rotary cutter, sandwich the quilt and quilt it, add a binding and then I only had hand applique. I wanted to put pictures/motifs on a background but I only knew about hand applique. 
This quilt is an example of my hand applique experience. The quilt is from May 1994 and is a "selfie" of myself and my daughter Jordana just before she was 8 years old. I actually was smart enough to put a quilt label on the back and I called it "Mother and Daughter." This is bittersweet since we just celebrated Mother's Day! It also has my old rotary phone number which I had forgotten!!
I didn't enjoy hand applique at all! I quit making portrait quilts and made traditional pieced quilts which taught me the technical ropes. In 2005 I had nearly given up on quilting because of traditional quilt boredom and unaware of the Internet's potential. I was in a local bead shop in Appleton Wisconsin when I ran into a quilter friend who was now embracing art quilts. She told me about fusible web and how I iron motifs to a background to create a picture. I was elated and made my first raw edged fused portrait quilt in late 2005 and haven't stopped since. I buy Wonder Under by the bolt now!!
Back to the quilt in the photo. I see some similarities to how I proceed now. Portrait quilts, scrappy fabric choices, radiating quilting lines from the back of the portrait, the curves lines in the neck and shoulder area, the shape of the nose, the bright colors, a label on the back and a hanging sleeve.
What is new and improved in 26 years-I machine quilt and I quilt heavily, I do not embroider the facial features but raw edge fuse applique them. I block my quilts for a better shape. I square up everything at every step so the end result is square. My bindings are narrower, the corners sharper and there is no space in the binding that the judges dislike. Even though a judge's comments can hurt one's feelings it is for the best to technically improve! I use batiks as much as possible and, in general, the fabrics available to us currently are so much greater than 26 years ago!!
I would have placed the colorful blocks on the bottom of the quilt and added more of them for visual balance but it is still a nice sentimental quilt. I also would have had less background/negative space and more fussy cut butterflies. And I learned to add embellishments to my quilts if they are hanging on the wall.
This project was my first attempt at the Hoffman Challenge! It did not make the cut (I see why now!) and I didn't enter again until 2010 which did make the cut. I have had five quilts in the Hoffman Challenge since 2010 and 2016s is made and has been submitted for judging.
It's fun to look at old quilts to see where we were artistically and technically and how our supplies have changed and advanced to make better quilts.
I hope you have some oldie but goodie quilts or if you are a new quilter to save you projects and label them with at least a date!!

Scarlet: Portrait Quilt with a 12 Month Block Exchange

This quilt started as a 12 month block exchange in 2013 at Pine Street Quilts where I work. The fabric was a line of fabric that was digitally printed and I liked the color combination of red orange and turquoise. The line hasn't been a big seller at the shop but I liked it. I sat on it almost a year then decided to add a portrait quilt to the center with the blocks around the outside. I love star blocks and was somewhat disappointed by the blocks I received from the ladies in the block exchange. I ended up with doubles of the same block twice-there are a gadzillion of blocks and I got the same ones! So I pouted a few months then decided to actually make a quilt with the blocks. I used a great batik that tied the colors together as well as added depth to the quilt. By adding the small sashing between the blocks this made the center 25" square.

 I used a few of the fabrics in the block exchange and a whole lot of batiks! There are four hair fabrics, two dress fabrics and the cool background fabric. I stitched the hair with a contrasting color which is not my norm. I wanted to have an outline effect. I purchased an attachment to create circles while in Chicago at the IQF14-Chicago show in June and used this for the turquoise background. Subtle but it did a better job than if I had marked it and just stitched it. The attachment was a bit pricey but I feel it was worth it. I have a Viking Sapphire sewing machine.

I embellished the hair with some orange wool that I couched to the front bangs. Then I had this great orange/pink/green cording which I also couched to the hair. Then some orange glitter nail polish.

The eyelids received some blue glitter nail polish and the mouth and eyes had some fabric paint to enhance the look.

The background has a few turquoise rhinestones and the inner corners of the sashing got some peach colored felt flowers with orange rhinestones in the intersections.

That left the earring. I tried shopping for a ready made earring in the right color and size which didn't happen. I ended up finding three separate things (small sequin, bead and large sequins) to make my own earring which I hand stitched to the ear area.

I named this quilt Scarlet because her hair is scarlet color and I like color names. she looks like Jessica Rabbit the cartoon vixen!!

Ann B: A Real Person Portrait

I have a website www.laurieceesay.com and I have had Ann Bridges from Appleton WI (my hometown) re-do my website last year. Ann is a former hair customer, neighbor and we found each other a while back on Facebook. Ann has a web design business called AMB Web Solutions and she helped me out when my original web designer retired.

Ann is very generous with adding pages/widgets to my website. I just added a page with my teaching schedule and another page with my patterns for sale.

So I wanted to pay her back by making a portrait quilt of her. I used her Facebook photos as references since I haven't actually seen Ann in several years. I was wondering what her favorite color was so I could use that as the color scheme of the quilt so I was sneaky and told her I was doing a survey on "what is your favorite color?" for my color classes. I did ask on Facebook and to the people I worked with etc. in a 24 hour period and the results were interesting.

Pink was her favorite color (mine too!) and I loosely use a pattern where I did myself in a whimsical portrait and Ann's glasses were the same shape as mine. I changed the face shape, smile and nose. She has fun hair too!! As I was creating this quilt Ann posted on Facebook while watching American Idol that Keith Urban and her had the same haircut!! I had to agree!

I embellished with nail polish on the lips, pink rhinestones in the background and some bronze fabric paint in the hair. No jewelry.

I mailed it to Ann this week and she received it yesterday and loved it!

I love surprising people with my art!!

 

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

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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!

Marilyn Monroe

My quilting friend, Cher Alexander asked me to do a quilt of Marilyn Monroe for a gift and I was up for the challenge. She wants to frame and mat the finished piece like a photo and put it in a 11 x 14 frame. The quilt is 8 x 10 plus a bit extra to tuck under the mat. Cher wanted Marilyn to have on a red halter dress and after agreeing to the picture I chose I went for it. Since it's small that means it doesn't take much fabric and there is not a lot of space to cover but the eyes, teeth etc. are too small to make out of fabric. I painted the white of the eyes and used a fabric marker for the dark almost black iris. I thread painted the teeth and went over them with white paint to define. I little white paint on the lips and as extra highlight were added also. I added just a smidge of light yellow shimmer nail polish to Marilyn's hair for sparkle and shine. It's a challenge to create a quilt of a famous person since everyone knows what they look like. I had a blash making this piece and kept thinking of Marilyn Monroe and her movies and her breathy airy voice!! I will give it to Cher asap.