Throwback Thursday: I Remember Doreen Speckman

I had a huge mess where I store a lot of my quilts. These are my non-art quilts which consist of my various holiday quilts, my quilts for teaching examples and other quilts I love and have been making since the early 90s. I found these three wall hangings that were from Doreen Speckman's first book and I had a bit of nostalgia. Doreen Speckman was from Madison WI and traveled the world teaching quilting. She was very gregarious, full of laughter and famous for her Peaky and Spike combination of triangles pieced together to get an elongated triangle. I was living in Appleton WI and was a member of the Darting Needles Quilt Guild and a new quilter and Doreen Speckman was the guest speaker. I was extremely influenced by her work-I bought her book and thru the mid to late 90s made a ton of these quilts and gave plenty more as gifts. I loved Doreen's humor and she indirectly gave me permission to combine prints, polka dots and stripes which I wanted to do but had not seen yet. I was able to take two classes from her and she autographed her second book for me! Doreen passed away when she was only 50 years old in 1999 and myself and the quilting work felt her loss. So finding these memories of her were special.

The first photo is called Scrap Lilies and my label says 1995. I actually hand embellished tiny seed  beads to the quilt! I had hand quilted all three of these quilts-thank goodness I quit doing that! I also mitered the corners of the borders and who does that anymore!!

This second photo is a layout I make a gazillion times and we used templates-oh how times have changed!! I still use this little quilt as a table topper at Christmas and still adorn it!

This is the same quilt but in more "Laurie" colors-I was finding my groove! I still tend to pick lots of polka dots and black with brights. My technical stuff is pretty sad on these quilts-bad bindings and the corners aren't straight but you have to start somewhere!

I am glad I put labels on these because they are 18-19 years old and it seems like yesterday I made these. RIP Doreen!!

Bella Bordeaux: Last In The Series

This is number five in a series using my same favorite pattern and a variety of batiks in the background. I love this pattern because of the face and swirly hair and all the fun embellishments I am able to add to the quilt to make me happy! I also love Timeless Treasures Fabric Tonga Treats Batiks. They sell them as charm packs, jelly rolls or yardage and I picked up this one with the forest greens and burgundies. When I work on my color wheel class samples I discovered I had NO burgundy in my stash. I guess I saw it as a "country/primitive" color and since I like bright hues I never purchased any. Same is true to some extent with the forest green but when I found this charm pack it was calling my name because it is a variation of red and green and I love that!! I chose burgundy as my raw edged fused applique color because I have done this technique with forest green before and thought burgundy was my "challenge" color. As I worked on the quilt it reminded me of winter in the garden and holly berries etc. This is not a Christmas quilt but a winter garden quilt. I named it Bella Bordeaux which is Good Burgundy in Italian. I love the Italian language and the other quilts had Bella in their names and the color or the quilt added such as Bella Gialla and Bella Rosa (purple/pink.) The other two quilts were monochromatic values or yellow and the other one was in all blues without Italian names.

Since I live where there are no fabric or craft stores within an hour, and I wanted a sprig of holly and berries, what do I do??-I make my own!! I drew out the holly leaves on Wonder Under fusible web and double fused some forest green batik together, cut them out and with some Sulky Blendables Thread I stitched around the leaves and added the veiny details. Then to make the berries I used red, black and a bit of magenta Sculpy Clay and made my own which bake in the oven to harden. I used a toothpick to make holes to hand stitch the berries into place. I fabric glued the three holly leaves at the stem area only to the quilt so it is 3D and then hand stitched the berries around the holly. I took a little red shimmer nail polish to the berries to "frost" them up!! And wa-la who needs Hobby Lobby!!

I embellished some cute red, pink and green snowflakes to the background area and some white hologram iridescent nail polish to the eyelid and one white rhinestone for her nose piercing and Miss Bella Bordeaux is ready! I think I will hang her at Pizazz Salon where I work because the color schemes match!!

Quilting Arts Magazine Becomes an Ebook

This is Quilting Arts Magazine issue June/July 2011in which I wrote an article for the magazine called "Making a Fashion Statement!

 I am very proud of the article and the fact that I actually wrote it since that's not really my thing. I had five of my portrait quilts featured in the magazine and online at their website. This was a great experience and my first encounter with Pokey Bolton. Pokey loves my Tina Turner quilt and she has been instrumental in my quilting career advancement so this magazine is sentimental to me!! The magazine people were all very professional and friendly and it was not notch!!
 I recently received an email from Interweave, the Parent company of Quilting Arts Magazine, Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine and QA TV etc., and they informed me this issue of their magazine would be made into an eBook and I received a complimentary copy. Yeah!!

This is the new cover of the eBook and it is available on their website for all to purchase at www.interweavestore.com/portraits-in-cloth-create-portraits-with-fabric-and-stitch-ebook. This concept is new to me and just when you think something is done and finished it can be redeveloped in a different form. Thanks to all the technology changes!! Check it out!!
P.S. Do you know who Linda Ravencroft who paints fairies and has calendars etc. is? This eBook cover reminds me of Linda's artwork.
 

Happy Hippie Chick

This quilt is a result of me signing up for a block exchange called Block Lottery at Quilter's Haven in Menominee MI, My month was June and I selected four fabrics-the pink overall peace sign print, the pink tone on tone, an orange with pink dot and the cute daisy print with the black background. I knew I wanted to create a hippie chick/flower child image positioned in the middle and, after seeing the yurk quilts at the Wisconsin Quilt Museum Booth at the IQF Quilt Show in Chicago last June, I liked the long banner layout. I love star blocks so I lucked out and with my own block (upper right) I had enough star blocks for the corners and placed the other blocks in a pleasing matter. The flower block in the upper center is particularly awesome and I had to put it at the top!!

The hippie girl was inspired by an image from one of my daily calendars. I used all batiks except for the blouse fabric which is one of the four original fabrics. I used the hot pink and orange from the block in the "Hippie chick" letters. This is a good example of why I choose batiks for raw edged fused applique since the commercial cottons, especially the orange print, unravels too much. I wanted to repeat and reuse these fabrics but I am disappointed in the unraveling. I used a font common in the hippie era and hand drew the lettering then fused them to the background once the hippie girl was fused in place.

The fringe on the purse is batik cut into strips and tucked under the fused purse applique and then it hangs freely for a 3D touch!!

I used variegated thread and some fun decorative stiches on my sewing machine to duplicate trim on the bottom of the blue jeans and the blouse-this was fun and not the norm for a quilt to use these specialty stitches.

I hand beaded a necklace and two bracelets and glued a rhinestone choker for my hippie chicks "love beads!" I added a few felt peace sign buttons in the background and decided to stop with the embellishments. I considered adding more flower buttons but liked it the way it was and it had enough activity from the fabric prints.

 

This is a close up of the fabrics and the two decorative stitches I used in areas of the blocks I saw appropriate. I quilted this quilt with hot pink rayon  Madeira 40 weight thread which is lovely and does not break in the machine. I will use it as often as a can and it comes in lots of colors.

Witchie Poo 2013

This was a fun little quilt I wanted to make after purchasing the polka dot, mini stripe and the purple batik background fabrics. I used one of my patterns that has more of the woman's torso and gave her long orange hair and a witch's hat. I added the broom and some green skin and a witch is born!! I am in love with Halloween witches and women with green skin-this is my third green skinned portrait quilt-first my Victory Roll quilt, then a sample quilt for my Intro to Portrait Quilt pattern and now this one!!

I purchased a spool of Superior Nite Lite glow in the dark thread at the IQF Show in Chicago in June. The color choices were pastels and I used the pastel green thread for this project. It was kind of easy stitching all the applique down with only using one thread color and not changing the thread for each color of applique!! It really does glow in the dark but I could not figure out how to get a photo of it with the camera flash.

I embellished with some orange glitter nail polish for the hair and some iridescent polish for the eye shadow. I created some jewelry for my witch by gluing rhinestones to the quilt for a necklace and an earring.

I was in a hurry when I was drawing the pattern pieces onto the Wonder Under and forgot to reverse the pattern pieces. I thought about throwing it away but decided to make two witchy wall hangings-one the desired way and one in reverse which I gifted to my hairdresser friend Sherrie. She loved my other Pinup Witch quilt and I was not willing to part with her so I made Sherrie this quilt for an early birthday and housewarming gift. The day I gave it to her she had been having a bad week and I brightened her day-that's what it is all about!!

The quilts are small at 18" x  18" and I may consider creating a pattern but I am a little late for Halloween 2013.

Now if I could just figure out how to crop my pictures using my new computer-I'm so not tech savvy!!

The Road Less Traveled

 

I joined an online art quilt group I discovered on Facebook and they have challenges every two months. The current quilt deadline is today and the theme of the challenge was called "The Road Less Traveled." The size of the quilts are 11.5" x 16.5" and we reveal our work on the blog site today at www.aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/artquiltsaroundtheworld and on our own blogs.

So what did I decide to do-I thought about what the road less traveled meant to me and it meant to do the unconventional things that other people aren't doing. I love to do portrait quilts and thought how can I combine portrait quilts with this challenge? Last February I was having the winter blahs and dyed my normally brown with blonde highlighted hair hot pink-that was not really conventional for a middle aged woman living in the Upper Midwest in a small town!! So that's how it started with a fun self portrait with my hot pink hair!! I do add the victory roll to my bangs so that was normal for me and hand stitched one of my pink hair clips that I actually use in my hair to the roll for a 3D look.

While I was thinking about this project, I attended the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI in early September and Chris Daly had a booth in which she sold hand dyed fabrics. I purchased some bright hand dyed velvets including a hot pink. I added this velvet as the hot pink hair highlights which was the second "road less traveled" idea of velvet not cotton for this quilt. It was easy to fuse and to work with on my sewing machine.

Then my friend Faith who is in her early twenties, and very fun and inspirational, is all about using Duct Tape for projects. I watch her make wallets, flowers etc. out of Duct Tape and found this 1970s themed tape and decided to use it as the binding on this quilt. Number three of the "road less traveled" is no traditional binding but use Duct Tape instead. I began with the pink hair idea and it percolated into more ideas!! I had fun with this project-which to me is the whole point of these challenges to explore new ideas but if it is not fun why bother!!

I'm not sure the quilt judges would love the duct tape binding if I were to enter this in a quilt show but it is an art quilt!!

The next challenge is called "macro" which will be interpreted as a close-up view of something and I have an idea and it is not a portrait quilt and it is due Nov. 30th. 

 

My Quilting Arts TV Taping Experience in Photos

 I drove to the Cleveland Ohio area for my two 9 minute segments for Season 13 of Quilting Arts TV on PBS. My friends Patti and Faith were my traveling buddies and were able to hang out at the studio in the green room while I did my thing. Patti took all the photos for me. The season, I was told, will be broadcast in January 2014. My segments will appear in Episodes 2 and 3. The entire season is taped in one week and the TV show has the process down to a science! The first photo is me with Katherine the studio manager. All needed supplies for the taping are put on a huge cookie sheet and I am organizing my items for the first episode and feeling nervous and out of my element.

One of the show sponsors is Bernina sewing machines and if we are doing a sewing demo we who have never used a Bernina, Jeanne from Florida and has a huge title I can't remember, shows us the ropes. I am in the middle of getting a crash course on the mother of all Berninas. Jeanne is amazing and the sewing machine was so easy to use. I sew on a Viking Sapphire as my home machine and on a Janome at the quilt shop. Like my outfit for the camera and no make up!! YIKES!!!

 

 Me again organizing my supplies and trying to not be nervous!!

 This is me getting my make up done which is nice since I'm usually giving the service not receiving it!! This season of Quilting Arts is being taped in HD and the make up artist had special HD foundation which lasted all day-I didn't want to wash it off!!

I taped the same day at Diane Doran and the make up artist left after she did our make up but left Pokey, Diane and I all samples of our lipstick, foundation and powder for touch ups.

 Getting episode two prepped.

 This is the green room where Diane and I laid out all our goodies. Pokey had the back table. The far room was where the sewing machines were.

Pokey taped all the episodes in one week and tapes all the intros at once then the editing people add the individual segments later. Pokey has her picture taken in each episode's garment so when she sits with each guest she has the correct garment on and there is cohesion. The photo is the bulletin board that allows Pokey to keep track of her clothes!!

Quilting Arts TV has a new set and I am sitting there to feel comfortable in this environment.

And here we are taping my first segment on my Intro to Portrait Quilt pattern.

 This is a view of the set pre-taping with the director, Kathy, and Vivica, the editor of Quilting Art Magazine, Helen, the DVD lady, Kathy's assistant, Pokey and myself.

This is me doing my sewing demo on the Bernina in the first segment. What do you think of my beautiful Shellac manicure! Had to keep it bland for the camera or I would have had something glittery and hot pink!!

And these are my hands discussing my Line Drawing technique. I made one glitch in the first segment but I nailed the second one!

 

This was a great experience! I was fearful of the 10.5 hour drive and my friends rode with me to help me feel more safe and then I had people to talk to on the journey.  One of my hair customers at the salon lent my her EXPass which allows me to zip through all the toll booths in IL, IN and OH which saved time and money!! Everyone at the studio was kind and there were no divas! It was easier than my nervous stomach was telling me and I hope to be invited back again in the future.

After the taping I asked Katherine, the only local woman, if there was a Joann fabrics in the area and behold the store headquarters was 13 miles from the hotel. Paradise to leisurely spend 1.5 hours in the flagship store!! All in all I have been blessed!!