Witch? Award: All My Blog Followers Can Vote Too!!

I posted last week about the local portrait contest. The City of Menominee closed down the location for the exhibit and receptions for code reasons and it was decided to move the voting and display process to Facebook. The artworks were photographed and now our names are with our work. I would appreciate your vote on Facebook at www.facebook.com/witch?award. When you see my self portrait click on LIKE and better yet click SHARE!! I am in third place on the second day and a high school kid who did a pencil drawing is winning and I am in third place. I want to win the $1000 to buy an iPad. Thanks for helping me!!

The Witch? Award

The Witch? Award is a local portrait competition/contest for any local artist to enter. The rules were to have an unframed piece sized 16" x 20." Since I am a quilter to follow the contest rules meant no binding. I added 3-4" beyond the required size to wrap the quilt around the frame. The contest stated that the work had to be based on a photo with a model release. That part was weird to me since I base my ideas on my drawings not photos. I have no grandchildren or anyone I had a decent photo of that I wanted to make a quilt about and the rules said a self portrait would work. The second photo is the photo I based my entry on. It was a quickie iPhone photo last summer when I had blonde in my hair and I was goofing around with my hair that day. I added more "chin/shoulders" and added the awesome pink/orange/lime batik for the background. I didn't add much for embellishments because I thought the art community might not "get" that part and it may look too crafty for artsy. I can always add my bling after the contest!

Creating a self portrait is a strange experience but I just kept looking at value, color and details and made the applique pieces. I struggled with the mouth and also hid my work from my boyfriend Ken because it was kind of embarassing to me. He finally had to look at it when he stappled the quilt to the frame he made for it. He though it looked like me and I have accepted it as another piece of my artwork collection.

The exhibit will be on display at the Crawford Building, Menominee MI from July 12 through August 9, 2013 weekends only and extended hours Aug. 1-4 for the local Waterfront Festival. The general public will vote on the art. There is an opening reception on Friday July 12th and a closing reception on Friday August 9th in which the winner will be chosen. No idea how many local artists create portrait work or how many people will vote so I have to just watch and wait!! The website is www.thewitch?award.com.

Artsy Chick Quilts: July and August=Gallery Season

Artsy Chick Quilts: July and August=Gallery Season: I rejoined the Menominee Area Art Council (MAAC) and they are exhibiting at the University of Wisconsin-Marinette Gallery in the Arts Buil...

July and August=Gallery Season

I rejoined the Menominee Area Art Council (MAAC) and they are exhibiting at the University of Wisconsin-Marinette Gallery in the Arts Building during summer hours M-F and during the Theatre on the Bay Production of the Sound of Music. The play runs July 18-21 and 24-28. There is an artist reception on July 18th from 4-5pm which I will be able to attend. I chose my piece "Bella Gialla" for this exhibit because it has not been in a local exhibit and the size was small enough for the area. I personally love this quilt and the pink, blue and yellow versions as well!!

This quilt titled "Hera and Aphrodite" is on display at Farmers and Merchants Bank, 1644 Ludington Street, Marinette WI 54143 during bank hours. It is part of the "MAAC Attack" exhibit by the art council members and is on display from now until the end of August. there is a n artist reception in July but I am not able to attend since I will be in Rhinelander teaching.

This quilt called "Menominee Mermaid II" and the one in the next photo called "Geisha" are on display at the Harry and Laura Nohr Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Platteville WI July and August 2013 in conjunction with the Sewing and Quilting Expo August 2-3, 2013 in which I am an instructor!! Love this gallery and the whole event!  The mermaid quilt I made for an exhibit that didn't happen in 2012 and my "Geisha" quilt was my entry in the 2010 Hoffman Challenge.

International Quilt Festival-Chicago

I had two weeks to get my act together because I am doing a 2 hour demo at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago this Sat. June 22. The show is June 21-23, 2013. I am thrilled it is returning to Chicago after being gone for 3 years. I decided to make a wearable art-like garment and I cut the sleeves of a denim jacket I wasn't wearing and thought I'd raw edge fuse applique my business name to the back for some free advertising! The front has several felt flowers with button centers. I did funky stitching with variegated thread around the collar, armholes and front opening and chose to stop and say that was enough embellishments. I will wear it the day of my presentation so if you see me at the show s

stop and say "hi!"

Modern Roue Chromatique (Modern Color Wheel)

I found a photo of this quilt on Pinterest and loved it because of the rainbow colors and I love a double mirror image symmetry style quilt. I tried to find a pattern source and I found the origin of the photo from Australia and several color variations but no pattern.

 This is the pattern I found on Pinterest but didn't want the blue color hues to dominate. I used graph paper and designed the quilt the way I wanted the colors with blue on the outer edges, red and pink the dominating colors and yellow and green in the center. This became my placement guide for the piecing of the triangles and squares.

I made 3 more copies of my graph paper color placement and taped them together which allowed me to visually view the full quilt.

I then made oodles of half square triangle combinations, cut out plenty of the white swirl tone-on-tone background fabric and many squares as well. I am not a fan of Thangles because it is a paper mess and not necessary. I use the method of adding 7/8" to the finished size of the square for the cutting size. For example this quilt had a finished size of 2" blocks. I cut the squares 2 7/8" and drew a diagonal line through the square and sewed two together 1/4" on each side of the line, cut on line, press to darkest side, and ta-da, a half square triangle.

The most difficult part of this quilt was the placement of the triangles-I hade moments of seam ripper madness. There is NO wiggle room because the contrast is so strong in this quilt!!

This photo shows the "pebble" quilting. There is lots of negative space in this quilt, as is many of the Modern Quilt Movement quilts, and I chose the pebble design as a contrast to all the angles in the piecing.

I will use this quilt a a teaching tool for when I teach color theory and the elements/principles of design classes.

A Sunny Disposition

 I made this wall hanging for two reasons. One, Studio Arts Quilters Association was having a themed exhibit called Color Wheel of Emotions and, second, when I teach color I always talk about limiting the use of yellow in it's true hue because it will overpower other colors. So I was thinking if all the colors of the quilt were yellow then they would complement and not compete with each other. I have made this pattern three times before and love it so I used it again!! I have 25 VALUES of yellow and positioned them so the lighter ones are where the face applique will lay and the rest of the yellows fade to the darker shades toward the left side of the picture. I embellished the quilt with yellow and gold rhinestones in the background,  gold beads and a yellow felt button for the necklace, a silk flower in the hair, gold glitter on the lips and bead work on the cheek in the shape of a sun. I machine quilted sun motifs on the face as well. I am a sunlight person and I love certain songs with sun or sunny in the name. This quilt did not make the cut for the SAQA exhibit-there were over 260 entries and only 19 were chosen. I don't really care because I love my little sunshine quilt and I can also use it for my "Color Is Our Friend" class/lectures and for my design classes as an example of a monochromatic color scheme.

This photo is a close up of the face. I found this great batik for the hazel eye color-it looks like a real iris! The fabrics make me smile because they are so happy!! I chose to use brown as my applique color instead of my usual black because I thought it seemed softer than black but still provided contrast to the yellows.