2012 Hoffman Challenge Entry Award Winner!!

I entered the 2012 Hoffman Challenge for the third year and I received an e-mail yesterday from the curator letting me know my quilt called "1940s USO" was awarded the Best Incorporation of the Challenge Fabric for the Mixed Quilt Category. Oh Happy Day!! I made this last November and could not post it until now! This was such a fun project. I saw the large  purple floral (challenge fabric) as 1940s curtain fabric and I am obsessed with 40s/vintage hairstyles and that's how it began. I used my "Black Bob" pattern and after researching 40s style make-up and eyebrow shapes I changed the eye shape, brows and hair to fit the decade. I was a paper doll junkie as a child and my daughter (who is also obsessed with the 40s) gave me a big girl paper doll book of 1940s fashions which inspired the hat and jacket with the big shoulders. I made vintage earrings with beads, trapuntoed a fussy cut flower on the hat and ruched some variegated ribbon through it, added flower shaped sequins and beads in the hat, added a bit of purple with pink tulle to the hat like a fascinator and a few rhinestones aroulnd the borders. I added a mini flange near the binding which I had never done before. Most of the other fabrics are from Pine Street Quilts in Marintte WI where I work on Tuesdays. I prequilted the Convergence background before I fused the applique on and then quilted the applique over the other quilting. My daughter named the quilt when I saw her at Thanksgiving and I stared at it in my studio until I mailed it in June. I am happy it will travel for the next year and lots of people get to see it. Soon the 2013 fabric will be exposed and I can try the challenge all over again!!

Swoon Color Wheel

Many of you may be aware of a new 24" quilt block named Swoon by Camille Roskelley. Her business name is Thimble Blossoms and she has a fabric line from Moda Fabrics called Vintage Modern-both the fabric line and the Swoon pattern is very popular locally at the quilt store I work at and my local quilt group. I discovered Camille's blog and she had made a scrappy Swoon bvlock which gave me the idea to use the color wheel colors in a scrappy Swoon because if sounded fun and I have some color theory teaching and thought it would be a good visual tool. It is an easy block-squares, flying geese and half square triangles (no Thangles just a line drawn diagonally through squares, sew and cut apart.) I did a minimal of stitch-in-the-ditch quilting and some radiating lines in the dark background. It killed me but no embellishments were added to keep it simple. Fun  and easy!!

So then I decided to make the same quilt block using "tints" of each color. I used the same color placement just tinted the color. I learned that I rarely use peach (light orange) because there was little of it in my stash. I used grey in the background since black with white added is gray. I quilted the piece with all curved and round lines. Not a grey fan but it is a teaching tool.

After the tint block I made a "shade" block in which all the colors have black added to them to darker them. I found out I had no burgandy in my stash and had to purchase some for this quilt. I think it represents a primitive/country/old fashioned look in quilts which is not my thing. But the finished quilt is nice even though one wouldn't use all dark colors in a quilt because there would be no contrast and the design lines and motifs would not show up much. I quilted this quilt in a combination of curved and straight lines and prefer oodles of quilting and like this quilt the best because of it. I hope it is useful to me when I teach color theory. I love embellishments and my rhinestone supply is calling me out "glue me on to those new quilts!!"

These three quilts showed me my strong and weak colors in my stash. Am I going to run out and buy a bunch of peach and burgandy?-no but it is fun to see where one unconsciousely buys favorite colors and discards others.

Yes these quilts are not artsy but functional. Sometimes that's okay. I am starting a crazy zentangled inspired art quilt at the moment and having so much fun using black and white fabrics from a block exchange from my quilt group.

Fabric Postcard Becomes a Birthday Card

I have not been in my studio much because it is summer and my garden is calling me and I am doing an art fair in my hometown on July 29th and prepping for that. But at my July quilt guild meeting a member asked if I would make two of my fabric postcards for her friend (and my neighbor) who will be 95 yrs. old in August. Now that's a landmark!!This woman is a petite little spitfire-always happy, an art appreciator and she wears her white hair in a bob with the trademark black headband!! She has suppored the local art community and I enoy visiting with her when I see her. My quilt guild friend wanted 1 card for the birthday girl and one to keep for herself.

I designed this pattern in '08 when I signed up for a fabric postcard swap and drew up a bob cut with a headband to make this postcard. I finished the fusing and realized the two images were slightly different-one was more centered and they have different foreheads-kind of like family members with similar DNA but different. I do not like one better that the other. I added a bit of fabric paint, fabric makers and silver/irredescent nail polish in the hair to enhance the image. They were fun to do but not enough to make vast amount for an art show!!

My studio is in dire need of cleaning and organization because I can not find my color wheel!! Later...

Quilting Arts Magazine's Reader Challenge Reject!!

Well I am having a month of rejections!! I applied for an article in Quilting Arts Magazine and was rejected earlier in June. My piece for the "I'm Not Crazy" for SAQA was not selected. They had 128 entries and only chose 20. I'm very bummed about this one because this subject is very personal to me and I put alot of emotion into that piece. Then I entered the Quilting Arts Magazine's Reader Challenge on Signature Color and there were over 150 entries and only 15 were chosen. I had a blast on this little 8" x 8" project including the beading around the binding. This will be a cute addition to my studio and it makes me smile. I'm just a bit unsure if I want to participate in these things for a while. It seems abstract art is trendy at the moment and representational art is on the back burner. I still love to made art and will continue.

Bella Rosa

I was making the last quilt I posted about and was having such a great time and I decided to make one in pinks with dark brown fused applique. Very similar but with a brown iris of the eye. I have glitter on the eyelid, glitter nail polish on the lips, rhinestones in the background and beads on the binding. The beads I chose didn't look right on the outer edge so I stitched them to the front edge. I did the same facial applique of the flower, sun and ying/yang and it shows up better on this quilt. I am making items for the Appleton WI Art Around The Park on Sunday July 29th in which I am vending. Appleton is my hometown and I know plenty of people in hopes of them coming to the art show to see my work. I'm going to put this pattern to rest for the time being.

Bella Gialla

This project began with me purchasing some Timeless Treasure Tonga batik Treat Squares in Gelato-it is this manufacturer's version of charm squares. The colors of purple, pinks, yellows and a few neutrals intrigued me.  The second photo is an image which is part of a large advertising postcard from a local beauty supply. The ad was not interesting but I loved the image of the woman-I loved the hair and the large eye with the eyeshadow. I then combined the two ideas. I added a row of my own batiks to make the quilt square and added a complete face witha nose, mouth and hair covering the other eye. When I draw this out I gridded 1" on the postcard and 4.5" finished. (The charm squares are 5" minus the 1/4" seam allowance.) I use my judgement to create the lines and eliminate others, like near the shoulder area, until I am happy with it. I raw edged fused appliqued in a dark burgandy batik. It is easy to apply the applique because I just follow the squares in my drawing for placement accuaracy.

The third photo is a close up of the face. I added a machine quilted flower and stem on one cheek and a sun on the other and a modified ying/yang on the chin. I named the quilt "Bella Gialla" because I wanted to use a color name and I like Italian words-it means "pretty yellow." I added some yellow rhinestones in the background and one pink rhinestone near the nose. I found these fun flower beads at Hobby Lobby and I used 5 different colors and hand beaded around the outside binding to repeat the flower theme. I added some gold glitter for eyeshadow-I thought I wanted purple glitter  but then realized there would be no contrast and yellow would repeat the yellow theme and it really sets off the eye. Also I decided to add some white batik and a pale purple batik to define the eye better since the eye was the focal point of the quilt. I'm glad I did that and love this little quilt (22.5' x 22.5".) The small amount of background was quilted with yellow/gold thread in a traditional diagonal grid design to balance the curves lines in the hair and face. It was easy to do since the squares were already there as a guide for marking.

I am happy with the balanced amount of yellow in this quilt without overkill which can happen. I will use this pattern again in another colorway in the future.

SAQA "I'm Not Crazy" Exhibit Entry

Studio Art Quilters Association is having an exhibit titled "I'm Not Crazy" which explores mental health issues. I think the title  is offensive but whatever. It is the perspective or someone with mental illness, a caretaker or friend or family member of someone with mental illness. I have a very close friend who is Bipolar and is medicated to have balance in her life. This quilt is my interpretation of being bipolar-one minute she is happy, hyper bouncing off the wall and the next sad, depressed and angered. I used muted sad, dull colors to represent being depressed and, of course, the frustrated facial expression. I used bright colored fabrics with lots of chaos for the manic side's clothing, make up and jewelry. Her hair is out of control and her facial expression shouts "manic." I used lots of desciptive words on both sides of the personality in a subtle way in the background. I purposely went subtle because in society we don't want to talk about mental health issues and they are subtle and quiet  in our discussions. I found there is a two sided smiley face which symbolizes Bipolar Disorder and I added it to the quilt in the lower center of the quilt.

This photo is a closeup of the depressed personality.

And this is a photo of the manic personality. She's kind of "out there!" Her expression deminds me of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland!!

Cloeup of the Bipolar symbol and a few of the background words.

I embellished the manic side with hand made Sculpey clay beads, a beaded earring, rhinestones for pierced earrings, orange lame' in the hair to symbolize being wired, and some fabric paint. The intent was for excess and chaos in hair, make up, clothing and jewelry. The depressed side has a necklace made to buttons made from leather (pretty cool from a quilt show!), a few beads for the necklace and a rhinestone for the nose piercing. Both have a little fabric paint for details.

The exhibit aplication is online at SAQA's website the month of May and during the summer we find out if we made the cut then the selected quilts will travel for 2 years to the various Mancuso Quilt Shows.

This quilt is not meant to represent beauty but a social issue. I was thinking of entering it in the local community art show at my library which runs through the summer but I'm not sure if the social issue would offend people. I guess art can do that sometimes...