Pop Art Princess or Fourteen Shades of Gray

This small wall hanging began with the Valentine quilt in photo three using 16 3" squares in a vairety of values of Valentine print fabric and the woman motif raw edged fused applique. Then I chose to donate a piece to the local Taste of the Town for the local free clinic fundraiser. I didn't really have anything on hand to donate so I thought a small piece sized 12" x 12" would be easy enough to make in a short amount of time. I discovered the gray large scale print in photo 2  while I was working on the "value" quilt and the yellow and blue caught my eye. I thought why can't I use a background of grays and have the applique in blue ( eyes, nose neck/chin), yellow (hair) and red (mouth/binding.) I didn't really know what it would look like but I began anyway. I quilted the entire piece using a Madeira rayon variegated gold/blue/red combo and was thrilled with this thread. It is easy to quilt with, I love the sheen the rayon provides and there are many color combos which I am going to have to purchase in the future!! I embellished with chunky red/blue nail polish on the lips, subtle blue glitter nail polish on the eyelids, one amber colored rhinestone on the nose and a combination of two felt flower buttons and a stray blue satin button as a hair accessory. The quilt came together quickly and was so fun I made another one just like it for myself and one in another color combo which I will blog about in my next post. When this piece was photographed it reminded me of a Warhol pop art Marilyn Monroe so I am titling it "Pop Art Princess" but the one I am keeping is called "Fourteen Shades of Gray"

This is the fabric that began the inspiration-you never know what will get my attention since this fabric has been in my stash for awhile and I just noticed it now!!

This is the quilt I made for my quilter friend Suzanne who loves Valentines Day and her birthday is Feb. 13th. I enjoyed making this one and couldn't stop!! Am I making a series of quilts??

I VALUE This Quilt!!

I love the "Swoon" block done scrappy style. The three quilts below are the wall hangings I made last summer as teaching tools for my lectures on the elements/principles of design for quilters. I am teaching a 6 part series of classes called "Design Confidence for Quilters" at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette, WI where I work part-time. The second class is this Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013 and it is about asymmetrical balance and value. I decided to make a scrappy Swoon in 13 values from solid white to dark black prints with a solid black Kona Cotton background. (I love Kona Cottons-the feel of the fabric is wonderful and they press nicely!) I usually choose quilts with lots of color and by the time I was ready to add the binding I "had" to add a bit of color and I was working with reds at the quilt retreat last weekend so red was my binding choice. When the quilt was finished I decided to add an accent of red in the center by adding a large red button to the quilt. I quilted this piece with a variegated black and white thread.  The Swoon block is 24" x 24." When I first looked at the quilt from a distance for the first time there was a secondardy image of whitish tulips in the four corners which wasn't planned but when you consider that whites are prominant it is a great teaching tool for studying value. I learned I had very little gray fabrics in my stash and now I do!!

This was my first Swoon block using the 12 + 1 colors of the color wheel.

This is my example of the same color placement but all the colors have been "tinted" with white or pastels. I would not usually do an all pastel quilt unless a baby quilt or possibly a spring theme quilt.

This example is the same color placement but all the colors have been "shaded" with black. I did brighten the golds a bit to make the quilt prettier. Some people use all darks in their quilts such as Thimbleberies and Kansas City Troubles fabrics. I am a brighter style fabric person and I like the original color wheel quilt the best.

 

At some point I should make a "tone" style quilt but they are my least favorite fabrics. But for educational purposes I NEED to make one!!

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.

Modern Hair Design

I am embracing the Modern Quilt Movement since learning what it meant and am now aware!! I received one of many e-mail notices about a quilt related subject. There was an upcoming block of the month using 16 12" star blocks with a celtic central design, more borders and a purple background. I loved the blocks and after checking to see if it came in any other colorways (black background) I decided to draft my own blocks and use black as the background. When I began I did not really know what I wanted in the center so I just made the blocks. I used the same color scheme as the BOM which was challenging without orange but I still like the colors. The four corner blocks are the same and a bi*%# to make. I did those first. I am not a fan of Thangles and used the easy method of adding 7/8" to the measurement of the finished size to each square to make the many triangles. I found this info free on the internet. This is much easier, cheaper and no paper mess like Thangles!! A few of the blocks had very small piecing and was challenging but it was an enjoyable process. The center is 36" x 36" and I eliminated flowers, leaves, stems etc. because that is too traditional for me. I had used four of these hairstyle silhouettes in another project and added four more and did one in each color I used in the outer blocks.

I have a short spiky, a bob, a pompadour, a ponytail, an updo, an afro poof, a mohawk, and a pageboy for the eight hairstyles. This was fun, fun, fun to design!! I added swirly "pieces of hair" between the silhouettes to fill in the area and added a flower in the middle. I thought about adding more applique such as combs, curlers, etc. but stopped because I didn't want it to be too busy-the positive/negiative space concept!!

I quilted in the ditch for the quilt blocks and did a diagonal crosshatch in the center. I like the contrast of the straight quilting lines and the curved applique pieces. The hair swirls add nice movement. When the quilting was finished I embellished with a few buttons and rhinesones to further carry out the color scheme and enhance the swirls. THe size is 64" x 64" which is large for me. I chose a colorful splashy print which repeated the colors in the quilt for the binding.

When I was quilting the quilt I discovered the upper center block had a boo-boo. I had the black and red reversed in the bottom section. I couldn't stop staring at the mistake!! I decided to make another one (the flying geese part) the correct way and hand appliqued it over the mistaken area. I can live with it now!!! With a quilt with such high contrasting colors there is no room for error because it is very obvious!!

Carmen Miranda

This quilt began as a project at Pine Street Quilts, where I work, called Fair and Square. It is a 12 month block exchange and when it was my month I chose the required four fabrics of a floral batik, and the tone on tone magenta, dark orange and light orange. I knew I would do the placement with a large square in the middle. I did not know what I was putting in the middle  when I pieced it. As I was working on the piecing it, the fabrics gave me a warm tropical vibe. This lead to a Carmen Miranda fruity type woman which was appliqued using a raw edged fused technique. I was happy to have four star blocks for the corners. When one does these block exchanges you gamble on what you will receive from others interpreting your fabric choices.

This is the detail image of the woman's face. Originally I did not have the fabric behing the eyes and lips but I it needed enhancement so I chose a few solids for the task.

 I have a bit of hot pink glitter for eyeliner and some orange nail polish on the lips for bling!!

Carmen Miranda worn a lot of chunky necklaces and I chose to create it with embellishments. The 3 pink rings are reused bikini swimsuit rings I couldn't throw away, and the beads are from a Hello Kitty necklace from the $1 bin at Target that I took apart to get the majenta beads and some generic Walmart beads in hot pink. The rest of the necklace was created with multi-color ribbon ruched and tacked onto the quilt. I loved the coordinating colors and thought it went well with the quilt colors.

 

I remembered I have a Carmen Miranda cookie jar on my refrigerator and that made me smile!

I have combined traditional and art quilts techniques in this quilt

SunFlowerChild

My last post was the fabric, book and embellishments to create this quilt. I wanted to do a quilt with autumn colors and a woman with braids. I began with a Ricky Timm's Convergence quilt background. I machine quilted the inner border and the center of the quilt then fused the applique over the quilting because it would be more consistant and I wouldn't have to start and stop my quilting stich. As I was viewing the quilt I decided to add the

"ends" of the braid because I thought it needed it. I bought some variegated green boucle yarn and tore some dark green batik from the applique and tied it in a knot and hand tacked the ends to the bottom of the quilt to dangle. I finished quilting the piece once the applique was fused on.

I had planned to use the dark green batik for the binding but didn't have enough fabric and used this great tomato soup orange batik and am happy with the choice. The quilt was getting too green and orange was where I began. The green borders balance the energy of the center of the quilt and I am pleased with the results.

I used the paper flowers to form the flower ring. I added a sead bead to each center to attach the flowers-it was putsy but I love the affect. There is orange glitter on the eylids, lots of green flower beads on the green borders attached with green sead beads and a bit of white paint on the eyes to add zing. I thought that was enough embellishments and did not add the African beads I purchased at the quilt expo in Madison WI.
I made this quilt for fun and not to enter in a quilt show but who knows....

Elements of Design:
Line: Straight and Curved
Shape: Squares, Rectangles
Space: Positive from applique and Negative from the background
Color:  Anagalous Color Scheme from oranges, yellows, greens
Value: Contrast of background light/medium value and applique dark value
Texture: Paper flowers, braid ends from yard, beads

Principles of Design:
Emphasis: Woman with braids
Balance: Warm/.Cool Colors, Value Differences
Scale: Use of different fabric scales for variety, paper flowers are in scale in size of woman
Rhythm: Eye moves across quilt from flowers to face to braids and then to oranges in center of quilt
Contrast: Warm/Cool colors, Value contrast
Repetition: Flower theme, orange and green repeated in quilt with fabric, glitter, embellishments, quilting
Unity: All elements come together to have visual harmony

Time to do paperwork to apply for future quilt teaching positions....Later then to sew a cute hat before Sunday's quilt show in Appleton WI (my hometown!!)

New Inspiration and I Finally Learned What "Modern Quilting" Means!!

I managed to get some good quality quilt vendor shopping done while I was at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI last Th-Sat.!! My two lectures and my Portrait 101 Class all went well and am glad to take a little break from the deadlines and do a "no brainer" quilt. I found the floral on the lower left and fell in love because of the fall color combos and I love flowers especially sunflowers. I had been showing a few of my Convergence quilts in my lectures and realized it had been about 10 months since I did one. So I found three fat queaters in orange, gold and olive to add to the floral for the Convergence quilt. I have a great Kaffe Fassett spripe for a small border and at Pine Street Quilts yesterday, while working, I found two olive greens to use as the borders. I'm pumped to start this after the GB Packer replacement hat project (next post!)

This photo shows some of the embellishments I picked up at the Expo-Fall/Halloween themed buttons from Nancys Notions, paper flowers in a box from Ragspun from Brandon WI. This shop is very primitive and "not me" in colors but her embellishments rock and the owner is a sweetheart!!. The small bag of iridescent fall leaf beads are from The Bead Ranch in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Sherrill, the owner, is so helpful and she remembered me from last year. And the plastic box of bead is from Akonye Kena from Canada which distributes paper beads made in East and West Africa. Since Ceesay is West African I was intrigue!. The guy wore a heavy weight duck fabric kilt with combat boots which got my attention. So I hope to use these four items as embellishments without overkill. I am not sure if I will add a portrait like line drawing with raw edged fused applique. I will let the quilt speak to me!

The term Modern Quilting has been popping up in quilt magazines, at the quilt expo and online and the people I asked couldn't give me a definition of what it meant. Someone suggested going to the Modern Quilt Shop vendor booth at the Expo because the man there would be able to help me out. And he did-it is a simplistic version of tradional quilt blocks or applique. Usually one background fabric and few block fabrics/very simple child-like applique pieces. Any borders and sashings are removed similar to many art quilts-no embellishments also. Very functional-almost like modern art paintings. Do I like it-not for me because I like complicated not simple but to each his own. This vendor was very friendly and helpful!!