2013 Sacred Threads Quilt Exhibit Acceptance

I entered the 2013 Sacred Threads Quilt Contest which is in July in Virigina. It is an exhibit which has spiritual themes of healing, joy, peace/brotherhood, grief and others. I had a quilt in the exhibit in 2011 (the show is on the odd year) and I entered the maximum 2 quilts. The first is the quilt above titled "My Friend is Bipolar" which was intended for the SAQA Exhibit last year called "I'm Not Crazy!" (not so great of a title in my opinion.) I poured heart and soul into this quilt because people in my life that are very close to me are bipolar. This quilt represented my view of living with people who are Bipolar. I was quite bummed when it did not make the cut. When this exhibit call to entry came around I selected the "grief" category and it was juried into the show!! Their website is www.sacredthreadsquilts.com

The woman on the left represents the "manic" side of the personality disorder-very grandiose, over the edge, frantic, excessive, hyper etc. She is not easy for me to look at because she screams irratic!!

The woman on the right represents the "depressed" side of being bipolar-stressed, low self esteem, gloomy, pessimistic etc. I feel I have captured her pain.

 

The colors I have chosen for each side of the Bipolar Disorder is also representational. The clothing, the hair, the jewelry etc. all reflect this.

My quilt "Victory Rolls" is near and dear to my heart because it is a perfect representation of me- the hairdresser, fashionista and lover of bright colors, flowers and embellishments. Therefore I put it in the "joy" category and it was also accepted into this exhibit!!

I went on a limb and gave my 1940s woman green skin because I love lime and chartruese!!

 

 

Simply Summer

Pine Street Quilts, where I work part-time, got in new charm packs from Moda called "Simple Marks" by Malka Dubrasky. She had a previous line last year and I loved it! The bright cheery colors and the bold geometrics intrigued me and this new line was just as awesome-plus there were polka dots in the collection!! I decided to use AGAIN the "Oh Sew Charming" pattern for the third (and last) time but I also included the beautiful floral instead of just using the charm squares. I found the colorful floral with the white background at the Appleton WI Hobby Lobby and thought it went nicely with these colors in the charm squares. I am also embracing the Modern Quilt Movement and I see a lot of white instead of black with bright colors in the quilts of this movement. I fussy cut four center block pieces as best I could to have the four color "families" represented and also used the floral on the outside corner blocks, the binding and the back. I chose a white with turquiose dot for the background fabric and a variegated thread with turguiose, lime green and a bit of yellow for the quilting. I though it stood alone without any embellishments and it was looking like tropical fruits or fruity Lifesaver wrappers. I call it "Simply Summer" because of the Simple Mark charm pack name and the feeling of summer's bright colors. This is my favorite of the three charm pack patterns because the bright bold colors are my favorites and I love the bold geometric African-like designs plus the great contrast with the white backgorund. It is a happy quilt!!

Check Out The New Book-My Quilt Is On Page 107!!

As a member of Studio Art Quilting Association different opportunities are presented to us at all times. The woman who heads this organization, Martha Sielman, works with Lark Books and creates art books with themes. She chose "people and portraits" after doing books on landscapes etc. and she personally sent me an email to apply. I was flattered and entered 3 quilts (the maximum) and waited a very long time to recive any news about the book. Late fall I received notice that my Tina Turner quilt would be in the book and I was thrilled. It is due for release in April and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.

My quilt is on page 107 which is nice since 7 is my lucky number!! The photography is beautiful and the quality of the book is very nice. Hopefully you will check it out and/or purchase it.

Vintage Kitschen

This is my second version using the "Oh Sew Charming!" pattern and a charm pack. I used a Moda Vintage Modern charm pack in this quilt. I chose a cream with grey dot background fabric and arranged the design in color families of red, green, pink and turquose. I used a flower stitch on my Viking Sapphire sewing machine as part of the quilting design to incorporate the outside borders into the design. I "shadow" quilted near this stitching to fill in the border areas. I had a hard time matching any pink embellishments with the peachy old fashioned pink in this quilt-the pinks I chose all appeared very cool toned and I quit and decided to go without an. I love this line of fabrics especially the houndstooth!! I will make one more of these quilts but I am going to change the borders.

What did We Learn From Pinterest Today?

I am taking a break from quilting and I saw this cute plastic Easter egg wreath on Pinterest. All items are from the dollar store.

     4 bags of plastic Easter eggs
     1 12" grapevine wreath
     1 3 yd. reel of Easter themed wire ribbon
     1package pink plastic glitter bows (or use the wire ribbon to create your own but buy one more reel)
     glue gun and glue sticks
     ribbon, cord, yarn, string etc. for hanging tie

The ribbon is wrapped around the grapevine wreath snuggly to help the eggs adhere to wreath. I began in the inner circle of the wreath and glued eggs around to fill in. The I started glueing egs to center and outside edges in a pleasing manner. This took a whole 5-10 minutes!! I saved some room for the pink plastic bow to fit at the bottom of the wreath. You could make a "fancy" wire ribbon bow instead if you wanted to. I used a piece of pink satin ribbon and looped it through the wreath on the top and tied a knot which I hid and ta-da I hung it on my door!! Back to quilting!!

There are plenty of Easter ideas on Pinterest and the dollar store provides lots of the materials at an inexpensive price. Have fun and don't burn yourself with the glue gun!!



 

Grease Is The Word

A quilter friend in my community is the in charge of costumes for the Menominee High School Theatre Dept. and this year they chose Grease as their production. They have a quilt made each year and raffle it off as a fundraiser for the theatre dept. Brenda asked me if I would make the quilt for this year. I said I would design and construct the top of the quilt and someone else could quilt and bind it. So where does one start on a project like this? First was a reuested size of twin size dimensions. Then I Goodle searched many images from the movie even though I have seen the movie alot and love it!! But the Google images helped with clothing detail and authenticity of the 1950s in regard to hair, colors and fashions. I chose 1950s colors-black, white, pastel blue, yellow and pink with some red for this project. Also I really needed Google for the car which was the part I was most apprehensive about-I draw people and flowers not cars!!

 

When I designed the quilt I thought of this similar to a block of the month style quilt with different pictures connected with borders. I pulled images from the production like hand jive, Rizzo, beauty school dropout, leather jackets, the T-Birds etc. and then had the bottom section with Sandy, Danny and the Greased Lightning car. I drew out the images then did a raw edged fused applique technique. Usually I would quilt and stitch the applique down in one step but since I wasn't quilting it I pre-stitched all the applique down before the quilting.

This is the close up of Rizzo-she's wearing a little chiffon scarf!! I used silver glitter glue for the jacket zipper and some glitter nail polish in her hair.

This is the beauty school dropout girl with silver lame cape and lots of glitter and glitter glue on the rollers, eyes and lips!

This block ws 8" x 8" and I felt like I was making doll clothes when I made the leather jacket. I went a little 3D and added a belt buckle from my personal belt that I knew I would never wear. I used silver glitter glue for the zippers and all the hardwear on the jacket. I love this mini jacket!

 

The Greased Lightning car had silver lame applique on the hub caps, lights etc. since the 1950s cars were full of chrome!!

 

When you use volunteers to do a project there could be drama and this quilt was not able to be finished before the production last week. It was displayed without much quilting and no binding and I had to let that go because I agreed to do the top only and not the quilting. The general public probably didn't know the difference and I said nothing!!

It was a fun quilt to make-I sang the Grease songs through the entire process and giggled when I added little details like Danny's comb, the belt buckle and Rizzo's scarf.

I'm Over Winter and Thinking About Spring, Pastels and Easter Colors

I am over Winter and it is snowing again even though the weatherman said our area would only get a "dusting" of snow. So I am inspired by the arrival of Spring and the colors associated with the season.

While working at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette WI, I discovered a pattern callled "Oh Sew Charming" in which you use any charm pack and a yard and 1/8 of a background fabric to make a wall hanging 33 1/2" x 33 1/2" with two border options to finish it off. I was not impressed with the photo on the pattern front because it was done up in the Kansas City Troubles type fabrics and I didn't bother looking any further. But the shop did a sample for a quilt kit and I was part of the construction process and I fell in love with the pattern.

I had a Moda Chez Moi Charm Pack in my stash and never used it and thought it would work out nicely for this pattern. I used a turquise blue as my background because it looked like robin eggs and spring.

I wanted to embellish the quilt with buttons but I had limited pastel buttons and I live where there is no Joann Fabrics, Hobby Lobby or Michaels. Walmart didn't have any and I was bummed because I wasn't able to drive out of town because of the wintery roads.

But I try to think outside the box and found these pastel bow barrettes at the Dollar Tree in the second photo! I cut the barette flap thingie off and stitched them to the quilt. Then yesterday Walmart got in the pastel button mixed bag and wa-la the quilt is completed this morning. I am staring outside at snow but thinking Spring!!

I plan to make another wall hanging with this pattern using my Moda Vintage Modern Charms. Can't find the right background fabric though so it is on hold until I can road trip to Green Bay or Appleton.