Cover Girl!! Fauna makes the cover of Quilting Arts Magazine!

Cover Girl!! Fauna makes the cover of Quilting Arts Magazine!

I couldn't have been more pleased when I found out my seahorse panel was going to be on the cover of Quilting Arts Magazine! The reality of it blew my socks off! The photography and graphic layout are phenomenal (if I do say so myself!). Below you will see a photo of the entire quilt which was given an 8 page spread in Quilting Arts, also an amazing display!
Fauna was made by Frances Holliday Alford, Kathy York, Vickie Hallmark, Julie John Upshaw, and Judy Coates Perez (left to right). I feel very honored to be included in this group of amazing artists. They had been making group quilts long before I was making anything resembling an art quilt. I still remember being asked to join in this latest project. "SURE," I said, no pressure!!
P.S. This issue also has a very lovely article about my quilt Synchronized Swimming and how to make it. The photos are also quite amazing! AND there's more, I'm not finished yet. This issue also features an amazing quilter and friend of mine, Frances Holliday Alford who has many quilts in a special article featuring her! Kudos!

Fauna
63" x 45"

LOST QUILT

LOST QUILT

Jay Walk has been missing since Feb 22, 2007 when it was sent to IQA Houston via USPS. It was sent delivery confirmation and insured. Unfortunately it was put on the wrong truck and sent to the wrong address in Houston, a business called Genesis Brand located on West Park in Houston. They signed for the package without checking the address on it. Apparently, they accept hundreds of packages every day, and so it is easy to see how it might have been overlooked. The company claims to have looked through every tower of packages in their warehouse. They claim that all misdelivered packages are sent back to the post office. The post office claims never to have gotten it back. It has now officially missed the judging for IQA, Celebrate Spring. So where is Jay Walk?
I can see these birds, still tightly wrapped, snuggled in their box, clawing and pecking for the surface. I visualize them all pushing together, working as a team. I hold out hope that they will find their way to the top of whatever stack they are in and finally be seen and sent home. I miss my birds, and though I have filed a claim with the post office, I'd much rather they find my dear sweet package and send it home!

Neon Tetras and Shibori

Neon Tetras and Shibori

I have been distracted by fish again! We saw some neon tetras at the store. I have always loved them, so I decided to make some! These are about one inch long and painted with metallic paints. Their fins are fused from some unnatural irredescent material, (maybe lame?).

I have also been distracted by a surface design class our art bee is taking. The top sample is batik. It took about 15 minutes to make these wax circles for about 1/2 yd sample, not including dyeing time. The circles are about the size of quarters. I think it is gorgeous!!

 I love the bottom sample too. These are tied circles that I learned from the book, Shibori, The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing by Wada, Rice and Barton. The circles are slightly larger than peas. I did a sample slightly smaller than a fat quarter and it took about 7 hours. I love the way it came out, but even with some experience, it just takes too long. I will try some batik smaller circles with a copper pipe next. We'll see how that works!

Nellie,
Here's an update for you of what I used this orange batik fabric for. I will be putting these birds on my new quilt, Vertigo, coming soon! Enjoy! Kathy

Techno Rainbow Quilt

Techno Rainbow Quilt
Two Sided Duvet Cover
Twin Sized

My last project of 2006. I learned many things (again). If you prewash fabric in your washing machine, it will get somewhat twisted out of shape (just like it did 30 years ago when I was first learning how to sew). And if you plan to cut and tear along the grain, this becomes important....now I remember why rotary cutters are so great. I did tear the black background along the grain and ended up making a piece just too slightly small. Yes, it was correctable with a little creative piecing, but darn it! I thought I already learned this one.

Part two of the learning: why fusible is so awesome!! I had a crazy notion to not fuse the appliques, just cut them, pin them, use some stablizer and satin stitch to my heart's content. That was when I had planned to cut the black out from behind the squares (to make their colors look brighter). And that was before my son came in the room and wanted to keep adding more and more and more and more blocks. I ended up using fusible like scotch tape, just to hold the squares in place. But I had forgotten one important fact (because I had been using fusibles so much and had taken them for granted)--cut edges ravel. This thing was the BIGGEST MESS you have ever seen!!ACKKK, there were threads everywhere! I persevered, got all the threads either tucked under or cut off.

Part three: This one is good though. When I tie dyed the rainbow side, I power washed it in the grass for the first rinse. Then I held the warm colors out of the washing machine while the cool colors up to the yellow center got washed (I used a short prewash cycle). This is a very boring step, but it worked. Then I flipped the ends and stuck the warm colors up to the yellow in the machine and held the cool colors outside. Last, I washed a third time in the machine, the entire piece. I was very happy with the results. The first big piece I made like this last year, I just threw the whole thing in the wash and even though I had rinsed extensively in the yard, I still had a lot of cross over bleeding and a resulting dulling of colors.

This will not be quilted. I bought a white and fluffy quilt from the store and stuffed it inside the cover and then stitched it in place, around the edges. It will keep the boy warm through many a night and is machine washable.

Plover Lover

Plover Lover
9" x 9"

 This begins a series of small quilts. I found a piece of construction fencing blowing in the road near a construction site. Though I had seen Jeanne Williamson's series of construction fence quilts, I decided to challenge myself with using the literal pieces of construction fencing on quilts as an embellishment of sorts. For the first set of quilts, it actually became the center of meaning for which the quilts are made. In this quilt, I am looking at a plover through the fencing, a glimpse of nature through a man-made object.

Only One
9" x 9"

 The second of the series, shows another glimpse of nature through the construction fencing: the only tree left as the hills are bulldozed. The ring of buttons forming an "o" or an "Oh!, I see what it all means now." I am listening to Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi, "don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til it's gone, you pave paradise, put up a parking lot."

Balancing Act
12" x 14 1/4"

The third in the series. Now, most of the construction fencing is gone and we are left with a view of fragmented green spaces and contrived human development. This quilt is a metaphor of balancing human needs and environmental protection. Here we have a glimpse of Darwinian evolution, as the only species visible has evolved to look like ubiquitious construction fencing. The bird's wing and foot are precariously positioned (3D) in an attempt to maintain balance.

Synchronized Swimming

Synchronized Swimming

51" x 51"

This is a whole cloth quilt. You could call it shibori, but I called it tie-dye. I tie-dyed it and then over dyed it with another set of circles. Because I was experimenting, I decided to make two identical or nearly identical large pieces and used the second piece for the back. The fish are made from almost all commercial fabrics. They are 3 dimensional, stuffed, quilted, embellished and are fitted with copper wire on the inside to make them 'bendy fish'. They have copper wire pectoral fins, painted eyes, no mouths. Each set needed it's own original costumes, so I went to town decorating them. It was a fun project. Not all the fish can be seen in their entirities because some of them are diving below the surface so only their tales show. Others are just coming up to the surface, so you can only see their heads. The blue masks for the fish in the circle on the left were each custom fitted for each fish and made from a collapsed mondo play ball.

Some of the center fish have custom made tiaras...they are extremely proud to be the 'chosen ones'. You may ask about the single fish on the right side, but it is really up to the viewer what he is doing there... Last, the 300 fish were hand appliqued after they were made, and as you can probably imagine, that was not the fun part. The thread kept getting tangled on fish parts for EVERY stitch. This quilt has not been seen in public yet. Both Husqvarna Viking and Quilt National had their chance, but passed. I think it will be difficult to ship if it ever gets to travel, but I remain hopeful!

This quilt was quilted with YLI variegated cotton thread, YLI silk threads, and Superior King Tut variegated cotton thread. The beaded skirts were commercial, but individually fitted!

Oh What a Night! Houston IQA!!

Oh What a Night! Houston IQA!! 

I won first place in Large Abstract Art with Little Cities (97" x 96")! I knew I was up for a cash prize, but I was really not expecting first place. And one of the best moments was when another quilter approached me after the awards and asked me if I was the artist? Me?!! Yes, I am an artist! Hard to wrap my head around that, but at least, now I can say it! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to look at my quilt and talk to me!

Jay Walk

Jay Walk
34" x 60" NFS

This quilt started as a play on words, a new meaning for jay walking, until I arranged the birds and had one being stepped on by another. Now I ask, social slight . . . inadvertant or intentional? Who can tell? It's just a bunch of birds!

The centers of the flowers are screen printed with fabric paint. The blue jays are 3D quilt pillows, machine pieced, machine quilted and hand beaded. The leaves have pink french knots. The background is hand dyed and densely machine quilted. All applique (except the birds) is fusible web.
This piece just won 2nd place in Art Quilt at the Austin Area Quilt Guild. It also won a design award. Fantastic! Fabulous! Far OUT!

As a postnote:  It is unfortunate that this quilt was stolen during shipping on it's way to Celebrate Spring IQA, 2007.  I still miss it. 

Leaves I and Leaves, Too

Leaves I and Leaves, Too
16" x 24"
We are donating this quilt to Houston IQA, for their silent auction. It was made by Frances Holliday Alford, Connie Hudson, Raewyn Khosla, Sherri McCauley, Niki Vick, and Kathy York. We selected a leaf theme because our quilt, Leaves, won 2nd place last year. We had so many blocks that we made two quilts, the second is Leaves, Too (below) and will be donated to the Austin Area Quilt Guild for their silent auction.

Shaman Chicken

Shaman Chicken

I took a class from Elinor Peace Bailey last year to learn some doll making skills. I don't know exactly why I picked this chicken, but I love it! The best part was the embellishments including the painted dots, the super fancy buttons on the tail, the beaded neck fringe, the hand quilted spirals on the wings, and the hidden and not so hidden tattoos. My bird now sits on my computer and protects it from harm.

Chicken Bling

With a Tail to Tell

"No pictures, PLEASE!"