No Vacancy

No Vacancy
9" x 12"
This one is made like High Rise.  I originally made High Rise to accommodate these little worry dolls. It was the intention of having the cut out holes forming the little pockets inside. However, when I finished it, I liked it just the way it was.  So, I made this little mini-quilt to try out the idea of putting the people inside.  I LOVE it!!  Too cute!

Embellished with satin stitch, hand embroidery, and made from my original batiks, don't you love the crackle lines on this detail shot?

1bdrmAPT

1bdrmAPT
9" x 12"
This next little quilt is all about happy color!  Playing with my new batik stash, I arranged these blocks on batting and backing and then machine quilted them.

Next step...cut out the circles and whipstitch with embroidery floss.  Then decorate some more with satin stitch, and cut the blocks out.

Add to this quilted underlayer....

And you get this wonderful, fun, cheerful little quilt!
(I also faced the edges and turned them under, and added a hanging tube on the back.)

Bridge

Bridge
29" x 45"
Yeah, I have finally finished this little art quilt that I started the summer of 2010! It has been patiently waiting it's turn to be completed, and 4 more are waiting in line.  I sincerely hope that you will like it too! This quilt is inspired by recent events and some not so recent events.  It is simply amazing to me what can be accomplished when we work together.

This quilt was made with what I call artist created fabrics. The blocks are made from dyed fabric which is batiked, then bleach discharged, and eventually overdyed. I like using lots of combinations of colors with a mostly bright palette. The blocks were fused in place and then machine quilted. I used a lot of hand embroidery in both the flowers and the stitching around the apartment blocks. The thread is all six strands of embroidery floss and requires a rather large needle to pull through the entire quilt sandwich, a bit physically taxing, but totally worth the effect.   Enjoy!

Permutations and Combinations

Permutations and Combinations
I have been homeschooling my son these past 2 years.  We are learning algebra together and got to Chapter 11:  permutations and combinations.  These have to do with the total number of possible combinations of lots of options.  Imagine how appealing this is and overwhelming!  Combinations allow for any set of choices from each set of options.  In permutations, the order of making choices is significant.  For example, if you have 4 choices of paint for a room.  One is the background color, and the other 3 will be used to stencil on top of the background color.  Not all options are available because you can't choose to stencil the same color as the background color (it won't show up!).  This makes it a permutation and is calculated differently.

Stacks of overdyed batik shapes

Well, I picked 13 colors, and dyed them in 3 different values, light, medium, and dark.  Then  I picked 3 different designs to either stamp out or draw with batik, in each color.  Up to now, there are 13 colors times 3 color values times 3 designs.  You can see how the numbers are starting to build up. My goal?  To overdye each possible combination in ALL the other possible color choices.  This step is a permutation, (which I could probably calculate now).  Well, except that my artistic side kicks in and I reject some of the possibilities for rather idiosyncratic reasons.  Regardless,  I thought the end result would be both interesting, but also very fun to play with making a number of new quilts. And as overwhelming as the entire project seems, each step was rather independent and I was able work in rather small increments of time.

A fat quarter of batiked fabric, the dark flowers are the wax.

The process involves bleach discharging all the fabric.  None of the discharged fabric goes all the way back to white, each is all discharged to very slight and pale as possible color.  Overdyeing is a transparent process.  It makes a difference what the underlying color looks like.  I took all the samples, cut each individual apart with a rotary cutter.  Then I reshuffled the samples into stacks of colors that I planned the overdye.

Stacks of fat quarters waiting to be cut into individual pieces

Stacks of all the shapes, in all the colorways, waited to be resorted for overdyeing.

Stacks of shapes in their new color piles awaiting the dyebath.

The fun part is the actual overdyeing.  Lots of unexpected and new colors pop up.  Last step is the boiling out of the wax.  It is hot and exhausting, but rewarding.  Dyeing is not always about getting what you thought you wanted.  I have been dyeing for years and I still get unexpected results.  This time, many of my colors did not go as dark or bold as I thought I was making.  And it's too late once you boil out the wax to overdye again.  There are so many variables that sometimes you just have to let go and accept what the dye does.  I didn't get what I was expecting, but what I got is simply beautiful and it all goes so well together.  I can see that I will be having lots of fun playing with all these samples!

One stack of shapes after it's red dyebath and after having the wax boiled out.

Working Big

Working Big
Here is a glimpse of a new project I have been working on.  The cat gives a sense of scale doesn't it?
It is king sized, bright and bold, fun and energetic, fresh and just lovely!!  Brings a smile to my face every time I see it.  Can't wait to start quilting it, so many ideas!  However, it is 4th in line, other projects are awaiting my attention. 
Isn't it funny how cats know instinctively what you would prefer that they Not jump on?
This precious Pumpkin did no harm, so he got a free get out of jail card and a kiss on his noggin.

Gift for Pumpkin

Texas Monthly!!

Texas Monthly!!

Hats off to Karey Bresenhan and Nancy O'Bryant Puentes for some fabulous publicity for their new book, Lone Stars III:  A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1986-2011 in Texas Monthly.  The article is an eight page spread called, Common Threads, in the September issue.  I was a bit surprised to find that my quilt, Little Cities, was published as part of the article on the book, p. 151.  I am quite pleased, to say the least!  The article talks about the book and shows a preview of 10 quilts, so I am very happy to be included in this selection!!

I will say also that this is not my first time to be in Texas Monthly.  Only the first time, my name did not get in.  I only mention this because of the irony that connects the two stories.  In the Feb, 1992 issue, I was photographed taking part in a rockclimbing competition at Hueco Tanks Texas State Park.  I had skipped out of my day job with the excuse of "being sick", and spent the day driving the 12 hours to El Paso, TX with a friend.  The next day we got up early and climbed all day.  Neither of us placed very high in the competition, but we were both happy to be there climbing such exquisite rock and great company of the other climbers.  Fantastic party that night, and then a 12 hour drive home on Sunday.  What are the odds, that on the one day you skip out of work, your photo is published in a high profile magazine???  Either I wasn't recognized at work, or I was forgiven.  But the picture was great!!  Check out those crazy tights!

And how is this related to the first half of my story??  Well, I was fortunate enough to have 2 quilts chosen to be in Lone Stars III, the other is my quilt called, A Few of My Favorite Things, a quilt about my love for rockclimbing!

Twinkle Quilt Completed!

Twinkle Quilt Completed!
I am so happy to finish my daughter's quilt for her before school started.  Whew!  Just in time!  The binding is on and the quilt is now on her bed.  I had a great time making it for her. She loves it and is looking forward to when it is cooler and she can use it!  Austin is still blazing hot setting new heat records every day.

Full view of Twinkle Quilt

Close up of the itajame of this cute animal print she loved!

Back side of Twinkle Quilt showing the quilting motif

Close up of a Twinkle Quilt showing some of the dye combinations and quilting.

You can see more about the process of making this quilt and itajame here and here.

SAQA Gallery

SAQA Gallery
This month my quilt, Doors Across Austin, will be featured in the SAQA Gallery exhibit called This Land is Your Land.  I am proud that my quilt was chosen for this on-line exhibit!  And as we all struggle with so many things in our lives, this quilt is dedicated to my son and his life (and ours) with autism.

detail of Doors Across Austin

Making Lemonade

Making Lemonade

I intentionally cut these blocks too large because I didn't know how much the edges would unravel during the process of itajame. They didn't actually unravel much at all, so I had to trim each block. I thought I wasted a lot of fabric doing this, but as it turned out, I made lemonade from my lemons!

Blocks before trimming

Bucket of trimmings from the scraps

I pieced the scraps together.  (Yes, labor intensive!)

Added the pieced section to fabric to create a pillowcase to go with her quilt!

Repeating the process.  These are the trimmings from the pieced section of the pillowcase.  I have fused the back side of this odd assemblage, and will trim off the excess fusible with an exacto knife and scissors.

Making a small art quilt, to go with the pillowcase, to go with the quilt for her lovely walls.  All that's left to do is the quilting, that, and adding the flying cats across the top!  Stay tuned!

Artists' Garden

Artists' Garden
52" x 52"

Today's post is to announce that our group quilt, Artist's Garden, has been accepted into Quilts: A World of Beauty, IQA, Houston!  We are all so thrilled to have our work going to Houston!  It is such an honor to be juried into this prestigious show.  And we are also very proud of this quilt.   It is an uplifting experience to be a part of a collaborative project that comes together to produce something beautiful!

Connie Hudson dreamed up this project last fall. She took photos of flowers from a trip to Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia and sent them to each of the artists to interpret in their own way. The individual flower blocks come together to make a beautiful garden and the black garden trellis represents the way our group supports each other.  But what is most interesting is how uncanny it felt to be asked to participate in this group quilt and then receive the photo of the flower that Connie picked individually for each of us.  It was as if she saw our souls in that garden and knew the perfect flower for each of us.  


After making my block, which you may remember from my earlier post, here, I was thrilled to see the other wonderful blocks made by each artist, a number of which are in 3D!  Clockwise from upper left: Connie Hudson, Cindy Potter Henneke, Annie Smith, Sherri McCauley, Suzan Engler, Barb Forrister, Kathy York, Frances Holliday Alford; center: Leslie Jenison