Quilting Arts TV

Quilting Arts TV

I just returned from Cleveland, OH where I was taping an episode for Quilting Arts TV. The experience was fabulous! The entire crew at KS Productions made it so easy, even for a novice like me. They had plenty of space to get all my materials set up. We got to hang out in the green room and watch the other segments as they were being taped. This really helped me know what to expect. And though in television land, time is money, I never felt rushed or nervous, though I expected to be both. Did I mention there was always food available? Pokey Bolton was an amazing host. She made it so easy for me to talk about my project. And I had a great time meeting some of the other guests who were being taped the same day, including Laura Wasilowski, Joel Dewberry, and Lyric Kinard, all wonderful and inspiring artists!

Laura showing some of her fabulous hand-dyed fabric in the green room.

I Sing the Flower Eclectic

I Sing the Flower Eclectic
48" x 32"

Our group quilt this year, we were looking for a simple and easy project. But sometimes, simple is not so easy.
To start, everyone made one 16" quilted flower block using bright colors and quilt heavily with fluorescent threads. When we brought the blocks together, we were quite amazed that so many of us chose to use a similar turquoise background.
Then we cut the blocks into quarters and rearranged. The quarters were sewn into new 16" blocks, and then we each took a block that did NOT have one of our own sections on it. Then we each embellished to our heart's desire. This turned out to be a much more difficult than we anticipated. A number of us really struggled with the task, but eventually, it all came together. One more meeting and we were able to assemble the embellished blocks. They look great together, don't you agree?
ps. This one will be in Houston this fall in IQA's Quilts: A World of Beauty!

Kittens Need a Home

Kittens Need a Home 

This is Juno, hanging out for cuddle time in my son's arms. She is not a year old yet, but just had 5 babies. We found her with her kittens about 6 weeks ago. She is the most affectionate and adorable cat. She purrs a lot and has stolen our hearts! She does not like our 95 lb. Weimeramer though... I am digressing from my quilts to show off Juno's kittens. I found them when the kittens were 10 days old. I still can't believe how cute kittens are!! They are our summer project, and boy have we learned a lot. I wish I could tell you which one is my favorite, but each time I pick one up, he or she becomes my new favorite. They are all wonderful! But it is time to find them some forever homes. Pictured above are Pumpkin, Smokey, and Vanilla. They play non-stop, except when they sleep and eat. They are very entertaining! They are small for 8 weeks, but their Mom, Juno, is also small, weighing in at 6.5 pounds. This is Pumpkin. He is the only kitten that can eat at the same plate as his Mom without being chased away. He is sweet, adorable, and likes to pounce on Garfield. This one is Smokey. He is adventurous. The first kitten to eat crunchy food, the first to use the litter box, and the first to adventure out of the bathroom when we let the partition down. He fell asleep once in my son's lap. This one is Vanilla, affectionately known as Vanilla Bean. He is so soft and cuddly, and purrs louder and more often than the other kitties. But don't let his sweet eyes fool ya! He can pounce the cat toys with more than adequate energy and attention! This beautiful blue eyed wonder is Garfield. He is the biggest of the bunch. He is super sweet and loves to play. He usually watches the other kittens first before joining in to play. This is his favorite toy! Last, but not least, our little Pepper. She is the smallest of the bunch, but that doesn't seem to deter her spirit. She was the first to learn to climb to the top of the scratching post and survey the landscape of the hallway outside the bathroom.

Juicy Fruit

Juicy Fruit
19" x 19"

A bit of humor and rebellion. I took Pamela Allen's class, "Think Like an Artist" about a month ago. Our assignment was to make a still life, in black and white. Rebel that I am, I had to add some color, just couldn't stand it, not have any color at all....ugh! For the composition, I also wanted implied movement in the captured "still" frame. Hence, the orange, spontaneously filling the juice glass. I know it's a bit subtle (I think the squirting juice still needs to be more easily seen), but it cracks me up!

 Also, the only hand made batik, the black and white fabric for the orange, has a starring role. Congrats little orange! I used window screen fabric for the placemates, and colored threads to hold down the edges of the applique.

More Garden Inspiration

More Garden Inspiration

Here's a sneak peak at my part of a new group project coming soon. This one was made with all my own batiked and shibori fabrics. See the flower below that inspired it. I was trying to learn to free motion quilt with satin stitch. It's not nearly as easy as my friend, Frances Holliday Alford, makes it look. And my poor machine practically rattled off the table. It might be time for a new one. Yikes!!

Where Have All the Jays Gone?

Where Have All the Jays Gone?

SOLD
16 1/2" x 24"

It is the 1 year anniversary since my quilt, Jay Walk, has gone missing. Missdelivered by the United States Postal Service, neither the company that signed for it, nor the USPS knows where it went. The USPS did pay my insurance claim eventually, but it does not begin to replace the loss I feel over my very special quilt being gone. Though I will always remain hopeful that it will find it's way back to me, it is time to move on. I made this little quilt to commemorate its loss.

New stuff: I took the pink shibori fabric from the earlier post (More Distractions) to use for the petals. However, the pink and white just didn't look quite right. So, I colored in the white thread resist markings with Tsukneko inks, yellow and orange. I really like the way that turned out.
The leaf fabric was made using pole wrap shibori. Though less obvious in this photo, I used light colored lime green thread to quilt the upper part of the leaves and a darker olive green to quilt the lower part of the leaves. It makes it look like two slightly different fabrics. What a difference quilting can make! Okay, it's a bit subtle in the photo, but in real life it looks quite lovely.
I made a big effort to make the background quilting more meaningful. In the top half, I quilted seven big circles. These represent the seven missing jays from Jay Walk. And in the bottom half of the quilt, I used a square stipple design to represent the buildings that make up the back ground in Jay Walk. In the sky I quilted words to go with the sentiment, and to help them pop forward just a bit more, I colored them with a very dilute white Tsukneko ink.

Auction Quilt Completed!

Auction Quilt Completed!

The quilt and pillow sham are reversible. The back is a whole cloth batik. Connie Hudson quilted it with a variegated thread in a beautiful spiral pattern on her longarm machine. It was a perfect design for the front and the back! I am hoping it will raise some money for my kids' school.

Home at Last!

Home at Last!

My quilt, Visions of Grandeur, has been traveling for 2 years in the Fine Focus '06 exhibit. I felt very honored to have my quilt included in this incredible collection of small art quilts. You can see and read about the other quilts in this exhibit by going to,
http://www.finefocus.blogspot.com/.

More Distractions

More Distractions
The first is a shibori experiment. I love the bright pink! This sample is made by pinching the fabric as I hand sewed big running stitches. Pull the strings tight and then vat dyed.

This yellow was posted earlier. It was made by dipping a napkin holder in wax, and then dye painted.

After boiling out the wax, I restamped it with an interesting irrigation cap end that I found at Home Depot. The waxed parts saved the yellow, then I dyed it again with orange. It looked fabulous, but I took it one step further.

I tore off a section, and without boiling the wax out yet, I painted the center of the circles (to save the orange), and stamped again with the irrigation cap (to save more orange). Then I dyed it again with red. The red dye was too old, and most of it rinsed out, but the resulted dark orange was just so lovely! I can't decide which I like better, the yellow & orange piece, or the yellow & orange & reddish???

Dyeing Experiments 101

Dyeing Experiments 101

 I needed a dark backdrop for a quilt, so I decided to make it navy. However, I didn't want a solid navy, I wanted something subtle with a little interest in it. Okay, I totally missed 'subtle' with this experiment! I folded this cloth in half and then twisted it very tight, stuck the ends through the loop made in the other end, and then vat dyed. I did not expect such high contrast, but I loved it. Then the dilemma, though beautiful and very interesting, it wouldn't fit my needs. So, I took it to the garage and started batiking circles. Some I left as rings, others I filled in. Then I over dyed it, navy and turquoise.

I liked the new results even better! Someday I will get around to quilting this as a whole cloth. It is large, about 60" x 120". Of course, I will have to find a back for it....which will lead to more dyeing experiments, more fun, and more learning!