Flying to Indiana and Dog/Violet Challenge

Life ...

Paul and I had a quick flying trip to Indiana for his cousin Raymond's funeral. Joel was our pilot.

We stayed with cousin Benny & Miriam. She had this beautiful quilt for us to sleep under. I wished I would have asked her the story behind it.

Joel's girls continue to make good use of the steps and books.

 Ashton checking the pertinent things before getting started with field work.

Somehow he is growing up way too fast!

... as a Quilter

I've been working on a piece for our Southern Fiber Artist challenge for violet/dog. There are many decisions. Big vs. little.

Light vs. dark.

Quilting.

Big and light took the honors and then I added stitching to enhance the moon.

Weeping Willow IV

My "Weeping Willow IV" is now in the hands of The National Quilt Museum.

You see, I was invited by the PAAQT (Professional Association of Appraisers of Quilted Textiles) to participate in the Fresh Faces / New Ideas Challenge 2018-2019 exhibit. This is the first year for the annual exhibit. After traveling for a year with the AQS Shows this piece will be auctioned off for the benefit of The National Quilt Museum.

It measures 33" X 40.5" and is made with commercial cotton fabric and quilted with verigated Fantastico from Superior Threads.

I first prepared the background by fusing 952 small 1" squares to the background fabric. Then I layered the batting and backing and quilted horizontally across the quilt with a serpentine stitch. Next I fused the tree with the leaves onto the quilted background and used free-motion quilting to attach the tree to the background. It is finished with a facing that is hand stitched to the back.

Detail

Signed and dated.

This quilt reminds me of Psalm 137 in which the Israelite captives wept by the rivers of Babylon when they remembered Zion, their former home. Their captors demanded they play music and sing, but the despondent slaves hung their harps on willow trees that lined the river, unable to sing the Lord's song in a foreign land.

You can see some of my other "willow" pieces here, here, and here and here.

Linking to Nina Maria's Off the Wall Friday.

Starlit Sunflower

If you thought about Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" when you saw this piece, then you thought right!

For inspiration, I used "Starry Night" and ...

... "Six Sunflowers" to create my piece ...

... for the Cherrywood Van Gogh challenge.

Detail of the moon ...

... and background of the sunflower.

I used Cherrywood Hand Dyed Fabrics with my unique "Patches" technique to create the "Starry Night" background and the dahlia sunflower and it measures 20"X20".

This art quilt inspired by Van Gogh's paintings depicts the story of Job in the Bible. In Job 12:22, Job defends God to his friends and observes, "He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light." Even in his darkest hours of pain, loss, and suffering, Job trusted God to provide comfort and light.

I'm linking this post to:
 "Off the Wall Fridays", Nina Maria's blog for sharing fiber arts and
Crazy Mom Quilts.

Angel Fish

I started this piece to answer the challenge of making something with the theme of 'animals' and the color 'black & white.'

I found some watery looking fabric and cut 'clam shells' from the dark to fuse to a lighter fabric.

Before I was even half done with this part; I decided to swap the two fabrics around and cut light clam shells to fuse to the dark fabric.

There! I got them all fused in place and quilted wavy water over them to make a background scene for ...

... some black & white angel fish.

At this point I felt the piece needed something else to make it come to life. So I asked for ideas on FaceBook and SAQArtique. And the ideas came!

To make it less busy I toned down the dark in the background with oil pastels...

... and added more sea weed and coral ...

... only to make it busier yet!

Finally I was convinced to only use the orange coral and let the piece be more open at the top. And ta-da, it worked!

Angel Fish

8" X 11"

Commercial cotton fabric, Superior Rainbows & Fantastico thread, Oil Pastels

$135

Detail

Linking to:
Off the Wall Friday by Nina Maria

Fiber Art -- Turmoil

If you are looking for "Amazingly Simple Triangle Stars" book review, click HERE.

Recently I asked for suggestions on naming this small 8"X11" art quilt. There were so many good replies that it was hard to choose. Twister, Tornado, Whirlwind, Carried Away, Winds of Change, ... and many more. I finally settled on

Turmoil

Detail of stitching.

The back.

I tried out a few different background fabrics ...

 

... before settling on this one.

Detail of back label.

           

Sunflowers and Design Wall Monday

Life …

Paul and I went for an afternoon drive on some of MS Wildlife property where we do some farming.

I loved the field of sunflowers and …

… Paul spotted some deer, two dots way off at the distant woods.

… as a Quilter

On my design wall is “Cypress Moss” and my peacock challenge. I’ve blocked it once and I’m ready to tackle the piping and binding.

I’m still undecided about a name. Some of the suggestions I received are:

Saucy, Hatched From a Golden Egg, Plain Fancy, Solomon's Splendor, Solomon's Saucy Splendor, Plumed Elegance, Royal Splendor, Solomon’s Chicken, Pride & Joy, Eyes for You, Heavenly Grace, Heavenly Eyes, Eyes of Heaven, Godly Wings, and Proud as a Peacock.

Surely something should “click” from this list, but I’m still undecided.

Peacock Quilt Challenge

I took up the challenge to use a panel of peacock feathered fabric along with 2 other fabrics to make a small quilt.

I first fused the fabric to Heat-n-Bond fusible. I was wishing for “Misty Fuse” to try out but alas I didn’t have any.

I cut the panel into 1” squares on the diagonal.

I drew a grid 1 3/16” X 1 3/16” on point onto my dusty gold background fabric with a cheap Bic mechanical pencil. I’ve heard that the lead is so cheap that it will dust away by the time you are finished with your project.

Then I added the other squares, the blue squares at the top and the light squares at the bottom. Not appealing at all. There is no contrast.

So I laid the light squares at the top and the blue at the bottom. Much better!

And I fused them all in place. (I’m sorry about the color and lighting)

I thought the quilt needed a focal point and a shot of another color, maybe red/orange.

In the mean time I quilted the squares to the background +/- 1/8” apart horizontally.

I finally decided a silhouetted peacock with a touch of red-orange would be my focal point.

I’m now quilting the feathers with a variegated thread.

And now I'm needing a name for the piece. What does a peacock represent? Haughty pride???? Solomn brought peacocks back with gold, silver, ivory and apes. ... God asked Job, "Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? ..." What are your suggestions for a name?

Linking to: