En Plein Air Quilting

My artist niece, Coleen (Claire Bleu), as we call her accompanied me home from sewing retreat in SC. I was so glad for her company for the 9 hr. drive home. She had a hankering to do some en plein air (French for in the open air) painting, and in this case fiber art painting. I was eager to learn from her with fabric so we worked together on separate “paintings.”

First she sorted my fused fabric scraps and snippets by color.

She drew her outlines onto her fabric canvas and I photocopied my picture to get templates for my picture.

This was supposed to be a 3 hour project, but it ended up being more like 3 days of fun, not work!

Claire’s picture depicts our farm including the hog barns, shop & pump house, and grain bins. Somehow she made it beautiful, just beautiful!

I’m anxious to see her project with the thread painted on it and all finished up.

During the day, Claire Bleu painted on this portrait until 5:00 when it got too dark to see good. She worked on the fabric painting in the evenings and at night.

All too soon it was time for her to go home. Her brother Gabriel was going to GA for the weekend, so she went home with him.

Be sure you check out her website Coleen Barnhart. I think you will like her paintings.

Romania (4)

My sister Coleen summed up our trip to Romania in a wonderful post on her blog. Read about it here.

The shape of this building in downtown Alba is fascinating to me.

Visiting with Christian friends who speak limited English witout an intrepreter is a challenge.

 Their home is a 2nd story apartment in this building.

We came home by way of the Frankfurt Airport in Germany.

Color

I've enjoyed watching all the different projects coming together this week.

Stack's Pancake Quilt

Mother treated us to brunch this morning at Stack's Pancakes.

Our waiter was a jolly fellow who kept us laughing. He wanted a picture of our group so we decided to make the picture into a small quilt.

Polly cut and sewed squares for a border.

Barbara helped her.

Jolene took care of getting the picture printed.

 June prepared the backing.

Emily cut out the binding.

 Polly sewed the picture into a sheet protector.

Barbara added the borders.

June cut out the backing.

Coleen glue basted and  prepared the piece for quilting.

 I machine quilted it.

Coleen squared it up.

Emily sewed on the binding.

Sheila hand stitched the binding to the back.

Mother signed her name on the back.

Javonne and the rest of us signed it.

The finished piece.

The happy waiter.

Heatwole Sewing Retreat

We have met together again for a week of sewing.

Claie Bleu and Coleen are picking out velvet for Mother to make some squares.

Katina is making a comforter from flannel and denim for her boy's bed.

Polly is working on blocks for a "Simply Woven" quilt.

Sheila and Jolene are making fancy stitches on velvet blocks that they have pieced.

Jillian is machine quilting her "Disappearing Nine Patch" for her daughter.

Rebecca is sewing on her Lone Star / Hunter's Star quilt.

Emily is quilting her "Zipper" quilt.

The week is finally here to be together with my family sewing, telling stories, laughing, staying up late, etc., etc., etc.

Mother has started sewing with the velvet fabric again making doll quilts and pillows.

A New Project–Pink Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I decided to participate in this years Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The color for January is pink.

So, I started a new project, an easy project. I’m making panels of color. Here are 2 of the 4 panels I plan to make. Do you recognize any of that old 1970s fabric?

Later I plan to cut the panels diagonally and team up with dark fabric and …. Just wait and see!

Since this is a new project for me I’m also linking up to

Belts

I used to wear belts with my dresses.

Now I'm going to throw them all away and free up some space in the top drawer!

Interwoven

It took more than a quilt to unite the North and the South. However in thinking of The Blue and the Grey, I decided to depict “Quilting America’s Great Divide” with what looks like interwoven strips of fabric as weaving the country back into one unit.

I started this quilt back here and wasn’t very happy with it. I laid out glitzy thread and shinny netting but it still didn’t make it’s way into the quilt.

Stacy and Kirby …

… helped me with a photo shoot.

Kirby is all done!

And Stacy stayed for another pose.

Statics
Name: Interwoven
Size: 33” X 31 1/2”
Fiber: 100% cotton
Thread: cotton and polyester
Date: January 2013

I did meet my goal with Fiber of All Sorts of finishing this quilt by the end of January.
And now my goal for February is to get Talya’s quilt quilted, bound, and completely finished including the documentation.