A True Mixed Bag

This post is truly a mixed bag. I did purchase some paper that is recommended for pastel, as I decided not to wait until September. (Why did I think that I had to wait?) The piece is a 40 minute figure drawing that I did in Friday's class.



Onward to a quilt block. I have wanted to do a kaleidoscope piece for a long time and finally found the courage as I have a art quilt that I'm making. This idea comes from Paula Nadelstern's fantastic pieces which are highlighted in two books that I have by her: Kaleidoscope Quilts and Kaleidoscope Quilts The Workbook. While reading her text, she is generous about not perfect seams, they may come with practice. After I finished this piece, I realized that it's to big for the specific project that I'm working on. Yes, it will be used in another quilt.



Last is a real off the wall piece. One day when we were golfing with our friends, I picked up a broken tee and said that there must be an art piece waiting to happen. We have a larger piece in mind, but I had to see how it would work. I first painted the 6x6" canvas with acrylic paint (several layers, of course) and then glued the tees. When I was finished I coated the tees with a medium gloss as an extra coat of glue. This piece was finished inside my cool house, as it was 105 degrees yesterday.



Oh gee! there are so many more projects to try!!

Fabric Mandada

It seems that I am attracted to mandalas which are circle drawings representing the circle of life. I found this pattern in a magazine and I'm sure that they did not expect it to be made this way. The center sparkle is Angelina which is a polyester that is heated and melts to form the shape you desire. It also can be cut after being heat set. Beads were added. For all the bright quilts that I've made, I'm finding these quieter colors, very calm and pleasing. Only a little hand stitching, machine pieced and quilted.

Sketch quilt

The quilt that I've titled "Generations" is finished. This was my entry to a challenge presented by my art quilt group. The guidelines were that it should be 15" x 24" vertical and monochromatic. We drew color chips from a bag and mine in a rosy sepia color. I know that most will have an array of colors, but I wanted to challenge myself to using a minimal span of colors. Maybe because of the sepia color, I jumped on the idea to do my grandparents wedding picture. The project snowballed and I also did my parents, my in-laws and on the bottom, my husband and me. The quilt has been quilted by machine and by hand.

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The figures were drawn with a Pitt pen and I brushed on color from oil paint sticks. The close-up is of my in-laws, Betty and Don. OK, there is something "off" in each portrait, but the love is there. In fact, it was a more emotional project than I have anticipated. I kept thinking about how each of the ancestors were married "until death do us part", the shortest was about 35 years. Really, there is no formal picture of my parents, so their drawings were done from a 1943 picture-they were married in 1939. I had on a silly headpiece that you can see was crooked in this picture. How unimportant the clothing-what is important is the marriage. A fancy wedding is no guarantee of a successful marriage.

Later this month, I will be able to see how other met this challenge. I've sure that there will be a wide variety of designs.

Blessings of the season

Now is the time that we share love and wish for joy throughout the coming year to all.One of the ways I'm doing this is by making an "Can you find?" quilt for my 3 year old grandson. 

Hopefully he will want to play the game of learning to read the words,  finding the picture, color or perhaps a letter as he is snuggled under his new cover.

Below is a close up of one section. I included his name and in other parts the name of his parents, sisters, grandma and grandpa. Yes, I've having fun!

Blessings of the season to all!!

Quilt of Valor

After having so much trouble with the technical side of this blog, I am cautiously posting on my blog today. I won't push my luck and try to post more than one picture as additional photos seem to disappear.

This was a quilt that my friend Karen and I made for the Quilt of Valor Foundation. This organization is trying to make a quilt for all returning veterans. So far, over 33,000 quilts have been made. They have specific guidelines as they want it to be a certain size and quality.They also want a journal to accompany the quilt. We were glad to make it.

There is another organization called Quilts of Honor that is also making quilts for veterans. My next donation will be through them as they are more local to me. Each is reaching out to the the men and women who serve.

A Special Gift

Sometimes you just get it right. I love this quilt and so did my 2 1/2 year old grandson, my chief critic for this piece. The fabric came with these adorable cats. I added the border and quilted it. Oliver immediately knew to put it on his bed. It makes nap time even easier.

These cats have attitude!

Quilts and zentangles

 

23" x 25"

Recently I decided to follow the guidelines in a book, Kaleidoscope Quilts, by Paula Nadelstern. This is my first attempt. Paula does outstanding detailed work that makes my pieces seem every so humble.There are actually only four fabrics with bead work added. But I wanted to show you the quilting in the background.

First, it was very brave of me to use contrasting thread. I chose a varigated blue shiny thread. Then, I got into the zentangle mode and created shapes that, in the end, look like pebbles. This technique is called freemotion quilting where the quilt is moved as the needle is going up and down.. I am not restricted to straight lines. Basically, I was as free as if I had picked up a pen. This process made me realize that quilters have been doing zentangles for a long time-before the name became popular. Art expressed in a different form.

Quilted mosaic

Mandala Joy 16 1/2" x 16 1/2"

Recently I took a quilt workshop from a talented woman, Julie Hirota.

She introduced us to the idea of creating a mosaic out of fabric.The colored fabric is bonded to the a product that is then heat set to the base fabric, which is black for this project. After the design is set, the quilting begins.

The possibilities for design are really unlimited.

From Watercolor to Quilting

I have being doing mandala for years. This design is called the Flower (or Seed) of Life. The original is watercolor. I transferred that image via my printer onto silk fabric, beaded and then quilted the piece which is 10" x 10". I even won an award at our local quilt show.

Makes me laugh

When I saw this pattern, it made me laugh.So, I had to make the quilt. The pattern is by amy bradley designs. My title is Ladies at the Beach, Who am I? Size is 28 1/2" x 28 1/2