All Things Quilty

Some Colorful Art for a Gloomy Winter's Day

2012-02-19T18:46:00.000-05:00

We have finally gotten a day of winter weather after many warm, balmy days in January and February. My dad is here with us this weekend, and we took him to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh this afternoon.

Here are some exhibits of interest to those of us who love textile art.

This fabulous African costume looks like a patchwork quilt. Here is the front view.

And it is diplayed so that it can be viewed from the back as well.

This outfit covered the entire body, including the head, but the dancer could see through a mesh area. Here is the label.

This stunning exhibit is also in the African art area. It is beautifully woven Kente cloth on the wall, and draped as a robe as Akan royalty would wear it.

All of us who sew recognize what these are.

But who would have thought to create an image of the Mona Lisa with spools of thread? The image appears to be upside down until you view the piece through a glass sphere that creates a prism effect.

Since we just celebrated Valentine's Day, here is the classic Rodin scupture, The Kiss.

And here are a couple of Thinkers.

My dad is doing great these days, but we borrowed a wheelchair from the museum to conserve his strength as we toured the museum.

Here is the Valentine card that he gave me with some original abstract art.

And for a last bit of color on this gray day, here is the bouquet from my sweetie on the colorful quilt that I made for Dad years ago.

Stay safe out there if it is snowing where you are. So far we have just had rain and some sleet, but they say it is coming.

Some Valentine's-y Quilts

2012-02-14T14:11:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! I thought I might show you a few quilts I have made over the years that might fit today's theme.

First up, Something Girly, one of my most successful quilts. It is actually a wholecloth quilt from a rather sheer fabric. Batting is trapuntoed and cut away to form the hearts and feathers. Then, a layer of bright red is layered behind the white to create the pink background color. After quilting, I added more color with Tsukinko inks.

Something Girly

Next is a smaller version made the same way. It was donated to an auction to benefit one of my favorite charities, SAFEChild of North Carolina.

Heart's Delight

The next one was made the same way, but has couched fibers around the edges instead of binding. This one was auctioned at Heritage Days for the Capital Quilters Guild.

Ring of Peace

The next one is a fabric collage that is quilted and mounted on a painted gallery-wrapped canvas. This one sold for $45.00 at another charity auction.

Sweet

Anna's Quilt has lots of hearts and other girly things. I made it for Anna when my nephew Jason married her mama and her little sister Lacy was born.

Anna's Quilt

Second-Hand Rose was part of the Breaking Traditions traveling exhibit for over a year. This one is really different. I used an embroidered linen skirt from Good Will as the border. The very shiny background is Textiva fabric, which is what Angelina fibers are before they are shredded. Then it got some fabric, silk flowers, ribbons, applique, Swarovski crystals, and what-have-you. The beads on the outer border are hand-made by wrapping fabric and fiber around a pencil and gluing them. I still have this quilt.

The next one is sort of Valentine-ish. I made this for the Capital Quilter's Guild's annual Quilts for Kids challenge. I believe this won Second Place. U used various patterns to make lots of things that little girls would love. The border fabric was the challenge fabric, and I used lots of hand-dyes to coordinate. These quilts are donated to Neo-Natal Intensive Care Units at local hospitals.

Garden Party

I hope you have a day filled with love...or that you love what you are doing today!

One Palette, Two Quilts

2012-02-13T09:05:00.001-05:00

Here they are, two finished projects! All bound and ready to hang.

I started both quilts in November during an online class with artist Pamela Allen called Four Quilts. In Lesson One, we chose a painting and tried to reproduce the palette or color scheme in fabric. I chose this lovely painting by American Impressionist Mary Cassatt.

Portrait of Mlle. C. Lydia Cassatt, Mary Cassatt, 1880

Usually, this color study is a quick mock-up to see if the fabrics we select really work. In other words, are the colors in the same values? The fabrics are cut free-hand with scissors and glue-basted to batting.

Miss Lydia, Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2012

It was fairly easy to cut all the rather loose blobby shapes except for the face. It took about four tries to cut a head that was the right size and had a pleasing profile. In fact, I liked my color study so well that I decided to hand-embroider the raw-edge shapes, and then quilt it. I also added gold and other colors of Shiva Paint Sticks to try to replicate the light and reflections of the painting. I quilted it with a variegated orange-yellow-green thread, a pear green, and black.

The other project is my original composition using the same palette. My chosen subject for the class was landscapes. I worked from a photo of a barn in the North Carolina mountains. It is actually a horse stable that we pass every time we descend from the top of "our" mountain on our Gator rides.

Glen's Barn in Autumn, Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2012

In the late afternoon, the sun is rapidly blocked by the mountain. The last rays of the sun really light up the goldenrod and the beautiful autumn foliage. Usually, our dog Kasey is running ahead of us, so I thought about putting her in the picture with her golden glowing coat. Maybe next time!

Catching Up

2012-02-10T12:20:00.000-05:00

Wednesday evening I participated in another watercolor class with Steve Filarsky at Art Student Academy. The subject was a vase of tulips. This time there were only three students, so we had more space, a more relaxed atmosphere, and more time for Steve to work with individuals. He gave me a few tips that I appreciated. I am not totally happy with my painting so far, but I think I will spend a little more time on it and see what emerges. One of the things he showed me was how to get the little highlight on each tulip.

I have also signed up for a six-week watercolor class with Mary Benejam-O'Connell through Wake Forest Parks and Recreation. I think I will benefit from concentration on the basics. One of my art quilt bee members has also signed up. It will be at Flaherty Park on Wednesday afternoons starting on February 29. I hope more people sign up so the class is not cancelled!

On Tuesday I went to Physical Therapy for the last time. My very sweet therapist, Pamela, said I had met all of the goals she set for me. Unfortunately, I have not met my personal goal of being able to walk without pain from my old sprained ankle injury, but I am hopeful that it will continue to get better.

Yesterday my sister and Dad came to Raleigh, and Charlie and I ate lunch with them again at Simply Crepes. Then, last night was a meeting of one of my quilting groups, the Cyberbee. It was the smallest group ever: exactly two of us! Martha and I had a great visit and dinner. I got to know her a lot better, so it was a good evening.

This should be a quiet weekend at home. Charlie had some oral surgery yesterday, and can't eat solid foods for a few days. Since it turned colder this morning, I guess it will be a good weekend for soup.

I took my dog, Kasey, to the dog park in Wake Forest the other day. This was a first! She is sometimes very territorial on the greenway and growls at other dogs, and sometimes people, who approach her. I thought maybe she would learn to socialize a little better. There were about nine large dogs within the fenced area, and Kasey did not really want to go in. She sat and looked around while all the other dogs were romping and playing.

After awhile I took her for a walk around the perimeter. At least we got a little exercise after a couple of laps.

Dogs that never get to run free without a leash probably appreciate the acres of space and the joy of being unleashed to catch balls and chase frisbees. Kasey gets to be off leash often, both at home and in the mountains. We have a big yard, and she does not run off. And, although she looks like she is part golden retriever, she does not retrieve anything. Throw a ball or stick and she just looks at you like, "Why?" But she will chase a squirrel, rabbit or deer, with no victories so far!

Now, my granddog Roo is the perfect example of a dog park lover. His yard is small, and he has lots of stored up energy. And he has become an expert frisbee dog!

This morning it was really cold, and Kasey and I went to the Sanford Creek greenway where we often walk. Unfortunately, the earth movers were hard at work clearing the woods behind the creek to build yet more roads and home sites for the Heritage community. The air smelled like diesel and the noise of the equipment was deafening. They have installed orange fencing almost down to the creek and cleared out acres of trees.

They always do a nice job on the Heritage projects, but we will probably walk the other greenways and parks while all this construction is taking place.

And when the walks are over, it's time for The Furminator! This dog brush helps get rid of the undercoat of thick hair- as seen on TV. And guess who loves to be Furminated! Ah, bliss!

Art Quilts a la Pamela Allen

2012-02-07T10:06:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was a fun day with my Anything Art quilt bee. Last month we met at my house and I introduced the group to the Pamela Allen method of making art quilts. Several of the ladies had made great progress on the projects they began at that meeting.

Roberta Morgan absolutely loved this improvisational method of quilting, and had several quilts in her signature bright colors that pop against black and white. Her self-portrait with cat is a work-in-progress, eliciting big smiles all around.

She also made this teapot quilt that reminds me a bit of Mary Engelbreitt.

She also made a vase with flowers that is already finished.

Peg worked hard on her color study of a Monet painting. We had several suggestions for her to improve the barn on the far left and to add a dark hillside behind the barn. What was really fun was that the lavender cloud behind the house on the right looks like an ethereal spirit when you look at it closely. Peg was not even aware of the ghost watching over the house!

We watched a Kerr Grabowski DVD about Deconstruction Screen Printing, and may try that as our next group project.

Another Lady's Face

2012-02-05T21:50:00.000-05:00

When I went upstairs to get the backing fabric for the Cassatt art quilt, I saw my unfinished lady's face on another painting...and decided to work on her instead.

Island Girl, Jeanne McBrayer, 2012

She is done in acrylics. Some of the background is colored with water-soluble crayons and outlined with paint markers. No collage this time, I just drew on the paper to make the doodles.

I'm not sure why I am creating all these island girls, except that this time last year I was planning to leave for a dream trip to Hawaii!

But anyway, I did finish stitching the autumn barn, and it is ready to be machine-quilted.

I will quilt in some lines on the barn to represent the boards, and add more branches and tree trunks. I am thinking that this one might get a little paint embellishment after it is quilted. I want to catch that sunlight hitting the goldenrod and the autumn foliage.

So, what did you think of 53-year-old Madonna cavorting at the Superbowl halftime show? Pretty obvious she was lip-syncing, but the Material Girl still looks awful good, doesn't she?

And Now, Something Different

2012-02-05T14:07:00.000-05:00

I have posted before about the 2012 free Strathmore Online Workshops. The first one is hosted by Traci Bautista and is called Doodles Unleashed. In the fourth lesson, we created a beautiful background with acrylic paints, stamps, stencils, doodled text, etc.

We also created doodles on a separate sheet with India ink and paintbrush.

The final step was to paint a face onto the background, and collage some of the ink doodles as a headdress. Traci's looked like this one on the cover of her latest book.

She creates stylized lady's faces that she calls "glam girls" who have one very elaborate eye, no nose, sexy lips and curly long hair. They also tend to have green, purple or other colorful faces.

I did not want mine to be a copy of Traci's. Since I have been trying to paint faces for awhile, I decided to try a more realistic face. When I collaged some of my doodles, the India ink smeared all over. I had to repaint them. Here is what I came up with.

Island Bride, mixed media painting by Jeanne McBrayer

She ended up being a bride because I went a little too wild when I painted in her hair. I gessoed over the black paint, and it looked like a bridal veil. So I added some stenciling with white acrylic paint.

I have no idea what I will do with this. Maybe cut it up into postcards or journal covers? It is fun to try new techniques.

I also began several other backgrounds that have faces in progress, so I will get to those sometime this week.

Are you ready for the Super Bowl? It is cold and rainy today. I think I will spend the afternoon before the big game quilting my Cassatt portrait, and maybe its companion, the barn picture, as well. I have almost finished stitching it.

Whacky Ladies February Meeting

2012-02-04T14:04:00.002-05:00

Thursday night was the monthly meeting of The Whacky Ladies, my local quilt bee. We met at Irene's, who lives less than three miles from my house. I will share some of the show-and-tell with you.

First of all, Donna Sontag finished quilting the stunning American Flag quilt that Kathy Miller and several other women made to give to the Veteran's Administration Hospital.

Donna really outdid herself on this one. The white stripes feature stars and words written in script. This quilt will be used to honorably drape the bodies of deceased Veterans at the hospital when they are being moved from their rooms.

Donna had other impressive work to show us. She has been designing computerized patterns for customer quilts. Here is a T-shirt quilt that has various-sized baseballs for the quilting pattern. I was impressed that she even has the stitching on the baseballs included.

The next quilt is a customer's Double Wedding Ring with huge blocks. She used a variegated blue thread with custom quilting.

Here is the center block design, a cluster of oak leaves.

The back is solid white, and looks beautiful with the blue thread.

Donna also brought in a customer's quilt that has the Grinch Christmas fabrics. Unbelievably, the quilter cut the notches around the panel figures to make them look lie postage stamps, and zigzagged around each one.

Lori has designing talents, as well. She used a geisha panel fabric to make this oriental-style quilt. The diamonds are made from the extra panel fabric cut into strips.

Carolyn is participating in the House Block a Day project, where you make a different 3" house each day of the year. She is not sure she will make all 365, but she has made some really cute ones so far.

Marilyn was working on the applique border of this beautiful pineapple quilt.

Irene was not able to attend our Charity Quilt Sew-in Day in January, so she made a baby quilt at home from her own fabrics. Yes, it is another Warm Wishes quilt. Our bee has made many of these to donate! Sorry that Irene is sideways in this picture- sometimes Blogger does funny things to photos.

I showed my Mary Cassatt color study art quilt. I wanted to make it more like the original Impressionist painting with lots of dappled sunlight and reflections. I stenciled Shiva Paint Stix over a fern stencil, and I think it really added to the Impressionist look.

Here is the original painting, Mlle. C. Lydia Cassatt, and my version in fabric with the addition of paint.

Here is how it looked before the paint was applied. Quite a difference!

Janice brought a basket full of beautiful quilt projects, but I am going to refer you to her own blog to see them. She is becoming quite the quilt artist! Love the quilts on this post, as well. Janice recently won 200 spools of Aurifil Wool Thread, and generously let each of us choose two spools to keep. I have not tried mine yet, but am excited to give it a try!

Really Cute Baby Quilt

2012-02-03T09:42:00.002-05:00

Here is a customer quilt that I love so much that I might have to make one like it. (Please excuse the glare from sunlight.)

The owls are adorable, with googly eyes made of French knots. There is a patchwork inner border of quarter-square triangles in bright colors

The center medallion has four trees in bright yellow-green shades.

The backing is a bright polka dot. I used Pear Green Signature thread and made lots of leaves for the trees and owls.

The quilt was made by Jessie Oakley from a commercial pattern called Hooterville from Brandywine Design. The designer is Linda Hohag.

I am still behind on my baby quilts, and getting more so all the time. Here is my newest great-niece, Holly. Holding her is her "big" sister, Lacy.

I can't wait to get my hands on her! Congratulations to Jason, Robin, Anna, Tyler, and Lacy on the newest addition to the family!

Deja Vu

2012-02-01T21:37:00.000-05:00

I could have titled this post the same as the last one, "Another Charity Quilt...and Another Win." Unbelievably, I won another blog drawing, this time a Jelly roll of Moda's "Little Apples" by Aneela Hoey. Thanks to Lindsey from Interweave, and to my friend Janice for alerting me to the win!

The next charity quilt is made from those raggedy circle blocks that were quite popular back in the 90's. I had a book called Quilts From Aunt Amy that had the directions for this quilt with freehand-cut circles that are sewn a quarter-inch in from the edge. The quilt is pictured on the cover of the book.

When the quilt is finished, you are supposed to wash it to let the raw edges fray and form a kind of textured ruffle.

I made a lot of the blocks using muted Civil War repo fabrics. I decided to donate the blocks at our bee's sew-in last month, and Marilyn Featham stitched them into a quilt top. I got it quilted yesterday.

I did some bouncing curves around the whole thing until I got to the circles. Then I just went round and round, spiraling in to the center and back out.

I had no idea this would look so nice when it was finished! We had thought this would be for Quilts on Wheels, which is Capital Quilters' Guild's charity for rest home residents in wheelchairs. But I am thinking now that it might sell well at the Heritage Days auction in the fall. I will check with my bee and see what they think when we meet tomorrow night.

I found the perfect soft plaid flannel in our basket of donated fabrics. It has cream, peachy pink and soft green plaid, and is so soft. I had just barely enough to be able to pin it on the machine.

The quilting shows up nicely on the back.

When I do charity quilts, I try to use up some of the bobbins that are leftover from other projects. For this one, I used every shade of off-white that I had already wound, which included Linen, Parchment, Ivory, and Sand Dollar. They all blended in just fine. Between the three charity quilts I did this week, I freed up about twelve bobbins! Yippee!

That reddish check fabric in the border of the quilt was left over from my granddaughter's nursery fabric. She had a double- or queen-size bed in her room for company, and I made this quilt from the fabrics her mom had picked out plus some brighter pinks and greens. I had some orphan blocks that I added in with the Yellow Brick Road blocks. The center medallion is a Carolina Lily, which I just had to make since my granddaughter is Lily from South Carolina.

I actually scalloped the border, which made the quilt a bit more feminine.

I had fun doing lots of pretty flowers, swirls and feathers in the quilting.

I also made her a wall-hanging using some of the same fabrics. I designed the fancy letters, and used patterns from Bugs, Blooms, and Bullfrogs by Pat Sloan for the flowers, dragonflies, and ladybugs.

I added Swarovski hot-fix crystals, yo-yo's, buttons and beads to embellish the quilt. The vine is one of those fusible bias strips you can purchase by Clover. I got mine at Mary Jo's Cloth Shop in Gastonia, NC.

This was one of my favorite projects of all time. I can't believe how fast the years have gone by. Lily is now in Kindergarten and will be six in June. But that big quilt I made for her ought to last her until college!

You can see why she got the nickname "Lilybug" from this picture I put on the label. She had the biggest eyes on her tiny face!

Another Charity Quilt...and Another Win!

2012-01-31T10:49:00.001-05:00

Here is the little Yellow Brick Road charity quilt that I finished quilting yesterday. It will be donated to the Capital Quilters Guild of Raleigh, probably for their Quilts on Wheels program.

I used swirls and sometimes flowers.

The backing is a solid pink donated fabric that is quite slippery. The black thread shows up handsomely.

Mary Nennstiel sewed the top together at my bee's sew-in day earlier this month, and I am going to drop it off at her house on my way to PT this morning.

I got a great surprise when I scanned Facebook this morning...I was one of the monthly prize winners for the January Sketchbook Challenge! I will be receiving a $25.00 gift certificate to Joggles.com!

Joggles is a great vendor for all sorts of artsy embellishments and supplies. They also have an array of online classes that makes me drool every time I read their newsletter.

When we got back from our walk on the greenway this morning, there was a large red-tail hawk swooping down on the viburnum bush in my side garden where the songbirds gather to reconnoiter before visiting the bird feeder. When I walked around the yard, he was sitting very low in a tree by the little creek that runs behind our house. Hope he did not dine on one of the tweety-birds that I attract to the house by putting out bird seed.

Communing with Nature

2012-01-30T14:37:00.001-05:00

Not too much quilty news to report today. We have been going to movies (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo- GREAT!; Sherlock Holmes-Pretty Good) and also went to see Memphis at the DPAC. I thought that was better than any of the three shows I have seen on Broadway. And I am so glad that some social customs have improved over time, race relations being the issue in the musical. The performers were amazing with fabulous voices.

I got tired of waiting for my sprained ankle to get back to normal since it has been six months. I started physical therapy two weeks ago, and joined the Rex Wellness Center last week. So far I have only participated in the water fitness classes, which I love because there is no stress on the joints. On Wednesday I have an appointment to have a personal fitness routine mapped out for me on the gym equipment.

And of course, I have been faithful about taking the beautiful Kasey on walks every day. I cannot believe the warm January we have had, with temperatures in the sixties. We have been hitting the greenways and enjoying glimpses of nature.

Here is a large hawk perched on a branch, looking for his lunch along the Smith Creek greenway.

The bluebirds love the open spaces at J. Carroll Joyner Park, and they often follow along as we walk, flying from tree to tree.

There is a beautiful nature trail around the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. Various sculptures and other works of art are visible along the trail. Between 2005 and 2007 there was a remarkable structure by Patrick Dougherty called Trail Heads. It was made of woven sticks and branches. Children of all ages loved stepping inside this wonderful little house-like area.

Sadly, it had to be removed when it deteriorated, but I was reminded of it on our walk past the piney woods behind Heritage.

Mother Nature created this one on her own from fallen branches and pine needles.

Kasey about got herself in trouble this morning. She is trained to walk up our long driveway with us when we get the mail or the newspaper. She stops about three-fourths of the way and waits for us so she is not close to the road. But this morning, there was a gray fox in the neighbor's yard next door! She gave chase, and was just about on it when the fox doubled back and hid under the neighbor's machinery behind his house. I'm glad she did not catch it.

Charity Quilt

2012-01-25T18:09:00.000-05:00

I brought home several quilt tops from my bee's Sew-In Day in January, got a new customer quilt, and found one more that I had brought home from guild to quilt. So, yesterday I warmed up the machine and got busy. I finished this little one made from bright five-inch squares.

Some of the squares were left over from my grandson's quilt that I made before he was born. His mom picked out the pattern and helped me choose the fabrics. I called it Jungle Boogie. I think the stars are from Jan Mullen's book Cut-Loose Quilts.

I even drafted my own border quilting pattern with jungle animals marching in a row. I quilted it with variegated thread.

Anyway, Kathy Miller completed the top from the leftover squares at our sew-in day, and I quilted just circles and loops with a pale yellow-green thread called Bamboo by Signature.

I started a second charity quilt made from leftover Yellow Brick Road squares from a previous charity quilt I made. This time Mary Nennstiel put the top together at our sew-in.

This one is still on the machine. The quilting shows up rather dramatically on the solid pink backing because I am using black thread.

Tonight we are going to see the musical Memphis at the Durham Performing Arts Center as part of the Broadway South program. Excited!

And the Winner Is...

2012-01-23T10:53:00.000-05:00

Today I drew names to choose the winner of Georgia Bonesteel's first quilting book, Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel.

And the winner is...Pat!

Years ago I used to check that quilt book out from the library for weeks on end. I get a little thrill just seeing the cover. I'd love to win it. Thanks for the chance.

January 20, 2012 6:34 PM

I am glad this little book that no one purchased at my guild's silent auction will be going home with some one who will love it!

Congratulations, Pat!

BTW, I am coming up on my four-year blogiversary, and my 1,000th blog post. I will be thinking of some ways to celebrate with you. Thanks to all who drop in to visit at All Things Quilty!

What to do on a Gloomy Winter Weekend

2012-01-22T15:37:00.000-05:00

From last weekend's beautiful snows and blue skies in the mountains, we have transitioned to a cold, rainy, gloomy weekend at home. We have seen a few movies (War Horse in the theater, Great; the new Planet of the Apes on DVD, Not bad; and Charlie's pick of DVD, Cowboys vs. Aliens, so bad and loud that I retreated to my third floor craft room to work on journal pages.

Nothing like getting absorbed in a riot of color to improve the mood on a wintry day!

I usually subscribe to the "Pages in Stages" method of journaling. You paint a background and add collage elements, then later go back and add text or artwork.

Here is a previously painted background on watercolor paper.

I added a beautiful little watercolor that I found in print, added some doodled lace and text, and am imaging a nice cheerful summer day on the porch!

Here's a funny little scene that I made from a Trader Joe's package. When the newspaper did an article on apples, it worked out perfectly!

I liked the photo of this little girl in my husband's old college French textbook. Also inside the book was a ticket stub from a 1970 basketball game, NCSU vs. UNC! I had to stick that on there, too. I tried to use paint colors that were similar to the colors in the photo. The blossoms behind the little girl are formed by throwing salt on wet watercolor paint. The white doodles are done with a Bic White-out marker.

The next one was made with paint plus collaged napkins and tissue paper. I added marks with India ink and Speedball pen. I am growing fond of using the India ink, even though it can be a bit messy.

The text does not refer to the Creek Indians, but rather to the community along Peak Creek in Ashe County. I like being part of the Creek People!

The next page is all doodles, inspired by Sandy Steen Bartholomew's book, Totally Tangled.

I created a few new backgrounds

and started a new lady who will later be adorned. She is done in colored pencil that I smudged with a little water on my finger. She needs a little work.

Today is the last day to get in the running for the Georgia Bonesteel quilting book that I am giving away. There are only three comments so far, making your odds pretty good if you are interested in winning this classic book.

"Little Daisy" Makes Her Debut (and a Give-Away)

2012-01-20T11:46:00.001-05:00

Last night, I attended the Capital Quilters' Guild meeting in Raleigh...where we all got to meet "Little Daisy!" Our next Heritage Day quilt auction (on Oct. 6, 2012) will help to raise money not just for the guild, but for the local Girl Scout council. There will be two raffle quilts. This one is "Little Daisy," a smaller version of "Daisy of Savannah." Both quilts will feature the same fabrics and quilting, but the larger one will have five rows of five blocks each. That one will probably be ready by the February meeting.

Here is a close-up of the beautiful quilting by The Quilting Cowgirl, Cathy Kirk. Look at those splendid feathers!

If you look at the back side, you see that this could serve as a wholecloth quilt.

This is the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts. The founder, Juliette Gordon Lowe, was nicknamed Daisy. Everyone knows that the Girl Scouts are expert at sales- we have already had several knocking on our door for the fabulous annual cookie sale! They will be helping to sell tickets for the raffle, so we should have record-breaking sales!

Also at last night's meeting, there was the annual Silent Auction. Quilters bring in books, fabric, patterns, and other miscellaneous items that they no longer need. Bids start at only twenty-five cents! You would not believe the stuff that was available. Since I need to start purging my personal "stuff" prior to putting our house on the market, I brought twenty books to donate to the auction. Fortunately for me, they all sold except one.

The orphan from the auction is Lap Quilting With Georgia Bonesteel. Georgia is an icon of the quilting world, at least in North Carolina, where her TV show on PBS has been airing every year since 1979. I took a sun-printing class with Georgia at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium a few years ago. What a generous, classy lady! I was so impressed. She told us that this first book was, ironically, also her best-selling EVER.

So, if you would like to have this book, leave a comment or drop me an e-mail by Sunday night. If more than one person is interested, I will have a drawing to see who will be the winner. Make sure I have your e-mail address.

My Lucky Day!

2012-01-18T10:57:00.002-05:00

Earlier, I posted about a fabulous give-away by talented quilter, teacher, and artist Carla Barrett of Feathered Fibers blog.

Last night, I found out that I am the lucky winner of one of Carla's Freeform Crochet necklaces!

This is the beautiful example that she used to illustrate the give-away.

Stunning, yes? But that's not the one I will receive.

Get this...I got to select my own colors for a custom-made necklace!

So hard to choose. I eventually went with jewel tones in blue-green, blue, and violet. Won't that be beautiful!

Carla is going to make this for me once she finishes her current online class called Quilt Whisperer 101.

I still cannot believe it!

More Doodles

2012-01-17T20:27:00.000-05:00

I got caught up on Week 3 of Traci Bautista's online workshop, "Doodles Unleashed." It's part of the free online classes from Strathmore. This week began with writing text in large letters with markers. Then we made a juicy background painting with acrylics, and added stamps from found objects. My found objects were a plastic lid and a spool, but I decided to stencil with my favorite fern stencil. This piece was looking very tropical. I like the colors and the way it glows!

A bonus activity this week is to fill a sheet of paper with India ink doodles using a paintbrush. I have tried doodling with India ink and a Speedball pen before

but had not used a paintbrush until the first week's doodle lesson. So, I made several sheets with various "theme" doodles.

Like my flowers?

How about stars?

A doodled alphabet?

Circles

Squares

Doodling is lots of fun. These bold ink paintings will be cut up and used in collages or other mixed media projects.

Next week we will paint a face on the background we prepared.

Wintry Mountain Weekend

2012-01-16T11:54:00.003-05:00

I had not been to our mountain cabin since early November. Since this is a three-day weekend, Charlie and I loaded the dog up in the truck and came up here to the North Carolina mountains.

As you can see, we got a bit of winter white stuff while we were here. It started snowing Saturday night, and we woke to a nice blanket of white the next day.

We rode around a bit and took some pictures before it started to melt. Some good potential paintings....

Here is something "quilty" at our neighbor's place. They have added one of the popular quilt squares to their shed.

That block looks an awful lot like one that my Cyberbee used for a block swap a few years ago. I made this quilt with those blocks in the border.

Back to our ride. There was a hawk sitting on a tree branch near the road. I think the snow must make it easier for birds of prey to find their next meal.

By the afternoon, the snow had melted in the open areas that get sunshine, but the mountain ridges in the distance looked beautiful covered with white.

When you zoom in on the mountains, it's hard to tell where the sky ends and the mountains begin.

In the late afternoon, the sun is quickly obscured by the mountain. That time of the last golden sunlight is one of my favorite times to take pictures.

Kasey did not hesitate to take her usual dip in the creek when we got to the bottom. She looked so shiny with the water and snow sparkling in the sunlight.

Peak Creek looks very pretty in the winter.

This is our most photographed view of the creek from the bridge to our place. You can see the dam that once powered a copper mine on the top of the mountain.

Today we will stop at Katy and Kenny's in Kernersville on the way home, for a visit with them and my father, who is thriving on the excellent care from my sweet sister. I am looking forward to the visit, but hate to leave this beautiful mountain land.

2012-01-12T19:23:00.002-05:00

What a difference a day makes! Today was warm and sunny. We did a couple of laps around Forgotten Pond, which was all sparkly in the sunlight. Love the reflections of the puffy clouds!

Today's re-organization chore was our way-too-small pantry in the kitchen. Most of the time, you have to push the door shut with your foot, and pray it will close. Much better now!

I went back to yesterday's Strathmore Online Workshop project for Week 2. Here is my watercolor painting with lots of scribbles and marks made with ink, watercolor pencils, and water-soluble crayons.

I kind of preferred the way it looked before all the scribbling when the colors were more clear. But, this is supposed to be cut into smaller pieces and used for other projects. So, let's see what it might look like in small sections.

Now I wish I had left more white space!

One of the workshop participants made a color photocopy of her Week 1 piece and used it to make journals, note cards, and tags. Visit Roben-Marie's blog, Every Life Has a Story, to see her video and samples of what she made with her Doodles painting.

http://www.robenmarie.com/blog/2012/1/10/beyond-doodle-painting.html

Fun With Doodles on a Rainy Day

2012-01-11T19:36:00.000-05:00

This is what it looked like on our greenway walk today. Gray, beige, and wet.

Kasey and I were the only idiots out there. Hope SHE enjoyed it!

I decided it was a good day to work on fun, colorful journal pages. First, I got out my hardcover watercolor journal and turned to a page that I had previously painted with some orange/pink watercolors. This month's theme for The Sketchbook Challenge is DOODLES. So, I used two widths of Sharpies to add some doodle designs.

Doodling is also the theme of the first of this year's Strathmore Online Workshops. If you have any interest in mixed media or art journaling, you should sign up for this free series of online classes with well-known artists. The first series of videos is by Traci Bautista. In the first lesson, you make marks with a variety of paints, markers, and stencils. Then you use India ink and white-out marker to add more marks.

Here is my first lesson. I hear the Seventies are calling, and they want their Flower Power back!

Since I had an extra sheet of watercolor paper handy, I made another one to use up the extra paint.

It is my understanding that these are to be cropped and cut up in future lessons for use as journal covers or other mixed media creations.

I also started Lesson 2 with Traci, which involves painting big shapes with watercolor paint, then adding stamps. When this is all dry, I will write all over it with transparent ink colors- probably my Tsukineko inks.

I highly recommend color therapy for a dismal winter afternoon!

Thinking Like an Artist

2012-01-10T17:21:00.000-05:00

Today I hosted the monthly meeting of the Anything Art quilt bee. I decided that I would share some of the knowledge I have gained from taking so many of Pamela Allen's online art quilt classes. This task was simplified immensely by showing parts of Pamela's DVD, Think Like an Artist.

She goes through her improvisational process of composition, shows how she embroiders and prepares for machine quilting. Then there is an extensive section on how she chooses and attaches her embellishments. Great fun, and we may have an embellishment swap at our next monthly meeting!

I had instructed everyone to bring a small piece of batting and a piece of dark, medium, and light valued fabric for the background. After watching the first part of the video, we got to work creating backgrounds and then adding shapes. The ladies did a good job of getting started on a piece of fabric art.

Peg wanted to try a composition similar to this Monet scene on a Christmas card at the left of the photo. She may make it more snowy when she gets home to her stash and has more white fabric.

Roberta created a still life utilizing some striped fabric. I showed her how to add some dimension to the vase a la Pamela by altering the direction of the stripe.

Ruth-Ellen put together this very charming house and yard with perky fabric prints.

Toni was working on a landscape that was showing a lot of promise.

While the gals were working at their compositions on my kitchen table,

I got lunch ready. I served light, medium, and dark fabric scraps on one side of the counter, and baked ziti and salad on the other side! Nothing like a fabric/salad bar!

Peg brought a book with beautiful Caribbean photographs. I took one look at this lady's portrait and just had to take a picture of that page. (Sorry about the flash reflection on her face.)

The reason is because I had already started a portrait quilt of a bodacious lady and could not decide how to finish her. Several of the participants in Pamela Allen's workshops challenged ourselves to make a woman's face that was full of personality. The portrait in the book reminded me of my lady. Now I think I have an idea! Doesn't my WIP portrait remind you of the one in the book?

Look out lady, you are probably getting a turban and some dreads!

Last year when I hosted, we worked on a watercolor painting lesson, using many of the techniques that I learned in a Karlyn Holman watercolor class at Art of the Carolinas. Ruth-Ellen never finished hers, so she brought it along We were working on a simplified drawing of hollyhocks. Here is the one that I did at AOC.

I have actually painted the hollyhocks four times now. To help Ruth-Ellen with the leaves and flowers, I quickly drew some similar shapes and painted them on a plain sheet of watercolor paper with no background. How very different the flowers look without the juicy background!

Maybe I will add some background color or negative painting.

It was a very fun day with friends!

Whacky Ladies Sew-In Day

2012-01-05T17:22:00.001-05:00

Today was a day of fun and fellowship for the Whacky Ladies, my local quilt bee. For three years in a row, our January meeting has been a sew-in day to make charity quilts to donate to Capital Quilters Guild. The guild donates to neonatal intensive care units, rest home residents, children whose families are in a program for prevention of child abuse, and other worthy causes.

Instead of meeting at Quilts Like Crazy, our LQS, we met at Donna Sontag's new storefront business, Whatever's Quilted. Donna was formerly housed at Quilts Like Crazy, but has moved just down the street at 1318-156 S. Main St. in Wake Forest, NC. Donna offers both hand-guided and computerized longarm quilting service, and also is a dealer for Handi-Quilter machines. She will even train you to use the machines and then rent them to you to quilt your own projects.

Donna showed us the raffle quilt for the Carolina Longarm Association's next show. She did a fabulous job using both computerized and hand-guided quilting.

Many members contributed green fabrics and helped piece the quilt top, which has Tree of Life blocks with an applique vine in the outer border.

Donna cleverly extended the outline of the vine into the plain parts of the border.

The alternate blocks have a beautiful feathered design.

She will turn it in at the CLA meeting in Greensboro on Saturday for someone else to bind.

Another show-and-tell was this amazing American Flag quilt top that Kathy Miller and a group of women are working on for the Veteran's Administration Hospital. It will be used when there is a death of a patient, to respectfully honor and cover the body when it is being moved. Much nicer than draping a white sheet, yes? It will be quilted and donated.

Mary made a quilt at home and donated it to the guild. I think it will be perfect for a Safechild quilt with its happy colors and frog motif.

On to today's projects! I went through a stack of my UFO's and handed them out. Marilyn finished a top made from a pattern in Quilts From Aunt Amy. It is made from muted Civil War reproduction fabrics. It has free-hand circles cut into quarters, then sewn together with raw edge remaining. Once it is quilted and washed, the edges will fray, making a ruffled look. I think this will be great for a rest-home resident as it will have a tactile quality.

Kathy took some of my 5-inch cut squares and made this joyous quilt top for a child.

Two years ago, I made a Yellow Brick Road quilt for Quilts on Wheels, and had lots of leftover blocks and partial blocks. Mary put those together along with some other fabrics that I cut up for her as needed.

Lori also dove into her UFO (Un-Finished Object) pile and came up with enough blocks for two quilts. She made one and Carolyn made the other. They both have nine-patch and alternate blocks in a scrappy design.

Sharon came late and started putting together a top from some orphan blocks of mine. Donna got out her quilt tops from our meeting two years ago, and got them started on her computerized machine during our get-together.

It is so much fun to work on these projects together. In just a few hours we made a lot of quilt tops which will later warm their recipients, body and soul.

Wednesday Work-in-Progress

2012-01-04T23:22:00.002-05:00

I don't think I have done a Wednesday Work-in-Progress post in a long time. Here is the Mary Cassatt color study that I did in Pamela Allen's latest online class. It is based on Portrait of Mlle. C. Lydia Cassatt, the artist's sister.

This piece was cut freehand from fabrics pulled from my stash to try to capture the colors in the palette of the original painting. I have finished hand-stitching all the pieces to a piece of batting, and next will be machine-quilting.

This piece was just supposed to be a study, but I liked it so well that I am going to finish it. The original is an impressionist painting, with a rather lonely-looking woman sitting in a voluminous coat on a park bench. She blends into the background, and there is so much light reflected in the painting although the palette is dark. To try to achieve the same effect, I have used some hand-dyed fabric, wrong side of printed fabric, variegated threads, and it may end up getting some paint applied as well once it is quilted.

I think my lady looks a little happier than Lydia does in her portrait.

Let There Be Light

2012-01-02T17:03:00.002-05:00

Today's project: replace cheap ugly dining room chandelier. The main thing I hated is that those metal rings at the base of the lamps will never stay seated around the base.

When we bought the house, we got to select most of the fixtures and flooring, but the builder had a budget allowance. We went way over on some things, like a leaded glass door and a larger deck and a finished attic. But you have to stop at some point before you upgrade yourself right out of your price range.

So, seventeen years later, here is the new dining room light fixture, installed by my own personal electrician (Charlie.)

I also cleaned the oven and re-arranged my kitchen drawers. Yikes! Who is this stranger who has inhabited my body?

I did finish stitching the handwork on one of my Pamela Allen workshop projects from the last class. I need to machine-applique the face, and then I'll show it to you prior to machine-quilting. It's the color study of the Mary Cassatt portrait. Here it is before stitching.

Some New Artsy/Quilty Things

2011-12-31T17:00:00.001-05:00

Here are a few more things that might interest you from my lovely Christmas gifts. (Amazon Wish List is a wonderful thing! You can add things from any website as you are browsing the web.)

First is the little piece of artwork that Tom Jones enclosed in the package with his book on Watercolor Landscapes. Pretty!

In case I run out of watercolor projects, here is a DVD by Frank Francese that looks like a great way to learn more about the subject. I saw his name listed as an instructor for the summer workshops at Cheap Joe's in Boone.

And another DVD by local quilt artist Lyric Kinard. This one is called Bead It Like You Mean It. It looks really interesting.

We are having extremely mild weather this weekend to celebrate the end of the year. It is sixty and sunny today. Yesterday I took the dog for a walk on a new section of the greenway that begins at the Smith Creek Soccer Center on Heritage Lake Road. Previously this trail followed the creek left to Rogers Road. Now it continues to roughly parallel the creek to the right, all the way to the Highway 98 Bypass. It is not quite finished yet. We saw them installing this metal bridge at the beginning of the new section quite a while ago.

It is somewhat muddy on the unpaved section behind these houses in Heritage.

Then it becomes partly paved, partly boardwalk, as it continues along more woodsy areas. In fact, there are two or three more of these bridges to cross the creek as it meanders along.

It ends at a concrete tunnel that goes under Hwy 98, and is supposed to eventually connect to a trail around the Wake Forest Reservoir on 98.

Kasey was all for exploring the tunnel, but it looked really muddy and dark. No thank you!

It is nice to have a new trail to explore. Kasey is mostly a small golden retriever, but she does not retrieve at all. She loves to stick her nose in grass and dirt and make snorting sounds like a pig. Can she be part terrier?

There are some pretty views of the creek, some nice natural areas,

and a pine woods so thick that it reminds me of the mountains.

I took down all our Christmas decorations today, and spent a long time sealing up the boxes. We are probably going to put our Wake Forest house on the market some time in 2012, and so I packed like we were moving. The prospect is rather daunting because we have been in this house for seventeen years and have accumulated tons of stuff. I am sure you will hear more about this effort next year.

Happy New Year, and I hope it is a good one for you and yours.

One More Hand-Made Gift

2011-12-30T09:43:00.001-05:00

Here is the last of the projects that you glimpsed in my "teaser" post about what I was making. It's the one I started in October 2010 and misplaced until I was making Christmas bookmarks with my embellishing machine this year.

Peak Creek in Autumn, 2011

This piece began with a piece of batting, over which I arranged fabric, fibers, silk and wool roving until I built up the colors and depth and luminosity that I wanted. Then I added additional batting and backing and quilted it on my longarm. That may have been overkill, since this piece is only about 10" x 11". But I find I can "draw" much better with the hand-guided machine.

Of course, this piece was inspired by our favorite place, our mountain retreat. It represents the view from our bridge over Peak Creek, looking downstream. Each afternoon, the sun quickly disappears over the mountain, but the last rays will light up the water and one side of the creek bank. The next photo is the view upstream from the bridge, looking toward the dam.

For that reason, I chose this piece as my study for Chiaroscuro, or Dark and Light, for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge 49. One of the group members issues a challenge each month, and you are supposed to create a piece in one week or less. I guess fourteen months to completion is not fast, but I really spent less than a week on it!

Mountain Barn Watercolor Painting

2011-12-29T14:36:00.000-05:00

For another Christmas gift to my husband, I matted and framed one of the new watercolors that I painted last fall. I began the painting in a workshop with Tom Jones during Art of the Carolinas.

Mountain Barn, 2011

For those of you who live in the area, I have been having my artwork framed at Michaels on Capital Boulevard in Raleigh. I have been happy with their assistance, materials, and service.

I very much admired Tom Jones as a teacher and artist. Charlie bought me his book, Simplified Watercolor Landscapes, for Christmas.

It is in a wonderful format which provides a working sketch, step-by-step instructions with photos, and a photo of the finished painting. Mountains are the subject of several of the lessons, so I know I will be trying them out.

We got a good chuckle when I opened the book and read the personal inscription by the author: "To my new friend and fellow artist Charles: Have fun painting and remember you are better than you think you are." Charlie is many wonderful things, but have never known him to be an artist! I take that back, he was a true artist on the trombone for many years.

There is also a nice little value sketch drawn on the inside cover under the inscription.

He also included a small colored painting on watercolor paper. Tom is a generous artist, as I found out during his class, when he provided all paints and paper for our class, and also gave away the demo painting.

I have been procrastinating all day because I have to take the ornaments down off the Christmas tree. We usually wait until New Year's Day, but we had a leak right before we left for our trip. Either Charlie over-watered, or the water container has a leak. Thankfully we mopped it up before we left, but I expect it is still damp under there, and we need to take it down before our wood floor starts to buckle.

It was a beautiful, cold morning, though, and I took Kasey to the greenway for a walk.

She was on high alert for awhile, stopping and perking up her ears. I thought we might see some deer moving around, but we did not. She gets equally excited over squirrels. I am glad to have a dog to give me a good excuse to walk on pretty mornings like this.

Love having my doggy back home! So does her daddy.

It's Been Very Merry

2011-12-28T19:00:00.002-05:00

Just back today from visits with family in South Carolina and then western North Carolina. We had a blast, but it is good to be home. We got Kasey out of the kennel today, and she is a fluffy golden ball of energy after her grooming.

The visit with the grands was so much fun. Loved spending some time with them.

We had great weather on all the days we traveled, but it rained a little on Christmas afternoon. Lily borrowed Melissa's new umbrella to get in a little bike riding.

When we went to visit the McBrayers in Rutherfordton, NC, we got to see lots of little great-nieces and nephews. I was finally able to meet Lindsay's new baby, Kaylee (and that's little Jada looking on).

Kaylee seemed to like her new quilt!

Charlie got a new quilt, too, but it is an art quilt. Here is Sunday Drive.

I began this quilt back in May in a Faces and Figures workshop with Pamela Allen. It took me forever to ladder- stitch with embroidery floss around all the raw-edge applique.

Some of the tiniest bits are fused, and the figures are zigzagged with invisible thread.

The deer and turkey were cut from commercial novelty prints, but everything else was just cut with scissors freehand. That way it is personal, and reflects "the hand of the artist."

I used dupioni silk for a few of the Christmas trees and also for the Gator.

I quilted it on my Gammill.

On the back label, I did a photo transfer of us on the Gator in the same location, but in the photo we are driving away.

It feels so good to get a project done- especially one that has such personal meaning for us. And in time for Christmas, too! I have two other-hand-made gifts that I will share next time.

Wishing everyone the peace and joy of the season!

Not What I Should Have Been Doing Today

2011-12-21T17:12:00.000-05:00

My little granddaughter, Lily, is learning to write, and loves to draw. I always take a little notebook when we go out to eat for the kids to draw in. I got each of them their own little spiral notebook, but wanted to make a journal for Lily. Then I remembered the Doodlicious Daybook that she helped me make last year. I decided to revise it to make it Five-Year-Old Friendly.

First I swapped out the chrome-colored metal binder rings for pretty colored ones, and added some fiber and ribbon wraps. The front cover is a transparency printed on the computer with my doodles.

The whole journal was inspired by the online 21 Secrets journaling class with Tracie Hanson. We created the painted pages by taking big sheets of brown craft paper and white drawing paper and painting with acrylic paints. Then we cut those up into journal-size pages, often sewing them back to back with other papers. In the photo below, the left side page is one of the painted brown papers outlined with marker. The other side is cardstock painted and stamped. I started a few doodled faces.

Here is a pocket page containing some raw materials to cut up and glue.

I like pocket pages and included several.

I made the pocket from a page with Zentangle doodles.

This page has a mini-book attached, as well as a quilted fabric bookmark. The bird is a glitter transfer. I have given her a few journal start ideas.

On the right is another painted paper from last fall. On the left is a calendar page decorated with a duct tape flower. Don't you love those printed duct tapes?

I never throw anything out, it seems. When I have extra paint left on my palette, I often just spread it around on card stock. I made a tag out of the blue painted flower. There is a message on the back.

Here's another glitter bird transfer perched on the L from Lily's name.

The back cover is watercolor paper with a design stencilled on.

I hope Lily will have fun making art in this journal...and I hope she invites Gigi to do some pages along with her!

Warm Wishes Baby Quilt

2011-12-21T10:27:00.003-05:00

I have decided to go ahead and reveal the baby quilt I just finished last night. It is from the Warm Wishes pattern.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am over a year behind in making quilts for the new babies of family and friends. I decided this one would be for the newest baby, since we are going to visit them over Christmas. I don't think they read this blog, so I won't be spoiling any surprise.

Since it is for a little girl, I made lots of swirly flower designs as I quilted. Several of the fabrics have flowers, so that tied in the motif.

This pattern is very easy to put together. You do need yardage rather than fat quarters if you are going to use the strip piecing method.

Quilt Whisperer Give-away

2011-12-19T18:22:00.003-05:00

Today I will pass along a chance to win a great prize from The Quilt Whisperer, Carla Barrett. She is a fantastic longarm quilter, does freeform crochet, peyote stitch beading, and creates original cartoons featuring a rather sarcastic chicken.

Carla is having a free blog giveaway and is holding another Quilt Whisperer Class on January 9, 2012, a creative class on quilting design for all levels of quilters.

You can read about both the giveaway of one of her creations and the class on her blog, Feathered Fibers.

If I win, I will ask for one of her freeform beaded necklaces. Here is an example of one.

Framed Sunflowers

2011-12-17T19:29:00.000-05:00

I can now reveal one of our gifts to Dave and Emily: one of my watercolor paintings that I had matted and framed.

I chose the same green velvet mat as my Hollyhocks picture, but the frame has a golden gleam. There is a bit of reflection showing in the glass in the photo. They seemed to like the picture, which is actually a mixed media piece. I added painted tissue paper to the watercolor painting to add more depth of color and some texture. There is also some texture added by sanding watercolor pencils over a piece of lace on the blue background areas. You can see that better in this picture of the unframed painting.

I received a copy of a book I have been craving: Masters Art Quilts, Vol. 2, curated by Martha Sielman.

This is a fascinating collection of art quilts by men and women from around the globe. Only a few of the names were familiar to me, such as Paula Nadelstern, Laura Wasilowski, and Jane Dunnewold. How wonderful to be introduced to so many new works of arts made with diverse techniques.

We also got a fabulous gift of an Apple TV device. We can now view our computer or phone images, videos, music or other media on the television wirelessly. How cool is that!

We had a great dinner at Bocci's Trattoria and Pizzeria in Cary. None of us had been there before, so we each ordered a different entree and shared them family style. Now it is one of my favorite local restaurants! Great food and service. The meatballs were the size of baseballs. There was snow crab ravioli- yum!

To really get into the Christmas spirit, we went to see the Christmas lights at one house near Dave and Emily's. They have a phenomenal light show which is synchronized to music they broadcast on an FM station.

They were rocking the Trans-Siberian Railroad music

and then went into The Star-Spangled Banner. It was awesome!

A relaxing soak in the hot tub while it poured down rain outside was the perfect ending to a great evening.

The Elves Have Been Busy

2011-12-16T12:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my Gammill was purring all day. I finished the quilting on two projects, and got about halfway through another. Can't really reveal them yet, but here are some teasers.

This is a detail of a needle-felted wall quilt that I started for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge 49, use of chiaroscuro, or light and dark.

I obviously was not very fast, since this challenge was from around September 2010, and it is supposed to be done in one week! I guess all together I have spent less than a week on it, but this little piece got lost in my sewing room. Go figure! I found it when I was working on the bookmarks for my art quilt group a couple weeks ago.

This one is a small detail of a Pamela Allen class workshop quilt that I started last May. I am so happy with this one.

Here is a detail from a baby quilt that is still on the machine. I actually went to a fabric store and chose coordinating fabrics for this project from a Moda line. Usually I use stash fabrics and make scrappy quilts. The bright yellow is the only one that I had on hand. I used the Warm Wishes pattern.

I am about a year-and-a-half behind on making baby quilts. In fact, I quit piecing almost entirely. I guess it was because I was doing long-arm quilting for customers, and making small art quilts.

You know, even when you've acquired a skill set, such as quiltmaking, you do have to use it or lose it. First, I forgot that I had changed the tension settings on my Janome when I was using metallic threads for the bookmarks. I made about five long strip sets for this quilt before discovering that my tension was set on "0." The bobbin thread was one long straight line. Then, I thought I was using my quarter-inch foot. I was not. My seams were about 3/8 inch. After a bit of frogging, I started to make some progress.

All week I have been discovering what I fondly call "Lily Tracks" around my house and yard. Lily Tracks used to be crayon, marker, chalk, and paint marks with which she decorated the walls. Fortunately, she quit doing that. Now she likes to rearrange things.

I noticed the deer on the roof of this house right away, because it is in our downstairs powder room.

I did not notice the continuing theme of deer on the roof until this morning.

No one has asked me why there was an empty hummingbird feeder decorating one of my garden flagpoles.

Lily had some help from Caden on this one. They built a "Wal-Mark" by putting gravel from our driveway into the back yard. And were supposed to get it all out of the grass before they left. Whoops!

Tonight we are going to Cary to celebrate Christmas with son Dave and DIL Emily. Poor things, they are going to Florida and Key West for Christmas this year with Emily's family. We will be going out to dinner, exchanging gifts, and hopefully spending time in their hot tub. I have been looking forward to that all week!

Speaking of Dave, he asked to borrow some of my "tacky Christmas sweaters" for a party about three years ago. You can see them all in this post. Any way, I never got them back- they were destined to be Tacky Party sweaters forever. But this year, Dave's office had an Ugly Christmas Sweater contest at their holiday party. My beautiful Snowy Christmas Chapel sweater with beads and glitter won him $75.00 for first prize!

Okay, maybe on a guy who is six and a half feet tall, it ~~might~~ does look a little tacky. But the second place prize went to one of his co-workers, who was wearing another of my sweaters...the The Saggy Stained Sweater with Christmas Tree. I inherited that one from my mother-in-law who also worked in an elementary school. Teachers really rock the holiday themes from head to toe.

Dave is promising to take me out to lunch some day with some of his prize money.

Big Family Christmas Party

2011-12-13T10:39:00.001-05:00

I am finally recovering from our family weekend when we hosted the Turner rellies for a Christmas get-together. Lots of love and tons of fun, but I was pretty wiped out for a couple days afterward!

Our kids arrived on Friday afternoon, and we had a nice visit with the fairly small group.

Here is our Lily sitting on her grandfather's lap.

The next day we set up extra tables and chairs, moved the fire pit to the end of the driveway, and hosted an indoor/outdoor party on a cold but clear wintry day.

We had great help from Bryson, Dave, Emily, and Melissa. Here are my girls enjoying a preview of the meatballs before the big gang arrived.

The kids were very happy that we brought the Gator home from the mountains in November.

My 13-year-old great-niece loved driving them all around the yard.

Although my dad has retired from being the official turkey carver, we had to take the ceremonial picture of him with the turkey. Make that plural...Charlie cooked two nice ones in the smoker this year.

When it was time to eat, the chow line wrapped almost all the way around the kitchen and living room and out the door.

One of the most memorable moments was when Dad gave my niece, Adrienne, a portrait of her mother. We lost Paula to cancer just a couple of months ago. Dad finished this portrait recently, one of his first serious works of art since his debilitating bout of pneumonia last April. Her sister Jessie got one, too.

To celebrate Dad's return to better health and the ability to make art again, all of his kids chipped in to get him a nice new wooden taboret for his painting supplies. Somehow the one that he had been using for 55 years just did not look so good any more.

Then he surprised all of us with a beautifully matted and framed giclee copy of his portrait of our beautiful mother, Betty Lou Turner. What a wonderful gift!

When we have these family gatherings, I often think about how much my mother would have loved to be there, enjoying her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We also lost her to cancer at age 60, way way too soon. Love you, Mom!

Candlewicking Quilt is Done!

2011-12-09T14:50:00.001-05:00

All finished...this beautiful embroidered quilt with Debbie L's candlewicking blocks. I quilted and finished it for her. I am so pleased with the sculptured look of the quilt!

I started off being very timid about quilting inside the embroidered areas, but then I saw how the background quilting made them pop. After that I plunged right in had fun coming up with a different design for each embroidered square.

All of the sashings are a leafy vine. The backing and binding fabrics are the same paisley print.

I must say, the backing looks about 1000% better than the pre-quilted backing that the top had been attached to before. It looks pretty enough to stand on its own.

I am excited that my family is coming to my house this weekend for a family Christmas dinner. We all have grown kids and most have grandkids, and it is too hard to expect everyone to travel on Christmas Day. Charlie and I have been bustling around for the past two weeks getting ready. I will have some pictures to show on Monday, I am sure!

Alliance for American Quilts Auction

2011-12-06T10:13:00.001-05:00

Readers of my blog are familiar with the name of quilt artist Pamela Allen.

I have participated in at least five of her online classes about making art quilts. She is a master teacher as well as a master quilter and artist.

One of her quilts is currently being auctioned on E-bay to raise funds for the Alliance for American Quilts.

Does This Look Like a Garden to You?, Pamela Allen

The Alliance For American Quilts is located right in my state of North Carolina. Its mission is "to document, preserve, and share our American quilt heritage by collecting the rich stories that historic and contemporary quilts, and their makers, tell about our nation's diverse peoples and their communities."

The current week's E-bay auctions include art quilts by other well-known quilters such as Jamie Fingal,

Soul Sisters, Jamie Fingal

Allison Aller,

Alliances: Soil and Sky, Allison Aller

Pat Holly,

Dancing Elephants, Pat Holly

and Yvonne Porcella.

Hi 5, Yvonne Porcella

You can see all of the quilts in the current auction group at The Alliance for American Quilts website. Instructions for bidding are included on the same page.

What a great chance to own a piece of original fiber art, and help a worthy cause at the same time! Bidding ends on December 12.

December Anything Art!

2011-12-05T19:48:00.001-05:00

What a nice day with the Anything Art Bee! For the third year in a row, we held our December meeting at Ruth-Ellen's home. Potato latkes were once again on the menu, along with some great salads, kugel, and desserts.

Here are the needle-felted bookmarks that I made for this group- not at all Christmasy! I found a piece of water-soluble fabric that I had already made to look like sea and sky. I decided to make it larger and cut it up for bookmarks. Since it was on the water-soluble base, I also had to do some stitching or it would all fall apart when I washed out the base.

I added a little Angelina for sparkle. The edges are zigzagged with turquoise thread.

The backs are watercolor paper painted to match. One is stamped, as well.

We had fun talking about our classes at Art of the Carolinas. Ruth-Ellen had her Colorful Boats painting from a Karlyn Holman class, and her art journal begun in a workshop with Suzanne McNeill.

I had one of my class paintings framed and brought it with me, but can't show it yet! (Surprise!)

Roberta did a demo at AOC on making brooches from paper slide frames, and gave us each one. Super cute!

Mine has a rose made of text. Some of the others had a dangling bead.

We had some more great show and tell and lots of time to visit. Next month we will meet at my house for a review of some of the art quilt techniques I have learned in my Pamela Allen online workshops.

Red Flowers Postcard

2011-12-04T16:35:00.001-05:00

I found a little time to make a few more small surprises this weekend.

I rediscovered my needle-felting machine (Babylock Embellisher) and made a little birthday card for my former daughter-in-law.

I felted the red silk roving that I dyed with Kool-Aid to a piece of hand-painted fabric. I also added some yarn and some very sparkly variegated fibers that I purchased.

The back is a piece of a watercolor painting with some added stamping.

I needle-felted and stitched some more bookmarks, which I will wait until tomorrow to post since they are surprises for my art quilt bee.

We got the Christmas tree put up and some of the indoor decorations. I still have to hang up the Christmas quilts and put out the Nativity scene. Not to mention get my house ready for all the Turners to come for our annual Christmas dinner next Saturday. A busy time of year, but a wonderful season of love.

The weather has turned slightly colder, which helps it seem a bit more like Christmas. But it would really seem more like Christmas if it would do this again!

Whacky Ladies Christmas Brunch

2011-12-02T14:34:00.001-05:00

Today was the Christmas brunch for my local quilt bee, The Whacky Ladies. We met at Brig's in Wake Forest for a delightfully calorie-laden breakfast. Now I can reveal what I have been working on this week.

First off is the Church Ladies Apron that I made for the Dirty Santa gift exchange.

It is reversible, with an apple print on one side, and a black and gold Debbie Mumm stars print on the other. It has a scalloped bottom edge.

Both sides have double pockets.

This one was snatched back and forth in the game where you can choose the next wrapped gift, or "steal" an opened one. Mary got this, which was then stolen by Donna, and finally stolen back by Mary since she was #1.

The pattern was fairly easy to follow, except for the pockets. Those took me two afternoons, and I had to do a Google search for this apron to see how to use the fabrics!

My gift was a tote bag, which I "stole" from Irene. It was made by Mary!

It closes with Velcro and has an interior pocket as well as an outside pocket.

We also exchange small trinkets or ornaments at the brunch. This year I made funky bookmarks out of quilted or painted fabric and watercolor or scrapbook paper.

This group had feathers quilted on hand-dyed fabric. The center one was just card stock decorated with Neocolor II water-soluble crayons.

These were quilted and then painted with Shiva oil paint sticks.

Here are some more quilted ones.

On the backs of some of these are the watercolor test paper from my class at Art Students Academy when I did the Linn Cove Viaduct painting.

All of these are made from leftover bits of quilting or painting projects, so it is fun to rummage through my "leftovers bin" to make these bookmarks.

Here are the goodies I received from the other "Whackies."

The green object that looks something like a hand grenade is a pomander ball made from a lime. It smells divine! And don't you love the gingerbread man on the spatula! Irene made us each two quilted coasters.

Got to get ready for my other bee on Monday...and an office party tonight at Brio's in Crabtree Valley with my husband's co-workers.

Heading for the Holidays

2011-11-29T14:04:00.001-05:00

Wow! Thanksgiving has already come and gone! Time to put away the turkey

and take out the Christmas decorations!

Both of the above quilts are 24" wall quilts that I made for my son Dave and his wife, Emily. We had a nice Thanksgiving buffet at Margaux in Raleigh, a restaurant I highly recommend. Then it was so warm that we sat outside on the back deck until the stars came out. Charlie built us a fire in the fire pit, and we had a relaxing day.

On Friday. our South Carolina family came up and stayed the weekend. On Saturday, Charlie and I took the three kids to the Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh. That was an amazing place, and the best bargain in town at only $5.00 per head.

All three kids were captivated by all the hands-on interactive activities.

The oldest, Avery, showed up this time with a semi-Mohawk and a rat-tail. We like him anyway.

This morning I had to go get "my girls" checked by mammogram at 9:00 and was done by 9:10. It was raining when I left, but as soon as the sun came out I loaded Kasey in the car to go for a walk on the greenway. I could walk there, but since hurting my ankle last summer I prefer to drive and save my steps.

Sometimes when the weather has been bad, we have been lucky enough to see deer emerging on the greenway. Sure enough, we had just gotten started when I saw this pretty lady.

We both just froze and looked at each other. I was able to raise my camera to take her picture, and she actually started walking toward me. She and Kasey did not even notice each other.

About that time, four or five other deer came up behind her. They all turned and went into the creek. There are at least three of them in the next picture...Where's Waldo?

The creek was very swollen from the rain.

It spilled over the rocks at the cascade with a lot of energy.

I am almost finished binding and tying off the threads on the candlewick quilt, and will show pictures of it next time. Meanwhile, I have two Christmas parties on Friday. One is my bee's annual brunch. I am working on a gift for our Secret Santa exchange. Can't show you yet!

Happy Turkey Day!

2011-11-22T19:27:00.001-05:00

Here is a very sunny turkey, made once again from the leftover paint on my watercolor palette.

He started out to be another "Imaginary Animal" for The Sketchbook Challenge theme this month, but he got turned into the guest of honor of the traditional American Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow Charlie comes home, Thursday Dave and Emily will be here, and Friday Bryson and Melissa and their kids will come for the weekend.

The candlewick quilt has about one-third of the binding hand-sewn on. I will work on it tonight during the finals of Dancing With the Stars.

Mountain Fresh

2011-11-21T11:01:00.001-05:00

It was sunny and mild in the mountains yesterday, too. Charlie sent me this photo of our bed quilt and comforter getting freshened on the line in our back yard.

I'm going to try to finish the quilting on the candlewicking quilt today, and get the binding sewn on.

Swirly Girls, Show-and-Tell, Paintings and Projects

2011-11-20T19:40:00.001-05:00

On my last blog post, I did not mention the great Guild meeting on Thursday night. After the art museum Rembrandt exhibit, my friend Donna and I went to dinner and then to the Capital Quilters Guild meeting. The evening's lecture was by The Swirly Girls, who were two lovely, funny, and talented ladies from Midlothian, Virginia. Susan and Christine told the story of their partnership in fabric and pattern design, and had an awesome trunk show of many of their quilts. I highly recommend them if your Guild needs speakers! This picture is from their website.

Enjoy the trunk show, peering around people's heads like I did!

We also had a great guild show-and-tell.

I bought some more watercolor painting kits from my mentor, Karlyn Holman, at Art of the Carolinas last weekend. I started one of them this weekend. I found out that this one does not have a corresponding lesson in the DVD or book Watercolor Without Boundaries, so I just plunged in. Later I found it in her other book, Watercolor Fun and Free. I was not following procedure very well. Oh, well. I like it!

The weather was so warm and gorgeous today that after our walk, Kasey and I sat outside on our deck, gazing at the woods.

I continued stitching the Mary Cassatt color study that I put together for my latest Pamela Allen class. This photo is before any of the hand embroidery, because right now it is stuck full of pins.

I also attempted Lesson 4, which was to compose an abstract version of our selected subject. I have been working on landscapes for this class. I put together this piece by just layering fabrics and cutting a few shapes that might be part of a mountain landscape. Hmm, apparently it is too realistic.

I like it, and might keep it despite the fact that it was not approved as an abstract. I will try again!