Getting ready for Greensboro

It is down to crunch time, as I now have one week to prepare for my stint as guest lecturer at the Piedmont Quilters Guild in Greensboro. The topic is "The Evolution of an Art Quilter." Getting my photographs ready, researching quotations, compiling a list of products and resources...so many things to think about! I did think ahead to order some Mini-Moos which I will hand out. I want to get a fancy hole punch and some fibers to add to these to make bookmarks. Of course, I would like to finish Carolina Woodland Spring to take along. (See December 29 post.) I was planning to make a quilted jacket to wear, but doubt that will happen. I started taking my art quilts off the walls at home to bring for show-and-tell. Two of them did not have labels, so yesterday I dragged my still-ailing self upstairs and created one for Color Me Happy and Summer Jewels. These are not too inspired, but they look pretty in person with their sparkling crystals. They don't lay too flat because of all the dimensional quilting in these thick quilts.

Another Painted Quilt

Here is another little trapunto quilt that I finished painting, "bejeweling," and binding yesterday. I made three of these little twelve-inch quilts to audition the appearance of different colors of felt beneath a white batiste top. This one had a purple felt layer, which really came out looking drab and gray as a shadow trapunto. The white feather circle is white Quilters' Dream Poly batting that has been cut away after quilting with water-soluble thread. I never intended this project to be a keeper, but after painting with Tsukineko inks and adding some Swarovski crystals, this little guy really came to life! I just ordered fifteen more brush-tip markers for applying the inks, since some of mine are getting a little frayed.

I originally called this piece "Lavender Blue," but that no longer seems right for this riot of color. It sort of reminds me of the hippie designs of the sixties and seventies, so I decided to re-name it "Color Me Happy."