Mountain Beauty

Here are a few pictures from our weekend in the North Carolina mountains.  Some of the leaves have already fallen, probably due to windy conditions.  But it was still picture perfect!  We decided to go to the State park on top of Mt. Jefferson.  Here I am with Mr. Quilty.

There are lots of big rocks for the kids to climb.

Or climb under and pretend you're a bear.

When we get back in a couple weeks, the frost will probably have killed all the flowers and butterflies, and most of the leaves will be gone.  Which made this weekend even more special.

Nice Surprise...Two State Fair Ribbons!

We went to our cabin in the North Carolina mountains again this weekend.  Beautiful weather and beautiful foliage, although it was a bit colder this time.  Our son Bryson and two little grandkids were with us- so much fun.

Tonight I was going through all the e-mail that had piled up since Friday, since we do not have Internet up there.  I got some good news from my friend Donna Sontag that she spotted ribbons hanging on both of my N.C. State Fair entries!

Japanese Garden won a blue ribbon in the Other Techniques category.  It is a quilted, painted, and beaded wholecloth quilt made from a piece of Oriental-looking batik.

 I think this is the first time that one of my State Fair quilts has been hung up on the wall surrounding the quilt exhibits.  Here is Japanese Garden in a better picture, and you can read my post about it here.

The other quilt I entered was the recently revised Maggy Trees a Coon.  It appears to be hanging sideways in this display.  Now why would they do that?  Anyway, it got a third place ribbon in Wall Hangings.

 Here it is, right-side up, for those who have not seen it before.  The night before I turned it in at the fair, I decided to paint the tree trunks, branches, and foliage that I had quilted in the background.  I think that made a big difference. You can read about this quilt here and here.

Donna also got recognition at the fair for her entries.  She did not enter any quilts, but got a blue ribbon on a hand-knitted sweater, and a second place for this beautiful Christening gown that she made for her granddaughter.

I have some great mountain photos to share, as well as some pretty customer quilts, which I will get to next time.

Bento Box quilt

I have been diligently working on my Gammill quilting machine this week.  Here is a gorgeous quilt top by Joann Gilbert in the Bento Box pattern.



The black and gold are very striking.  Some of the fabrics feature metallic threads.  Since the border was black with a swirly gold print, I used swirly motifs for the quilting. 

  



  



The backing is a cozy flannel fern print in these amazing colors. 

I woke this morning to the strange sound of thunder.  Usually our Southern thunderstorms occur in afternoon and evenings.  It has been raining hard all morning.  A rather gloomy day!

The birds are quite active, however.  This mockingbird is sitting in my weeping cherry tree, which has already lost its leaves.

Tis the Season for the burning bush shrub to glow, even on a dark and dreary day.

The crepe myrtles are also turning a beautiful gold/coral combination.



I have a super-bright quilt on the frame, almost in seventies colors and themes.  Hope your day is happy!

Autumn Leaves Art Quilt-and Altered Art Envelope



                             

I have been waiting to post this little guy for several weeks now.  It was a birthday present for my father.

 I actually began this project during my Pamela Allen online workshop last February. We were instructed to choose paintings of flowers and leaves and use them to make fabric studies . My father had sent a photocopy of this painting on a card, and I used it for one of my fabric sketches.

When his September birthday was getting near, I revised that little nature sketch and completed this small art quilt, which is about 6" x 8". I added some gold metallic paint for some shine, and sewed on some glass beads for sparkle. I quilted it on my domestic sewing machien, not the longarm.


My father now lives in the North Carolina mountains, not too far from our place in Laurel Springs. We have not been able to get together in person since his birthday. The last two times we have gone up there, he has gone to my brother's lake house in Tennessee. So, I finally decided to mail his quilt to him.
Since I have been interested in mixed media and visual art journaling, I have been looking on You-Tube and other websites for tutorials. I saw this one by Roben-Marie Smith on making artsy mailing envelopes, and decided to make one for mailing this project.

You take a file folder, use glue stick to attach fabric and papers, and stitch over the whole thing on the sewing machine. I used a foam leaf stamp and Lumiere paints to add the gleaming leaves, and did some outlining and doodling with Sharpie markers. The beautiful autumn scene behind the address label is the cover of a Coldwater Creek catalog. (For privacy, I blocked out the addresses in this photo.)

The back has random strips of fabric and paper, and I added some lettering in the squares.

I chose to line the inside of my envelope with a coordinating piece of scrapbook cardstock in a orange polka-dot.  You would not really have to line it.

Funny story:  Dad called me last night to thank me for the beautiful fabric postcard!  He said he took it to the dinner table to show it off last night, and his dinner companions all admired it, but wondered what was inside.  He said, No, this is a fabric postcard.  They took bets on whether there was something inside.  He did not want to tear into it if he wasn't supposed to! 

The problem was that I did not start with a large enough base to make a big flap.  Instead of a regular file folder with a tab, I used a hanging file folder and had to cut off the casings that hold the metal hanger.  In order to keep the narrow flap closed, I had to use a glue gun to seal the flap.

So, I told Dad to get out his mat knife and carefully open the flap at the top without cutting through the contents.  Ta-Da!  Now he wants to frame his original painting, my fabric interpretation AND the mailing envelope together!

Another Cute Quilt

This quilt that I just finished for my friend and customer Karen uses such fresh, cheerful prints in both pastel and bright hues of pink, green, and yellow.

I did an overall design similar to one of Darlene Epps' in her freehand series of books.  The customer chose "Rose" thread, very appropriate!

The back is green and pink polka dots of all sizes.  Very cute!

Maggy Quilt Gets a Paint Job

After showing my art quilt, Maggy Trees a Coon at my two bees and at the Carolina Longarm Quilt Show, I decided to revise it a bit.  The quilt had lots of freehand outline quilting in the negative spaces to represent trees and foliage, but the stitching really did not show up well unless examined up close.

Out came the Tsukineko inks, Fantastiks applicators, and Fabrico markers.  I tinted many of the quilted motifs and then heat-set with an iron.



Before painting



After painting


It is always kind of scary to take a finished quilt and start applying paint.  What if you mess up?  I wiped the applicators off on scrap muslin until they were fairly dry before touching them to the quilt.  No blobs, seepage, or errors occured.


After painting

 All the little branches and twigs were traced and filled in.

I hope the use of lighter colors for some of the trees gives an illusion of depth, which I think was lacking before.


Before painting




After painting



Painted tree trunks, branches, and foliage

Now Maggy is on another excursion.  I dropped her off at the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh.  The Fair starts Thursday and will last ten days. Maybe I will go visit her there before it ends!

Perfect Weekend in Mountains

It was warm and sunny, and the air felt soft.   The trees are turning colors and reflecting beautifully in the creek and pond.   There are still lots of flowers and butterflies.  I hope you enjoy some of the scenery from our mountain weekend.