Great Mail to Brighten the Day

It is still cold, rainy, and windy today...but I have lots of shiny pretty things that arrived yesterday to fondle and admire!

First was a big Priority Mail box that returned my little art quilt, Second-Hand Rose, who has been traveling with the Breaking Traditions 2008 art quilt exhibit. Rose still looks good despite all the little flowers and beads attached to her.

In the box with Rose were two door prizes that I won for participating in the 2009 Breaking Traditions exhibit with my quilt Mountain Home. One prize was this wonderful little piece of pottery. It is a teabag saucer, donated by the exhibit curator Lynn Krawczyk. I love original pottery, and this piece fits right in with my home decor.


In addition to the little plate, I received a funky hand-knitted pouch donated by Vickie Boteler. I had just e-mailed to my friend Cathie Recca that I would love to try freeform knitting and crochet...and that very day received this little purse made of many different fibers. It is so cute...reminds me of a little hanging bird's nest.


Here it is hanging on my dragonfly wall hooks, along with a treasured mountain fiber art piece that I purchased at the Grove Park Inn gallery years ago.

After posting this blog, I started to put away the prizes and discovered another little surprise that I had overlooked...a piece of hand-dyed fabric and a lovely fiber cord from Chris Daly at Dye Candy! Thank you, Chris!

In the same mail, I received this fabulous hand-dyed fabric that I ordered from Vicki Welsh's Etsy shop. It is one yard of a gradient from fuchsia to blue. I love the variations in the colors, and plan to use this piece in a Layered Waves workshop with Ginny Eckmieir next week.

And since I was fondling fabric, it was only right that my package from Hancock's of Paducah arrived shortly after that, with this lovely assortment of batiks in bright jewel tones. The fabrics have ferns, hummingbirds, butterflies, and leaves- all my favorites.

I also ordered some packaged battings by Quilters Dream. I had never tried the Puff batting before, but wanted to try it for some old and puckery quilt tops that I have promised to finish for my sister-in-law. I have been putting these off for a long time, but am ready to start the first one. The Puff batting is polyester with a nice loft to it, that I am hoping will disguise some of the fullness in the star quilt tops. But, even my husband agreed, this batting is delightfully, delectably soft! It is supposed to be light in weight but incredibly warm. I will let you know how well it works with my Gammill.

Exhibits, Prize, and Blog Awards

It is officially an exhibit! Breaking Traditions 2008:With One Voice is now hanging for exhibit at the American Sewing Expo in Novi, Michigan, this weekend. These twelve-inch quilts look great pinned together as one large piece! This exhibit of art quilts celebrating the good in this world has raised $1085 for the American Cancer Society. My quilt, Second-Hand Rose, is the last one on the right in the third row from the top, . I also found out that I won a participation prize of some Artgirlz products, which is kind of fun! Thanks to Lynn Krawczyk, the challenge coordinator, for allowing the use of her photographs. She has done a fantastic job raising money for cancer with this project.

Now I must also give thanks for two awards that I have recently received.

From Susan Loftin of Sunrise Quilt Studio, I received the Kreativ Blogger Award.

I had not "met" Susan before she bestowed this award on me. When I browsed through her blog, it was interesting to see that she is also working on a Grand Canyon landscape quilt! Except hers actually has some fabric on it. Mine is still a drawing, but it is now enlarged to about 24 x 36. I want it to be bigger, maybe 40 x 60.

The rules for this award:

1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.

2. Put a link to the person you got the award from.

3. Nominate 5 blogs

4. Put links to the blogs.

5. Leave a message for your nominees.

I also received an award on the same day from Lynn Majidimehr at LAM's Blog.

Isn't this cute? I was really proud that Lynn passed this along to me, because she is an art quilter extraordinaire and also a pattern designer. Lynn was in the same inspirational online class with me, Think Like an Artist with Pamela Allen. But even before that, we were reading each other's blogs. She is also signed up for the Journal Making for the Fiber Artist workshop with Sue Bleiweiss. Here are the rules for this blog award:

The rules of this award are as follows:

1. The winner can put the logo on the blog.

2. Put a link on the blog to the person who awarded it.

3. Nominate at least seven other blogs.

4. Put links to those you nominate and

5. Advise those you have nominated.

Oh my, how am I going to nominate all these blogs? I certainly did not have time to do this when I received the nominations on September 15. I have about sixty-five subscriptions in Google Reader, which lets me know when they have been updated. Many of these blogs have received multiple award nominations. This is not following the rules, but I hereby pass these awards along to any of my blog readers who would like to be nominated. I enjoy reading blogs and am so inspired to see the beautiful creations of talented fiber artists out there. If you would like to be officially nominated, I will certainly do so.

Thank you, Lynn and Susan, for passing along the award to me. I "heart" your blogs and think both of you are Kreativ Bloggers.

"Second-Hand Rose" is off on an adventure

Introducing my newest baby, "Second-Hand Rose!"

If you have been reading my blog, you have seen the preliminary pictures of her. The final edition has a little metallic gold paint added to the fabric beads, a few Swarovski crystals, and a pretty label for the back.

Having just been born and christened, Rose has already embarked on a trip to Michigan! She will be part of the Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit at the American Sewing Expo in Novi, Michigan at the Rock Financial Showplace. The exhibit dates for 2008 are September 26 - September 28.

After that show, she will either be coming back home, or extending her trip as part of the traveling exhibit from this show. We are not sure of the total number of quilts that will be finished by the deadline on Saturday. Lynn is expecting more than sixty quilts!

The purpose of the exhibit is to raise money for the American Cancer Society. The quilts are not being sold, but the entry fees for the show are all being donated. This year Breaking Traditions is teaming up with Virginia Spiegel's Fiberart for a Cause.

The theme of this year's exhibit is "With One Voice." Quilts submitted for the exhibit should focus on the positive influence of individuals/organizations/projects that are doing good in the world.This year's exhibit seeks to give a voice to all those who work tirelessly to enrich our lives.

I had several ideas for the creation of my quilt, but decided to encourage the re-use and re-cycling of materials in art. We can all be a friend to the planet by making something beautiful instead of adding to the landfill! (Or always adding to our fabric stash!)

Rose's outer border (and back) is made from an embroidered skirt from our local Good Will thrift shop, and her silk flowers are deconstructed from some of my old candle rings. I sewed on some pretty commercial beads for the flower centers, and scattered additional beads throughout the background.

She also has beads made from strips of fabric and fiber left over from other projects. I couldn't resist the name "Second-Hand Rose." Rose was inspired by an article in Quilting Arts Magazine by Frances Holliday Alford. She is constructed of two pieces of stiff interfacing covered with fabric. The top piece also has two layers of Textiva, one pink and one turquoise. That is where Rose gets her shine.

The Textiva film is burned away in spots with a heat gun after quilting, revealing the pink "undergarment" fabric.Rose may be a little over-exuberant, a little too flashy, perhaps even a little gaudy, but I hope she will find love on her travels!