Needle-Felted WIP's

Here are some new pics of what I have been working on during the few hours of time in the mornings before I report to work.

This is the first project from the Trash to Treasure fabric from the Creative Challenge. I took the largest piece, quilted it to a piece of muslin with dark green and bright pink threads, and folded it to make a clutch-style purse. The flap is kind of funky and wavy. The lining is a fuchsia-colored moire fabric. Right now the flap is just pinned down until I decide what type of closure to use. I also left openings for a strap, but am undecided about whether or not I want one.

Then, I was messing around with my BabyLock Embellisher, and tried to create a fabric with similar colors as the Trash Bag fabric, but not as crunchy in texture! This piece has only a piece of commercial cotton as the base. It is a beautiful painterly-looking fabric with gold metallic dots. I have added silk fibers and some rainbow organza that I stamped with turquoise metallic paint. I also added some Angelina and yarns. I wet-felted the piece, then zapped with a heat gun. I am loving the look of this.

The last piece is needle-punched to a piece of soft cotton batting. I covered it with some orange hand-dyed fabric, and just added some silk, organza, sari ribbon, organza, and other bits of fabric. This may become a postcard background.

Finally, I received the first of the two Collage Mania pieces I purchased in the mail yesterday. Fluttering is even more beautiful in person. Please visit Annette Rogers' website to be blown away by her talent in painting and fiber art. We have had a nice e-mail correspondence, during which I found out she lives in Raleigh and also has a house in the North Carolina mountains not far from our place.

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."

CLA Challenge Quilt and Artsy Bookmarks

I belong to a group of Longarm quilters from North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina, called the Carolina Longarm Association. We are having a quilt show in November, for which I have entered the challenge. A kit was provided with fabric and instructions for this star quilt. Very simple design with lots of quilting opportunities. The whole thing is only about 24 inches square. HMMMN, do I do a traditional feather design? Venture into trapunto? Use wild shiny threads? This will be fun.

Since I got my sewing room semi-orderly yesterday, I decided to immediately mess it up by finishing some artsy bookmarks. I used my Tsukineko inks and Shiva Paintstiks to add some designs to heavy watercolor paper, then cut them into bookmarks. I was going to use them "as is," but decided it would be much more fun to add some fiber "tails." After I did that, I thought it would be fun to add some sparkle with Angelina fibers. I sprinkled a little Bo-Nash powder and ironed on the Angelina between sheets of parchment.

This is one reason I keep every little scrap of ribbon, beading, or other potential embellishment around for inspiration. Wonder if my library book pages will be sparkling when I turn them in?

These were lots of fun. Next time I will add the Angelina before cutting out the bookmarks so the edges are a little cleaner. I stitched around a few of them with invisible thread to hold down the fibers.

This is the other side of the same bookmarks.

I just bought ANOTHER quilt book!

Have you become a member of The Quilt Show yet? I joined as a Gold Star member, but really have not browsed the site much until the last few days. I have uploaded four of my quilts to the picture gallery. When you do that, your quilt images are shown at the very beginning of the gallery pages. Yesterday, I got a nice note from a quilter who had seen my pictures. After a few e-mails back and forth, she sent me a picture of a postcard she made with silhouettes of her grandchildren. It is stunning- and she kindly sent me the instructions for her process. She used black Ultrasuede for the silhouettes. Next time I am around Avery and Lily, I will be trying to get them to hold still long enough to take their portraits for silhouettes. Thanks, Margo!

I actually watched one of the shows with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson this morning. It featured quilter Vikki Pignatelli, who is best known for quilting with curves. She demonstrated her techniques and showed some of her stunning quilts. They are very organic, with lots of trees, leaves, water lilies...she must be a fellow nature lover. So, I ordered her book Quilting By Improvisation, and now must visit a fabric store not only for Ultrasuede, but also interfacing for her techniques.

I actually am trying not to purchase so many books with quilt patterns, but I think that one that teaches the process to make original quilts is going to be valuable.

Do you like Ricky Tims? I have quilting friends who are wild about his quilts and techniques, and others who don't care for him. I took a daylong workshop with him several years ago, and I thought he could not have been any nicer. He explained things well and gave you time to work on them before going on to the next step. I have two of his DVD's, which are also very good instructional videos. His hand-dyed fabric is gloriously rich and colorful, although pricey at $25.00 per yard. Sometimes he has specials and you can get it for $20.00 and hoard it for a very special project. Ricky lectured and played piano at the guild meeting the night before the workshop on Harmonic Convergence. He also played for us during the workshop. Oh, did I mention I purchased one of his music CD's? I guess you could say I am a fan. In fact, before he became famous, I clipped a photo of one of his quilts from a magazine, and it has been on my inspiration wall (meaning, thumb tacked behind my sewing machine table) ever since. At the workshop, he used MY sewing machine to demonstrate, and he took a photo of one of MY quilts that I brought for show and tell! How cool is that?

Okay, I know you are looking for the latest nature photographs from my North Carolina home. The baby bluebird is now displaying blue feathers, and the other egg was a dud- never hatched. The north side of my house is looking splendid with the viburnum, rhododendron, and pyracantha in bloom against the backdrop of a lovely hemlock.

Here Comes the Judge...Me!

Today I am off to a new adventure in quilting. I have been asked to be part of a team to award the Best Longarm Quilting ribbon at the Tarheel Quilters Guild Show in Fayetteville! It will definitely be a new experience to be on the "other side" of quilt show awards. Tess and I are driving down to Fayetteville today and will meet Judy there. The three of us will fill out evaluation forms and pick the lucky winner of the beautiful, humongous ribbon sponsored by the Carolina Machine Quilters. I hope that we will get to see most of the quilts in the show, but don't know how that will play out since the show is probably not hung yet.

The show, titled "Dogwood Splendor," will be at the Honeycutt Recreation Center on Devers St. and Ft. Bragg Road in Fayetteville on Friday and Saturday. It is their twentieth bi-annual show. I am looking forward to it!

My First Blog Post

Welcome to my first blog posting! I hope to use this blog to publish my current quilting projects. I like to do bed-size quilts as well as smaller art quilts, even fabric postcards. Right now I am trying hard to finish three quilts for the Capital Quilters Guild show in Raleigh, NC on March 9-11. Last time our guild had a show, I swore I would not enter any "unfinished" projects. Did I follow this rule? No! I have to turn in the quilts on Friday. Two are finished, and I am sewing on the sleeve and label for the third this weekend. Dave and Emily's Wedding Quilt will be in the show. Since the theme of the show is Olde and New, I entered a quilt I finished for my sister-in-law. It was started by her grandmother in the 1970's, and I quilted it with lots of custom feathers.

Please refer to my Webshots page at http://community.webshots.com/user/quiltnc