Cicada Song

I was so thrilled to receive my issue of "Art Quilting Studio" in the mail.

My little quilt, Cicada Song is included.

They asked me to describe the inspiration and how I made.

I'm so honored to be included.

Thrift Store Challenge

The "Not Your Grandmothers Bee" art quilt group was challenged to purchase something at the local Downtown Mini Mall in Denton and create something inspired by, or with the thing we bought.

I found a graduated teal blue coconut disk necklace. I like one-hole disks because they offer stitching options that two-hole buttons don't have.

"Red Fish"  17.25 x 19.5"

The background is a deconstructed silk screen print that I hand-quilted. 

The fish is a gel medium transfer of a black laser-copied fish drawing. 

I colored the fish with Sharpies and machine-quilted him. 

(The dried gel medium is too stiff to hand-quilt.)

Here are the creations of the rest of the bee...

"Play While You May" by Linda Creagh. 

19 x 22 inch quilt. This whimsical  image is reclaimed from a handmade apron found in Denton mini mall. It is composed of commercial and hand dyed fabric. It is machine pieced and machine quilted.

Debbie Coates made this framed art piece with the purchased Mother of Pearl pendant. 

The backing is Dupioni silk that was gifted to her and the lyrics are from the song Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland.  Judy Nickles, a friend and fiction author was writing a mystery series inspired by the song and titled her book Under The Silvery Moon.  This framed piece was made for her birthday gift.  Hand embroidery with hand dyed silk ribbon.

The quilter bought an item that was wrapped in a scrap of red shibori fabric. 

She liked the shibori better and made this book cover.

This quilter purchased an antique dish cloth and wanted to practice her machine quilting.

Carla Hamm's inspiration was a Chico's tshirt. See it in the patterned vase, vertical stripe and flower.

...and detail

I love these challenges. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Red Dragonfly

In 2007 I took a machine quilting class with Diane Gaudynski. She had us make a practice sampler on a piece of fabric that was divided into sections. 

I came across my sampler recently and decided to finish it.

 Our pond is inhabited by red Flame Skimmer dragonflies. 

They are one of my favorite creatures.

I decided to add a dragonfly to this sampler.

I repeated a process I have used before to create wings on organza.

I drew the wings on Sulky Ultra Solvy water soluble stabilizer. 

 I squirted a little water on the stabilizer so it would become sticky 

and melt to the organza as it dried. 

After the organza and Solvy were completely dry, I free motion quilted 

the cells of the wings with rayon thread on the organza side.

 When I finished stitching the wings, I soaked them in warm water to remove the stabilizer
and carefully cut away the excess organza.

I fused the body of the dragon fly to the quilt and free motion stitched around the edges.

I attached the wings on the top edge so they are loose at the bottom.

One more UFO off my list!

"The Omelet Sisters"

A couple of years ago we tried an urban chicken 

experiment in our backyard. We had four hens.

Esmerelda

Wynona and Lucy

and Liberty.

They were quite fun to watch and started laying eggs on Easter weekend 2012. After they ate everything green in our backyard and turned our flower beds into dirt bathes, we decided they would be better off living in the country.

I made a quilt with images of our chickens.

The Omelet Sisters - 36 x 21” 

I'm thrilled that "The Omelet Sisters" was honored with the 

Corky Stukenbruck Award in the Visual Art Society of Texas' 

25th Annual Juried Members Exhibition. 

The members exhibition is in the Texas Woman’s University 

Fine Arts Building's East and West Galleries. The building is located at the corner of Oakland and Texas Streets in 

Denton, Texas, through August 7, 2014. 

The building is open Monday - Friday from 9-4.

It's a beautiful show. I hope you will stop in to take a look.

Crafty Gifts

I recently created some handmade gifts.

These upcycled candy tins are great containers for Art-on-the-Go projects. 

I glued bits of scrap fabric to the tins with thinned white glue,
avoiding the space where the lid overlaps the base.

There is an article in the June/July 2014 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine 

that describes how to make a pocket for carrying index cards, 

so when an idea strikes you have something to draw on.

I embellished small silk screened fabric scraps with fabric markers and embroidery floss.

I really enjoyed the process of stitching through the 

muslin and felt, and the gifts were well received!

Off to Indiana

Three of my quilts are off to Indiana today. They have been accepted in the Shishewana Quilt Festival. The quilts chosen are quite different.

Kamon Odyssey, 81 x 94”

A traditional bed quilt.

It’s All About the Journey - 35.5 x 56”

A big self portrait.

Jimmy’s General Store - 19.25 x 29.75”

A whole-cloth ink-jet transfer.

Based on my entries, the Shipshewana Quilt Festival should be very diverse.

The show runs June 25-28 at the Shipshewana Event Center 760 S. Van Buren Street.

You can find the show hours here.

"Radiation" Exhibit

Seven members of the Twisted Stitchers art quilt bee 

have entered 

"Radiation" themed quilts in this exhibit.

They will be on display at the International Conference Centre in Geneva, Switzerland.

Here is a photo of my quilt

"Particle Trails".

Update 6-26-16:

The quilts will be headed home soon.

This is where they've been.

June 21 – 27, 2014

Center Internationalde Conferences in Geneva, Switzerland

September 18 – 21,2014

European Patchwork Meeting, Alsace, France

December 5 - 7,2014

Gallery in the Old Jail of Freising, Germany

January 16 – February 7, 2015

Gallery Quilt - und Textilkunst, Munich, Germany

April 10 -12, 2015

Prague patchwork meeting, Prague, Czech Republic

August 1-14, 2015

Patchworkfestival of Suzdal, Russia

Patchworkfestival of Ivanovo, Russia

November 11, 2015 - February 29, 2016

Roentgen Museum/ Tuchmuseum, Lennep, Germany

June 10-12 2016

Patchworktage, Celle, Germany

Paint Chip Challenge

Members of the Not your Grandmother's Bee were challenged to create something outside our color comfort zone. We were asked to choose a paint chip without seeing the colors on the front.

I drew Stop, Kaki Shade, Sawdust and Naval.

The navy fabric was rubbed with Shiva paint sticks over a spiral texture board. 

The red is from an overdyed cotton kimono. The khaki is a commercial batik.

I fused my pieces together on a teflon pressing sheet.

20x20"

Here are the rest of the members' creations.

Linda Creagh's "Rice Bag" purse.

 Marie Mitchell's "Chickens in the Garden"

Donna M.'s mini

 Teresas Sherling's "Four Doll Dresses"

 Debbie Coates's  "Love is a Journey"

 Grace Johnson's pillow "Woven Waves"

I enjoyed the challenge. It was uncomfortable to work in the colors I drew, 

but I suppose that is the point!

The Ants Go Marching...

In 1990 I pieced and quilted a black, red and white pineapple mini quilt. 

It had too wide black borders with not enough quilting.

The red fabric is one I marbled with fabric paint.

It caught my attention recently and I decided to change it.

I whacked off the big black borders, bound it in black, 

and sewed on bead ants for fun.

"The Ants Go Marching One by One"  14x14"

This will be a donation quilt.

He's a Sailor

Berek graduated from U.S. Navy Boot camp on Friday.

 Jon and I went to Great Lakes, IL to watch the ceremony.

He was in Division 167.

 So very proud of him.

 He will be headed off to submarine school in Connecticut soon.

We took him to lunch and spent the rest of the day listening to his stories.

On Saturday we went to Chicago and spent the day 

at the Museum of Science + Industry.

 In addition to many other exhibits, we toured a 

German U-505 submarine that was captured during WWII.

 This boat is much smaller than the modern U.S. subs.

We enjoyed a Chicago-style pizza before Berek had to go back to the base.

What a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!