Ugly Batik Challenge

Grace had yards of this fabric and thought it was ugly.

She gave each member of the Not Your Grandmother's Bee
a fat quarter and challenged us to make something. 

Here are her rules.
"Use at least an identifiable piece of this fabric in your challenge piece!
Completed pieces are due at our April bee, and
there's a slight chance that prizes might be awarded"

 Grace provided prizes and asked Mary from
Minding My P's and Q's Quilt Shop to judge the entries and award the prizes.

Nelda Johnson, the Super Creative award

Grace Johnson, the Outside the Box award

Tonya Littmann, the Best Use of Fabric award

Linda Creagh, the Most Clever award

Tonya Littmann, the Make Me Smile award

Tammy Becker, The Precise Piecing award

Debbie Coates, the Wow award

 Marie Mitchell, the Very Impressive Piece award

Charlotte Rutland, the Super Cute award

Teresa Shirling, the Most Fun award

 Kathleen Francis, the What Were You Thinking award.

Donna Mullen Irving couldn't come to the meeting so she sent me a photo.

Nice job everyone. Thank you Grace for making it happen!

Dallas Quilt Show Results

I just realized I didn't post the results of my entries to the Dallas Quilt Show.

I'm thrilled to have won two blue ribbons!

 One for my Challenge Block...

And one for "Obsession". My entry in the Show Chair's Theme, Funny Quilts.

The Show Chair's Theme for 2016 is "Words & Letterforms." 

I already have a plan.

One More for the 2015 Dallas Quilt Show

My last entry for the Dallas Quilt Show is finished.

 "Big Blue Circle" 38 x 38"

"Big Blue Circle" detail

 The show starts this Friday.

The Dallas Quilt Show

March 13-15, 2015

Dallas Market Hall  

2200 N. Stemmons Freeway 

(I35 at Market Center Blvd)

Friday  10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Saturday  10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Sunday  12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

$8 advance tickets, $10 at the door

www.quiltersguildofdallas.org

Countdown to the Dallas Quilt Show

The show program has been sent to the printer and the last ads are off to the Dallas Morning News. Now it's time to put the finishing touches on my show entries.

My "Winter Chill" challenge block is finished and turned in.

 "Cicada Song" 16x18" is finished except for the label.

"Obsession" 23x33" is finished!

"Obsession" detail.

"Sarah's Day Lilies" 22x30.5" still needs a label.

"Sarah's Day Lilies" detail.

One more quilt to go...

The Dallas Quilt Show

March 13-15, 2015

Dallas Market Hall  

2200 N. Stemmons Freeway 

(I35 at Market Center Blvd)

Friday  10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Saturday  10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Sunday  12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

$8 advance tickets, $10 at the door

www.quiltersguildofdallas.org 

I hope you will join us.

Altered t-shirt

I have a few favorite t-shirts that are too short.

I've been searching pinterest for ideas on how to lengthen this one.

Here's my pin board.

I couldn't find exactly what I wanted so I thought I'd just go for it.

I bought a black t-shirt that was about the same weight.

I cut from the underarm to the center then straight down to the hem.

I pinned it in place and whip stitched it with three strands of black embroidery thread.

I repeated the process on the other side.

  

I decided to color the pink thread with a turquoise Sharpie.

I like the result. I think I'll try the next on with three different colors.

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.