Two Completions

We'll open with Natalie and her pig tails. When she was a baby and I could torture her with various hairstyles she had no hair. Now, she's a typical girl. One day she won't let you comb it and the next day we're styling it to stay home. This was a home day. Anyway...

Here is the WIP Love piece completed. I had a lot of fun with this, as I didn't think to hard. I just did whatever technique I wanted to try and made it work. I didn't quilt it very heavily because it's not very big and I didn't want to take anything away from the elementals. I satin-stitched the edges with a metallic red Sulky thread. I also used that to quilt.

I am very excited about this project and it will be an ongoing. This is the front cover of a fabric book that I've titled "Art of the Word". It was born from doing the collage and from an idea I've had for several years. Ever since I saw Bonnie McCaffery speak at Charlotte Quilt Guild I've been fascinated with creating Fantasy Fabrics, so much so I went on an obsessive hunt to find her out of print book. So, each page of the book will be a quilted collage representing one word. Stay tuned for more pages.
Here is a close-up of the fantasy fabric I made to be the book's cover. I foiled, used Angelina, some other sparkly fibers and sequins topped with tulle and quilted. The words I printed from my computer and aged them with Distress Ink. The back is the same batik without all the frills.

It feels so good to be back and creating. I can't believe just two months ago I was ready to invite my friends in to raid my stash and then burn my studio.

Michele

WIP

So I've finally found my muse creeping back into my life. As soon as my friend and I finished organizing the Daniel Stowe exhibit I started to feel like creating again. It happened to be close to Valentine's Day and maybe that's the reason I chose this theme. But I highly doubt. I've never been a fan of this particular holiday, probably because it's better known to me as Daytona week. Jason and I have only spend three Valentine's Days together in 9 years and one of those he made me cry, so I don't think so. Love can be associated with so many images, I think I chose that word because it's easy. Anyway...

I found a piece of light pink fabric and painted it with magenta Dye-na-flow. I let that dry and then painted it with sparkly Lumiere. I again waited until it dryed (giving me ample time to plot my next move). I found a font I like, printed it in large enough letters, cut out the letters, and stenciled "Love" with Shiva paintsticks.







Next I took a piece of light pink felt and needlefelted red merino wool in a heart shape. I then attached an Artgirlz charm and beaded the heart.




Next I chose a stamp with a large surface area and applied foil glue. Let it dry and applied the foil. I then positioned the heart on the piece.



At this point, the heart is sewn down with hand-dyed variegated thread. I have added some vertical lines to the piece and I've started to bead around the letters. Stay tuned, it's coming out very nice.
Michele

Art of the Garden at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

This morning, myself and several members of the Charlotte Quilters Guild hung quilts for the Art of the Garden exhibit at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. I've been planning this exhibit for several months and thankfully everything went really well. Saturday we are there for the opening weekend which includes some demonstrations by our members and our donation quilt. Below are some photos I took once the exhibit was up. My friend, Susan Brubaker Knapp has some more photos on her blog.

The exhibit is up for about a month. If you are in the Charlotte area you won't want to miss it.

Michele