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

Gift Bag Challenge

Last night at the Lake Norman Quilters meeting, we unveiled our challege pieces. This is mine and it is of a wysteria vine. The rules were you picked a gift bag out of a trash bag and you had to use the colors in the bag but not necessarily the photo. We got the idea on a trip to the AQS show at Nashville last summer. It had to be no smaller then 8 1/2 x 11 and no larger then 36 x 36. We had roughly nine months to complete them.

This is my bag.

A close up of my piece. I used fusible applique and thread painting.

The photo of my own wysteria that I used to make the piece.

Michele

First (completed) Art Quilt

First let me say that the idea for this piece struck me in the spring. I sketched and wrote details in a journal (before I took the online class) and when I found the right background fabric in May I started it. I used Shiva paintstick to rub a circular design on the background. I then hand appliqued the circles. The project then came to a stand still. I didn't know where to go next. I had bought the dragonfly button for this but could not decide if I wanted to use it or not.
Well, I did. But then it was a while until I finished it because there was just something I wasn't happy with. The three embellished circles were not in the original sketch and that may be what threw me off. I'd appreciate any comments and/or criticism.

Michele