.....and for the past two months

 I've been busily enjoying myself, my husband, my home and garden.....but especially my time in the stillness of hand stitching.

Confession time:  I have a problem.  The problem is not necessarily a good one nor a bad one.  It's just a problem I have of needing to finish what I start - whether a movie, a book or a quilt!  I've learned through the years to walk out of theaters when the movie isn't giving me pleasure.  I can even shut a book and return it to the library unfinished.  Yet, I haven't been able to give in to having an unfinished quilt.  

So, what started out in my mind to be a grueling task, turned into a joyous adventure.  Two wool applique quilts finished in no time....an hour here, an hour there.  

A quilt pattern....A Cottage Garden

Quilt pattern.....How Does Your Garden Grow

Add to that my newest wool applique table runner....a kit purchased years ago at a quilt show in Little Rock, Arkansas that was a bust for vendors.  I stopped and chatted with one vendor who had not made a sale in her two days there.  My heart went out to her and while I didn't embroider, I purchased the kit.  Lucky me!  

And still a work in progress that I had initially intended to finish with machine decorative stitch embroidery, but now might just do all the edging with hand stitches.  Inspired by a painting I saw somewhere???

Revisiting some art quilts from my past...this one I dubbed 'Opposites in Black and White'.

and 'Chinese Checkers' 

and some free motion thread work 

Here is 'Collette' a framed fabric art card....one in the series "Pretty Ladies in Smart Hats".

and my thread sketched self-portrait.  Funny thing is she has no mouth which doesn't equate to she has no voice! 

  

Until next time.  While I enjoy re-visiting previous projects,  I remain being one who enjoys looking forward ~

Inspired by the quilts out of India

 I was so intrigued with the display of Kawandi (quilts)  made by the Siddi quilters of India way so long ago (it seems) while at QuiltCon in Savannah.  Was that 2017????  While at home all these months now, I've been stalking some of those Siddi quilters and finally had an opportunity to participate in Sujata Shah's workshop this weekend past.  What  a great zoom treat.  Sujata is also known as The Root Connection if you'd like to be inspired by her quilting style.  

My kawandi finishes at 15" x 23".  It was a new way to use fabric from the scrap heap.  

From the beginning.....start with a thin backing fabric and a thin batting cut 1" smaller than the backing.  Fold backing over and baste in place all around the quilt.  Begin layering fabric and stitching from the outside edges of the quilt.  Now that's a new twist!  Stitching continues and layers are added round and round in concentric circles to the finish in or near the center of the quilt.   

The Phula (flower) adorns the four corners.  It's a traditional adornment and  the quilters of Siddi feel their quilts are not finished until the decoration is added.   I agree. That little flower in each corner just makes me smile.  

It was a great zoom workshop with 30 participants from around the US and into Great Britain    Just two little glitches which took away from my personal pleasure - one participant felt it was perfectly all right to interject her political viewpoint.  I was dismayed that she wasn't immediately muted.  Another participate dominated a goodly few minutes sobbing over the loss of her parents and how uncomfortable she was cutting into their clothing to make memory quilts.  I felt her pain but did not feel this was the best venue to elicit sympathy.  Both the politics and sobbing incidents diminished  my $50 value of the workshop.  Just saying ~ 

It's My Party....an art quilt

It was a meeting in early 2019 when Sharon tells us that being president of the quilt guild allows her to send out challenges to the group and that her next challenge will be entitled "It's My Party......and I'll cry if I want to."  A song sung by many but Leslie Gore made it a memory for me.  Art quilt completion date and hang date is set for May.

I was in no mood for a party on that particular cold, dreary January day but being the trooper that I am,  came home and started working on ideas.   Let's see....what parties can one have in May.  Well, there is May Day where kids dance around the pole and Cinco de Mayo celebrating the Mexican heritage of many and of course, Mother's Day.  But my mind kept going back to an outside garden party with flowers in full bloom.   A tea party idea was out of the question as was a fish fry or steak cookout!

The final idea was off-the-wall-wild!  Flowers can have a party in the garden....can't they?

Step one was to make a background using minuscule scraps one on top of the other with raw edges exposed.  Flowers, leaves and stems were then appliqued onto the background in random fashion.

















 Hand quilting and flower head embellishing came next for the final meow.



 Yes, it's a wild flower party and we're having a blast getting dressed up in style.

Hand-dyed in orange, these tangled threads made the perfect flower's head for a standout in the party crowd.

Here's the statement made for the quilt label and maker acknowledgement:

It's My Party....a wild flower party hosted by Crissy the Mum and attended by Rosey, Violet, Lily, Daisy and Iris.  Black Eyed Susan sent her regrets.  Zinnia served Rosemary her Sweet Violet tea and Aster brought her favorite Ginger snap cookies to pass around to all.  We like them wild at the wild flower party where there's no room for tears. 

Marty Mason

May, 2019 

It's Art....for Art's Sake ~

I'm a proud member of a group known as "Art Quilts Around The World"  Every two months we are given a theme and then the 20 of us in the group complete an art quilt in our own interpretation of that designated theme.  Well, the theme for this month's art quilt is "Snowflake."   

So, off I go in the middle of July sitting under a 100 degree heat wave thinking about snowflakes.  The thought did cool me off a bit.  

I've been wanting to make a paper quilt!  And this seemed the time to do it....in a small scale - just for grins. 




 

 

 

I started with a map recently acquired from a trip to Little Rock and added junk mail to the pile.  I added 'interest' by glueing on my theater ticket from the Little Rock trip and some bits of silk fabric. Fusible ironed to the back of each piece of junk allowed me to safely cut my "fabric"  into pieces....stitched together in a very random improv log cabin-ish style quilt block. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I quilted and painted on and added paper snowflakes hanging with silk ribbon and more snowflakes made from fabric trims.  I've explained the process in more detail over here at

Art Quilts Around The World. 

 

 

 

 

and here you have the big picture - snowflakes in July

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such a Tease ~

It's almost reveal time.....I'm a member of Art Quilts Around The World and 6 times a year a member of the group decides on a theme for the next art quilt  and then the 20 of us in the group makes our own art quilt based on that theme.  This month's theme is "Out Of This World" and I am out of this world excited to be finished with this 11 1/2" x 16" art quilt. 

I added my final touches this morning and got a few pictures.....ready for the May 31 reveal - but in the meantime, here's the tease. 

 

 

 

 

On a midnight lark?

The theme is "Flights of Fantasy" - and my fantasy is about a guy who travels around the world making light of a task that must be completed in a mere 24 hours.    Yes, I believe in Santa Claus.  I believe the essence of Santa is alive in the hearts of all children....children of all ages.  So, while Santa isn't a fantasy in my world, he is the heart of my "flights of fantasy" art quilt. 

 

Santa is not to scale with the street scene and there's a reason for that.    More important than where we dine or what movie we see or how beautifully the large buildings around town are decorated,

on this particular night, Santa is top banana!  (That means, he's a keeper in my world.)

 

 

Here's where it all started. Kitty helped me pull and cull from my pile of scraps left over from a recent quilt project.  Loved Anna Maria Horner's 'True Colors' so much that I saved every scrap!

 

 

 

 and after sewing them together I cut out my bright little silhouettes  to strategically place on my midnight black with bright dots I imagined to be stars in the night sky. 

 

 

While his reindeer isn't in the best of form tonight, he is a happy trooper, pulling his weight to make sure every child has a joyous Christmas. 

May your Christmas Season be filled with joyous love and peace.

 

We are a group Art Quilts Around The World - and we make art quilts based on a particular theme on a bi-monthly basis.  Our ideas and skills and tools and fabrics are very diverse. 

Go see the art quilt collection and enjoy. 

And, of the utmost importance -

May you always see the world

through the eyes of a child

and

 

Have Yourself A Very Merry Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

Monochromatic...that's the theme

It's another bi-monthly posting.  One for Art Quilts Around The World....a group of twenty or so of us who just enjoy the process of making art quilts.  Some of us follow the rules, some of us don't!

The theme for this challenge was "monochromatic."  However, when I came to the finish line, I decided that my art quilt didn't exactly follow the rules!  It is therefore very aptly named "Oh, Dear!  Where did we go wrong?" 

 

Papa thread person is in pink! duh!......mama thread person is in blue! duh!

and baby thread person is in pink, blue and gold! 

and looks as if she could have been

hatched from an egg!

how monochromatic is this?

oh, well

 

 

 

Just stretch your imagination a bit and play along with me.

 

 

 

 

 

.....and what a fun challenge it was ~

As if I didn't have enough projects to complete! 

When Victoria (as in 15 Minutes of Play, Bumble Beans) issued the Spring challenge, I just couldn't resist.  It's been a long and cold and wet winter and I was so desperately needing a Spring day when I saw her newly posted challenge. 

And I new just where my starting point was going to be.   After ordering the fat quarter bundle of Anna Maria Horner's new fabric collection, True Colors, I cut most of it into 7" hexagons for my next quilt.....but I saved all the little scraps.  Some fabrics are just too precious to trash....don't you agree?

Back to my story - here's the challenge block diagram.  Not much going on here!  But with high hopes of Spring nearby,  I intend to make it my own. 

Victoria says we can do anything to the block that we want....make it any size....sub-divide it even more....whatever.  Her only "rule" is that somewhere within the block, there must be some "made fabric."  Okay, I can follow that rule!  Using my left-overs from my True Colors collection, I set about making fabric which I then turned into a 4-patch square - flying geese.   Component #1 now complete x 4.  To SOLIDify my block, I found some Kona snow and cut into my attaching triangles to complete component #2 of the challenge block.  Now what?  Lucky for me I went to our local Hancock's the other day and found a home dec fabric remnant on sale which I thought read Spring.  Component #3 complete.  

I got four blocks completed just in time to STOP and smell the Spring flowers.  It's a skinny little wall-hanging - 8" x 32" with flower petals and leaf free-motion quilted.  Yes, Spring is bursting out all over the sewing room wall. 

 

 

 

It's all about A Song Title - An Art Quilt

Have I told you lately that I belong to "Art Quilts Around the World", where 20 or more of us make  art quilts based on a chosen theme.  The theme this month was A Song Title.  After much deliberation, I decided on "Frog Went A Courtin'."  Here's my finished art quilt

Notice that Miss Mouse isn't wearing white...rather, she has very blue hair today.  She did venture out of her hollow tree and is sitting on the roof top oogling at her fancy frog.   Also, the big black snake isn't big and isn't black, but is a joyful snake of many colors eyeing the frog for reasons other than Miss Mouse's. 

 

In doing a little research about this folk song, I learned that there is quite the story behind the lyrics which have been altered and added onto and updated through the ages.   It dates back 400 years and was all about Queen Elizabeth I who very often gave members of her ministry animal names.   Although she never married and was known as the virgin queen, she did play love games with several suitors before rejecting them as unsuitable to be her king.  Her frog in the song refers to Francis, Duke of Alencon, France.

Froggy Went A Courtin' has been recorded by many, including Tex Ritter, Burl Ives, Bob Dylan,
Elvis Presley, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springstein....just to name a few.  I found this delightful version sung by Elizabeth Mitchell and thought it would be fun to share. 
 

 

Have I mentioned lately -

......that I am a member of the group Art Quilts Around The World.  And, have I mentioned that we, as a group, meet a bi-monthly challenge.  And, that this past months' challenge theme was "Art Nouveau."


I didn't interpret art nouveau literally!  But here's my interpretation of art nouveau.....a mix of stained glass, ladies with hair flowing in the wind and two-handled urns!

 

Go figure - - - When you go see the quilt art of others in the group, you'll wonder why they keep me on board. 

 

I do wish I could get more serious about the art of quilting.  But, why ruin all  my fun? 

 

February Quilter's Calendar

Yes, I heart EWE too ~  February, 2014.  Do you need a desktop calendar download.  It's okay with me.  It's a short, but sweet, month so enjoy it.  Summertime will be here before we know it. 

The February calendar was made with a picture of one of my primitive wall hangings made with wool and flannel.  Primitive, a sweet, yet rare quilting moment for me.



 

Christmas Blasts From The Past

I make art quilts in minimal style

I like trees

  I like trees in real life and  I like them abstract

 I like raw edges that fray

I like to quilt my art

 

Christmas time's a comin'

 

 

Tis the season when all is merry and bright

 

and good cheer abounds

as family and friends gather in celebration



 

Trees to you ~

The challenge was met!

In going through the inspiration motions for the Macro Challenge for Art Quilts Around The World, I had to first check out the definition of macro:

•  Large scale; overall
• Very large in scale, scope, or capability
• A macro is a symbol, name, or key that represents a list of commands, actions, or keystrokes
• and my own definition:  up close and personal

There is macro as in photography, or environment, computer, economics and this macro and that macro and on and on! 

With these thoughts (and by this time, other thoughts) in mind, I finally decided very simply, very minimalistic PERIOD as in large scale PERIOD.  My PERIOD is thread-painted in black on a white fabric which represents a sheet of writing paper.  The exaggerated lines on my 'paper' are hand-quilted with pearl cotton embroidery floss.


 I was in luck when I found the white script on black for the binding.  Just the cat's meow for the finishing touch on such a fun art quilt project.   PERIOD

 

The Challenge: The Road Less Travelled

Entitled "Don't Go Near The Water!"

 I can express myself just as I see it in the standard 11 1/2" by 16" format  when meeting the bi-monthly challenges of  The Arts Quilts Around the World group.  Our last challenge theme - "The Road Less Travelled" -  was an easy one for me.  You see,

my road less travelled is to the clear blue ocean water, waves lapping on the beach with the blue sky overhead.  I took a simple approach down the path - right to the nitty gritty as to why I don't travel this road, literally and figuratively! 




I'm afraid of water....oh, no, not bath water, just deep water, as in a lake or river or the ocean.
I learned to be afraid of water at a very young age.  You see, my mother was also afraid of water  and so every time we kids went near any body of water, we could hear her say, "don't go near the water:  you'll drown."  I took that statement seriously. 

Look closely - there's a definite line between the water and the sand.  And, yes, that slash of red is symbolic as is the tornado-like stitches starting at the top of the heavenly blue sky and ending in the depths of my water's hell. 

There's more to the story, so I'll continue to tell until I get this out of my system once and for all ~

I was perhaps 30 years old when I decided I could not and would not allow my mother's words to continue to plague me.  I signed up for swim lessons.  Admittedly, progress was slow.  But surely,  I learned to swim! 

 

 

But wait....there's more to the story.

 

On graduation day, I was told to jump into the pool and swim back to the edge.  The obedient part of me jumped in

 

and

panic

set

in

 

The instructor had to jump in and drag my wet, soggy, sorry, scaredy-cat,  panic-stricken body back to the pool's edge.  It was not a pretty sight and I never did get my swimming lesson diploma.

 

I haven't travelled that path again!

Mom was right all along. 

 

 

 

Art Quilt Challenge Theme ~ Carnaval

I usually don't begin an art quilt based on any particular theme.....I just start!  But in our group, Art Quilts Around The World, we make an art quilt each month based on a theme.  It's a newly formed group and the first one we published was entitled 'self-portrait.'  Now for reveal #2.....
'Carnival.'  All 30 of us in the group posted our finished art quilt March 31.  Another specific about each of our art quilts is size....each one is 11 1/2" x 16" - wait...is it 11" x 16 1/2!!  Oh, my.   There is so much energy and talent in this group, I'm racing to stay up.....smiling as I run with them.

There's always a story,  visit Art Quilts Around the World for the rest of it. 






 

Quilting Gallery Show and Tell and a Giveaway...Oh My!

The theme for Quilting Gallery Show and Tell this week is Winter Landscapes so off I went in search of my lone winter tree.  Now entered, it and I would appreciate your vote so it and I won't be so alone anymore.

To view my lone winter tree and all other entries, go to Quilting Gallery Show and Tell, where you can vote and enter for a Vicki Welsh hand dyed fabric giveaway.