Day 5: FB Art Challenge

This is my 5th (and final) Day of the FB Art Challenge.  

I was nominated by Pam Biswas.   Thank you Pam!  For my fifth and final day of the challenge, I am sharing three more favorites, two are my most recent quilts while the last one is an older fiber art piece.  I hope you enjoy them.

Not everyone has a "Vanna White" to model with their quilts and fiber art.  Fortunately, our smart dog Andy thought he'd give it a whirl......

How did he do?

This quilt was made in the Spring of 2014 as part of the Fourth Annual Modern Quilt Guild challenge sponsored by Michael Miller Fabrics.  See their website: https://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/.  The line is called Petal Pinwheels and has a fun, light, summery look, plus the Michael Miller fabrics all have a wonderful feel.  Click here to see the full line of Petal Pinwheels.  These are the six that were used for this challenge.

Of the six fabrics distributed for this challenge, I selected three to use (petal pinwheels, petal garland and pegs a plenty) and added two solids: white and gray.  I knew I wanted to make a quilt large enough to be a baby quilt or a lap quilt for someone.  I had great fun playing with many design options.

I call this quilt "Candyland" ... well, actually, my son helped with the name.  One evident fact is that I must practice my free-motion machine quilting.  I must confess that I do prefer to design and stitch the tops of my quilts, then find a friend to do the quilting.  Click here to see an earlier blog about "Candyland".


Many fellow members of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild also participated in this 2014 Michael Miller challenge.  Everyone (or many) brought their finished (or near finished) challenge pieces to our July 19th HMQG meeting and posed for this group photo.

Since I was teaching my first quilt workshop that day (Quiltville's Scrappy Trip around the World, with my Modern Scrappy Twist version as an option - which I may still blog about someday...) it is now surprise (to me) that I was in the early stages of making my Michael Miller challenge piece and did not bring these beginnings to share with the group.  I did some fast sewing and quilting after our meeting to meet the challenge deadline on July 25, 2014.  Click here to see the three winners and their amazing quilts and here to see a few more that were also entered.


Michael Miller announced a new challenge for the Modern Quilt Guild members for the 2015 Quilt Con in September 2014.  This new challenge featured eight solids from the Michael Miller Spring Couture line. The MM Spring Cotton Couture challenge colors are:

Opal

Breeze

Spa

Spring

Blossom

Creamsicle

Candlelight

Soft White

The rules of this 2015 challenge were straight forward: use only Michael Miller fabrics, and only solids on the front of the quilt.  Once I found the darker Cotton Couture solids (at High Fashion Fabrics), I knew I would use the "Pot Pie" pattern by Thangles.  I had to resize the pattern as it called for fat quarters but I had only fat eighths of the challenge fabric to use.  Click here and here to read more about the making of this quilt.

 

"Mmm, Pot Pie" is the name of this quilt.  The name is a spoof both on the yummy pattern name as well as being a play on Michael Miller (Mmm) fabric line.  I love the simplicity of this pattern, especially the random mix-matching of the solid colors but I especially love the quilting too.  Pam Biswas did a spectacular job with the quilting this time, didn't she?

I especially love the spiky spirals - they make me think of roosters (not sure why, but they do).  Can you see the spiky swirls on the yellow/burgundy block above? 

My last piece to share is my valentine-y fiber art, in honor of the chocolatey sweet holiday that is fast approaching.  

Presenting a glimpse of Hearts A'Flutter....

 

I dabbled in a variety of surface techniques when making this piece.  I finished in time to exhibit in Beyond the Borders, the first fiber art show at the Copper Shade Tree Gallery in Round Top, Texas held in February 2007.  My very first post when I began this blog features this fiber art piece.  Click here to read it.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone ... especially to you!

I nominate Mona Keegan to join this 5-day Art Challenge by posting three photos a day of her artwork, and nominating another artist to carry the challenge ever forward.  Mona, I look forward to seeing more of your lovely art!

Day 3: FB Art Challenge

This is about my 3rd Day of the Art Challenge currently circulating on FaceBook. I was nominated by Pam Biswas.   Thank you Pam!  For this third day of the 5-day challenge, I am sharing three pieces that appeared in contests and shows, including one award winner.

This first quilt, "My Favorite Presidents", was made in 2003 for a competition held at Quilt Impressions, a quilt shop in Stafford (which has closed). 

 

The challenge was to make a quilt using the fabric with images of Washington, D.C. sites during cherry blossom season: the White House, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials and the Congressional building.    I combined the fabric (the blue squares in my quilt) with seven of my favorite Presidents of the United States: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton. 

The seven President blocks were all made by using patterns from Presidential Redwork: A Stitch in Time (click here for a link to Amazon).  After tracing the portraits, I used crayons and archival safe pigment pens to give the Presidents a little more color.  The Presidential Seal was included.

 

This quilt is the closest to a neutral monochromatic quilt that I have made ...  (however, on my "quilt bucket list" is a plan to create a beige-cream quilt).  My Presidential quilt won first place in the store's challenge, though it was really a Viewer's Choice award.  Customers in the shop could place votes per each can of food they brought and donated to the store's food drive (I confess - I may have brought a large bag or two of donations!  Did I buy my first place?)

The next piece is simply known as "Texas" and was featured on the program cover for the Texas Museum of Fiber Arts 2008 exhibit, held in Austin, Texas.  Here it is as it appeared in the show.

Texas is a locker-hooked rug made with 100% cotton fibers in an original design of the state of Texas.  It first appeared in the second Fiber Art show held at the Copper Shade Tree Gallery in Round Top, Texas in February, 2008.  My Beyond the Borders art quilt group were the featured artists in the first two fiber art shows at Copper Shade Tree Gallery.  The fiber art show is a February tradition now, and features fiber artists from across the state of Texas.  My rug, Texas was purchased during the show, but not before Carol Ikard of the Texas Museum of Fiber Arts admired it.  

Carol contacted me, requesting permission to use my Texas rug on her program cover, and she also tracked down the new owner and received permission to borrow the quilt for the exhibit. 

Such validation that someone admires your work when they want it to share with others and also want to feature it!  Here I am at the show's opening.

This last piece is a small, beaded piece that I named "DNA Gone Wild!" and is now also in a private collection.  DNA Gone Wild appeared in a Beyond the Borders show held in the Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts in October/November 2008.  This was quite a year for our Art Quilt group!

Here is the description that accompanied my piece:

Everyone has studied the double helix shape of DNA in a science class somewhere - in this piece, DNA Gone Wild!, the double helix has spun apart (or perhaps tighter), until the spiraling ladder configuration has reformatted into a single strand with multiple arms spinning out from a single core.  This new form is preparing to venture into a brave new world.

Materials used include: batik cotton fabrics, fibers, beading and buttons.  The size is 4" x 6".

It sold at the show (Wow! It is exciting to sell your precious hand-made art!)

 

I am including one more piece.  "Cooler Days Ahead" which features beading and hand embroidery on a mono-printed background fabric.  This 4" x 6" postcard appeared in the January 2009 show curated by Susan Lenz called  Cyber Fyber.  Click here to learn more about that show.

I nominate Patricia Marek to join this 5-day Art Challenge by posting three photos a day of her artwork, and nominating another artist to carry the challenge ever forward. I look forward to seeing your lovely art!

Day 2: FB Art Challenge

This is more information about my 2nd Day of the Art Challenge currently circulating on FaceBook. I was nominated by Pam Biswas - Thank-you Pam. For this second day of the five day challenge, I am sharing three of my quilts made for challenges with the Beyond the Borders Art Quilt Group, affiliated with the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH).  Each of these challenges resulted with the individual quilts being assembled together into a larger group quilt which we then entered in the QGGH quilt shows.

This first piece featured is a challenge designed by Bethany Carter for the BTB about 5 long years ago (or longer? as many aspects of this challenge were discussed and debated which resulted with the "deadline" being pushed back repeatedly).  This group quilt is titled "Alice's Odyssey".

Bethany drew out the puzzle pieces in different sizes and shapes first.   We 'claimed' our puzzle piece as well as our section from the classic story "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.  As you can see, our efforts won a few awards in our 2011 local quilt show, including the coveted Best of Show.  Click here to read more about this group effort.

I made the vertical puzzle piece of Alice growing tall before shrinking to slip into the magical garden.  My piece features several 3-d effects: a wooden door into the garden secured with a tiny brass lock, tags on the bottle on the table and on the candy on the floor, a buckle on the 'patent leather shoe' and a loose-free-swinging skirt and apron on Alice.  Here is a view of my puzzle piece while in the construction stage.  Notice that the skirt is entirely different, the 3-dimensional pieces haven't been added and more ... clearly the piece is still evolving and growing.

I named this piece "My Big Foot Alice" and often think of it as the last piece in my series of big foot quilts.  Click here to see two close-up views of details on my tiny quilt puzzle piece.

 

The puzzle quilt had its own special exhibit during the 2011 International Quilt Festival. Here is a photo of some of our group.  Left to right they are: Connie Fahrion, Hannah Mallon, Sara Sissenwein Norris, Elaine Connelly and myself.  Elaine was our leader at the time and she has since passed away.  Elaine, you are missed very much still.   

Click here to find out more about "Alice's Odyssey".  It was great fun to complete this excruciating group effort.

In this next challenge, we each had to make a quilt block that measured 8"x10" using the color "Honeysuckle" (the Pantone 2011 Color of the Year) and some dupioni silk.  The quilts were all meant to have a whimsical bird theme.  Click here to read my original blog post about this challenge.

When the deadline arrived, only five quilters turned in completed quilts which were assembled into this simple vertical quilt.  We titled our group piece "Bird-Brained Blocks".  Mine is the pink flamingo watching her egg hatch open.  We won second place in the Art Quilt category at our guild show.

For the curious among you.....

the 2015 Pantone Color of the Year is Marsala.
Hmmm, I am itching to start a new challenge with this color!

This last BTB challenge piece had to comply with only three specifications:

theme - tree

size - 20" long with any width between 6" and 12"; 

color - any but Green  Absolutely NO GREEN may be used!

I thought that using no green at all was the easiest part of this challenge.  My quilt, "Solitude", is a tree at night in the dead of a winter with no snow.  The tree is composed entirely of used coffee filters, generously donated to my project by Liz Broussard.  Thank you Liz!

Here is the full view of "Beyond the Branches",  our green-less tree quilt.  Click here for my original blog post about this quilt, which includes a list of the artists that made each piece.  Click here for an earlier post on how I created "Solitude".

I nominate Janice Daniel McKeehan to join this 5-day Art Challenge by posting three photos a day of her artwork, and nominating another artist to carry the challenge ever forward.  Janice, I look forward to seeing your lovely posts!

Waves ...

This is a small piece, approximately 12" square.

I started this piece years ago, when my Beyond the Borders bee spent time exploring exercises from Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker.  My plan was to finish this aging UFO for the upcoming ALQS#7 swap (whose deadline is fast approaching).

This detail shows the echo quilting of the seagulls far off in the distance.

This detail shows the rippling waves both in the applique shapes and the quilted lines.

Upon seeing this finished piece, my husband promptly claimed it for his office.  So this small quilt will not be appearing in ALQS#7 after all.  I must look at the other design studies from that day with BTB to see if there is another one that I might finish for this swap.   I plan to explore more of the exercises described in the book, too.  Masopust and Barker have devised a simple 9-patch system to teach composition.  I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring color and composition found in all quilts, both traditional and art quilts.

For more on this book click here. 

Note:  It is available in digital versions, too.

Photo Ops with Alice

Beyond the Borders, my art quilt group, had our "Alice's Odyssey" in a Special Exhibit at the International Quilt Festival this fall.  It was our challenge piece that was started perhaps 2 years ago .... and we were thrilled to be sharing it with the quilting enthusiasts that flock to the largest quilt show around, especially since it will soon be dismantled with each individual puzzle piece being returned the its original maker.

We tried gathering everyone for a group photo ... finally agreeing that we were too many to coordinate the same one day and time.  So we scheduled two photo-ops with our Alice.

First is our Thursday gathering ...

 

From the left (seated) are Nancy B. Dickey, Linda Teddlie Minton, Ann Schaefer and standing are Cheryl Johnson and Jo Sweet.  I'm the one kneeling.

Then we gathered again on Saturday ...

 

Connie Fahrion, Hannah Mallon, Sara Sissenwein Norris, Elaine Connelly all joined me this time around.  

Missing from these photos are the Alice puzzle-piece makers Bethany Carter (the originator of this challenge), Susan Carter, Gloria Kohnen, Janice McKeehan, Susan Fletcher King and Liz Broussard. 

Our quilt as seen at the Quilt Festival (with protective barrier in place).

Alice's Odyssey

 and for the curious among you .... here is my piece.

I like to call it "Big Foot Alice" ....

a talk with Jo

In a recent email chat with my friend Jo, she reminded me that her Button Candy quilt (featured in the previous post) started as a single block -- one made in reply to a design challenge we had in our Beyond the Borders (BTB) art quilt group.  Nancy Dickey, our leader at the time, had us create something (a drawing or quilt) using buttons.  I managed to pencil sketches (which I may post, if I locate that sketch pad).

Jo stitched up her first button candy -- the bag of hard candies.  She told me that:
          "I had so much fun making the bag of candies that I dived into my button stash, found it wanting, and proceeded to look for "vintage" buttons or newer interesting ones.  Now I have collected enough buttons for several projects"

I like her quilt so much, I plan to stitch up my own version of Button Candy.

Button Candy

 Jo Sweet, one of my Beyond the Borders friends (BTB), has made a great quilt favoring the sweet things in life.  Her quilt was in the latest quilt show by the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH).  In case you missed that show, I have a few photos to share.  First a full view of Jo's quilt, which she calls "Button Candy."

Button Candy by Jo Sweet

The multi-color polka-dotty sashing is a great offset to the four blocks of this fun quilt.

Jelly Beans

Every candy store always has a big vat of Jelly Beans --- what fun to scoop your own!

Hard Candies

I love a tasty hard candy, especially when fighting a sore throat.

Jaw Breakers

One huge jaw breaker to chomp on is also a fun candy treat.  Who wants one of these?

Box of Chocolates

My favorite of all is Jo's Box of Chocolates!  Are they truffles or some other yummy chocolate treats?


I'd write more, but first I think I'll go grab a bit of chocolate .... Actually, I want to make my own Button Candy quilt, don't you?

Alice's Odyssey

 Look at this!  It's the Best Of Show quilt from this summer's Quilt Show extravaganza held by the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH).  See the names?  Mine is on that list !

"Alice's Odyssey"

This quilt, Alice's Odyssey, was made by members of Beyond the Borders art quilt group (BTB) - my fiber art friends.  It began a few years ago when we were dreaming up a new challenge to taunt everyone with.  Bethany suggested we do a puzzle quilt and off we ran ..... this quilt is a puzzle, made of separate smaller quilts shaped as puzzle pieces.  Each puzzle piece depicts some aspect of our many favorite stories and plots found in the classic "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.

We each "signed up" for a specific puzzle piece -- they vary in size -- and also selected which mini-story within the larger story we wished to illustrate.  Then we were off and running, tackling many problems as they arose, and forever pushing back our "must be complete by" deadline (beware of this phenomenon if you choose to participate in a group piece).

Perhaps the largest puzzle, err, challenge, was figuring out how in the world to put all the puzzle pieces together.  Or how to transport the final version of our quilt may have been a larger stumbling block.  Regardless of the many issues we hurdled together, this is our glorious end product.  I find it stunning, if I may be so bold to say so.

Good news:  Alice's Odyssey will be in a special exhibit at this year's annual International Quilt Festival and Quilt Market that start later this month.   As it is very true that photos simply do not do justice to fiber art  ... this is one quilt that has to be seen in person, so be sure to come to the International Quilt Festival this year!!!

Best of Show!

Back to Alice's Odyssey -- Above is simply another photo of our prize-winning group quilt.  Congratulations to all my friends in Beyond the Borders (BTB)!  We were quite pleased when our group quilt won "Best of Show" this summer in our local quilt show.  It is the highest place one of our BTB group quilts has every achieved!

I'm ready ...

I'm Ready For My Closeup, Mr. deMille

Liz Broussard, the creator of this cute bird quilt, sent me this photo to share with everyone.  I must agree, it is much better than the one I snapped at the QGGH Quilt Show this summer.  Enjoy!


For more details on Liz's quilt, read the post below .....

Bird-Brained Blocks

This is the latest group quilt made by my friends in Beyond the Borders (BTB), a local Art Quilt group affiliated with the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH). 

Bird Brained Blocks

Our original challenge was to create a small 8" x 10" quilt (no larger and no smaller) with a whimsical bird theme.  Additional parameters were to use "Honeysuckle" (declared the 'color' of the year - as of last spring) and to use silk (preferably raw or dupioni).  Five quilts were gathered to create our finished quilt "Bird-Brained Blocks".  The five bird quilts were made by Elaine Connelly (our current BTB leader), Jo Sweet (the longest participating member of BTB), Janice McKeehan (who made two quilts for this challenge) and myself.  We were quite tickled and honored to win a 2nd place ribbon in the Art Quilt category at our guild's 2011 Quilt Show, "A Quilt's Odyssey".

I confess, I was surprised to find myself making another variation of my oft-repeated Big Foot theme.  My piece is the flamigo curiously peering at the egg that is cracking open to reveal a new member of the family.  Click here to see a few of my earlier Big Foot pieces.

Two other bird-brained quilts were in the Quilt Odyssey show as solo entries.  Liz Broussard  named her quilt "I'm Ready for My Closeup, Mr. deMille".  She used snow-dyed silk as a backdrop for a henna inspired design.  Inktense pencils, crayons and acrylic paint were also used.

I'm Ready for My Closeup, Mr. deMille

Barbara Jensen made "Tripped by the Tulle, a Ballerina's Fall".  Her original piece was inspired by the movie "The Black Swan".  She had fun adding detail elements to her prima donna ballerina -- such as her false eyelashes, her fancy tulle and her glamorous hot-fix crystals.

Tripped by the Tulle - A Ballerina's Fall

Barbara won a 2nd place ribbon in the miniature quilt category for her birdie quilt!  Go Barbara!

Fiber Bowls

I collected bowls from two of my fiber art groups, Beyond the Sunset and Beyond the Borders (both are affiliated with the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston).  These bowls are donations for the 7th Annual Empty Bowls - Houston, but I thought I would share photos of my favorite ones before delivering them to the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

 

This "sunflower" bowl is the colorful creation of my friend Janice.  She has crafted the petals with fabric and fiber snippets and lots of stitching, anchoring each petal into the flower's brown center.  I like the red threads she's added for additional color.

Elaine, current leader of Beyond the Borders, created two bowls this year.  Both are made with fabric-wrapped cotton clothesline (a technique I plan to do one day, as I have the requisite clothesline ...now to find the time).  The green one (above) has green accent stripes incorporated into the bowl's design.  It has a slim, elongated oval shape, which I like.  

Her second bowl (below) also has accent stripes.  Elaine's bowls have decorative elements at the rim (helpful to disguise the ending of the clothesline!).  I love both the green button and the trio of yo-yo (similar, yet different).

Another donated fiber creation came as a match set of a bowl with a matching plate.  These were made by Pat, our leader of the Beyond the Sunset group.

The bowl was shaped by saturating with a liquid stiffener (watered-down glue), then draping over a plastic, fluted vegetable container to dry.  A wired beads were added as additional accents to the rim of the bowl.

A peek into the bowl, from above, reveals additional beading (tinier seed beads) anchored in the base of the bowl.  I love the variety of textures these beaded additions bring to Pat's bowl.

The plate is easily a stand-alone piece as well, and coordinates lovely with its matching bowl.

Perhaps the oddest of the bowls that I will deliver is one of my own....

I knit this bowl using a chunky (non-feltable) yarn.  I plan to stiffen this floppy piece into more of a classic bowl shape before delivering it to Empty Bowls, but time is always a tight element of my days.... Chances are strong that this soft, drapable bowl will be donated in this limp form.  It may be interesting to hear the comments of the bowl-shoppers at Empty Bowls!

The variegated yarn worked up nicely with the purple stripes going across the bottom and up the opposing sides (of course it is also due in part to the pattern of the knit-design).  This bowl can also double as a warm hat .... but only one liveds in a cold-climate area (which rarely describes our Houston winter).