circles

Here is a close-up view of the finished Circle quilt, blocks made by Beyond the Sunset (BTS) members, which I blogged about previously (click here to see my blocks).

Once the blocks were collected, Liz Broussard took over the piecing together the variety of circle blocks.  We had given her some of the scraps from making our blocks which she put to good use in the sashing.  Once the top was pieced, Liz quilted it.

Time to play "I Spy" and see if you can identify my block(s) in the finished quilt.  How many of mine were used?  This quilt raised money for our guild, the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH), when it was sold during our QGGH Quilt Show and Auction this past summer.  One of our own Beyond the Sunset members had the winning bid!  Susanne, if you ever tire of owning this quilt, just let me know, as I'm positive it will find a happy home with me!
 

Stay tuned for photos of what Pat Marek did with the many unused Circle blocks.  Apparently, we were quite an ambitious group and turned in far more than Liz could use in a single quilt, which is a good thing, don't you think?

Circle blocks

My Beyond the Sunset art quilt bee had another challenge as well.  This one was to piece circle in solid colors onto white backgrounds.  Here are three of my circle blocks:

 Circle study #1

 Circle study #2

Circle study #3

Granted the photography is horrid (did you notice?), the colors are way off (the background is a white on white print), but I had to show my work, because I hand appliqued all my circles (the full, the open and the pieced arcs).

The finished quilt turned out fabulous (Thank-you Liz) and sold in our Quilt Guild's auction at our  quilt show this summer.

a challenge

Some time ago, one of my Art Quilt group members gave us a challenge to make a block with design inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's work and color inspired by a lovely floral print that she gave us (but do not use it in the blocks, please!).

Here are most of the blocks made by our crowd:

Aren't they grand?

I'm still waiting to see how they were all put together into a quilt ....

Fabric ice-dyeing

Have you ever tried this funky technique of dyeing fabric using ice?  My friend Laurel Cull (and fellow member of our Beyond the Sunset quilt bee) has made not one, but two great videos that I must share.

In the first one you can actually see the ice melting, one drip at a time.  But no worries, she has sped up the actual film time 10,000%!

The resulting colors are extremely vibrant - I have got to schedule an ice-dyeing playdate with Laurel soon!

This second video compares two ice melting techniques:  plain ice vs. ice with soda ash frozen inside.  Can you guess which is which (hint: look at the finished products revealed at the end of the video)?

New ATCs to trade

Always looking for a new challenge, my evening Art Quilt group (BTS) decided to make and trade ATC's (Artist Trading Cards).  As per my usual, I missed the night of the actual showing and trading (it was in the month of May - which is now crazy-busier-than-Dec-month but I'll save that 'rant' for another day).  

I happen to enjoy making (and trading) ATC's and have been planning to make some for a long time (I had hoped to trade some at this year's Quilt Festival - but November flew past and here we are in the summer and I have just now finished them!)

This is a fun way to use up colorful scraps left-over from any project.  The ATCs posted below began as scraps from my quilt "Sitting on Top of the World" (click here to see more of that quilt).  I played further with the scraps --   

 

making some dark ones on blue,

and lighter ones on pale pink.

The original base is inexpensive felt, the middle layer has candy wrappers, bright trims and scraps and the top layer is sheers, voiles and tulles.  The layers are stitched together in a free-form meandering style.  The pieces are trimmed to size and finished off with modge-podge and stitching to a cardstock back.

I took my ATCs (the ones above and more) to our "Beyond the Sunset" June meeting, offering them to those who attended that night even though they did not bring ATCs to trade (that happened in May).  So I simply asked them to bring me one next time.

I still have a few more ... I am happy to trade now or I can wait and trade them at Quilt Festival 2012.

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).