Torah portion completed

I am thrilled to announce that I have completed my cross-stitch Torah portion for the Torah Stitch By Stitch project and have sent it off to Canada .... hopefully I will receive word soon that it has been received.

My four verses tell the story of Joseph's return to Egypt after he had traveled to bury his father in the land of Canaan and about his brothers reaction to their father's death. The English and Hebrew are on my first post (here) about this project.

 Genesis 50: 14-17

I added the borders on the three sides - an option.  I look forward to seeing the entire piece assembled and on display.

For the curious - here is a view of the back of my piece.  Is it almost has interesting as the front?  Sylvia, my mother-in-law, was always more interested in admiring the backs of my projects than the actual project.  So I share this one in her memory -- may her memory be a blessing.

For more information on how to participate in the international project (recreating the entire Torah in cross-stitch, four verses at a time), or just for updates as to how it is going, follow the website: 

http://torahstitchbystitch.temmagentles.com/

This completes my July goal in A Lovely Year of Finishes too.  Click here to find out more about this monthly "can you finish it?" challenge being run by Melissa at Sew BitterSweet Designs (http://blog.sewbittersweetdesigns.com/) or Shanna at Fiber of All Sorts  (http://fiberofallsorts.blogspot.com/).

I am Linky #20 in the Goal posting for July (click here to see all that posted goals) and I am Linky #28 in the Finishes posting for July (click here for all who posted finishes)

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 4: FB Art Challenge

This is my 4th Day of the Art Challenge currently circulating on FaceBook. 

I was nominated by Pam Biswas.   Thank you Pam!  For this fourth day of the 5-day challenge, I am sharing more of my favorite quilts and mixed media/fiber art pieces.  I hope you enjoy them.

This first piece tells the Legend of the Bluebonnet.  A quick summary is:  In days long long ago, during a severe drought, a young girl sacrificed her most prized possession, her doll, to the tribe's fire, following their leader's request.  The gods were happy and sent rain that night.  The next morning, when the little girl and her people woke up, they discovered the fields were covered with blue flowers, the same blue of the doll's dress.  These were the first bluebonnets and they return every spring, remembering the little girl's love that was so pure.

This story quilt was fun to make.  I explored a variety of mixed media/fiber art techniques including: painted hot glue squiggles (the bluebonnets), overlayed sheers (the sun and the rain), torched and painted tyvek (flames of fire), new fabric made from stitched threads and fibers (the doll's dress - both the tiny doll in the girl's hands and the center doll burning in the fire), and couched fibers (fields of bluebonnets). 

This piece was my entry in the 2008 Journal Quilt Project at Houston's annual International Quilt Festival.  That year, quilt artists were asked to make a quilt portraying the four elements (earth, wind, rain and fire).  Most chose to focus on one element however I decided to touch on all four elements in this little story quilt.  Sadly, my quilt was rejected from the actual exhibit, though it was in an virtual online show (with several other rejected quilts).  Click here to see "Braving the Elements".  Thank you Linda Teddie Minton for coordinating this special show.  Click here to see my entry in "Braving the Elements" which includes the poem of the legend of the bluebonnet.


This next quilt is called "American All-Stars" and is my first quilt to travel in a national exhibit and is my first entry in the annual Hoffman Challenge, specifically the 1996 challenge which featured "Old Glory".  My quilt did not travel to Houston during its year on the road.  However it was on display during the big Paducah quilt show in the spring of 1997.  I cancelled my plans to see my quilt in Paducah, as I was expecting twins.  In the photo below, my children are one year old wearing special outfits made with the "Old Glory" Hoffman challenge fabric to celebrate both the return home of my traveling quilt and the July 3rd wedding of their Uncle and Aunt.  Aren't they precious?

 My next quilt is my current all-time favorite quilt and is hanging on my living room wall.

"Red Summer Baskets" is a quilt that was a gift to me -- well, the pattern and many of the fabrics were given to me by Mary Beth Hayes, my friend and founder of Thangles.  She gave this cute pattern to me in the summer of 2012 during my visit to Wisconsin and her studio.  Click here and here to learn more about this quilt.

 

My artist nominee today happens to be Mary's sister, Wanda Eichler!  I met both sisters years ago when Mary and I were in an internet round robin group, and both traveled to Market in Houston.  We met for lunch and kept talking for three hours that afternoon.  I look forward to Mary and her husband Pat coming to Market and Festival every year.  Wanda came a few times as well.   

When I was helping Wanda with her booth, Graywood Designs, in 2010, we were delighted to see how close we were to the Make It University area.  We had fun taking turns participating in the one-hour classes they offered.  I made the four ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) that you see below.

I nominate Wanda Eichler 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.  Wanda, I look forward to seeing 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!

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).

Felting (2 UFOs)

I have dabbled in felting -- just a little bit -- this year.  The first was in a class with Gika Rector during the bi-annual conference of the Texas Federation of Fiber Artists (TFFA).  Gika taught us how to Nuno Felt, a wet felting technique that felts into a fabric base -- quite fun to do, and sadly I've only one photo to share.  My piece is here:

I used the three primary colors in Merino wool roving, trapping snippets of other fibers in the process.  My initial thought was to spin it into a color wheel .... perhaps I will felt it a bit more first....

Then, at this fall's International Quilt Festival (IQF), I was entranced by the ArtFelt booth.  They had a lovely variety of felted items as seen in these photos:

The samples are showing their many patterns and kits.  There was also luscious wool and silk roving.  I could hardly wait to get my hands on some of my own to play with!

I believe these shawls/neck-warmers are the inspiration behind my first knit scarf which was too short (click here to see that post).

 

Aren't these felted fabrics lovely?

Since Festival, I have played with one of their smaller kits, making a small purse for my cell phone.

This is the roving punched into the artfelt paper base.

Here it is after being felted.

The artfelt process uses a dryer to do the felting -- fast, easy and fun!

I've stitched the sides together ...

and added a little embroidery embellishment.

All it lacks is the final clasp or tie ... (yes, it is unfinished at the moment ...)

The year is winding to a close and I'm sharing two unfinished works in this post in hopes that I can get them finished before ringing in the new year .....