Purrfectly Patterned

Last month I got one of those exciting emails....you know....the kind where you find out you are accepted into a juried show/event? This quilt, Purrfectly Patterned, was accepted to exhibit with "Patterns", the 2016 Dinner at Eight Artists exhibition, which will debut at the Houston International Quilt Festival this fall.

The quilt was made to a theme of "patterns" and it is 40" square. To read more about the Dinner at Eight Artists, please click here.

Thank You

I would like to thank all of you who celebrated my blog anniversary with me last month. Many of you took advantage of the discount I offered in my Etsy shop and I appreciate that with all my heart. Here's to keeping up with blogging.

I do find blogging to be a bit more challenging these days, especially with fast and easy posting that one can do on Instagram and Facebook with a smartphone. I am writing this post with a new app on my phone and I hope it proves to be a useful tool.

So what have I been doing for the past month? Well I worked on some projects with deadlines. A couple of which I can't share here yet but sometime next month I can.

This art quilt was one I made and it is my donation to SAQA for their annual benefit auction held this fall. 

 

I've been working in my garden a lot lately and enjoying the fresh fragrances around me.  Gardening and getting priority projects completed have kept me from doing my screen printing but I'm hoping to get back to that soon.

Happy June to you!

Happy New Year

Wow.....2016. It's a new year. Can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday we were entering the new millennium. I don't know about you, but time is just flying by.

Over the past few days I've been playing with fabric batik'ing. Here are three results that I'm happy with. I am going to be playing more with batiks in the near future. Just waiting for my supplies to show up. I ran out of batik wax so I had to get some ordered.

A couple weeks ago, I shared a quilt top that I had pieced, using all hand dyed fabrics. I've been thinking about how I will quilt this top and I'm sort of thinking about doing some hand quilting with these threads. The perle cotton was actually dyed with these fabrics so the colors are a match. I've seen some wonderful examples of big stitch quilting with heavier threads on the Internet and I like the look of it. So....we shall see about this. The good thing is that this quilt top isn't overly large, so hand quilting shouldn't take me forever.

And here is a quilt top that I'm currently working on. I found the central improv blocks recently in a storage container. I had pieced them some time ago...I have to say at least two or even three years ago....maybe. Well I decided it is time to create something with these so I'm slowly building the quilt top.

I plan to add more to this top but need some time to think about the next step. I have lots of scraps and pieces from other projects that coordinate with these colors so I am hoping to use those somehow. I have an idea floating in my head but just need to work it out.

Dinner At Eight - Affinity Exhibit

Seeking Red
40" x 40"

I spent some time, in the past few months, creating this art quilt. I couldn't share it with you here because it was being made for a juried exhibit entry. I am so happy to share with you that my quilt was juried into the exhibit and will be shown at the International Quilt Market (Oct 24-26) and Festival (Oct 28-Nov 1) in Houston; Sponsored by Havel's Sewing. Forty art quilts, 40x40 = 40x40x40.

The two women behind Dinner at Eight, Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison, have been doing themed invitational exhibits for several years and have put together some great exhibits.

If you click the Dinner at Eight link in the previous paragraph, you will see all the artists who were selected to be part of the exhibit. I am overjoyed to be included among this group of wonderful art quilters. 

We had to create a quilt to the theme of affinity. You can read more about the theme at the link above.

Each summer I seek out the flash of red that flits around my honeysuckle bush. We get ruby-throated hummingbirds in my area and I so enjoy watching them. They in turn, have an affinity for red colors and they love my honeysuckle.

New Projects Started

I have been busy working lately on a quilt and some new stencil designs, but unfortunately they were projects that I could not share here just yet.  But I will, when I can.  With that stuff behind me I have now started on some new projects.

First up is a new warp for my next weaving project. This will be towels which seems to be the thing I love to weave most. Some of the warp threads in this bundle are some that I hand dyed, although you can't really see them in this photo.

And the next two projects are starts of two new mixed media quilts.

The fabric I'm using for these two quilts is my clean up fabric from a previous quilt project. When I am painting on a quilt I unload excess paint and leftover paint onto a piece of fabric which then can be used for any number of things.

Colorful Fabric Collage Blog Hop

Welcome to the Colorful Fabric Collage Blog Hop. I'm thrilled to share this fun new book with you. It was written by my friend, Sue Bleiweiss. The book is all about Sue's techniques on making some fun and fused quilts and other sewing projects. The book is available for purchase online from Amazon and Interweave. You may also find it in your local book store.

Way back when Sue was just getting started with writing this book she asked me if I'd create a quilt for inclusion in her book. Here is the quilt I made, which incorporates fusing and my usual quilt making techniques. You can read more about my quilt on page 49 in the book.

I thought it would be fun to try out some of Sue's techniques so I created the next small quilt with one of my bird patterns. I have to say that I enjoyed the techniques very much. Did you know Sue teaches? Check out her website for more information and to schedule her for your guild's next workshop.

There is going to be a blog hop drawing and one lucky winner will win the following prize bundle.

The giveaway package includes: A copy of Colorful Fabric Collage (please note that international winners will receive an e-copy and not a hard copy), a 2-1/2 yard package of Mistyfuse, a sampling of Aurifil threads and a stack of 10″ squares of Sue's own hand dyed fabric!  To be eligible for the giveaway just leave a comment on either this post or any of the other blog posts in the hop.  You can increase your chances of winning by leaving a comment on each of the blog hop posts but please, leave only one comment per blog hop post!

The winner will be announced on Monday, May 18 on Sue's blog. Good luck to all.

Please visit the other blogs involved in the blog hop:

May 4: Sue Bleiweiss: http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog/

May 4: Jamie Fingal :http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com/
May 5: Leslie Tucker Jenison: http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/
May 6: Terri Stegmiller : http://stegart.blogspot.com/
May 7: Deborah Boschert : http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com/
May 8: Desiree Habicht : http://myclothesline.blogspot.com/
May 9: Kathy Sperino : http://finishinglinesbyksperino.blogspot.com/
May 10: Barb Forrister : http://www.barbforrister.com/blog/
May 11 Kathy York : http://www.aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com/
May 12: Lyric Kinard : http://lyrickinard.com/lyric-kinard-blog/

THE 100 - My Art Donation

Last month I shared with you information about an upcoming fundraiser.  I wrote how I was asked to participate by creating an artwork that will be purchased by someone who contributes $100 to the American Cancer Society. I am sharing with you today, the art that I created for the fundraiser. 

My piece is titled Sitting Pretty and is a mixed media art quilt that measures 12" x 12". If you would like more information about this event, please see the links below.

On February 4, 2015, the first 100 people to donate $100 by credit card directly to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause will receive an artwork from one of the 100 generous artists who are participating.

To read all the details about THE 100, please visit this link:
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/FFACThe100Fundraiser.html

If you are a Pinterest user, you can follow a board that will showcase some of the art for THE 100 event. You will find this Pinterest board here:
http://www.pinterest.com/d_boschert/the-100-fundraiser-to-fight-cancer/