This Months Round Robin

Here is this months round robin. I actually like it and think this has potential to turn out as a decent piece. It still has 5 or 6 people to go through before it is finished so we will see what happens.


















I am still behind on my art commitments so I really feel I took the easy way out on this one. I had an Asian print fabric in my stash and just cut out this bird and fused it to the quilt...... Not exactly anything innovative or spectacular but I think it works. Maybe I will be caught up with things in a couple of weeks.

Convergence Reveal

Here is my 'convergence' quilt for my Fiberactions challenge group. Make sure and check out everyone's great quilts on the Fiberactions blog.

To say this was a challenge is an understatement. Over the last couple of months we have been in the process of designing a second home and going through the contracting phase of building it in NC which is about 2 hours from where we live in GA. My time for art has really been limited.

This was my third attempt. The first attempt was about 3 weeks ago. I saw the date looming ahead of me and in a panic cut up about 6 different fabrics into 1 1/2" squares. I thought I would make some cool converging design and have an opportunity to practice my piecing which I have said several times that I am not very good at. Look at this

really ugly pile of fabrics....what was I thinking. I hated the colors and everything about it!

Next in even more of a panic I saw Ricky Timms book on Convergence quilts on my book shelf and thought I could at least do a simple one. I picked 2 really cool fabrics and did a curved convergence design that I really liked after the first convergence. I thought of stopping there and finishing the piece that would have been about 30" x 20" (wish I would have taken a picture). Since I had not other ideas for a convergence quilt, I decided that I should try to slice it and dice in some other way so I could meet the challenge deadline.

After more cutting and sewing I then decided it was too ordinary and decided to do some extensive thread painting on the top before quilting. I used 2 layers of stabilizer which was not enough and the top became so wonky that in total despair I cut it in pieces, arranged them on a piece of black felt and went for a bike ride with my daughter and granddaughter ! This was on Tuesday of this week....

I got up early on Wednesday, now in full blown panic mode, and went down to my studio. I looked at my now ruined quilt and started to look through my fabrics for the third time. I found a stack of my hand-painted skies. I love to paint fabric and the sky is one of my favorite subjects. I selected 5 different ones and after a couple of hours of playing with the arrangement I fused them in place. I did an overall cloud pattern for the quilting and with 2 trips abound the edges with a zigzag stitch I was done. If felt like I had just lost 20 pounds (wish I could really lose 20 LBS!!). This was really a great lesson for me since I tend to over think most things and am not know for someone who does things in a hurry. The funny thing is that I really like this quilt and it was done in a day.

Paula Nadelstern

One of the benefits of belonging to a large quilt guild is quality of the speakers they are able to get. This months speaker at the East Cobb Quilt Guild was Paula Nadelstern.

If you are unfamiliar with her work you can check out her website here. She is famous for her incredible kaleidoscope quilts. Paula gave her lecture called 'The Kaleidoscope as Design Inspiration'. I must say that she was one of the best speakers I have heard in a long time. We have had some 'famous names' in the past that may be great quilters but not so great speakers. Paula lives in the Bronx in the same block where she has lived her whole life. She showed slides of her apartment and the small space she works in. This really made me appreciate all of the space I have. She was also funny and engaging and gave real insight on how she creates her award winning quilts. If you ever have an opportunity to hear Paula don't miss it. I only wish I could have taken one of the 4 classes that she taught. I was lucky enough to win the box of note cards pictured on the left featuring 4 of Paula's quilts.

Round Robin...What I did

Here is what I finally did to last months round robin piece. I lifted the thread-work on the left and then added hair using 2 different black fabrics. I did some heavy thread painting and then added highlights with a silver Shiva paintstick. Finally I stitched the thread-work back in place.

How's this for a baby?

Love this picture I captured of a 1 week old colt with her Mama. I saw her a couple of hours after she was born but didn't have my camera. Can you believe those long legs...ohhhhh I am so jealous! We have a place on a river in NC and there is a farm right down the road. I grew up in a city so I really appreciate seeing the animals. I also have a new favorite pastime....... trout fishing. Hope you are enjoying the spring.

Morning In The Garden II

Here is a 5" x 7" piece I just completed for an art swap with Lorna. I love trading art with other artist so if you are interested in trading just let me know. I can only do about 1 of these every couple of months but it is a great way to build you art collection for the cost of your material, time and postage.

This piece was pretty involved. I was digging through my scraps and found a piece of fabric that had the poppies painted on it. I didn't like the background so I cut out the 3 flowers I liked the best and fused them to a piece of peltex that I had painted with different colors of green. Then I did heavy thread painting on the flowers and leaves. I didn't like how this came out so I cut away some of the background and placed it on a piece of one of my hand-painted sky's. Finally did the quilting using one of my favorite variegated threads on the sky and added some beads in the center of each flower. Hope she likes it.

Round Robin Idea - What do you think?

I have been looking at the picture below of the round robin piece and just came up with this idea. I could add some sort of hair to the head and have it pulled to the left through the thread work. Then the thread work would look like it was wrapped around the hair......

This months round robin...HELP

Here is the round robin piece I received for this month. I think I am the 5th person to work on it. The last person added the yarn work on the left which is really throwing me off. Right now I think the piece is really disjointed and I am at a loss as to what to do to bring this together. I am really not sure how much I like this round robin thing. It's really hard to imagine what someone is thinking when they add something to a piece. I did not participate in this last year but I do remember that most of the pieces were unusual to say the least after having 12 people work on them. Have any of you been in a round robin like this before?

Remember that I can only add one thing to the piece. Any suggestions would really be appreciated.

4 Down - 8 to go

I managed to quilt a few more blocks on my Kandinsky inspired quilt. I have been too busy for art over the last couple of weeks so not making much progress. It was a beautiful day in the Atlanta area today and I played 18 holes of golf with my daughter. It was short course (only a par 60) but challenging enough since I haven't played in about 7 or 8 years. I was really happy with my 83 and got lots of fresh air and sunshine not to mention the time I spent with my daughter. Hope you all had a great day.

And the winner is.........

Thanks for all of the great name suggestions for my 'communications' quilt. It was a difficult decision to pick a name and I have finally decided on 'Togethernet' submitted by Artymess (Lorna). I really appreciate your input and thanks to all for following my blog.

Communications Piece Reveal & Win an ATC

Here it is! My second piece created for the Fiberactions group challenge. The challenge word was ‘communication’ and I really don't have a name for this quilt! The size is 16' x 20'. Here is what I was thinking about when I designed this piece: What does the Internet 'look' like? How has it made the world 'smaller'? What has it done to/for communication?

I painted the earth with Stewart Gill paints. The communication bands where made by 'scribble' writing on top of 3 layers of clear plastic with a black Sharpie. I then covered it with 3 more layers and fused them together. I then did more writing on top, covered it with 2 more layers and fused again. The plastic sheet was then painted with a light glaze of Alchemy paint and cut into strips to attach to the quilt.

I used 2 layers of batting and love the extra dimension that this adds. Somehow this actually made the quilting easier and I had a lot less difficulty with tension even when I quilted the black and 'Internet' with metallic thread. Be sure to click on the photo for a larger view.

So here is your chance to win an ATC. Just leave a comment with you name suggestion for this quilt. If your name is the one I choose I will send you an ATC. Please HELP!!! I will announce the winner on 3/21.

Check out the Fibreractions blog to see the other 12 artist quilts on this theme and more details on this quilt. Our next challenge will be announced later today and I can't wait to see what I will be working on next.

One down, eleven to go......

Today I managed to get one of the blocks quilted in my Kandinsky inspired quilt. I actually did 1 1/2 blocks and stopped when I did some quilting that I did not like and decided to take it out wnich of course set me back about 45 min.

I had envisioned starting this early today and having almost the whole thing finished by the end of the day but of course I got sidetracked and didn't actually start until after lunch. I tend to be a real analyzer and will put a piece up on my design wall and study what I want to do for quite a while (I really hate this about myself). By the time I finished this block, I decided that I really needed to go for a walk since it was such a nice day.

When I returned I started in on the second block and then gave up for the day when I had to take out the quilting I didn't like. Now I won't get back to this until next week......so much for getting something done in a hurry. I do like the way the block turned out though.........