'Stretch' Challenge Reveal

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

I must admit that these last 3 challenges have been a real 'stretch' for me. For the last 4 months we have been building a second home in NC which is about 2 hours from our home in GA. My time at home has been limited but the flooring was put down last Friday so I may be back to a somewhat normal life soon!

For this piece I started with a fabric that I created about a year ago. I loved the colors but I thought the front was too bright so I turned it over and used the back. I just started adding layers of fabric and paint.



The green leaf on the upper left actually is made up of 11 layers including the quilting. Here is a closeup. The layers are: backing fabric, 2 layers of wool/cotton blend batting, background fabric, orange fabric, red felt covered with organza with designs created by using a soddering iron, green leaf, painted misty fuse, black tulle and finally the quilting.


One of the things that always takes me forever is deciding on how I want to quilt a piece so this is really where the 'stretch' comes in on this quilt. Usually for the background quilting I do some sort of all over consistent pattern. My crutch seems to be stippling.

After starring at this pinned to my design wall for an hour or so I decided to just start some real random allover quilting with no real pattern in mind. At first I thought I would just use clear thread in case I didn't like it but at the last minute I selected a variegated that I had never used before. In this picture you can see the results.

Yes....I'm still here!

Tomorrow is carpet day at the new house!!!!! Could this really be the end and I will be able to get back to some sort of normal life and art? Now I don't want to get too excited since last Satruday was also carpet day...... however when they cut the pieces for the great room the 2 pieces, even though cut from the same role, were different colors. So back to the carpet store and select new carpet.

Truthfully I like this carpet better than the first so maybe it was not a bad thing. Wish me luck and watch this space for my resurgence in art.

It is starting to look like a house!

Here is the reason that I have been so neglectful of my art and blog the last couple of months. Our house in NC is actually starting to look like a house! We think it should be finished in another 5 or 6 weeks and then maybe things will get back to normal.

I have actually been home this week and have been working on trying to catch up on a few projects. When I went downstairs to my studio I spent the first 2 hours cleaning up from my last rush of overdue projects. To say it was a mess is really an understatement. Not that it is really organized right now (not even close!) but I can at least see the floor and my work table. So here I am again behind the eight ball with my Fiberactions challenge quilt. The word for this round is 'Memory' and I like what I have started. My goal is to have it done before Monday since this week the house is being dry walled and we will be painting the finish coat on the walls ourselves. I hate to think of how many rooms I have painted but I actually enjoy it. I love the feeling of accomplishment and it is amazing what a little color can do for a room. I don't do pastel walls and love bold colors. I will try to do better keeping up and thanks to any followers I may have left! Enjoy the holiday weekend.

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.