Lava

I had to get ready for an art show and they asked me to bring some fiber work as well as my encaustic.  Unfortunately...or fortunately....two of my pieces sold and the other is entered in shows so not available to sell.  This is another in a series I’m working on...wondering what is in the cracks and fissures of rocks.  I started with a background, placed my batting, then the red fabric, then I put a piece of craft acrylic felt and lastly my gray stone fabric.  After I quilted the gray, I cut down to the red, leaving the black felt showing.  After more quilting, hand beading was added...that’s real coral and Czech beads.  I’ve found that mounting my work on canvas makes it more “art” to people...at least that’s what they said in the gallery!  Now time to make more...Christmas is coming!

Pumpkin Patch

I've had a few requests to show my piece Pumpkin Patch.  Besides whole cloth, I am also an art quilter...or trying to be!  When I made this piece, I used a combination of commercial and my hand dyed fabrics.  I quilted the background of the quilt first and added some stenciled words.  Next, I added layers, one on top of each other, gradually building up the scene.  You have to think about what order the pieces have to be placed and applique/quilted.

I don't needle turn or even use Wonder Under, SteamASeam or any other glue product, nor do I pin anything in place...I just "draw" with my needle and thread.  The design edges are cut away leaving about 1/8" and yes, they do fray...but I don't care!  These are wall hangings and won't go in the wash.

If you look close, you can see I used beads and also couched yarn.  Oh, and the ribs of the big pumpkin? That was one of my clean up rags from a dyeing session!!

Starting Again....

As you can see from my previous posts, I haven't been keeping up!  In the past month, I've won a couple of awards and with that has come the question...who are you?  Do you have a website? Do you have a blog??  I've mostly posted my work on my Facebook page, but that is just a personal page, not really for "business".

So, I was juried into the AQS Charleston Show in September and was totally surprised to win the Viewers Choice Award.  Playing with the "big girls" is nerve wracking, but I'm starting to get comfortable.  One thing is, it really makes you bring your A game!

A Blanket Of Snow

As you can see, I'm still doing whole cloth quilts.  I've been trying to do different things rather than the traditional by adding paint and crystals.  Also, I'm trying new ideas in edges.  This quilt was featured on the Quilt Show...they were wondering how I did the edges.

I painted the large snowflake and also some of the swirls.  The other swirls and the snow swooshes at the top are iridescent organza that I free motion appliqued on.  Several different machine embroidery snowflakes were done using silver metallic thread from Superior Threads and about 3000 Swarovski crystals were added...I do love bling!

To make the feathers look like they were falling when you put the quilt on a bed, I cut back to the feathers, took out all the stitching, turned the front and back in on themselves and hand stitched the edges closed.....twice....When I made the quilt, we had hurricane Florence come to town, so we didn't have light or water and the quilt had to be at a show the next week, so needless to say my workmanship was suspect! Besides the Viewers Choice ribbon, Blanket also won Best of Show at the Coastal Carolina Quilters show.  I'm now in the process of making Another Blanket of Snow....I know how to do better now!

North Carolina Quilt Symposium

I know, its been a while, but moving to a new home and fitting in is hard and I've found it takes

three years.  So, I've met some new quilting buddies and one of them is a great appliquer (?).  She

brought a quilt top to our meeting and I told her to give it to me and I would quilt it for her.  Once done, I told her that I had entered it into the North Carolina Quilt Symposium.  Surprise to all, we won First place for Applique Duet and I also won the ribbon for Best Longarm Quilting.

The name of the quilt is A Walk In The Woods.  Pieced and appliqued by Anita Clodfelter, longarm quilted by Kathleen Stuart.

I also entered another quilt.  It is a wholecloth that I used machine embroidery by Anita Goodesign  and also Swarovski crystals.  The name of this one is Remembering Alice.  I made it for my mother who has Alzheimers.

This one won First place for wholecloth quilts and also, the best in my opinion, Viewers Choice.

I really need to get back to quilting!!



Two Winners!

As usual LIFE has taken over and I am behind on postings! Husband has decided to retire at the end of June, so we're having the house painted so we can put it up for sale, so I am cleaning and "downsizing" my stuff. Besides that, I went to MQS-Machine Quilters Showcase for a week of classes, competition and Mohitos! Very glad I went because I won not one, but TWO ribbons!!! WhooHoo!

I won 1st place for Wall quilt for my Golden Dragon and 1st place for Bed quilt for Sharon Wants Crystals in the Just For Me category. For me, this is a great category because you have to be a machine quilter who only quilts for yourself, not professionally. Next year I'll put my Big Girl panties on and try and see how I do in one of the other categories...we'll see!

Golden Dragon is one piece of silk dupioni that was quilted with burgundy polyester thread. The elements of the quilt come from Dover copyright free books. Sharon Wants Crystals was made for my sister-in-law who wanted a cream quilt with "lots" of crystal. The center was done by placing Laura Murray Starbuilder rubber stamps under the cloth and rubbing with Shiva Oil sticks. I then designed the rest of the feather designs to fit, did faux trapunto work and quilted the thing to death.

Now, if I can just get my challenge quilts done!!!!

Peacock

One of my friends asked where my quilt Peacock's photo is. On my computer of course! Guess I really need to work on this blog more, but life has a way of getting in the way. So, here is a photo of my first big ribbon winner...Best of Show in the Just For Me category at MQS...whoohoo!

The pattern is Sherry Harrison's Inklique pattern. You spray your fabric with spray starch, then trace the pattern, stitch it out with a batting and backing and then you take it off the machine and color! My daughter said "you won for coloring???". Yes, I'm a very good colorer! I used Copic markers for the colored parts and the black is Sharpie markers. The bronze in the middle didn't turn out the way I wanted, so I used Rub N Buff to cover and it worked!

Very fun technique, but takes FOREVER!!! 52 hours to color. Yes, I'm doing it again, but different. Still haven't worked out all the details...stay tuned.

First Challenge...DONE!

Finally finished the "PUZZLE" challenge and found it hard!! Couldn't come up with anything that wasn't literal so I left it alone for a month..or two. Decided to go and do other stuff like clean up my photos on my new computer...old one crashed and burned and now has no memory of the accident or anything else for that matter...so while browsing I found old photos of my family. This one is of my grandfather and his brothers taken just before they moved from Quebec to Saskatchewan to homestead in the south of the province. The puzzle idea came when I wasn't sure which one is my grandfather and who are the other two???? I could do a whole series on this as I have tons of photos of people who I don't know from the past.
I have decided to make some "starter" quilts consisting of backing, batting and plain top that I quilt in various patterns that I can just use for my "art" quilts. They are small enough to work on and practise different techniques and also, they are quick to do. I printed the photo on Jaquard ExtravOrganza and temporarily attached it to a piece of "art" fabric. I turned under the edges of the piece and using a zipper foot, added "binding" which is a zipper and attached the whole thing to the starter quilt. I then quilted the trees and decided that it needed more, so I went to my bead stash and added the squares and beads.
I'm thinking the problem I'm going to have with this challenge thing is that I'll be wanting to make a series out of each one I do....and I so do not have the time for that!!!
Meanwhile, I'm lovin this one!