UVQG Show 2011

Here is a pic of my quilt, that I made for Cheryl Malkowski's book, it is called "Maltese Cross" and is 73" square. The color in the photo is a bit off, the fluorescent lighting in the exhibit building. The background is a pretty navy blue Bali batik and the quilting is LIME green feathers. I won a second place ribbon in, "Pieced Bed Quilt, Quilted by Self, Advanced" it is a very large category, so I feel really happy about the 2nd place.

Artist's Trading Cards

I have been making some Artist's Trading Cards (ATC's) to trade with people, if you would like one let me know, or send me one of yours. They are small, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" rectangles, the size of baseball cards, that artists make and trade with other artists. They have been lots of fun to do. I started out with acrylic paints, colored & patterned tissue paper and pieces torn from magazines. I collaged them on either brown paper bag or watercolor papers. These background were then decorated, painted and embellished with different art work. I stenciled some small birds on a few, and added leaves, nests, sayings etc. Some I added scraps from other painting pieces and stitched them on or couched yarns over them, I added buttons and seed and bugle beads to them. I used a little bit of angelina fibers on a few of them. Each one is different, and has a fun feel to them, I backed them all with manila file folders, signed my name and date, and gave each a title. I love giving them titles, the title is often my favorite part of my quilting too. I love puns, plays on words, distorted quotes, and fun sayings. Often my quilting starts with the title and the creativity flows from it. I am going to take them to the Fyber Cafe meeting on Tuesday, to see if members of my art group would like to trade a few. One thing I really learned was the difference between matte and glossy!!! The acrylic medium I got to use is matte, but it is expensive, I also got a bottle of Mod Podge for decoupage, but it is glossy, it comes in matte too, but I got the glossy. Wow, shiny!! It is hard to photograph the pieces because of the shine, and it takes away a lot of the texture from my dyed cheesecloth. But the matte is kinda dull, but it does work to seal the paint and embellishments, and can be used as a glue, but I think the mod podge can too. I think I'll try to find semi-gloss, or mix the two and see what happens. Will post photographs later. Any one wanting to trade, let me know.

Dear Jane, A Few Blocks

Here is a photo of my "Dear Jane" blocks in progress, I have over 50 of them done. They are in 1920-30's fabrics from my stash, the solid colors are vintage too. I just keep plodding along, finding a new scrap for each block, a few at a time. I did some applique blocks while I was in California, so that got about 8 done. I just don't "Feel" like doing much of anything right now, so I just do another, and another, and another of these things. They are addicting, but I'm not real jazzed up by them either, each one can take up to an hour, cause they sure aren't simple, even though they are small. Some of them are very challenging, and about 5 so far, I don't even want to try. Playing with the vintage fabric has been the most fun, I do love the colors and fun patterns! Only 115 more to do, so I am almost 1/3 of the way done!