Tree Quilt

Working on my tree quilt, based on a photo I took. Here it is just after pin basting it on my gigantic table. I'm quilting it now.

Betsy

Fibert Art Exhibit in Leesburg

I went with my friend Betty Ebert to art exhibit in Leesburg at the Gallery 222. The exhibit, Fiber As We Know It, was of works by a group of fiber artists called New Image Artists. 23 works were in place and represented a variety of styles and techniques. The works were beautiful and said a lot about where "quilting" is today. There were foundation pieced and appliqued works and also painted, stamped and discharged works. Though some of the techniques were traditional, these were definitely not your grandmother's quilts. I enjoyed seeing how each artist used the techniques to express their vision. I know several of the artists and enjoyed seeing their recent work. Unfortunately, the exhibit closed on Saturday, but here are links to websites for the artists involved:
B. J. Adams
Mary Beth Bellah
Jeanne Benson
Sara Brown
Candace Edgerley
Lesley-Claire Greenberg
Cathy Kleeman
Dominie Nash
Sue Pierce
Ginny Smith
Sandra Woock

The Gallery itself was a delight, as it was part of a larger artist cooperative. Links to both the Gallery and the New Image artists are embedded above.

Japanese Maple Quilt by William Steck

As those of you who read the blog from time to time know, I love sharing quilts by friends and students. Here's one by a former student and friend! This is "Japanese Maple Quilt," 43.5 x 36.5 inches, by William Steck. Years ago as a fairly new quilter, Bill took my class which was an introduction to Ruth McDowell's techniques and has gone on to take several workshops with Ruth. He does great work. This is just a lovely, lovely quilt and very timely for this time of year! Thanks to Bill for letting me share it on my blog.

Ruth was in town to teach classes at the Quilt Patch (www.quiltpatchva.com) and to give a lecture, which I attended. It was great to see Ruth and see some of her newest works up close and personal. I bought her latest book, Design Workshop, too. She told me that her book "Pieced Flowers," long out of print, is being reprinted! This is a fabulous book, and a great one to add to your collection. Check her website www.ruthbmcdowell.com for details on both of these books.

New Business cards

There was a discussion of business cards online at the QuiltArt email list. I recently ordered two new sets of business cards from Vistaprint.com; I chose to have images on both sides of the card for the first time. I ordered a "serious" set and a "less serious" set. The "serious" set uses my quilt "Winter Chair", now in a private collection and the "less serious" set uses the self-portrait I did in a Sue Benner class. They're pictured below with both sides of the cards. I also use the "less serious" self-portrait as a kind of logo and it is on my hangtags.

The "serious" set:

The "less serious" set

My Color Lecture (and test of using Scribefire to post to the blog)

Here's the first slide in my color lecture "Use All the Colors!"

I wanted to test using Scribefire to post to my blog; it works pretty well, so far! I'm able to upload an image exactly where I want the image to be (Blogger puts them automatically at the top of the post, and you have to drag them to where you want them).  Now I'll try publishing this to see where it goes.

My Palm PDA Cover

I decided I need a new cover for my Palm T/X PDA. The old one, which was attached by a narrow spline that slid into a groove on the Palm, was just a cover. I wanted something where I could keep the most used SD cards with the Palm at all time, so I decided to make one. Here's the result. It was kinda fun, so I may make more, so I can change them when I get bored. It's spring, so I made happy flowers. I only used scraps I already had with fusible on them, except for the ultrasuede, that was a scrap without fusible. The spine is on the left, there's a piece of fabric that goes from the roughly 2" x 3" cover. I made the spline from a tiny piece of template plastic and fused it into a folded piece of fabric. The lower picture shows it open, with the little pockets for SD cards. I used ultrasuede for this side to be gentle on the screen. The cover and the ultra suede were each fused to a piece of Timtex(TM). The little pockets were stitched on. The cover was quilted, then the spline hinge was placed between the two pieces of Timtex which were satin stitched around to join. Kind of fun.

Green Postcard Challenge!

I took part in an Earth Day postcard challenge at http://www.greenpostcardchallenge.blogspot.com . The challenge was to create a postcard for Earth Day using only recycled materials and materials already in your stash. There had to be some fiber in it. Here is my entry and the explanation that I posted to that blog. Check out the others at the above link!

I wanted my postcard to not only be from recycled materials but to present visually an Earth Day theme, so I chose Please Recycle! Litter is very harmful to wildlife. Birds and fish have been killed by eating or getting trapped in litter. The gray fish body was made from a scrap from a 3D project and was already quilted in a circular pattern that looked to me like fish scales (sort of). The fins, tail, sequin around the eye, pop top and Please Recycle logo as well as the vertical pieces behind the fish are from a Diet Coke can that I cut up and stitched onto the project. The Timtex postcard base was left over from a previous postcard project. The background is cut from a sheer that I used to mop up all my leftover paint in a painting workshop. The sand is a scrap from a strip pieced quilt project years old. The hook is a Christmas tree ornament hook. (Funny story--I was looking for a leftover hook--usually they turn up all over the house for months after the holidays. Could not find a one, thought I was going to have to dig out the Christmas decorations. I bumped a pile of fabric on a table in the sewing "studio" when an ornament that was behind the fabric fell to the floor, hook attached!) Beads and thread were in my stash.

This was a great challenge. I had never sewed aluminum from a can into a project before, though I had read about it. I had shears for cutting metal already, and the can cut up quite easily. Now I'm thinking of new projects and ways to use metal from the cans.