Playing with Judy

Lee's cousin, Ed, and his wife, Judy, visited the cottage this past week. She brought the sunflowers that had been constructed in a workshop with Phil Beaver * to make a wall hanging as her project in my studio. Usually we "play" one day a year at the cabin we rent in Colorado while our husbands go off into the mountains. What a treat to get to play together for days.
Judy had previously hand-painted the fabrics and glued the petals together to form the flower heads. Here they're pinned in place over the background fabric on the design wall.
The sunflowers were adhered to the fabric with a spray adhesive. Judy machine quilted the raw-edged appliques. Then decided where the stems should be placed between the flowers and the vase (fabric painted by Phil Beaver). You can see that vase in the next photo.
I happened to have the perfect hand-painted green fabric for her stems and she learned my technique for couching yarns on the them. (It, along with a number of other hand-painted pieces, had just been gifted to me by my friend and neighbor, Mary.) Note the sunflowers that we got at the farmer's market as a physical reference ... as well as a decorative bouquet. There are "pumpkin peppers" growing on one huge stem among them.

Judy got quite a bit done this week. I'm sure she would've finished if we hadn't had to leave the studio to play with our husbands now and then ... and to make meals or dine out.

50"x24"

Here both of us are quilting. I'm working on Lake #39
*Click to see Phil's homepage listing his workshops as well as pieces made by students.