Happy Birthday Elvis!

My husband honors Elvis with his "Pop Art"*

All that above is affixed to the Elvismobile below ...

What would Elvis say, indeed!

*He's adopted that term, because our sons call him "Pop."

Backside of Elvis

Here's the backside of "My Velvet Elvis" that's exhibited in the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show.

The main body of the quilt has the heavy flannel with the image of Elvis. It had been a damaged wall hanging that was in a friend's shop. Nobody wanted to buy it at even a much reduced price so he gave it to Lee. You may recognize the fabric in the three borders. I think it was one of the early ones on the market a number of years ago.

Today is the last of the three day quilt show. So by tonight the above picture of Elvis will be up against the wall of the shrine room while the other side adds even more sparkle to room.

"My Velvet Elvis"

The 2012 Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show and Competition opened this morning. I'm pleased to say that my one and only entry was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Art Quilt Category PLUS the Embellishment special award ribbon.

The show runs tomorrow from 9am to 5pm and on Sunday from 11am to 4pm. I'll be there both afternoons.

Here's a better photo of just the quilt.

My Velvet Elvis - 29"x 39"

Ready for the SMQ Show 2012

My entry for Smoky Mountain Guilt guild show is ready for delivery tomorrow. It's completion has kept me busy since I got back from our Hawaii trip mid-January. Here's a peek at the bottom portion.

My Velvet Elvis - 32"x 43"

It's constructed in my "unraveled" technique with a variety of chenille yarns. Lengths of those are machine couched around patches of Elvis stuff I had been collecting ... motifs cut from fabric, hats, neckties, scarves, shirts, a silk blouse, and a sock.

After this step was finished, I began sewing and hot gluing charms and jewels between the patches and to the borders ... lots of sparkling bling ... somewhere around 1500 pieces give or take a few.

Long time readers may recall this post from 2009 when my husband had gifted me this charm bracelet...

Back then I thought there was an Elvis crazy quilt in my future. Well, this is a crazy quilt, but not the kind I originally had in mind.

After the quilt show opens this next Friday on March 23 I'll post a photo of the whole quilt. The event takes place for the whole weekend at the Cooper Athletic Center on the Maryville College campus in Maryville, Tennessee. The times are 9-5 on Friday and Saturday and 11-4 on Sunday.

Finding Elvis

Lee and I were in a shop in Kailua Kona, Hawaii looking at tikis.

The background music in the store was Elvis singing Christmas songs. So, of course, the subject of the king came up and Lee wondered if there were any tikis featuring his image. To Lee's dismay ... and my delight ... there were none that could be purchased. However, we were told there was an Elvis tiki in a bar called Lu Lu's at the other end of town. So we walked ... and walked ... and walked until we found it.

The king was heavily adorned with dollar bills along with everything else in that bar, but sure enough we had found him.

 

On the way out I spied what looked like the top of Elvis's pompadour sticking up above a partition. There was just enough room to take this photo of an "unadorned" Elvis tiki through a crack between the boards. 

Our quest was complete. We had truly found the BIG Kahuna.

Another Birthday for the King!

Elvis would be celebrating his 76th birthday today.

In our house, he is celebrated everyday.  This year he replaced Big Bertha in the cozy corner of our kitchen where our female Sheltie (whose name is Presley) dines.  This piece is collaged with Elvis paraphernalia by my husband who is an obsessive Elvis fan. 

PS:  Bertha did not leave the building.  She had gotten dressed up for the month long king's birthday party at the Farragut Folk Life Museum (click to see that post) a year ago.  On her returned home she retired to a cozy rocker with a view in the living room.  I'd like to say she deserved the "upgrade".  But the fact is, she lost her place to this piece that was finished while she was partying.

HELP!  Elvis is taking over our home .....

Speaking of Portraits

Click here to view the making of this velvet Elvis portrait. You will be amazed and entertained.

Speaking of Elvis, Lee and I were photographed with him at the big 75th birthday bash. My t-shirt reads," Elvis Is Dead, Get A Life!"
Lee's says, "Nobody Knows I'm Elvis." Note his "velvet Elvis" pants.

SEVENTY-FIVE!!!!!

Elvis is, or would be, 75 years old today. This bunch of fans is waiting for the party to begin
...as are these characters.
One of the many birthday celebrations for the King is taking place at the Farragut Folklife Museum here in east Tennessee ... the admiral will be attendance, too.
There will be peanut butter and banana sandwiches, a live band, an Elvis impersonator, plus hundreds of items on exhibit featuring whimsical items that were either collected, commissioned, or created by my husband, Lee.
In addition to showcasing Lee's "stuff", the museum will have one room devoted to videos of EP's 1968 comeback tour and another with one of his movies, "Blue Hawaii," running nonstop. Sam Venable, a humorist with a column in the Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper, featured this event and Lee in today's issue that can be read here. Our local paper, the Farragut Press, had a write up about Lee and his collection last week that can be seen here.

Secret Windows

This quilt, "Secret Windows", spotlighted the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild Show at the 1998 Dogwood Arts Festival.
It was begun from a collection of scraps back in 1994 when I was a new quilter. A classmate in a one week workshop with Nancy Halpern was throwing out scraps of material that were larger than the fabric samples I had brought to work with. After I had made a fuss about finding them in the trash barrel, she consented to save those scraps if I found a bag in which to collect them. During the week after I got home, I sewed every scrap into "crazy quilt" squares. Originally, I had set them together to be a child's quilt that would be donated to the Ronald McDonald House
My husband and friends protested it being given away. So, through the next few years I'd occasionally make more crazy quilt squares from my own scraps. It grew into a full-size quilt that ended up being a Christmas present for our younger son and his wife.

It still looks good all these years later as you can see in a photo taken this summer.
I like to piece the backs of quilts.
The hand quilting is more easily viewed from the backside.
The crazy quilt squares set on point are quilted with satin-stitches using two strands of variegated floss. There was no way I was going to hand-quilt a running stitch across all those seams.
The portraits were cut from a shirt sewn by my mother-in-law for my husband with fabric featuring artists from the Expressionist period. It was a great shirt for the 1970's ... worn with chains at the open collar plus a wide belt with a big buckle and platform shoes. Woo Hoo! Let's do the Hustle.
This is the first quilt in which Elvis made an appearance.
I still have some of the home decorator fabric that was cut apart for the triangles around the crazy quilt squares. The printed squares are two and half inches.
Maybe I'll make another window quilt with crazy quilted blocks from the many bags of scraps collected in the ten years since this quilt was begun.

Elvis Has NOT Left the Building

Happy 74th Birthday, Elvis!

This metal sculpture of Elvis by Bill Reed of Racine, Wisconsin, greets everyone coming and going in our entryway. We had commissioned it about twelve years ago. My husband had communicated through the Chicago gallery with the artist about details. In the mean time it has become a collaborative work with Lee's added touches.
Elvis is "king", right? He has gained a crown. We haven't figured out whether the pink flamingo is serving as a microphone or feeding Elvis his pills from his built in "Presley's prescription pill pouch".
Lee made additions here, too. Other added doo-dads include the Las Vegas show girls and glued on jewels and mirrors.
Speaking of jewels, they're all over the place including finger bling ... some of which are sculptural as well as added.
There is also a turning drum in his mid-section which features 37 locations around the world where the real Elvis may be. Just give it a spin to find out. Brrrr... it's cold and snowy in Macatawa. Hope he's gone down the shoreline a bit to Kalamazoo. It's warm at Burger King.
The artist had Elvis walking on water. Our interpretation is a bit different through the addition of another sculpture.
You do recognize the RCA dog, don't you?

My birthday is a few days before Elvis's. This is one of the presents from my husband ...
a bracelet full of Elvis charms. It's not meant for me to wear, but to disassemble and sew each charm to a crazy quilt which is a project I had only been THINKING about. True, I had begun gathering some stuff in a box just in case I decided to go ahead with this project. The item that got me thinking seriously about doing this project was the silk blouse given to me by a friend.
So, I guess there's no backing out now. Elvis definitely won't be leaving. He's begun to occupy my thoughts and in time he'll be taking over my studio.

My Very Own Elvis Tribute Artist

Today is Elvis's 73rd birthday. Elvis and my husband were born the same year. I don't know where Elvis is on this day, but Lee is still a rock'n'rollin'



... or is that a movin' and a groovin'?

He made the video during a visit to Graceland to pay homage to the king this past Thanksgiving.

Happy Birthday, Elvis, wherever you are!

Note: If the above video doesn't work for you, go here to download it in a Quicktime movie format (best and largest picture) or here to view it on YouTube.

To see more of Lee's and my tributes to the king click on the "Elvis" label below this post.

Happy Thanksgiving from Memphis

Wishing you a happy day from my "turkey" with his singing Elvis lobster.
He's already visited Graceland to shop for more stuff(ing) for the Elvis Shrine Room.
I am thankful to have this Elvis fan and his quirky sense of humor in my life.

Pilgrimage to the Elvis Rock

A big item in the news this past week is the Elvis Rock.
It's been featured in multi media nationally, internationally, as well as locally.
Several people had emailed me about it and I had checked it out on the web. We read that the lady, LaDell Alexander, who had discovered the image of Elvis on this rock was in residence here in Estes Park. Lee called and asked if we could come see it in person ...
... a personal Presley Pilgimage.
A local geologist claims the Elvis Rock is pre-Cambrian granite and estimated its age at over three billion years old. Lee says this proves that Elvis was actually born three billion, forty-two years ago. Graceland is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Elvis's demise at age 42 next month. Obviously, they are wrong.

Heading North

We've packed up the Elvismobile, our projects, the two dogs, plus sundry stuff ... that trailer is full ... and are heading north.
If you see us going, or coming, through your area between Tennessee and Michigan please wave.
We don't really have a hood ornament. It's my husband's just finished project. A while back he had made a set of Elvis stacking dolls (seen here). His latest fun is with Colonel Parker.
I'll be back online next Monday. Hope you have a good weekend.