"Remembering Mother"

This beautiful piece is not mine ... but it could be yours!

"Remember Mother" 9"x 12"

The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative is offering a special Mother's Day auction starting today and ending at 10 p.m. central time on Sunday night. During this special Mother’s Day weekend, they are offering just this one extraordinary quilt. “Remembering Mother” was made by Rhonda Dort of Houston, Texas. It is a tribute to Arline, Rhonda’s mother-in-law who passed in September of last year due to complications from Alzheimer’s.

• Bid here:
  http://www.benefitbidding.com/auctions/listings/details.cfm?item_id=6753 

• All profits fund Alzheimer’s research.

Rhonda shares her thoughts about, as well as her process for creating this beautiful wall quilt on the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative blog. To read those and to see close up photos of each section, click on the link at the beginning of the paragraph above.

There were 34 bids with the winning one $335.

Another Quilting Gallery Show & Contest

This weeks theme is wall hangings. My "Bear Lake" is one of 67 entries from 9 countries, 4 provinces, and 22 states.

"Bear Lake" 45"x 34"

Viewers get to vote for 6 favorites this time. I rarely find choosing my favorites easy so it's nice to get so many choices. Go here to vote for the ones you like before Monday at 6pm.

I find it amusing that so very many people have pinned the tutorial I wrote when I made those shrubby trees in the foreground.

In fact, 49 people have visited my blog just today to read that post. Over the years I've used a number of different ways to make trees. The technique I came up for creating these is easy and most effective.

To read the story behind this quilt go here.

Favorite Quilt Revisited

There are a lot of quilts that I've made over the last 18 or so years. This is my all time favorite.

 Spectrum of Love - 60"x 60"

It's the one quilt I couldn't sell. Instead it's gifted to our older son and his wife so I can visit it. They ended up decorating their living room around it. I love that they love it.

It's entered in this weeks "Be My Valentine" contest on the Quilting Gallery blog. There are:

• Total submissions: 31
• Total countries: 6
• Total provinces: 3
• Total states: 20

Go here to see all of them and to cast your vote for the four entries you like the best.

To read the complete story for this quilt go here.

Paula's Quilt

I had in mind for some time that my cyber friend, Paula, needed a quilt. My original thought was to make one for her myself. Then I began to think of a number of other quilters who are also friends of Paula, so had the idea to include them in the creation of this quilt gifted to her over the Thanksgiving weekend.

I had drawn up two different quilt design layouts that were voted on. Once this decision was made, each participant chose a section of the quilt to create. As for the colors and design, each artist was on her own to create whatever is meaningful between herself and Paula. The intent was to give Paula a tangible symbol of our caring about and for her ... to literally give her warmth and comfort.

Here are the individual pieces (and their makers) that comprise the quilt ...

Lisa Call (16"x 20")

Karen Christensen (16" x 16")

 Lynne Croswell (20"x 16")

 Gail Baar  (16" x 10")

 Kim Hambric (28" 10")

Colleen Kole (12" x 44")

Cynthia Wenslow (each 24" x 12")

This is one of the five sections made by me. My intent was for those segments to tie all our creations together. Take note that among my scraps are photos of Paula's art that I printed on fabric. I had fun!

Nellie Durand (16" x 8")

If Paula's other quilting friends had not joined me in this effort, the whole quilt would've been made from scraps like this. That would've been okay. However, it's a much better and more interesting, as well as meaningful quilt composed with all of our pieces.

Here's the back of the quilt ...

The backing fabric for each of the sections was an individual choice, too. I sent everyone a piece of wool bat for their section so each artist could do the quilting on her piece of the quilt. Wool batting is my favorite choice for functional quilts. The ones that I've made with it are my favorite.  They are light-weight, fold up small, and somehow are "just right" no matter the season ... not too warm on a summer's night and warm enough when it's cold.

I constructed the quilt by connecting each our pieces with "butted seams" (placing the raw edges of two sections next to each other and joining one to the other with a wide zig-zag stitch on the machine). Those  zig-zag stitched seams are covered with "sashing tubes" on both sides of the quilt.  The narrow 1/2" flattened tube of fabric (seam pressed open on the under side) was machine appliqued on the back side to cover the zig-zag stitched seam. Then another sashing tube was hand stitched over the joins on the front side.

The irregular and segmented design of this quilt is an ideal format for multiple creative friends to make a perfect quilt for a spunky artist.

"The Lady With Pink Lips"

I am so excited about this new art piece that arrived today.  We looooove her!  She fits in perfectly.  It's as though Paula had created her just for us ... just for that spot on the end of a cabinet in our dining room.

"Lady With Pink Lips" 24"x 30"

by Paula of Self-taught Artist

She is even MORE than we expected.  I knew there was a depth created by the build-up of the puzzle pieces she is created from.  However, the dimensional aspect is even better than I imagined.  The texture and funkiness of it being made with those puzzle pieces very much appeals to us.
The metal base her face is mounted on was a pleasant surprise.  As you can see, that background color couldn't be better for where it's hanging.

Already, we cannot imagine that spot without her.

Paula has a lot of work listed on her Paula Art Etsy site.  Her wall art pieces and some sculptures, too, are listed for prices too good to be true.  She's has a situation in her life that does not allow the space, nor funds, to store these fabulous pieces of art ... so go check it out.

We have been fans of Paula's work ever since I discovered her blog and could not resist having a piece of her amazing art created from "found objects" hang in our home.  I first wrote about her and that particular piece here.  Our son ordered two of her clocks.  He and the friends who were gifted one of them are happy with those wonderful, functional pieces of art.

Early last summer I was thrilled that Paula began making vases out of heavy metal pipe.

They are perfect for our outside tables.  These won't blow over with a gust of wind off the lake as has happened several times with glass vases.  Also, they are a great size to scatter bouquets among the serving dishes on our rather narrow picnic tables.  So check those out while you're at her Etsy site, as well.  There are a variety of sizes as well as colors.  They are useful for more than just vases, they make great containers for art and writing and sewing supplies.  The large ones have even served the purpose of a waste basket and an umbrella stand.

We very much like having Paula's art decorating and functioning in both of the places we live.  Plus, it's a "smile" to see it hanging in our son's home, as well.  Thank you, Paula.

Teacher's Quilt

Back in November my daughter-in-law, Terra, called for advice about how to involve children from two classes in creating a quilt for their teacher who's expecting a baby in February.  I advised her of several methods for drawing pictures on fabric, which included special crayons and paints, as well as type of fabric.  She shopped and experimented.  After deciding on what would work for this project, she spent class time, with the aid of the school's art teacher, to guide the kids in drawing pictures for individual blocks of the quilt.  During the holidays, she and I had the pleasure of making those drawings into this quilt that's just been presented to the teacher.

She is thrilled with the gift of this two-sided quilt ... the orange bordered side features one class of student drawings while the brown polka-dotted bordered side is made up of the other class's.

My twin grandsons, who are two of the students in this teacher's classes, helped with the heat setting of the drawings into the fabric as well as ironing the fabric chosen for the sashings, corner blocks, and borders.

If the construction hadn't been complicated, I would've had them sewing as well.

All the vertical rows of blocks for both sides were first sewn together.  Then the quilt was constructed with a "flip and sew" technique.  This is a method that is a lot easier to do with a one-piece backing fabric, the batting, and the pieced rows for the top.  It was a challenge to align the rows for the front and back with the batting sandwiched between.  Finally a photo was taken as I was sewing the last rows onto the quilt.  In the picture below you can see me pinning a row in place.  It's lined up with and being pinned to the rows of blocks on the front AND back sides.

My next step was to turn all this over and then to pin the corresponding row of blocks right sides together to the other side of the quilt through all the same layers.  Then I machine sewed a seam through those four layers of fabric with the batting sandwiched in the middle.  I decided to construct it like this because I could figure no other way to quilt it that would keep the blocks on the front and back aligned with each other.

This presentation is the first time the class got to see the result of their creations.  I think they're pleased as well.

Gifting Back

Yesterday I took a break from "The Lake" to create a gift for a friend.

"Laura's Lake" - 14" x 11"

This piece honors my friend Laura who died in February of this year.  Laura's 88 summers were spent on the beach of Lake Michigan here in Macatawa.  The colors and light reflected on this lake and beach is symbolic of her full and gracious life.

Laura was an accomplished needlework woman.  Near the end of last summer I was gifted a box of her threads and yarns.

It pleased both of them to know that bits and pieces were incorporated into "Prairie Performance".  I wrote about that here.  Her husband was touched to get back some of those yarns and threads in "Laura's Lake".

Gifts In the Spirit of "Earth Day"

My new cyber friend of Quilt or Die made a series of ATC's from the leftovers of her February challenge for "Interpret This".  I'm the lucky recipient of this one.

She calls this series "Take Home From Shanghai".  Her challenge piece was titled "Dinner In Shanghai".  Someday she'll get an ATC featuring the lake in return.

Our younger son and his family visited from Oak Park, Illinois over the Easter holidays.  I took this opportunity to present two of my all time favorite dresses to our daughter-in-law.

This silk beaded dress was made in France.  I purchased it from a resale shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin about thirty-five years ago.  I wore it for many years ... the years that I was the age my DIL is now.  It looks so perfect on her and I hope she feels as good wearing it as I did.  Nothing moves nor feels as good a beaded silk.

This one has a story.  I had decided to spend  $100 of "my own money" for my husband's birthday gift.  After four shopping trips in Holland and Saugatuck, Michigan I hadn't found anything worth spending my money on.  The one thing I saw that was worth buying was an aged black beaded silk crepe dress in an antique shop.   It, too, was from France. The gift to my husband for his 47th birthday was this dress that I planned to refurbish so I would be beautiful for him on my 40th one.  Consequently, our DIL had to ask him if she may have "his" dress.

The silk in the layers of the bodice had shattered.  Quite a lot of the beading was still there.  I redesigned the dress with a bloused top that is constructed of silk satin.  The skirt was relined as well.  I even bought a tambour needle to redo parts of the beading design.  To this day it still "drips" tiny glass beads.  I should give my DIL that tool and one of the instruction books for how to bead with that technique.

She has an entry in an art show that has an opening this next week in Chicago.  One of these dresses will make an entrance there.  I'll post a photo here when I get one.

Here's hoping that you enjoy the receiving or the giving of repurposed and, or, passed on gifts.  Those have been some of the best presents that I have  received through the years.

In the Mail

Woo Hoo! I got mail! And not just ONE gorgeously stitched and beaded butterfly postcard,
but TWO from Karen of "Threadstory"!
How did I get so privileged? Woo Hoo!

Earlier I received a beautiful lino cut hand-printed card from Libby of "The Quilted Craftsman".
That tree confined to this small space conveys a lot of wisdom and power. I'm a fan of the tree Ents as well as tree spirits that are characters in some of my favorite stories ... the Hobbits and Aragon.

I'm pleased to have these pieces that embody my friends creative energy ... energy I'm glad to have in my studio.

More Mini Prairie Flowers

More mini quilts made with the pieced together cut-offs from "Prairie Performance" as their foundation have been created.
I position the main elements, such as the blossom, stems, leaves, and of course Elvis on the background first so I can determine a "point of view" or perspective. Those get removed so the background can be filled in with more scraps of thread and fabric. A layer of netting is laid over that and then it gets quilted.
Most of the flowers and leaves that are the focal point or in the foreground are machine appliqued onto the surface so they're dimensional.






That makes 12 of the 20 I intend to make. Five of my friends who've contributed scraps that were used in the prairie flower installation received their quilts after our SMQ Guild meeting last evening. One got hers last weekend when we were in the mountains. Tomorrow several more will get their's at Thursday Bee. Only 8 more to make.

PS: Did you find Elvis in each of those?

One World, One Heart Gifts

The luck of the draw for gifts from other participants in this huge gift giving event happened three times for my name. I had visited all 911 blog sites, but had left comments only on the ones that offered a gift that I would really want to receive.

This beautiful gourd bowl gifted by Barbara Valianti of Reading the Sky is decorated with fillimiore canes. I will love having her work added to the collection of art in my studio that represents the creative energy of my fellow artists.
A lovely handcrafted copper freeform heart pendant with Swarovski crystals, fresh water pearls, and some vintage crystals wrapped in square copper wire is the gift from mrs beadsley of maine. This, too, along with its creative energy will be added to the art in my studio.
A" Journal and Embellishments assortment" was one of three gifts given by Gerry Hookstra of Sewing Southpaw. These goodies will find their way into some of my creations.
Participating in this world-wide gift giving was an adventure. I send out a big "thank you" for the generosity of all who shared their work and all those who came to visit me ... especially to those who have added my blog to their reading lists. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

One World, One Heart Gift Drawing Announced

At 12:00 noon EST the drawing from 287 comments left by those who desired this gift was made.

I'm amazed at the number of people from around the world who visited my blog and by how many stuck around to check out other postings. Even more amazing is that 23 added themselves as "Followers" of my blog. I thank all who visited me for their interest and participation in this world-wide gifting. Thank you, Lisa Swifka of A Whimsical Bohemian for including me on your caravan of 911 gift giving bloggers. If there was a link to a blog in the comment, I visited in return and discovered blogs that I now visit regularly ... blogs that I would never have known about without this event.

I enlisted help from my husband by asking him to choose three numbers ... three times:

• first set from 0-2
• second set from 0-9
• third set from 0-9

... and the WINNING NUMBER is comment 143

belonging to Pat Winter

For those of you who really, really, really wanted to win this bird here are two options for you:

• Make one. My pattern and instructions are posted as PDF files online. Just click on the red lettered words to download them to your computer to print out.
• Buy one. They are sold at two galleries for $60 plus postage:

Good Goods Gallery
106 Mason Street
Saugatuck, Michigan 49453

Morris Galleries
111 N. Main
Sweetwater, Tennessee 37874

Artful Undergarments

I'm tickled!!! and just have to share a couple of links about making artful things out of bras. The first one is for a good cause.

The Girls Measure Up by Jackie Price

"Members of Quilters of South Carolina have created one-of-a-kind bras for Breast Cancer Awareness. The exhibit consists of forty-nine original works of art which are unique, entertaining, humorous, and beautiful to make the public aware of breast cancer, to memorialize those lost to the disease, and to honor survivors. " Go here to see all those artful bras (2 pages) and read exhibition information.

The second is a hoot ... along the lines of making those slippers from a personal hygiene product.

Bra Bag by Carol Taylor in Wales

My friends who were gifted those slippers just may get pretty bags next year. Go here to see more photos and read about Carol's making the bag pictured above. Go here to see those slippers and get instructions for making them.

One World, One Heart, Many Hearts

NOTE: Comments will be closed at mid-night on Wednesday, February 11th

I have decided to participate in this years One World, One Heart, Many Hearts giveaway. My offering is this bird who comes with a snippet of ribbon ready to build a nest in the home of the commenter on this post whose name is randomly drawn at noon on February 12th.
Now, to tell you about this special bird. It is one of two that I made from the same imported cotton batiste fabric.
On the right in the picture below is the giveaway bird in process. The other one is finished and is destined to be sold in a gallery.
One reason they look different from each other is because I've discovered these little pots of paint. The paint is solid. Wiping a wet brush across the surface picks up the paint. It spreads easily and soaks into the fabric leaving an iridescent sheen or areas of color.
Notice how the solid line of black in the fabric print on the birds head shades into the body with the application of the purple paint. The yellow in the fabric has become a shimmering copper color. There's a subtle iridescence over its whole body because of a thin wash with the pink azalea paint. I'm loving this new discovery and have added sheen to birds I've previously posted ... the peacock bird is now exceptionally beautiful.
I'm just one of over 900 participants in this giveaway. Click on the world button at the top of this post to find links to them all (I'm #706) in the sidebar of Lisa Swifka, the creator and host of One World-ONE Heart. If you'd like a chance to own this pretty bird leave your comment on this post before clicking on that button to check out what else you have the opportunity to win just by leaving comments.

To ensure there's a way to contact you if you're a winner include your email in the comment IF you don't have a track back for me to notify you through your blog.