Are we there yet?

This is a photo of my Uncle and his sister. It must have been taken more than 70 years ago as he just turned 80.
I mounted it on canvas and needle felted wool to create the balls. I used embroidery in between.

Gingko 2 and Betty Crocker

I had a great time playing with old photographs this week. Here is my Mother with her first Thanksgiving turkey. Doesn't she look like Betty Crocker? I mounted the photo on some wool felt and needle felted the flowers and vines. It was quick and fun.

Gingko #2 was actually begun before number 1 but they didn't finish that way. Again I used hand dyed fabrics and a striped fabric and the quilts are about the same size - 16 x 20?

As you can tell, I love working with bright colors and fusing pieces for art quilts is the way to go.

I can design the quilt quickly and then play with my machine quilting skills.

On a totally different subject, I got to see Barack Obama in person yesterday in Medford and I am still reverberating from his visit. He is a man of such intelligence, humor and compassion. He truly believes that we can all make a difference which is the only way that change is going to happen. I am a supporter.

Spring Blossoms

Spring Blossoms was created in a 4-hour intensive time period in my studio. I played with collaging silks and hand dyed fabrics that were calm enough to show off my embellishments.
When I found a design that I liked, I fused the fabric to batting and quilted my feathers. I pillowcased a backing onto the batting and began to embellish. I had played with soy silk fiber and some interesting orange material that I found at the local fly fishing store. This is the material that the flowers are made from. I added gold beads and some orange fibers also used for tying flys to get some sparkle. I really like the affect of the orange fibers as they cascade from the center of the flowers.

A Sense of Tiime

I have been working on this quilt intensively for the last couple of weeks. It is for a show called: What makes you tick? I pondered the question for a long time and finally realized that for me it is all about color, textures and learning new techniques.

Marni helped with the title which seems appropriate because I am talking about two of our senses: Touch and Sight. My quilting also harkens back to designs from Ancient Greece and the circles reminded her of grapes and Ancient Rome.

I used a number of new techniques on this quilt and was delighted with the results. I did a little beading and a lot of wrapping of threads around metal washers to create the circles. I learned these techniques in a class from Larkin Van Horn.

I tried paintsticks for the first time in the stenciling of the gingkos. I bought them at the Road to California quilt show in January when I went there with my friend Denise. We also bought scrap bags full of the silks that are in this piece.

At that time our friend, Mary taught us how to make a new fiber using soy silk and angelina fibers. That is the wispy looking stuff in the left hand corner. I love it.

The whole piece was heavily quilted using patterns that were new for me. This was a wonderful quilt to experiment on and revel in!

Gingko #1

I have always wanted to work in a series so in January I decided to pick a size that I would use for a group of quilts. They will all have gingkos, a striped fabric and some hand dyed fabric in them. This is the first one that I have finished.

I had a hard time getting into the studio this week because I have been teaching a lot of classes but when I did find the time I played with rubber stamps, stencils and paint sticks. Hopefully you will see the results next week or the week after. I have another deadline to meet on March 15 so I better get to work.