Oh Monday

And my design wall is significantly different.  I liked the sewn together bits for the Kindle bag so much, that I decided that I needed to explore that kind of "free-form" piecing some more.

To see other design walls, click here for Judy's blog.








I finished the Kindle bag and sent it off.

This is the front -- I stenciled the tree shape using Stewart Gill silver paint and one of their stencils.  I painted it after I quilted it, but before I cut out the pieces for the bag.  I used Velcro tabs for closures.

I like the back best, but I wish I had gotten more of the little strips with the orange, green, and stripey material in there.  It was just too small to get it all.  The strap is adjustable.  Except for the striped fabric, I used all of my own hand-dyes for this project.

And I finished a lot of the quilting on the faerie piece.  I plan to finish the machine work on this today or tomorrow, then I have hand work planned.

Rock On! Art Quilts Come Home

A year or so ago, Quilting Arts magazine issued a challenge for art quilts inspired by rock and roll music. I submitted three:

"The Promised Land" inspired by the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name. I used a lot of different techniques on this one. I printed onto fabric a picture I took of Main Street in Madison, WI for the background. I fused hand-dyed fabric cut out into the shape of the hands and used quilting for definition on them. I fused hand-dyed and inked fabric for the dogs. For the street sign, "Promised Land" and moment graphics, I printed onto organza with photoshopped pictures -- I used a dollar bill for the background of "moment," but you can't really see it. Then I added the little charms that say "hope," "dream," "love," and "believe."

"Helplessly Hoping" by Stephen Stills -- an old love song that is one of the best examples of alliteration ever (IMHO). I used Setacolor paints, Polished Pigments, and Shiva paintsticks for the background. The heart is a little stuffed and painted bit of hand-dye with the wings cut out from fabric that was printed with puff paint and then painted. The harlequin is made from inked and hand-dyed fabric and dressed in cotton sateen that I printed with Stewart Gill paints. I sewed little bells to his hat -- although when they're that small, they don't really jingle.

"Go Johnny Go" was inspired by the Chuck Berry song, "Johnny B. Goode." I used a picture I took of my friend, Robert J. (his latest band is here), and made the entire picture of hand-dyed fabrics and threadwork. I beaded the words so that they would look like a "name in lights."

They didn't publish any of them in the magazine, but they did post them on their website - along with everyone else who entered.

The best part of this challenge was that it inspired me to do some other stuff. I painted this moon and sky on fabric using Stewart Gill paints:

I was thinking of doing a "Moondance" inspired quilt with this....

And I also made another Helplessly Hoping quilt in a bigger format:

I haven't finished it yet, but when I do I'll post a picture and explanation of everything I did.