Blogger's Quilt Festival 2014

"Spectral Chroma"

92" by 74"

Adapted from "Twisted Ribbon Sampler" by Brenda Henning

Longarm Quilted by Nell Coons

This is my entry for Amy's Creative Side's Blogger's Quilt Festival 2014.  I think it would be wonderful as a viewer's choice or ROYGBIV.  

I made the blocks as part of my first Thursday of the month piecer's group at Mill House Quilts a couple of years ago.  Last year, I finally finished sewing it all together and for the first time, I had a longarm quilter finish it.

 Nell Coons was a part of the piecer's group for as long as I was and I was regularly amazed by her longarm prowess.  Nearly every month, she brought in the finished quilts of group members and I longed for her to quilt one of mine.  I needed this one finished for Quilt Expo and she said, "No problem."

She was supposed to bring it to the meeting before the Expo entry deadline.  She called me the day before and said she wouldn't be coming to the meeting, but it was finished and I could come to her home and get it.

Nell was a long time breast cancer survivor.  Unfortunately, while she was in the middle of quilting my quilt, the cancer returned.  She still finished my quilt on time.  And I was thrilled with it.  Sadly, she passed away shortly after that and never got to see it hanging in any of the shows.  She was a wonderful person and I miss her terribly.  My life is far richer for having known her.  

 I used my own hand-dyes, some that I dyed especially for this project, and Laurel Burch fabrics.
It sat for the longest time with only the little orange border until I consulted with a friend and she helped me design the final border with EQ7.  I had cut the border fabric before I started making the blocks, but the quilt grew too big and my cut pieces wouldn't make it all the way around.  So the New York Beauty blocks took up the space and finished it nicely.

I don't have any pictures of the entire back, but here is a shot showing the block I didn't like well enough to put on the front.

Blogger's Quilt Festival -- Statia's Hummingbird

"Black Chinned Hummingbird on Oleander"

From a photo © Statia Dougherty - used with permission

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures : 20" by 25"

Special techniques used : painted on wholecloth cotton with fabric paints, trapunto, thread painted and quilted with cotton thread

Quilted by : Karen Silvers

Best Category : Art Quilt, Home Machine Quilted, Wall Hanging

I created this quilt after being inspired by my friend Statia Dougherty's wonderful hummingbird photos.

I had some new fabric paints from Prochemical and, after securing permission from Statia, I tried them out with her photo as my guide.

The little bird was layered and quilted first before I layered and quilted the background so that he would stand out from the background.  I used Aurifil 50 weight cotton threads.

I chose to finish it so that it would resemble a matted photograph with a frame.

I'm linking up with Amy's Creative Side Blogger's Quilt Festival, Fall 2012 edition. 

Bloggers' Quilt Festival Spring 2012

It's time for Amy's Spring Bloggers' Quilt Festival!

"Parrotpalooza"

12.5" by 14"

Acrylic inks on cotton.  Wool batt with cotton threadwork.

I chose this quilt because it still makes me smile.  I made it about a year ago;  it was an experiment.  I had some new acrylic inks and I wanted to see if I could use them to paint fine lines with a tiny brush.

I think it worked!  I left the birds mostly unquilted.  The background was a wash of a couple of different colors of the inks -- they are very rich in pigment and when mixed with water, they have a tendency to spread.  But when used straight out of the jar, they are wonderful for fine detail.  

 This is the finished painting on cotton before I layered it and stitched it.

This is the central bird -- this was taken from a photo I took at the Milwaukee County zoo a couple of years ago when they had an exhibition of birds -- mostly parrots-- from Australia.

I snapped lots of photos and pulled this beauty from those.

This is another ink on fabric drawing from that day at the zoo.  This is my daughter.  I did this with Tsukineko inks -- they're quite different.