Art Quilt Challenge -- Hints and Ruminations

I was invited to join the gang of artists at Art Quilts Around the World and the first challenge is a self-portrait.  I am incredibly honored to be part of this group.  So while I focused on finishing the Hibiscus Series in time for the show, I pondered my self-portrait.

My first impulse was to do a literal interpretation using the colors in the quilt Rosie is modeling above.



And then do something using this photo of me that I manipulated in PhotoShop a while ago.



Maybe a little wonky piecing... some thread-painting....


But nope -- now that just seems too, well, expected.  And maybe a bit too pedestrian.

So I got out my sketchbook and played around with this little guy.  Hmmm... cute, but not quite what I was going for (although, to be perfectly truthful, I am pretty cute...).   So I"m back to the drawing board -- or sketchbook, as it were.  Stay tuned...

Princess and Niko

"Princess and Niko"

I needed something easy to do while I cogitate over the sky for the pelican in the previous post.  Rosie and I met Princess and Niko today  on our walk and I snapped a couple of pictures.  I did a little bit of Photoshopping, then printed out the result on fabric.  I added borders, some thread and paint, and voila!

Princess is a rescue.  She doesn't bark; she squeaks.  Apparently, she was a breeder's dog and he had all of his dogs "debarked" so he didn't have any noise from his kennels.  The breeder died, his dogs were rescued, and now Princess has a pretty nice life with her person and Niko.  These dogs are so white and fluffy -- it seems to me that having one is a lot like trying to have white carpet in a houseful of kids.  And these two always look perfect.

These dogs bark all the time.  The neighbors are going nuts.  They are still puppies and a little training would go a long way.  Just sayin'.