Sunday, December 27, 2015

2015 Moccasin Block of the Month Finished!!

This Block of the Month was discovered on Pinterest last December and the project started on January 1, 2015. It was presented by Gen X Quilters, www.genxquilters.com, by AnnMarie Chany and the monthly 9" blocks were emailed to me on the first of the month until December which had the HSTs and the border etc. I brought the project to my quilt retreat late November and finished the top-I figured out the sizes of the squares and triangles before waiting until December 1st. The project advertisement displayed the quilt in pinks, yellows, oranges, purples, white and dark navy blue. I chose this analogous color scheme because I just love blue violet and lime green together. All of my fabrics were solids, tone on tones and the purple is a batik-no obvious print fabrics. The approximate size of the quilt is 68" square. Basically a fun time except for a few blocks but I have never seen this block layout and using 9" blocks the quilt didn't get too huge.
I bought myself a new Viking Sapphire 960Q sewing machine in November and did all the machine quilting on it. I used an echo stitch in the HSTs and all the purple background/negative space. The background echo stitching is all going in a vertical direction as seen in the second photo below.
The third photo is the backing fabric which I found at Joann Fabrics-I was able to duplicate all the colors of the quilt in the backing fabric. I love the flowers and am terribly excited about this fabric. Unfortunately I could not find the remainder of the backing fabric to use when it was time to construct the border so I used the fabric I bought a year ago for this purpose. The next day I found the backing fabric-such is life!!
AnnMarie Chany is doing a BOM for 2016-she has published a book that is available on Amazon and I bought it as a Christmas gift to myself and will do next year's BOM.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Bella Jordana: Second Version

 I have decided to turn Bella Jordana into a pattern for 2016 and need a few samples for my pattern cover. The original quilt in the second photo was intended to be my daughter Jordana's (hence the pattern title) Christmas because she likes a shabby chic style. While at the quilt show in Houston I purchased a Moda "Good Karma" charm pack and asked Jordana if she liked this fabric (she had not seen the other finished wall hanging) and she liked the greens in the fabrics to go with the bare spot in her kitchen.
I would have used navy blue for the dark applique color but I bought a nice dark green in Door County WI on my travels to my November quilt retreat to repeat the green theme. 
After finishing the quilt I thought any rhinestones would get lost in the fabric print. I did embellish the lips with nail polish and I used a left over charm square to create a yo-yo flower for the hair. I added a few buttons and called it finished. Both quilts are machine quilted the same.


This is the original quilt which has a lot more embellishment and will be the cover of the upcoming pattern. The choice of fabric really does set the mood because the top photo's quilt is more contemporary and the lower photo's quilt is more old fashioned. I like them both!!

Monday, November 30, 2015

Art Quilts Around The World: Texture Challenge

Today is reveal day for my Facebook group Art Quilts Around the World. www.aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com. Our current challenge is about texture which is easy peasy because I use texture in many of my quilt through special occasion fabrics and embellishments. I went into my bridal/Las Vegas fabric stash and chose the "squeaky" plaid lame for the background, a brown hand dyed velvet for the hair, a new turquoise velvet from a vendor from United Kingdom at the Houston quilt show in October and an eyelash lame for the dress. I used hand dyed cottons and batik for the skin and facial features. I added a fun blue rick rack to the neckline to add more texture.

I used a chunky textured hologram-like nail polish on the brow bone and some loose iridescent turquoise shapes from the nail art department heavily on the eyelids. I added a rhinestone to the nose area also but I would have done that anyway!! I have a lot of quilting on the face to create another type of texture. I discovered that with the nap of velvet all quilting stitches were "buried" in the nap and didn't show up very well.  The next challenge is based on a favorite book and I have no ideas yet. I may choose a children's book. This challenge is due January 31, 2016.
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Sunday, October 25, 2015

Bella Jordana: Salute to Women With Curly Hair

This is a new portrait quilt I made between preparing for the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I had drawn the design a few months ago and then let it sit for no real reason. When I attended the Quilt Expo in Madison WI in Sept. 2015 I found a charm pack with the "shabby chic" prints in a pink/green/turquoise/light brown color scheme. I unfortunately did not save the wrapper with the name. I thought of my daughter Jordana because of her curly hair and her love of these colors and the flowers. I pulled out the pattern and tweaked it a little and it came together. I wanted a Bella pattern with curly hair and I added an eyebrow, changed the face shape, mouth, nose width, added a separate eyelid applique piece and there is a full shoulder line.

I had some pink flower felt trim which I glued to the neck area for a necklace. I sewed three pink flower shaped buttons over the felt and added some glitter nail polish to the flower centers. I hand sewed pink beads to the rest of the felt trim.

This is a close up of the face. I quilted half of the face in a narrow cross hatch and the other in a curved echo stitch. I used only one thread for the ENTIRE quilting process-Sulky Blendables "Milk Chocolate" # 4011 in 30 weight. You can't go wrong with a thread named after chocolate!! The browns in this project did look like the brown in candy bars!! The rest of the embellishments include two large pink flowers from a large Hawaiian lei from Hobby Lobby taken apart with a button center, a rhinestone "nose piercing," hot pink chunky glitter nail polish on the mouth and a white fabric paint dot for the eye reflection. My favorite nail polishes are sitting in Houston watching for me so I will add some of those colors to the eye area when the quilt show is over and my box is shipped back home.  Should this quilt become my next pattern?

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Halloween Trick & Treats Forum at IQF Houston 2015

I will be part of the Halloween Tricks & Treats Forum at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX coincidentally on Halloween. It from 2-5pm and #760 in the events catalog. Go to www.quilts.com to register and view the details. My title is called "Witches-Toil and Trouble in Quilt Making!!" I love witches and lean toward a pretty witch over an old warty ones! The two quilts in these photos are teasers of some of my quilty work! This wall hanging above called Bella Strega is my newest pattern and the only witch quilt I converted into a pattern. I will get feedback at the show and possibly turn other witch quilts into patterns. This pattern is available on my website at www.laurieceesay.com, at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette, WI and will be available at the Houston show.

This is a table runner I designed where I was inspired by silhouettes I saw on Pinterest and I already do a few on these silhouettes with historical hairstyles. I saw the phrase "Black Hat Society" as a spin on the Red Hat Society idea and thought it was a cute saying. I decided to add a wart to the witch's chin for the first time!  
The other women participating in the Halloween forum are in alphabetical order:
1.  Pam Damour   www.pamdamour.com

2.  Nancy Goldsworthy   www.QuiltedDecorativeSttiches.com

3.  Diane Herbort    www.DianeHerbort.com

4.  Margarita Korioth  www.margacrafts.blogspot.com

5.  Cyndi Souder  www.MoonlightQuilting.com

Check us out at Houston on Halloween! Happy Halloween!!

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Winter Bella: New Portrait Quilt Pattern



Miss Bella lives in Upper Michigan and I turned her into "Winter Bella" a few years ago when I created the blue snowflake version in the upper photo. I originally titled the quilt "Upper Michigan in January." While being on the teaching/lecturing circuit I would show this quilt as an example of a monochromatic color scheme quilt. I displayed it at Quilting Divas Quilt Shop in Green Bay, WI in 2014 as the "Honorary Quilt Diva Of the Month" and the owner and a few customers asked about a pattern. I was asked again to make it into a pattern in May at the Green Bay WI Evergreen Quilters meeting. I couldn't figure out how to get the applique pieces onto a 11" x 17" piece of paper. When I designed Bella Strega (the Witch pattern) I had an a-ha moment which helped me create this quilt into a pattern and renamed it "Winter Bella." In late summer I constructed a newer version in a gray and red colorway which hangs in Pine Street Quilts in Marinette Wisconsin. The blue version is currently on display in green Bay Wisconsin at Quilting Divas. The quilt is 18"l x 27.5"w and is a raw edged fused qpplique technique. For both color versions I collected as many snowflake themed fabrics as well as anything shiny or "icy" looking. I machine quilted it and embellished it with snowflake sequins, rhinestones, glitter nail polish and loose glitter/glitter glue. It is for sale on my website for $10.00. www.laurieceesay.com
 In the close up photo I used foundation paper, a snowflake motif  and variegated thread and machine quilted on the cheekbone/chin areas to repeat the snowflake theme.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Art Quilts AroundThe World Reveal: Uniform

Today is reveal day for my Facebook art quilt group Art Quilts Around The World. The challenge theme was UNIFORM and I interpreted that as something being the same or having conformity. I prefer to make portrait quilts so I selected an Andy Warhol style with four of the SAME images of a woman and I call it "Pop Art Princess 3." What is the same in this quilt: The background; the sashing and the sashing quilting; the image of the woman; the stripe in the halter dress and the position of the stripe on the dress; the brow, lip and eye color; the variegated thread used for the skin tones; the glitter nail polish on the eye lids and the quilting on the images. What is NOT the same: The color of the hair, the skin tones and the glitter nail polish used to embellish the hair. The size of this quilt is 11.5" x 17.5"

Of the four images I like this one the best because the combination of values of the skin tone, lip and brow color seem to be the most flattering. In the upper left corner, the image with the lightest skin tones and the pink hair has too much eye brow contrast and she looks severe. Likewise the black woman in the lower right corner has too low of contrast and I can't hardly see her brows. This became a happy accident to use in my lecture on value. This situation shows how a medium color appears dark or light in relationship to the colors it is placed with.

This is my second favorite image because the woman appears serene. Even though I use the same applique pieces the women can look slightly different based on the fusing placement and the way I quilt it. The next challenge due November 30th is on TEXTURE which is a no-brainer because I use a variety of textures anyway in many of my quilts. I will now go back to prepping for my teaching job at IQF in Houston which is at the end of October!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Spider/Spider Web Fabric Postcards

I go in streaks where I want to make fabric postcards and now is one of those times. I chose my line drawing fabric postcard pattern included in my Bridgette pattern and 5 Halloween colored fabrics to begin this project. I selected the fabrics in Halloween colors and not necessarily Halloween themed fabrics. Five fabrics in a variety of widths work nicely and the varied widths give a random look. Any fabric combinations will work-I chose Halloween this time and make 4-6 cards at a time. I cut them out on the diagonal to give movement and to accent a cheekbone line. I have two sides of the face in my designs and I like to place them together and they look like mirror images. I used black batik for the raw edged applique and black thread with a fancy stitch to join the top, bottom and Peltex stiffener. I usually use Fast2Fuse stiffener by Pellon but I could not find it online and I substituted Peltex and it actually worked nicer because it was heavier (less floppy.) I found the spiders at Joann Fabrics-they are not buttons but are flat on the back to glue to the front of the card. I created a spider web from variegated thread in the lower corner. I embellished with glitter nail polish on the eyelids and a dot of white matte fabric paint on the eye for the eye reflection. I intend to give two of these as door prizes in my "I Value That Quilt!" lecture I am giving twice at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison, WI on Friday Sept. 11, 2015. My pattern is available for sale from my website at www.laurieceesay.com. Maybe I will see you at the expo since it is a blast!! Their website is www.wiquiltexpo.com


Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Toil and Trouble: "Bella Strega" Is My New Quilt Pattern

This is my newest portrait quilt pattern called Bella Strega which means Good Witch in Italian. I am a hairdresser and I had an Italian man in my chair at the salon recently and I ran my quilt names past him to see if they were authentic and they were!! I love witches and Halloween! I loosely based this pattern on my Bella quilt pattern in the face but added a witch's hat and different hair. I used a charm pack called Midnight Masquerade by Moda Fabrics as the starting point. The pattern has forty 5" squares and the charm pack had 42 squares. After opening up the charm pack I discovered there were duplicates which made me mad. :( I thought the whole point of charm packs were to have the scrappy look without repeated prints. I went to my stash and added a few extras to get the 40 charms needed for the background I used black batik for the raw edged fused applique. I machine quilted the project with a variegated thread. I embellished the quilt with loose glitter/glue on the eyelid; purple glitter nail polish on the mouth; a green rhinestone for a nose piecing and a few black bat sequins I picked up from Nancie's Notions while at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI last year. The size of the quilt is 22" wide x 35" long.

The pattern is available for purchase at my website www.laurieceesay.com through Paypal. I am selling them locally at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette, WI as well.

I made this quilt as an addition to my Halloween Witch quilt truck show. I am teaching on Halloween in Houston TX at the International Quilt Fest for the Saturday Sampler and my subject is about witch quilts and it is called Toil and Trouble!! Hope to see you there! On to the next witchy project!!

Friday, July 31, 2015

Art Quilts Around The World Snowflake Challenge Reveal Day!

 My Facebook Group Art Quilts Around the World has reveal day today July 31, 2015 and the theme for this two month challenge is "snowflakes." I am experiencing summer in Upper Michigan and winter will be here soon enough so this idea was weird at first. Once I decided on a snow princess I started pulling cool, icy and snowflake themed fabrics from my stash. I found a royal blue and a white piece of hand dyed velvet from Chris Day for the princess's winter coat.  Chris used to be in this group. She is from Western Wisconsin and will vend at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison WI in September and I will buy some more velvets from her. I love the velvets because they add texture to the quilt that commercial cottons and batiks do not. I had the two great "disco ball" shiny fabrics from Pine Street Quilts in Marinette WI, where I used to work, and they worked nicely for the hair. I used a white batik for the skin tone to keep the cool icy feel to the quilt.

I originally started with finding the sparkly plastic snowflakes from The Dollar Tree in a place where they shouldn't have been! These snowflakes got me thinking of a crown for the princess. While shopping in Green Bay at the local Gordman's store (Awesomeness!!) I found the blue necklace on the clearance rack. I saved it and removed the necklace chains and flipped it upside down and it completed the crown.

I printed a Googled image of a snowflake on foundation paper and pinned a large flake to the chest area and stitched through the paper to get a snowflake image on the princess. I repeated the process in a smaller version on the cheekbones and chin.

I embellished with several iridescent nail polishes to accentuate the stitched snowflakes and the blue eye shadow.  One iridescent snowflake shaped bead hand stitched in the middle of the chest area and the snowflake princess was finished!

The next challenge is due on Sept. 30 and the theme is "uniform." I'm going to take it literally and either do a quilt of my daughter Jordana in her chef UNIFORM or explore a 50s dinner waitress!!

I will continue to not see snowflakes for several months!!

This s a closeup of the necklace and plastic dollar store snowflakes!

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

It's Summer So I'm Gardening More and Quilting Less!

It is Summer and I live in Zone 4
which gives me 4-5 months of gardening time. I am quilting less because I love my cottage garden with the whimsical artsy garden art that myself and my boyfriend have created through the years.



This is the front yard decked out for the Fourth of July-it gets a Northern Exposure so not a lot of sun and therefore all the hostas.

I am sewing two BOMs I found on Pinterest and Facebook. The one in the top photo is from Facebook and is from Michelle Foster and her Aiming for Accuracy II-Quilt Along called Mishka's Playground. It began in March and on the 7th and 21st of each month a new set of small (8"-9") blocks are emailed to me and I can make them anyway I want. There is a FB page where we can post our work as well as view all the fun and varied versions of this pattern. I chose a white background and colorful fabrics with white polka dots. Sometimes the I disagree with the instructions and do my own thing!!

This BOM is called Moccasin by Gen X Quilters and the designer is Ann Marie Chany. It is smaller than the first BOM I talked about at 67" square. The blocks are 9" in size and each pattern makes two of the same block but with different color ways. This BOM is more "modern" and I was totally enjoying it until June and July's blocks. The triangle block which is on the bottom of the photo was a huge problem using templates. I haven't used a temple since the 90s and it was still not a fun thing to do-not the most accurate triangles and I cut off the tips but I'm not re-doing it! There is a Facebook group but not many people post their work there. There is a Flickr group but I'm not into that. The BOM sample was in pinks, purples, orange, indigo, white and brown and I chose to do cooler colors plus lime green.

These blocks are from a book called Arcadia Avenue by Sassafras Lane Designs. Each block is 18" in diameter and there are 12 paper pieced blocks. This pattern appeared very fun because of the use of the color wheel and I intend to use it in my color theory teachings. Once I began I realized each block was very slow going because of the pre-cutting all the fabric and making 1 wedges that are difficult to put together. I planned to make 9 blocks but since they take so long to make I am leaning towards only 4 blocks!

Lastly, I am in an art quilt group formed through Facebook and every other month we create a small wall hanging based on a theme one of the members. The current theme is due July 31st and is called "snowflake." This photo is a sneak peek-I used sparkly plastic snowflakes from The Dollar Tree as a crown in the hair and a "statement" necklace on the clearance rack at Gordman's in Green Bay, WI and hand tacked it upside down. I used a few novelty snowflake fabrics, all cool colors with some shiny and some fuzzy fabrics. I will share the full photo on July 31st.
I have had a few ladies request I convert two of my quilts into patterns and I intend to but with the summer weather I just can;t be inside on the beautiful sunny days. It will happen!

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Bastet

I shared a teaser photo of this quilt a few months ago. I made it for the 2015 Hoffman Challenge. I have had the quilt finished since February. I will mail it to the exhibit curator today and thought it was time to show the full quilt. The 2015 theme fabric was predominantly red, black and metallic gold with a little orange and green. If you looked closely at the print there were knitting motifs and small quilt blocks and the general shape of the designs were squares and rectangles-all angular shapes. I decided to create an Egyptian woman and researched ancient Egyptian goddesses. Isis was a common goddess but not a name I want to use anymore since the international terrorist group took that name. I chose Bastet because she was the ancient goddess of fire, cats, of the home and pregnant women. I have a black cat and wanted to incorporate a cat, black or whatever, in a quilt and this idea was coming to life. 

As I was researching Egyptian clothing etc. I discovered they worn an excessive amount of gold ornamentation and their cats did too. Great since I was up to embellish this quilt to the max! I tapped into my "bridal store fabric stash" to get the look I wanted. I used black velvet (I'm humming that 1980s song in my head!) for the hair and black lame' for the underneath hair. I found the awesome white pleated fabric for the dress which I cut at different angles to get a 3D realistic look.

I used the 2015 Challenge fabric for the yoke of the dress, the headpiece, the drapey fabric on the lower left of the woman and the parts of the stool the cat is sitting on. I added Egyptian hieroglyphics I found on Pinterest on the top and bottom panels. I selected my name for the letters-I thought it was interesting the "C" and the "S" are almost the same. When I say my last name strangers think it starts with an "S" so I found that intriguing. I have hand and machine sewed several metallic gold trims to the yoke, the cat, the headpiece and  the seam allowances. The cat's necklace and the woman's earrings are from one set of earrings I found in February at Payless Shoes at Fox River Mall in Appleton WI which I took apart and separated. I used turquiose nail polish on the eyelids and white fabric paint for the eye reflection.

I also used gold metallic thread and many decorative stitches on my sewing machine to further add to the heavy ornamentation. The bracelet also has beads sewn onto it. There is a gold metallic flang on the vertical borders. I had a blast making this quilt and must wait until mid-August to find out if it made the cut to travel from Sept. 2015-Sept. 2016 to various quilt venues across the country. I will miss it when it is gone!!

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Art Quilts Around The World-Out Of This World-She's An Alien

 It is May 31, 2015 and reveal day for my Facebook group Art Quilts Around  The World. The theme is "Out of this World" and I chose do a portrait quilt and I thought an alien woman would be a great choice! I wanted to stay away from blue skin because it was too "Avatar" and green skinned martians are too typical. Plus I reserve green skin for witches!!
I also watch every season of Face Off on the Syfy (sp.?) Channel which seems to have an alien makeup challenge every season and this inspired me!
I selected white skin and orange hair. My last 4 quilts have all had orange in them unconsciously! I do love orange but this wasn't planned. What makes this woman an alien? The pointy ears, orange and yellow iris color, the flat wide bridge of the nose and the weird white skin tone. She sports a flaming orange Mohawk hairstyle and small ear gauges. 

I embellished with several clear sparkly buttons on the cheekbones to look like alien "markings", an earring from my jewelry box for in the ear gauge, rhinestones for smaller earrings, several varieties of silver glitter nail polish on the eyes and face and a few black rhinestones in the background.

My alien woman is pretty in her own "out of this world" kind of way and I love the orange Mohawk!!.

The next reveal date is July 31st and the theme is Snowflakes which will be a Christmas is July kind of moment! I have nothing planned yet in my head.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

New Work: Neon

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This is my latest portrait quilt. I was inspired by the hair color industry and the funky neon hair colors that are available in the cosmetology industry. I have been searching and purchasing neon fabric and embellishments since last fall and recently had the time to make this quilt. I really love the yellow print that I used for the dress and wanted to use more of it in the borders but since I do not like yellow in large quantities I chose to use this print for the backing fabric instead. The fabric for the lipstick and the pale yellow highlights was purchased while at the IQF Houston 2014 Show last October which gives me good memories! I used Cherrywood Hand Dyed Fabrics  for the gradation of 6 skin tone fabrics. They are hand dyed cottons and work very well for skin tones and are are equal to me as batiks. I purchased a fat quarter packet of browns for another project and love them to bits!!

I decided to take photos of the various steps of this portrait quilt to show how it come alive with each step of stitching, borders, fabric paint and embellishments. This is just the center of the quilt. I chose to cut some of the top off the center once it was completely fused because all the background was not needed.

This is the top with the various borders added. I love the swirly fabric on the left and bottom borders since it reminds me of the fashion designer Emilio Pucci! I fussy cut the directional pattern once I discovered there was a double direction. My cat Jack photo bombed this picture! Hi Jack!!

The quilt is quilted, bound and on cardboard being blocked. This is a step I only was taught about 4-5 years ago which changed my world because it will square up a quilt and make it lay flat. This is VERY important for having a quilt hang in a quilt show and the judges love a straight quilt without any wavy edges!!

I collected neon colored embellishments. I have a variegated orange/yellow ribbon, a fun neon colored decorative elastic, loose glitter, nail polish, rhinestones, and a variety of beads. I did not use everything which is the part that is hard because I have to use good taste and know when to stop adding more bling!!

This is the finished close-up of the face. I added the ribbon and elastic to the dress neckline; the loose glitter was used for eyeliner; rhinestones were used to make an earring; nail polish was used in the yellow of the hair to add to the highlights; rhinestones were added to the right and top borders and beads were sewn to outside of the binding. I intend to enter this quilt in a national quilt show and beyond!!

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Whimsical Victory Rolls x Two

I love 40s hair especially victory rolls. I also love a Split Complementary Color Scheme of lime green, red and purple. These two ideas are on my favorite quilt "Victory Rolls" which is also my business card. 
I made these two 12" square quilts as auction quilts for two national charities-Studio Arts Quilt Associates and National Quilting Association. 
I used my original pattern Angelina, which I use in my Intro to Portrait Classes, and created a hairstyle with 1940s victory rolls. I used the leftover floral print from the original quilt for the dress fabric. The dress received a 1940s shoulder pad silhouette and a sweetheart neckline.
I did not use green skin because these are not for me and I thought they were more "auction-able" if they were traditional skin tones. I used the lime green in the binding.
 This hairstyle did not lead itself to an easy shape/silhouette like many of the others I have created that are in the pattern or the "bonus" hair my students receive when they take my class. I used a lighter purple fabric paint to add highlights to the pincurls and a dark purple paint for the insides of the curls to create depth. I accomplished this idea with the original quilt but with four values of fabric. These quilts were meant to be simpler so I painted the values which was fun and successful. 
I embellished with red rhinestones in the background, two colors of glitter nail polish on the eyes, red glitter nail polish on the mouth and a felt, wooden and plastic button for a flower hair accessory. I added a bit of cosmetic blush to the cheeks, chin and forehead for fun!

Time to mail them to their proper destinations!
Here is the original Victory Rolls Quilt which has won a few ribbons at quilt shows and was in the Sacred Threads Quilt Show in 2013 and their featured book "Sacred Threads Exhibition 2013."

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Sunglasses Wall Hanging-Bring on Summer!!

 I did a spin on my original Angelina pattern by making four of the same bobbed hair style, two skin tones, facial features and a few sun glasses and a Andy Warhol style placement to create a fun Summer wall hanging. I added two of the glasses I used in my pattern in this wall hanging so if you have purchased this pattern from me online, from one of my classes or when I was vending you can make this quilt. 
I'm not going to make any instructions-just go with it!! I found the fun sun glasses fabric locally at Pine Street Quilts and the idea came together. I originally had just the red sun glasses on one of the women and posted a photo on Facebook. One of my fine artist friends (Mary Mc.!) commented that she thought all four of the women should have sun glasses. I had considered this and went back and pulled a few of the different frame styles from the sun glasses fabric print and color coordinated it. I love to make the eyes on the portraits so to cover them up with the sun glasses seemed sad to me. I knew I wore my sun glasses on the top of my head and sometimes peeked out over them so that is how I positioned the sun glasses without sacrificing the eyes.
  I added a small amount of red glitter nail polish to all the lips, nail polish to eyelids and a few red rhinestones to the upper left sun glasses to get the retro look!
I had most of this wall hanging finished but used it in the Open Studio at the International Quilt Festival March 28, 2015 in Chicago as a demo for my portrait quilt presentation. I was antsie to finish the wall hanging because I am personally ready for warm weather and it will be a seasonal quilt on my wall very soon!!

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Art Quilts Around The World-In The Garden Challenge-Mosaic Garden Art

My Facebook art quilt group Art Quilts Around the World has reveal day for the current art quilt challenge. The theme is "In the Garden" which sounded easy because I garden but it is the beginning of what the calendar says is Spring and I am challenged to remember what my garden looks like. As you scroll down I took a photo of the same side of my house where I have a big flowerbed and the comparison photo today March 31st and at the end of May. If you garden you will understand the zones of gardening and I am in Zone 4 and a bit of a wait to plant anything or put out my garden art.

So I resorted to photographs of my garden and found the photo of the mosaic stained glass stepping stone my boyfriend Ken made in 2006. I drew the image of a woman with blue skin and a sun around her head. Ken added the yellow triangles to the outer edge. It sits in a flower bed by my side door into my kitchen and I plant a lot of yellows, blues and orange flowers and have other color coordinating garden art near it. It makes me happy!
I also have done a art quilt technique with a mosaic style where all the applique pieces are separate from each other and the background "grout" shows through instead of overlapping the pieces. This style is not my fave because you have to stop and start each stitched applique piece because they do not touch. More work and more thread. But to make this project look like a piece of garden art it had to be made this way.
I added very little embellishment because it's garden art but I did add a little red glitter nail polish to the lips and the purple eye lids got some purple bling.

The next challenge is due May 31st and it is called "Out of This World" and I am feeling like an alien invasion!!
The east side of my house on March 31st-brown, barren and last Fall's leftovers.








A file photo of my garden on the same side of the house on May 31st. Green and happy!!

Sunday, February 22, 2015

"Free Your Mind" Quilt!

I am trying something new and posting on my blog from my iPad since the cord which attaches my camera to my laptop is being stupid and I am long overdue to post!! I was trying some different techie quilts stuff which I am not so good at and my brain was about to explode!! I was perusing Pinterest and found a quilt block design called The Power of Nine" that was in modern solid fabrics and all star blocks (my fave!) The pattern was available through www.craftsy.com to download and print. I needed to step away from the computer project and have a "no-brainer" sewing project and this was the one!! I had a few yards of a large scale print with bright colors and brown sunflowers. I pulled yellow, orange, two pinks, turquoise and blue batiks, a green stripe and a fabulous warm tobacco brown batik to make the blocks scrappy style. The way the designer had them was great but I am more into prints than solids. 
I sashed the blocks with the brown batik and added a 6" border. I machine quilted the whole quilt in dark brown thread. No embellishments.  I will title it "Sunflowers and Soil" which is nice to think of gardening season in January and February. I was going to take a photo of the quilt outside on my clothes line but the weather in Upper Michigan has been very cold so I was a wimp and waited until yesterday when it warmed up to a balmy mid 20+ degree day! Then my camera/computer wouldn't jive! 
The other photo is the fun large floral fabric for the back from Joann's!! I never show the back of my quilts but this fabric was so pretty!
I still haven't returned to the computer work but worked on my 2015 Hoffman Challenge quilt. That quilt is finished also but I'm not sharing it until July 2015! Go to www.facebook.com/artsychickquilts to see a preview.