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!!