Quilt for Levi

 Just thought I’d pop on here to let you all know I’m still crafting! Last June we moved and my art room is now unpacked and as messy as ever, ha, ha! We moved from Lexington, VA to Forest, Va and when I was in Lexington I was a nanny to this awesomely cute little boy named Levi. Every day we would dig in the dirt pile and play with dump trucks, monster trucks and dinosaurs. I miss him so very much! I have seen him a few times since we moved and every time I see him he lights up my world. 

Last fall I visited a new quilt shop, near my current residence, and found the perfect panel to make a quilt for my little Levi. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift but you know how hectic the holidays are. We didn’t see each other till last month… so he got his Christmas gift for Valentine’s Day… better late than never!

Welcome back!

 Wow what a crazy two years it's been since I last posted! My husband is a Methodist minister and in March we got a phone call saying that we were being relocated; yes, the United Methodists work like the military, they say we go, and we have no choice. I am still bitter about how the whole thing was handled but here I am. I will post pictures of my latest quilts and other things I've been working on later, but for now peace, love and cats!

"Let's Go Fly a Kite"

This was the theme of this year's quilt guild challenge.  It was announced last November and as soon as I heard the theme I had a vision of what I wanted to do.  The only rule was that the perimeter could not be over 100".  I finished mine in December but judging wasn't going to be until our March meeting.
Our meetings are held the second Saturday of the month and guess what?  The Coronavirus closed everything down the day before our meeting!  Fast forward four months and last weekend we were finally able to have our meeting outside sitting 6' apart from one another.

I WON FIRST PLACE!!

I wanted to walk you through my process.  First I cut a piece of muslin the size I wanted the quilt to be, remembering not to go over 100" diameter.  This ended up being 15" X  35"  Then I laid my fabric options out along side of it:

The little girls head is a wooden ball wrapped in brown fabric then attached to a pipe cleaner armature.  I then wrapped the pipe cleaners with brown embroider floss.  Her yellow eyelet dress was made from a thrift store find.

I free-form drew the cloud on a white sparkly piece of fabric then appliqued that over the little girls head.  I made a slit in the back of the fabric and stuffed the cloud with cotton balls.  This hole would be covered when I added the batting and backing.

Next I sketched the big tree that the cloud was trying to blow the kite into, cut it out of realistic looking bark and appliqued that onto the quilt too.

Next were the leaves.  I quilted a few green pieces of fabric, cut them into leaf shapes, zigzagged around them then sprayed them with fabric stiffener and let them dry folded in half.

I added a three-dimensional swing because what is a huge tree without a swing.

After I quilted the entire work, I cut a diamond shape for the kite.  I love making these cut outs, it has become my "signature."  I then bound the perimeter to give it a finished look.

I had learned this technique about a year ago but didn't know where to use it until now, THE KITE!

What you do is you lay fabric scraps, ribbon, etc. in between two sheets of water-soluble fusible web. Quilt the entire piece then wash away the webbing.  I did this then cut out a diamond shape for the kite and added the border.  I attached it to the quilt with clear thread.

And there it is, my finished quilt:

I love a good challenge, I can't wait till next year!!

I've been doing more drawing than sewing

Last November (at my last post) my quilt guild announced the theme for this years guild challenge, "Let's Go Fly A Kite"... immediately my creative juices started flowing... a little black girl flying a kite... in a little yellow dress... make her 3-D... make the kite 3-D...!!! So that's what's been on my sewing machine BUT I can't post any pictures until March, that's when they'll be judged.  I can't wait because mine is so out-of-the-box that I'm not sure what they are going to think, but generally they like my work.

Something that I've been doing for years and years is drawing zentangles, or zendoodles.  I have created a separate blog for my works of art here: Timeless Tangles and I just posted a new challenge created by Jake Parker of Inktober that you might want to check out.
This is one of my zendoodles but everyone creates them differently:

The 2017 Newport News Fall Festival of Folk Life

I absolutely love this festival!  I grew up in Newport News so coming back to do the festival just warms my heart.  I have been on the juried side in the past, and my mom has been on the marketplace side BUT since they are moving to Wisconsin I decided that I wanted to be in my mom's place this year.  My mom has taught adult art classes through the NN Parks and Rec for 40+ years so she has a huge following in Newport News.  Since she is moving I wanted to do this for all of her students who want to keep up with her and my dad and their new adventures closer to my brother and his family.

Because I was on the marketplace side this year I was able to combine my sewing and painting talents under one tent.  Had I been on the juried side I would have to pick one category.  I realized a long time ago that my brain doesn't work like that, I am definitely all over the place when it comes to my artistic endeavors.  Here are a few photos of my tent at the Fall Festival:

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Small craft bazaar

Photos from the Winter Bazaar I was in last weekend:

I prefer making snowmen over santas

Debut of some of my altered paintbrushes

I love painting these doll chairs

My very whimsical one-of-a-kind painted doll chair

I'm now branching out and painting on other found objects as well

Another one of my painted chairs

More fabric baskets

A few Christmas coiled fabric baskets

One of my tables

Another table and I still couldn't get all of my stuff displayed

There wasn't a lot of room in the gymnasium at the school