A quilt for Frances

Two summers ago I decided to make a quilt for my husband's secretary for Christmas.  I found some beautiful bright floral prints that I wanted to use.  I started piecing it together and when I was finished with the top I stood back, looked at it and cried tears of sorrow!  It was SO crooked and there was no possible way to repair it!  The design itself was beautiful but the execution was not on-spot.  I was devestated.

A few weeks later we took our family vacation to Illinois and, to make a long story short, I found the perfect fabric for Frances.  My husband is a minister and these are the fabrics I chose.  (The blocks are religious sayings).

These squares were found as a bolt of fabric that I cut out.  I had such a fun time contructing this but it was a bit of a challenge because the squares weren't all the same size, which I didn't realize until we got home from our vacation.  So what I did was I put boarders on the squares so I could trim them all down to the same size.

Now onto the backing. I found this gorgeous print that was the same theme of the blocks: religious sayings, creme color with music notes (Frances sings in the choir too).  It was just perfect.  Again I didn't realize until we got back home that I had not bought enough.  So I had to modify it.  I found some solid green fabric that I could maybe add to the sides.  Again, still not enough.  So I found some dark brown paterned fabric that I could add.  Finally enough fabric!  And then I had this brilliant idea to put it together so the back looked like a cross and I LOVE how it turned out.

So this quilt took a little while longer than expected but I was extremely pleased with the finished product.  When I handed it to Frances for Christmas I said "I'm having a hard time giving this to you!" (She understood why). 

As a side note I free-form quilted the quilt with my trusty Kenmore sewing machine.

My Quilting Journal

For as long as I can remember I've liked to write.  In middle school I began writing poetry then in high school, college, and beyond I did a lot of journaling.  It feels good to be able to express my thoughts, feelings and ideas on paper.  I have two "Mommy Journals" for my two boys.  They are like "letters to my child" to give to them when they are grown.  I started both journals before they were born, writing to them about the anticipation of the first day I would met each of them.  (This takes the place of a baby book).  Because of my love of writing I knew I would be able to convey to them more feelings and emotions than I would in a baby book.

Anyway, back to journaling.  A few years ago I walked into a fabric store and saw a book called "My Quilting Journal" so it was only natural that I buy it.  But as I leafed through it I noticed that there was not enough space for me.  When I write I can fill up pages!  (I'm not one of those 2-sentence kind of people).  But with my creative juices flowing I thought... How easy would it be to find a journal with blank pages and then label them myself?  So that's what  did.

(I just LOVE label makers!)

Some of the sections I created were taken from the original book such as the finished dimension of the quilt.  But then I added extra categories such as swatches of the fabric and where I bought them from, photos and any other comments about the quilt.

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I LOVE old quilts and I think each and every one has a story behind it.  So hopefully one day when someone stumbles upon my quilts they will have a story to go with it (provided they can find this journal too!)

Happy quilting and happy journaling everyone!

Anticipation of this weekend

I have been waiting one year for this Friday to come.  Thursday through Sunday the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival XXI will be held in Hampton, VA.  My mom and I have attended this convention in the past and this Friday we will go again.  I am giddy with excitement as this weekend approaches and all of you quilters and fabric enthusiasts out there know what I'm talking about!

I love this show for a number of reasons.  The obvious reason is the time, effort and creativity that goes into these stunning works of art.  They are so inspiring!  And if you're crafty like me you tend to get overwhelmed at the possibilities of making one of these.  Inspirations and ideas come so fast that my head is spinning by the time we leave.

Photographs ARE allowed and my first passion has always been photography so I always go to these shows with plenty of memory cards.  This is my second reason for going.  To be able to take photographs and admire them year round.  I use them for inspiration.  Sometimes I see color combinations that I wouldn't have put together myself but "wow did they make that quilt pop with those colors!"  The other end of the color spectrum is black and white.  There is an entire section devoted to black and white quilts.  This one was my favorite.

But check this one out:

I wish I had the dimensions of this quilt (I'll do better this year).  But more than this quilt having all of the shading of these eyes was the blocks that made up this "portrait":

This year I will get more details so when I post pictures from the show I can give credit where credit is due and I can try to get the story behind it. 

Last year I took over 400 pictures so it would be almost impossible for me to choose a favorite but I'm going to.  My favorite:

Another part of this festival is all of the vendors that are selling quilting notions and fabrics.  Oh how I LOVE fabric!!  

I can't wait to post another blog about this years festival as I'm sure it won't disappoint... HAPPY QUILTING!!

Flashback

Even at an early age I think my mom knew I was interested in art.  This was taken in 1971 when I was 19 months old.

It's never too early to introduce your child to the wonderful world of art.  Cultivate their imagination and praise them endlessly on their creative journey.  

How I stumbled into the wide world of quilting

I had to think back a few years to figure out how I became interested in quilting so here's my story:
Around 1999 I decided I wanted to learn how to sew my own clothes (skirts, jumpers, sleepwear).  So I bought myself a sewing machine and took a class from my local Parks & Rec. In 2000 I went on The Disney Cruise and was SO excited to make all of my clothes for this trip... capri pants, fun summer shirts, shorts and skirts.  This was the first shirt I made and I loved it (I'm sitting in Minnie's chair).

In 2001 I went to a quilt convention with my mom.  I went primarily because I knew there would be bolts of new, different and unique fabric there.  I was very impressed with the workmanship that went into these quilts but I wanted to find funky fabrics for skirts.

Up until this quilt convention I thought that all quilts were "country looking" with dull and drab colors.  But this convention opened up my eyes to all of the amazing colors and variations the world of quilting had become.  I was still there for fabric for garments though.

But then slowly, as with everything else, when I look at something long enough I start to get ideas.  And the more booths I wandered in and out of I noticed myself being drawn to these cute bug fabrics.  Then I found one I couldn't live without...

This spider was screaming "take me home, I'm too cute to pass up!"

I thought to myself "I could make a simple quilt.  6" squares sewn together.  I could alternate cute bug patterns with bright solids... hmm". The idea was born and little did I know I would fall in love with quilting and continue to make more of these treasures.

I was going to just tie it but instead put it away and forgot about it until this post.  As you can see that I never put the binding on it either.  But because of this post think I'll finish it.  And now since I know how to quilt the top I'm toying with the idea of doing that.  This quilt is huge though!  It measures 85" X 96".  

So I guess you could say this is where I was bit by the quilting bug... or spider as it were!

Doin' it my own way

For the past few weeks I've been looking at watercolor books and viewing artists' watercolor paintings on the internet to get a sense of "how" to watercolor.  And this is the conclusion I've come up with... whatever way I want to paint with watercolor is fine.  I'm not trying to please anybody except myself and if I like it then so-be-it.  I know before I've stated that I need to learn to "loosen up" because watercolor paintings, in general, seem to have less defining lines and my paintings have very definite lines.  Maybe one day I'll paint like that but for now I love the way my paintings are turning out and to me that's all that matters.  I'm finding my style now.

I've also been looking at books and paintings for inspiration.  I should have known to look at my own photos first.  This is where I found a picture of a monarch butterfly hoovering over this gorgeous lavendar flower.  I decided to add a little blue/purple to the flower to give it more depth and to contrast it with the rich hues of the butterfly.  I may eventually go back and darken the background too.

I really like how the center of the flower turned out.  At first I was just going to paint it a light green with a few dark green sprigs in it.  But then I used my, I call it my grass brush, to stipple some dark green dots in the center.  It gave it a raised effect plus it blended the dark purple flower with the lightness of the center. 

Some call it cheating but I call it a really cool effect... yes I did use masking fluid for parts of the flower and the top torso of the butterfly (and the spots on the wings).

While looking at my photos for inspiration for this project I found a lot of other photos of past things I've done (like embroidery, knitting, soap making, etc.)  So I think some of my future posts will be "a look back" at my creative journey. 

"Tis the season...

... for colds! We have all been under the weather and I think my 14 month old and I got the brunt of it. We are both now on antibiotics treating an ear infection (Jacob) and a sinus infection (me). But through it all I have still been water coloring. I truly think art is a form of therapy.

I deviated from my flowers a few weeks ago and decided to paint a fairy mainly because I found a book on my bookshelf called How To Draw 101 Fairies by Barry Green. It's sort of a juvenile book in that anyone could draw these simple cartoon-like fairies. I love how my little fairy girl turned out but I haven't come up with a name for her yet.

I'll spare you the trouble of pointing out what is wrong with my painting by telling you that the inside part of the wings are going the wrong way.
In keeping with my New Year's resolution to send birthday cards to everyone I decided to try my hand at painting a colt on a birthday card for my mother-in-law. I took this picture a few years ago while visiting her and we both fell in love with this little guy because of it's piercing blue eyes. Again deviating from flowers and fairies.


This was a little 4" X 6" painting but I wanted to paint bigger. My mom bought me this wonderful 12" X 16" watercolor paper for Christmas so I took that out again and drew sunflowers all over it. (My fairy above measures 12" X 16" also).

While I was working on my sunflowers I had another friend's birthday roll around so I decided to paint her a sunflower birthday card, again measuring 4" X 6".

So I'm back to painting flowers because that's what I really like to paint but right now I'm having a little bit of a "writer's block" if you will. I want to paint but I'm not sure what I want to paint. So I'll go play with my boys and hope that insipration hits me again soon.

"Jack...

...of-all-trades" that is. I listen to a podcast called Craftsanity (see link on this blog) with Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood and to steel a quote from her she said "I'm a jack-of-all-trades in my creative endeavors". And I think that would best describe me too. I've been thinking over the past few days what I've dabbled in and my list kept growing and growing.
Cross Stitch
Knitting
Quilting **
Sculpey Clay
Wood Burning
Photography **
Painting (Acrylics and watercolor) **
Drawing
Beadwork
Embroidery
Sewing garments **
Glass Fusing
Mosaic Tiles
Colored Pencils
Cake Decorating
ATC's (Artist Trading Cards)
Scrapbooking
Quilling
Soap Making
Linoleum Block Printing

(These are my "staple" crafts that I will always return to)

And as the days go by I may remember more things I've done. I may also add new endeavors to the list. In the comment section please share your creative endeavors with me as I'm always interested in seeing what other people are doing