Jewels for the Wall

For Christmas I received a subscription to Quilting Arts Magazine.  I love this magazine because it combines quilting with other mediums (right up my alley!).  I started making art quilts about 1-2 years ago, embellishing with found objects and beads.  This magazine shows me how to create my own fabrics with dyes, stamps and silk screening.  An article in the December2014/January2015 issue entitled Jewels for the Wall by Natalya Aikens inspired my next creations.  She made mini art quilts, framed them and then painted the frames to match the colors in the quilts.  Mine, of course, looks nothing like hers but that's the beauty of art!  Every artist has their own talents and interpretations of their world.

This was my very first one:
I only used fabric, beads and paint.

And because I love owls this was my second one:
For this creation I used fabric (the owl), upholstery (the gray background and the blue branch) and puffy paint (little designs coming off the branches).  There are also beads sewn on the eyes.

My third one is my absolute favorite because it's not as tight or structured as the last two.  I call it Steampunk and Butterflies.
(again I used fabric, upholstery, beads, clock parts and other hardware)

(top part):

(bottom part):

This is the start of two new creations.  I will be embellishing with seashells, sea grass and of course more beadwork.  The horizontal frame will be the seashore and the vertical frame will have lighthouse fabric in it.

These and many more creations will be for sale in my booth at the Newport News Fall Festival of Folk Life first weekend in October, please come out and see me!

Wreck This Journal

I have seen this book in stores but instead of buying it I went home and put it on my Amazon Wish List and forgot about it.  Well this past Christmas my mom got it for me and it has been so much fun "wrecking" it!!  It is definitely for anyone that wants to be creative but doesn't know where to start.

Here is an example of what one of the pages looks like (not done yet):

So you kind of get the idea right?  Keri Smith wants you to experiment, be creative, use any tools necessary to create something unique and one of a kind.  The title page was boring until my pink and orange markers attacked it:

A few years ago I challenged myself to learn at least the first 25 digits in the number Pi. (You know 3.14159)  So when I read the page that asked me to "add your own page numbers" the one word that jumped out at me was numbers.  I immediately wanted to write as many digits of Pi that I could fit on the page:

This was one of the first pages I did "Draw fat lines then thin":

I wonder why I haven't done this page yet? I love to sew, maybe I'll do something with this tonight:

Another example of one of my finished pages:

This page says "Tear out. Crumple."  I wanted to experiment with wet watercolors, to "crumple" it up before the watercolors dried to see if I could get a cracked effect.  It didn't turn out quite how I expected but I taped the page back in to show the shrinkage of the page:

And I saved my favorite page for last.  It's called a "Stain log".  I've seen this done with lipsticks but I have a slight obsession with nail polish (and these aren't even all of my colors!) so I decided to log some of my colors:

My absolute favorite, that I wear on my toenails all the time, is the Petites Sapphire, third row first one.

I have a board on Pinterest called Wreck This Journal where you can see other peoples creativity (and I've added my pictures as well).

Photography

My very first hobby was photography.  I still really like to take pictures but I also like to sew, knit, quilt, paint, etc.  This year I've decided to get back into photography.  There are thousands of prompts on Pinterest to get me started but I found one that very much appealed to me and had her website printed on one of the lists.  Her name is Chantelle and she lives in Australia.  Her website is Fat Mum Slim if you'd like to check it out.
This is what the first week's list looked like:

This was the second week's list:

And my photos for these prompts:

This is week 3:

And my photos for these prompts (not in order of the list):

I am a little behind on the fourth week but I'll catch up tomorrow.  This has been so much fun.  I hope that I can keep up with it all year.  It is allowing me to be creative in my picture taking and not be focused on one thing.  It is challenging me to look more closely at things and what is my interpretation of certain words like "bright".

Rubber Ducky You're The One...

You make bath time oh so fun!  My good friend Amber is having a baby and her shower was last weekend (hosted also by me and another one of our friends).  I am not really a pastel girl, I wonder why people think pastels when they think of babies?  Anyway Amber's nursery is Rubber Ducky themed.  Perfect, bright yellows, oranges and blues.  I found the perfect ducky fabric and then used a simple quilt pattern to showcase this theme.

The quilt pattern I used was called attic windows and here's how it turned out:

I free form quilted it

And for the backing I used the same ducky fabric:

For the baby shower I was in charge of either making or buying the corsage.  I love a good challenge so I made it.  I cut out one of the ducky's from the fabric then I used fabric stiffener to help it keep it's shape then worked around that:

I can't wait till "mini-Amber" arrives so I can give her lots of kisses and help out "first time mom" too!  Congrats Amber and Tommy I love you all so much!

The start of my Nutcracker Art Quilt

I love art quilts.  I love making them and I love looking at them.  Sometimes an art quilt contains embellishments such as beads, ribbons, found objects and things from nature.  A few months ago I started hand sewing beads onto one of my art quilts and I LOVE how it is turning out.  Granted it is taking a while but it is totally worth it!  

After deciding to embroider the centers of my Block of the Month blocks (see last post) I have really embraced this type of needlework.   I love it because to me everything about embroidery is creative, I can draw my own pattern and I can use any colors I want.  If you can't draw, or need ideas, all you have to do is search "coloring pages+mermaids" or whatever you little heart desires.

About a year ago I found this Christmas fabric on sale.  I traditionally like red and green but this one really grabbed my eye.

I had not known what I was going to do with this fabric until a few days ago.  Along with peacocks, mermaids and Halloween I also like nutcrackers (like mother like daughter!)  I found a line drawing of a nutcracker online and have decided to embroider him in blues and greens.  He will then be the center of one of my art quilts with this fabric being one of the borders and maybe the backing.

I love adding sequins and beads to make it really "sparkle":

I purposely did not sketch in the eyes because I was going to use black beads and I didn't want the pencil marks to show but last night I had an idea, I may paint the eyes so I can get the tiny details.

This may be for sale at the Newport News Fall Festival next year or it may not depending on how much I fall in love with it.

Sew Sweet Simplicity BOM (#1)

I'm taking a break from making fabric bowls to refocus on quilting.  I found this wonderful lady by the name of Jacquelynne Steves on Facebook who just started a 6 month BOM quilt along.  I am so excited because I've always wanted to do a Block of the Month quilt but I didn't want to commit to 12 months.  Well Jacquelynne has created a 6 block quilt.  It has a large center piece that you can create your own pieced or appliqued design or you can use the design that comes with the pattern.  This is perfect for someone like me who likes to create her own look.

Jacquelynne Steves website is called Jacquelynne Steves: The Art of Home . You can either visit her homepage with a link to the block of the month: Sew Sweet Simplicity or click here .
This is what the original quilt blocks look like but we can choose our own fabrics and color combinations:

I have never been one to follow a pattern and that's why I fell in love with this quilt!  The possibilities are endless as far as fabric combinations and also the fact that you can put anything you want in the center.  

This quilt along started right before Halloween, one of my favorite holidays, so I was going to do a Tim Burton Nightmare Before Christmas themed quilt but changed my mind at the last minute and decided to go with a peacock theme instead.  

Here are my fabric combinations:

And before I even started cutting the pieces I got started on embroidering my peacock for the center.  I used beads and sequins as well as metallic embroidery floss:

Then I started cutting the rest of the fabric:

And here is my finished first block:

I've done half square triangles before but I've never done the flying geese pattern so this was a lot of fun.  I've already started embroidering my second peacock for the center and can't wait to get the second month's pattern so I can put that one together too!

Art Quilting and Kaffe Fassett

Now that my "once-a-year" art show, the Newport News Art Festival, is over I am now focusing on a another one of my passions: quilting!  I really like traditional quilts but recently I've gotten into art quilts.  It stands to reason that I would like art quilts because there is really no right way to create an art quilt.  By definition an art quilt is "an art form that uses both modern and traditional quilting techniques to create art objects. Practitioners of quilt art create it based on their experiences, imagery, and ideas rather than traditional patterns.^[1] Quilt art generally has more in common with the fine arts than it does with traditional quilting. This art is generally either wall hung or mounted as sculpture, though exceptions exist"(quoted from Wikipedia).

I just went through my archives to find any pictures I've posted so far on my Kaffe Fassett art quilt but I don't think I've posted any!  If you haven't heard of the fabulous designer Kaffe Fassett let me introduce you to him here (click on his name to be taken to his website).  His fabrics are wild and whimsical!  I can only take his fabric in small doses but my mom has really embraced his style and has started a Kaffe Fassett quilt too. My mom is doing a traditional 9-patch but with these fabrics it is very modern. 

Here are some examples of his fabrics from his 2014 Spring and fall collections.  I really wish I could post all of them!

Last year at the quilt convention I bought a bundle of fat quarters not quite knowing what I was going to do with them:

I also saw a technique done there that I thought maybe I'd try.  There was no pattern which was fine because I don't like following patterns anyway.  This quilter sewed the fabrics into tubes then wove them together to make a pattern.  Hmmm, I could do that!

This would be the main focus of my quilt.  I then appliqued circles onto other parts of the orange background then quilted around the Kaffe Fassett fabrics:

I have only just begun to embellish!  I love beads and sequins and other found objects added to my art quilts so stay tuned for the finished product.

Close-ups of embellishing and following my 3 triangle quilting designs within the quilt:

Thanks for looking!!

The Newport News Fall Festival

I have loved going to the Newport News Fall Festival since I was a little girl.  My mom has been doing this show with her artwork for a number of years (25+) and I have helped her set up since I was young.  Two years ago she suggested that I apply (I had to be juried in with my own artwork) and sell my stuff.  I was honored and humbled to say the least.  I have always looked up to my mom, she is an amazing artist and for her to acknowledge my work validated me.  I was accepted in last year AND this year and it was a total blast!  I love that it's the first weekend in October, the weather was perfect and because it's in a park the woodsy smell is just heaven.  

A big huge thank you to everyone that came out and supported me!  I was sad that my cousin Susan couldn't come down from Northern Va to help me out so my dad had to do double time between my mom and me (giving us potty breaks, etc.) 

Here are some pictures from this past weekend:

 On Sunday my creative juices were flowing so I sketched 3 pages of notes!  I am so excited to start my new ideas so stay tuned because next year's NN Fall Festival will be definitely be better than this year's!