Little Art Show

The Arts Council in Washington, NC, where my shop is located is presenting a "Little Art Show" in March.  Anyone at all can go in and pick up a 8" x 10" canvas and create a little piece of art.  This is the first time I have participated ... I thought that it would be good to give people a glimpse of fiber art. 

Here is the little piece, layered on Thermore batting and quilted with several colors of embroidery floss.  The buttons are polymer clay, handmade by me.

I struggled more than a little bit when it came time to mount it on the canvas.  I fiddled with the corners for a while before I was done.  They are OK, but not great (the corners, that is).

Here is the finished piece on the wall, in an area where obviously the lighting was better.

All of the little pieces of art will be on display at the Arts Council in downtown Washington.  The grand finale is a reception where attendees pay $35, are treated to food and drink and will receive one of the art pieces to keep.

Lucky Shamrock

Some personal things have gotten in the way of sewing lately.

I finally managed to get the "Lucky Shamrock Table Topper" quilted and bound.  I'll write up instructions, but only the speediest quilters will be able to get one put together this year!

I used soft colors in mine, so it wouldn't be so blatantly St. Patrick's Day.  This will probably lead to making another, since the long awaited shamrock fabric just appeared this week in the shop.

Finished size of the table topper is 28" x 28".

Now it Can Be Told

Our "Romancing Eastern North Carolina Shop Hop" is in full swing.  We've had two LIVELY days and two more to go.  I can finally reveal my secret shop hop quilt.

ADVENTURES IN FOUR-PATCH

I got carried away!  This is the largest quilt I've made in a while - approximately 76" x 100".  

Our theme this year was BACK TO BASICS, so I chose to play with four-patches.  Each shop also had their own color and I chose green.

Of course, if anyone wants to make one of their own, I have patterns and kits.

Borders on - Ready to Quilt!

Wow, what a difference the borders make!

It won't take too long to finish this one.  It is only about 28" square and I plan to machine quilt it, so it has a chance of being ready ahead of St. Patrick's Day.

I actually have some SHAMROCK fabric on order, but who knows when it will show up?  If it arrives soon, I just might put together another version.

Reverse Applique

In the last post "Wait and See", I showed raw materials for a reverse applique project.  It's another based on Jan Mullen's book Reverse Applique with No Brakez.  I've made just about a zillion of them (which I'd better show in a future post) but since I was offering it again as a class, I thought I'd put together a fresh sample.  Here's the work in progress - kind of hard to see the white markings, but it is a duck with big feet.  What's so fun about this process is that there is a pieced hidden layer that is revealed when the top layer is cut away.  You never quite know what you'll get.

I also have a GREEN activity coming up in the near future, so I got to thinking about shamrocks.  I couldn't find too many examples of shamrock quilt blocks, so made my own adaptation of one I saw on the internet.  Four blocks are going together to make a table topper.  I like it so far, but it will look even better when the borders go on.

Wait and See

I've finished another challenge quilt ... think I'll keep it under wraps until it's official unveiling in March.  I've shown bits of it before, but not the final product.

Meanwhile, I've been playing with the scraps from the above-mentioned project.  Little one inch wide strips, sewn at an angle.  Karen Griska described how she sewed her skinny strips in a fantastic fan quilt that I saw at the Empire Quilters Guild quilt show in NYC a few years back.  She wouldn't have any reason to remember me, but was kind enough to describe her methods as I admired her quilt.

Curious?  I'll let you know where I'm going with this next time!

(Karen is FAMOUS for her book Quilts From the Selvage Edge.  Oh, how I love selvages!)

More Paint was the Answer

While I was fretting over the little painted piece the other night, I added a few more beads after the facing was applied.  I was not happy with the lack of contrast between the blossoms and the background.  Finally, this morning, I decided to just PAINT.  I'm calling it done now.

Katherine sent me a message to check out a scrap-booking blog ..... it had a NEAT-O idea for creating one of a kind stencils.  I drew this with a hot glue gun on a silicone sheet (can also use parchment paper).  After the glue is cool and hard, it peels right off.  I'm going to use it with a little spray paint.

I love it when I can jump right in and try a project that uses only common household objects.