The Blue Horse

The Blue Horse, 18" x 22"

My sister's yard was home to many strange and interesting items - mostly acquired at garage sales.  I'm not sure where the blue horse came from but it has been a favorite of mine for a long time.  My sister has Alzheimer's and came to a point where she had to move to assisted living and is now in a nursing home.  Her house was sold and everything had to be moved and the blue horse moved to my back yard.  It pleases my heart every day when I look out of the breakfast room window to see the blue horse stationed against the fence in all kinds of weather.  I took pictures of him this past winter in the snow and recently took a picture of him surrounded by lush greenery and flowers.

I decided he needed to be featured in an art quilt and found another piece of my favorite Ellen Anne Eddy fabric to serve as a background.  The irises were inspired by some beautiful Southern Blue Flags that live next to some yellow primroses in our front bed.  The primroses were not planted by us but just appeared this spring.  My husband cares diligently for birds stopping by and I think they planted the primroses for us. 

As always, my favorite part of making an art quilt is doing the free-motion quilting.  I got a little carried away and quilted way more than I had planned to - but it pleases me and that's what it is all about.

Dandelions and Hollyhocks

After a long, unproductive winter, I finally have made something new.  This piece is called "Dandelions and Hollyhocks".  It is 22" x 36".  I had such a good time making it from beginning to end.  I especially enjoyed the quilting - there are actually some feathers surrounded by stippling - not something I usually do.  For once I tried to actually think about the quilting enhancing the quilt rather than just going into a Zen state and seeing how it worked out.  Okay, I did do quite a bit of that too.  It was also fun to return to my bright colors and there is even a bug appliqued on.

This is another of Ellen Anne Eddy's light source fabrics.  I auditioned several backgrounds and this piece brought the picture to life.

Lodgepole Pines

Lodgepole Pines is my most recent work.  It is 14" x 21 1/2".  It was inspired by another piece of Ellen Anne Eddy's fabric.  It looked like I imagine a Canadian winter scene.  In person, the piece has a more smoky blue-green cast which gives it more life than this picture.  I'm definitely on a roll with featuring pine trees in my work.  There is a hypnotic relaxation I find in doing the free-motion work.

Sentinel

 

 

Sentinel (18" x 22") is my most recent work.  I received my much-awaited box of hand-dyed fabric from Ellen Anne Eddy last week and this fabric immediately jumped out at me.  It makes for a beautiful night background.  Her fabrics often have the feeling of a light source which contributes a lot to my enjoyment of the finished piece.  This work is available at Waverly House Gallery in Springfield, Missouri.

Little Bright Eyes

This small quilt (16" x 20") jumped into my mind a few weeks ago.  The front is completely free-motion stitched.  The little saw-whet owl is thread painted and all the pine needles are thread sketching.  The moon is composed of angelina fibers.

After searching for a good background, I came upon my last piece of fabric that I bought from Ellen Anne Eddy six years ago.  And it was perfect.  Then I looked back through my gallery of quilts and realized my favorite work had been done with her fabrics as background.  So I am now watching daily for a new box containing many yards of her fabric.  I feel like a kid waiting for her first bicycle!

I'm on my way to Waverly House Gallery to take this latest work.  I may have to make another for myself because I'm very fond of it.

Sun Tiger

This piece is my entry into a juried show coming up soon.  I thread-painted the black areas on the butterfly on top of white fabric.  That is not one of the best decisions I've ever made.  Of course, the white showed through.  So, in addition to thread, I painted the black with black fabric paint.  The pale yellow areas are also fabric paint.  The piece is about 20" square.

The Richest Chord

I belong to an art quilt group that has been making 12" x 12" challenge quilts for the past year. Our most recent challenge was to base a quilt on the theme of music. I had a number of thoughts but decided to try to depict my favorite chord in fabric. As you can see, my piece grew substantially beyond 12 x 12! It is 18" by 45" before adding the border/frame. So I hung it in my living room and kept it for us.

My favorite piece of music is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.  I've been playing it on the piano for fifty-five years!  There is a chord in the last movement that is so full and rich that I've been known to play it over and over when no one else is around.

So there is the chord or chord series that has given me chills for all these years.  Now to get my piano tuned and start playing more than once or twice a year.

Return to Eden

Return to Eden - 30" square

This piece was juried into the "Journeys" show at Waverly House Gallery.  I was delighted to learn that it was judged "Best of Show".  The show continues through the end of November.

The quilt was a joy to make since the fabrics told me what they wanted to be and where they wanted to be and I simply listened.  I usually buy very little fabric but went wild this fall buying lots of different fabrics and not just the batiks that usually want to come home with me.  The new fabric really helped give me a burst of creativity.  

Wallflowers

Wallflowers II  - 31" x 40"

This quilt was a joy to make.  I started by making several flowers with no idea what I was going to do with them.  Then it seemed they needed a stone wall to lean against.  I sewed everything down, including the leaves and flower that project into the sky.  After seeing some great pieced skies at a quilt guild meeting, I came home and did some major unsewing and changed the sky.  It was a great improvement.

This piece will be exhibited at Waverly House Gallery during the annual "Meet the Artists" weekend September 9th and 10th.  If you are around Springfield, come see it and me.

Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

COON - 9" x 12"

FANTASY FLOWER - 9" x 12"

I made these two small quilts for the AAQI monthly auction.  If you are not familiar with AAQI, please visit the website at http://www.alzquilts.org.  The organization has raised a substantial amount of money for research on Alzheimer's disease primarily through the sale of small quilts.  The founder, Ami Simms, saw first-hand the devastating effects of this disease with her mother.  Although her mother has passed on, Ami has remained faithful to this cause.

My sister has this disease and I have watched it destroy her day by day.  I hope you will take a moment to look at the little quilts and consider making a bid or participating by making one of the auction quilts yourself.

Thanks for looking!

THE BRUBECK EFFECT

This quilt was my entry in the Voices of Inspiration juried show at Waverly House.  It was accepted and sold the first evening at the artists' reception.  I didn't get a good picture of it so I need to head to Waverly and get a better one. 

My introduction to jazz was a Dave Brubeck concert at Drury University in 1964.  I can still remember the unexpected joy of listening to him play.  I bought a book of his work and attempted to play some of his songs on the piano off and on for many years.  When I saw him play the second time I was up close where I could see the size of his hands.  They were huge.  After that I realized I could never hit those chords with my wee hands but I still had a good time trying.

Blue Sonata

I recently finished this quilt as a commission.  It had to fit a specific space so its dimensions (25" x 58") are unusual.  I love to make these "slice and dice" quilts with the curved piecing - something very satisfying about getting all the horizontal tedious work done and then rapidly finishing the piece.  I believe its new owner is pleased.  Now I'm tempted to make one for myself since the unusual width looks good in several places in my house.  But that's sort of like the cobbler's barefoot children.

Villa Teresa

This small quilt (16" x 21") was inspired by a photo taken by Teresa Rhyne in the south of France.  Teresa is an attorney in her "day job" but among her true loves are books and fine wines.  She and her SO Chris lead "Words and Wine" tours to France once or twice a year.  And she takes wonderful pictures.  Teresa was kind enough to give me permission to use her pix as quilt inspiration. 



This is another of the pieces in my architecture inspired series.  It was inspired by a picture of a courtyard in Sicily.  It is on display at the Pool Art Gallery at Drury University in Springfield, MO as part of the Threads of Memory show presented by Uncommon Threads.

What to do with those indigo dyes

REFLECTIONS

After I did all the indigo dyeing in June it seemed like I needed to make something using the fabrics.  This piece, approximately 30" square, was inspired by a photo my brother took in Monte Carlo just before he put on a tuxedo and checked out the casinos.   His picture showed the yachts moored there as well as a building I thought was a church.  Wrong again, it was a casino.  The houses with all their windows overlooking the sea were what appealed to me.  The name of the quilt is inspired by the sky reflecting into the sea and both reflecting off the windows.  The sky and the sea were made from a beautiful silk scarf I dyed with the indigo.  It was just right for what I needed so I cut it up.  Now I've ordered another indigo dyeing kit because I want to give some indigo dyed silk scarves as gifts.

For those of you interested in indigo dyeing, the kit I used is a Jacquard product I ordered from Dharma Trading Co.  The original mix lasted almost a month before it gave up its ability to dye.  It also got smellier as time went by!

Textile Improvisation Team Challenge

A small group of women get together once a month to try new techniques, laugh and sample ice cream and cake.  Okay, occasionally we have pie.  We decided to make an art quilt sampler for the Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild's biennial quilt show.  The only rules were that each quilt had to be 14" square and each had to include a piece of a blue-green batik to give us a bit of continuity.  Other than those restrictions, we each could do whatever we wanted.  We are quite good at "whatever".

JoAnne Simonson made an abstract dragon.

Karen Carroll has just gotten into inchies and featured them in her quilt.

Vicki Strohm has two dragons - in the lower right corner you will find an observer.

Vivian Terbeek is making some large ocean-inspired pieces but scaled down for this one.

Norma Roberts made this jolly wonky log cabin inspired quiltlet.

And I made a little cabin in the fall woods.

I made a black quilt to tack the little quilts to for display at the quilt show. 

If you are in the Springfield, MO area September, 23, 24, or 25, please

come visit our quilt along with several hundred other fine quilts. 

INDIGO DYEING

Fabric knotted, tied

Fabric twisted and wound on pvc pipe

Fabric hand stitched and gathered

Dyeing in the yard

Cottons

Silk

An article in Quilting Arts mentioned the availability of an Indigo Dyeing Kit through Dharma Trading Company. I got together with my five partners in textile insanity and we decided to give it a try.

The kit was inexpensive, around $11.00, and contained everything needed to make the dye vat plus good instructions both on mixing the dye and shibori dyeing possibilities. There were blocks of wood and rubber bands and even one vinyl glove. Mmmm, not sure what one would do with one glove since part of the dyeing process is to sink your fabric packet under the surface of the dye and squish the dye through it. Two gloved hands are pretty important! Of course, you can also wrap fabric on poles and dip in the dye.
The interesting part is when you pull your fabric out of the vat it is various shades of green. Within seconds it starts turning blue - has to have oxygen to produce the blue color.

The last picture shows some silk I dyed while the previous one was cotton. The silk took the dye beautifully and has a lovely sheen. Another picture shows a green scarf - this was the result of overdyeing a bright yellow silk scarf.  All of us dyed some silk scarves with the indigo - they are gorgeous.

I don't know how long the vat will last, i.e., turn the fabric blue. In southwest Missouri we are experiencing lots of heat. The instructions mention keeping the vat in temperatures less than 86 degrees. Mine is in the garage and has to be way over that limit. But today, on the fifth day after preparing the dye, it is working fine.

Things to note: this is much simpler than using Procion MX dyes. You dip the damp fabric in the vat for a moment or two, set it on some plastic, and when it turns blue you can rinse it out and launder it or give it a quick wash in the sink with a little dishwashing liquid. Another note to those of you who hate icky smells - when you mix the chemical pack with warm water it stinks to high heavens! I haven't had a perm in several years but the stink factor was similar to that but way more intense. When I do this again, I will mix the chemicals outside. There was no warning about wearing a mask so it apparently isn't toxic but I don't want to be exposed to that intense smell again. One more thought - while you are working with the fabric you have dyed, keep those gloves on. Even when you are rinsing and have most of the loose dye out, it will still turn your fingernails blue.

This was a fun experience. Now I just have to decide what to do with all my blue fabric.

Round Bobbin Quilting and Sewing Expos put on a show and classes in Springfield starting today. The two art quilt groups from Ozarks Piecemakers Quilt Guild were invited to display some of the members' work. Carol Bormann and Vivian Terbeek hung the show and it turned out beautifully. I had two older quilts displayed. I took pictures but one of my quilts turned out to be a big blur. The other is one in my Hidden Treasures of the Ozarks series and features morel mushrooms.  I guess I was having a bad day as a photographer because the colors are off in this photo, too. 

Snow Dyeing

Over the last couple of days we've gotten nearly a foot of snow here in the Missouri Ozarks. I've seen several posts on QuiltArt about art quilters using the snow as part of a fabric dyeing process. So I decided to give it a try. My main resource for how to do this came from http://quiltersstitchtogether.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-version-of-snow-dye-process.html. Rhoda Forbes at http://artbyrhodaforbes.blogspot.com/ has tried snow dyeing a couple of times this winter and her work inspired me to give it a shot.

My favorite hand-dyes have what Ellen Anne Eddy calls a light-source. This method of dyeing does a great job of producing that type of fabric. All five of my fabrics came out with an inner glow that I find very attractive and useful. This dyeing seemed much easier than the fabric dyeing I've done in the past. So if you've been thinking about trying it - go for it!

FIRELINE

FIRELINE

This small piece (10" x 11") has been hanging around for a while waiting on me to finish it. I had a 12" x 16" mounted canvas and decided to cover it in black fabric and attach the little quilt. I'm rather pleased with the finished piece since the canvas gives it enough presence to stand on its own. I also got to play with the electric staple gun which I haven't used for years. I'm a sucker for any kind of tool! Now perhaps I will hit the garage and make some frames using the chop saw - another of my favorites. But, since its hovering around 0, perhaps I should go back up to my warm studio and find some other bits and pieces to finish.

Mya

My brother, Jim (Jimmy the Shoe) Hoover, asked me to do a portrait of his sweet Sheltie, Mya. She was a beloved pet and our whole family enjoyed her. A few years ago, she fell over in Jim's yard and died in an instant. She had the prettiest little face and a beautiful coat. When Jim took her to the groomer she would come home with a little red bandana and I was tempted to add one to her picture. This is my tribute to a sweet little dog.