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.

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.

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!

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. 

Wine Time

27" x 35"

I have finally finished some new work. I started Grapes in early December and painted the grapes and tacked them together then added the leaves. Then I couldn't find any background that pleased me. Along came this month's Fast Friday Fabric Challenge: use a color scheme from a label or box to inspire a still life. Rhoda Forbes was the challenge host and listed excellent references to check out on the web about the use of color in advertising and the meaning(s) of various colors. As I searched around, I came to a Froot Loops box which used some colors similar to my grapes. I used the red and black from the box as inspiration for the background for the grapes. So thanks to FFFC and Rhoda I've actually made something other than a pet for the first time in ages!

CALAMITY JANE

I've just completed another pet portrait. Calamity Jane is the beloved pet of a friend's daughter and she commissioned this portrait as a gift for her. This was a challenging piece since the dog is primarily one color but some highlights and shadows in the original picture helped.

My quilt label includes the original picture of the dog. She had been swimming and was wet and happy.

I've received a couple of excellent books recently that are of great assistance as I work to improve my skills using Photoshop Elements. The first is "Next Steps in Altered Photo Artistry" by Beth Wheeler. The book is well-written and well-organized and is a real asset if you like to manipulate photos. The other is "Artistic Photo Quilts" by Charlotte Ziebarth. This book gets into some more technical operations to alter photos and is very useful. Both books are focused on printing photos on fabric which is not my aim. But they are wonderful in helping to develop a picture into an inspiration for a quilt.

My First Portrait of a Person

BOB SINGS ( 17" x 18") This was my first experiment in trying to create a portrait of a person. I used a picture of my husband as he was singing that is one of my favorites. My fabric choices didn't turn out so well - he really doesn't have any odd skin conditions - but the picture actually does look like him a lot. So I'll call it a success and prepare to try another one.

NELLIE (10" X 12") Nellie lives next door to me with the Hatch family. She is getting very old so I thought a portrait of her might be welcome. I did a lot of thread-painting on this but it doesn't seem to show up very well. She is a mostly white cat so trying to add some dimension and texture was challenging.

Casey the Firecracker Dog

My neighbors have a Jack Russell who is crazy for fireworks. His "Dad" sets off bottle rockets for him every evening and Casey runs around the yard like a mad dog then leaps into the air like he's on a spring until Brad shoots off another one. Trying to get a picture of this little maniac was very challenging. As you can tell, I'm still enjoying creating the pet portraits. If you want your pet pictured in fabric, I will take commissions through Waverly House at 417.882.3445.

Clio the Beautiful

I thought creating the dog portraits was fun - but a calico cat is even better. This is Clio and she is a beauty and made a great subject for a pet portrait. You would think I'd be getting tired of this by now but I am seeing more and more possibilities for this technique. Stay tuned.

Still going to the dogs

This little quilt is based on my friend Vivian's dog, Barbee. Barbee is not a pup but somehow I've brought out her inner child. I found it much more difficult to work with a more limited color range. Next I am going to try a cat portrait - Merrilee's Clio. I'll post when it is finished.

Another dog quilt

The last dog portrait I did was so much fun that I had to do another. Now I'm taking pictures of the cat that lives to the south of me and the dog to the north. Their owners are looking forward to having their personalized pet portraits. And I'm looking forward to having more fun.

Seamus the Wonder Dog

This wee quilt (11" x 14") is a gift for Vivian's daughter. She is bonkers over her beagle. And she's coming to visit in August so I pirated a picture of Seamus from her blog and interpreted him in cloth. I think it is funny and it was certainly fun to put it together. I recently received Leni Levinson Weiner's "Photo-Inspired Art Quilts" and combined some of her techniques with those in Marilyn Belford's book "Portraits for Fabric Lovers".

This was a great exercise to get me back to work (play) with my quilts. Now I think I'm going to roam the neighborhood taking pictures of the neighbors' cats and dogs because I have to do more of these fun little pieces.

LATE BLOOMER Finds a New Home

I had the good fortune of reconnecting with an old friend by way of Facebook recently. Last week, she was in Springfield and we got to catch up with one another. Wow, it is so great to spend time with someone who "knew you when" and who you enjoy just as much now.

I told my friend about my late life passion for art quilting and showed her some of my work. Today I learned she had contacted Waverly House Gallery and is now the owner of my favorite (and largest!) work - Late Bloomer. So congratulations to Cheryl for giving my quilt a new home and congratulations to me for letting go of it.

Something different

I enjoy painting on fabric and wanted to experiment with a simple landscape. I painted this with Koh-i-noor watercolour dyes. Then I quilted lines to show the contour of the land, the movement of the river, the height of the mountains. I wish I'd left out the mountains - they just look like a purply mess. But it is good to try something out of one's particular style every now and again.