Citrus wedge

My instructions for creating these cute citrus wedges is featured in today’s Embellishments e-mail from Quilting Arts Magazine! They are made from fabric and Angelina fibers, and are similar to the ones I used in the piece that was selected to go on the cover of the 2010 Quilting Arts Calendar.

Here is a detail shot:


To receive Embellishments e-mails, which contain great art quilt tips and projects, go to the Quilting Arts website. The calendar is available on the website’s online store.

Almost done

I think I am almost done with the embroidery on this piece. I have really enjoyed working on it, and it was the perfect thing for me to take to the beach; very portable and small. I have decided to call it “Petri Dish Promenade,” because the circles are starting to look more and more like the circular petri dishes used to cultivate bacteria in the lab.


The photo above shows one of the spots where I added silk fibers instead of the cotton used everywhere else. The silk is the medium blue fuzzy stuff stitched down in the lower right corner.


Stitches include French knots, short and long running stitches, and “chicken scratches” and Xs. It’s not at all planned, and very random.


I’m stitching around some of the dots and blots left by stray drips of the soy wax used to create the batik fabric.



In some spots, I’m not going to stitch on the white circles at all. I’m almost ready to take the next step and decide how I’m going to use this. I’m considering using other hand-dyed fabrics in some sort of pieced frame, and then quilting the whole thing. Perhaps extending the embroidery out into the frame in a few places. I have not entirely abandoned the idea of cutting it up into chunks and using them in a larger pieced work. Ideas, anyone?

2010 N.C. Quilt Symposium in Charlotte

The Charlotte Quilters Guild will host the 2010 North Carolina Quilt Symposium at Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte June 4-6, 2010. I designed the raffle quilt shown above; the proceeds benefit the symposium, helping to pay for the venues, teachers, and other associated costs. The pattern and fabric kits will also be available for sale at symposium, with all profits going to the symposium fund. The pattern includes this 82x84" quilt, and a smaller wallhanging (I’m working on finishing it now).

North Carolina Quilt Symposium is a 3-day quilt conference that includes lectures and classes taught by nationally-known teachers, a participants’ quilt show and fashion show, special exhibits and vendors.

I’m really excited that it is in my backyard next year!

“The Art of Cloth” opens in Lincolnton

Five fiber artists I know celebrated the opening of their group exhibition, “The Art of Cloth,” in Lincolnton, N.C., tonight. The show includes work by Jean H. Funderburk, K. Grace Howes, DeLane Rosenau, Christine Scholtz and Judy Whitehead, who all live in the Lake Norman area north of Charlotte. Together, they call themselves the FABs. The gallery at the Lincoln Cultural Center is very nice (especially for a small town), beautifully lit and was a great setting for this exhibition.


Grace Howes was colorfully attired and in high spirits. That’s some of her work behind her.


“Summer Daze” by K. Grace Howes


The show included two-dimensional work hung on the gallery walls, as well as three-dimenstional notebooks, wearables, fabric boxes and dolls, such as this piece, “Water Fairy,” by K. Grace Howes.


A beautiful beaded button embellishes a felted wool clutch handbag by DeLane Rosenau.


“Self Portrait” by DeLane Rosenau


“Birds of a Feather” jacket by DeLane Rosenau. DeLane received the bird-themed panels made by all the members of the FABs in a challenge. She was challenged, since all of them had fairly different color schemes. Instead of putting them into a two-dimensional piece, she incorporated the pieces into this jacket, using other fabrics to integrate them into this fabulous wearable.


DeLane Rosenau with “Cold Foot Contest”


The FABs started this large piece by hand dyeing 40 yards of fabric, splitting it up between them, and creating separate panels that were then arranged and stitched together. It is a lot of fun to look at this piece and try to figure out who did what, if you know the signature styles of each of the FAB artists. There are a ton of techniques in this piece.


Judy Whitehead is a fiber artist and a fabulous machine quilter.


“Sunflower” by Judy Whitehead has very intricate textural machine quilting.


Jean H. Funderburk in front of “Seahorse Tank”


“Octagon Soap” by Jean H. Funderburk


“Wild Flower Path” by Jean H. Funderburk


“Floise” includes images of Jean’s grandmother at Myrtle Beach, decades ago. Jean said she thinks her grandmother would be none too pleased to see this piece if she were alive today … but then probably not too many of us want to be remembered in our bathing suits!


Christine Scholtz is another wonderful machine quilter and quilt artist.


“Weasel on My Mind” celebrates Christine Scholtz’s “very special cat.”


“Above the Ocean and Below” (detail) by Christine Scholtz

The Art of Cloth
runs through July 4 at the Lincoln Cultural Center
403 E. Main Street, Lincolnton, NC

Artists:
Jean H. Funderburk, Lincolnton, NC
K. Grace Howes, Huntersville NC
DeLane Rosenau, Denver, NC
Christine Scholz, Stanley, NC
Judy Whitehead, Cleveland, NC

What I’m working on today

I started working on this yesterday, and I’m completely hooked. I think it is because I’ve been doing way too much computer work, and I needed to do something by hand, something tactile and fluid. Something where my brain could mellow and the work would take me where it wanted to go.

This started out as white fabric that was partially transformed in a soy wax batik class with Janet Lasher (see previous post). Here’s what it looked like after that class, but before the wax was removed and before it was washed:

Here are some more shots of what it looks like now. I’m embroidering it with lots of different kinds of floss and thread, and couching down bits of thready fluff that came off fabric yardage after I washed it.

ooooh, this is highly addictive.

Charm swap

I participated in a charm swap sponsored by Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. In March, I made a bunch of charms with several friends (you can read about it in my blog post by clicking here) using an article in the January/February 2009 issue of the magazine by Elin Waterston. I sent a few of mine in to the magazine for the swap. Today, I got these charms back! Aren’t they wonderful? The creators are Sue Clark (domino with flowers), Sharoon Lidz (bottlecap), Margaret Applin (pink “joy” square), Marlene Lucero (green circle with copper bell), and Christine Hansen (purple wool felt ball). If this is any indication of the magazine’s readership, there are some mighty creative people out there!

Her “Heart’s Desire”

A woman named Charlotte Soutullo (left) came to the Lake Norman Quilters meeting last week with this quilt she just finished … it is my “Heart’s Desire” design! How fun to see it and to meet her. She made it through a block-of-the-month program at Rene’s Quilt Shop in Mooresville NC, using hand-dyed fabrics for all the appliqué. That’s my friend Nancy Taylor, on the right, helping her hold it up.

DeLane wins!

My good friend, DeLane Rosenau, won first place in the small wall hanging category for her quilt “Cold Foot Contest” at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium show last week!

DeLane based this quilt on a photo she took of her husband and children’s bare feet. More than a year ago, the Pandoras (a small group of art quilters from the Lake Norman area) decided to try doing a portrait quilt. (Three of us chose faces, and DeLane chose feet!) I think DeLane is the only one of the four of us to complete our project. This piece has hundreds, if not thousands of tiny pieces of fabric fused down and threadpainted. DeLane persevered, even when she was frustrated and tired of working on this piece, and I am so proud of her!

NCQSI is a state event, including a quilt show and classes, held each spring by a different N.C. guild. This year it was held at Peace College in Raleigh, and hosted by the Capital Quilters Guild. In 2010 it will be in Charlotte.