Petri Dish Promenade

Petri Dish Promenade
19" x 34"

I finished Petri Dish Promenade today. I started this piece in spring 2009 with a piece of hand-dyed and soy-wax-batiked cotton (the central panel), and then embroidered and embroidered and embroidered it. I couched down bits of thread that raveled off  the edges of yardage coming out of the dryer, and some silk roving, with all weights of embroidery floss and beautiful hand dyed threads and perle cotton.

After I was done, I thought the circles looked like cultures growing in a lab in petri dishes, twirling and spinning down the panel. Hence the name.

Then the piece sat for a long time while I determined what I should do with it, how I should finish it. I eventually decided that it needed a little “breathing room” around it, so I added a frame of some lovely cotton-silk fabric (“Radiance”) that I hand-dyed at Grace’s Dye Day for the Pandoras in August. You can see it on the top of the drying rack on the left in this photo:

I’ve always been a bit leery of working with silk – it seems so slippy and uncooperative! — but there is enough cotton in this fabric that it behaves itself. Rather than disturb the lovely patterns in the dye, I decided to cut a hole, or frame, and then reverse appliqued the central panel with the circles inside. After doing a bit more embroidery to continue the circles out into the frame, I added some fairly light, organic quilting lines, and enough quilting in and around the circles to add dimension. 

I tried a lot of new techniques and materials in this piece, and I’m proud of that.

A few more photos from Barnful of Quilts

It was a beautiful day for Barnful of Quilts 2010! I didn’t have much time to take photos, so here are just a few more.

The Charlotte Quilters’ Guild has a beautiful donation quilt to benefit its 2011 quilt show.

Carolina Llamas brought some wonderful fuzzy friends to the show.

Don’t these feet look like something that only Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets) would dream up? 

Oh, my, I’m tired! It was a great – but long – day. Goodnight.

Setting up for Barnful of Quilts 2010

 

I spent this glorious fall day setting up my stall – yes, literally, my stall — at Barnful of Quilts. Tomorrow is the day!

 

 

Barnful of Quilts is a celebration of quilting and fiber art held in the spectacular barn at the the Fox Family Farm in Waxhaw, NC, south of Charlotte. It is one day only, tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. There’s a silent auction, bake sale, raffle quilts, and quilts for sale. Vendors offer a wide variety of art and craft items, mostly quilt or fiber related, but usually there is fabulous pottery and jewelry as well. 

Here are some shots of my stall:

 

 

This year’s show will feature the Charlotte Quilters’ Guild Best of Show winners, so two of my quilts will be on display in the center ring (below), which looks more like a cathedral than a barn!  

My Harbinger’s Hope (below, behind that gorgeous wearable art) won a Best of Show ribbon in 2008.

My Sunrise Sunset (below) won a Best of Show ribbon in 2006. 

Here are a few photos to give you a little taste of what you’ll see if you come tomorrow:

 

If you are in the Charlotte area, I’d love to see you tomorrow! Just look for these signs:

… and turn here!

Directions from Charlotte:

Take I-77, and then 485 East to Rea Road. 

Turn right (south).

Follow Rea until it dead-ends into Providence Road.

Turn right, and go through Weddington to Waxhaw. 

In historic downtown Waxhaw, go over the railroad tracks and turn left at the light onto 75. 

Go about 1/4 mile, and at the fork, turn right onto Old Waxhaw-Monroe Road and has a sign to JAARS). 

Go 1.5 miles and turn right onto Sims road at Piney Grove Church.

Go 1.4 miles and turn left in to Fox Farms. 

Follow the drive to the red barn.

Day of the Dead crafts

The Pandoras met at my house today to make paper-cloth decorations for The Day of the Dead (El Dia de Los Muertos). We followed directions in Kelli Perkins’ wonderful book Stitch Alchemy (Interweave, $22.95).

The book describes the process of making paper-cloth using different kinds of paper glued to muslin, and then coloring the paper with paints and inks that are brushed, sponged, spritzed, smeared and stamped on top. The result is a stiff, textured surface that can still be stitched through.

We all made several sheets of paper-cloth in advance, then did the fun coloring part here before drying the paper (with a hair dryer, to speed the process) and cutting it up to make festive Day of the Dead skulls.

Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico on Oct. 31 - November 2, and honors deceased relatives. The website azcentral.com has great information on the history, events, crafts and foods associated with the holiday.

Here is DeLane working on hers:

 

After you cut out the pieces of paper-cloth, everything gets stitched down on black card stock with black thread. Precision stitching doesn’t matter because the uneven stitching adds to the folk art effect.

 

Trish sketches out a design on the back of the paper-cloth before cutting it out:

 

I made three skulls and cards to put at each end:

 

I think I’m going to stitch them with a black ribbon across the top, and hang it over a door. If you are intrigued with this, I highly recommend Kelli’s book. It has so many wonderful techniques for coloring the paper-cloth, and really cool projects you can make with it.

Rivers of Red

Rivers of Red (2010)
39" x 50-1/2"

This is Rivers of Red, my latest piece. It is a wholecloth painted quilt that started out as a piece of white Pimatex cotton fabric. I painted the design using acrylic textile paint, then quilted it. It is based on a photo I took of a coleus leaf. I’ve done several other pieces based on these macro photos of coleus; I’m fascinated with the patterns and color variations in these plants. Here are detail shots:

My favorite month

It’s here… my favorite month of the year! I just love October. Fall leaves, crisp weather, Indian corn and gourds, cider and pumpkin pie, and of course, Halloween! My birthday falls on Halloween, and it has always been my favorite holiday.

Today, I also had the thrill of turning over the page in my 2010 Quilting Arts Calendar to October, which features my piece, Autumn’s Bounty.

Here it is up close:

My work was chosen for next year’s calendar – and the month of October – too!

You can order the 2011 Quilting Arts Calendar from the Quilting Arts/Interweave website. If you are interested in participating in the challenge and maybe even having your work chosen for the 2012 Quilting Arts Calendar, put your thinking cap on now! Entries are due at Quilting Arts editorial offices on Jan. 7, 2011. 

All entries must be 12" square, and based on the theme of “Feeling Pet-ty.” Just design your art quilt around an animal, either domestic or wild. Artists of the 13 winning submissions will each receive $200 worth of merchandise from the Quilting Arts online store. You can find all the competition details here. Good luck!