SAH 2008

For those of us not going to Houston Quilt Show, Diane Petersmarck hosted a Stay at Home Challenge. The pieces will be donated to the Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative hosted by Ami Sims. These quilts are donated to Ami and then auctioned off online or at various shows throughout the year. The proceeds are used for Alzheimers research.. This year, Lois Jarvis of Rust Tex fame is donating fabric to each person willing to make a quilt with her material and for each one registered by November 4th, she will donate $5 to AAQI!!



I received my fabric from Lois and it had stars all over it so I was inspired to create this little piece. The stars were not readily apparent to me when I first received the fabric so I wanted to show case them by stitching around each one. I added a scrapbook metal plaque that says BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, a central star, three gold stars and black sequins. I have a couple more to finish but this is the first one.

Black and White Challenge

I finally get to post some pieces that I have been working on for the last 6 months! So exciting. I joined up to do Annie Copeland's "Your World in Black and White" challenge. We had to create a piece using only white, black, silver and gray. I thought it was going to be easy for me but it really was a struggle to get the lights, darks and mid tones.




In The Silence I Have Seen Him. This was an image I had in my head of an angel. It is done as if you have turned around and caught him in the corner of your eye. The brilliance of the light surrounding him makes him almost impossible to see clearly. It was created on white cotton fabric, sketched and then painted with dye for the basic design. Then I quilted the piece and finished with shiva paintstiks to add details and lights and shadows. I think this may be the best piece I have ever done in fiber.

This is my second entry. Styx and Stones. I created this piece from my sketchbook process. I had been playing around with tracing paper sketches from small sections of photographs. I then blew them up about 120% and glued the patterns/designs to my sketchbook and created a sketch from them. I thought that it would translate to fiber perfectly. It did but my photography does not do it justice.




This piece is about 60" wide by 30" high. It was hand painted with dye on white cotton then various black and gray fabrics were fused on to create the rocks. The rocks were FMQ. The boxes are white cotton, framed in black binding and the styx are black cotton fabric tubes hand sewn on. The water was hand quilted with silver thread. The highlights were added with white shiva painstiks.

Elvis

When Madelyn was about 8 months old, she was sitting on my lap watching TV at 5:30 a.m. A special about Elvis comes on and they are playing some of his hit songs. She is just rocking back and forth - her version of dancing at that age. Clearly an Elvis fan from very early on. So my daughter has been telling me that she wants to BE Elvis for Halloween. It's been two years now. I ask if she likes the white suit or the black. She picks the black version (thankfully) She is not a neat and tidy child.

Wandering through Joann's with my coupon in hand, I venture into the pattern section and find an Elvis pattern! Of course it is for boys but I am not telling her that. I purchase all the fabric and the contrast fabric, interfacing etc. I am beside myself with excitement. She came home from school and I show her my find. She says "Oh. That's great mom. " Now I am thinking I shouldn't have wasted my time. But No! I am going to do it anyway. So I did. It turned out awesome and she loves it!!! Of course she doesn't want to wear the wig or glasses. So she looks more like a mariachi band member or Zorro. Oh well.

So here are some pics I took of my two lovelies. The sequins are all hand sewn on. Took about 4 days to complete the entire costume (while they were at school obviously!)



Patrick is obviously the Grim Reaper. They are standing in front of our blow up skull on the front lawn.




Madelyn did not want to pose for this picture. They had soccer games during the day and then this Halloween fundraiser. (Patrick scored 2 goals and won the game for his team!) She was beyond tired and crabby. Can you tell?




I finally guilted her into posing for me.

Fiber Arts