January 28

My St. Louis piece is getting close to being finished.  It still needs some quilting, binding, a label, and a sleeve on the back. This is a present for my daughter and her family.
I thought I would identify the images on the quilt.
In the top left hand corner are Victorian row houses from Lafayette Square.
The arch is in the center, with some skyscrapers inside.
I have put a bridge over the Mississippi River, which cascades across the top and down the side.
The last image on the top is Grant's Cabin. The cabin is located at Grant's Farm, where the family often went to see the animals maintained there, and sip some Anheuser Busch beer.
On the left in the middle layer is St., Francis Xavier Church, better known locally as College Church.  Wendy and Chris were married there.
The Bevo Mill is next to the church.  It was built in 1916 by the Anheuser-Busch company to encourage families to enjoy beer with their meal at the restaurant.
On the right side in the middle is Ted Drewes, a St. Louis landmark dating from 1941, that sells frozen custard. Chris, Wendy, Rosie and Caroline are on their way to get a sundae or a concrete.
On the bottom left is a scene from Missouri Botanical Garden, featuring a gate leading into the rose garden.  The flames on the top were put in place during an exhibit of Chihuly Glass at the garden.
The final image is one of the entrances to the St. Louis Zoo.

Off the Wall Fricays

January 27

Worked some more on the St. Louis piece.  I changed Wendy--she was too plump, and decided

against using a hat for Chris.  The hat made him look bald, and he certainly isn't.  So I gave him some spiky hair.
I also added the zoo pieces.  They aren't sewed down yet.  When they are sewed, it will be time to quilt the piece.
I am also going to add a navy strip connecting the Bevo Mill to the bottom of the piece.

The second St. Louis piece continues

I've been sewing stuff down on the second piece, the one I am making for my daughter.  There is a brown piece pinned over the roof on Grants's Cabin, because I thought the first attempt make the house look too square. I will have to rip the roof off and insert it.
I also worked on the family'

s clothes.  My initial fabric for Wendy's dress did not contrast very much with the background, and I also thought that she doesn't wear very many dresses, so I am aiming for jeans.

Market Day at Stonehenge

I am a big fan of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, in which stone circles play a big part. I have started making some of the cover art into small quilts, with a background of dipoini silk. You can see some of these further back in my blog.
But my favorite thing, maybe my most favorite thing I have ever done is Market Day at Stonehenge.  I even made it a triptych. I used hand dyed fabric that I purchased online, since I am not a dyer.  I got the material from Wendy Richardson.  I put the large stones on the background and set 3 figures at a stone table with their wares.  On the right part of the triptych I featured an oxcart bringing things to market, and on the left side  2 women with a torch.
For the most part the piece is raw edge applique, a technique I learned from Pamela Allen.  Some pieces are needle turned applique.  I used embroidery floss to attached the pieces and to hand quilt it. Some of the quilting (spirals and concentric squares) I found in a Pictish stone online. The first picture shows the completed

quilt measuring 43 wide by 17 tall. The second picture shows the right part of the triptych, and the third shows the left side.  Finally the bottom picture shows the center.

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Art Quilts for the March Show

Our guild, Bits N Pieces is having a show in March.  The art quilt group, Art Bits is entering challenges and workshops that we have done this year.  We took a workshop with Rayna Gillman, in which we cut up old blocks and seamed them into a new transformation. This piece worked with a rather ugly Radiant Sun block.

I combined 2 blocks done in her class.  I wasn't happy with either, and neither was blogger, as it wouldn't accept the picture. Oh well.

We also used an advertisement and copied the colors, and their frequency in which the colors appeared in the ad, into fiber art.
I used a part of Marc Chagall's The Juggler, and made a piece I called Complements.

 The last 2 pieces I made in the workshop I combined, and called it Roots of Home.  I feel that this was the least successful piece I made in the workshop.

We also had several challenges.  One was the artist challenge, in which we selected an artist and tried to work in fabric in his style.  I selected Jacob Lawrence's #58 in his Migration Series.  I used a picture of my 3 granddaughters playing under the sprinklers at City Park in St. Louis

Another challenge involved a tricky fabric.  We called it the Shimmer challenge.  It is the roof in the piece, Princess Saving.














We also did a zentangle challenge.  I made a knight and backed him in felt. For the show he had to be attached to a square fabric.  I called him Hero.

I have a few other pieces that were not connected with the Art quilt group that I will show in a later blog.

January 7

I worked some more on the St. Louis piece.  I pinned up Grant's cabin, adjusted the sky behind the cabin, and pinned in the Arch and buildings.
I also added Ted Drewes and Wendy and her family on their way to a treat.  Most of it is not sewn

yet.  There might be some alterations as I begin sewing on the piece.  I also have to add the zoo that will be in the lower right hand corner.

January 6

Made some alterations to the St. Louis piece.  I moved the garden gate to the right, and added some foliage to each side.

I also changed some of the background on the right bottom.  I am going to add Ted Drewes in the middle ground, and the Zoo on the bottom.

I also worked on the arch and Grant's cabin, changing some of the background for those pieces as well.

January 3-4

I am making progress on the st. Louis piece, requested by my daughter.  I have some pictures of my design decisions.  First, the "canvas" for the piece--the background I started with.  A lot of the background will be covered by other material choices, and the objects that I will add.

You can see that only the Victorian houses, representing Lafayette Square are in place.
The January second picture shows some of the things I intend to include.

I wanted the blue to represent sky, but I think it is too much under College Church and the Bevo Mill.  I'll have to find some more "ground" to place under them.
I replaced some of the blue with a better ground piece, and added some other figures that I will include.
I used the gate to the Rose Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden on my first St. Louis piece.  I used misty fuse and drew the design on white fabric.  It looked awful on that piece, so I embroidered over it.  This time I felt that it would be easier to embroider the piece first, using batting as the background, and then apply the piece to the quilt.  It worked out better that using the cloth and stitching over it.

The figure will not remain headless.  It will have blondish red hair.
That's as far as I got today

.Off the Wall Fridays

This year I am going to do art every day(at least I hope so).  I usually work on my art quilts, designing and cutting out pieces in my basement "studio" and sew on them in the evening.  I feel lost if I don't have something to sew on.  What I am working on now: a new St. Louis history quilt.  My daughter admired the first one I made, trying to appropriate it for her home.  I foolishly said I would make her her on St. Louis quilt.  Her husband thought I could make a similar quilt for the places they have lived: Washington, DC and their current location, Overland Park.  I don't know if I will do the other two, but I am now working on a version

of the St. Louis quilt for her. I have swapped out the Compton Water Tower and replaced it with College Church, where they got married.

In addition, I have a piece I will add to when I don't have anything to sew on the St. Louis one.  I have included some pictures.  The first one is the St. Louis piece I made first, that was juried in to Missouri Fiber Artist's Speaking of Fibers.