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.

Sean's Christmas Quilt

I have made Christmas quilts for my family, beginning with my son's adaptation of The Grinch That Stole Christmas.  I made one for my daughter, showing her in her bed with sugarplums (her desired toys) dancing over her head.  My daughter has twin girls, so I used a pattern from Quiltmania.  It had reindeer heads cut from Christmas fabric.  The antlers were based on their hands.  My son has 2 children.  For Ellie, I made a quilt adapting The Night Before Christmas in Hawaii.  This was a favorite book of her mother's, who grew up in Hawaii.  Now it's Sean's turn. I had already made him a robot quilt for his bed.  The Christmas quilt I designed has a UFO theme.  The body of the quilt has 3 parts.  The sky has robots flying in.  The second part is the living room, with a decorated Christmas tree.  The floor section is littered with toys.  It isn't finished yet.  I plan on a narrow gold/yellow band to separate the middle from the first border, that will be composed of 3 X 7 bricks cut from the featured fabric, then another small border from fabric I haven't yet purchased. He won't be able to sleep under it this Christmas, as I plan to hand quilt it and today is December 8th!

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Rosie's comforter

I have made several comforters, using a crazy quilt method to assemble the scrap fabrics.  I use a fat batt, hard to find but I bought one online.  I start out by cutting a straight edge on the two pieces I want to join, and then sew them on the machine.  There is usually not a straight edge to add the new piece, so I use the rotary cutter and make one.  The pieces have lots of different shaped edges, but I continue to use the ruler so that I can add new pieces.  I make them in columns that I later join together.  I assemble the comforter with a backing, fat batt, and the top.  I then use a large eyed needed and some thin yarn and tie it.  I leave an inch of the backing hanging out, turn in an edge, and then sew this down on the top to finish the piece.  The comforters are very warm, and not much trouble to make. The first picture is a detail, showing a heart that I made in Jude Hill's class, and the bottom one shows the comforter.  You can see some of the yarn ties if you look closely. Off the Wall Fridays