Monday, November 17, 2008

The Road of Life: Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

One day when researching Alzheimer's, I stumbled across the Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative. A project to raise money for Alzheimer's Research, that takes donations of small quilts for an online auction. So, I made a Priority Quilt (no bigger than 9" x 12") to donate.


This is my piece entitled "The Road of Life: Sometimes Straight, Sometimes Circular, but always in my Heart". The piece is dedicated to my Mom, who had just been diagnosed with Dementia.

Now to get it registered and in the mail.

A new addition...

I have been taking a class at The Country Quilter this month, based on the fabric weaving technique of Anna Faustino. We have had two classes. The first taught us how to weave the fabric and the second talked about quilting techniques, including the use of toule over the weaved fabric to simplify the required quilting. I liked this idea, so I used red toule... it really enhanced my bright colored background. This allowed me to use a straight stitch to quilt the piece with the back on, all in one step. We were free to applique whatever we wanted on our piece, so I decided to add silhouettes of dancers. I took the general shapes from a piece of African fabric that I had by Jordan Morris, for Michael Miller Fabrics. I modified the shapes for my purposes and then did some thread painting on the black silhouette to add the clothes, bangles and shakers. I really enjoyed the thread painting. I didn't want to do it as part of the quilting, so I outlined the shapes on the black fabric, then did the painting using different thread on each shape. I then fused them onto Wonder Under, cut them out and fused on to the already quilted background. Then I used free-motion quilting to outline quilt the shapes on the piece.




This is a really simple technique. I will definitely use weaved backgrounds again. The only thing I will do differently next time is to use the pillow-case technique, as the binding isn't as bold as the rest of the background fabric becuase it doesn't have the red toule over it.

Actually, I just had a thought... maybe I will fold the binding over onto the back, making a facing finish vs the binding, so the binding fabric doesn't show.

Oh well... it is an idea. Hope you like the piece.

Cheers!

First peek...

If you remember, the Pelham Quilters have started a Round Robin project. I thought I would share our progress on two centers with the first round of boarders (ok, one has the beginning of the second round, as we forgot to get a picture... sorry). But anyway, here they are.

This first one, has the center I made, which ends with the white fabric. Doris Green took the center and added everything from the tiny pink sashing, up to the orange half square triangles. What a nice zing this added to my paper pieced center. Catherine Johnston has it now and so far she has added the last black boarder.







The second center was made by Pat Julian. It is beautifully hand appliqued. Jean Moccio added the green sashing and the zigzag boarder. Notice how she pulls out the purple and yellow from Anne's flowers into her boarder. Nice job Jean! Now it is with Teri Lucas to work her magic.








I can't wait to see what they look like at our December meeting. Ladies work your magic!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I Won a Ribbon!

Ok, I am soo excited! I got a call last night from the Village Square Quilter's, that my Dazzling Geese quilt won a ribbon @ Quilt Celebrations X! I guess you call it a Viewers Choice Award, (I don't have all the details). But folks visiting the show voted my quilt as their favorite in the Basic Quilter's Wallhanging Category. (Basic = non professional quilter :-) ).

This is my first ribbon and I owe it all to my friend Teri, who kept bugging me to enter it into the show.

If you remember, Dazzling Geese is my original design, using Paula Nadelstern's Mega Marble's fabric as the focus, and her Classic Stripe from the Opulance line for the piping and binding. I loved this fabric from the moment I saw it, and just couldn't but it in a square. As soon as I learned how to draft circular flying geese, I knew what I had to do, and so Dazzling Geese was born.

I want to thank all of you out there that voted for Dazzling Geese! It was a joy to make and has inspired me to do more original work.

Hugs,
Renee