Fire Dancer Wins at Quilts Unlimited!

So while my last post was about the show, I forgot to let you know that Fire Dancer was awarded the NQA Ribbon for "Best Use of Color". I was jumping for joy, right along with the dancer in the quilt.

At the reception last month it received wonderful comments from viewers, as did my two other quilts in the main exhibit.  

Interesting enough, even though I added some shading to "On Pointe" to highlight the fact that she was casting a shadow on the floor, with the bright lights of the gallery, only I knew the shading was there.  Guess that piece comes back into the studio when she comes home for a bit of a touch up.... 😌.

My latest piece

I have been so busy lately...  summer is family time and we spent all but 10 days in July on the road.  From my son-in-laws family lake house in Fiddle Lake, Pa, to Puerto Rico for my husband's fathers family reunion, with a little vacation time added on to the end, to a week in Vegas for work.  It is a wonder I found anytime to quilt, but I did.

I actually was able to finish a piece I started at the CQQ Retreat in April.  She doesn't have a name yet, but she is 95% complete.  I may add a few dimensional while flowers falling off the overpass and I still need to do a label (nut I need a name first)...  but other than that she is done.  I even did some tinting on her to add shadows and depth in her back and arms.

What do you think?

Oh...  looking at the picture I realized I never added her earring!..  ok, so maybe 94% complete :-).

Enjoy!

Linda M Poole comes to Pelham Quilters - January 2014

The Pelham Quilters may be living through the coldest temperatures we have seen in almost a decade, but we had fun learning some new quilting techniques over the last 2 days.  That's right Linda M. Poole, a fiber artist extraordinaire came to visit from Milford, Pa.  

On Sunday, she taught her workshop, Color Me Beautiful, from her latest book, Painted Appliqué.  The ladies had a ball, learning to use Inktense pencils and paint mediums. Here are a few pictures of us during the day.  The first is a picture of the sample piece we worked on in class.

 

Linda also taught us how to make the perfect oval and fusable bias strips, so we can appliqué our painted butterfly on the background.  Her class handouts are great, it is as if you are given a full pattern with step by step color pictures, taking you through the entire process to make her Color Me Beautiful wallhanging.  

Then on Monday night Linda came and gave us a lecture - Quilts Around the World.  Linda shared quilts by makers influenced by their travels around the world and the various ways we as quilters are inspired to create.  A good time was had by all.  Here are some of the quilts she shared as part of the Trunk Show she shared after the lecture and presentation.  

Paisley project progress....

Say, that three times fast :-)....  Well dispute all the time this takes, I am thinking it is moving pretty quickly!

I got my 2 Magnifico threads by Superior in the mail on Monday (white and a purple velvet) and later that night jumped right into my micro-stippling of the background on my paisley project. If you remember, my hope was to 'raise' the paisley designs up, by stitching closely all around them...almost like trapunto.

Well after 5 1/2 hours of stippling and one hour of frogging, last night I finished the white background. I love the effect, but can't understand why no matter what size needle I used, the stitch holes seem to stay.  Guess I will have to wet it when I block the piece and try to get rid of the stitching holes.  

Tonight, I sat down to work on the background for the purple Radiance fabric.  The effect here is just as I had hoped.  Truly loving the paisley design that now pops!

I got one corner done in about 3 1/2 hours....  3 more corners to micro-stipple, hopefully each done in one sitting :-). 

I can't wait until the stippling is done, so I can move on to the next step on this piece.  It is definitely singing to me :-)....WooHoo!!

Night all,

Renee