I can't believe I haven't posted this yet...

Boy.... have I been delinquent.  You saw my last post was from something that happened in May and I just posted about in on July 19th!  So I will be in catch up mode for the next week or so. :-)

Here is the finished piece of Robert and me, in 'Can you see me?'.  I thought I had blogged about making it here, but it appears I never did!!!  I started the piece as part of a Craftsy class by Lola Jenkins, called Thread Art, using a picture of my son taken while on a family vacation last summer.  I made the piece at the end of 2012 and still can't believe I didn't blog about it, as I love my reflection in his eye glasses.  (Facebook friends have seen it, so sorry if you are seeing this twice.) 

You know how you have an idea of how to do something, but when it works out, you are like WOW, I like that!  :-).  This is a whole cloth quilt, with one exception.  The eye glasses are appliqued on top of his face.  They were made by enlarging the original picture and printing just the glasses on fabric, then appliqueing them down.  His profile, the hair, mustache and beard are all done via thread painting on the top only.  I then colored everything else in using Inktense pencils.  I had the top completed and quilted everything except his face back in the December/January time frame, because I couldn't get the courage to do so.  I was afraid of messing him up..  I finally got the inspiration and courage to quilt the face, then decided to make it 'not square'.  I looked at quite a few other portrait quilts online and I must say, studying them, really helped!

Anyway, here are some pics, I thought I would share..

I really love the quilting in the nose and chin area.

The face is quilted using YLI Silk thread that I had brought a few years ago when a local shop was closing.  So happy I had it on hand, as it worked perfectly for such dense quilting.  Lucky for me I have another 30 or so spools of it in various muted pastel colors!

I think I will do more portraits to get more practice on how to truly represent the faces natural contour.  :-)

Kimono Inspirations

So a couple of posts ago, I shared with you the piece I was making for my Fiber Arts group, FANE's, Kimono Inspiration Exhibit at the Northern Stars Quilt Guild Show, World of Quilts, held the first weekend in May.

Well, I want to share with you not only my finished piece, but some of the other works of art as well, but since we have an exhibit opening soon, I will tease you with mine....  (details on the exhibit can be found below).

This is Pathways....

This was my piece.  I must say I had so much fun with the piece, from design to adding the 'fringe' at the end.  I am really happy that I joined the group, because they are really encouraging and since most don't focus on the machine quilting, it has opened my eyes on how to add texture to a piece with embellishments.  So slowly but surely, I will be expanding past just crystals as surface embellishments :-).  It is quilted with both Aurifil 50wt cotton and Superior Sew Fine and Art Studios threads.

There were 26 Kimonos in all and they really looked good on the stands that Jane and the team built.  The quilts are designed to be hung on stands that allow you to see front and back of  both the center piece, as well as he 'sleeves'.  But they can also be hung on a wall, although you will only see one side of the Kimono.


Lucky for FANE, two different galleries are interested in hosting the exhibit of Kimonos.  One in August and one in October.  The first is a show at The Quilt Gallery at City Quilter.  The exhibit runs from August 13 - 31, 2013, on 25th St, between 6th and 7th Ave., NYC.  The Gallery is open Tuesday thru Saturday.  All Kimonos will be for sale via The Quilt Gallery.

As information for the second exhibit draws near, I will share it with you as well.

Hope you like my Kimono and stop by the exhibit in NYC to see all 26!

Poetic Fragments

On April 28th, my Fiber Arts group, FiberArts NorthEast (FANE), hosted an Artist Reception for the Poetic Fragments exhibit at the Gallery at the Mahopac Library.  The exhibit is hanging until the end of May, so if you are in the area, please stop by.  There is no admission and there are almost 30 unique pieces!

This post will just be a series of photos, as I share all the wonderful small works done by the group.  Each piece could be no more that 14" on any side, had to be made of more that one element and was to be inspired by a line in a poem or a song.  The finished pieces were attached to an 18" canvass and displayed on the wall.

My apologies to the few artists whose names I missed....

Summer Kiss by Vivien Zepf

NY State of Mind by Donna Chambers

 A Pest Sense of How Not to Fly by Jane Davila

 A Rally Cry Unites Us  by Christine Wilheim

Arrangement in Grey and Black by Andrea Shedletsky

 Blue Grass  by Nike Cutsumpas

 Butterflies by Maxine Oliver

Circles by Elaine Sullivan

 Enkindled Spring  by Carolyn Drillick

Enlightened by Natalyia Aikens ....  this piece amazed me, because except for the thread and the dark brown building on the left that was felted, the rest is made on recycled plastic bags!!  Yep, you read that right :-)

 Float and Dance by Artist Unknown

 Golden Bugs by Nancy Mirmen

I Hope You Dance by me, Renee Fleuranges-Valdes

I Have a Song to Sing by Fran Osinoff

Seasons  by Artist Unknown

Serenity by Claire Oehler

 The Taven by Linda Long

 Title and Artist Unkown

 To Time by Artist Unknown

Tree Study VI Forest Shadows  by Barbara Sferra

 Tree by Kathy Tahnke

 Variations in Red by Carolyn Spiegel

White Crane Spreads Its Wings by Martha

Zen Garden by Judy Gignesi

A view of the company my piece is in :-)

A New York State of Mind and Forest Shadows, have already sold.  Most of the others are available for purchase via the artists.

2 Ribbons at NSQG World of Quilts 2013 !

It was a good birthday weekend.. As I walked into the show, folks kept congratulating me as Miss Ribbon Winner.  Since I have won ribbons at this show before, I smiled and said thanks and asked them not to tell me which quilt, until I saw for myself.  You see, I have been trying for a place on the wall of all Blue Ribbon 1st place winners.  I have only won Second, Third or Honorable Mentions in the past. 
 
So, you can imagine how ecstatic I was when I saw my first quilt !!! Jungle Paradise took Best Machine Applique at the Norther Star Quilt Guild, World of Quilts Show two weeks ago.  I am so so happy...  The parrot is thread painted, the leaves, tree trunk and lady bugs are appliqued down and the butterflies are attached, so that they are 3D.

Then, to make the day even better, Laundry Day received an Honorable Mention in the Landscape Category. 

WooHoo!!!

Renee

Lisa Shepherd Batik Tote Workshop with the Pelham Quilters

The Pelham Quilters were very fortunate to have Lisa Shepherd of Cultured Expressions and her wonderful batik fabrics from Ghana come and join us for a Tote bag workshop.  I love working with her fabrics, because they are all one of a kind.

The ladies had a wonderful time and we all were able to finish our bags at the workshop.

Here I am with my bag all finished except for the embellishments.

Here are Cheryl, Millie and Donna with their bags.

I will have to add the picture of the entire group later.  These were pics from my cell phone taken the day of the workshop.  The next day, I took a picture of the group with their bags at guild meeting, but it is on my camera which I don't have at this time :-).

Play time ... WooHoo!

So I have been way too busy, both at work and getting some projects done. I will make a couple of quick posts to catch you guys up on my latest quilting adventures.

But I will work backwards as I am pretty happy with my current project.

I joined a fiber arts group, FANE, Fiber Artists of New England. A great group of really talented women who come from all different artistic backgrounds,... Print making, dyeing, architecture, jewelry design, etc....  Their works are all so different, but as a group, they really feed off of and inspire one another.

FANE will have a special exhibit at the Northern Stars Quilt Guild show in May, with Kimono inspired quilts. So I have been busy working on mine.  The pieces will be made of at least 3 segments, a 16" wide body and two sleeves and will drape over poles.

Here are a few pics of mine in progress. Straight line quilting is a first for me :-)....

This is the back.... 

I have used Superior MonoPoly to zigzag over the yarn on the edge of the blue pieces and Superior Art Studio Colors for the blue and yellow straight  stitching with BottomLine in the bobbin.

Hope to get some more quilting in tonight.

NSQG 2013 Challenge

So 2013 is here and that means that Northern Star Quilt Guild has a new challenge.  Although I have been a member for about 5 years, this is the first time I have entered a quilt in the challenge.

I teased you with a corner of it, last month before I submitted it, but I didn't want to post a pic until the challenge quilts were submitted and the votes were cast.  Well they were and they were...

So here it is..

It is a tribute to my mother.  A 3 times breast cancer survivor, I named it "Three Times Stronger".  You have read other posts with quilts made honoring the love I have for my mother.  This was inspired after a follow-up visit to the Oncologist.  My Mom has Alzheimer's as well and she has adapted so smoothly to having lost a breast in her last fight.  A fight she had no idea that she had to incur.  I think it was probably as hard, if not harder for me to make that decision on her behalf and then stay with her in the strange place called the hospital.

So wave that flag Mom, you're one strong woman!  

Note that the pink ribbon dress is trapunto'd, as well as ribbon's in the pink half of the quilt.  It was appliqued, constructed and quilted using Superior's Masterpiece Thread, by Alex Anderson.  I wanted a pretty fine 50wt cotton thread and I didn't want the stitching it self or a sheen from the thread to be what jumped off the fabric.  I wanted the quilting to be an integral part of the quilt story.  I also used Superior Vanish, water soluble thread, to trapunto the ribbons.  I use it in top and the bobbin.  This way you don't have to worry about any write spokes popping thru the fabric...  Just a dab of cold water and poof, it is gone.

The challenge was to make a quilt, not more than 80" square, using black, white and one other color.  As you can see, my color was pink.  I didn't win the challenge, but I had a wonderful time making another quilt in honor of my Mom :-).

There were 53 challenge quilts submitted.  19 traditional and 34 contemporary.  All 53 will be on display at the NSQG's 2013 World of Quilts XXXIV Show on May 3rd and 4th, at Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers, NY.

Hope to see you there.  (I will have other quilts in the show as well :-)).