Paper Piecing with Claudia

I took a great paper piecing design class last week with Claudia Clark Myers in Duluth MN. This is the result. My husband liked the little table quilt which is a bit unusual since it is a little bright. It's new home is on the dining table.

MQS Audacious Auction 2011

These are a few pictures from the 2011 MQS Audacious Auction which raised a whopping $11,000 that is for grants that go to machine quilters education.

Working on a Challenge for Guild

Here are pictures of a challenge I'm working on for guild. It's a paint chip challenge using your initials to chose the colors by the colors name. I've quilted my piece and attached diamond crystals. Now I need to sew down the binding and start on the embellishments. I'm planning on attaching little glass mirrors, and some turquoise beads.

Zodiac Artist Trading Cards

I joined a Yahoo chat group a couple of weeks ago that focuses on fiber and quilting art. They trade atc's and postcards and encourage the participants to try different techniques to make them. It's not a super active group, but definitely an inspiring one. They opened up a zodiac atc trade and I jumped in to make 12 to trade. The pictures show the steps I took to make

mine and the final pieces. What you don't see is the lion stamped on the fabric for Leo the sign I chose, because the layering obscured the gold paint stamping. It shows through on parts of each card and looks more like a sun. Almost considering it a failure, I let it set for a couple of days so I could figure out a way to make a sign for Leo that would show. I tried stitching the Leo sign in glittery thread, and it still wasn't visible

enough. So I put an orange crystal in the center of the sign for an eye for the sign. Still not good enough. I then thought of puffy dimensional gold glitter paint. It worked perfectly because it comes with a fine spout, and dries to the look I was after. They are now in envelopes waiting to be mailed on Monday. Five will go out of the country to Singapore, Australia and Germany.

I'm anxious to see the 11 cards I'll be getting in the mail in the next month. I also thought that since I was finished so quickly, I would join the post card exchange that is also active. It's limited to 5 people at a time, so it's not such a daunting challenge.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Beginnings of an Art Blog

A friend asked me a few weeks ago... why is it so many people don't view quilting as a legitimate art. Noses go into the air and statements are said.

1. It's just a quilt.

2.It's folkart.

3.My granny made quilts, but not like that.

4.That's not fine art.

And on an on..........

Well, in the opinion of those of us that make these awesome works of art, yes quilting can be fine art. Quilts can comfort, but they can also be stimulating. Quilts can open your eyes to the beauty of color, movement, and texture just as a fine painting or collage. Quilting is expensive as a hobby, art, and career. We take our art serious and strive to do our best work that would make our mothers proud.

I have several friends that have been blogging and I've really enjoyed what they've shared. Now it's time for me to get off my lazy bottom and take the time to share also. I'm a great procrastinator and hope that blogging will help me to stay more on task to finish those UFO's screaming to be finished.

From time to time I'll post boring things.

Today I had a friend, Sonya Anderson, over and she was able to quilt on my Gammill quilting machine to finish a gift. While she played, I was able to finish some rust dye fabric that had been aging. They are rinsed and hanging. Here is also a picture of what I've made from a piece of this beautiful rust dyed fabric.