DASHES - A PATCHWORK WALL QUILT

Really....I AM working....however I've stalled out on two recent projects (a linen indigo dyed piece and a sun printed wool one).  Finishing decisions on both elude me, so in the meantime, out came the never ending box of black and white fabrics gifted to me by a friend.  

 Along with the b/w fabrics....batiks will add colorful accents.  If my count is correct, this will be the 10th quilt that has been created from Helen's generosity.

 Again, taking inspiration from those 'fresh/modern' designs....I've chosen to piece narrow strips between black and white rectangles.  Simple blocks with snappy eye appeal.

This was such a great project, allowing me to utilize an hour here and there to piece and arrange as time permitted.  Once the top was assembled, straight line quilting was added.  It was finished with a pieced colorful binding.  

Our open floor layout home leaves me with very few walls to display work, so this piece will be heading to my online gallery in the hopes that someone else has the appropriate space to enjoy it.....

DASHES  33" X 35"

AVAILABLE HERE

Cotton/batik fabrics, machine quilted

GO PACKERS!!!!!!

Clay Matthews...the heart of the defense......is out for 4 weeks......say it isn't so!!!!   But like Packer fans everywhere who are looking for a win against Baltimore.......we have faith the team will step up.  So on this fall NFL Sunday...hear me loud......     GO PACKERS GO!!!!!

FELTED ACORNS

Off and on, during snippets of time I've been dipping my hands in hot, soapy water...and with elbow grease....creating felted acorns.

 During our daily 'forced march' last fall, I gathered quite a bunch of acorn tops.

 I had an urge to do something with them....esp. since I was in need of a gift for a creative person I admire.  So, out came dyed wool roving in as many fall colors as I had.

 Then, with the DVR tuned to my archive of "Housewives" shows....a bowl of hot water and some soap.....

 I squeezed, rolled, patted, and otherwise manipulated some shapes to fit into the acorn lids.

And....here are the results.....

OUR VIEW

There has been little time in the studio lately.....so without any projects to share at the moment, perhaps you'd be interested in seeing the view we have from our home.

We live in a mountain valley at 3,200 feet elevation and have an unobstructed year round view of mountains to our south.  The locals tell us that for every day of fog in the fall, there will be one day of snow in the winter.  That's definitely not a good sign as it's been foggy nearly every morning.

However today the fog stayed further down in the valley.  So what you see is not a lake....it's cloud cover, almost blocking the normally visible mountains.  The crisp fall morning air has arrived but so far there is only a sprinkling of color in the higher elevations.

"INSPIRED BY" EXHIBIT

Robbie led the way with her request to see more of the quilts in our groups' "Inspired By" Exhibit.  If you didn't catch my recent post which provided the background....please visit here so you can get a better understanding of our challenge and appreciate what a fabulous job each artist did.  

There were 13 quilts in the exhibit, unfortunately I don't have photos and signage for everyone, but for those that I have, the artists generously gave permission for me to post them. Please respect their copyright and ask for permission to repost...thank you!  The photos are clickable to provide a larger image to enjoy.

Each is for sale, so I you are interested, don't hesitate to contact me and I'll put you in touch with the owner.  I can assure you, we all agree that this was the most successful and fun challenge our group has ever undertaken. 

 This piece was sold during the recent Asheville Quilt Guild show and now belongs to Moda Fabrics Collection.

AVAILABLE HERE

SPORTS CAN BE EXCITING

I know.....probably about .01% of you will have any interest in this post....BUT.....I didn't want to leave you yesterday with the impression that attending a car race was always uneventful (or boring was the word I used).....

Although we weren't sitting within view of this spectacular crash.....it's pretty darn amazing that the drivers walked away!

There are two videos that will leave you shaking your head, wondering why anyone would put themselves in such a precarious position here's one and in the second......you'll be shaking your head double time as you watch the camera operator.

This is just a peak into a world far, far removed from quilting....but one that contains regular face to face contact with Dr. McDreamy.  He races competitively and is gaining a good reputation for not being 'just a gentleman' driver, meaning a rich guy that only wants to play with the big boys.  Instead, he's very serious and works hard to be respected in this incredible sport.

Please check back with me tomorrow when I will share some of the other quilts in our fiber groups' "Inspired By" exhibit.......  

SPORTS

While many of you were blissfully stitching away for the last couple of days....I was dragged (not quite kicking and screaming, but close) to yet again, another car race.

It was held at VIR (a race track in the middle of nowhere in VA)....  The bright spots were the two excellent restaurants we found last year and revisited again.

I'm thankful for our membership in a brand specific car club that offers respite from adverse weather conditions...so I mostly hung out there.  It was HOT, dusty, & boring (esp. after Dr. McDreamy spun out in the first hour of the race).  Did I mention I HATE porta potties???   

 The club hospitality tent is well located....in view of several turns where typically lots of action happens....though the cars go so darn fast....getting a picture on my phone didn't happen!

The club does a very good job of providing guest speakers....not long chats but informative and appreciated.  Here Patrick Long, excellent ambassador and driver for the CORE team gave us insight to the strategy for this track.  

Since that's what I've been doing there's no projects to share. I hope to unveil my current project soon.  Perhaps your creativity was being better utilized!!

I hesitate to even post this for fear of jinxing the Packers.....BUT - with 4 mins. to go in the 2nd quarter   Packers 6 - Lions 0.   GO PACK!!!!  

BOVINE LOVERS - 'INSPIRED BY' EXHIBIT IS RETIRING

This past weekend the Asheville Quilt Guild Annual Quilt Show hosted the final showing of our fiber group's (PTA - Professional Textile Artists) 2011 challenge titled "Inspired By".  What better place to say farewell to these wonderful quilts then our own quilt guild.

My photos didn't turn out well.....thank you Judy Simmons....for sharing yours with my readers.

Let me explain further.....

The "Inspired By" exhibit was created by members of our Asheville, NC area invitational fiber group PTA. In an effort to keep us motivated and our creativity growing, we issue an annual quilt challenge to our 14 members. For our 2011 Challenge each artist was to create a wall quilt inspired by a 2-dimensional, non-quilt artist. The finished piece could be hung in either a vertical or horizontal orientation and measure approximately 24” x 30”. The exhibit included a photo of the work by the artist who inspired each quilt. 

                                        WASH DAY  30" X 24" by Mary Stori
                                           AVAILABLE HERE
Mary designed the 'brick' cotton fabric for Kona Bay Fabrics, ultra-suede, hand appliqued and machine quilted.

My piece was inspired by Banksy, the famous UK street artist.  I blogged about this piece here.....where you can also see some of Banksy's work.  So, now after traveling with our challenge exhibit....perhaps there's a bovine collector out there who may be interested in giving this piece a new home.  Contact me....

I'm linking to Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday.

FIBER JUNKIES SEPT. REPORT CONTINUED....

Here's another look at the results of our experiments using fiber paste....

 Gen generously provided small canvas wrapped boards for us to play with.  We painted the background and when dry, colored some fiber paste and pressed it through a stencil.  Mine smeared a bit as I was removing the stencil....but it's still usable.....

 Denny added some beautiful feathers to a piece of deconstructed screen printed fabric.  Of course they don't need to remain white....once dried, the paste can be altered with paint or ink.

 A bright sunny day was helpful to speed up the drying time.

 Denny's pieces drying....

 Kate bravely did some continuous stenciling on this rather large piece of fabric.

And, we all loved Kate's very large bamboo stencil that Judy used....dang.....I wish I had another view..... as she went back and stenciled it again...using colored fiber paste....a real winner.

Grab some paste, grab some pals and have your own play date!

FIBER JUNKIES - SEPT. PLAY DATE - MODELING PASTE

The subject of our Fiber Junkies meeting this month was 'modeling paste'.

Did you know you could use this stuff to create a raised surface on fabric?

 We met at Gen's house.....who led us through the process.....our hero organized everything.....  All we brought were some painted fabrics and stencils, and various paste products.

 This is one of the resources Gen used as a guide to our experiments.

 There are scads of products that work for this process....here are two Kate brought.

 Gen provided this one

 She also supplied another that incorporated glass.....I was really excited to try it...thinking ahead to all the sparkle it would  create.

The joke was on me....I should have read the label better....it mentions "transparent'.....dah....when it dried....this is what I saw.

 Here's another piece of mine.....Denny and Gen had some really great nature stencils that we all loved.

The process is quite simple......place a stencil on fabric.....and smear the paste through the openings....remove the stencil and ta da.....  They require some drying time to set up.  

When we began, we worked exclusively with the white paste.....tomorrow I'll show you more results where the paste was colored first.