Online Quilting Class - Logo is Functional

The quilting weekly logo is now working.  If you click on the logo it will bring you to the Quilting Weekly site.  Yeah! 

My Online Quilting Class

My online quilting class has been posted on the Quilting Weekly website.  It consists of step by step directions complete with lots of photos and a pattern to create a landscape quilt.  I am posting my completed piece here so you can get a look at it.  If you are interested in learning more or purchasing the lessons you can go to the Quilting Weekly site.  I have posted the address in my favourite links at right.  I have also posted a logo but it's not linking to the site directly.  Maybe I made an error?

Here is the original photo that inspired this piece.   It's from Cape Breton Island, Canada.

Quilting Challenge Unveiled

I feel like there should be a drum roll!  Here are our completed wallhangings for our first quilting challenge.  We chose a photograph of an underwater scene laden with shells and seaweed.    We  wrote several colour compositions on slips of paper and pulled them out of a paper bag.   Shirley got black and white, Iris got monochromatic and I got analogous (colours next to each other on the colour wheel).   Iris chose to do her piece in shades of blue.  I got to choose 3 colours - blue, blue violet, and blue green.

So here are the finished products.   They are approximately 8 x 10.   I cheated a bit and included a smidgen of red/orange in the seaweed that I added using multicoloured yarn.   My piece also has a bit of black in the background - so if there was a prize I would not win.  Since I had the most colours to work with, I probably should have been able to make do with them.  Oh well....

The first quilt is by Shirley Santos-Pedro.  Shirley used black tulle in specific areas to show movement of water.   The next quilt is by Iris Krajcarski.  Angelina fibers give Iris's piece the sparkle of shimmering waters.    The bottom quilt is mine.  I added gemstones, sparkly beads and a single 'pearl' which is being observed closely by 3 small minnows. 

Shirley already has an idea for our next challenge - to create a piece inside the back of a stretched canvas using a grid composition - sounds challenging to me.  But I do have a few ideas......

                       

My Kuan Yin Wallhanging

I am still working on my Kuan Yin quilt and have finally reached the point where I need to start fusing my pieces to the background.  She is still missing hands, her willow branch and blue bottle of the essence of life..... also her creatures which I will add at the end.   But here is the pinned version thus far.   I painted her face with artist pencils which I will heat set with a hot iron.   The moon is painted with pearly liquid acrylic.  I sure hope this works.  I find she has a Disneylike quality which I'll sure comes from too much Snow White and Cinderella in my innocent youth.   I may redo her face until I get what I am looking for.  I really liked the swirly background fabric which goes well with her fiery wavy gown.  There is more fabric on the top and sides but it is not showing because I have it pinned to a smaller foam board.

I hope to make some progress on it this week AND finish my underwater challenge.

Happy International Women's Day

I want to wish everyone a great International Women's Day.  I hope you all can celebrate in some way.  I'm going to spend my day playing with inks and fabric crayons.

And I want to celebrate the fact that I have just had my 100th visitor since I set up my flag counter.   Yeah!

Shirley's Japanese Wallhanging

As promised, here is a photo of a Japanese Wallhanging created by my friend and quilting buddy, Shirley Santos-Pedro. 

Here is how Shirley describes her quilt.
"It is called 'Torii Gates in Ueno Park, Tokyo'.  The dimensions are 36" x 48".  It was started in February 2009 as part of a class for Art Quilting taught by Elaine Quehl.  The indigo fabric was bought in Japan and the pieces were parts of old work clothes.  In some cases you can see where pockets and seams were in the original clothing.  Details were filled in by using sashiko thread in just plain straight stitches.  I did not have a photo to make the pattern so it came out of my head.  I've enjoyed recreating a scene that I enjoyed in Tokyo of a series of gates going down into a ravine where a small shrine was located.  I would never have found this by myself but I was accompanied by an English speaking tour guiide who showed me many of the secret places in this very large city park."

fabric postcards

I just spent the day working on fabric post cards for my online quilting group swap.  It's the first time I have tackled this and I love it!  It's a musical theme which fits right in to my interests.   I have chosen song titles as inspiration for the pieces.  I started with the fronts and fused all the pieces onto a background which is also the frame.  Next I will sew a little, then fuse the front to the stiff middle layer.   I will attempt to print a postcard template to the back layer and fuse it to the other side of the postcard.  Then I will stitch the edges together and that should do it.  I haven't decided whether to mail them as is or in an envelope.  Since I will be doing all this by hand  it may take some time to complete.   I think they look great already and I really want to share them here right away but just in case I get a visit from one of the recipients I'd better not.  It wouldn't be fair for the people who are getting the cards to see them before they are delivered, would it?  I promise I'll take lots of pictures before sending them off.....Seems like all I am doing on my blog these days is promising to share pictures of my work....but one day  these projects will be completed and there will be photos galore!

One more thing - a friend of mine just finished a fantastic art quilt which I photographed.  She provided me with a write up about it.....so.....my next post will be Shirley's quilt........I promise.