Contemplating Names For My Newest Finish

Each and every finish of a piece for my show makes me feel good. It means I am that much closer to the finish line.
I have finished 19 so far in 2016. I have about a dozen more that have to be finished and after that I will regroup and decide what else.
The rest of the show will be pieces I’ve finished earlier. I will have to say I am thoroughly enjoying working on this series.
My overall lifetime finish now stands at 455 pieces. That spans a long time period. There were years where I wasn’t quilting and there were a few years with NO finishes as I was burned out from the previous year.
I feel lucky to be an artist who’s work is mostly in fibers. I can trace this back to before I even started grade school when I got excited by yarn and fabric.

Where Does One Begin And Another End?

When I put this piece on the loveseat when I finished it I couldn’t believe how they are so similar.
Each time I do one of these Ice Dyed pieces I am surprised when I open them. This was no exception. But it was even a bigger surprise when I put it on the loveseat and saw how they were made for each other.
Yet even though they are so similar I would probably never use them together as I feel ART needs to accent it’s surroundings and create a dialogue with the place it is displayed.

The Deck Is Ready For Summer Fun

The deck was cleaned off and it looks gorgeous.
The furniture was brought out of storage and also cleaned.
All that is left is to put out the cushions and a few decorative accessories.
Next the gazebo will get the same treatment.
The grass has been cut and trimmed.
The lush greenery sets off the view and makes it seem slightly cooler than it really is.
Now it’s time to take a dip in the pool to cool off.
Oh, I don’t have a pool!!!!!!

What Am I Going To Call This?

Again I have a finished piece I love, but……….
I am at a loss as to a name for it.
It is one of my ice dyes and I love the design.
What do YOU see?

Another Finish: Wurlitzer

Wurlitzer was the perfect name for this piece.
It is great to be finishing quite a few of these Ice Dyed Tapestries.
You can’t look at this without smiling when you see the colors.
If you remember the Wurlitzer juke boxes you may just start singing or dancing!
What songs do you remember hearing on the juke box after you put in your coins?

Happy Palindrome Birthday Nicholas! 6/16/16

My grandson Nick is celebrating his 21st birthday today.

Why Did 2 Come Before 1? And Here Is The Completed Quilt

Yesterday I posted the second part or marking this quilt. I had responses wanting to see the whole quilt so I am sharing this post. Please scroll down to the last picture to see the entire quilt.
When I showed the quilt I am finishing for Jessica’s room I had questions about how I was going to mark the sections I had yet to do. They were very legitimate questions as the background fabric is one of those that is hard to see marks on. Add to that the fact that there is already a layer of wool batting behind the fabric because most of the quilt has already been quilted. These are my 2 favorite things for marking quilting lines. The Chalkoner has a wheel at the bottom and it dispenses a very fine line of chalk. I only use the white powder as the colors were difficult to impossible to remove. I have had mine “forever” and had to do a Google search to find a source if you are interested in this. http://webstore.quiltropolis.net/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?Item_ID=1164&Store_id=516&page_id=23 It can be refilled. I have never used up the chalk in my original one. I also use the Clover tailor’s chalk that you can get here. http://www.jinnybeyer.com/ax_commerce/detail.cfm?productID=4DE6731FFD019FB1D65C773F3A2DFAA9 You may have other favorite marking devices but these work better than anything else I have tried and I probably have tried them all! I made a pattern for my quilting lines from a piece of heavy template plastic. I laid this on one section of the quilt and marked all the horizontal quilting curved lines. I used the Chalkoner. By the time I finished quilting you could no longer see any of the marking. I sometimes have to remark some areas. I then did the same thing for the vertical curves. It is not easy to see the quilting on the pictures of this quilt. To me that is not a big deal. The quilting design enhances the design of the quilt. To me that is what quilting should do, not shout so loud it overpowers what you have created with your piecing. Stay tuned and tomorrow I will share with you the way I quilted the triangle sections on the edges of this quilt. In case you haven’t seen the entire quilt I’m adding a photo of it.

Marking Difficult Fabrics–Part 2

Every morning Facebook tells me what I posted on this date for the last several years. Many times I choose to share the messages. This one was TOO GOOD not to share but Facebook evidently won’t let us share long ones (as others have mentioned) so I decided to do a rerun so you could see it. This is a quilt I LOVE and is now hanging in “Jessica’s” room. For the triangular spaces I had left to quilt on the each side of the quilt I chose to use straight lines. The piece didn’t call for any more curved quilting lines. I used a ruler and my Chalkoner to mark a set of lines to quilt on one of the triangles. The next step was to quilt this set of lines. Using the even feed foot I am continuing quilting all the lines I have drawn. To stitch the second set of lines 1/2 inch to the right of the first set I put the needle in the far right position and followed the first stitching with the left edge of the presser foot. I drew the second set of lines on the other side of the triangle the same way I drew the first set. I stitched all the lines starting at the inside edge of the triangle section and finished at the outer edge of the quilt. I stitched the drawn lines first and then set the needle position to the far left and stitched 1/2 inch away from the lines. This shows the complete quilting on one of the triangles. I did one triangle at a time from start to finish. By the time I finished each triangle you could no longer see the lines I had marked with my Chalkoner. I really enjoy the quilting process. I enjoy doing the stitching and I love to see how the quilting that is done in harmony with the quilt adds so much to the piece. I feel like I am on the home stretch with this quilt as I only have to trim the edges, bind it and add casings to both the top and bottom edges

Glorious Finishes

I have been very busy in June finishing pieces for my solo show in January 2017.
This is a sneak peak at parts of my two most recent finishes.
It is only the 13th of June and I have finished 7 pieces already.
Now if this is making me sound like super woman I will also share the fact that some of these have been in the works for as much as 2 years.
Will I be able to sustain this level of work for the rest of the month? I hope so! But in reality I have neglected other things…laundry, cooking, friends, paper work, etc. so I am going to take a little time to play catch up on those fronts and then return to my finishing….or at least spend less time each day on the finishing. When I am on a roll it is hard to stop rolling along.

Red Delicious Or ????????

I know I have been missing and I have been busy finishing several pieces.
I have not even taken time to take pictures as finishing is my current highest priority.
It is one of my pieces I ice dyed in Florida and now is totally finished.
As of now I am calling this on Red Delicious as it reminds me of the colors in a perfect Red Delicious apple that is at its peak and ready to take a nice juicy bite from it.
I can assure you I am working on many other pieces now and have enough work to keep me busy for a few months. I’ll check in with new pictures now and then.