Yeaaaaaa! My 1st Ribbon.

I received "Honorable Mention" at the  West Virginia Quilt Guild annual festival.  The quilt portrait of my nephew titled the "Entertainer" was an entry in the individual small quilt category.  There were so many extraordinary quilts there.   I feel so honored.

My Sister's "CRAZY-TEE" Quilt

          For her retirement, she brought me a bag of T-Shirts and said, "Please make me a T-Shirt quilt. These are some of my favorite Tee's with memorable pics and sayings."
           I said, " Okay, no Problem!"
            The year was 2008.   And now it's finally finished!   TA! DAaaaaa!

Some of her favorite T-Shirts.

The Crazy side.

The T-Shirt side!

She really liked it.  I'm happy she's happy and finally has the finished product.

P.S.  Sometime between 2008 and 2012, she decided she'd like a crazy quilt too.

The Piecemaker Portraits Group

I'd promised earlier to share the results of several of the other ladies' projects in the workshop I conducted on making fabric portraits.  And here they are:  

Here's Joyce working on her daughter's picture.

Helen decided to surprise her son with a portrait of his dog.

Rebecca's project called for two portraits .  Ambitious one!

Fait Accompli!

Proud quilter at annual quilt show

Rebecca surprised her nephews at the show too.

Not pictured here was Robbi  who framed her portrait of her son.

We had a great time and I learned as much as I taught.  

[to see more of the SPC Piecemakers' annual show got to [ http://spc-piecemakers.blogspot.com/  ]

Piecemaker Challenge

          On Sunday, May 20, 2012 the Piecemakers had their annual
community quilt show.   It was wonderful success. Our challenge for this year was for us to create a quilt that illustrated our favorite Bible verse.   One of my favorite verses comes from Psalms 25.

Your ways, O Lord, make known to me

teach me your path

guide me in your path and teach me,

for You are  my saviour...

The process of preparing this quilt for presentation is viewed and discussed more below:

It started with a photo I took of a scene  found in Huntington's beautiful Ritter Park.

 Then came the bones of the the picture and the auditionioning of fabrics.  I used S2S fusing to hold parts together.  Quilting key sections as I went along.  I did leaves last.

  Here's a close -up of the bench that sits between the four majestic oaks.

I fused most of the leaves on then added three strips with 3d leaves that sort of swayed in the wind.

And here is the completed quilt.   It won first place.  My goal is to do a series of quilts depicting Huntington's  Ritter Part.

Blogger's Online Quilt Festival

Here's the final fabric portrait of Brittany.

     For this year I am entering a fabric portrait of my granddaughter, Brittany, in Amy's Creative Side-Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I had promised Brittany that I would attempt a fabric portrait of her as soon as I found the right picture of her for me to interpret.  Now you must know that Brittany is a young woman who posts lots of pictures of herself on her Facebook page as she goes through her day to day life.  She loves taking pics of herself, her nephews and friends too.  Finding the right picture to capture her from the hundreds she's posted as she tries new hairdos, new make-up, and outfits was a dilemma for me.  Her most times sunny mood is offset by her sometimes gloomy outlook.  In the portrait I chose, she seems to me to be sort of "mellow", in-between those two extremes of her personality.

        I am very proud of Brittany who recently completed a course of study at WV Junior College with a very high average.  I'm wishing her success and a real job soon.

Here's picture I used and portrait in process.

I love making fabric portraits and find them to be a study of personality and character. The whole process-- from finding the right photo and fabric, to creating and capturing the features of the face or body--I find a rewarding challenge.  In working with Brittany's portrait,  I had the hardest time settling on a background.  I tried out many different ones in the process, but when I saw the star fabric, something in me clicked and I knew that was it.  It speaks to, along with the expression, the sort of star quality she exudes in all she does.  See below some of the different backgrounds and fabrics I auditioned in working on this portrait.

 






I am looking forward to participating in the festival this year and viewing all the beautiful quilts submitted by others.

I love comments and will respond with joy.

The Entertainer and the Star

Here is MaShawn in full costume, ready to dance.

And this is Brittany, a star if ever there was one.

Completed both of these on February 24th 2012.  These resulted in workshop class I taught within Piecemaker's group on how to make a fabric portrait.    More pictures later of some completed by students.

PINTEREST POST 2

Anything as much fun as Pinterest had to be sinful!   Right?   Well not exactly, but one must be careful.
Pinterest Etiquette is a wonderful pro-pinterest informational page that explains how Pinterest can be used and enjoyed without the blot on ones moral character! LOL

And if one does not mind traffic from pinnings from your own site, then there is a pin you can post which allows this.  Check Permission to Pin

Quilts: Questions and Quests

Crazy quilt bought at resale shop.  Fabrics literally disintegrating.

Hand Pieced and hand quilted.

     The class goes well.   We've learned a great deal about the history of quilting in the USA and had several guests in to share quilts made by family members and/or maybe purchased ( or rescued) from flea markets, yard sales or resale shops.  Students are researching the traditions of quilting from other cultures across the world and will be sharing their findings within a few weeks.
       The majority of the students are constructing a Log Cabin block, and a few have ventured out and are working on blocks they designed themselves, which is proving to be an interesting learning experience too.
       Students are reading Chiaverini's The Runaway Quilter and we'll be discussing that next week.

PINTEREST is totally ADDICTIVE

        I've gotten nothing done this week for browsing around in Pinterest.   It is totally absorbing.  There is something about exploring your own and others likes and dislikes that makes this site so fascinating.   It provides lots of other things as well, such as DIY projects, Recipes of all kinds, all kinds of products, and processes you can get lost in.   I must break the habit before it becomes a habit.   But Alas, I think it already has.

RED HAT LADIES

We have six birthdays coming up in the Red Hatters, so BD cards were in order.   Since I've been so lax, I decided to make a few cards for the upcoming occasion.   Nothing like a Red Hatter Birthday Celebration.