"What if?"

I am in the process of playing "What if?" When I first came across the simple instructions for thread flowers, I hadn't yet found the instructions for thread leaves. When I did, I thought, "What if I put them together?" 
At first I only had a single layer/flower head. Then I thought, "What if I put on another, and then perhaps a third, as center?"
When I decided to use clothesline cording for the stems I bought what  found. Later I discovered that the cording comes in at least two sizes! Eureka! Great for big flowers and little flowers!
I originally used fabric to wrap the stems, but Sunny Days (below) seemed to call for a little more bling...so, I used satin ribbon.
This week I thought, what if I add beads? Just what sun flowers needed!
Who knows what my next 'what if' will be...but that is how we learn and grow. Try 'what if-fing' your current obsession and see where it leads you!

Sunny Days

Oldies but Goodies!

Velvets n Wools, tied with yarn. Lumpy and loved to pieces.

I did my presentation on Quilt Art/Traditional Quilt at quilt guild Wednesday evening. It was fun!
I had put together a slide show to accompany my personal trunk show. I started with my first quilt, built when I was 16 years old. I used a Kleenex box as a template, tracing around it onto the fabric. I wanted to make a copy of a family heirloom quilt my Mom had slept under as a child. She told the story of lying under the old quilt when ill, wearing out the velvet and satins with constant stroking. I wanted a 'sick quilt' of my own to hand down someday. It has covered myself and my family until it is simply frazzled! Doubleknit backed wool from that era did not hold up to washings...

Those of you that quilt have probably run into the problem of generous people that want to give you all their old fabric. "I know you are a quilter and will use these!" When my beloved Grandma Keagle dumped her fabrics from the 1950s and 60s on me, what could I say but ''Thank you''? I had to make a quilt out of it, but gave it back to her suggesting she let her grandkids use it in the yard for suntanning and such. If they got it dirty or oily, it would wash. I had made it sturdy! When I showed the quilt to my sis-in-law she inadvertently named it for me-'Vietnam' (as in war zone of the day) Grandma kept such good care of it, it is still pristine to this day...

But, you see, if you take everything offered to you, good/bad/ugly, you may be given a family treasure.  Grandma K's next offering was all of her late husband's ties. I was just 5 when Grandpa Keagle died, so I didn't really remember him, except for the loving stories my Mom told about him. He was responsible for naming me Melinda. Lindy is my nickname. So, I built a tie quilt in memory of Grandpa K. using tie tacks and lapel pins from fraternal orders, parade mementos, and high school year pins from my Mom and my late husband. I 'decorated' the blocks with the labels off the backs of the ties.

When my present husband returned from his service in Vietnam he was warned not to wear his uniform-for his own safety. I made this quilt to honor him and his love of country. Politics of the times aside, he is an honorable man.

And of course I had to show off my latest play! Thread sketching THE grandbaby!

I do so love to dye!

Saturday a friend came to play...

We tried the 'Sharpie/alcohol' thing (the top piece with the 'sun') But we were experimenting on cotton...which does not flow like the video I watched, which showed wow factor results on silk.

The only Procion Fiber Reactive dye colors I worked with were Turkey Red, Reddish Brown and Deep Navy and mere Lemon Meringue dust left in the empty baggy. Very interesting...surprises are the best part of dyeing!

One more style lily

I tried one more type of lily, a free pattern online that was meant for paper lilies. Mine, of course, is made of fabric, with free motion embroidered stems and stamens.

Never waste a perfectly good panic!

Do you have very favorite pieces of art in your home? Did you make them? Were the fabrics one-of-a-kind hand-dyes? Did they have HOURS of creation and quilting time? Were they irreplaceable, some of your best work? Were they mailed March 12, 2012 to Illinois to then be shipped onward to International Quilt Festival of Ireland 2012? And is it the very first time you have ever entered a big show? Were you ignorant of what a confirmation card means to the Post Office, and therefore to you? A confirmation card is NOT a signature of receipt card that comes back to you so you have piece of mind that your entries arrived, and that I kept checking the mail for... No, a confirmation just shows on the Postal system's delivery info, which is NOT accessible by mere patrons. When mere patrons enter the numbers online they get red letters saying something about never shipping! Do you KNOW what red letters do to a person's pulse rate?
When you email the Festival people "Have you received my entries yet?" And they say, "not yet"... I bet you wouldn't go raging down to the post office and vent, only to be graciously, above and beyond duty, dealt with by the nicest postal person. And when you find out the entry was delivered would you try the warm and friendly approach when you call Illinois? I did, and the VERY, VERY nice ladies there put me on hold a couple of short moments until they had found my name on the list of quilts received. Hallelujah! and AMEN!
So, very nice, helpful people from Malott, WA to Illinois and Caitlin in Ireland have dealt with a nearly hysterical woman in the most gracious of manners. Thank you, Ladies. I can breathe again!

Thanks to Michele

A few months back I wrote to Michele of Quilting Bloggers, et al, and she generously offered to let me yak about my upcoming life adventures. So, today was my first guest blog, and I am scheduled to share with readers once a month. Enjoy the read, leave a response to the question of the month on QG's page, and a lucky winner will be chosen each blog to celebrate.

More wool dyeing

Mostly Kool Aid* and food dye.

Procion fiber reactive dye, Kool Aid and/or food coloring.

 Wool takes color so well, so fast, so satisfyingly! I may not be able to stop dyeing until my wool runs out... A few more days and the sap will rise up enough for me to start following the recipes for vegetative dyeing. I have always wanted to do that with wool, because I get some nice color on my cottons, but the pix of wool are much more gratifying. It seems like most of the recipes out there say, "You can get this and this and this color with wool! Oh, and good luck with cotton."

Program Prepping

I am scheduled to 'be the program' for the quilt guild I attend each month. I am to tell a little about what an art quilt is, how I got into fiber art, and show-and-tell scads of my work. What's not to have fun with?
So, I have a growing pile of notes and books and online research, but today I finalized a sample sheet to show why I am a fiber artist; no rules, try anything once, endless variety and do I have to say it? FUN!

From top left, clockwise...

1. I colored the flower cartoon, then tried ironing it onto fabric. Not good...
2. Then I colored directly onto fabric and ironed. Oh, yes!
3. Next I used fabric markers. They were okay.
4. Then I tried crayon onto light heat n bond stuff. Hmmm... further research needed.
5. Satin stitched individual cloth petals then joined them into a lily. Not overly impressed.
6. Free motion embroidered on a sparkly nylon fabric. Kinda cool!

Bahhhhhh!!!!

Guess what I did to celebrate National Quilting Day? Yep! I dyed wool for the very first time. I went online and scrounged around and used the food dye w/vinegar method. I have had fleeces stored for YEARS.
I knew I would use them someday...

And I sure liked the colorful outcome! :?} 

These  will fly to the UK with me for my class with Gilda Baron.

Phewww!!!

     The thrill, and relief, of getting my Quilt Festival International of Ireland 2012 submissions mailed off. I spent over a week getting them ready. I made two of the hydrangeas, a frog and the blue butterfly for donation to the quilted garden portion of the show. They will be given to charity by the Festival after the show.

Much improved!

Pretty-but wrinkly...

     As far as quilt entries are concerned, those pieces admired by the chair of the festival here on the blog meant taking them apart for shipping ease. Le Couleur Pourpre had to come off the stretched canvas, which was something I really should have done earlier, as it had a few 'bobbles' in the stretching. I gave it batting, backing and then quilted it divinely using shades of thread to match the background shading. I think it helped pop the color! Putting the dark maroon on as binding helped pull the center framing forward. It looks great now!

     I HAD to enter one of my Wild Flowers-it is for the quilted garden section of the show you know! I chose this one. All I had to do was add a hanging sleeve, in case the hangers of the show can't use the wrapped stick.

And the most work, but my pride and joy, was removing Exuberance from its 30# plywood mounting, adding the batting and backing, making more of a quilt out of it. The line between fiber art and quilt art gets murky. Fiber art needs to be 'hang on the wall like a painting' framed out. Quilt art needs to be, well, more 'quilty'.

So, those are off to Ireland. And today I threw my batik quilt 'into the ring' on McCall's design star contest. More on that later...