More Joy

Not quite 12 x 12 (more like 18 x 36) but it is my JOY quilt.
Part of the :"Dare to Dance" Project and published in the block of the same name.
And a pattern is available in my etsy shop.

Love Birds

Original design by Sandra Starley

Hope you are feeling the joy!

Joy's Joy!

Joy's Joy

Recently I have been thinking about finishing up the couple of words that I missed.  I have small knitting/spinning group that meets every couple of weeks. One of our group is named Joy. I had an idea pop up, Joy's joy is spinning!  Her birthday is this week, so I wanted to make a surprise gift of a 12x12 art quilt. I took photographs one meeting when the others had their wheels spinning yarn. I am in search of a wheel of my own, so pretended that this was a scouting job.  I quilted "twist" into the background and used a bit of my spindle spin yarn for the bobbin and tail of fiber. Karen's husband (a woodworker) provided the hanging stick. Joy loved this gift!

Inspiration photo of Joy spinning on her wheel. 

Prairie In Spring

I've got a bit of spring fever so I felt it fitting to design my prairie quilt around that theme.

Green fields, an out cropping of trees and blue skies welcome spring.

I was so inspired by this groups work when I saw it at the HMQS show last spring.  And imagine my delight when I talked to Sylvia at Annual Meeting and she let me join.  When she asked me for my word it was November and bounty seemed fitting.  I had fun sketching out ideas and settled on this one.  I had the FARM FRESH part made for a couple of months before I buckled down and finished the rest of it up this last weekend. 

It was tons of fun to make.  I now have the list of words down by my sewing machine and plan on getting more of these fun little quilts done soon.  Thanks for letting me join in your fun. 

Quilting Flotsam

I've seen many beautiful art pieces with circles lately and love the look and wanted to duplicate it in some way.  I collected discarded bits of fabric and threads (flotsam) from the floor of my quilting studio and made them into circles and glued them onto a quilted 12x12.  Sewing the circles down made them flat and I really wanted them to stand out so I resorted to fabric Mod Podge.  I used a blue hand dye to give an oceany feel and hoped the circles looked like they were floating flotsam.

Once upon a time. . .

Once upon a time Kasha, a very beautiful fairy princess, was flying through the forest when she saw a very small little creature inching it's way along the forest floor.  She sat on a tree branch and watched the chubby little creature crawl a very short distance.  "Why don't you open your wings and fly little one?"  The little creature didn't seem to hear her and continued to crawl.  Kasha flew down to the forest floor and knelt down.  She gently raised the little creature up to her face.  "Why don't you open your wings and fly?"  

"I can't fly your highness, I don't have wings.  I must crawl and spend all the days of my life under this tree."

Princess Kasha smiled and her eyes twinkled as she giggled, "Of course you have wings.  Don't you know that all the King's creatures can fly?  Open your wings and fly!"  

"I . . . I . . . have wings?  I can fly?"

"Yes you can!  Just open your wings!"

The little creature looked around at his tiny little body looking for his wings.  If the Fairy King's daughter  said he had wings then certainly they must be here somewhere, he reasoned.  He began to feel tingly all over and a bit itchy on his back.  Before he knew what happened his little body morphed into a glorious creature with wings.  He stretched and waved his wings at the Fairy Princess while doing a little dance on her fingers.  He could barely believe it was possible that he might be able to fly across the forest and see his King.  Princess Kasha raised her arm and exclaimed, "Fly!"  And he flew!

Fairy Princess Kasha the butterfly morphing fairy (or would it be caterpillar morphing fairy?) created in photoshop and printed onto fabric using TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) and then embellished with acrylic inks and organza.  See my blog for the before photo.

The Future is Inside You

"You are the only one who can change your future"

Dr. Seuss

The young lady is filled with drawings and words of her dreams and hopes for the future.  She is stepping forward into the cold world of her future but is prepared and willing to bring about her future. 

The background was a batik to which I lightly added some quotes about the future using Citrasolv.  I also transferred the word "Future" with Citrasolv and then painted over it with black Setacolor to enhance it.

The Road to a New Home

My home for the first 21 years of life revolved around the city of Chicago and all that entailed:  family, friends, the Chicago Cubs, Chicagofest, Hot dogs wrapped up with fries, Italian Beef Sandwiches, Lake Perch, heat & humidity.

After becoming engaged the road was leading to California.

We had plans of stopping in Salt Lake City to marry in the temple and continue on to Southern California, however the world had other plans for us when the car broke down in Iowa. 

We spent 5 days in a hotel waiting for the car to be repaired.  We pondered how we were like the pioneers of old breaking down and having troubles across the plains.  Once the car was repaired we continued on our journey, slipping and sliding across I-80 in the biggest storm of the decade.  When we finally arrived in Salt Lake we had $5 in our pockets and were thankful for friends who took us in and helped us find work and eventually our own apartment.  We have tried to find work and move to California many times but things have never worked out for us.  It seems the road home will always lead to Salt Lake City.

Be the Change

I'm starting to catch up!

Trying to change my procrastination. ;)

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world"

Ghandi

Tsukineko inks on cotton printed fabric.

Hey Hey Cubbies!

One of my favorite memories of growing up in Chicago is going to see Cub's games with my mom and sister so I naturally had to make a quilt about the Cub's when Baseball was chosen as our word.

I chose to find baseball cards of players I fondly remember from my youth such as Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins, and Ryne Sandberg.  I then printed the cards onto muslin treated with BubbleJet 2000 and laid them out as if they were on my desk being admired.  And the fabric on the back is yet another beautiful Cubs fabric.

FUTURE

I heard this quote from Glenn Beck and thought it was very appropriate for today's youth. It is true that those we associate with determines what our future will be and who we will become.

It is pieced, rubber stamped and embellished. I used a magazine picture of high school graduates to convey my message.

Change Occurs

CHANGE-

We often find change occurs in our lives.
This was a piece of muslin that sat in my compost pile last summer for about 6 weeks. It was smelly and gooey, (and so was I), but had a lot of potential. When this word was chosen I pulled out my now dried fabric, pressed it, used black misty fuse, rubber stamped the words on it, added feathers, bark, and big stitches. The holes that were in the fabric, caused by critters in the compost pile, were accentuated with the misty fuse, and stitched around with those big stitches. There is depth in the piece, and residual compost tag "alongs".

Isn't it great?