No Greater Inspiration....

There is no greater inspiration than L-O-V-E!  Recently I had the opportunity to witness and participate in the union of one of my best friends. 

 

 

See that's me on the right, then the left! (By the way, Martin Johnson is a gifted photographer, and he took that photo.  Looks like a postcard doesn't it?!)  Anyway, I was so inspired by the beautiful scenery and atmosphere, I needed only to pick the right moment to base a new artwork on.  I chose this moment:

Can't you feel the love?

With that said, here is the final product, as well as it displayed at the reception.

It is 20" x 20" big. I hope they love it!

SAQA Benefit Auction 2014

For the 4th year in a row, I am participating in the SAQA Benefit Auction.  My pieces have sold every year, so I am hoping I can keep the streak going!  If you get a chance, go to www.saqa.com to check out all of the wonderful pieces up for auction.  It begins Sept. 15th.  In the meantime, here is my work in progress:

And the finished product:

I created this 12"X12" piece by starting with a glue gel resist.  I then hand painted it, let it dry and hand stitched it in the resist areas.  Finally I accented the image with beads and sequins. What do you think?

Published and Featured!

I submitted an entry to Quilting Arts Magazine's Friendship and Devotion challenge and I was chosen as a finalist.  This meant I would either be in the magazine or shown on the website.  How exciting.  Well, low and behold, I received several e-mails congratulating me on being published in the February/March issue before I had a chance to pick up my magazine from my P. O. Box.  What a great surprise!

As an added bonus, Quilting Daily, (Quilting Arts' Blog) used my artwork as the example in their article on hand quilting! (click below)  Can you say AWESOME!


http://www.quiltingdaily.com/blogs/quilting-daily/archive/2014/01/28/how-to-quilt-by-hand-tips-for-success.aspx

Modernizing the T-shirt Quilt

So, I am really into the t-shirt quilt thing now, but I am on a mission to modernize it.  Yes, the traditional ones are nice!  But frankly, as an artist, they can be a little boring.  I decided to tilt the blocks this time.

 

I also added a "Mondrian-like" border.  I will definitely make my borders wider next time so the "tilt" can be even greater.  Also I may try alternating blocks as opposed to columns to make it more apparent.  But overall, I like it a lot.  I have so many sorority tees that I actually have three works in progress, and I still have some to wear!

Something New

I had wanted to do this for a long time, but finally got around to it.  What inspired me to go ahead and do it?  I teach art at a middle school, and as we all know, there is simply not enough money in the education system in general. Did you know there are some school systems that value the arts so little that they don't even offer art to their students?  I have digressed---my apologies....I wanted to raise some money for my department, so I had my students/fellow staff members donate their gently used spirit t-shirts, and I made t-shirt quilts that were auctioned off. 

 

We were able to raise some money, and I am looking forward to doing it again next year.  Can you say HUGE learning opportunity! Since then, I have made some more, and am looking forward to making more quilted memories! 

Black and White

Although I haven't posted in a couple months, I have been busy.  This is my first commission in a while. For the most part, most of my art has been gifts to others.  However, I was approached by someone who wanted something original for his fiancé for Christmas.  Although I had done plenty of photo inspired fiber art, I had yet to just do some in black and white and have it remain that way.  That presents its own set of challenges, but I think it came out nice.

Here is the painting I did on fabric based on the photo:

Here it is once I did the quilting:

Finally, here it is as it was presented to the client, framed:

One thing I really like about it was that in the background, although it looks like random stitching, it spells DREAM.  I didn't want it to smack you in the face....I wanted a little subtlety.  (You see it now, huh?) The client said that my rough draft drawing reminded him of a dream.  I was also really inspired by a quote I found by Dr. Seuss: "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams".  They are such a cute couple anyway, and so is their love story.  No details on that from me though!