Ruby Red Birthday Wishes

A gorgeous postcard arrived in yesterday's mail ... a fabulous pieced, embellished, and quilted fiber-art postcard from my friend Elaine. It's so exciting to receive something so special in the "snail-mail". Thank you Elaine!

Earrings

This is what I do at night while "watching" (actually, listening to) TV. I make earrings with some of my favorite beads. (Beads ... Beads ... BEADS! Cannot get enough of BEADS!)

Peyote Amulet Pouch

This is my first peyote-stitch amulet pouch, approx. 2-1/2" x 3-1/2", with a 26" bead chain. The closure is actually just an exaggerated fringe attached to the back of the pouch, and tossed over the front to keep the bag closed while being worn.

My friends were amused to discover that my "amulet" hidden inside, the first time I wore this piece, was a 40%-off coupon from Hobby Lobby.

Ndebele Lariat

Another Ndebele rope necklace, but this one is made with the tinier triangle beeds, and is 48" long, with sterling silver beadcaps.

Santa Fe Door

I started this piece in an Esterita Austin class a couple of years ago at the Houston International Quilt Festival, and had never finished it. When I was looking for something as a starting point for a "memory keeper" for a party for my parents' 63rd anniversary next week, I remembered it. Once I realized that it just needed to be trimmed down in size and bound, it became the perfect solution. I fitted it with a large pocket on the back to hold the anniversary cards, menu from the dinner, and other memorabilia. It can be either hung or used as a small table topper. It measures 13" x 18".

more fiber art postcards

... and a few more ... soon to be sent off to Virginia's FFAC postcard sale at the Houston Quilt Festival.



"Doppelganger" above left, and "Gothic Redux" above right.



"New Growth" on the left, has a base of hand-painted fabric with copper, leather, and beads. "Liz's Gleanings" on the right, is made with goodies gleaned from my friend Liz's leftovers. (On second thought, I'm keeping that one!)

Fiber Art Postcards for FFAC

Virginia Spiegel ( http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACSFundraiser.html ) is sponsoring her last year of Fiber Arts for A Cause at Houston's International Quilt Festival in November, and I've been making postcards to be "sold" (actually, to be given for each $30 tax deductible donation made to the American Cancer Society) during Festival. Here are some of them:




The first one is called "Curiosity", and is hand-painted fabric with painted dryer-sheet overlay.
The second one is "Coffee by the Sea", with a coffee filter and painted/distressed Tyvek, both hand-stitched to the quilt sandwich.



Above are "Don't Even Think About It" and "Copper Bloom", each made with the same piece of hand-painted fabric as a background.



"Alice" is a photo transferred to fabric and mounted on velvet upholstery samples.

A Show of Hands

This little project was made to be a part of Karey Bresenhan's special exhibit at this year's Houston International Quilt Festival ... a three-dimensional hanging installation of "creative HANDS". She's planning for folks to walk through this magical "forest" of one-of-a-kind HANDmade art HANDS hanging from the ceiling--literally HANDS all around--to see the quilts. It sounds wonderful to me and I think visitors to the show will love experiencing it first-HAND! (Karey's puns, not mine, LOL!)

I made this quirky little hand from two things ... a piece of tanned deerhide from a deer that my grandmother had shot many years ago, and a piece of my own scanned and printed pineapple fabric. I wrote a little story about Mamaw on the deerskin side ... mainly about how she had strong hands and a strong heart and mind until the day she died. I still miss her.

Birthday Bracelets

Ohmigosh, the most wonderful birthday bracelets! Ann made this beautiful blue-green-purple "wooly worm" bracelet that goes with just about everything I own, and Patricia made the gorgeous brick-stitched bracelet with cube beads and a raku-bead closure. How lucky am I! Thank you, thank you, Annie and Tricia!

Mokume Gane

Patricia taught us a mokume gane technique (pronounced "mo-koo-may gah-nay") in polymer clay last week, and these copper-and-gold beads were my results. I finally combined them with some porcelain and silver beads, and strung them as a necklace, plus made a couple of pair of earrings. I love this technique, and can't wait to find the time to try it again.

Posies

Birthday Posies from my friend Mary Ann ... what a lovely fiber art card to receive in the mail! Silk flower petals, elegant fabrics, and imaginative stitching ... the Essence of Mary Ann! Here's a picture, but it's so much nicer to be able to pet it.

Monet Bracelet

Sweet Annie, one of the Art Girls, taught me the Square Stitch last week, and even gave me all the beads I needed from her own stash to help me make this Monet Bracelet. This was many, many hours in the making, but well worth the effort, I think. Thank you Annie!

Then I just had to make some little earrings to go with it ... a bit frustrating to work in such a small scale, as they have the same square-stitch base. But well worth it, I think.

(Click on the image to see an enlargement, then click again on the lower right-hand "arrow box" to enlarge it even further.)

Butterflies are free ...

Butterflies are free ... if you have a birthday, and have a talented friend like Susan! This gorgeous little gem of a fiber art postcard arrived in my mail today, but I only found it in the stack this evening. Thank you Susan!

A Birthday Postcard

I had a lovely surprise in the mail today ... a fiber art postcard from Hannah! Here's a picture of both the front and back ... for anyone not familiar with fiber art postcards, they are basically miniature art quilts. This one actually went through the postal system, stamp and all. Thank you so much, Hannah!

Wire-wrapped necklace & earrings

Mary Ellen and I took another class with Nancy Jones yesterday, and here is my result ... it was originally supposed to be a choker, but I added the drop since a choker isn't my best look. I really like the earrings best. The technique is fun and easy, but requires some hand strength. 22-ga. sterling silver wire with black glass beads.

Mary Ellen's necklace and earrings are really the ones I want ... she chose to use some frosty-blue stones with copper wire, and they turned out to be just stunning. Mary Ellen, wanna trade, LOL?

Make It Do or Do Without

After finally getting to see the Quilts of Gee's Bend exhibit at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts this past week (which was an amazing experience), I was inspired to make some sort of homage quilt. Then I remembered that I actually had already made one ...

In 2001 I took a class with Roberta Horton at the Houston International Quilt Festival, called something like "African American Quilts". The idea was to re-create a small quilt in the style of the slaves who had no choice in fabrics but what was thrown away or given to them, and of course no modern templates, rulers, or rotary cutters. We were to cut our pieces freehand, with nothing but scissors and our imaginations.

She gave us each a pice of "ugly" green fabric that we had to incorporate with the fabrics that we had brought to class, and we made some simple traditional blocks with scraps, 4 of one block and 5 of another. (The two blocks I chose, Log Cabin and Hole in the Barn Door, are barely recognizable.) On at least one of the blocks we were to alter something in the design – turn one of the elements backwards, for instance - to make it different. The strong vertical lines were important in the African influence of the design, as were the varying fabrics for the borders.

I never liked this quilt when I made it, and it has been sort of hidden away ever since. After seeing the Gee's Bend quilts, however, I've pulled it back out, and it now has a new kind of beauty for me.

Lapis Sunburst Collar

My Dad had this gorgeous necklace made for my Mom, quite a few years ago in Mexico ... he thinks it may have been in San Miguel de Allende. It has a wrap-around collar made to fit her neck, with a large (25x38mm) lapis lazuli cabochon in the center of the 4" x 5" hand-wrought starburst. (For some reason the beautiful veining and the shine of the lapis do not show up well in this photo.)

Both the collar and the starburst are signed (engraved) by the artist on the back. I had the metal tested by a jeweler, who proclaimed it a copper-heavy bronze. The whole piece is very heavy in weight.

I just spent almost an hour cleaning this piece, and want to preserve its beauty for as long as possible before having to clean it again. I've been advised that a lacquer coating is recommended for bronze, but my local jeweler doesn't do that type of work. I'm wondering if a couple of light coatings of a non-yellowing spray acrylic protectant would work, without harming the metal. Or an automotive spray protectant? Of course I would protect the lapis cab first. Any suggestions?

Ndebele Rope

I love this necklace! And I love the Ndebele technique (pronounced "in-de-belly"). It's done with a needle-and-thread, using triangle beads. From another class with Nancy Jones, it's very easy to learn, but extremely labor-intensive. This 42" rope took me about 12 hours to finish, and was a birthday present for my dear sister-in-law, Verda.

Be sure to click on the image for a closer view.

Beaded Net Bracelets

I took a class with Nancy Jones a couple of weeks ago, and have been making some beaded net bracelets. Here are two of them.

A Whole Lotta Love by Tom Russell

By chance I met Tom Russell at a local quilt show recently, and discovered that he doesn't maintain a website for his work. So I offered to post an image or two of this original piece, called "A Whole Lotta Love". It's 80" square, and although it's not a bed quilt, he had laid it out on a bed to photograph, as it has not been quilted and embellished yet. So you'll see two pictures of it, in order to see the edges as well as the center. Here's what he said to me about it ...

I started it when I started quilting 5 years ago. It started as part of a workshop given by my old high school art teacher and another quilter friend. My high school art teacher's quilt was pictured across from mine in Quilting Arts Magazine. He inadvertently got me started in quilting. I designed this quilt after that workshop and it took me this long to get it finished. The HGTV stuff kept me busy for a few years along with other quilts I needed to make. I made it my goal to finish this quilt when I moved to Houston. Now that it's pieced I have to quilt it and then it's almost finished. It'll take me a few months to embellish it, but it should be show ready by the end of the year.

I found this on Tom ... http://www.apqs.com/quiltertomrussell.htm , and I knew I had seen some of his work before too ... it was the 2004 Restore America quilt block of the month that he designed for HGTV ... http://hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_nobanner/text/0,1783,HGTV_10680_24655,FF.html ... which is an incredibly artful project.

Here are the pictures of "A Whole Lotta Love" ... now I can't wait to see the quilt in person.