The second figure I tackled for Be Inspired (see original post dated July 11th) is Martin Luther King.  In polling of the four grades (5 through 8 ) King handily topped the list of inspiring figures from history, so he became the central figure on the first (of a projected three) “Americas” panels.

When dyeing the fabric for the earth/sea and sky backgrounds, I also did 2 1/2 yards of fabric in skin tones.  The patchy look on King’s face will smooth out once quilting in shades of browns and reds and some black is applied.  nyway, I’m thrilled that this actually LOOKS like King!

Here’s a picture of the full panel with Sacajawea and MLK:

Now back to tracing, transferring, cutting, fusing and making people.   I do wonder WHAT possessed me to volunteer to do a quilt with 39 or more people……….  (reminder to self:  next time smack self upside head and run the other way!).  Of course, the fact that things are working out has me happily amazed….

The ways of jurors for big quilt shows mystify me……this year I entered Koi:

and Fields of Gold:

In the annual World of Beauty contest at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. The good news is that after FIVE years of “sorry but….” letters (I got in the first time I applied and never since), I am in AGAIN!!!! HOORAY…

What baffles me is that I consider Koi, a 40×60-ish quilt, two sided, lots of good technique, great quilting, imposing, yet it was “declined” (OK…let’s be blunt: rejected! For the second year in a row!) and the lovely but small (about 16×20) Fields of Gold, which began as a 9×12 journal-type quilt as an illustration/project for my book, has been accepted! I will admit, I ADORE the wheat in the quilting (even if I did do it myself…), which is my favorite part of the quilt along with Lisa Walton’s fabric (visit her website Dyed and Gone to Heaven) which really made the piece. But still… whazzup?

At least Koi got in to Paducah (if my faltering memory serves me correctly) and then got featured to my great surprise in QuiltMania, in a photo spread on the AQS show. Weird. Don’t get me wrong… I’m thrilled the drought is over and that as I teach there for the first time this year, I will have a quilt in the juried show. Still, I’m happily baffled.

Maybe I’ll be able to use Koi as my teacher’s quilt LOL!

Addendum:  Suzanne Sanger and Terry Grant both had very astute observations (see the comments)….  that there have been other koi quilts by other people, but nothing like Fields of Gold…… I think they are on to something…..

Woooohoooo!   It’s official:  the Coastal Quilters Chapter Banner has been juried in to the AQS show in Knoxville, TN.  Each of the three AQS shows (the others are the famous Paducah show and the new Des Moines show) have different categories and size requirements.  The Knoxville show is the only one for which a group quilt of this size is eligible…and we got in!

I am SO PROUD of the 18 women who did even better than their best on their contributions to this quilt!  For the full run-down, visit here (gallery page on my website) for details.  Now, to go get it packed up and see if Louisa can drop the package off when I’m away.  WOOHOOO!

Here is a detail photo, too….

This year marks the 20th anniversary of SAQA, the Studio Art Quilt Associates.  They put out a call for entries from members a while back for small pieces for a traveling show.  They will all be matted with an 8×8 opening, so finished size had to be 9×9 or a bit larger (with the excess hidden under the mat, and used for mounting).  Since I make TONS of thread changes in a piece, even one that small, I decided to make two almost the same, send one to SAQA and prepare the other for sale.  I did take a photo of the SAQA one, but managed to delete it accidentally, but here is a photo of the 9×9 piece I kept (which is nearly identical).

Bird of Paradise block

It is made from my hand-dyes, commercial batiks, thread, yarn (edge-finish), and prismacolor pencil (there wasn’t enough contrast between the “spear” of the flower and the background, so light green pencil to the rescue…I hope).

I wanted to try something for this that I had done on smaller pieces…mount it on a painted/mixed media canvas.  I had some teal cloth out on the work table, tossed the piece on it, and it looked great.  So I  used mat medium to adhere acid-free tissue paper to the canvas, then painted the canvas the same teal color.  Bleah. It definitely didn’t work the same way. I added some green.

Bird on Blue canvas

Still needed more, so more paint to the rescue.  After checking with Frayed Edge Kathy D., we agreed it needed way more green.   In the end, it needed green and raw umber.  I painted the colors on, then swiped with a paper towel.

Here is the finished piece.  It will be for sale directly from  my website for a few weeks, then I’ll take it over to the Ducktrap Gallery that has my work here in Camden, Maine:

Bird of Paradise full shot

And here are two detail photos that show the texture of the canvas, which I rather like:

and:

Bird, detail 2

Amazing…. after two years working on the book and assorted family crises, I get to make art!  I’m looking forward to MORE!

And yet another piece!  Amazing what happens when you finally dig out from under the mountain of accumulated work…all the stuff that piles up while life is happening!  One of my favorites in the new crop of small art quilt pieces is  Birch Pond:

I’ve always loved etchings and woodblock prints (even bought a couple books on woodblock print making, tho I’ll likely never make such a thing…but of course the design ideas and visual techniques can always be applied to different media…like quilts!).  Mary Azarian is one of my favorites, and I got the Shepherd Seed Catalog for years just to see her illustrations.  Alas, I can’t find the latter online….the link for Sheperd’s Seeds automatically switches over to White Flower Farm where there are NO seeds listed…Sob!  Anyway, check out her website…the Farm and Field prints are fancier than what was in the catalog, but in the same vein.

So, looking for something fun and easy to do this summer at Maine Quilts, I was thrilled to see that Laura Wasilowski was teaching her Woodcut Quilts class!   Laura’s website is www.artfabrik.com (with a K…sigh).  As part of the class kit fee, we received some of Laura’s lovely hand dyed fabrics and threads, but of course I had to be me and took my pre-fused stash of batiks (well, a selection). This piece varies somewhat from “true” woodcut quilts because the individual leaves are not edged in black, but I can live with that <grin!>.

Here’s a detail:

The 14×14 inch quilt is mounted on 21×21 stretcher bars covered with dark blue batik cloth, clean finished and ready to hang.  It is available for sale at Ducktrap Bay Trading Company (gallery here in Camden, Me. — click on the New Work link under the Galleries column for more info).

I had fun in the class… it was low key and easy paced (a bit slow for a kind Type-A sort like me who is quite experienced, but that happens to me a bit too often….I’m to ready and raring to go!), I learned new stuff, Laura is a well-prepared and entertaining teacher and best of all, I now know some of her tricks so I can let what I learned percolate and come out in a quilt in the future.  Yeah!  My own woodblock prints without having to carve the wood (not that I’d mind learning that, either, but there aren’t enough hours in a lifetime already!).  Cheers!