It's the Bloggers' Quilt Festival!

"Pieces of Dreams"  57" by 57"  ©2008 Diane Evans
Once again, Amy from Amy's Creative Side is sponsoring the semi-annual Bloggers' Quilt Festival, and it promises to be a visual delight, as always.  We quilters have the opportunity to view each others' favorite creations and to share one of our own.

This time around, I've chosen "Pieces of Dreams." This is the second in a series of medallion-style quilts, using Ricky Tims' method of drawing a motif on a piece of paper that has been folded into eighths and then reflecting that motif eight times to create what is known mathematically as radial symmetry – a pattern of design that appeals to my left-brained sense of order. 

Hand-dyed fabrics from Joy's Fabrics were used in this quilt; it is both machine-pieced and machine appliquéd, and the original quilting designs were completed with Sulky 40-weight rayon and metallic threads.

The quilt was named for a much-loved song written by Michel LeGrand, particularly fitting since the sketch was drawn in the middle of a sleepless night.

Do head on over to Amy's blog and enjoy the treats on display -- how perfect for this time of year!

Diane

Love Letters: Amaryllis

Once upon a time, in a small kingdom far away, a self-professed art quilt blogger wrote about a terrific new book she had purchased, titled “Appliqué Art,” by Stewart Merrett.  This book was a visual feast, with beautiful projects created from sumptuous velvets, silks, and moiré fabrics.  The little blogger promised herself that she would one day tackle one of these enticing projects, and, finally, after a LONG, LONG time, she did.

She gathered together a collection of decorator fabrics . . .

and, using instructions from the beautiful book, she designed a letter “E” to place behind the lovely floral pattern.  She used a satin stitch and 40-weight Sulky rayon thread to appliqué the pieces to the velvet background.   The piece was then outline-quilted with 30-weight rayon . . .

She trimmed it with a velvet border . . .

"Love Letters: Amaryllis"  ©2011 Diane Evans

and brought it to her local A.C. Moore shop to have them place it in a gilded frame.

Her husband (a prince of a man) was so pleased with the little wall quilt that he hung it in a place of honor in the castle, which pleased the blogger very much, since it had taken her SO LONG to finish the piece that she was certain it would languish in her pile of QuIPs (“Quilts In Progress”).

The moral of this tale?  You can finish anything you set out to do if you have enough determination and a 65%-off coupon from your local frame shop.

Diane

Has Anybody Seen My Mojo??

Talented artist and friend Joanna Monroe gave me sage advice the other day, when I bemoaned to her the fact that my get-up-and-go probably got up and went somewhere; she suggested that I try to make something small, such as an art card, so that I would feel as though I was creating something instead of simply wishing I were. I turned to one of my Zentangle® books by Suzanne McNeill for some inspiration, took out my drawing tools and scissors, and traveled back to kindergarten with my muse in tow.

I drafted a flower shape with leaves and enlarged it on my printer to a size appropriate for filling with tangles.

Using a Micron pen (and a pencil for shading), I drew some of my favorite designs in each petal.  I copied the flower onto white card stock and cut it out; the leaves were drawn onto green card stock and cut out as well.

I then cut three pieces of white and black card stock in graduated sizes, ranging from 4” by 6” to 4.5” by 6.5”, and glued them together to form a bordered background.

I backed a piece of black-and-white dotted fabric with Wonder-Under® and ironed it to a larger piece of card stock; after trimming, this was glued to the bordered background.

I assembled the flower and leaves and glued them in place, adding some hand-drawn tendrils to the empty spaces (the flower looked lonely . . .).

Some beads were sewn to a decorative button, and this was glued in place.

My little creation made me smile and seemed to wake up my sleeping muse.

Joanna, you are a wise woman – and a good friend.  Thank you.

Diane