Watercolor Quilts - a new passion

Watercolor quilts have been around a long time, but I had never gotten around to trying to do one. While on my recent journey to Sisters, OR, I bought this kit for "Fun At the Fair" from Whims (http://www.whims.cc/) and completed the quilt top in just a day and a half. This was great fun to do, arranging the fabric squares by light to dark tones and then using the flip and sew method to create the background. The fair appliques were then added to finish the scene.

This still needs its borders added and then to be quilted. I'm thinking I'll add some bling to it as well with some crystals and paint accents.

Goddess of Lost and Found Things

I just returned from Sisters, OR, home of the world's largest outdoor quilt show. The week prior to the one-day quilt show is filled with a myriad of classes for all types of quilters, from traditional to contemporary to art quilters. One of the classes I took this year was with Jane Davila, author of The Art Quilt Workbook. The class involved using found things (from nature, from your stash, from someone else's stash, your junk drawer, etc.) to create a small art quilt.

My completed art quilt is shown on the left (click on it for a larger view). It contains found objects such as keys and tags and a piece of copper mesh. The lace was salvaged from a nightgown no longer worn. The goddess is created from a ceramic face found in a bead shop, a body made from an old silk cocoon, her hair is leftover throwster's silk, plus a rusty key and other things found in my stash.

I named her the Goddess of Lost and Found Things, because I think for every thing we lose during our lifetimes, something else is found (that is often better) to replace it. The goddess' story is being written and will be attached to the back of the quilt.