Cruising to Hawaii

My cousin Karin and I have booked a 2-week round trip cruise to Hawaii sailing in March, 2012. We are part of a large quilting group led by Quilt Camp at Sea that will be providing us with notable quilt teachers and classes while on board and at sea.

One of the challenges for the group is to make 12" X 12" quilt blocks with the theme of Hawaii, Cruising, or Nautical for a quilt block exchange. My design is shown here. I managed to get two of themes with the Hawaiin lady and the cruise ship.

This design is done with applique using fusible web and lots of machine embroidery stitches. There are also some ruched ribbon leis attached and a sparkly flower headress.

Can't wait to get on board that ship!

The River Quilt Project

The Rogue Art Quilters of Ashland, OR will be exhibiting "Along the Rogue", an homage to the Rogue River which is situated in Southern Oregon, running from Crater Lake westerly to the Pacific Ocean. The river quilt project involved 19 quilters, the uniting factor being the river running through each quilt. A few criteria were imposed on the art process - everyone used the same fabric for the river, each quilter was also given a width measurement for the quilt and entry/exit measurements for the river. These imposed parameters allowed for the quilts to be "connected" when hung for exhibit. The final exhibit is 39 feet long! It is an amazing work of art by some very talented women. The exhibit can be seen at the US Bank in Ashland, OR from August 2 through November 31, 2010.

My quilt is #12 in the series and is pictured here. Photos on fabric of myself and my niece
are in the foreground. Fabrics used were Batiks, cottons and Silk Dupioni along with many types of embellishments.

If you would like to view all of the quilts in the series, check out the Rogue Art Quilters blog: http://rogueartquilters.wordpress.com/

. . . and view the little movie with the quilts hung in order: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1NEVXhBc1Q&feature=email

And just last week the JOY insert of the Medford Mail Tribune published a full-page article on the quilt project. You can see a portion of my quilt pictured on the left side of the photo. See the article here: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100915/JOY/9150334&emailAFriend=1

12/18/2010 Update: The river quilt series is being shipped to California to be exhibited in the 2011 Road to California Quilt Show in Southern California. That's a WOW!

3/1/2011:  More exhibit news!!  The River Runs Thru It Quilt Project will also exhibit at the Knoxville, TN and Denver International Quilt Shows this year as well as various local showings in Medford and Grants Pass, OR.

5/1/11:  I have confirmation from Jan McGee, editor of The Quilt Life, that the magazine will be doing an article on our river quilt project in the December 2011 issue.  How exciting is that?

12/1/11:  The Quilt Life December issue has a wonderful 5-page article on this quilt project.  I helped write this article and am very pleased with the magazine's presentation.

8/18/2012:  The exhibit has been taken to Leavenworth, WA for it's final exhibition at the Leavenworth Quilt Show in September.   All told, The River Quilt Exhibit has been shown at 7 venues and had 2 published articles about it.  It will be sad to finally break up the quilts, but the owners are anxious to get their creations back home again after being gone traveling for over two years!

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.