Last Quilt of 2018

"Afternoon Tea" (c)Pat Dolan - gift to granddaughter for Christmas

Now that I have two new shoulders to use in sewing and two new knees so I can go downstairs and back up again from my sewing studio, I've been at my sewing machine. This is a wall hanging that I made for our youngest granddaughter's new apartment. Alyssa is a great tea lover, she collects tea pots, tea cups, and various tea varieties as well as serves as hostess for regular tea parties for her friends. So this quilt was designed just with her in mind!

The tea pot resembles my maternal grandmother's tea pot. The cup and saucer were as close as I could come to an antique cup and saucer (I used Prisma-colored pencils to shade the cup and saucer). The lace doily is from my collection of laces - my paternal grandmother made many lace doilies in her lifetime. The napkin is actually a handkerchief from my mother's belongings. It is embroidered with a "G" for her married name of Gangl. I believe that either she or her mother did the embroidery, as both were adept.

The bluebirds are symbols of happiness in many traditions and I feed them and photograph them regularly, so they are part of the ensemble. I printed the photos on silk, then fused them to the quilt top and did machine embroidery to make them stand out from the background.

Since Alyssa has been an organic farmer and is very much a farmer at heart, as well as a nature lover in all ways, the background of lush leaves provides a relaxing atmosphere for a tea party. For the table I used rusted fabric that I did many years ago back when we were still in New Jersey. I love the rusted fabrics and still have a nice collection of them, but they are somewhat difficult to quilt and worse for embroidery! Machine needles need replacing often as then dull quickly from the rust. But it makes a perfect table top for this quilt!

I did the "pillowcase" method for backing to eliminate binding - I'm not very good at corners of the bindings and find the pillowcase a great solution! Here is the back of the quilt - hopefully you can see the machine embroidering and quilting in it. Click on the image for a better look!

Merry Christmas to All!

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas full of love, joy, friends and family! From my house to yours, Merry Christmas!

And Now I'm Doing Textile Art!

Watercolor Painting on Fabric! And MORE!

My creative drive has taken on a whole new life - and it's an odd time of year to suddenly want to be alone in the studio with music and a ton of art supplies! Thankfully, just before this latest creative splurge of energy, I finished all the shopping, wrapping and mailing of Christmas gifts to various family members!

I began by drawing a series of very simple birds, making cardboard templates, and tracing them onto fabric. Next, I painted the birds - having paper towels under the fabric to absorb the excess paint - don't want watercolor permanently adhering to my art table, if I can prevent it! Then, downstairs to the sewing room where I ironed each bird to make the watercolor paint permanent. And finally, I drew on each with black thread on my sewing machine, leaving the threads dangling - I rather like that, for some reason!

Then it was time to select fabrics to compliment each bird. These two fabrics were donated to me from fellow fiber artist, MaryLou Pepe. She gave me a whole bag of natural fibers for these upcoming projects! Thank you, MaryLou!!!

Below, I'm testing several fabrics for these two little Tufted Titmice.

Here are a few of the others I'm working on.

These two little lace-winged birds are made with Angelina Fibers - I have to be super careful not to iron them or they will melt!!!

I'm not so sure about the composition below - the birds need more embroidery to make them pop out of the background of trees. It's a work in progress.

Last, but not least - and also incomplete...

Some of the artists who have inspired me are: Emma Siedle-Collins, Cas Holmes, Debbie Irving, and Tara Badcock. Look them up, if you are also interested in this type of free-form embroidery/quilting/artistry!

Finally Painting Again!

This is "Lily" a 12x16" cat portrait for a friend

And here is the step-by-step process over several days time. Some of the changes are subtle, others are not!