Daytona Beach Shows Off...

From a beautiful daybreak over the Atlantic to the fabulous quilts at the Ocean Center where the American Quilter's Society 2023 quilt show was held, Daytona was looking lovely. This is the view from our oceanside room at the Hilton. With the window open and the ocean breezes blowing, it was a most refreshing place to stay in February. And it was just across the street from the quilt show. By the way, the link above will take you to see all of the award winners from the show.

One masterful quilt after another was displayed in the exhibit area. I noticed that dogs, faces, and floral themes were the ones that drew me in. This is "Too Tired to Play" by David Taylor. The details in the pictorial applique quilt need to be seen up close. The artist was able to capture even the color variations in the floor.

This is Andrea Brokenshire's prize winner titled "Desert in Spring". Her photo-to-quilt entry is painted and thread enhanced. So realistic and beautiful.

"Singing Bird" by Cheryl Hoffner won Honorable Mention in the Wall Quilts- First Entry category. Lovely quilting on her domestic sewing machine.

Barbara Kilbourn translated her own photograph into this quilt titled "Feathered Friend." I like the variety of quilting designs she used.

Another face quilt! "Shape I'm In" was paper-pieced by Sue deVanny of Australia. The eyes and expression are so well done with fabrics that don't have high contrast. And she has an interesting mix of quilting patterns in the triangles.

Isn't "Mother Nature" compelling? It's the entry of Maria Macheca. As in "La Catrina" below, this quilt artist developed her fabric design from a photo, this one by Kevin Mazur. When I look at the color in this photo, I realize I did not nearly capture the depth of the green. This was in the Wall Quilts-Pictorial category.

Astonishing! Cindy Stohn's work "La Catrina" won second place in the Large Quilts-Moveable Machine Quilted category. She based her design on a photo by Jaimie Emery and completed it using raw-edge applique and collage methods along with free-motion quilting.

"Renew Anew" is by Elizabeth K. Ray. This quilt appealed to me as it feels so soothing with its simple straight lines. There is even straight-line grid quilting accomplished with the machine's walking foot. And the color shifting creates an interesting optical illusion.

Cherrywood Hand-dyed Fabrics conducts an annual quilt challenge. The theme for this year's exhibit was Graffiti. From among 360+ entries, the company selects some for traveling exhibits. Look closely at "Graffiti Dog" to  notice the words quilted into the background- love, tailwags, bones, and more. Such detail in a small quilt.  

"Lisa G. Was Here" has so many elements of a graffiti wall. Was Mona Lisa the artist? She's got the can of paint!

Lots of color and texture were combined in "Lucky".  Lots of imagination, too.

I was impressed with how many quilt artists captured the look of graffiti fonts in their entries. "Life" is an exuberant example. They all must have studied a lot of freight train cars.

I enrolled in a half-day class with Laura Heine of collage quilt fame. Each student selected a pattern and fabric kit for one of her quilt block designs. Then we spent class time learning her methods for using fusible applique methods to assemble the blocks. I'm a slow worker in classes and did not make the progress my classmates did, so I'll show a couple of their projects and share mine when it's completed. Isn't this turkey colorful and cute?

And the snail- this floral one is so appealing. The hardest part of the class was choosing which pattern to work on. Mine is a peacock. You can see one of the key tools Laura recommends for making collage quilts which is the Applique Fuse Mat. It's a step up from parchment paper and other non-stick surfaces.  Of course I bought one to use on this and future projects.

And did I mention the vendors? Fabrics, threads, notions, patterns, sewing machines, longarm quilting machines, jewelry, and much more. After two days at the quilt show, I found myself pretty bushed from all the walking and probably from the sensory overload, too! But I'd do it again tomorrow if I could. What a treat. 

Zipping Along...

I'm pretty committed this year to using up the overabundance of supplies that reside in my sewing room. In fact when we were invited to choose a word for the year, I hyphenated the concept into my word: Use-it-up. Fortunately plenty of fun ideas abound for doing this and I came across a post by friend Robbie's Paw Prints. She had followed a tutorial by Laura Kemshall for making Upcycled Purses. I was intrigued, so I found the site on Design Matters TV where I could sign up, too. The purses are made using old quilt projects. One thing I enjoy is participating in quilt challenges and making projects to explore new methods. So there were many small projects hanging in the closet and doing nothing because there is just not enough wall space to display them all. These seemed like the perfect projects to upcycle. The little purse shown here began as a sample block, got turned into a quilt challenge project, and finally became a useful zipper bag!

This was a stitch sampler project for learning and using my sewing machine's decorative stitches. I like that it, too, has become a functional piece. There happened to be several colorful zippers in my supplies, so it worked out nicely to use them up in such a fun way.

This beaded fairy house was part of a "fantasy home" challenge. Since all of the pieces are already quilted, the zipper bags go together very quickly. And Linda has some handy tricks for sewing in the zippers easily. I didn't even need to change to the zipper foot on the machine.

Here's the back side of the dream house bag. Because Linda's online video tutorial is priced in British pounds, I wasn't sure of the exact cost. But I was very pleasantly surprised at the conversion rate that showed it to be very affordable- well under $5. So I made good use of my purchase and have continual access to the video for review as needed.

This zipper bag is made using a class project done in a workshop with Jane Sassaman several years ago. I really enjoyed giving these old projects a new life. So "Use-it-up": old quilt projects-check; an assortment of zippers-check. A nice feeling to be moving toward my goal.

 

Facing the Year...

Our Fiber Art Bee had a painting party for our January meeting. The goal was to paint a face on canvas or other fabric and then use it in a project. We were all pretty intimidated since few of us felt confident about painting a face. But we persevered. Here's my whimsy face all painted and embellished with free-motion stitching. It was great fun and we all enjoyed stretching ourselves creatively in a new year.

I brought a stretched canvas to work on because I thought the taut surface might be easier to paint on that fabric that wants to wiggle around. Also, it had gesso on it already which made it helpful when painting. And canvases were on half-price sale to boot. Simple shapes- that was how we were instructed to begin. And we lightly sketched our faces with pencil first and then came in with paint.

She's progressing with her vintage-style rolled hairdo. My plan was to complete painting on the canvas, then cut it from the frame for the next step. 

Her next step is to become a notebook cover. Quite a few of my small projects become tote bags, notebooks and journals. I might as well make something useful with these experiments!

Painting faces is a messy business as you can see from our instructor's table. All of our work areas looked like this. She had several samples to share with us for inspiration and we will have our big "reveal" at next months meeting. I'm sure I can't make just one- more faces coming soon!

This is one of our instructor's samples. She incorporates her expressive faces into tote bags.

 

New Year, New Project...

 

"Use it up" is my motto for this year. I really need to dig into my fabrics and put them to work. That's what I decided to do over the New Year's weekend by making this quilt-as-you-go tote. While I have an abundance of totes, I'm still drawn to them and they are always useful. They seem to be good repositories for scraps, strips, and other smaller bits of fabrics, too. This is side one of The Alexandra Tote, and as you can see, it's not easy to get a good photo of a tote bag.

Here's side two of what is a pretty roomy bag. It was easy to stitch as well because it's a "sew by number" project. I purchased a pattern with a kit that included batting printed with placement lines and webbing for the strap handles. The strip sizes are the same as pre-cut rolls, so that could make the project even quicker. But my goal was to use what I had on hand, so I first cut strips from assorted fabrics.

Here's the pattern view which shows a few different versions. It's always nice to start the year with a quick, quilty finish, and I know I'll get plenty of use from this bag. Now to make more progress in reducing the fabrics and other supplies on hand! 

Santa Claus is Coming to Town...

 

This Old World Santa is waiting by the tree. He's new this year. Our Fiber Bee had a make-it workshop in July to make these dolls. I made this version in Buffalo Plaid.

And this one in Caribbean red and white print.

A few of the Santas gathered at our Christmas luncheon. One of the Santas is hiding a bottle inside- a clever and creative design change made by one of the members.

The new Santas join this one I made some years ago, all to add some holiday festivity to our home.

And here's a long, tall Santa. He stands about 20" high and is made from tin.

Do you believe?

This tiny acrylic Santa has a switch that allows him to light up and sparkle. Ho, ho, ho.

Our local museum had a wonderful display of a collection of Santas. So detailed.

This one gave me pause. Do you think it's Mrs. Santa, or a European costumed Santa Claus? I'm sure you've been very good this year. I appreciate your following and commenting on my blog throughout the year, and I plan to put in a good work with him on your behalf! Merry Christmas!

'Tis the Season...

 

'Tis the season to bless the horses! And we just did so on a beautiful weekend at the Horse Protection Association of Florida. They have more than 40 rescue horses, mini horses, and donkeys at their facility and they do wonderful work to improve the lives of horses. This is Courage who was abandoned and later brought to the farm. He's been through a lot in his 15 years, but is now living with people who love and care for him.

In addition to seeing to their proper feeding and health care, the staff and volunteers work with the animals to provide training and help them to become more adoptable. Most of the minis have transformed from shy and timid to confident and friendly thanks to the good care and attention of the staff.

The six mini horses at the farm are called "Miracle Minis". There is a one-mile long path around the farm where visitors can take a Spirit Walk with one of the minis. Benches along the path provide a place to sit and reflect or meditate on the qualities represented by each mini's name- Faith, Hope, Love, Courage, Fortitude, and Peace. For the blessing, the minis had a ribbon tied in their tails that dedicated them "Holy to the Lord". All of the other horses and donkeys also received a blessing as they stood in their pastures. This is Love getting ready to walk with her new two-legged friends.

This mare needed to pause for a drink before her blessing.

And this is Ana- she and two of her offspring were brought to the farm after their rescue. There are several mustangs on the property as well.

We didn't limit the blessing to horses- there were several dogs and even a chicken on the property. Some visitors brought their dogs on leash. This little Corgi is Abby, and she enjoyed her day out. The  blessing of the animals events stem from the age-old teachings of St. Francis- patron saint of animals and the environment. A lovely day and a lovely tradition!

New Life for Denim Scraps...

 

Well I've gone and followed a rabbit trail now! It seems I'm unable to stop making these denim bead necklaces. They are so simple, colorful, and easy to make that a new necklace invents itself in my mind while I'm working on the current one. And then it has to happen of course. Plus these necklaces are just so pretty. Making them long enough to go over the head means no need for clasps or findings, which really does simplify things. I just tie off the ends of the cord. And those broken pieces of jewelry and beads I've collected over the years? They wind up in these necklaces. It's quite satisfying to use up bits and pieces and upcycle materials.

This necklace is titled "Pure Water" and was made for our granddaughter. She works for a water resources company and when I found this old earring in the "parts department", it looked like a raindrop of fresh clean water.

A visit to the bead box supplied the spacer beads for all of these necklaces.  All that's needed to assemble the necklace is some cording to string the beads, chunky beads for spacers, a focal piece for the pendant, and a jewelry bail with glue to hang the pendant. Fun, fun! Would you wear a necklace like these? Do you have a favorite among these three?

The core bead begins with a strip of denim wrapped and glued around a recycled drinking straw and trimmed at the ends so the straw remains inside for stability. Then a wrapping of various colors of embroidery floss is added. And finally there's an outer wrap of metallic sewing thread or bead wire with seed beads added. Make a bunch and soon you'll have a necklace worth. 

You can see that I'm not going to be able to stop because I found so many candidates for pendants. Of course each one will require a necklace to showcase it. The bottom piece was given to me by a crafting friend. It's made from seashells and pearls. It's so delicate and lovely. I like doing fiddly things, but shell craft may be too fiddly for even me! But the results are wonderful and I'm happy to have this piece.  I'm not stopping at denim, either. Upcoming posts will show some other fabric bead styles that are just as easy to make. So, other craft projects are set aside for now while I use up these bits and pieces. That could take awhile!