Mariner's Compass

After all my years of quilting, my sweet husband asked for a quilt for his office--WOW! I did make him a quilt right after learning to quilt and he loves it...but it stays here-not in public. I felt honored that he wanted to hang one in his office. I shouldn't be surprised because he is super supportive...it still was fun to be asked.

So after some collaborating, this is what we decided on. He is a career Coastie (Coast Guard) and lives his life by this motto, 'Honor, Respect, Devotion to duty'. He has been my compass through every storm and so this was a joy to make.

The compass is an original hand drafted design. The corners are machine quilted drawings of an anchor to represent his enlisted years and an eagle to represent his officer years. All the lettering is hand appliqued.

It really turned out beautifully and was a learning experience for me in regards to the compass. I love you, Jim.

I am the nose!

"‘Fresh Picked!’ Finalists Announced
We’ve just announced the finalists of the 2010 Quilting Arts Calendar Contest on the Editor’s blog! This year’s finalists were especially hard to pick, as we had to choose from more than 300 luscious depictions of the “Fresh Picked!” theme, including flowers, fruits, vegetables, and one nose. "

I have been so busy that it feels like I lost the month of March and I was having a blast doing so. One of the reasons was working on my entries to Quilting Arts 2010 Calendar contest. The above piece titled "100 Pages to a New You" wasn't chosen but it was fun to make. Learning this morning that I was the only one to enter a nose, just made my day.

When I heard the theme, my husband and I both thought noses--I guess we are a bit twisted. I mulled it over for weeks until a conversation with friends from my art group brought the design around to picking a new nose from a catalog in a plastic surgeon's office. After that the design and layout went very smooth. I don't know what will become of it now unless someone knows a surgeon with a sense of humor that would like to purchase it.

Here is a picture of the other entry titled "Bursting Sweet":

This piece was inspired by an original grape piece with just one cluster in another color way. I used painted Tyvek, free motion quilting, and hand beading. All in all a fun experience.

In the meantime, March brought about enough experiences to blog for a month....now just to do it:) I thought I heard a news story this week that procrastination was healthy for you...I am working on improving my health---Have a fantastic week!

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY

Life is all about Love, Loyalty, and Friendship. What better way to show that to a dear friend than with a gift. http://nestlingsbyrobin.com/pattern_quilts.html
This design is dear to me, not just because I am Irish, but because my mother and I designed it together and had a blast doing so.
The claddagh is mostly known for it's 'betrothed' history of facing the heart in on your finger when spoken for. The other little tidbit is that the claddaghs are passed down from Grandmother to Granddaughter. I wear my Grandmother's proudly. It is the ring that my Grandfather put on her finger on their 50th anniversary vow renewal. Much love to you both:)
May you all have a wonderfully mischievous day-Irish or not!
Check in later this week for photos of my workshop-Exploding Patterns.

The Tree Project

The International Fiber Collaborative will be assembling a full-sized tree in April. They will be needing up to 30,000 leaves made of fiber in some form. I am a fiber artist and so I grabbed some scraps and away I went....SO MUCH FUN!

I used darker strips on the back side so they would be reversible. The batting was lightly sprayed with basting spray and the strips were put down in a 'v' format. After quilting the strips in various swirls and squiggles, I used a freezer paper template leaf form to stitch around. I then cut away the excess and satin stitched the edges.
I am excited to send these in and then follow the project to see what happens. If you have some scraps and a couple of extra hours, be a part of a collaborative just for the fun of it.

Fractured Flowers

This past saturday, Valentine's Day, my fiber art group got together to unveil our 2008 challenge pieces....we gave ourselves flowers. Our challenge was to make four sections of a pink flower. Three of the four sections were then exchanged with others in the group so that you had 4 sections-one of them your own.
As if that weren't enough of a challenge, I made it more so for the 3 other people who received my sections. Somehow I misunderstood the parameters of the challenge and finished my sections-quilted, threadpainted, and embellished-before exchanging them. I am so sorry, again.
The challenges I faced with this were 1. the color pink-not my favorite 2. trying to find a way to fit the pieces together- especially since mine had batting already 3. how to expand on just a flower. Plus all of that, my pink sections didn't really match in values and hues. In the end, I am glad I challenged myself and I like the border I ended up attaching.

On our group's blog http://artrageousfibreart.blogspot.com/ you can see the flower we began with along with the other finished challenges. It was a lot of fun to see how everyone faced the challenge and creatively solved it. Enjoy!

Mirror Writing

This morning on the Ellen Degeneres show there was a woman who could write forwards and backwards at the same time. Intrigued, I thought I would see how hard it would be. I found it quite easy. Amazingly the brain fills in more than I thought and just does it.

The picture is a bit blurry but it was fun and now my mind is racing to see how I could use this new found talent in a more practical way. Knowing that I am easily entertained, I am fighting the urge to keep playing with this and get to work.

Try it...just for fun!

Shop Hop in NC

Here in southeastern North Carolina we are preparing for the annual shop hop called "Romancing Eastern North Carolina". From Wednesday 2/4- Saturday 2/7 come visit 8 shops from Jacksonville, Morehead City, Washington, New Bern, and Kinston.

Again this year I was asked to design a new pattern for The Quilted Butterfly in Morehead City. We decided to go with a small project that is useful, a stashbuster, as well as a doorway to the best addiction of all... beading:) Here is the "Sparkling Scissor Case".

I love the way beading can completely change the look of a fabric. The fabric used for this design was ideal for allowing someone to try their hand at beading by following the design of the fabric. They can embellish as much or as little as they would like. There are two sizes in the pattern for a 10" and a 7" case. You can see the difference in the fabric between the larger embellished case vs. the smaller unembellished case. I can't wait to make more of these.