Unknown Sunflower block

This is an unknown sunflower block that is asking for help in being identified.
I met a very sweet woman who would like to finish a project that her, now deceased, sister started. This is a story that has played out numerous times in families all across the world and I am happy to be a small part of the process of completing this labor of love.
Sis was very organized as far as labeling all the bags with letters and numbers along with the size of the blocks contained within. The only thing missing is the actual pattern.
As far as we can tell, there are 12 flowers: 6 of the gold and rust and 6 of gold and black. We are guessing 12 since we found 12 completed blocks with a stem and 2 leaves. None of the sunflowers have been completed but a dedicated few were able to puzzle a block together to allow a plan to be put into action. I wrote some directions for her to follow as phase one but I am sure we all agree that knowing where you are going is extremely helpful.
Any help in locating a pattern would be most definately appreciated.
Thank you!

Beading 101

Saturday I taught a beading class at my local quilt shop. I wanted a project that was fun and small enough that it would get finished someday. The ornament is a great motivator and can definately be accomplished by Christmas. It started as a 3" square that I then stamped in setacolor paint with a holly stamp I made myself using fun foam and a wood base. Bead the holly following the outline, add your vines using DMC floss in a stem stitch, bind, and finish with a beaded hang and tassle. Voila, instant gift made with love.

The class seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and I had lots of yummy beaded show and tell for them to ooooh/aaaah over. I think we all know and agree that is the most important part!

Below is another example of how to dress up a simple block for yourself or a gift. A simple 9 patch with each square cut at 3" ends up at 8" square to fit into a purchased 8" square frame. I quilted it with an X design in each of the red squares and then beaded the white squares. Depending on how much beading you choose to do, you could reverse this and have 5 hearts.

Both of these ideas are simple, fun, relatively quick and allow you to take advantage of all the wonderful beads out there that are calorie-free candy!
Enjoy and happy beading.

Sales and other thoughts...

So a bit more than a month has gone by with 6 small sales in all, along with an ornament and lots of notecards from the gallery....YIPPEE! The thread paintings are a favorite it seems and the pile of photos to choose from for my next project is piling up.

This was the first thread painting to sell after my "Midsummers Dream" piece."Still Beauty"

5" x 7" framed to 8" x 10"

I really do love this little piece...it is so relaxing to look at. Since I retire each photo as it is used, I have gone back to the Beaufort harbor looking for more wonderful shots but the harbor is now very crowded. The lesson is always have your camera because you never know when the perfect inspiration will come along.

It has been a long and busy, sad and invigorating month for my family. My baby girl went to college this year. My older daughter went back but into her own apartment this year opening up a whole new can of paranoid worries for her mother. We became official empty nesters on our 21st anniversary.

I held it together pretty well until we went out to dinner for our anniversary. With wine in hand, as my husband toasted us, I started crying. He asked for me not to since we were in the middle of a nice restaurant and thankfully it wasn't the ugly cry, but cry I did. Don't get me wrong, I am excited-just worried too and I miss my daily hugs. Of course they think I am nuts:) That is okay...it is part of my job.

With all this free time you would think I have been getting so much accomplished; but after spending 3 days cleaning the studio, I have been kind of floundering around. This week really feels like I am getting my groove back though and what better way than to write a post about what so many of us go through eventually.

You must move forward in life especially if you want your art to grow and evolve.

I will leave you with a photo of one of my ornaments that I sell. This is of the Cape Lookout lighthouse here in NC. Orders are always welcome and coming by October's end, I will also have Hatteras along with 4 other NC lighthouses.

Hand inked with beaded hang and accents.

Blissful Validation!

I have been so busy the last week helping my daughter attend college orientation (college is 3+ hours away) that I haven't had a chance to shout from the 'internet' rooftops about my sale last week. On Mondays I work at a local gallery where some of my work hangs and last Monday a gentleman came in and just loved my "Midsummer's Dream" piece. It is one of my favorites and has received lots of admiration so I thanked him. As he wandered the gallery, he kept coming back to it and finally decided he had to have it:) I have sold work via commission before, mostly more traditional pieces, and never out of a gallery setting; so I don't know that there are words adequate enough to describe the pure exhiliration I felt as I bundled up my baby and sent it off to live with someone new. There is no better validation of what you do as an artist and the time and love you put into your work than to have someone come in and purchase your art with their hard-earned money. When your work hangs in a gallery next to so much beautiful work and yours is the one they choose, you can't help but feel Blissful Validation for all your long hours.
I did manage to keep my composure even though I was about to burst on the inside:)

Simple shapes lead to design wealth

Wow, where did the time go since my last post? Well, I know some of it was spent with the lovely group at the Durham Orange Quilt Guild. I was their June program and had so much fun sharing my design ideas with them.

One of my lectures is about using simple shapes that we all know and can draw (I promise) to design with. The above picture is of a gum tree. Once you learn to break it down into simple shapes, you can design your own art quilts. I think in the beginning we are all a bit intimidated about where to start and my lecture, "All Around Us: An Interactive Design Lecture", gives a full hour of 'jumping off' ideas.

What can you do with circles, rectangles, and triangles?

Crystal Coast Quilt Show 2009

The quilt show was wonderful as usual. We had over 120 entries along with the Alzheimer's:Forgetting Piece by Piece exhibit. I conducted a bead demo on Friday and Saturday with positive turn out and sign ups for a September class.

This is 'Swarley' (long story for a goofy name). 'Swarley' didn't make it to Paducah this year but was juried into the Mancuso Mid Atlantic show in February and won an Honorable Mention at the guild show in the group quilt category. It is all hand appliqued and then long arm quilted by my friend Beth Denmon, Illinois.
This is 'UP UP UP' and my entry for the guild challenge. Our challenge this year was to correspond with the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Innitiative in size only. Requirements were that the piece not be bigger than 9" x 12" to fit a priority envelope, monochromatic, and have a theme of Journey.

I chose a photograph of a balloon from a festival we used to attend every September in St. Louis. As I watched every year I imagined the journeys the participants would have along their path. It won 2nd place for 'Most Unusual Journey' and will eventually be donated to the Alzheimers Innitiative.

Last but not least is 'Wonder Under the Waves' by the Beachrageous group of Susan Hinzman, Lynn Strausbach, Mary Henris, Robin Koehler, and Eileen Williams-respectively.

It really is stunning hanging all together and everyone was impressed.

Hope you enjoyed the mini quilt show.

Wonder Under the Waves

I belong to an art group named Artrageous and when we got too big, we splintered off into smaller groups. A few times a year the smaller groups reunite into our larger group for wonderful show and tells. My smaller group is named Beachrageous since we all live out near the beach.

The five of us came up with our own challenge:

Under the Sea theme

Must use a piece of the five exchange fabrics in the background

Must conform to the preset shape agreed upon

Any embellishments work

We display together but each own our own section

I will not be showing the final 5 together until after the quilt guild show that we are entered into is over (May 15th and 16th- Crystal Coast Convention Center, Morehead City, NC).

Once I got going, I had a really good time. The background is pieced 2" squares. The applique is fusible with all free motion quilting. Embellishments include 3d fan coral, beadwork, beaded fringe, shells, and shrink art fish and sea anemones.

This detail shot shows the fan coral and a few anemones. I have decided to recreate this piece to sell since this one is for exhibit only.