Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope

During the Houston show in 2008, Diane Petersmarck ran a stay at home challenge [SAHC]. Lois Jarvis provided a piece of her Rust-Tex fabric for each of us. Then, if we used the fabric in one of the quilts, Diane's sister Beth, sent us a piece of her hand dyed silk velvet.

Basically, we all made our little quilts for Ami's Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I made 5.  I used the Rust-Tex fabric for one; the other four used photos of my face broken up in different ways.  The Rust-Tex quilt and 2 photo quilts were put up for sale during the Houston show of 2009.  I thought maybe the other 2 were not good enough, since they were not put up for sale.  The 2 kept out featured my whole face; I thought maybe that was not acceptable.  At the time I was really disappointed. 

The Changing Face of Alzheimer's 2

Recently, that disappointment turned to elation. I was told those 2 were kept out because Ami was planning a traveling show for 2011. Approximately 100 quilts were kept out as possibilities. 53 quilts were picked out of that batch to be part of the show. One of mine is going to be in this exhibit, "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope".  I am thrilled and honored to be part of this traveling show which starts in January of 2011.  It is a totally unexpected surprise.  

If you would like to shop Lois' Rust-Tex store, click here

http://www.rust-tex.com/

If you would like some of Beth's wonderful fabric, click here.
http://quiltersstitchtogether.com/index.html

For a short time, all of the chosen quilts may be seen here
http://www.alzquilts.org/exhibit.html

PS.  I really wish I had used someone elses' face.  I'm already tired of looking at 'me'.

15 Pears

15 Pears

This is one of the pieces I started during my week at a surface design retreat. The colors are a real divergence for me. I agreed to donate 3 10"x10" pieces for a local charity event in October. Knowing how I can not always trust my body to behave, I'm trying to do them now. One done, 2 to go.

This one has many textures and is both silk screen and free form paint applied with some little scrapers I made out of Styrofoam. The Styrofoam was the kind that food is put in at the market. This is easy to cut and shape. Hope you all try using this free material.
 
I'm not a big fan of variegated thread.  However, it just seemed to fit this colorful piece.  Comments appreciated.  What else could I have used.

Flower Child

original photo of Morgandy (taken by her Father)

I finally finished this FFFC quilt I've been working on for two weeks. I had the concept before my week at the surface design workshop. I actually made a background for it while I was there. Therefore, it should have gone very quickly. Well almost. There were a few bumps in the road.

Although I had a photo I was planning on using. I wanted it bigger than the printout from the 8.5"x11" size that is my printer capability. To get around this, I thought I would rotate the photo. When I tried this in Picasa, I lost large hunks of the photo. I went into Paint, added some blank edges all around. Then back to Picasa to rotate it. This worked GREAT. Then I was able to trim to size. Therefore I printed the largest possible image of Morgandy on the same size paper.

Morgandy rotated after adding borders all around.

Sorry I could not show the borders added.

Apparently the file type is not compatible to this system.

Original rotated and cropped photo after some added paint.

You will notice the original photo has some hidden body parts. I painted over the photo to add those parts. At my first try, I painted the shoes with a 'shiny black' paint.  It looked more blue than black.  It took 3 coats of paint to cover that up.

This is the background that I made specifically for this quilt.

Satisfied, I tried the cut out against my intended background. Nope! That did not work. I went through my stash and found some flowered fabric I really thought would work. Nope. That was not it either. Then my small group came to the rescue. Peggy suggested I use bites of both, yet turn over the flowered fabric because it was so bright. [I love bright, gaudy and glitz.] That worked much better and became my finished background.  Thanks Peggy.  I couldn't have done it without your input.

Problems quilting were major tension problems. Of course when the machine is giving me tension problems, I also tense up. Finally I just did it. I decided to quilt around each flower petal so that it would really look like a blanket of flowers.

After the binding was on, I hated the binding. I thought the black would frame the quilt and the black jumper would pick it up. No. It was overpowering. Off with the binding. Next I faced it. That was rather quick except for the hours of picking out the batting from the micro stitching I like to use.

'Flower Child', 12" x 17.5"

detail showing dimensional flowers

'Flower Child' detail

In the end I am pleased with it. When the facing was stitched I added the intended dimensional flowers.

It is a Mother's Day gift for Morgandy's Mom. I think she will like it. At least I am happy with the outcome. I'm finishing a bit close to the gift giving deadline, but I did make it.

Published Again

My quilt, 'The Retrospective Theater' is on page 226 of the beautiful new Lark book, "500 Art Quilts".

Now available in stores and by email order.
http://www.larkbooks.com/catalog?isbn=9781600590580

This is my quilt, 'The Retrospective Theater", 

as viewed in the "The Silver Screen" exhibit during the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, California 2008.  [This photo, courtesy of Larkin Van Horn, is not in the book.]]

Gable and Corbert closeup. 

[This photo not in the book]

To see the photo that is published in this lovely book plus step by step of how I made the quilt, please click the following link.

http://designerann.blogspot.com/2008/07/retrospective-theater.html

Comfortable

Fiberarts Squared is a new group doing a 12" X 12" challenge every two months. This is the first challenge. The hostess chose the word 'comfort'. This was interpreted in many different ways.

I tried to think of what image would bring to mind some form of the word comfort. My little baby nestled on his mother's shoulder makes me think 'comfortable'. After all, what could be more comforting or comfortable than snuggled in that soft, warm niche of a mother's neck and shoulder as she cradles you in her arms.   So comfortable in fact, the baby fell asleep.

Comfortable

The 'painting' was drawn on soy milk soaked fabric using water color pencils. Even after heat setting, I found the color was not permanent. Therefore, I painted on a thin layer of medium. I then heavily quilted the face. I'm not totally satisfied with how the face came out. I drew my intentions on a print of the painting. However, sometimes when I looked up to see the quilt line drawing, I moved off my spot. What I think I really need to do is make some marks directly on the quilt. I got a liquid pen with wash-away ink. That dried up almost immediately. The marks left by chalk were too big. Suggestions appreciated.