So much fun, so many quilts!

In the past several months I've been creating quilts for some of the specialty exhibits at the International Quilt Festival. In the previous post I showed the floral quilt that was rejected. I made a quilt for the Tactile Architecture exhibit but did not get it completed. I can't show you the picture because I haven't decided what to enter it in. Some shows don't allow a piece to have been published. My "Big Apples" quilt was accepted into the Ruby Jubilee Celebration but did not have a restriction on showing photos. I had a quilt accepted into "Home" in Houston, but can't show a photo. I'm hoping to have a piece accepted into "Life After 40" and I entered the What's for Dinner for either placemats or centerpieces. I entered my painted paper towel bead bowl as a vase.



I've been photographing my quilts on the bed with light coming in from behind. What a difference. Photographing on a wall with good light does not do the quilting justice. Here are some photos of the quilt accepted into Houston's Ruby Jubilee opening  at the Internationa Quilt Festival: Big Apples

This was taken hanging on the wall. It is 50"x50" and this is the whole quilt, huge slices on the left and partial whole apples on the right.
Here it is taken with light coming in the window...

                                      

The quilt above was quilted with my Bernina 820 on a Grace frame created for the 800 series and was the first quilt I ever made on a free motion long arm table. I was frustrated by not being able to see behind the stitch regulator so I went out and found a long arm machine that would fit on the cradle of the Grace frame. I love quilting on a table with the 820. It has a 12" space to quilt in and has lots of great light. I have taught free motion quilting for 5 years and love quilting.

The machine I bought is a Pfaff powerquilter 16 which fits on the Grace free motion table.

And here is"Life After 40...from Constriction to Creativity"I painted canvas with acrylic paint and then free motion quilted on my new Pfaff Powerquilter 16 which I set up on my Grace frame.   My new Pfaff works beautifully on the Grace frame even tho it was meant to be used on a stationary table. I'm going to be communicating with Pfaff about how well it adapted to the moving platform.

 Here is my Life After 40: The idea was to represent the change from rules oriented ages up to 40 and the freedom found in my 50's, 60's and now 70's. The lower left shows a happy creative life with some constraints. Those disappeared as my nest emptied and I started a new career doing custom paintings and faux finishing for several interior designers. I worked for 25 years creating new environments for other people and art for the new environments. Much creative growth and lots of fulfillment between age 40 and now. In 2006 I semi-retired from crawling up and down very tall ladders (and crawling behind potties) and began playing with something new to me....art quilting. Coming from a background of traditional quilting, I had much to discover. I've been quilting since I learned hand quilting from my Gram at age 9. From 1974 when I rediscovered quilting, appliqueing and piecing and hand quilting, I gradually got more interested in painting on fabric and then quilting and eventually I learned how to (heaven forbid) machine free motion quilt! 

I have been teaching surface design techniques and various art quilting methods and growing as an artist. My most recent pieces have mostly been painted quilts. The departure from that was the Big Apples Quilt which could have been painted, but I decided to do huge fused pieces and then free motion quilt on my moving frame with the 820. The fun I had with the moving machine led to the new Pfaff and I am now soooo excited to be able to quilt either on a stationary table with my 820 or on the free motion moving platform table with the Pfaff.

This is the full picture of Life after 40 and then details of the quilting:

                                     

I love the way the quilting adds another dimension to the painting!

I also entered another painted canvas quilt into Life After 40, International Quilt Festival. It is called  40 Isn't Old If You Are A Tree! It is painted with acrylic and was appliqued with ribbons, organza, various papers, painted fusible batting strips (red and orange tree leaf area), fancy fibers and gloss medium. It was quilted on a stationary machine.

You may notice this piece has had other names in the past. It has grown up through several revisions. The original painting that I took off its frame was the Old Oak Tree. I wish I had taken a picture of it before its transformation.

I'll be waiting to hear in August if either of these pieces will be included in the 40th anniversary celebration of IQA. I will certainly let you know!

Happily Quilting and Teaching!