Small Town Church - First Art Quilt of 2014

On the way to work a few weeks ago, I drove past this small Presbyterian church in Magna, UT. Its beauty struck me and I literally had to pull the car over to snap a few pictures on my phone. The lines are so clean, the colors so bold and true. I loved the modest and perfect beauty of this home of worship. It is in stark contrast to the huge and somewhat glamorous temples that are so commonly linked to the state of Utah. I knew immediately that I wanted to create an art quilt of this image.

Wouldn't you know it, the next week Project Quilting started up again. The first challenge was to create a quilt with fabric strings (fabric no wider that 2.5" across").

I roughly sketched out an idea of the quilt on graph paper and began slicing up the fabric I wanted to use.

I then glue basted all the strips on to muslin. After fussing, snipping and finally completing the layout, I then basted a grey felt back and a white, small weave tulle on top. Why the tulle? Since I don't use fusible webbing, the fabric can begin to lift. If I quilt with a discreet tulle layer on top, it keeps the fabric laying down.

And this is the final quilt; it is approximately a 20" square. I am shipping it off this week for consideration in a publication and upon its return, I will donate to the church. Maybe they would be happy to display it?
Here are some detail pics..

I've really embraced what I considered to be my "style". I am not fully abstract nor am I a realist artist. I truly like to focus evoking an emotion and giving more of a memory of an image, rather than an exact replica.

xo,
Jenny

A Productive Start to the Month

Our year has started off with so much happiness. We found out we are expecting a baby boy! Our two girls are pretty ecstatic to be blessed with a baby brother. We are planning on making the theme of his nursery nautical/ fishing -- I have been pinning ideas like crazy. What a change we will have, for the last 5 years our home has been adorned with pink, princesses and tutus. I think my husband will be happy to add a bit more race cars and dinos.

Even though I've been fending off a bad cold and have lost a majority of my voice, my energy levels are high and I've been whipping through quilt tops. In less than two weeks, I've created 3 quilt tops, completed one quilt, and create a mini art quilt. This is not my normal speed and it's been fabulous to get so much done.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you are pretty familiar with the Scrappy-Trip-Along. A great quilt pattern that utilizes scraps and comes together so fast; the tutorial is here. This block can be fashioned in various ways and they all look amazing. This quilt is for a friend of mine that just adopted a sweet, baby boy from Africa. His nursery is full of bright, happy colors. I did change the layout a bit before the final piecing, it was a bit dark in the lower right in this picture.

 Last year, my guild friend Elisa hosted a hexagon challenge using FreeSpirit's Bee's Knees fabric line. I created my baby quilt using a faux applique technique. Basically you sew the fabric to fusible interfacing and iron it on the base fabric. It achieves a clean applique edge, but does not adhere the fabrics flat together and it's super fast! 

This is the improv pieced back of the quilt. I love the bright colors and bee motif. This will be Baby Boy's first quilt.

The season 4 of Project Quilting started back up this week and the first challenge was "A square in a square.. ". I was inspired to finally create a mini art piece based on our church. Every Sunday I'm fascinated by the blue, green and purple stain glass squares featured in our parish. I've titled it "Church Squares".. Small art quilts by far are more challenging for me! This one measures a modest 8.5" square.

It was a fabulous excuse to break open into my new box of Inktense pencils and experiment. So much fun! This was on a very heavy canvas fabric. I colored the squares with the pencils first. Then mixed equal portions of water with fabric medium and painted in the squares. It is magical to watch the colored pencil come alive with a bit of medium. Once it dried I went back and filled in the other areas with Lumiere metallic paint.

 

Last by not least, I've retrieved this Valentine quilt top that was shelved last year. It was a simple and sweet construction, adorned with a bit of hand embroidery. I now have it loaded on my mid-arm, Fiona, and hoping to have it completed by late this evening.

Phew.. It's been a busy two weeks!

Modern Cowboy

For this week on Project Quilting we were asked to create a work based off a song title. I knew immediately that I wanted to work on this quilt for my family. I've envisioned this quilt for several months and just haven't had the time to dedicate to it. My song inspiration was "Modern Cowboy" by Tesla and I was also inspired by my family.

I wish I could photograph this piece in a way that does it justice. There are a number of painted layers with thread painting as well.

I can't wait to hang it in our bedroom. I know my Cowboy's life is nothing like he envisioned, but more importantly, I know he loves it with every bit of his heart..

Where Does Inspiration Come From

There are times when I'm flooded with ideas. They always seem to hit me at inopportune times..like when I'm trying to fall asleep, driving Kiddo to school, or in the shower. And there are plenty of times when trying to think of something new and creative is painful and my brain stalls. What do I do? I look for creative prompts and try to work past it.

I'm so glad Project Quilting is back in full swing. Kim has worked at hard at creating an atmosphere that is welcoming and encouraging. The week long challenge is never long enough for me to complete what I envision, BUT it gives me incredible inspiration and a safe place to try something new. Whether you are a novice or experienced, modern or traditional, you have to give it a try.

This week the challenge was to be inspired by architecture. I had a number of ideas, but they always ended up being too literal. The week was coming to an end and I had nothing to show for it. On the way to Kiddo's school I was listening to The Muppets soundtrack and racking my brain. This started a very long train of thought..

..The Muppets.. "The Muppets Take Manhattan" movie..famous New York buildings..

The Empire State Building... "Sleepless in Seattle" and the Empire lit up with a heart for Valentine's Day..

Valentine's Day.. love.. so in love my with my husband.. haven't painted much since I fell in love with my Hubby...miss painting.. favorite artist Van Gogh..favorite painting "Starry Night"...

Does everyone's else brain work in such crazy ways?

So.. what I came up with is to take a spin on "Starry Night".. something romantic and something that focuses on the beauty of architecture instead of nature. 

I wanted to try a few new techniques as well. I had recently read about an alternate to using fusible when working with appliques. The main idea is to over saturate the fabric with starch and lots of hot ironing. It worked great - really cut down on fraying with raw edge applique, considerably cheaper, and pretty quick.

Here is a picture of where I started with the simple appliques..

 And then I decided that I wanted to play with painting on fabric. It would be crazy to try a Van Gogh and not have any actual painting.I worked with both fabric paints and acrylic paints mixed with a textile medium. I have lots and lots..and lots to learn. BUT I had soo much fun and will do it more in the future.

 Then it was time for lots of free motion quilting. Some with colored thread, some with different colored bobbin thread, some monofilament.. You can't learn if you don't take risks and put yourself out there.

 And here is my completed quilt. I love the warmth and love that emanates from this piece. It just makes me happy to look at and it made me happy to make. In my opinion, quilting should be a release and not a source of stress.

 I have a love/hate relationship with the heart.I feel it's distracting,but it was the source of inspiration and it felt necessary to keep. I hope Van Gogh isn't turning in his grave.. hope he would enjoy a more romantic take on his breathtaking work..

Sky Specimen

His Veins Run Blue

Project Quilting

My piece, "His Veins Run Blue", is inspired by my husband. and of course our theme the hardware store.

It is a mini art quilt - 6.5" x 7.5"

When I visited the store for inspiration, I thought about how the only times I go to Lowe's or Home Depot is when my husband needs something. More than half the week he is a white collar electrical engineer, but if he had it his way everyday his hands would be dirty from a blue collar job.

The items I was inspired by were the blades (the silver points on the quilt), the denim (the Wrangler emblem),

and red bandannas.

I did the white frame to symbolize the white collar that boxes in my husband while

the blue collar elements are trying to sneak out.

I embellished with lots of topstitching - similar to what you would see on shirts and jeans - including using my serger.

A Mother Never Forgets

Many and not so many of you know

that I lost a pregnancy two Octobers ago.

It was early on, but when I saw that pink positive sign

I gave my heart away.

And it broke that October.

We conceived again just a few months later with Juliette.

And she was born the following October.

It was the most amazing, bittersweet full circle I had

encountered in my life.

I could not have my amazing, sweet Jules had I not lost the pregnancy.

But a mother never forgets..

For this week's Project Quilting and my first entry into AAQ,

I present "A Mother Never Forgets"

Myself with my two girls

forever linked to our angel baby.

Hot Coffee, Mississippi

For this week's Project Quilting,

we were tasked to be inspired by a city's name.

It was not supposed to be based on what

you knew of the city (ie. the Eiffel Tower in Paris),

rather the name itself was supposed to invoke an image.

After Googling "funny city names" and blushing over

some poor taste names, I decided on Hot Coffee, Mississippi.

I knew immediately that I wanted to do a quilted collage

of an ode to my favorite brew pub - Starbuck's.

Say what you will about the chain

(in my old home of Queen Creek, AZ there were 3 in a cross-street..no lie!)

there have been many mornings that my sanity

was saved by their candyified coffee.

My quilt is modest - it was another one done in nap.

I was excited to have another excuse to

some free motion embroidery.

Starbuck's, how I do quilt thee..

Project Quilting 2011

As much as I love to sew and quilt,

I will never apply to be on "Project Runway".

I truly have NO desire to be on TV whatsoever.

However, I love, love, love "Project Quilting"!
It is the brainchild of Kim's Crafty Apple.

Each week we have a new challenge

(oh, and we all know how I love a crafty challenge!)

If you have any interest in quilting at all,

I heartily encourage you to join.

It will be a great way to move you to quilt each week.

You'll start to truly "think outside the square".

For this challenge we were limited to the 3 primary colors,

each one had to be at least 6" square, and cut in no more than 4 pieces.

I was stuck on the idea that the primary colors are the "code" for all colors.

That got me thinking to color recipes.

I quilted with the idea that this was a code or recipe

for a certain final color; that each applique was a value.

I free motioned only in the white area as

I wanted the color values to be uncomplicated by topstitching.

Final size 9" x 20.5"

I love it so much that I'm going to make

another one in the colors of our bedroom.

And I'm strongly thinking of making this

into a mini quilt pattern for

A Quiet Stitch.

It will take you about the time of 1 nap

(isn't that a great measurement for a SAHM?)

It's not intimidating and very rewarding!