Here Come Summer!

In honor of the beginning of summer I finished up this cute little scene.

Summer Meadow is 9" X 6.5" .  The background and inspiration for this piece was just a little text sample.  My local guild had a playtime meeting using Intense Drawing Pencils.  One of the members graciously brought her pencil sets and fabric for us to play with.  One of my experiments became the base for this piece.

Unfortunately I forgot to snap a photo of the fabric I painted before I started embellishing on it. But something about the colors and the movement in the paint  just made me think of a meadow and I had to develop it into a finished piece.

Above are close up photos of the finished piece.

Embroidery stitches, beading, netting, tatting, paint, sheer fabric, vintage and costume jewelry, sticks, buttons and gauze.

Layered on painted fabric and backed with 80/20 white batting.

I hope you enjoyed my ode to summer and are inspired to put some finishing touches on your leftovers or experiment pieces. 

Have a great day!

MaryEllen

SAQA Spotlight Auction

 Just a quick post to show my donation to the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) spotlight auction.

On Delicate Wings 4.5" X 6.5"

Gelli print on fabric, various threads for embroidery, lace, beads, covered rings.

The SAQA spotlight Auction runs online April15-April 25, at saqa.com.

For anyone new to my blog SAQA or Studio Art Quilt  Associates is a non-profit organization that promotes art quilts as fine art through exhibitions, publications and other resources. SAQA helps link artists with other artists as well as with various art professionals from around the world.  The Spotlight Auction helps fund many of these activities. You can learn more about SAQA at SAQA.com 

I hope you are able to stop by the SAQA site and enjoy seeing the donations from all the artists.

Have a great day!!

MaryEllen

The Butterfly Challenge--Making Fidget Quilts

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry it's been a few months since I posted anything but travel and just working on projects has been keeping me busy.  I'm sure everyone can relate to that!

Today's post is really about making something out of a mistake.  Ever have one of those projects that just didn't work out?! Now what do you do with something that's not really something you want or need.  

My local BEE had a summer challenge to use this wonderful panel.  Each member of the BEE received the same panel and we could do whatever - large, small, use lots of the panel or just a bit, our choice.

 

The panel was beautiful and so full of color!

"Awaken' by CHONG-A HWANG For Timeless Treasures Fabrics.

I jumped right in making a wall hanging, adding extra blocks, lots of sashing and tons of quilting.  The finished piece was fine but not my vision.  I didn't really have a space to hang it.  I hadn't planned on it as a baby quilt so I didn't use the best soft fabric for the backing.  Now what?.

Awakening panel. My attempt at designing a butterfly blocks.  Poppy blocks - patterns and tutorials may be found by several artists on Pinterest.  Cotton backing. 80/20 batting. Free motion quilting on my domestic machine.

If you follow me you may remember that I enjoy making fidget quilts for an Alzheimer/dementia charity.

So I picked up the rotary cutter and slash--4 pieces!

I then went to work adding the fun stuff.  Ribbons, yo-yo's, lace rick-rack. and various trims.

    A stitching detail to show how it can be used for extra texture.

I stayed with mostly trims and stitching.  Buttons and other things can be added to fidget quilts but great care must be taken that they are firmly on, so I decided to pass on using them for this project.

In the end I was super excited to use this colorful panel in a way that will truly brighten someone's day!

Thanks for stopping in.

I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful day

MaryEllen

Wild Grapes

Just a quick look at a piece I made for the the Dallas Area Fiber Artist show Wild: Persetives in Fiber, which

 is running now through August 10th.

This piece was based on a series of fall photos I took of wild grapes growing along an old country fence line.  Below are a few of my inspiration photos.

I finally settled on one photo I really liked. I did some digital manipulations to photo and then copied to fabric.  After the image was copied to the fabric I continued doing  manipulations to the image.  Below is a photo of the image right off the printer and startng to make additional changes  before stitching.

As well as stitching directly on my image I did areas of stitching that mimicked the original image. In these embroideried areas I tried to make the design in a different scale.

The photo image and embroidered images are both collaged into the finished piece with a mix of interesting fabrics.  The surrounding fabrics are very textured, left raw edged and also hand embroidered and embellished.

Finished size: 20.5" X 17".

Various fabrics including several upholstery fabrics, buttons, lace, silk ribbon, silk fabric, embroidery floss, net, specialty threads and photo on cotton fabric.  Machine quilted on my domestic machine.  80/20 batting. 

This was a fun piece to do.  I enjoyed experimenting using  photo in the piece not just as an inspiration for a piece.  I have lots of ideas And, as always I love the hand stitching and using lots of embellishments.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great day!

MaryEllen

Guild challenge piece- "Let's Take A Walk In The Forest"

 

I used an old photo of my beautiful cocker spaniel, Sandy as inspiration for this piece. This piece will be my entry in the Animal Magnetism Member Challenge for the up coming Dallas Area Fiber Artist Show running July 30-August 10.

The key component of this challenge was using the three challenge fabrics distributed this spring. Below are the three fabric I had in my challenge kit.

The focal point in my piece is the image of Sandy.

I used wool, wool roving and lots of threadpainting to depict her sweet face.

Below are should photos of the work in progress.

 picking colors and shapes.

 

wool placements for features and shading

 wool roving before the threadpainting started.

putting everything together

The triangle squares in the piece were leftovers from another project.  Along with the birch tree fabric they added a feeling of trees in the forest.The placement of Sandy was meant to make her appear to be looking out the window waiting to go for a walk.

Finished piece is 22.5" X 19.5", Machine quilted on my domestic machine 80/20 batting.

More information about the show, as well as other great information about our group, can be found on the Dallas Area Fiber Artists website.

I hope you enjoyed my piece.  

Have a wonderful day!!

MaryEllen

SAQA Spotlight Auction 2024

As The Storm Rolls In

I enjoy working with all kinds of embellishments, threads, lace and fabrics to achieve my vision.  Most of my pieces are inspired by personal photos. This piece is a combination of several photos to capture my vision of a storm coming up over the water.

SAQA spotlight auction pieces are displayed  matted  with a 4.5" X 6.5" opening.

 The SAQA Spotlight Auction is an online event April 12-20, 2024.  Check out all the artwork at saqa.com (Studio Art Quilt Associates).

I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful day!

MaryEllen

Artist Cards

Today's post is a look at my submission to my local fiber art guild's (DAFA) annual Artist Cards Exchange.

I'm new to this group so this was my first time joining in on the fun!

For this challenge each artist was to bring 10 artist cards to exchange.

If you haven't heard of artist cards, each cards is 3.5" X 2.5".  Each person makes their cards to reflect their style and you trade them, like you would baseball cards.  

It's a fun way to share a little bit of art your art with others.  As you can see I tried to go all in, filling the cards with my favorite embellishments and embroidery.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my pieces.

Have a wonderful day,

MaryEllen

Here we go, 2024!!!

My word for the year 2024 is energized!!

It seems like so many things have been put on hold the last few years, but this year I feel ready to go!! I'm looking forward to 2024 as a time for new adventures. I'm also hoping it will be a time for reaching many of the personal and artistic goals, ones that seem to have been put on a waitlist since 2020. I have quite the list of quilts I hope to work on this year, we'll see in December how that all works out!

Last weekend I started 2024 by joining a new quilt group in my area.  The theme of the month was scrap quilts and below are photos of the two quilts I brought for sharing time.  Both of these quilts are older works and I have posted about them before. But, when it comes to being a scrap quilt what could be better than a postage stamp quilt and a crazy quilt.

In 2014 I made this queen sized postage stamp containing over 7000's pieces.

It has a cotton backing. and the binding is a gentle scallop.  I quilted the piece on my domestic machine with a very geometric squares and rectangles design.

Also completed it 2014 is this crazy quilt which I called Paris in the Spring.  The tittle comes from the Paris themed commercial fabric I used for the focal square in each block. 

Embroidery, silk ribbon, beads, buttons, lace and misc. embellishments. This wall hanging is 28" X 28", with a batting and cotton backing.  The piece is tied. 

What are your goals for 2024? Have you start a check list of quilts to make? 

Have a wonderful day!

MaryEllen