Come See "What's For Dinner?"!

My friend and partner-in-crime, Jamie Fingal, and I have a long-running conversation about what we are cooking for dinner.  This lead to a cooking (and restaurant-appreciation) blog, and eventually Jamie began asking her Facebook followers, "What's For Dinner?".  Last fall, we discussed the idea of creating a unique quilt exhibition with this title.

This amazing pan was hand-painted by Desiree Habicht

and given to Jamie for her 60th birthday!

Each piece was created inside a 15"L by 24" W format, something about the size of a placemat (or a cafeteria tray).
We are very excited to debut this exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  Jamie and I had a difficult challenge because there were so many wonderful submissions.  Please stop by and take a peek at this fun and creative exhibit at the festival, and I hope you will stop by the blog and let me know you saw it!
I gave my curator's piece a great deal of thought.  I like the idea that we eat for sustenance, but we also have a lot of traditions surrounding food that are handed down in families.  I have a ritual of making my grandmother's English Date Pudding and my late sister's recipe for Southwestern style dressing each year during the holidays.  There is something comforting about the creation of these dishes and remembering the women who taught me how to make them.
It was with these thoughts that I created my piece, called "Nourishment and Tradition".

I started out by making color laser copies of some of my mother and sister's old recipes.

I like that they have splatters on them.

I laminated the papers to a piece of silk organza with matte medium.

Once dry, the excess paper on the back of the recipes was removed.

Since my husband and I eat a great deal of fish it seems 

appropriate that I would have one on the plate.

And...I never pass up the chance to use a googly eye or two! 

We generally eat a lot of salad or some other type of greens.

I wanted them to be dimensional.

To make the flatware I used my own stainless and made drawings on gray silk

and thread painted the reflections.

The napkin is held in place with a few stitches.

The plate fabric, a piece of lovely Kaffe Fassett cloth, strongly resembles 

my Tracy Porter dishware.  It works!

"Our Roots Run Deep"

Greetings!  I am waaaaaay behind with my blogging, but I have been chasing my tail back and forth across the country for the past 6 weeks.  I'll try to put together a photo diary of what has been happening.  Before I left for the first (of three recent) trips to NY I created this quilt, which is to be auctioned off next month as part of a fundraising event for the Quilt Alliance.  The Alliance is celebrating 20 years, so each of the entries were to be 20 inches square.

My piece is created from "leftovers" from a larger quilt made earlier this year, "From The Redwood Forest:  A Moment In Montgomery Grove".  I'll show you some of the cloth as it was being created.
I wasn't as good about documenting my process with this quilt as I should have, so apologies in advance.  Sometimes I feel like I need a 3rd limb to photograph work-in-progress!

The background cloth (silk broadcloth)

is being created using thickened dye spread with a palette knife

stenciling with thickened dye...

Here is the first quilt prior to finishing.

I trimmed a significant portion from each side.

It was with these "trimmings" that I created the Quilt Alliance piece.

This piece was constructed by trimming the remnants from the larger quilt,

then piecing them together using monofilament and a zigzag stitch

Once pieced, I imagined I could see portions of a tree.

Using paint, I accented the negative space behind the tree, and

singled out portions of the base to resemble roots.

I mounted the construction onto a piece of green silk-cotton Radiance wrapped 

around felt.

If you have a QR scanner, you can listen to me discuss the quilt.

This label is created by Stkr.it

I love these!!  Article coming in a future Quilting Arts magazine issue.

Now, I admit that it is more than a little terrifying to paint over a quilted construction, at least the first time you do it.  I'm reminded of a favored quote by the wonderful dancer & choreographer, Twyla Tharp:

"Venturing out of your comfort zone may be dangerous, yet we do it anyway because our ability to grow is directly proportional to the ability to entertain the uncomfortable."  

New Issue of Quilt Festival/Quilt Scene debuts at International Quilt Festival in Houston!

International Quilt Festival Quilt Scene 2013

If you are going to the Houston Quilt Festival, I hope to see you there!  I will be teaching in Open Studios, Make-It-University, and as faculty this year, so maybe we will cross paths.  I hope so!

Along with all that fun, I have an article in the soon-to-be released issue of Quilt Festival Quilt Scene.

The subject of my article is quilt labeling.  Frankly, it is about documenting your work, no matter what type of art you make.  I hope you will check it out.

See you in Houston!  Yeehaw!