Hoops skirts

This year Megan wanted to be Cinderella. I was thrilled as this was the first year she wanted to be a princess (the pre-made costume we bought her when she was 1 1/2 doesn't count). As the pattern was a bit simple, I thought I'd fancy it up a bit by making a hoop skirt. Well, to make a long story short, there is quite a difference between boning and steel boning or hoop wire. Thanks to the very helpful people on QuiltArt, I learned quite a bit about how hoop skirts are constructed and lots of creative alternatives. This is the end result. Both Megan and I were quite pleased and those that know me should take note that Halloween is still two days away and the photo was taken over the weekend! :-)

Pointing fingers

My friend thinks this is too mean, but I can't help myself. The first photo is the beadwork I started in Lisa's class. The second is the last known whereabouts of the white bag with the beadwork in it. Note who is in charge of it...

Journal Quilt, 2007

In August we spent 3 weeks in Australia. I had intended to upload photos as we went, but once I left my friend's home, internet access was spotty and Blogger and I got into a fight as to how the photos and text should look. Although my trip report is still not complete, I did complete a quilt for the Journal Quilt project inspired by the trip. Here is a photo of the completed quilt. My detail shots didn't turn out, so I'll have to wait to post those, but here is the statement that goes with the quilt-





Memories of Australia





The new format for the journal quilt this year gave me a lot of trouble. I considered and discarded many ideas until all of a sudden the deadline was looming and we were leaving for a 3-week trip to Australia. I decided I’d have to make the top on the trip. As we were staying with our dear friends Lisa and Peter, and as Lisa is a quilter too, I figured it should work out ok.
Lisa was teaching while we were there, so in order to spend more time with her, I attended her workshops. The first included making fantasy fabric. One of my pieces was a fairly garish blue piece that someone said reminded them of the Great Barrier Reef. As that was on our itinerary, I said I’d reserve judgment until I saw it. During the second class, I made a good start on a beaded piece. I decided the beadwork would be the focal point of the journal quilt. Fortunately/unfortunately, that work was left behind at one of the playgrounds we visited. We had a wonderful vacation, but I came home without even a start on the journal quilt.
Once home, I began playing with the garish fantasy fabric I’d made. I pieced it to some commercial fabric and soon I had the start of the Great Barrier Reef area located at the bottom of the quilt. We had really enjoyed sailing and snorkeling in that area and I felt I was onto something.
I designed the quilt from the bottom up. Before the trip I had rust-dyed some fabric and that became the Uluru/Kata Tjuta area. The green strips in this section represent the trees and bushes found in this area. Although the area looks barren from above, there is a surprising amount of vegetation and it is much taller than what I’m used to in our Southern California deserts. The green fabric used was one that Lisa and I had painted together. The beaded rocks are for my daughter, the rock collector.
While designing the next section, I found I needed to paint some fabric for it. It was hard for me as I needed beautiful, vibrant colors, but I was a bit depressed over our dog that had died while we were gone. I decided to first paint some fabric in dark, sad colors to get it out of my system. It worked- once I’d done those pieces, I was able to move on to the happy colors I eventually used on the flowers and sunrise section. Once dry, the dark fabric piece ended up much lighter, and I used it to separate the sections and represent the sadness that popped up at times during the trip.
Another special memory was the beautiful gardens, parks and playgrounds that we visited. While many of the flowers were familiar to us, many of the trees and shrubs were not. The garden section was hand-pieced and the crystals represent the rain that threatened, but never ruined our plans.
The sunrise section is for the many sunrises we saw in Australia (we are never awake to see sunrises here at home!). While working this section, I was able to (mostly!) let go of the lost beadwork as I began beading anew. Last are the rainforests which are represented by the vines along the edge and the aboriginal artwork which is reflected in the lettering.

Catching Up

Well, sort of. So much for good intentions- I still haven't gotten into the habit of posting even semi-regularly. These are some pieces I did a while back. I'm pleased with the way they turned out. I was trying for less evenness of color and I think I succeeded. It's a lot harder for me to keep the color uneven than to come up with nice symmetrical distribution of color and texture. Guess that's the engineer in me...

If anyone can tell me how to edit the Html so I can position the photos where I want them, I'd be really grateful!