Shannon's Parrot

I'm always on the lookout for budding artists, and here is one to keep an eye on. This is Shannon with her pretty pink parrot. She used pastel chalk to make this art work.  I am very impressed with the use of complimentary colors and the shading on the parrot and perch. Great job Shannon!

Shannon's Parrot

My Cup Ranneth All Over The Patio - finishing touches

The finishing touches for this piece include beading and binding. I wanted to use beads to depict the bird seed that is overflowing the cup, running all over the patio, and feeding the doves.

Here you see the top with beads laid out in their intended locations. It took a little bit of moving them around, but that is what I wanted. I put some marks on the top to remind my self of what I had in mind, because as soon as you pick the piece up to sew a bead down, they all roll off.

So the next step is the stitching and that's what I did.Here are some close ups showing the beads stitched down.

To finish the edge I used a satin stitch with thread the color of the dark areas on the doves. Here it is with the satin stitching on the edge.

And that's it for the posts for this piece! Thanks for visiting my blog!

Recycled Art Show - Monte de Oro Winery, Temecula

This weekend there will be a Recycled Art and Fashion Show at the Monte de Oro Winery located at 35820 Rancho California Road, Temecula (951-491-6551). My art quilt shown here, which I call Second Chan-City, will be in this show. I made this using the following recycled materials – two men’s ties, a man’s handkerchief, lace fabric from a woman’s blouse, and left over hem facing. If you are in the Temecula area try to check out this show. The hours are: Saturday, April 26, from 6pm to 10 pm and Sunday, April 27, from 11 am to 5 pm.

Basting and Quilting on "My Cup Ranneth All Over the Patio"

Well I'm going to try to get the rest of the posts for this piece done so I can move on to another project that I have been working on. I only have a couple things left to post about so it should be quick, I hope!

Truth be told its been rough few months. I lost both parents in the space of about 5 weeks. Other things in my life have taken a back seat during this period. It is something we all go through and although the loss is painful, I have been incredibly blessed with two very good parents. But they didn't condone moping around, so I'm not going to do that. Onward and upward. There are art quilts to be made!


For this post I'm going to talk about how I did the basting and quilting on this piece. I have recently started using "Bo Nash" bonding agent (its an adhesive powder) to baste small quilts. It seems like a time saver and so far I have had no shifting of the three layers while quilting.

The first thing I do is lay the batt down on the ironing board. I sprinkle some of the Bo Nash powder over it, trying to reach the edges and center without making a big mess. I don't seem to need too much.

Once I have sprinkled the Bo Nash, I lay the back down on the sprinkled batt, and then press the back. The ironing melts the adhesive and the two sides stick together.

If the piece is longer than the width of the ironing board then I do it a section at a time. I sprinkle Bo Nash on just the section on top of the ironing board, then lay the back over the sprinkled section and press. Then slide the batt and back so the next section is on top of the ironing board. Lift the backing fabric to expose the batt, sprinkle, lay the back down, press, and move on to the next section. It works pretty well on small to medium size pieces.

After the back is adhered to the batt, the next step is to flip the batt/back over and sprinkle the other side exposed side of the batt. Then I lay the top on the sprinkled batt and press again. Its like shampoo, rinse, repeat. In a few minutes you're completely basted. The biggest risk is not making a mess with the sprinkling of the Bo Nash.

That blue fabric was just a demo. This is the fabric I used for the back for My Cup Ranneth... piece. I like my backing fabric to match the front of the quilt.

After sandwiching it was on to the quilting. These close ups give a view of the quilting stitches I used.

I love swirls! I put them in every quilt.

OK so the next post will be the finishing touches! Thanks for visiting my blog!