Bird of Paradise

Bird of Paradise in progress

I have some good friends that I have met in a painting class, and for years now we have been getting together to paint at someone's house in our group. We each work on our own projects and give support, constructive criticism, etc. to each other. We like to call it therapy.

This is a watercolor piece that I am currently working on. The focal point will be a bird of paradise.  I will probably do a series of similar pieces like this, one mixed media and one a fiber art piece.

Desert Sunset 1 is done

This is the piece I showed a couple of weeks ago. I added a border on and now it is done!

Long Stems is just about done

 I have just about finished this small wall hanging. I have to sew the facing down to the back still, but the beading is done and so is the machine quilting. I used Superior Threads Super Bright Orange thread in the red border. I quilted a leaf and stem on the red area. Then I sewed beads on the flowers in the center, made a beaded bow on the raffia on the stems, and put beads on the leaves in the border. These three photos show some of these details.

Silver Lining Accepted in the Ultimate Guild Challenge

I am a member of the Flying Geese Quilters Guild. Last year they had a challenge entitled "Silver Lining". This is the art quilt I made for that challenge.

Eight of the challenge quilts were selected by the judges to be submitted for the "Ultimate Guild Challenge" competition put on by the American Quilters Society. My quilt was one of the eight selected.

The Ultimate Guild Challenge is a competition between Guilds put on each year by the AQS. We just learned that our 8 quilts made it to the semi-finalist round. Our quilts will be displayed at the AQS Quilt Show and Contest to be held in Knoxville, Tennessee,  July 13 - 16. I want to congratulate fellow Silver Lining quilters Pam Hadfield, Linda Smith, Darla Cox, Sandy Sutton, Mickey Berg, Michele Braithwaite, and Sheryl Hitt. The winners of the competition will be announced July 13th.

Long Stems, next step

yarn placement

I decided to add a purple inner border and red outer border to this piece. It needed something else on the border so I looped some yarn around the edge. Next I need to stitch the yarn down using a zigzag stitch and monofilament thread. 



Here it is (below) with the yarn stitched down. I am going to use one of these bright thread for the machine quilting of the border. These are thread made by Superior, and I believe they are called Super Brights. The orange thread on the stems is where I am going to add a bow or something, maybe beads?



machine quilting thread



Tall Flowers in a Vase

Here is my next project. It will be a small wall hanging. The background fabric is raw silk, and I have thread painted the "flower in a vase" image on it. I still have to quilt the background and then add a border, etc. This is the second project I am doing using this image. There is something about the tall flower stems that I like!

Adding a border after the fact - Desert Sunset 1

DS1 under inspection

I showed my "Desert Sunset 1" to my friend Janet and she said, "is there any way you can add a border to it?". So, although it is not the normal way I like to do things, I attached some batting strips to each side, added some additional backing fabric, put on a yellow flange, and then sewed on some black print fabric for the border. I am going to paint the border with oil paint stick just a bit to finish it.  Then I will square it up and "face" the edges.  I think my friend was right, it does look better this way.

The first photo to the right shows my cat inspecting my work. The second photo is after passing inspection.



DS1 with borders sewn on