Without Malice

In remembrance of 9 11 I am posting my quilt Without Malice which was part of the America from the Heart exhibit at International Quilt Festival in 2001 and in the book of the same name.

The quilt is painted, the words are hand lettered. It went on to win a blue ribbon at the Quilters of South Carolina state show I think in miniatures or small wall quilts. It's about 2' x 30'...thread painted of course:>

As somebody said on NPR yesterday or was it Thursday, 9 11 is one of those handful of seminal events that we will always remember the exact moment...where we were what we were doing....Thank goodness my family came through it unscathed...I can only hope that yours did too!

Happy Labor Day and a close up look at Almost done

So Happy Labor Day...hope you are having as much fun as all the flotillas of people floating by on the rivah today...all manner of boaters and fisherman enjoying this wonderful almost fall weather.in the meantime posting pics of the latest quilt i completed Almost Done done in collaboration with my friend Jeffery Callaham...his artwork is the center which i transferred to fabric and inked with Tsuniko inks.


This is his memory of two of his aunts hanging laundry on a windy spring day in McCormick County, SC.

I actually coordinted the ladies clothes to match some of the dominate colors in an old piece of patchwork that I chopped up to form the borders on this piece. This quilt is not a square or even a parallelogram...all slightly off kilter.


Thread painting was done with whatever color thread that I had that matched the ink colors. Shading done in brown and dark blue and dark green.

I actually had messed up when i was inking the grass area so i cut it off and fused a new grass to it...you cant tell can you?? The grass was quilted with a varigated green thread.

28th Asheville Quilt Show "Stars Over the Mountain"

If you click on the pictures you will see a MUCH bigger picture!!

There were 38 Art quilts in the 28th Asheville Quilt show...always a fine representation of art quilters across the nation AND .....
so i put up another pic because the show pic is faded looking...dont you love flashes?!! SIGH!


I got the first, the big ole blue ribbon in the Art Quilt Pro category at the Asheville Quilt Show WOOT!!

Elizabeth Allen - 2nd - Solar Wind - Nice addition of what seems to be a large polymer disk

Ruth Powers of Kansas - Burlingame Fire - 3rd and The Alliance for Quilts Award
Alot of hand dyed fabrics to represent the fire...I can not believe this one did not receive first...Ruth's work is always awesome! This quilt is flatter than a flitter!

Marylyn Wahl got HM on her " Love"

Best Landscape - Chris Eichner - Cathedral Rock - Sedona Arizona
Heavily thread painted

Judges Choice-(Katie Pasquini Masopust) for Carrie Hedstrom Camden for "A Prayer for Haiti"

Dont you love the color of this quilt...just wonderful!

and oops no picture Judy Simmons got Judge's Choice(Priscilla Hair) for her Morning Glory as well as the Digital Award.


Susan Brubaker Knapp entered a lovely orchid piece - Freckles - in the art quilt category which did not win even though it was a beauty but her Pink Petal Party got an HM in the Applique Mixed/Large Pro category. I tried to take a picture of Pink Petal Party but there was a cheer leading squad of ladies standing in front of it forever admiring and photographing the quilt next to it...but it was a very cool Baltimore albumish quilt in pinks... Nice to see someone besides me has a split personality.


Liz Spear - "Neal's Turquoise Coat" First in Wearables..the second year they have done this...Not only did she sew this sumptious coat but she and Neal Howard WOVE the fabric-a hard to beat combination!! The competition in this category was STIFF to say the least - beautiful wearables.

All of the 1,2,3rd places got checks, gift certificates as did the awards like Judges Choice...the art quilts got BOTH judge's choices...prize money for the show was $7200 something and usually there is more but the economy has caused it to take a hit there too....donations were down this year....

Judith Heyward, Mt. Pleasant - Arabian Mysteries - Second ...she also got Best Machine Quilting on her Summer Beauty wall quilt but I like this one much better-think very tiny tightly spaced awesome machine quilting - I think she won Best of Show at Charleston a few years ago...

OH there were over 300 quilts from 15 different states...no idea how many vendors...tenish...and then at least another dozen down at the mall nearby ...my favorite vendors are as always Batiks, Etc - more batiks than any place on earth i think:>,
Random Arts -anything to do with mixed media run by the awesome Jane and the French Connection - the lady with the awesome African baskets that everyone was carrying around ....

great show great weekend....

the NC Arborteum just off the Blue Ridge Parkway is a gorgeous setting for all those gorgeous quilts...oh did i say just off I 26....28th year of the show??

See you there next year!...I joined the guild so i could drive the golf cart shuttle around the Arboreteum parking lot:> ZZooom Zooommm ZZZZZZZZoom!

My great big Beautiful American Birthday quilt

My great big Beautiful American Birthday quilt

Kim and I watched How to Make an American Quilt last summer and I thought it would be a great quilt for a birthday quilt...hmm guess someone was listening....this is MY BIG BEAUTIFUL American Birthday Quilt....

Our bee makes birthday quilts for BIG birthdays...this one is mine...25 members....made blocks about me...its so interesting to me how the blocks really reflect something of themselves AND me....its as they say a real SHOW stopper.....so much to look at and see....There are 25 blocks in this quilt and I HOPE i put them all in this blog post...I trapuntoed alot of the blocks...almost all of them so had to quilt pretty heavily to make them pop up...but the trapuntoing really worked a treat as the Brits would say...the jack Russell and the House and the sewing machine and the cake and those applique blocks really pop with the trapuntoing....

This quilt has really been touching because so many of them made blocks that were both a piece of them and a piece of me...and so much thought went into them...AWESOME JOB ladies!

THANKS For My great big Beautiful American Birthday quilt!!!

My great big Beautiful American Birthday quilt- part two

Kathy Mullis made this block..i could NOT resist trapuntoing the ladies...also wrote words about Kathy ..sort of a memory block about her...
Dear Paula is big into art quilting...a SAQA member....she did this lovely soft landscape with Caran d'arche Neocolor ii..
Reverend Linda did this fun block..i LOVE the poem in the center which i surrounded with a feathered heart...and then though i am a UGA girl...i added things like ROLL tide to it..as well as the name of her church and Alabama...
Dear sweet Linda...this block is called Margarets Choice...how cool is that....I will never think of Linda without thinking of one of her awesome miniature sunbonnet sue quilts..what else would a Kansan quilt??? but a farm girl...or one of her wedding ring quilts...smaller than a piece of paper...I quilted a feathered star in the middle with a sunbonnet sue cat...she loves cats too...



Paula...dear Paula...this one reminds me of that first birthday quilt of Rachel's when i kept asking everyone for hands...I trapuntoed the hands...


Dana LOVES Laurel Burch and cats....and also took my hoochy mama quilt...keep meaning to ask her if this is the only block she finished...I love the way it shows off the lilac colored quilting thread.
Margaret Wesley designed this block and Sue executed it....Sue painted the background fabric...GOOD job SUE!! Trapuntoed the pallette and brushes
Long story about this block....I am fairly sure that I made the flower and it was a reject from my tiger quilt...and ended up in the scrap bag which i gave away at bee one day...Pat ended up with alot of those scraps...made some great jackets and now this great block from them...Trapuntoed the flower.
Siobhan Furguson LOVES hand applique and spiced her normal repro colors up for me...I threw in a few words about Sio with this...like Irish...and Boston....trapuntoed the design....

My magic sewing machine...designed and executed by the other Margaret, dear Margaret Wesley:> I trapuntoed it...looks mahvelous!!



Joyce Lytle...Ms. Tech Editor...had one like this on her going away quilt for C&T...is this not a NEAT idea?! and precise like our dear Joyce...who can wave her magic wand over chaos and create order...

Dear marie and Sami her daughter made this block together...Marie usually likes browns...so it was a big reach for her but with the able assistance of her daughter Sami who LOVES brights she did it!!

Kims take on Bella wearing one of the Dreadlock hats i made last year....shes a silly dog...
My beloved Jack Charley by my dear friend Pam Beeler who did an awesome job...she would rather use civil war prints...I added How About them dogs because shes a big UGA fan....and so is my other Jack Jazz who sings the song!


Margaret W designed this block and dear Ille executed it beautifully ...I trapuntoed the house....
Kay is an avid appliquer and did this lovely wreath for me....I am not thrilled with the quilting...I trapuntoed the wreath so i had to quilt it heavily...and wish i had quilted it somehow differently...i may pick it out...


This is such a fun block from my birthday sister Rachel Watson...her birthday is the day after mine and she got the very first birthday quilt four years ago...trapuntoed cake...

My dear friend Marsha Boasso is crazy about Halloween and skulls so I trapuntoed a skull on her block...she made this in the hoochy mama class that i taught last fall....


This block was combined...made by Kitty Lamb one of our oldest quilters who did the sunbonnet sue and Angie F who made the nine patch...thanks girls!
Judy and Ille are wonderful appliquers and are making this lollipop quilt of Kaffe Fassett fabrics..and judy made one for me....NO JUDY I AM NOT making one:> well maybe:> there are I think 18 blocks in this quilt...with a jillion little circles and big ones too...I am just happy judy made one for me!! THANKS JUDY!

Kim copied one of my sketches of my Jack Russell Jazz doing what she does well..snoozing on one of my quilts...replete with her favorite things...snacks ball treat play repeat endlessly:> And PS Jazz you are NOT sleeping on this quilt!!!


Betsy made several books about quilts and things that I do ....one is the skater book for her big birthday quilt that we made...I designed it...with a skater in it...skating to gold!!


Mary Verdery knows that i am a mad knitter and a mad piecer...another perfect block....and i quilted twins into it....

I love this block because it combines one of my fabrics with some of the ones I always think of my friend Connie when I see the moda sampler print...and i know she thinks of me when she sees Kaffe Fassett...


Shelvy did this one....partially for my dad the Marine and partially for her dh the Army guy....
I wrote in the borders why the quilt was given and the date and who it was from....


quilted borders of the only Phillip Jacobson print i bought when i went to Intown...the people that picked this border out did NOT go with me on that trip.. and they did not know that i loved this print....think they know me too well....its quilted with wonky feathers....

the beginnings of another art quilt

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I seem to be on a roll lately....this is the second art quilt i have started lately and theres another brewing trying to get out and see the day light..or should i say the rain?!

Currently i would have to say art wise my loves are my portfolio oil pastels, my Caran d'ache neocolor ii and my tsunieko inks...if i am not drawing and coloring on fabric with one i am using another one on watercolor paper.

So yesterday I was watching sunrises on HDTV Theater...and they showed the Emperor's Garden in Japan ...lovely iris....and i drew this sketch from them. I was not thrilled with the placement of the iris and even glued one on ....I really like using odd numbers in art work...and it had an even number but i DID like the leaves ...the way they undulated and swayed across the sketch.

before i added water

But i thought that black background was a mistake...didnt do much for the iris...it was the same intensity that they were so they all blended together to mush...

This afternoon i got a large piece of masonite out of the garage and taped a piece of white kona cotton to it to start the iris....I got out the Portfolio Oil Pastels and i started to draw the iris and leaves...this piece is pretty big...about 36x48"...but i wasnt sure what color the background should be...

before i added water

I had to go leave to visit with a friend and on the way home i saw the bright yellow background which of course since yellow is the complimentary color of purple was the PERFECT color for the background of these blue violet iris...

Came home and colored in the leaves and added that yellow and it really started singing to me...then i added a little rust and some peach to it....and the water....i love what the water does to it...swirling the colors...making little puddles of lovely stuff to look at...and salt...to make some dots of color...

Its still wet but i am really liking this one so far...cant wait to put it on the long arm and quilt it...WAIT its wet no long arm till tomorrow...and i think i may add some shiva paintstiks to it...BUT SOON...and now to get on with the birthing of the other quilt...fabric is all ironed and ready to go....so is the sketch...white egrets....