Wednesday, September 25, 2013

It's Fall and There Was a Quilt Show!

I found this great little tutorial for the cutest cloth pumpkins ever. Check them out.

You can find the tutorial here. The littlest pumpkins would make great place markers for a nice fall dinner (i.e. Thanksgiving). Just lean paper name tags against the stems--ADORABLE!

I had the opportunity to go to a quilt show put on by the Raintree Quilt Guild this past weekend. Since I'm in a fall kind of mood, I'll show you the fall quilts first. These first three quilts are by Karen Hampton. They are all for sale. Check out her website here.


Fall Trio
Pebble and Leaf
Northern Lights

This next quilt is called Autumn Vines and was pieced by Darlene Robinett and quilted by Linda Bolen. It was a block-of-the-month quilt at a local quilt shop.

Since I'm on a "fall kick"...today was SO beautiful that my husband and I felt like we just HAD to get outside. We decided to make a trip to the Huber Family Farm in southern Indiana. Here is a pic of my husband with lots of big, beautiful pumpkins. I LOVE the orange of those pumpkins!

Back to the quilt show...this next quilt was meticulously pieced by Karen Long Miller and BEAUTIFULLY machine quilted by Rita English. I think if you click the picture you can get a close up look at the quilt.

I have a soft spot in my heart for antique quilts. This quilt is a Boston Commons and was HAND pieced and HAND quilted by Minnie Boekenhoff; it was made in the 1930s. The granddaughter, Linda Bolen, (who owns the quilt) was told by her mother that this was a quilt kit. There is A LOT of quilting on this quilt. It was interesting to see the edge finishing. The edges are turned under and whip stitched shut with TINY little stitches.

It just looked so soft and cuddly. I REALLY wanted to touch it but refrained. I DID take a close up so you could see the beautiful hand quilting on this one.
I love a good quilt show, and I love fall. I'm a happy gal!

 

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Studio Tour--Peggy Brown

A group of artists from SAQA Indiana went to the Nashville, Indiana, home of fiber artist extraordinaire Peggy Brown this past weekend. It was wonderful to meet some new people and see Peggy's beautiful home and studio. Peggy was a wonderful hostess. (She even served us sherbet and cookies while we were there.)

Peggy was kind enough to share several pieces of her art with us. We saw finished quilts and paintings and even got to see some work in progress. We saw how she uses her watercolor paintings in her quilts. She currently has a piece in Quilt National (2013). If you aren't familiar with Peggy's work (or if you'd like to refresh your memory), check out her website here. Peggy told us she began her career as a watercolor artist. In the quilts we got to see, she used watercolor paints on silk and digital photography of her watercolor paintings (along with a lot of other things) to make her artistic visions come to life. Peggy was VERY generous about sharing her process with us. I loved the transparency and "glow" in the layers of her work. Here are a few pictures.

This picture shows Peggy speaking with us about her process.
In the photo above, Peggy points out the real leaves she has used in the piece.

Here, Peggy speaks about how she constructs her pieces.

I LOVE the "glow" that seems to come from within this piece.

Here Peggy shows us what she will be using for a background on one of her new pieces. She has used watercolor paints to create the background she wants. She also showed us pieces of painted tissue paper, painted interfacing, and a soywax batik piece that might be incorporated into the new work.

I might have trouble getting ANY work done if I had this view out of MY living room window!

Thank you, Peggy, for sharing with us.