| I love making people quilts. Playing around with my new line of fabric 'hopscotch' by RJR Fabrics. Women of color in Peace Love Dove. The fabrics were all pre-fused with Mistyfuse. This wall quilt is 18x18 inches. Free motion machine quilted. |
| And here are the two women that I make a majority of my people quilts about. Me and Leslie Tucker Jenison. We could use this as our logo for Dinner at Eight Artists. Also Peace Love Dove. We are wild women. |
| I began with making us. All of the fabrics were fused with Mistyfuse beforehand. I am using fabrics from my newest line from RJR Fabrics 'hopscotch' which seemed very appropriate. The designs in the fabric were hand drawn, so it seems fitting to make this quilt entirely by my own hands, heart and soul. |
| We both had gray hair at the time of her passing. Two gray haired ladies...don't think so. I am making the quilt five years later and I have pink hair. Much better this way. How she was then with her smile and me now, making the quilt. |
| The journal pages are hand written with a Pentel Gel Pen for Fabric onto Robert Kaufmann fabric, that kinda looks like graph paper. I had many pages of my thoughts from March 11-13 and some of the things that we talked about. I decided to take the best of these words to use on the quilt. |
| Here we are. This was such a healing and liberating quilt to make. We had a rocky relationship most of our lives, until the last ten years of her life. I am not going to lie. I treasure that time, even though she had Parkinson's disease and Lewy Body Disorder, and she changed into a better person and we could have a relationship. During that time, she was always very supportive of me, my family and my passion for making art. She and my dad would come and visit me in my studio to chat and laugh. |
| Some close ups of my journal pages, the moments in this life. My dad had died suddenly four months earlier, which contributed greatly to my mom's health. My sister and brother and I moved her to assisted living in December. Journal portions not included on the quilt - March 11 is how the day began sitting in her hospital room with my journal. Saying prayers, thinking of love and kindness, dignity. Praying that the Lord would just take her hand and go to heaven and be at peace in her work which will be brighter than it is right now. A feeling of pure helplessness enters my mind when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes not all at once, but when I am grinding the beans for my morning coffee. I wish to wake up and feel myself again, filled with hope, possibilities and joy. |
| more, and her hand - the pink one has roses on it. Her mother, my Grandma Alice loved pink roses. Journal - Her disease acts like a buffer which I think is good. She sleeps and I hope she is with dad in her dreams. A basketball game is on in her hospital room. If he were here he would be watching it. March Madness. I feel his presence in the room. Vanderbilt vs. Kentucky. So weird. He is watching over her and me as I sit here in the room by the window with the rays of the sun over my legs. Are you here with me? I wish that you could hold my hand and tell me that everything will be alright. I am holding my hand out to you, Dad. I know it would be painful for you to see your love in her current state. We are standing in for you Dad with all of our love and courage. I need a strong dose of bravery right now. She has aged more since yesterday. I begin talking out loud in a soft whisper. She is asleep, but perhaps she can hear me. |
| the last part |
| me, the wild daughter |
| my mom, who loved a gorgeous sunny day, getting together with her friends at the beach or to play bridge. She was full of life, had a bright smile, enjoyed life to it's fullest, believed in God, loved showtunes, enjoyed singing a song or two, loved my dad, love us, enjoyed a good home cooked meal, could never miss a party, was a knitter, could sew, went on girl trips, lived by the half a sandwich, potato chips and ice cream for dessert stance. Ice cream was the last thing she ate. |
| Here's to you mom with all of my love! |
| I changed out the lime green neck for black and white safety pin fabric, which is more me |
| Added the red dog jumping between the houses, which is for Yvonne |
| Let the free motion machine quilting begin. My FMQing is very organic |
| The finished piece and I am very happy with the results. YP and me. A loving tribute to her and our friendship. |
| details of the quilting |
| details of my face. You can click on it to see it larger |
| Yvonne's face |
| Drawing of houses, combining our two styles with her houses and mine |
| This is where making a pattern comes in handy. I place it under a Goddess Sheet by Mistyfuse. I can see through to the artwork, so I can begin to cut my pre-fused fabrics. All of the fabrics have been pre-fused with Mistyfuse, my 'go to' fusible web |
| It's sort of like putting a puzzle together. Cutting and pressing it into place |
| The houses are coming together. Thinking about adding this checked fabric under the houses. This is Yvonne's iconic style with black and white checks |
| It is almost complete. I will peel this off in one sheet to bring it to the wool blended felt foundation. I don't use batting in between the layers. Wool blended felt from National Nonwovens TOY002 |
| Those are small hexagons for the blue sky. Trying on my first face, and I am not happy with it. Time for a re-do for Yvonne, because she needs more fabrics, more color, more fun! |
| Yvonne re-do - more like her. Dog bone and heart in her hair. Might have to do some tweaking to her hair. She has also been made on top of a Goddess Sheet |
| my head made on a Goddess Sheet, then I will peel it off and place it on the quilt |
| I dressed us in black and white, a color choice for clothing that we both enjoyed. I am trying out background fabric |
| I have put a piece of parchment paper behind our heads to help with auditioning the background fabric |
| Turquoise fabric was the perfect solution for both of our faces. I added a polka dot line around the sides and top. Stay tuned for the free motion machine quilting next, and I am not sure about my lime green neck! |
| My niece, Sara married her sweetheart, Dustin in July at a beautiful seaside venue. The colors of the wedding are above, a beautiful shade of blue/aqua, like the ocean with white and gray |
| I started with a photograph that I took of them at the wedding. My plan was to transfer the photo to fabric, leave their faces and arms in tact in black and white, and re-dress them in fabric. This is the pattern that I created on my light box for his suit, because I knew it would be the hardest to cut out |
| Using a Sizzix Big Shot Pro, I cut hexagons for the background. I really like this shape and how the colors work together. |
| And so the dressing continues. I decided to keep her bouquet in color, and his boutonniere too. His suit has been stamped with small gray dots and painted with a fine brush to add more definition |
| I am quite happy with how it is coming together. The fabrics are all fused and being made on a Mistyfuse Fat Goddess Sheet, which is one of my favorite tools. |
| Using a ruler, I am lining up the letters, that were also cut on a Sizzix Big Shot Pro, which made it so easy! |
| Clearly, I need the numbers die that go with the letters, I had to fussy cut them out. I squared up the quilt and cut off the edges |
| Now the entire piece is being fused to the wool blended felt, to get ready for it to be free motion machine quilted in white. I usually use black in my work, but that wasn't going to do for this project. I have to admit that it was hard for me to wrap my head around using white thread. |
| The finished piece and I am so pleased with how it turned out. I used gray around their heads, and her arm, so that the white would not be so stark. The lower portion of the quilt resembles ocean waves. True Love. |
| Building the background with 4" squares, and on a slant, because I felt that it would be too daunting to have them all straight. I mean what is the fun in that? All of the fabrics were pre-fused with Mistyfuse! |
| Adding them around the figure and underneath |
| She's coming together |
| Now, I am seeing the benefit to having a large design table |
| Then it gets a little tricky in making sure that there is some assemblance between the skirt upper portion and below, so I got out the measuring tape. |
| Here is how she looks with the background fabric on. She really pops out, color wise! The foundation was cut a little larger to begin with. Just a safety feature for myself, really. I'd rather have too much, than too little to work with, especially when I go to cut it down to the right size. |
| She will be holding a purse. So, I made this little Airstream number. It was an A-HA moment, for sure. |
| and then promptly realized that it is too small of scale for the piece. |
| So, I made another one, larger, and I am quite happy with it. So appropriate that she be carrying an Airstream purse! |
| Cutting it to the right size - 24" wide by 60" long. This is my pattern from in the beginning. |
| I actually used pins, after deciding where it needed to be placed, and so that none of the black foundation was visible |
| Here she is. Not the greatest picture, but it shows the great colors in the background |
| another direction |
| and the purse! Free motion machine quilting, is next. |