Toot-Toot

That's me tooting my own horn this week. I found out yesterday that my art quilt "Spirit of the Kiva" was named Best of Show at the Asheville, NC quilt show.



I'm totally stoked about this. The beautiful quilting was created by Gail Sexton and I share this honor with her.

This is one of those pieces that doesn't photo well, but when you see it in person is quite striking. I hesitate to say that but, I've been told that, by many people so I'm assuming that is not just my opinion.

I loved working on this piece from the beginning of its creation. It began with a photo of a beautiful little Mexican girl. I then created this four-layered fiber portrait.



After photographing the portrait, I downloaded it into PSE. I looked for a compatible image and found one in my files of an Indian Kiva. I then did some manipulation in PSE and came up with the image that I liked, and had it printed on fabric.

I never begin working on a piece with a solid idea. I begin and through trial and error I come up with a final design. This piece was no different. I knew that I wanted to include come petroglyphs, I also wanted to use some Indian symbols. Since I was using the photo of the Kiva, I decided to look up symbols of Kiva steps. I adapted the symbol and drafted a pattern for a foundation pieced block.

My first idea was to place the pieced blocks on all four sides. This turned out to be was to traditional looking to me. I finally decided to add the blocks to two sides. When Gail and I discussed the quilting pattern she decided to quilt the petroglyphs in the sashing. She also use a few of the petroglyth designs in the face of the little girl.

When deciding on the quilt design for the photo enhanced part of the quilt, Gail chose to emphasize the kiva with free motion quilting.

This piece is very personal to me and, I think Gail feels the same way. We both find it so gratifying to have it recognized by this show. Thank you Asheville Quilt Show.

This post is linked to:
www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com





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Making Good Use of My Time

Life has been busy this year. While I am enjoying teaching and lecturing at guilds, symposiums and festivals it has played major havoc with my blogging time, as well as my creating time. I'm hoping to get to my blog at least once a week from now on.

I couldn't sleep last night so I decided rather than lie in bed,wishing I could go to sleep, I'd get up and write on my blog. My iPad wouldn't post all the photos I wanted to post, so I saved it last night, and am now trying to get it out.

Our local guild show is this week and I have spent two full enjoyable days working there. This is our signature car quilt. More on the show later.



The week before I spent a wonderful week at John C. Campbell Folk School teach a variation on the "Drunkard's Path" and "Fair Play" patterns.

This is my sample where I used a lot of left-over blocks from old projects. Obviously these are not yet sewn together.

My class was small this year, only four students, but four very devoted and experienced quilters. We began by making a host block.

After the host blocks were sewn together we used the block to cut out the Drunkards Path blocks. I know why would you cut up good material in the first place, but to  cut it out and make a block, then use that block to cut out another block? Well, it just makes a super way to get a creative design.

It's not every class where you can enjoy live music while you sew. One never knows what is going to happen at J. C. Campbell.
Trish is one of my students and she wanted to practice playing in front of an audience. She is going to be playing at a Retreat this month.

These ladies were so devoted and sewed there hearts out all week. Our little display at Show and Tell.







These are the projects almost finished. You would never know these four students were taking the same class. I love this technique for that reason.
This piece was created by Trish.

This piece is Joyce's creation.

This piece by Miriam. She finished her top but I didn't get a photo of it after it was sewn together. I don't think this was her final design.

This piece is Betsy's and she wanted to make it larger. She ordered more fabric and will continue working on it at home.

This is a sample that I continued to change during the class to show the many designs that can be created using this technique. This one is created by a more controlled use of fabric, than the students used. I like for them to create their first piece without my influence. I find that it helps them see the future possibilities.

This piece was created with the "Fair Play" template. Lots and lots of sewing and fun with designs.



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Purple Haze for SAQA SC/GA Trunk Show

I am a member of SAQA and until the past few years I never had contact with our local reps. Once Paula Brown became the SC rep and her partner from GA took over, things began to change in our district. They have organized exhibits, challenges, keep us posted with a newsletter. They have setup a Face Book page so that we can keep in touch and share photos and news within our group.

One day I received a little package in the mail. It was a lovely piece of hand dyed fabric. Paula, Victoria Rondeau and Meg Filiatrault had gotten together and hand dyed fabric to send to all the SC/GA SAQA. They asked us to create a 12x12 for our regional trunk show. The only stipulation was that the hand dyed fabric be recognizable. We were give plenty of time to complete the project and yet many of us didn't get it done by that date. Fortunately they extended the date until sometime in Oct.




I decided that I would use the hand dyed fabric as my background, and chose fabrics that would be compatible. I am fairly well know for my flowers, so I chose to create this beautiful daisy like flower.



After placing It on the hand dyed fabric, I chose a deep blue center for the flower. Machine quilted the petals and background.




I decided that I wanted to fill the center with French Knots. I had some beautiful variegated hand dyed pearl cotton, and some bright gold. This thread is quite thick needing a large eyed needle. I had a very hard time getting the needle through all the layers. Three evenings of watching TV and two sore hands later, I had a finished product.

I happy with it, but the biggest point of this post is to thank our SAQA reps for caring enough to be doing such a great job.

This post is linked towww.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

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Reception

We had a great turnout for our reception Friday evening. Here are a few photos.








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