4 posts tagged “rocks”

After spending 10 days with my grandmother in Western NY, I have returned home to PA. It was nice to be able to spend time with my grandma and parents that I would not normally have a chance to do. Gram is doing amazingly well considering what she went through. She came home with much swelling in her legs, and by the time I left for home, they had improved a lot. She will not be driving again soon, or ever, which is hard for her to deal with, but she is back home. She is also wearing her Lifeline button at all times. She would not wear it when she went to town for her exercise class and dinner days- didn't think she needed it.....

I took some things with me to work on,  and did a little hand and machine stitching. I gave Gram's sewing machine a good cleaning and then used it to stitch together these blocks I pieced before leaving home. 

  The blocks are12" finished in size, making this finish at 4ft x 5 ft without borders. I think I will be adding at least a small border, but not sure how wide it will be. I think this will make a nice size for a quilt to snuggle under on a couch.
This is another piece I worked on and finished one evening. This is the first of the blue ACEO's that I have beaded. There are gemstone chips in shades of blue along with beads in various shades of blue and crystal. The flower centers are accented with pale yellow beads. This is the first item I have listed at my new Handmade Fuzion shop. I submitted my application to Handmade Fuzion a while before I left to stay with my gram, and got my acceptance while still in NY. To sell at that site, you have to apply with photos of your work, and be juried in. As with my other shops on the web, I will have different items in this shop from the ones in any of my Etsy shops or on the sales pages of my website. If you don't see just what you like in one shop, check out my others! I will be working to add items to my newest shop later this week. Here is a link directly to this ACEO.

My second post for today, trying to catch up with life. I had finished two more "On the Rocks" quilts just before Christmas, but didn't get photos taken of them until a few days ago. To show that I have been doing a little with my quilts, here they are.....

This is "Echinaceas on the Rocks", 8"x10" in size, it is shown in this previous post before quilting. I spent much of December doing the beading on this one. I didn't have much time at home, but took it with me to various appointments and even our trip to Marla's for our Christmas gathering. I finally decided it was done. It is hard to decide when there enough beads.... It was nice to play with the purples, I had used some purples in many of my rock & mud fabrics, so I was able to coordinate the rocks to the photo too. I also found some really tiny butterfly beads during one of my bead hunting trips. This quilt is available for purchase here at my Etsy Art Quilt shop.
Here is a closeup of the top corner. I added tiny shells in addition to the beads and gemstone chips to the rocky area.
  This little quilt is "Hemerocallis on the Rocks", and is 6"x8" in size including the loopy yarn I used to bind it with. In addition to the photo, there is a sunprint of rose leaves and assorted flowers done with gold, brown and green along the side. This quilt is available for purchase here at my Etsy Art Quilt Shop.
A close-up of this one....One of the tiny butterflies can be seen in the upper right of this photo. The beading on this piece was started while waiting for my mini van to get it's brakes fixed. I got a lot done because the new part didn't solve the problem, and I had to wait for Ken to pick me up. Lots of waiting and stitching that day.

With all the ice and now snow we have been getting, I now have ideas coming together for some new pieces showing the rocks with ice and snow on them. I am not sure exactly what will turn up, but I have lots of inspiration around me. I have some canvas fabric I painted in icy blues with pearly shimmer that may coordinate with a flower photo with the sky as the background. I got some great shots of some white Anemone early last spring.

It seemed like a never ending task, but I finally got the second wreath order finished with the help of Ken the last couple days of production. The second order needed to have all the wreaths decorated with velvet bows, pine cones and red berries. I spent a lot of TV time making bows, while Ken put wires on pine cones.

Now that the International Quilt Market has begun in Houston, TX, I can now unveil my accepted journal quilt that is on display there today through next Sunday at the end of the Quilt Festival. We were not to publish photos until after the show opened. It will be traveling to at least 2 more shows- Chicago in the spring, and Long Beach CA next summer.

This is "Iris on the Rocks", a quilt that I did not intend to even make. It decided for me. The theme for the exhibition is The Elements- Earth, Water, Air, Fire- My usual flowers, pinks and blues don't scream elements. The rocky center panel uses one of my rocks and mud fabrics from this summer's experimentation. I stitched tucks for texture into the rock fabric, then couched various yarns on for even more texture. The yarns make me think of the lichens, mosses, and small plants that struggle to grow in the harsh rocky environment. Assorted glass beads, tiny gemstone chips, metallic lady bug and butterflies add more interest to the rocky scene. The green sections are from a fabric painted at my second workshop this summer, and the rocky texture is what I played with during my first one. The composition seemed to just fall into place, and ended up being nearly the right size for the exhibit, so I entered it, and it was accepted.
 
Here is a detail, showing part of the rocky section, showing some of the beading and stitching detail.

The area cut out of the piece where the Iris photo was placed, is what I used to begin making my newest small piece. I had another copy of the photo I used in this quilt that is a little smaller, so I used it in the small piece, too.

  This is the little piece that came from the leftovers from the journal quilt. I added similar beads, stone chips, and creatures tucked in and around the fibers, like the original. Some of the yarns were hand stitched on this one, while all on the journal are machine couched. This little quilt is 6.5"x8.5" in size. I used two different yarns to bind the edges of this for a different effect. The upper left corner section of black is quilted with my usual vine pattern, and there are beads added there, too. This little quilt is now SOLD.