Jenny Anydots

  

A quilt shop about an hour and 45 minutes north of me hosts an annual fabric challenge, with gift certificates to the store as prizes.  Here’s the challenge packet.  Must use Kaffe Fassett Tiddlywinks fabric in blue, finish 24" square or smaller, and have a face on it

 

Started with cat photo, and edited in photoshop to have smaller value range.  Printed out grayscale photo to 24" square size on several sheets of paper, and taped together.

 

selected fabrics and arranged in value order.  All Kaffe Fassett.  

 

made a value scale from a strip of background

 

Outlined and numbered areas with red sharpie.  Easy to see, and I want it to bleed to the back side to trace onto fusible.  I later gridded the master drawing with blue sharpie, and eventually drew the whiskers with green.  Easier to see if each is a different color (and not black). Each square on the blue grid was labeled a, b, c, etc.  Each part of the cat is traced onto the paper side of Soft Fuse, and labeled with color number and location on the grid.  When I trace, I add extra on the sides going under a darker color to avoid gaps.

 

Pieces ironed on some of the fabric.

 

Assembly underway.  I press each section between sheets of baker's parchment so it doesn't stick to anything else.

 

assembled cat. checked for any gaps, and patched them on the back with a small piece of matching fabric.  Ironed the assembled cat to lightweight fusible interfacing. Stitched the cat in the direction the fur grows.

 

hard to see the facial features, so I traced them onto Solvy with colored sharpie, and overlaid onto face.

 

Wet blocked after stitching, which also melts the soluble stabilizer away.

 

 Made overlapping darts to flatten the cat, trimmed the interfacing, added the background, added whiskers, stitched them to background and blocked again (#2)

 

added borders, and layered.  I used some small pieces of batting, butted together with a strip of fusible interfacing ironed to the back to keep them together.  It wasn't worth cutting into a new king size batt for a 24" square quilt.  You cannot tell where the joins are after it's quilted.

 

backside, after the face is quilted

 

all quilted and blocked (#3) before trimming and facing

blocked (#4) after facing attached, to get edges straight and square

 

Finished quilt

 

Some detail shots of the eyes

The quilt won 2nd place and Viewers' Choice, so I'm doing a happy dance.

By the Light of the Silvery Moon

By the Light of the Silvery Moon, 18 x 30, 2015

What might you find in a moonlit Louisiana swamp?  Alligators and Luna Moths, among other nocturnal creatures.  Spanish moss, swaying in the nighttime breeze, as it hangs from Bald Cypress trees.  Lots of stars in the night sky.  Crickets chirping and cicadas trilling, along with a chorus of frogs.  Orb Weaver  and Banana spiders spinning their magical webs.  And the annoying whine of mosquitoes, no doubt, as they are sometimes nicknamed the Louisiana State Bird. Swirling air currents inspired by the sky in Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night.

Much of my fiber art references nature, particularly the natural environs of my adopted home state.  While not a native to the area, I’ve come to appreciate the beauty of the plants and animals, some of them endangered or threatened species, in the swamps, forests and bayous.  I selected By the Light of the Silvery Moon to interpret for the whimsical possibilities. 

The song, originally published in 1909, was written by Gus Edwards & Edward Madden.   A cartoon version with ink illustrations by Myron Waldman was produced in 1931 as part of Fleischer Studios Screen Songs theatrical cartoons.  They ran on television 30 years later, and I remember “follow[ing] the bouncing ball” to read the lyrics along the bottom of the screen.   Popular for years, the tune was used in/by numerous performers, recordings & films.  My challenge in making this quilt was depicting nature in a low-light situation, rather than my usual bold and bright colors.  

 

You can see all 175 quilts in the Fly Me to the Moon exhibit at the locations listed on Coordinator Susanne Jones's Website

Moonlight Serenade

Moonlight Serenade, 18 x 30, 2015

2015 was a year of challenges and changes.  My father was hospitalized in April, and unfortunately did not recover.  One of the many things he loved was music, especially classical, jazz, Broadway musicals, and Big Band hits, such as Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade.  I chose the topic for this quilt just after my dad died, as a tribute to him and his love of music, which was passed on to his children and grandchildren.

 Moonlight Serenade captures a universal moment in parenthood, holding a small baby and singing softly until sleep comes at last.  Sewing the shadows onto the soles of the feet after quilting the floor reminded me of Peter Pan, one of Dad’s favorite stage shows (and how I got my name). 

We lost Boris, our 15-year-old black cat, to old age in late September. He became part of the quilt as well, his third appearance in my fiber art.  I chose to work with a limited matte color palette, mostly grays, to keep things serious and quiet.  The angled perspective was challenging, but made for a more interesting composition.

You can see all 175 quilts in the Fly Me to the Moon exhibit at the locations listed on Coordinator Susanne Jones's Website

Dare to Dance

It's here!  Got my copy of Dare to Dance a couple of weeks ago!  Here are my pages in  the book.  There are 58 more wonderful quilts included in all.  I'm on p. 90-93.

The book is available from the publisher, Schiffer Books or Amazon.com.

Better photos here: Portrait of Greco   Phoebis Agarithe

What's everyone up to? Look here:

Portrait of Greco

Greco is my son’s cat.  She’s the newest in a long line of cats that have spent time with me and grown up with my children.  

The portrait was developed from a photograph by the artist.  The quilt includes hand dyed fabrics by the artist, and extensive threadwork. Greco “helped” out with the sewing of this quilt by napping in the room while I was sewing and trying to explore the sewing machine.