Magnolia II

The theme for our Possum Town Quilter’s 2015 Ultimate Guild Challenge was to create a piece of fiber art with the Southern Magnolia Flower. My challenge was to present the white/cream flower in color. I fused applique pieces to a colorful background fabric and then used intense pencils for highlights and details.

36" X 36" -- $810
Made from commercial cottons 

You can see more of my process HERE and on my first Magnolia.

Detail

 

We are celebrating Mother’s 90th birthday this coming weekend in VA. Isn’t she a cute baby, charming youth, classy adult, and  beautiful woman?

Life and “Amazing Grace”

Life …

We had our family all together when Dustin & Gina arrived from Los Angeles. Here are all my girls with an antique meat fork or pie crust cutter. I’m trying to pass out some of the things I have accumulated over the years.

The boys each got an awl that I had purchased at my folks sale. Father turned the handles on the lathe to his liking.

We gave the grandchildren each a puzzle or game.

… as a Quilter

I finished a challenge to use this symbol in an art quilt.

It reminded me of the sol in shaped note music. So, I took a picture of a song...

...and printed it out on fabric and layered it with the batting and backing.

Then I machine quilted it +/- 1/8” apart over the whole surface.

I machine stitched over all the music and lettering. I’m calling it “Amazing Grace.” It measures 8”X10” and is finished with a narrow binding and ready to hang.

And now I have started on my second Magnolia which is to be 36” square. You can see my first Magnolia here.

~~~ Parting Shot ~~~

Magnolia II

… as a Quilter

It’s time to begin my “real” Magnolia for our PTQ Ultimate Guild Challenge. You can see my first sample HERE.

Can you see a very faint sketch of the magnolia through the background fabric?

I cut out oblong shapes to fill the petals and now that I’ve placed them on the background fabric I think something needs to change.

The small oblong pieces were cut from the bottom fabric. It seems I need more contrast to make a distinction with the light and dark on the petals. Should I choose another fabric for the petals? Or for the background? Or both?

I hope you enjoy lots of inspirations at these creative links.

 

More of the Southern Magnolia

On my design wall ---

I have been battling with this piece ever since I came home from Alpine, AL. Since it was already quilted I felt like I needed to use something besides fabric to give it life. I chose oil pastels for that was what I had on hand.

Thanks to my niece Claire Bleu for tutoring me through the coloring part.

You see … it used to look like this … (and I thought I was ready to add the center and bind it and be done!) ...

… and this.

Now I think I really am ready to make and add the center seed pod and put a binding on it.