Quilt Festival

Today is the last day to enter Amy's Creative Side's Fall Quilt Festival.  It is a Virtual Quilt Show which I have decided to enter.  I had a hard time deciding which quilt to enter because I can enter only one but I finally decided to enter my "Ra, the Sun God" as it is probably my most unique quilt.

"Ra the Sun God"

"Ra"...was created after I took a class with Larkin Van Horn, a very talented Beader/Fiber Artist from Washington State whose work I have long admired.  I absolutely love her beading and aspired to create a work of art with her "medallion" technique.  The Quilt is 23" X 24", is machine pieced and quilted by me, and the design is my original.  The cabachon face at the center of the quilt is actually one of Larkin's which she kindly gave me when I was taking her class here in Fort Worth.  The strings of beads hanging down on the left side of the central figure are free standing; the rays are cut from some of my own hand-dyed fabrics.  The work is faced rather than being bound.  I think the Art Quilt, Wall Hanging or the Two-Color Quilt categories would be most appropriate for this quilt.

I had entered in the annual Quilt Show of Trinity Valley Quilters' Guild, Fort Worth this past month and was very excited to have placed 2nd in the Art Quilts Category.

Challenge #92-Stripes 2

This week the Diva has a challenge that uses stripes.  We did one like this last year and I was tempted to just pull up my old one....but decided that would be cheating!!!  So here is "Stripes 2"!!

Challenge # 92-Stripes 2

On a different note...I really like Amazon.com..I had Kindle Fire for less than a year, and I had a several episodes with it freezing up, loosing my apps, and the last straw...I could not open any of my books!!  So after communicating with Amazon support, they offered to replace my Kindle with a new one...which came within five days of our latest conversation...and I know I may suffer a little from the "Big Brother" syndrome/conspiracy theory, but I am glad to say they have all my data in "the cloud" so I was able to transfer everything with no problems!

Now I need to get ready for my studioQ meeting on Monday...we are going to be dyeing fabric and there is a certain amount of preparation..and I need to finish my latest 12" challenge!

Dare #28

I actually have my challenge for the Dare from The Bright Owl early this week...by a day!

Dare #28

We were out of town last weekend...took a trip to Northwest Arkansas and the fall colors in the Ozark Mountains were spectacular!!  We traveled there for two reasons...one was to revisit the Crystal Bridges American Art gallery in Bentonville, AR and to go to War Eagle Arts and Crafts Fair.  As it turned out, we got a third treat!

We were going to go to Crystal Bridges Friday morning...but as they it didn't open until 11:00, we had time to visit Pea Ridge, a Civil War Battlefield nearby.  We have visited Civil and Revolutionary Battlefields all over the country, and here was one so close that we had not visited...perfect opportunity.

Leestown, Arkansas...no longer a town there, but was a hamlet at the time of the battle.

On bluff overlooking the Pea Ridge battlefield.

Then we went to Crystal Bridges, had a nice lunch and wandered around looking at the wonderful art work....thanks to Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton (founder of Walmart).  This fantastic facility and grounds is free to the public.  On display this time we were there are models of some of the works of the architect, Moshe Safdie. This very prolific architect has done some marvelous structures world-wide.  Click on the link to see more.

This is a model of Crystal Bridges on display.

And this is the real thing!

The entrance to Crystal Bridges...
There is a sister tree to this one at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX

After seeing everything inside, we hiked around outside...there is so much to see and the grounds are so beautiful....and artwork all over the place!

A new acquisition.

Can you see a bike in the tree?
This is a bronze sculpture....tree and bike.

The next day we went to War Eagle Arts and Crafts fair.  It is located out in the country on river.  There is an old mill there...is still a working farm, but twice a year they have this huge fair...over 500 vendors.  My brother-in-law and wife have a booth selling homemade soap...War Eagle is a very interesting place..we enjoyed seeing our relatives and checking out all the other vendors!

The river where War Eagle is located...on both sides of the banks.

Peace...NOW!

While watching the last debate....on foreign policy...I wanted to share my attempt to encourage peace in my own way.  Last spring, I saw a website on Facebook about "FeltPeace.org"...looked into it and decided to sign up.  I received the name of the person I would send a project to...and she is in Greece.

I had first tried out felting at a workshop at Arrowmont...then I discovered that  one of my Creative Crones' buddies has a felting machine which she is generously loaning out to any of us to use.  And another Crone had a lot of wool roving which she shared with all of us.  As the projects for the Felt Peace were to be at least 30% felted, I decided to do a little wall hanging....using a picture I had pulled from a magazine of a cell...sliced and magnified. I thought a single cell would be a great symbol for showing peace...we are all made of cells which are all pretty much alike and if that thought could be considered, that our differences are much less than our "alikeness" maybe peace could occur!  Loving the colors and shapes in it I got my stuff together and started to felt.

Felted project on left/picture of cell on right

I had used store bought felt for the background.  Shown here is my felted project before I did any embellishing.  Then as I worked on it, I decided to not make a wall hanging, but to make a journal cover....using an expensive composition notebook for the inside.

Felted journal cover with embellishments...beading, stitching etc.

Completed journal with notebook inside

Inside of journal and composition book to be inserted.

I really enjoyed making the journal cover...I may have to make some  more of these!!  And I have mailed off my project for the PeaceFelt to my new friend in Greece...hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it!!!

Challenge #91-Beads of Courage

I am running late on this post....it is 11:00 PM my time, but the Diva is on the East Coast of Canada...so it is already tomorrow there!  (And I just read that the deadline is actually Saturday...so I am really late!)  We just got back in town this afternoon, and I created my #91 challenge this evening...I really like this challenge she gave us; "Beads of Courage", so I am going to try to get it posted.  Please follow this link to find out more about the "Beads...".  It is a wonderful organization which the Diva is involved in because of her darling little guy who has a rare condition.  I am linking you to her site also so you can read about him.  If you scroll on down to the list of those who met the challenge, you will see I am #80!!  The slideshow was created before I added my tile.

And here is my contribution in honor of this organization!

"Beads of Courage"

New Zentangle and Good News

First...my good news!  My husband's PET Scan came back with a good report...although his cancer is, according to the doctor, not curable but is treatable so we are now in the treatable mode!  The scan showed everything to be really good...all he needs to do now is get stronger...no more chemo, thank goodness!  For those of you out there who have experienced the treatment, either personally or via family/friend, you will know what I mean!!  It is a wonderful thing that we have such great doctors and drugs, but boy, does it take a toll!!!

We have many years ahead and many plans to be fulfilled, not the least of which is celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary next year!!!  More to come on that as time nears!

Now my zentangle for the week...the Diva gave us the challenge to use Linda Farmer's "string" #1.  Linda has been creating strings to use....that is the basis for the start of a zentangle.  For some that seems to be one of the most difficult things to do so she has been creating strings on her website to be downloaded and used. You can link to her site by clicking on her name; I also have her badge on the left side of my blog you can click on!

Here is my String #1 from Linda Farmer:

Dare # 26

This week the Bright Owl gave a little bit different challenge.  Usually she just gives us a wonderful Zendala to create; this week she got a little more specific and also gave a broad theme to go with the pattern....It seems she is quite the fan of October, especially Halloween!!  So the challenge was to also include the colors of fall or to have something to do with the holiday

So here is my zendala for this week's Dare Challenge!!

Dare Challenge # 26..."Eerie Eyes"!!

Bright Owl's "obsession" with Halloween reminded me of one of the barns with quilt patterns we saw when we were in Michigan last year.  The owner is also really fond of Halloween as you can tell from the picture!  They even named their farm "Bewitching Farm"...I think I read somewhere the owner was born on Halloween and it has become her favorite holiday.

The "Bewitching Farm" Michigan 

A close up of the barn at the "Bewitching Farm"

OOPS!!

While my mind has been on many other things the past couple of weeks, I realized that I never posted my Zentangle challenge #89 for the Diva.  Now we already have our challenge for #90, but as I just got it, I am going to go ahead and post last week's.  We go to the doctor today to get the results of the PET scan so I am a little distracted!

Any way....here is #89...."SanKegg"...which I really didn't like very much..but again, am always up for a challenge!!

Challenge #89-Sanegg 

Maria Vennekens is the creator of this tangle and if you go to the Diva's site, you will see the story behind it.

"Sankegg" by Maria Vennekens

Dare Challenge #25

The Bright Owl already posted the new Dare Zendala #26, but I think I can still post my Zendala # 25 from last week...so here it is:

Dare Zendala Challenge # 25

I really like the symmetry of her designs for the challenges.  Be sure to check out her blog to see more of them...and to download your own patterns of the week.   She publishes them in two sizes...full page and a smaller version. Actually, there are three, because the smaller size comes in a round shape and in a square.   I print them out on card stock...I usually design the large one, but I cut out the smaller versions to have on hand when I just want to mess around....

Projects Are Us

I had such a great time at the quilt show!  I got involved in the Auction and was lucky enough to purchase a couple of beauties!

A mini Quilt by my friend Heather 8"x 11"

A mini by a guild member I have not met  11" x 13"

I also have gotten interested in a new (to me) technique...working with wool applique so I bought some fabric, thread and needles at the show.  I am interested in designing my own patterns, but am going to need a little tutorial instruction in how to do the appliqueing!

My wools and thread...aren't these great colors?

A couple of other projects I have in the works are:

My "Shades of Gray" charm blocks 

I want to create a quilt with the 56 five-inch Charm blocks which I rec'd this week.  The large fabric they are all resting on was my choice.  This should be a real fun project!

Fabrics for October Creative Crone challenge

And Wendy of studioQ has given my fiber arts group a really interesting challenge for October.  And I am eager to get busy with it!

I also need to get back to my "Unusual Lone Star" by Karen Stone which I am making for our bed.  I had put it aside to complete my quilts for the show...and now that it is over, time to get back to it!!  The link will take you to a google site with lots of pictures of Karen's work.  Her website is "under construction" right now but will be worth checking into when finished.