Art Quilters Around The World and Other Stuff

     Today is the day to post the latest theme for AQATW which is "Out of This World". The first thing that popped into my head was something outer space and what is better than an alien. I had acquired a lot of glittery fabric for some other project so the image of a space ship came to my mind....now how to incorporate a space ship and an alien on an 11" x 16" surface?

      So with the help of fusible backing I came up with my challenge entry!

                            

                              An Alien Photo Bomb!

Another project I got finished this week is my "Elements" study I've been working on with my studioQ gang.

This is what it looked like black and white but I didn't really like it so I slashed all up and added red.

I like it much better now. So I finished quilting it with red thread and red binding.

       And another finished product....my 12" x 12" for the 2015 SAQA Auction. Here are some pictures of my process. I decided to do another "Cardinal in Winter"  similar to the one I did fit the Cure Fundraiser. I already had the background, just needed to cut it down to size.

 Materials used

Cut out 12"  x 12"

Closeup of quilting and beading

Closeup of final product!

More "Catch Up"

     And last week, my studioQ art group met. We either meet at each other's homes or often we'll meet at a fabric shop in Fort Worth, Cabbage Rose, http://www.cabbagerosequilting.com/  which has a great meeting room. As we like to share ideas with each other, our latest endeavor has been working with elements. One of our members, Heather, has had great success with an element she designed. So she has been mentoring  the rest of us on this design technique.

We have started out in black and white. This is a collection of what several of us have done. First steps.

This last picture is my final design for my elements. I sliced it all up and inserted strips of red. Now to get it quilted. I had used the 4 as my basic element so if I like this after it is finished, I may enter it in our guild show, titled "May The Fourth Be With You!"

     I have been working on a couple other projects. One is my quilt for an Internet group I belong to, which is due in a couple weeks. The title for this challenge is "Out of This World ". I've been having fun with this one! so watch for it later in May.

     And I am working on two or three small wallhangings for a book about the first walk on the moon. I can't really show too much of it because we have been requested to not post what we are doing. But maybe I can sneak in just some teasers.

Trip with Gal Pals

I've gotten a little behind on my blog writing...so I'm going to do a little "catch up"!

    A couple weeks ago a bunch of us went to La Grange, Texas to visit the Texas Quilt Museum. It is a lovely facility with a permanent collection of quilts as well as rotating exhibits. We went to see an exhibit of art quilts by the artist, Sue Brenner http://www.suebenner.com/ . A beautiful display of her talent!

This is a picture of the outside of the museum...we couldn't take pictures of Sue's quilts.

       Of course, no trip is complete without lots of eating and laughing!  On the way down, we stopped in Geddings, Texas for lunch.

A cute little coffee shop that had good sandwiches, etc....and where I had my third April episode!

I broke a tooth while biting on a soft piece of bread!!!

        We had a great Mexican dinner with Margaritas in La Grange where we also spent the night. The next day, we traveled over to Round Top, Texas...the cutest little town. I had not been there before but will definitely make a return trip there....the area is known for twice annual flea market/antique sales. And a well known spot is the Pie Place! So we had a mid morning snack of pie!

     After that we headed to Brenham, Texas....originally to visit the Blue Bell Ice Cream plant...but because of their recent recall problems, we visited a wonderful nursery instead.

....where we all bought some plants to take home.  I got a couple herbs for my patio garden.

      Then headed home with one more stop for one more meal at the Monmouth Cafe in Georgetown, Texas....another great eatery!!!