Junque Queen

Junque Queen was created as a result of a found object art challenge (which became know as the FART challenge!)  from Conversations in Cloth, an art quilt group from the Fox Cities area.  The challenge was to walk a mile on our city streets.  Anything that you found during the walk was fair game to incorporate into a quilt or hanging.  The other two rules were: You could use muslin and one 'focus' fabric.

Detail from lower right corner.

I rust dyed some muslin (from the junk I found of course!) and found a lovely batik to coordinate with it.  My queen includes a rusty nail (magic wand), parts of a soda can (smile, flower parts and crown), a chex mix chip bag (right side out for body, inside out for stars), several coffee stirrers (flower stem and hands), pipe insulation (hair) and some snaps (earrings picked right out of the gutter.  They were covered with horrible pink fabric and rusting though.  everything else is cut from the batik fabric.  I also incorporated phrases and sayings that had to do with found object art.  See detail.

As a matter of interest, Conversations in Cloth is now on-line as Creative Gatherings.  Please check out the site and feel free to join the discussions.  

Life's Necessities

Coffee & Chocolate, Fabric and Friends.......

That's the title of a piece I completed in November for the Evergreen Quilt Camp Challenge.  The wallhanging/table runner uses paper pieced coffee cups that I designed at least 10 years ago for an anniversary challenge for another guild that I belonged to in another city, along with a box of chocolates based on some of my favorites.  The chocolates lie in a bed of gold lame and use various scraps of fabric and trim along with new and old buttons.  I was also able to use my alphabet decorative stitch function for the machine quilting, programming in Coffee & Chocolate, Fabric & Friends.  All in all it was a fun piece to make.

Finished Piece  12" X 20 1/2 "

Chocolate box detail in the production stage

Detail of Paper pieced cup and stitching

I do other things besides bead!

As I mentioned in my description, I am a multi-media artist working on whatever my interest is at the moment.  Is it efficient?  Probably not but it suits me.

This art quilt called Garden Fairy is a raw edge applique piece that I did in a class with Rosemary Eichorn two years ago.  It sat on my design wall for a long time.  In order to break my sewing block, I picked it up and started quilting.  I also used an artists' binding with directions courtesy of K. Grace Howes.  I feel like I can pick up my next UFO and keep on working.

Boxes for Slovenia

We will be traveling to Italy this afternoon and a part of the trip is a visit to family in Slovenia. The photo is of the boxes I made for my dad's cousins and my cousin Polona (she gets the bigger one for showing us around!). I do love covering the boxes with beads and coming up with new designs.

   

Persephone

Persephone was created with felted wool flower kit and a polymer clay face bead surrounded by beaded hair.  She is next on the list of beaded faces that I have to create.

Another Beaded Box

This is a box from chocolate (of course it had to be emptied!) and it is approximately 5 inches by 3 inches.  It was done from a design based on the center bead which is actually a metal button with the shank cut off.

New Tangles

I've been gone due to computer problems and am now catching up.  A few more tangles. I love this stuff!