What I've been working on

I've been absent from the blog world for over a month; just a phase I'm going through.  As much as I love writing, it even surprises me when I stay away from here that long!
My absence here doesn't mean I've been slacking off, though.  Needing some PLAY time, I freemotion- quilted some scraps onto wool felt, playing around with some quilting motifs and patterns:

Can you spot the 3 ginko leaves?

Quilted pebbles.

Misc. quilting designs.

 Another evening, I made paper cloth (per Beryl Taylor's technique).  Dilute white glue 50/50 with water and use it to "decoupage" decorative paper, tissue paper, Joss paper, bits of torn ephemera (maps, paper placemat from a Chinese restaurant, gift wrap, pretty paper napkins, and pages from a 1937 personal diary -- not mine!) onto a piece of muslin, which has been ironed to freezer paper for stability.  I usually add a little diluted paint  to some of the white areas to add color, but because I'd used bleeding tissue paper, I skipped that step this time.

Paper cloth.

Paper cloth detail.

Once it's dry, paper cloth can be used in mixed media projects and holds up well to stitching.  In fact, I used some in the FMQ stitch sample on wool felt, above, though it's not visible in any of these photos.

My fabric postcard for the Wish Upon a Card show.

Last week, I made another of my "cupcake" fabric postcards and sent it off to the 6th annual Wish Upon a Card  juried show and silent auction.  This project has become the SOSQ's (Sisters' Outdoor Quilt Show) signature fundraiser. Selected cards will be custom framed, compliments of High Desert Frameworks, for this auction.  Cards not selected for framing are sold and proceeds from the sale and silent auction (about $50,000) are donated to Wendy's Wish Foundation, which provides support services for cancer patients in Central Oregon.

Two of our other member, Torrie and Deb, have made pieces for another of SOSQ's fundraisers, Small Wonders.  I'll try to get photos of those quilts to share here.
Our monthly Fiberexplorations meeting is tomorrow night at Deb's, and we're hoping to see her remodeled studio! 

Progress on our challenge quilts

Torrie's "Small Wonders" piece

At our April meeting, Torrie brought her finished piece for the "Small Wonders" quilt challenge, sponsored by the Stitchin' Post in Sisters, OR. For this challenge, partipants create and donate a small quilt (between 18" and 24" in size) for a fundraiser benefiting nonprofit organizations in Sisters. The quilts are displayed in the Sisters Library during the month of May, where visitors can vote for their favorites. Prizes totaling $500 will be awarded. If you can't get to Sisters to see them in May, the quilts will also be displayed (and sold!) during the Sisters Quilt Show on Sat., July 9.

I love the cheerful, high energy feel to this little quilt, which incorporates pieces of all the fabric swatches from our in-progress Fabric Swatch Challenge. But Torrie's not finished working with this color palette yet; she still plans to make a larger quilt for that challenge! It will be a different design (and larger -- at least 36" on each side), using the rest of her fabric swatches from our exchange, plus fabrics from her own stash.

I've made some headway on my own piece for our Fabric Swatch Challenge. I first sketched some design ideas in my design journal, chose the best parts, then drew the layout (an abstract landscape) on large tracing paper, choosing a 36" wide x 48" long format. Yikes!!! That's HUGE for me; I usually work much smaller, like 9" x 12" journal quilt size. But it's a good challenge for me -- and that's what a challenge is all about, isn't it? Pushing yourself to try things a different way, testing yourself, getting out of your comfort zone, and seeing what you're capable of.

The next step was to gather the pieces from our fabric swatch exchange and audition others that worked well with them. The fabrics were folded to fit together in their assigned areas of the traced layout, then photographed:

The "draft" layout of my design.

Since taking that photo, I've stitched together 2 rows/sections: the blues and greens and the yellow-oranges.

I strayed from my original plan when placing fabrics at the bottom of the design; I've decided to change it back to my original idea. The dark brown vertical piece has also been nixed, along with several other changes.

Again, that's what I love about art quilts -- that new ideas can be considered and decisions made all the way through the process; nothing's set in stone. That's freedom!

Final note: I really want to be the buyer/owner of Torrie's "Small Wonders" quilt, but I'm afraid I'll have some stiff competition. If anyone out there has some influence in helping me make this acquisition, I'd be most grateful!