Mountain Art Quilters celebrated the season with a potluck luncheon. The room was decorated with quilts on the walls, both Christmas and Show and Tell, and with poinsettias and handmade favors on the tables. A big thank you goes out to all the wonderful ladies who made this day happen, and may your holidays be merry and bright!

Show and Tell*

"Tropical Days"
Carolyn Woods
Carolyn made this quilt several years ago but never felt like it was finished, so she hung it in the master bathroom and studied it while she soaked in the tub.  Once inspiration hit, she fused some cotton fabric in different colors, cut shapes out of the fabric and placed them around the quilt in various ways until something clicked.  Carolyn is now quite satisfied with the quilt and feels like it is finally finished.

Untitled
Pat Gillings
Pat started with a batik background layered with sari ribbons dyed with natural dyes to create the tree.  Some of the beaded leaves were made with white silk ribbon that was colored with fabric markers after the leaves were stitched and some were made with beading alone.  Pat learned these techniques watching videos on YouTube.  The lacy leaves at the bottom were free motion embroidery on Solvy.

"Fleeting Memories"
Joan Dyer

This is Joan's third quilt in this series working with string figures.  A lot of the fabrics she used were from a bag of scraps she purchased -- silks, batiks and more -- leftovers from the garment industry.

Jane Haworth shared one of the custom quilts she makes for her Etsy Store.

Pat Gillings shared some of the baskets she makes.  The pretty medallion at the center of the basket was purchased on Etsy.

Along with Pat's baskets, Patty Blesso shared some of her cute crafty items.

Christmas Quilts

Patty also brought several Christmas quilts to grace the room.  This one features Father Christmas in a blue and white panel.

Christmas in a blue and white panel.

Patty's second quilt included working lights!

And her third quilt was a cheerful Laurel Burch concoction.

Lynn Tubbe brought her large Christmas quilt.  She was in a group in which each member used this quilt pattern, incorporating their personal touches.  Lynn enjoyed trading fabrics and trims with the other members of the group.  The quilting motif in the border is a Kathy Sandbach design.

And just a Christmas thing -- by Joan Dyer

And then there was the food . . . bon appetit!

*Apologies to Sigrid and Jackie whose quilts did not get photographed for the blog.  I hope to rectify those omissions at a future date.  

October is the final reveal for the year, and it is always jam-packed with unique and beautiful quilts; this year was no exception. The challenges for this month were 'Influential Women,' 'I've Never Done This Before,' and 'Wild and Free,' along with a Show and Tell and a showing by a new member. Enough said -- enjoy!

Influential Women

"Silent Spring"
31x45
Jane Haworth
Jane was inspired by a PBS movie about Rachel Carson's life, her crusade to make the public aware of the hazards of DDT, and of her unfortunate death from breast cancer.  Jane used images printed on fabric, lettering cut with a Silhouette Cameo, raw edge appliqué, and Moda 'Grunge' fabrics.  Her biggest challenge was finding a way to combine all the images, but when she came up with the idea of a jam jar in the middle of the night, she knew she had it!

"Blanche Irene Rapp-Armstrong"
29x39
Julie Broughan
Julie was inspired by the front cover of a 1979 Sunset magazine featuring a woman who looked just like her grandmother.  Julie made this commemorative quilt using cotton fabrics, poly batting, silk ribbon embroidery and a fabric transfer of the woman.  She challenged herself to use her grandmother's 1896 Singer treadle sewing machine to put this quilt together, but she had to first restore the machine, the cabinet, and then teach herself to use it, which wasn't easy.  Treadle sewing is hard!

"Hanging Woman"
27.5x36.25
Trish Morris-Plise
Trish found her inspiration in the tarot card, "The Hanged Man," and a ballerina.  She has always admired women who see the world differently -- under water or from space are but two examples.  According to Trish, "When we allow ourselves to flip the world upside down, ideas change, visions emerge and, in my opinion, change has a better chance."  This is a whole cloth quilt featuring beading and paint, quilted with a Quilters' Dream batt.

"Gwen, Velda, and Me"
25x20
Norma Keeley
Norma's quilt is the fourth in her series of 'extreme simplicity quilts' inspired by Gwen Marston's book, Minimal Quiltmaking.  She used a technique for creating texture in a quilt that she learned in a class taught by Velda Newman, hence the quilt title.

"We Can Do It!"
42x49
Ginny Lee
The source of Ginny's inspiration was the Women's March on Washington on January 21, 2017.  Ginny created a list of  influential women including her mother and Boudicca, a Celtic warrior queen, who is one of Ginny's ancestors.  Ginny free-motion stitched the names of these memorable women onto her hand-painted fabric after tracing the names on Solvy, but the larger lettering is ultra-suede fused onto the background with Wonder Under.  It wasn't until the quilt was finished, sleeve and all, that Ginny decided it needed a pink pussy hat -- which she then knitted and wrangled onto the quilt by adding extra batting and hand-stitching.

"Influential Women"
Edith Gregersen
Edith based this unusual quilt on an old photo featuring women in her family back in the 1800's.  The women, her grandmother and aunties, all worked in Detroit, MI.  Edith embellished the photos with fabrics and trims matched to the clothing the women were wearing.

I've Never Done This Before

"Spin"
18x15
Carolyn Woods
Carolyn took a painting she had done, had it copied and printed on fabric, then added appliqué shapes suggested to her by the painting.  She used cotton fabrics, batting and thread and hand-quilted the finished piece.

"I've REALLY Never Done This Before!!"
28x28
Ardy Tobin
Ardy was inspired by a multi-colored, 2 yd piece of fabric from a fellow quilter; she used this fabric for everything but the circles.  For the challenge, she decided to learn to quilt with rulers -- Ardy bought the foot, bought the rulers, took an online class, took a two-day class, watched online tutorials then got up her nerve and quilted it -- almost entirely using rulers.  In addition to the fabrics, Ardy used wool batting, poly and rayon threads in various weights, Westalee acrylic rulers and a special sewing machine foot. 

"Playtime"
19x20.5
Pat Nelson
The inspiration for this quilt was Linda Waddle's rust and flour demonstration and rusty garden stakes.  Pat arranged the stakes in a circular pattern on white PFD fabric which she covered with vinegar and let sit.  Once she had achieved the rusty effect she was looking for, Pat made a flour and water paste and covered the fabric, making designs in the paste with a credit card.  When the paste dried, she crackled it and then painted over it with ink.  In creating this quilt, Pat used cotton fabrics and batting, mono filament thread, india ink, rusted garden stakes, flour and vinegar.

"Moroccan Kasbah Ait Benhaddou"
36x30
Ann Sanderson
Ann visited many kasbahs in Morocco this past April and found them fascinating.  She recreated this kasbah by painting on white cotton and found it challenging to make it look like a kasbah without being super realistic -- she wanted it to be her own interpretation.  This was painted using Golden Open paints and quilted with a bamboo batt.

"(Whispers)"
28.5x44
Joan Dyer
Joan used hand-dyed and Setacolor painted fabrics for this quilt.  The perle cotton design was hand-stitched following a technique Joan shared with us back in August.  

"Feathered and Furred, Friends Forever"
24x31.5
Kathryn Madison
The source of Kathryn's inspiration is Tanja Brandt's stunning photography of her Belgian Mallinois, Ingo, and Poldi, her rescued owl.  In Kathryn's words, "In this world where so much seems to divide us, let's be inspired by the affection of these two spirits, animals of two different species, whose friendship defies all the rules."  Kathryn hand-painted Aida cloth to recreate a fall aspen forest.  Distant trees were machine embroidered using a new technique from Alison Holt.  The large foreground aspens were created by covering lengths of white Aida cloth with strips of cheesecloth soaked in dissolved Solvy, then wrinkled to resemble tree bark when dry.  These trees were machine and hand-embroidered to create 'eyes,' then painted for shade.  Painted satin ribbon was embroidered (another new technique) for fall leaves and the columbine in the foreground.  Ingo and Poldi were hand-embroidered in sections, then reassembled for a 3D effect.

"Universal Greeting Card"
12x16
Maria Billings
In Maria's words, "I'm not a funny person. When others tell jokes, I'm usually the one who doesn't get it.  So when the Visions Art Museum (VAM) in San Diego posted an online challenge, "That's Funny," it was a real big challenge for me: to create something intentionally funny."  Maria used whole cloth painting, machine and hand quilting and embroidery to create this card for all occasions.  Her Easter bunny in a Santa suit brings flowers, a birthday cake, a bottle of wine, gifts, good luck symbols and hearts.

"Origami Landscape"
24x24
Kari Hannickel
Kari was inspired by the work of Lisa Walton from Sydney, Australia, to create this colorful quilt.  Kari used acrylic paints on wet silk organza which she then dried and cut into 4.5 inch squares.  Those squares were folded and tucked into 3.5 inch squares and pressed to hold the pleats.  She used her Babyloc Sashiko machine to quilt over a flannel batting.

"Sticks and Stones, Roots and Cones"
17x21
Kate Grant
Kate's original inspiration was tree roots that were studded with stones in all the nooks and crannies and embedded in a trail.  This piece is her first attempt at an abstract quilt based on a natural design, and is her second mosaic quilt.  She applied Wonder Under to the background ("grout") fabrics, cut and laid out the individual pieces on the background and tacked them in place with a mini-iron, then covered the entire top with tulle and pressed it to fuse everything together.  Kate sandwiched it all together with a wool batting, then quilted between all the pieces with monofilament thread.  The fabrics in this quilt were batiks and regular weave cottons, one of which was treated with TerialMagic to reduce fraying.  

Wild and Free

"Free Bird"
13x15
Frances O'Brien
This quilt was inspired by a photo Frances' husband took while out at the lake.  Originally, this was going to be a sea turtle quilt, but the mosaic background seemed to work better with this image of a bald eagle in silhouette -- an image which reminds Frances of a stained glass window with a dove.  She created this quilt using cottons, batiks, tulle, Wonder Under, Dream Cotton batting and Aurefil thread.  

"Man!  I Feel Like a Woman"
Jan Reed
Jan's inspiration for this quilt was a drawing by one of her granddaughters.  She fell in love with the sassy posture of this woman and her wild, free nature.  Jan colored her using Neo Color II crayons and embellished the work with beads.

"Kenyan Sunset"
26x29
Mary Scharosch
Mary was inspired by a photograph a friend took on a trip to Kenya.  She drew the giraffe then appliquéd it to the quilt, coloring it in with colored pencils.  The background is entirely from her imagination, representing a natural habitat for her giraffe and featuring a Kenyan sunset.  She used cotton fabrics, bamboo batting, paint, pencil, and a jewelry finding with the title.  She using a facing to finish the edge of her quilt, giving it a nice, clean edge.

"Under the Northern Lights"
18x16
Linda Siska
Linda was inspired both by a YouTube video of whales playing under the northern lights and by the gorgeous felted landscapes of artists such as Moy MacKay and Susan Mulcock.  She created this quilt using merino wool roving felted with Angelina fibers, then appliquéd fabric
mountains and added hand embroidery to finish the image.  This piece incorporated ArtFelt paper and was her first attempt at felting.

"House on the Hill"
18x16
Linda Siska
Linda had so much fun with the felting that she decided to do a second quilt using that technique.  Whereas the subject matter in her first quilt was the 'wild and free' part, in this quilt, it was her technique.  Instead of trying to control the roving, she just played with it -- laying out the colors in a random fashion.  When it turned out looking much like a landscape, she added a house and hand embroidery to finish the image.  In keeping with the wild and free theme, she left the edges raw.

"Rachel's Unicorn"
25.25x20
Maria Brower
Maria found an illustration of a unicorn and a princess in the book How to Draw and Paint Fairyland, and as her granddaughter, Rachel, fancies herself a princess, Maria decided to use that as inspiration for this quilt.  The quilt is mostly cottons but the unicorn and moon are made from glittery, white organza fused to white cotton. The mushrooms and frogs were cut from teabag dyed fabric, while the leaves and plants were either fussy cut or cut free-hand.  The hair of the princess was hand sewn using copper metallic thread; colored pencils and marking pens were used for the faces and hands.  Maria quilted this with flannel fabric for the batting and ARC polyester embroidery thread for the stitching.

"Wild One"
17x20.5
Jo Hathcock
Jo's design for this wild rooster is her own and she created the quilt with "normal stuff."

"Pori Bure Tembo"
17x27.5
Jan Petre
This elephant is from a photo Jan took on a trip to the Serengeti in Africa.  Jan wanted a 3D look, so she inserted floral wire in the trapunto ears, tusks and trunk and made them stand out from the body of the quilt.  Portions of the elephant were painted with Fabrico and Prismacolor markers with blenders to give shading.  Jan's fabrics were mostly batiks accented with various weight threads and quilted with 80/20 batting.

"Wild and Free"
22x18
Michelle Peerson
Michelle was also inspired by the wild, free nature of elephants.  Her quilt was influenced by a childhood friend who dropped out of school to join the circus as a trapeze artist.  After performing for many years, this friend bought the circus.  She now takes care of retired elephants who are cared for and allowed to roam freely on her estate.  In Michelle's words, "It is a sad world when animals of this exquisite majesty spent so many years abused.  In a perfect world, they would be free all their lives."  Michelle created this quilt using fabric dyed with PHEBO sun dyes and enhanced with Aquarell watercolor pencils and Superior threads.

"Summer of Love"
14x40
Mary Serpa
Mary created this quilt in remembrance of the Summer of Love.  She used commercial fabrics, "To Dye For," and quilted it with a wool batting.

Show and Tell

Liturgical Shawl
Robin Hart
Robin shared with us a river themed shawl made as a gift for her minister on the occasion of his installation into the church.  Robin made this shawl at the request of church members and had a tight deadline of a little over a week -- but she managed!  Her husband, Chuck, was kind enough to model the shawl.

New Member Showcase

Our newest member, Sue Serrano, showcased several of her quilts, beginning with this tribute to her all-time favorite band, the Beatles.  She used Lumiere paints, stamps and embellishments to represent song titles; album titles are embroidered around the edge.

These two pieces by Sue were done using a discharge technique with beads and stitching for added interest.

This last quilt by Sue, made mostly from a pattern, showcases her effective use of color, her quilting and beadwork.

Our September meeting featured member Linda Waddle sharing her quilts and her experience working in a series. She was joined by a number of quilters who participated in Show and Tell, including three! new members. We are fortunate as a group to have so much contributing talent!

Show and Tell

Ann Sanderson shared with us some new experiments with surface design. This piece of fabric has been discharged, layered with screening, stamping, and other surface design techniques.

Ann's second piece of fabric was done in a Jane Dunnewold class using resists and gold leaf.

Ann's final piece features dots made with Shiva sticks.

Darlynn Evans brought back the quilt she entered in the July challenge.  After reading the critiques by other members, she decided to make a few changes.  She added a bed of flowers both to ground the trees roots and to add color, and the blue butterflies for even more color and interest.  She expressed that she really valued the feedback she received and is happy with the new and improved version of her quilt.

Patty Blesso shared this lovely quilt made using a panel and several complimentary blocks.

Also by Patty, this cute "Witch is In" quilt made from a pattern.

This quilt by Mary Scharosch was inspired by an image she found in a book of flowers from the Victoria and Albert museum.  Mary drew the flower, colored it with paint and pencil, then added it to a colorful background.

This "Llovely Llama Llady" is a quilt in progress by Julie Berry and is based on a technique she learned in the Pet Portraits class taught by Jane Haworth.

Trish Morris-Plise created this black and white quilt to decorate for the new year.  "Happy New Year" in four different languages is stitched around the border, as are bursts of fireworks.  Trish used a product called bone ash to adhere the layers before quilting and she was quite pleased with the results.

New Members

This orange and black quilt by new member Sigrid Simonds was done entirely with discharged fabrics.  She claims that the quilt was 'quick and fast,' and assures us that even the orange and blue colors in the quilt were once black.

This mountain scene quilt by Jackie Manley was made with two different wrapping fabrics from Japan.  Jackie further enhanced the fabrics with shibori dyeing and sashiko stitching done on a machine.

Our third new member, Sophia Day, brought in three quilts to share.  This confetti quilt of a Costa Rican waterfall was done in a class with Nancy Ryan.

Also by Sophia Day, this quilt was inspired by her cat silhouetted in the window with a gorgeous sunset in the background.

Sophia's third quilt depicts her son water skiing with a tiled sky using Gloria Loughman's technique as the backdrop.

Opportunity Quilt

Jane Haworth brought in this beautiful opportunity quilt which she had a hand in creating.  She is selling raffle tickets for a chance to win this colorful quilt.  If you're interested, please let her know.

Linda Waddle's Quilt Series

 The first of Linda Waddle's portals quilt series is "Cabin Fever,' which was created using dye, resists,  Mistyfuse and metal leaf, with invisible thread recreating the look of raindrops.

Linda's second quilt in her series is "The Light at the End of the Tunnel," which was screen printed and hand-painted.

"The Grotto" by Linda was done with flour paste resist, black and yellow dyes, and gold leaf.

"Well Defended," the fourth quilt in the series, is a flour paste resist that 'turned thorny.'  The heart was a bit of serendipity that she enhanced.