Long Beach Quilt Festival!

Lionfish




Journal Quilt 2007








Journal Quilt 2005 (it was nice to see it again!)



Here's some shots of my work at festival. It was so amazing to see it all hanging so beautifully!



Last but not least; The Carousel. The quilt measures 5' x 5'. Each animal is 3 feet tall & 12 inches wide.





Group project from left to right: Artists are Cindy Cooksey(Rabbit) ; Julie Schlueter (Zebra); Me (Horse); Vickie Valdez-Green(Lion); Terry Waldron (Giraffe).

Here's the full story:

When our Cutloose group was presented with the idea of doing one or more group quilts for the Long Beach Exhibit; I had kicked around many designs. I knew I wanted to do something that would represent the famous Long Beach Pier and in particular the Cyclone racer! I worked hard on several designs for that and in the end, threw in a last minute ‘dark horse’ with a pop-art rendition of the Charles Looff carousel. At our next meeting; all designs were placed on the table & before it was even made ‘official’ about which quilt we would do or which artists would be participating in which design; 4 had all ready had their favorite ‘animal’ and were bantering around color schemes and embellishments.

I took the design home and created full size renditions of each animal on freezer paper to give to each artist along with the background fabric we had chosen that would unify the quilt. We completed our respective animals using only the top fabric & batting. We had decided not to back the quilt until all the pieces had been assembled. We would meet as a group once a month to see progress; check color schemes and animal orientation. Once the animals were completed; they were all returned to me to assemble & once that was done we finalized a top design and fabric choice for it. This top section was the longest process and the most challenging. Finally; finishing touches were added via the ribbons for each animal; the novelty trim; & shading with tulle. The binding is a continuous double fold bias.

Wardrobe/Embellishments:

Cindy Cooksey’s rabbit sports a lovely red velvet vest adorned with colorful buttons and exceptional cross hatching embroidery. He is outlined with silk that was hand dyed by Cindy to match his gorgeous ‘skin’ fabric. He is both playful & charming.

Julie Schlueter’s Zebra prefers the more ‘au natural’ approach. The head is hand beaded as well as the eye. Julie’s fabric choice for the stripes gives a bold contrast that still plays well with the other animals. Her signature machine quilting incorporates such a fun, graphic element to the overall design.

Stacy Hurt’s horse prefers an almost counter-culture approach. His loose, long mane flies with wild abandon. The feathers appear to be tattooed up his neck; front legs & forehead. His bridle was pieced and fused on and the medallion was an original design created and hand beaded just for him by Stacy.

Vicki Valdez-Green’s lion is a show stopper. He is formal and ferocious without being the least bit frightening. The wonderful coloring for his mane compliments his dusky appearance. His eye and mouth were hand painted by Vickie who then signed her name in the iris of his eye! His beautiful fleur-de-leis tail design gives him such a regal touch.

Terry Waldron’s giraffe sports stuffed, felted horns as well as some innovative hand embroidery details around the face & neck. His mane was machine stitched and the material gives a nice fuzzy appearance. He sports a very dashing sash that is actually 3 sections of novelty trim sewn together. They enhance his lovely spots perfectly!

Origami day at the Koi Garden

The koi themselves were a riot! The were like great big sea cows! There was one tiny dispenser of what could only be referred to as 'koi kibble' or possibly 'koi chow' and let me tell you; those fish never moved from the one bank where all the folks lined up at least 10 people deep to feed them. El & I had gotten there early enough that we didn't have to wait. I walked right down where they were all swarming the banks and petted some, letting them all maul my fingers looking for their kibble. It was hysterical. There was one; count him: one single duck and you had to toss some chow way away so he'd go chase it so you could feed the mouths that were constantly open & groping the bank. When I went over to the little outcropping and stood on the little wooden platform gradually some fish would come over. ANYTIME they see a human standing near the water simply gazing down they will come right to you in anticipation of food. I started dropping one or two little pellets (I mean really, a handful is only .25 cents so what the heck!) in the smallest koi would come up *you can see from the photos the water is so green you can't see through it* and gobble as fast as they could knowing those big giant cows would come soon & chase them all off. (not really chase them but with; let's say, 20 fish roughly 2feet long and really round the tiny ones could only skim over top of the large bodies & slide right off) The duck was relentless! That duck was so ornrey to those fish it's a wonder they let him stay there. He would peck them mercilessly and the big cows would flick their substantial tails at him and he'd simply walk right across the backs of those gathered and peck their giant heads till they went under & he was free to snarf up all the kibble. The fact that fish have a .01 second brain memory makes it even more funny to think of the dialogue in your head. The fish would be the ultimate ADD subjects with the duck's memory only marginally longer. I amused myself for quite sometime at their expense just imagining the koi saying things like "HEEEY!" and the duck: "MINE>>MINE" and the fish... "Dang! I hate that guy! Oh look, kibble!........HEY? what the???" and then the duck... "Stupid fish... MINE!..MINE!"

Looks Great!

Here's the shot of this piece in my friends home. It looks beautiful there! Thanks for sending the picture Karen!