Painting or not

I signed up for a class on Craftsy for painting on quilts. Yes, painting on quilts. I have tried this type of painting in the pass, remember Donna Dewberry and the One Stroke Brush Stroke? That didn't work and neither did this one. I sat down and cogitated on why I procrastinate when it comes to painting. I realized that I didn't like the paint brush because I had no control over it. I know that with practice, the control will come but I am being a bit impatient here. I think I have a fear of brushes.

I am going back to my pen & inks and my colored pencils.

Dance!

I entered a quilt show. The Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival to be exact. I entered as an individual with no guild ties because I wanted to be judged and I'll get the judges comments back when I pick up my quilt. But LOOK! Do you see the ribbon? How could you miss it, right? 2nd place in applique. I never expected that!

Here's the back story on the quilt. It started as a challenge between two friends and there were quite a few guidelines.

• it needs to be based on a poem or song
• outside perimeter dimensions were not to exceed 160" (this one is 120")
• both piecing and applique need to be used ( the back is comprised of lots of pieced pinwheels in purple and the polka dot fabric)
• and like the Hoffman Challenge, a certain fabric (in this case the polka dots) needed to be used.

I think I met, and in the case of the polka dots exceeded, the guidelines. What do you think, MagicLady?

I hand painted the background for this original design and am extremely pleased with the way it turned out. All the applique is satin stitched including the lamé on the dragonfly wings. My drawing style is pretty obviously cartoons. Try as I might to do realistic, it just doesn't happen.

Deb Geyer, in Anderson, Indiana did the quilting.

Eulogy

Pauline Hermetet

December 1915 - July 2011

The quote on the little brown, removable book: I have flown because you gave me wings.


Inside the little brown booklet is a letter: Dear Aunt Pauline, I wanted you to know of my admiration of you. As a child, you encouraged me to read, just as you, yourself, read as a child. As a young woman, you taught me through example how grace and creativity blend to a whole. Unfortunately for me, the elegance part hasn't stuck. This small book lightly traces your life from childhood, through high school and college, and the war years at Boeing. I have tried to portray your love of music and fiber in a fashion that you would appreciate -- that of one needlewoman to another. Than you for being a profound influence in my life. Your loving niece, Paula

Pauline was the oldest daughter of three and grew up in Colorado among a loving family.  She was a third generation pioneer descendent.

She loved music and had a beautiful soprano singing voice and accompanied herself on the piano. One day in her later years, she stopped singing and never sang another note. Even she didn't know why. 

As part of the Greatest Generation, Pauline worked at Boeing as a drafts person during World War II. After the war, she returned to Colorado where she grew up as a child.

 

Her love of books encouraged creativity and dreaming. She taught school in a one room school house in Moffet, Colorado, and later went on to teach and be a school secretary in the Denver School District.

She graduated High School during the Great Depression in the 1930s. In her spare time, she embroidered flower quilt blocks printed in the local paper. She said it was to keep her hands busy and to stay out of trouble.

She was an extraordinary needlewoman who designed her own patterns and she specialized in embroidery and needlepoint.

Elegance is an Attitude. This describes Pauline perfectly. She was soft spoken and never had a bad word to say about anyone. 

She loved tulips and so the book ends with a flower to echo the flower that has now faded away.

Notes on techniques in the book:
The white bow in the corner echoes the white bow in her hair.
The music 'box' is actual printed sheet music. The applique was inspired by a photo of Auntie taken in the 1940's.
The hole in the page lines up with the eye on the next page. Gears are CitraSolv transfer, the faint plane is stenciled and the rest is stamped.
Pockets support the fabric tags with their Dymo label printed words
Graduation picture transferred onto fabric. Word embossed onto velvet.

May D&F Tower transferred onto fabric, silk ribbon embroidery, sequin and bead embellished, embroidery on crazy quilt block.

Rubber stamping in fabric background, words printed directly onto fabric background and college photo transferred onto silk then fused onto background, 3D flower petals.
This tulip is thread painted. A small inkjet transfer of a recent photo is nestled into a postage stamp frame on the last page of the book.

Aren't these colors delicious?

I have been flitting hither and yon madly shooting photos. I have taken photos of some wonderful eye candy lately in a variety of subjects that range from men, to flowers, to farm animals, to machinery. Why you ask?

I am taking a 2-day David Taylor workshop at the end of the month. This workshop, incidentally, is the same time as the quilt show I mentioned in this post. Follow the link to his website, you will be totally blown away by his work. Now realize, this is not going to be a fast project since all the applique is by hand. Yes, you read that right -- by hand. The only embellishment is the quilting.

And so, I am doing some pre-work by pulling fabrics, poking buttons for background fabrics, the color of which is not apparent in this photo, and ordering an11x14 print of the actual photograph. I figured out how to tile-print my photo so I can do that and then get my tracing -- all before workshop even begins. I am hoping that by doing enough prework I can get right down to the stitching in class.

Can you tell what the subject is of the photo?