Design Wall Monday, August 16, 2010

I didn't get as much accomplished as last week, but I still have a few things to show you.

Here is the transparency for my newest Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative quilt.  Maren Schaffner, a German artist, was gracious enough to give me permission to use one of her drawings.  She specifically asked me to give her credit in this way:  Original art © Maren Schaffner.

I enlarged it to about 9 x 8 (AAQI quilts can be no more than 9 x 12), and made this transparency.  Then,  I traced it onto some freezer paper and made my templates.  Since it's done mainly in black and white, the most important part of the quilt is the thread "painting" that I did to gain some texture.  This is a technique that is brand new to me.  In fact, the whole "art" quilt technique is new to me.  This is my first one.  First of many, I hope, because I still want to do that little building in Italy.  And, if that one goes well, I really, really want to do my own house.  But back to the cats.

I did some reading and found some good examples, but I was still a little unsure what and how much to do.  Fortunately, it's a small quilt and the applique part was pretty simple.  I figured, if I mess it up, I'll just start over.  And this is what I ended up with:

I had wanted to put borders on it, but I didn't have enough room and still end up within the 9 x 12 size limit.  I just put a narrow border to finish it off and then the binding.  I'm calling it "Abe's Kittens" because the original drawing was on a greeting card.  The inscription on the card was a quote from Abraham Lincoln that said:

"No matter how much cats fight there always seem to be plenty of kittens."  And, Maren, if you're reading this, thank you again ever so much. 

Next, I got the third of nine blocks finished for my "Let Sleeping Cats Lie" quilt:

Here is a close up of one of the faces:

And here is what I have so far:

And speaking of cats, don't you just love this fabric?

It's a batik that I found at my favorite online cat fabric store, Feline Drive.  If you're a cat lover, they are the best for cat fabric, patterns, and books!

Lastly, I made a label for my "Spring Chicken" quilt.  I decided to name the quilt "Hunt and Peck" so that I could say "Happy Birthday, Spring Chicken."  It seamed awkward if the quilt had the same name.  Here it is:

I printed this one out using Printed Treasures.  Sometimes I use my machine embroidery module, but if I have too much text on them, the label is either too hard to read or it's too big.