This is an Art Quilt I made to honor our daughter Lanita who fought brain cancer (Glioblastoma) for just over 3 years after being diagnosed and told she had 8 months.  The picture depicts her strength and determination to live.  The dragon, the cancer that she had to fight and tame.  The chapel, her church where she went to worship and find solace.  The doves flying above represents the peace she found at her church.  The flowers, she always had a love for flowers.  Look closely and you will see her guardian angel in the air hovering above her right shoulder, left to you, the same angel who looked over her and helped her through this whole ordeal.  She collected Angels and had them all over her house.  She loved her God and also most everyone she met, never met a stranger.  I love her and miss her so very much.

This picture was made of her about a year ago

 

and through it all she never asked why me Lord. She was such a precious person and hard worker.  Owned and managed five convienient stores.  She and husband, who was a wonderful care giver, had three children, one daughter married and lives Atlanta, Ga. One son who is CEO of an Oil Company and one daughter who is a Hair Designer and Makeup Artist and will be getting married May 18th of this year and is so effected because her mom will not be there for her wedding.   I have waited a while to put this on my blog, however most of my friends and family are already aware of all this.  I wish you and your family well and hope you will go to the top of the page and join my blog.

 

 

 

 

My quilt "Brother Against Brother" hanging in the Pigeon Forge Quilt show Last month.

Quilt hanging in the Show with its Blue Ribbon attached on the right side, Won for Best Interpretation of Theme. I was shocked and so very pleased.

The faces of war and hate.  What a wasted loss of lives on both sides and so unnecessary.

 

Al Fiber Arts and quilt show

The Alabama Fiber Arts and Quilt Festival was held during March this year in Montgomery, Al.  I entered a couple of my quilts this year and won an "Honorable Mention" on one of them.

Governor Bentley's wife, First Lady Diane Bentley was there and presented me the certificate.  I was sooo honored to meet her.  Love this sweet lady.

This is the quilt for which I won the ribbon.  Did you know that Lady Diane is an avid quilter?  Her goal is to get a quilt to all the foster children within the State of Alabama for them to have something to call their own.  She has asked the Quilt Guilds in Alabama to help her accomplish this goal.  Our Wanna' Bee Quilt Group in Vernon  is more than happy to help her .

Also sent this Elvis Wall Hanging to be in the show.  It is called "Swing Down Sweet Chariot"

The show was in the Old Alabama Town.  It is a park where old, old buildings have been brought in and restored to original.  It is a town in itself, grocery store, school, church, and everything else.  i am pretending to play the piano here in the church.

People are in period dress.  This is a weaver and tells you all about how it use to be and how they would spin the yarn and then weave the cloth.  Very knowledgeable.  The entire town was very interesting.  We were killing time before the Reception for the winners in the show.

Our sovereign State Capitol building and my husband climbing the steps in the front of it.

We looked around inside and found these pictures of Alabama Fallen Heroes. So sad to see this.

This entire huge room was filled with things like these quilts.  There were blocks added to these quilts making them larger with each block added.  They are to honor Organ Donors and even the Recipients of the Organs.  The family makes a block in honor, or the recipient, or family of the recipient of that person makes a block and adds to the quilt, and there were many of these quilts.

Some of these quilts were huge.

These are only some of the quilts hanging.

Are you an Organ Donor?  I am.

Who knows?  Maybe someone will make a quilt block for me and add it to one of these wonderful quilts.

These are pansies outside the capitol building.

Just one of the many paintings on the walls.

Our beautiful capitol!

My first try at fabric dyeing. Updated...

I wanted a pastel piece of Batik fabric, I decided there was no time like the present to try dyeing it myself.  So I dipped my toe into the water, or should I say my fabric.

I thought it turned out really pretty.

Don't know why this pic turned out with the lines in it,  It is not in the fabric.

This is different views of the fabric.  It has blues, pinks, greens and just a hint of yellow.  Now, if it just will not fade out when I wash it and I think I will do that before I use it.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
The color held in washing and drying, now I just need to do some more of it.
So happy about this.

A new Art Quilt I am undertaking. The Pigeon Forge Challenge Quilt.

I decide to do the Pigeon Forge Challenge again this year with an Art Quilt.  I never expect to win, but it is fun doing it and if it just gets accepted and permitted to hang with the others, I will be happy.  I let time slip by me and now I must rush to meet the deadline and get it there on time.  If I miss the deadline (Feb 8th), then I will be fine with that too.  The theme they issued to us this year is "The Blue and Grey".  Well, when I hear that, all I think of is the Civil War, which so sadly lost so many lives pitting Brother against Brother.  Thus I will entitle this quilt "Brother Against Brother" So, O.K. this is the beginning.  A blank piece of background fabric ready to put a pattern onto.  I have the pattern in my head and a small picture of it also.  The one I have in my head is pretty, just hope this one will come out as well.  I will not put as many pics on this one as I have before, due to the time needs to go into the quilt instead of my blog.

 Pattern is on my fabric now and I have begun to cut the pieces of fabric to go on my domestic canvas.  As you can see, the farthest most pieces must go on first and some will be very tricky trying to manuver part of it to the back and a portion of it to the front.  If you have never tried Art quilting, you must try it and see how challenging and fun it is to do.

Moving right along this morning,(since about 4AM) I have added more of the pieces this morning.  When I finish this, these brave young men will be holding rifles.  Some of the drawing on the canvas is kinda' not exactly right, but I can correct that when I put my fabric pieces on it.  When I snapped this pic I did not realize that my Tennessee Williams Art Quilt was behind it.  This pic shows part of a court yard on it.  Sorry folks, did not mean for that to happen.  That is another story.   As I progress, I will post more pics.  How about giving me a little comment on it.  Bad or good, I need to be critiqued and know how people feel about it.   It is kinda of like playing rythym guitar.  The song is going through your head while you are playing it, but since you are not playing notes, others don't know what the heck you are playing.  So, I know what my quilt looks like and what I want it to say, but is it saying it.  "Brother Against Brother", such an unnecessary war.      MORE TO COME!!!!
Finished product!


 See below the face of hate and war.

I have decided the only borders that will look best on this quilt is mitered borders.  The first mitered border I made was really hard for me, until I figured out my own technique.  Now, it is so easy except when you are entering into a competition, then; everything seems harder.

I always sew my borders onto my quilt before I miter cut them.  Leaving a long tail on each side is  a must,

This is likely not the correct way, but it works for me.  I fold the quilt from the corner, making sure that the borders are lined up evenly.

I flip it over to make sure the corners match.

and always take a peek underneath the border to insure that all are matching.

I have learned if I put my ruler down the very edge of the fold and if the borders are perfectly straight, I am ready to mark the stitching line.

I then mark the stitching line.

After stitching, I turn it to the front to check it out.

Everything was perfect and ready to trim. I am hoping to have it ready to take a complete picture and post here tomorrow.  Remember, this is just the way I do mitered borders.

A Little 8 1/2 " easy block for you 3 pieces with only 1 seam.

Polly sent me a pic of the quit she made with this little pattern;  it is so pretty and looks so different.  Thanks Polly.

 

Just received this pic from Liz Randolph.  She made this last night using this pattern.  It is soo pretty.  Would love to have pics from others.  Send to me at bonitac@centurytel.net and I will post them here if you will permit me.  Can hardly wait.

This pattern makes the fastest, cutest, little block I have ever made, and is so easy that I chose to put it on my blog.  The yellow in the center will end up the focus fabric.  I cut my fabric to make 8 1/2 inch unfinished blocks.  Choose 3 fabrics and cut them 4 1/2 X 8 1/2 inches.

Lay out cut fabrics as above remembering that the center will be the focus fabric.  Always lay them out each time with the same color on the left and the same color on the right.  Fold your center focus fabric in half as shown above, with the wrong side of fabric to the inside of fold, placing the cut side to the top and the folded side toward yourself.  

Slide the center folded piece onto the top of the left piece without changing the direction of the layout.

Place the fabric on the right side on top of the focus fabric as shown above.

Be sure the top corners are matching, the bottom, top and the folded focus fabric.

Pin these layers on the right side from top to bottom making sure the center fabric is caught,

Stitch quarter inch seam from top to bottom.  Open up and your's should look like the above example.

Add caption

Open the focus fabric and pull corners over to match the others on the right and left.

Pin on the straight, forming a triangle.

You can then form the triangle into curves like the cathedrel windows or leave it straight.  Either way is very pretty.  When you reach a decision, then pin it in place to hold it.

As you can see, I selected the straight for this one. Top stitch this down to make it stationery.  You block is now complete and can be arranged into so very many different designs with this block, even the pinwheel  as you will see in the next pictures.

This one reminds me of a worm.

Oh look, here are the pinwheels,  If you look carefully, you will see that each color forms a pinwheel, even the grey is a pinwheel.  Oh I love this.  I see a baby quilt coming.

Look at this one!  I was just playing around and got this one.  Arranging these are almost endless.  Let me see what you come up with when you start playing with these.  Send me a picture, please.

This one ended up like a 3 blade pinwheel of the yellow and grey.

This one I call Cowboys and Indians because it looks like arrowheads.

Remember, all you need is 3 fabrics and these can be strip cut, which makes that easier too.  I love easy, don't you?

Still playing around!!!!!!!!!!  Leave me a comment and let me know how you like it.