Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I always wanted to be a calendar girl

So, it turns out I’m Miss July... or at least my Handpicked art quilt will be, in the Quilting Arts 2010 calendar. This video clip from Quilt Market shows Pokey Bolton introducing the winning entries. I worked long and hard on my entry, so it is a thrill to be included. (By the way, for those of you I haven’t met in person, my name is pronounced LorEEN LEEdy, rhymes with Doreen Beedy. The way Pokey pronounced it is how most people say it at first. I often suggest that my first name rhymes with CHLORINE, and that seems to help people remember!)

The detail on the left shows the bright fruity colors used as well as the embellishments. There’s a little saga about the background fabric; it was a pale violet, but a little plain. To jazz it up and create more contrast, I painted swirls of white acrylic paint on it. It worked fine, then I proceeded to transfer the design with red Saral transfer paper. Big mistake. Perhaps I did something wrong, but that red line was NOT going to come out easily. After a thorough washing and scrubbing in detergent, the last of the red did go away. Now, how would I get the design on the fabric?

I ended up pinning the background fabric to foam core, then pinning the design sketch on tracing paper above it. I would lift up the paper, slide the piece of fruit underneath, and pin it in place. So, there was no design transferred onto the background fabric at all. For more info about how this piece was made, see this post.

A note about the beads: The large flat ones are made of dyed shell, bought at a bead show direct from the importer. To give you an idea of the price difference, this type of bead is often found at bead stores for 25¢ or more per bead. At the show, they were a mere $2 for a 16" strand, quite a bit less expensive. I arranged the various beads after quilting, glued them down with Gem-tac, then hand stitched them down.

Have a creative day!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loreen this is great! I love the piece and it makes me smile. Congratulations!

Beena said...

Congrats on this beautiful piece for the calendar, as well as your Florida Book Award!

I have one of those foreign names that people have trouble pronouncing, too! But your name is exactly as I imagined it would be pronounced, by the way it is spelled. But somewhere out there, maybe there is another Loreen (a less talented one!) who pronounces her name differently,too, no doubt!

Wonder if you are getting a lot of rain like we are over here in Daytona Beach. "Creative" stay-in weather!

Diane J. Evans said...

Oh, Loreen -- Congratulations! You must be sky-high right now! And the honor is so well-deserved -- the piece is beautiful!

Diane

Quilt Rat said...

How Fabulous, your entry is wonderfully, fresh, bright, delicious and certainly deserved a spot in the calendar. Congratulations.

Unknown said...

Thanks, you guys! Wonder what the theme will be for 2011...? Feathered Friends would be a good one.

Judy Alexander said...

Big congrats! I know how excited you are since I am Miss July for this year in the QA calendar!

Leah said...

congrats on your 'handpicked' being in the calendar. and thanks for the brief technique explanation. love the wonderful colors!!