Mary's Gone

We had a great time! We talked, ate, shopped, went to a quilt show, and experimented with new things. We caught up. I wish we lived closer together. But such is life. Instead we enjoy our visits when we can.

For those of you who haven't yet figured out.. Mary is a night owl. I am not. So I am catching up on my sleep!

But today, I went back to work. Finished up the final details of my MQR triptychs, and got them in the mail.

This first one is Suzanne's. She sent us all the same pattern with instructions that the ribbon had to 'read' black and then assigned a background color. My assigned color was yellow. Below is my piece. I used hand dyed silk dupioni for the background..yellow of course. I fused the ribbon and then stitched it down. I cross-hatched the background with gold rayon thread. Then attached the embellishments...a yellow rhinestone heart, a word plaque (create) and topaz hot fix crystals. My original plan called for beading the ribbon...Mary talked me out of it. I think that was a good thing. It finishes as a rich, elegant piece...sometimes less is more. The batting is Quilters Dream wool.


My other triptych piece for Gayle, was based on a photo she sent me of pictures she had taken in Monument Park. Below is my rendition. I used soft structure tyvek for the rock....painted with Jacquard Lumiere...3 colors layered with a dry brush to get the base color. I then heated the tyvek between 2 Teflon sheets to melt and shrink it to get the dimpling effect you see. Then I stitched the rock definition and painted in the extra shadows. Then I needle felted the greenery and then stitched the brush wood structure. The batting is also wool.

I really enjoyed participating in this challenge. It's a good thing to stretch your art and try new things. Thanks, Gayle for setting this up.

Also while Mary was here we went to a small local quilt show. Several of my clients won ribbons on quilts I had quilted for them. Mary posted the photos on her blog, so I will not repeat them here. But my other news is that my frog quilt pictured below was juried into the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival next month.

The landscaping is progressing nicely, and in a couple days I think I will have the finished product to post.

I enjoyed my visit with Mary....wish we lived closer.