Charity Auction Quilt

I made an art quilt for a charity auction this week. The auction is for the National Speleological Society (NSS) http://www.caves.org/ of which my husband is a member. In the past I have made quilts for the state organization;but, the national convention is in Texas this year and they are also having a fund-raising auction. This auction is part of the International Congress of Speleology (ICS) which is being held at the same time as the NSS thingy in Kerrville. It's unusual to have the ICS in the USA as it's only every 4 years and last time in was in Greece. Too bad old Uncle Sam couldn't send Charles to that one! Seeing that Kerrville is just 2 hours from our house;it's more affordable and he was accepted to present about bats, so he's very excited. I'm very excited that baby Charlie is still hanging out in my belly so we can enjoy a family time of no pets, hot breakfasts, no dishes, no housekeeping and a swimming pool before he arrives.

At dinner the other night Charles commented about how it was too bad I didn't make anything for the auction. Of course, SOMEONE had neglected to tell me that there was an auction...HMMM wonder who?

So, in an end of pregnancy burst of energy (we're 2 weeks and couting here) I managed to create a piece to donate. I really like how it turned out and it's going to be hard to give it up;but, the money raised goes to a good cause. I wish I had gotten my act together sooner to enter a piece in the Salon competiton...but I was too distracted by all things baby to get it together by the deadline. I do think some of my best work is done under pressure so I'm pleased with what I have to give and it's always fun to see what the final selling price turns out to be.

I started out by painting/dying fabric with Dye-na-Flow paints.

Decided to go with a cave scene landscape inspired by a trip to Bracken Cave in Comal County.

This is one of the trips the convention goers will have an opportunity to see next week.

I free motion stiched a variety of threads to enhance the painting for the sky
and I used my needle felting machine along with free motion stitching and a variety of fabrics for the land and caves.
For the bats I used some tiny bat brads that I got at a scrapbooking store. It turned out that they were just the right size.

For the backing I used a bluebonnet batik fabric that I got a few years back in Kerrville, which is where the conference is being held this time. It is made especailly for the Creations Quilt Store in Kerrville so I thought that would be a good choice for the back.

http://www.creations-online.com/

I decided not to frame it as the conference is an international one so being unframed it will be easier to pack. It measures a little bigger than a size of regular paper.

I have enough dyed material to make a similar smaller one for my etsy shop www.bybethstudio.etsy.com

and I want to make a whole cloth quilt for my shop of the Blanket Flower that I painted as well; BUT...now I'm feeling tired again!

I titled it "Summer Flight". Sure hope it brings in a good amount and I sure hope little Charlie stays put for the week so I can chill out in Kerrville by the pool and enjoy a freshly made bed and warm breakfast each day...we'll see!

Enjoy the Journey- May Journal Quilt

Well, I'm getting a little more done lately. Must be that pre-baby burst of energy. Here is May's journal quilt and it's only July 3rd! I've had it done since June though, just now getting it posted while my husband shampoos our carpets...(great benefit of being pregnant).

I started with a base of commercial fabric that looks hand-dyed.

I used a bunch of green curly ribbons from the baby shower that I was given in May. I decided to try to melt and fuse them and it actually worked. I used bonash powder to hold it down and then layered netting on top to secure it in place with quilting to make it extra secure.

This is what it looked like after being melted, fused and layered with netting.

It started to look like a map to me with the ribbon like continents and the fabric like the ocean. I decided to echo free-motion quilt around the green ribbon parts. This reminded me of contour lines on a topographic map.

In the above picture you can also see the needle felted edge that I did with yarn and the Embellisher. I used black yarn to go with the black thread I used for quilting.

At this point I wasn't really sure where this was going as what was going to be a quilt about my baby shower in May had turned into a map quilt. I put it aside for a little bit waiting for an idea of what to do next. One day when I was putting away the gift bags from the shower that had piled up in my studio I came across this ribbon from one of the presents.

It has cars and trains on it and I thought that would kind of go with the map idea and it's from the shower too. I appliqued it down horizontally across the piece and then thought of the phrase "Enjoy the Journey". That fit in too as that's what I've been trying to do this whole pregnancy as I'm thinking this will most likely be my last journey into motherhood as I'm old and tired and our house and cars are now full. Plus, I'm already feeling like we are going to be out numbered with just two. Two is enough for this doubly blessed old lady.

So I machine embroidered the words "Enjoy the Journey".
I used water soluble stabilizer to write the words on so that I would have a guide to follow for my stitching. I stitched over it twice to make it stand out more.

So in the end it did all come together in a way that makes sense to me. YEA!