"Inside of a Dog" at the Fantastic Fibers Exhibit in Paducah, KY

Me with "Inside of a Dog," 22"w x 17"h x 7"d, Mar. 2012 

My art pieces "Inside of a Dog" is going to be in the Fantastic Fibers exhibit in Paducah, KY. The exhibit is from April 5 through May 24 at the Yeiser Art Center, 200 Broadway and is open Tues. through Sat. from 10 am-5 pm. There will be an artist reception on Sat., April 5 from 5-7 pm.

If you haven't been to Paducah before (or if you haven't even heard of it), there's a lot of quilting-related things to do there, including visiting the National Quilting Museum. Also, The Paducah Convention & Visitor's Bureau's website even has a tab for quilting-related items.

One of the things I'm really excited about is that my piece will be there during AQS Week. The American Quilters Society pretty much takes over the town of Paducah for AQS Week. This year it's April 23-26.

I originally made "Inside of a Dog" for an exhibit at the Dayton Art Institute. If you want to read more about how it was made, click here.

Mr. Moonlight

"Mr. Moonlight," 8" x 8" x .75", made by Pam Geisel, Mar. 2014

"Mr. Moonlight" started life as a gorgeous silk necktie. You might be surprised with the amount of fabric there is in a necktie once you take it apart. I did have to piece some of it back together to get enough to wrap around the 8" wood frame.

Technically it is not quilted but the three layers are held together with a few hundred hand-beaded black seed and bugle beads, with an aura left around the moon that is left unbeaded.

More about Mr. Moonlight

Pansy Passion - Project Quilting

"Pansy Passion," 5" x 7", made for Project Quilting, Season 5, Challenge 6: Triangles, Mar. 2014

Challenge recap for  "Triangles":
Use the theme "Triangles."

Perhaps the triangles got a little lost but you'll see them if you look. This piece is built up with layers of thick interfacing.

The first thing I did when I got this idea was to check out my supply of picture frames as I needed on that had a fairly deep area for the picture to go. Some picture frames are made to just hold photos with no room even for a mat, so I knew I couldn't use a picture frame like that. Fortunately I had one that I thought would work.

The next step was to try out some designs on the computer. At first I thought I'd have the cut shapes be triangles but then I decided to go with the cut shapes as squares because the yellow and purple fabrics divided the squares into two triangles. I also used the computer to decide if I wanted the fabrics to go from dark to light or from light to dark.

Then I cut down the thick interfacing to 5" x 7". I used Dritz InnerFuse which is double-sided stiff interfacing and what I use when I make quilted postcards. Then referring to my computer "sketch" I cut the squares in the four pieces of interfacing.

I pieced the yellow and purple fabric, fused it to the interfacing, then carefully cut the fabric over where the square was cut and wrapped the fabric around to the other side. Placing the fabric was a little tricky because it had to line up with the corners of the squares of the piece above it, not the hole it was covering. The bottom piece, with the lightest fabric, is behind the final piece of interfacing.

I did straight line quilting 1/8" around the outside of each cut square (although it kind of looks like I did a satin stitch around the inside of the squares, that's just an illusion). I started with the back piece, then I placed the second-to-the-last piece on top of it and quilted around the square, which joined the two pieces together. I kept adding and quilting until finally I was sewing through four layers of interfacing and five layers of fabric. I wasn't sure how my sewing machine would do with this, but it worked just fine. I also quilted them together around the outside but that part is hidden under the frame.

Next I hand-sewed the beads and the triangle button, then I popped it into the frame.

Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

More about Pansy Passion