Time For Show and Tell! Art Quilts 2013

Its April 1st which typically means " watch out for those who would play a joke on you", but for me its a catch-up day.  I've been working on an art quilt a month and posting with a new friend via email/blogs. Her son nick named her "Threadhead" and so she has become Joanne Threadhead.  Here is a link to her bloghttp://joanne-threadhead.blogspot.ca/ And today I get to reveal my art quilts for January and February.

These art quilts don't have any special criteria expect for the fact that they will be 9x7 as they will be bound in a book at the end of the year.

This is Borealis falling - January Art quilt

 For January, I chose to play with special threads and some fabrics I just love.  I had some "what if" ideas, and tried them out.  And boy am I learning
alot! I couldn't get my flash turned off....

All the things you might find around trees...even an inchworm!Then two weeks before Pediatric Clinic started at University of Puget Sound Occupational Therapy Program (that's where I work), they needed a mirror cover.  The mirror is used at times, and they wanted to cover the mirror when it wasn't in use.  The mirror is 2' by 5'.  I was up for a challenge!  I had so much fun playing and making this a very tactile and 3d child's mirror cover.  February's art quilt mimics the mirror quilted cover.

The leaves are three dimensional, the owl is made of wool, felt, and even the material used to put on the feet of children's sleepers, and the tree trunk is made from flannel.

March's gift of pink tulips

March is my birthday month, and one of the things I love is that the tulips begin to bloom.  This month I wanted to try a technique of fusing used by Frieda Anderson. I am using her hand dyed fabrics, and her pattern....and I've run out of month.  But I am continuing anyway. Frieda has a wonderful technique of mounting art on a peltex frame, and that I what I will end up doing.  I will do one for my book and then one as a gift.... maybe for myself.  Take a look and try these out! They're great!

These will be tulips in two shades....but right now you can't tell that!  LOL.  I love the background fabric and can't wait to quilt it.  There will be some serious stitching time spent on this -- which I dearly love.

Then I'm trying to decide how to end this.  This is a stupendous stitching class by Carol Ann Waugh, and I've entitled it "Breaking Out of the Box". Its ended up as more hand stitching than I had planned ... I do enjoy it. I haven't decided whether I'll mount it as part of my "series" or just what.  

Breaking Out of the Box, Stupendous Stitching, Craftsy Class, by Carol Ann Waugh

April?  April will be an interesting project.  So interesting I'm torn between which technique to try next.  There is a birthday coming up, and I plan to give a gift, so that means I need to get busy.  It will be a two-fer.  One for my art quilt book and one as a gift.

Thank you Joanne for allowing me to join you on this creative trek!  It means the world to me!  Its so great to be trying out all these different techniques!