Dollar store and Sharpie art!

 Our July meeting was very relaxing and enjoyable for all who attended.

 



We welcomed Mary back from her sojourn in Ohio.  She wowed us with her quilting on her bargello piece, from a class with Marija Vujcic last spring.  Mary isn't sure she loves the Yellow, but she did come up with a great name for it- "Yellow, yellow, it's Bargello!"


On the back, the quilting might show up better- it's pretty amazing!

Mary Ellen got some help choosing quilting designs for this quilt- for her 4 month old granddaughter- at the May meeting of the Museum Quilt Guild. There is a lot of great quilting on there!

Kathi had a middle of the night inspiration for how to proceed on this piece, which was started at the retreat in February.  She woke up and typed "tally marks" and "forsaken" into her phone.


 The fabric was all hand dyed using Rit dyes.

Elaine made this piece in response to the RAFA Matisse challenge- issued after they visited an exhibit if his work- to create a face using only two colors.

Martha brought her portrait quilt- depicting her son helping her husband fix the brakes- asking for advice on additional quilting for  "bubbly" spot.
She calls this "Let me help you, Daddy"













After the show and tell, Elaine explained the evening's project to us. She had done this while in Florida visiting friends last winter; showing pictures of some of the work to inspire us.










(I'm not sure this is the same one - from her facebook albums)



Everyone drew or doodled something in the center of their dollar store plate, using regular sharpie markers;  then passed it on to the next person who added something to it.  It was very relaxing and a lot of fun!

And resulted in each of us receiving a nice piece of art to use or display (after baking to set the markers)

Elaine's

Martha's

Mary Ellen's

Mary Lee's

Lori's

Beth's

Kathi's

April sharing

Well, lookie what I found- a draft of the post from April- never finished.

(Obviously my fellow artc's are too polite to ask what happened to it!)

OK, now I know why I never finished it- for some reason this post is very stubborn and I gave up trying to place things where I want them.  If anyone knows how to over ride or overcome these issues, please share!

Anyway, here is what happened at our April meeting.......

 

Emmy brought in some of the buttons angels she received in a swap.  The ones she made are on her blog.

 

Lori is enjoying doing landscapes, including her sasquatch projects.





The larger one was for the fundraiser at the bigfoot conference Lori attended.  It sold for around $75!

Chris tried a glue resist painting technique she found in a recent issue of Quilting Arts Magazine.

Martha made some fun kitties using a pattern by "Gold Star Stitchery"

Martha's second creative girl- the Garden Girl- has a picot beaded edging.

Just good to be together!

 We don't  plan activities very often for our ArtCGirlz meetings.  Most times we just do a show and tell, and share techniques and ideas with each other. (And enjoy being in the company of similarly-minded friends!!)

The girls who didn't come to the March meeting when we made our "Creative Girls" are making them anyway.  We were happy to meet Elaine's music girl, all dressed up for her recital.

Chris' girl is enjoying a day at the beach.
Chris not only didn't enlarge the pattern, she shrunk it so the beach scene could be the star of the show.





The small details and embellishments require a close look to fully appreciate.

Chris showed us this piece she painted with instructions she found in Quilting Arts last month.  But it has now been quilted and embellished in the style of Laura Wasilowski

Chris says the hard part of doing this is knowing when to stop.

Lori took a class on "Accidental Landscapes" with Karen Eckmeier at the Genesee Valley Quilt Club last week.  This is her class project, which she notes does not have a "squatch" in it.












As part of an on-going discussion for our next group project, we spent some time looking at historical pictures of Batavia, NY.  We have been talking about doing a city scape quilt.  We haven't found just the right picture yet, but the ideas are flowing!

Hopefully soon, we can form a plan.  Meanwhile, we will just continue to enjoy each other's company and talent!

We finally made creative girls!

We canceled our February meeting so the Creative Girl quilts were delayed. as a group project.  Some of us couldn't wait, so there were a few finished "girls" at the March meeting.



Susan's "Buffalo Gal"  even has a great pair of boots!
 Some of the embellishments are singles of earrings lost.  GREAT idea!

Mary Ellen's "Prom Girl"  has ruffles made from a color run of hand dyed fabric.

Mary Ellen thinks she needs to practice to make her faces better.  

Martha made her girl a "Crazy Cat Lady", but wasn't brave enough to add a face.
The background uses Kathi's mosaic technique.














The rest of us decided to play during the meeting.

Lori and Beth came prepared and ready to get busy!











Beth's background

Kathi had a rough day, but designed her girl.  She hopes to make hers into a large enough quilt that one of her girlies can cuddle it.  

Martha's second girl is in the garden.  We all agreed the hat needs some work.














Lori's girl is enjoying a beautiful view.  She may or may not have hair when she's finished.

Beth is thinking there will be two girls on her quilt.  Stay tuned. 
Hopefullly all of these will hang together at the Museum Quilt Guild show in October.



We all enjoyed this project, and want to make sure we acknowledge the original creator of the creative girls quilts, Carrie Payne.  She shared the pattern in an issue of American Quilter magazine.  If you like the girls, she also sells them in her etsy shop.

Back in the swing!

After a holiday break, the ArtCGirlz are together again!  (Well, most of us this time- there are still members missing due to winter vacations and such.)

Kathi led off the show and tell.
 

This is a piece from on of her HGTV swaps.  Kathi printed or altered all of the fabrics in this little piece











This fabric was made using a soy wax resist.  Kathi is doing kantha stitching on it. (sorry I didn't take a detail shot.  If you get a chance, check out the back as well!)




This is a close up of Kathi's "Ice Crystals" quilt.  This piece was juried into the AQS show in Lancaster! This was a picture printed on fabric, which Kathi added hundreds of little hexies made from  piece of Mary Lee's ice-dyed fabric

This is Kathi's entry in the Museum Quilt Guild's 2014 challenge.  (I waited until they were revealed at the meeting to do this post)  She printed the pictures herself, using photos she found online and edited at "be funky."
Kathi was born the year JFK was inaugurated.

Chris is working on a tabel runner as a gift for her hosts in Hilton Head. (I hope they don't read this blog!)

Lori is working on this scrappy quilt to donate at the Roswell cancer treatment center.
Lori is also looking for uses for those woven plastic bags chicken feed comes in.  I found a tote bag.  Any other suggestions??

Susan did some ice-dyeing during the recent snowstorm.



This piece and the one below were made using grey, brown and black.  Obviously the ice-dying process separates the colors somehow.  Aren't they beautiful?

This one was supposed to be purple.

Beth was working on this as her challenge entry and discovered it is too big.  The pattern can be found on the book Quilting Modern.   Isn't it gorgeous?!!
It's the biggest quilt Beth has made.  She got a fancy new Singer anniversary edition sewing machine, and has put it to good use!

Martha showed her challenge entry, which is based on Riu Kiu C, by Victor Vasarely.  It was made using the random strip piecing method from Rayna Gilman.















Martha also shared pictures of the portrait quilt Mary Lee made for her son and his girlfriend.
The silver was printed on the background, but the quilting really made it pop!



















At the February meeting, the group will be making "Creative girl" art quilts.  Should be fun!