WISH FOR LOVE

STRAYS & BEASTS

MY DEMO PIECE

Always so very inspired by Jude Hill's work, 

by the many classes I've taken with her,

and by several pieces I've bought from her over the years,

all Strays & Beasts.

I just knew there was a stray inside of me.

So like I mentioned in yesterday's post,

I changed up the subject in my Liberated Quiltmaking assignment 

so that the kids focused on at least one Beast.

I had absolutely no idea how my stray would look,

if it was going to be a male or female, 

what colors I would use?

So how I started the kids and myself was to choose a donated bag of fabrics

(I have over 40 to choose from).

They are already partially organized by color schemes,

but there are always a few fabrics that don't belong visually,

so we get rid of those first.

I have no idea why I choose this bag,

it just appealed to me.

Kind of Xmas in Springtime I guess.

(Several of the fabrics backsides were used as well)

I had the kids start their beast by making a nine patch with no patterns,

just cut and sew.

They could fussy cut if they wanted to like I did for the birds in my stray.

Then I had them play around with shaping,

and needleturn under their beast shape down upon their foundation.

(I had no pieces large enough for my foundation so I randomly sewed several smaller pieces together,

you can see the seams below)

I saved the face for last cuz I was chicken,

always having a hard time committing.

But not my students, 

they jumped right in.

But I was inspired by Jude & the old necklace piece I found,

so I embroidered several wings,

and a few words,

thus Wish for Love.

Another Jude Hill trick to help the words pop 

was to whip black floss under the original gold stitches.

I braided some really nice barber poled cottons for the tail,

and also used them to make a few pompoms.

I like to save any frayed threads that hang from fabrics,

 especially when they come out of the dryer.

I used many of them in this piece,

coming out of the ears,

under the trees for ground,

and over the moon for atmosphere/cloud cover.

I also thrifted bits of lace, leaf edging & ribbon flowers for balance and interest.

I handquilted the piece in an off white thread which I felt tied it all together.

And for the backing I used a garage sale find,

and old linen calendar kitchen towel from 1985.

That was the year I was looking and wishing for love myself.

I was ready to settle down and have a family.

That was when I also decided to do the face,

 and it was going to be me.  :)

I dedicated this piece to Virginia Pooler,

our beloved Life Science teacher at Whitney and my dear friend.

If it wasn't for her talking me into going with her to get our Master's Degrees

(to raise us up on our teacher's pay scale)

I would have never met my ex husband,

Inars Agrums,

(the love I was wishing for)

and had my two incredible children.

Funny how it's all meant to be.

Gin Pooler is gone now,

but there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her,

and thank her for her persistence in getting me to tag along with her.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank both of Gin's children,

(who I had the pleasure of teaching the arts to back in the day at Whitney)

Brock Pooler and Erin Pooler Carpenter,

for their continued & dedicated service to our United States Military.

Both are high ranking officers,

 and their mother would have been so very proud of them.

I know I am.

On July 15th, 

this Friday,

I will be giving this quilt to my daughter for her 22nd Birthday.

And I'll probably make her read this post too,

I think both my children hate how I feature them on my blog,

too bad!!

 LOL

STRAYS & BEASTS

LIBERATED QUILTMAKING

INTERMEDIATE 3-D ART

scrap fabric, sewing machine & sewing notions

Every year I teach my 2nd year crafts kids to sew on the sewing machine.

They love this unit,

look forward to it,

and end up with a fabulous original art quilt.

And every couple of years I change up the subject matter on these quilts.

I also make a demo. quilt to show the kids all kinds of techniques on ,

so this year I selfishly changed it to Beasts/Strays ala my mentor Jude Hill

of  Spirit Cloth blog fame,

cuz I knew I wanted to make a beast too.

The Liberated Quilting technique comes from Gwen Marston,

whose work and classes I've also been following and taking for over 25 years now.

That means no patterns, 

no rulers,

just cut and sew.  

And in this way everyone makes no mistakes,

it's all good.

I'm so pleased to show off the hard work these kids put into there Strays!

Junior Jaqueline Yu's stray is made from a nine patch she sewed on the machine.

But in this assignment the kids were also required to learn how to needle turn applique,

so Jac appliqued her nine patch onto a base fabric in the shape of her beast.

All the fabrics used in these quilts have been donated to the students 

and it's up to each child to make sure the fabrics flow visually.

Jacqueline based her color scheme primarily on a complimentary yellow/purple scheme

 with some neutrals thrown in.

I like her off center design and how she balanced it with laces,

beads, cording and other goodies,

as well as those stacked fabrics in the upper right corner.

The kids also had to bring in some hand embroidery to the face,

and could hand or machine quilt to pull all 3 layers together.

I believe Jac did machine quilting.

Also required were at least 2 borders and a professional binding,

as well as an appliqued label on the back side.

These adorable strays belong to senior Kristine Luong.

She also chose an off center design and balanced it with the tree and moon.

She did some wonderfully expressive embroidery in the faces,

and I like the frayed fabric at the bottom of her strays. 

The buttons and laces she added are the perfect touch.

Kristine also machine quilted & did a bit of fussy cutting.

And this really fun last one belongs to junior Shreya Sheth.

She titled it Fight and Flight,

and it's oh so clever.

I wish I had a clearer pix of her quilt and the little guy below,

sorry Shreya!

I love that she turned her stray into a Super Hero,

and I also enjoy her complimentary color choices of Red & Greens with the neutrals

and the touch of yellow/golds.

Here is her label on the backside, and you can also see evidence of some handquilting.

And if that wasn't enough,

she wrote some words for the backside as well.

Bravo Shreya,

you really outdid yourself!