This is my latest quilt. I have been inspired by all the many hairstyle images on Pinterest. I love the 1940s fashions and hairstyles and there have been plenty of pictures of "victory rolls" and various pin curls and I wanted to do a quilt representing these ideas. When I went to Florida in January I found the large scale print, the dress print, the red wavy stripe and the purple tone on tone dot fabric and suddenly became inspired because I love flowers and I loved the "weird" yellowy lime green. So between the fabrics and my love of the 1940s this is what I came up with. The hair is my favorite part of the quilt and the most challenging. I was looking at images of curls and how the light reflects in certain areas and the shadows are in the depth of the hair and the pin curls. But how to translate that into fabric. I thought if I was doing this as a painting how would I approach it?? I began with the tone on tone dot fabric and had one big piece the size of the entire hair. then I visually sectioned off the highlighted (lighter) areas, the darker areas and the shadows or deepest and farthest away areas. I assigned 3 fabrics to each area and layered and fused them to the base purple fabric. I used a purple fabric marker to define the lines and then when I quilted it I defined it some more and I was satisfied with the victory rolls-it has definition and movement. I could have used fabric paint as a last resort if I wasn't getting the results from the fabric alone but I didn't need it. I have a paper doll book of 1940s fashions which helps me select the right clothing for my lady in the quilt. I didn't go nuts with jewelry just a simple earring make from a flower button and a few beads. The flowers in her hair are cut from leftovers from the large scale border fabric. Fortunately they were mirror images and I fused them back to back, tacked them down and glued a rhinestone to the center. There are a few red rhinestones in the background and a bit of fabric paint on her face for details on the eyes and mouth. She ended up looking a little like Lisa Marie Presley or Bette Midler isn the 1970s!. I did contrasting quilting in certain areas-the striped background got circular quilting and the curvey floral of the outside border got striped stitching. I will enter it in upcoming quilt shows.The second photo is a close up and a follow up of my last post to show the progression of the face as I begin the drawing, the fused applique, the quilting and the details.
Studio Art Quilters Association is having an exhibit titled "I'm Not Crazy" which explores mental health issues. I think the title is offensive but whatever. It is the perspective or someone with mental illness, a caretaker or friend or family member of someone with mental illness. I have a very close friend who is Bipolar and is medicated to have balance in her life. This quilt is my interpretation of being bipolar-one minute she is happy, hyper bouncing off the wall and the next sad, depressed and angered. I used muted sad, dull colors to represent being depressed and, of course, the frustrated facial expression. I used bright colored fabrics with lots of chaos for the manic side's clothing, make up and jewelry. Her hair is out of control and her facial expression shouts "manic." I used lots of desciptive words on both sides of the personality in a subtle way in the background. I purposely went subtle because in society we don't want to talk about mental health issues and they are subtle and quiet in our discussions. I found there is a two sided smiley face which symbolizes Bipolar Disorder and I added it to the quilt in the lower center of the quilt.
This photo is a closeup of the depressed personality.
And this is a photo of the manic personality. She's kind of "out there!" Her expression deminds me of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland!!
Cloeup of the Bipolar symbol and a few of the background words.I embellished the manic side with hand made Sculpey clay beads, a beaded earring, rhinestones for pierced earrings, orange lame' in the hair to symbolize being wired, and some fabric paint. The intent was for excess and chaos in hair, make up, clothing and jewelry. The depressed side has a necklace made to buttons made from leather (pretty cool from a quilt show!), a few beads for the necklace and a rhinestone for the nose piercing. Both have a little fabric paint for details.
This project began with me purchasing some Timeless Treasure Tonga batik Treat Squares in Gelato-it is this manufacturer's version of charm squares. The colors of purple, pinks, yellows and a few neutrals intrigued me. The second photo is an image which is part of a large advertising postcard from a local beauty supply. The ad was not interesting but I loved the image of the woman-I loved the hair and the large eye with the eyeshadow. I then combined the two ideas. I added a row of my own batiks to make the quilt square and added a complete face witha nose, mouth and hair covering the other eye. When I draw this out I gridded 1" on the postcard and 4.5" finished. (The charm squares are 5" minus the 1/4" seam allowance.) I use my judgement to create the lines and eliminate others, like near the shoulder area, until I am happy with it. I raw edged fused appliqued in a dark burgandy batik. It is easy to apply the applique because I just follow the squares in my drawing for placement accuaracy. 
The third photo is a close up of the face. I added a machine quilted flower and stem on one cheek and a sun on the other and a modified ying/yang on the chin. I named the quilt "Bella Gialla" because I wanted to use a color name and I like Italian words-it means "pretty yellow." I added some yellow rhinestones in the background and one pink rhinestone near the nose. I found these fun flower beads at Hobby Lobby and I used 5 different colors and hand beaded around the outside binding to repeat the flower theme. I added some gold glitter for eyeshadow-I thought I wanted purple glitter but then realized there would be no contrast and yellow would repeat the yellow theme and it really sets off the eye. Also I decided to add some white batik and a pale purple batik to define the eye better since the eye was the focal point of the quilt. I'm glad I did that and love this little quilt (22.5' x 22.5".) The small amount of background was quilted with yellow/gold thread in a traditional diagonal grid design to balance the curves lines in the hair and face. It was easy to do since the squares were already there as a guide for marking.
I was making the last quilt I posted about and was having such a great time and I decided to make one in pinks with dark brown fused applique. Very similar but with a brown iris of the eye. I have glitter on the eyelid, glitter nail polish on the lips, rhinestones in the background and beads on the binding. The beads I chose didn't look right on the outer edge so I stitched them to the front edge. I did the same facial applique of the flower, sun and ying/yang and it shows up better on this quilt. I am making items for the Appleton WI Art Around The Park on Sunday July 29th in which I am vending. Appleton is my hometown and I know plenty of people in hopes of them coming to the art show to see my work. I'm going to put this pattern to rest for the time being.
Well I am having a month of rejections!! I applied for an article in Quilting Arts Magazine and was rejected earlier in June. My piece for the "I'm Not Crazy" for SAQA was not selected. They had 128 entries and only chose 20. I'm very bummed about this one because this subject is very personal to me and I put alot of emotion into that piece. Then I entered the Quilting Arts Magazine's Reader Challenge on Signature Color and there were over 150 entries and only 15 were chosen. I had a blast on this little 8" x 8" project including the beading around the binding. This will be a cute addition to my studio and it makes me smile. I'm just a bit unsure if I want to participate in these things for a while. It seems abstract art is trendy at the moment and representational art is on the back burner. I still love to made art and will continue.
