It is Official: I'm a Certified Quilt Appraiser

I haven't posted for two months as I've been quite busy. In April, I traveled to Paducah, Kentucky for the American Quilter's Society Appraiser certification classes and testing. It was quite a stressful and exhausting and wonderful experience and I am now the first AQS certified quilt appraiser in Central/southern Utah (one of the first two in Utah) . There are about 92 in the entire United States. I am very honored to join this highly esteemed group and very excited about where this will take me in my quilt appraising trek.

I want to publicly thank my family for all their support, especially my sister who traveled with me and made sure things went smoothly in Paducah. Thanks for the power lunch of deep fried Snickers bar.

Antique Quilt Blog

Recently I started a new blog to showcase my antique quilt collection and my quilt appraising activities. Please check it out to see a variety of quilts from early 1800's to vintage 1930's and 40's and everything in between. Below is a sneak preview of quilts that are already on the new blog or will be soon. From left to right: c. 1830 strippy flying geese with c. 1800 copperplate toile, c. 1830 9 patch, and c. 1850 strippy star quilt.


Here is another preview: c. 1840 Hickory leaf or reel, c. 1885 blazing star, early 1900's redwork

Cyber Fyber Exchange

Here's the beautiful fabric postcard # 78 and Artist Trading Card #111 (ATC) I received from artist Susan Lenz in her Cyber Fyber art exchange. She made more than 150 postcards and 130 ATC's to exchange with artists and she will show our art in an exhibit in January 2009. "The focus of this exhibition is to highlight the influences of Internet access for today's fiber artists." There are still a few postcards and ATCs available to trade so hurry if you want to join in on the fun.

Both of the cards I received were made by cutting up previously made artwork. Don't know if I could cut up completed work but I definitely think it would be a good way to use UFO's (unfinished objects). Susan was able to make many pieces out of her old work and they are being seen around the world. Now I need to make my small artworks to send to Susan.

Scrappy Color Play Miniature

September 2005 Journal Quilt 8.5 X 11 inches

Journal Quilt Project - Special Exhibit Houston International Quilt Show 2005
Made as a sample for my sister Donna’s class, her paper pieced pattern called for 3 inch squares but I reduced them to 2.75 (eek) to fit this project. It is a mix and match sampler; there are 6 pairs of blocks with the same pieces but each twin looks different based on color placement. See if you can find the match for each block. Quilt awarded 2nd place in Miniature category at 2007 Utah Quilt Guild Annual Meeting (QuiltFest). The ribbon was much larger than the quilt. I gave this quilt to my sister for Christmas 07 so I guess I need to hand it over to her now that I have it scanned and posted. There is a pattern available.

Rocky Road

Collections have been discussed this week on QuiltArt, prompting people to post photos of their stuff so I'll play too. I collect quilts and this 1930's Rocky Road to Kansas quilt was made by my great grandma Isabella Rogers. I love purple and scrappy quilts and this is one of my favorites. The back is purple home dyed flour sacks. The quilt is being held by AQS appraisers/instructors Bobbie Aug and Gerald Roy at our appraisal classes in Idaho Falls in May 2005. I'll be posting more photos of my collection but you can see a few more on my June 07 posting
http://starleyquilts.blogspot.com/2007/06/st-george-quilt-appraisals.html

Moab Rock Talk Quilt in Quilters Newsletter

Woo Hoo. I'm so proud to announce that my petroglyph/rock art quilt: Moab Rock Talk is in the current issue (December 2007) of Quilters Newsletter magazine on page 34. My art quilt guild AQuA of Grand Junction, Colorado is featured in the Readers' Quilt Show on pages 34-36. Please checkout the issue of QNM and our website. I'm also listed at the back of the magazine on page 97, Extra Credit section, letting people know I teach hand applique, do trunk shows and quilt appraisals. I have to admit it was quite a rush to open up the magazine and see my quilt. A big thank you to Quilters Newsletter and AQuA members Marla Ferguson and Marge Fox for publicizing our work.

For more information about the quilt, see my Rock Art post of January 10, 2007. You can simply scroll down to the bottom of this blog or click on the January Archive tab at the right and it will take you to the quilt.

slice quilt

I got a surprise when I visited the Springville Museum Quilt show in Sept. and found a quilt I had worked on but hadn't entered. It was the ocean scene quilt by my friend Bev Hart (click on link at right for her blog). We slice-n-dicers, a group of 6 Utah women, each found an inspiration photo, divided it into 6 sections and then made a slice from each photo. We each worked separately making our slices so they are all unique and we all used different techniques. Bev chose the ocean scene shown here. I chose a Utah redrock scene, Rainbow Bridge (what a shock). Other scenes: an old gas station, a European fence with a grapevine, a still life w/books and clocks, and a winter street scene from a danish cookie tin. Working on each quilt and figuring what techniques to use to make the pictures come to life in fabric was quite a challenge and a learning experience.

I think Bev is the only one so far to have completed her quilt from the 6 sections. She did a great job. You can read more about her quilt on her blog.

On Bev's quilt I did the bottom left triangular section with the bright fish, seaweed and manatee parts shown in detail photo. I pieced, hand appliqued, and couched on my section.

07 Journal Quilt

Wow, things have been busy in the last 6 weeks. In addition to the great AQS news, I also learned that my petroglyph quilt Moab Rock Talk will be shown in the December issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine due out November 15.
I made a quilt for the last journal quilt project now showing at the Houston Quilt Festival show. I used a photo taken while hiking in Arches National Park with my godtwins and their grandma. Here is the quilt and the inspiration photo. I scanned the enlarged black & white photo and then used caran d'ache watercolor crayons to paint in the photo.
I also took classes, did an antique quilt trunk show/lecture and lots of appraisals at the Utah Quilt Guild annual meeting. Then onto the American Quilt Study Group seminar in the historic textile town of Lowell, Mass. My brain is overflowing from all the beautiful antique quilts I saw there and just the wonderful history everywhere, what a treat for us westerners. We don't have any cobblestone streets in Moab or anywhere in Utah. I'll soon post photos from Mass.

Clowns and Quilt Show and Appraisal Testing

Another one of my favorite quilts. Clowns Trapped in Tulle from a workshop with Lynda Faires. About 12" square. Shown in Chicago at the Friends of Keiko show.

We just had another very successful Delicate Stitchers Quilt Guild show here in Moab. I'll have to locate some photos. I was too busy to take my own as I was doing quilt appraisals, taking a class with Virginia Robertson from Colorado and doing demos on hand applique and a mini trunk show on antique quilts. And speaking of appraisals, I got the official notification on Monday that I'm now a candidate for certification by the American Quilter's Society as an appraiser of quilts and quilted textiles. I take the written and verbal tests at the AQS show in Paducah KY in April 2008.

Crossword Quilt

What's Black and White and Red Allover 20x 28

Made for 2nd Proverbial Riddle Challenge, see all the quilts at http://www.proverbialchallenge.org/

Also made for a black and white and one color challenge. I took the limited palette as a dare and managed to use 100 different fabrics. I hand appliqued the letters, hand quilted and did a bit of beading. I used red netting/tulle to take the red allover pun to a higher or it is a lower level?

I love word play and puzzles and combining those with my love of fabrics was a delight.

It is on display at the Springville Museum of Art Quilt Show in Springville, Utah from July 21 to Sept. 2, 2007.

St George Quilt Appraisals

It's about time I share an action shot (sort of) of me doing quilt appraisals. This is my booth at the Dixie Quilt Guild Show in St. George Utah in April 2007. You can see a bit of my quilt collection: Bethlehem star (Pa.) c.1900, small scale log cabin w/strippy back (Pa.) c. 1890, pink Goose in the Pond (Ohio) c. 1900 and red/white/blue quilt which will be discussed later. I had a great time and saw some nice quilts and visited with good friends--who could want more?

Quilting Sisters

Quilting Sisters Stitched Together with Love. Made for Hoffman Challenge 2003 and toured for year. Shown as special exhibit in Houston. Awarded 2006 Honorable mention at National Quilting Association NQA show. My sister (blonde) and I doing our favorite things: visiting and sewing. Hand applique and hand quilted. I had great fun picking out buttons, charms, scrap booking items, to embellish it. I used doll hair for our hair and my sister is wearing a necklace that she'd made mom about 35 years earlier- a perfect match.

Eat Your Veggies

Quilt I made for local quilt guild trading bags challenge Spring 2005 (see entry below for more info. on trading bags). That is me on the left in the green and the quilt owner Monica on the right. She gave me a lot of vegetable fabrics to work with and I rose to the challenge. I tried a new technique: I used small real vegetables & fabric paints to stamp the words. The O is a cucumber slice, V is a snap pea, I is baby carrots, etc. Scanned in vintage seed packets and printed on treated fabric. I hand appliqued the bunny and used piecing & applique for the garden angel. I added green rickrack with the binding for extra pizzazz. What fun but hard to give it up.

Well - Hello Dolly

Well - Hello Dolly. Made for the first Quilt Art bag o' stuff challenge led by Tomme Fent. Owned by quilt artist/author Jane Davila. Jane sent me a bag that contained calm light fabrics (pinks, blues, and greens), beads, buttons and some unusual (to me) items (copper mesh, aluminum flashing, etc.). The fabrics were a challenge (not my usual palette) and I had no clue what to do with the unusual "stuff". Then Jane’s fabrics met the Russian nesting doll fabric I bought for my sister and they wanted to play together. The dolls thought Jane’s fabrics brought out their beauty and Jane’s fabrics thought the dolls were perfect complements and I had to agree. I used each of Jane’s fabrics and I added darker fabrics to balance out the design.
I used freeform crazy log cabin piecing, machine quilting with metallic thread, hand quilting with cotton thread, couched eyelash yarn accents, and beading. It was fun to experiment with the different methods and materials. But I couldn’t figure out how to use the unusual items except for the scrapbook tag which I used as my quilt label/finishing touch.

cards and quilts

Here are 2 more postcards, valentines for my sister and my parents. I've had such fun making these cards. Last week was spent in continuing education for quilt appraising. Any day that you get to study quilts is a good day (even though I had to drive in snow). Today, I went to the Museum of Moab and helped with their quilt collection. I will be curating our guild quilt show there in May and June called A Quilted Feast (food themed quilts). Life is good.

heart2heart3

Here is the 3rd set of postcards I sent for the H2H project. Btw, sorry about the text on the previous posting. I love the crazy cats and thought they were perfect for Valentine's Day. The orange flowers and the heart are scrapbooking brads. I also used them on the heart card below. I've never tried them before but I think they are great and I'll probably use them on quilts in the future.

My friend A.M. who is a also a fiber artist (paper) generously made and donated 12 cards for H2H, thank you. I'll see if I can get scans and post those also.

If you want to donate cards, Karey is now gathering Mother's Day cards for wounded soldiers to send to their moms. What a great idea- making these cards is addictive.

heart2heart2

Here is the second set of postcards for wounded soldiers spearheaded by Ms. Karey B. from Houston. I found 2 heart blocks around the house; the 1st was almost done and the 2nd just needed to be trimmed to size--perfect for Valentines. The second pic shows the backs since sometimes people wonder what they look like. Yes, those are stickers-that's what happens when you hang around 23 month old girls-stickers everywhere.

heart2heart

Here are the 2 postcards I've made (so far) for Karey Bresenhan's Heart2Heart project which will be delivering fabric Valentines to wounded soldiers in military hospitals. I worried that they were too cute and not artsy enough but finally decided to get them done as the point is to brighten the day of those who need the cheer. So now to get busy and make several more.

Home of the Brave

Patriotic quilt I made using ufo's (unfinished objects) from several classes. Made for local guild challenge requiring use of the tan Debbie Mumm crow w/flag fabric. I created the random flying geese border using freezer paper for my foundation piecing. The 4 corner stars are paper pieced. I have taught this class a couple of times at the Annual meeting of the Utah Quilt Guild. I have patterns available for purchase.

Rock Art

Moab Rock Talk 24 in. wide by 39 in. long $1,100.00

Quilt was made last year for the AQuA (art quilt guild in Grand Junction, Colorado) http://www.theartquiltassociation.com/
TXT challenge.

Inspiration/theme: Ancient rock art (petroglyphs) found on the red rocks of Moab, Utah and the southwest region. The designs range from representational to whimsical from laughing sheep to eerie shaman. The bottom left figure is the Moab Man. They speak to my soul although I'm still trying to break the code of these early text messages. I used very busy fabrics to convey the loud messages we are faced with today. I used low contrast as many of the petroglyphs are now very faded and hard to see.

Figures were created with hand applique including reverse applique. Hand and machine quilting. Beaded embellishment.

I was honored when the challenge juror Faye Anderson selected my quilt as one of the quilts to be featured on the TXT page of the AQuA website. To see the other 6 quilts http://www.theartquiltassociation.com/exhibitions/txt.htm

The TXT quilts were displayed as a special exhibit in the Mancuso's Denver show in May 2006 and their Chicago show in November 2006.