Thursday, March 14, 2013

Rita's Communication: 33 Happy Souls and 1 Sore Head


Facial expressions are fundamental in one-on-one personal communication.  The nuances of "a look" can say volumes.  I've often been told I should NEVER play poker.  As hard as I might try, I do not, nor have I ever had a "poker" face.  It is usually very easy for others to "read" how I feel about something just by looking at my face.  It really worked to my advantage in my career as a science teacher.  One "teacher-look" could indicate I was happy, ecstatic, or excited with progress.  I could reward a student, calm a student, put a student at ease, or relax the whole class, and that is how this challenge block came to be.  My creation was inspired by a pillow top designed by Kellie Wulfsohn from Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia.  The whimsey of her design was the perfect springboard for this challenge.

The flowers are fused applique.  The stems are machine stitched with a triple reinforcement stitch.  The piece is quilted by stitching around each applique and then cross hatch stitching outside the design.  After completing the applique and quilting, the bead work was done.  Even the leaves are 'beads' purchased in the jewelry bead section of a local craft store.

13 comments:

  1. Boy do I know which face I am. This is the cutest thing I have ever seen. I think it is interesting that you think your face gives you away. You always look calm and in control and exactly what I want to be when I grow up.

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  2. Ok, faces did it for me! My favorite is the spiky hair red flower with the yellow face and leaf arms - the happy one, but being a gemini - the cranky one too.

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  3. As always, Rita, you have out-done yourself! Colorful, clever, and so totally out of the box! Who would have thought to use faces? But as a former school teacher myself, yes, the kids can soon read our faces all too well! A fun quilt! PS Your photo, on my computer, isnt clickable to enlarge. Wonder why? And I NEED to enlarge it, to see those faces better!

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    1. Now Rita's quilt is "clickable"! She sent me the image and I removed the other and put the one she sent to me in its place. I did resize it. I suspect that the reason is was not clickable was that the file was originally very large! Blogger read it as as large as it could get and thus not clickable. But what do I know???

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  4. Rita, Love how you added birds into your quilt with the faces. Today is a beautiful almost spring day in Atlanta, and this quilt makes me feel so happy. I want to meet you because you must be a joyful person, you certainly communicated that in this fresh lovely piece. So many different expressions, just love your interpretion. This is such a fun group to be in, i'm going to really enjoy these challenges.

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  5. Perfect, so clever and true...facial expressions speak
    volumes, not only to people, but pets also!

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  6. This is just too cute and very cleverly done!! I can't get a close-up either and I want to so desperately. I too don't have a poker face so I can relate to this so easily.

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  7. Cute, Cute, Cute! Cute title, cute faces, cute message, cute interpretation. Wish I could view this close up.

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  8. Oh, Rita! Seeing it enlarged is so great! I love the beading, love the little faces. And now I can see your lovely cross-hatched quilting. So glad that this issue was fixable, making your image clickable!

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  9. You found a fresh way to show those emojis though that link may not have been intentional. How nice that your non poker face is always a positive one! I think students do bring out the best or positive sides of a teacher. I enjoyed visiting Kellie's site to see the inspiration.

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  10. I agree it is so nice to see enlarged. We can appreciate all your bead work.. Love the birds also

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  11. Rita this piece is simply adorable and it makes me very happy just to look at it - I love the way the embellishments integrate into the design and your interpretation of the theme - Bravo

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  12. Thanks for the close up! It is adorable! I can tell now that you used leaf shaped beads. What fun to see those faces and all your wonderful work.

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