Nedra's Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious - 17 Cherry Tree Lane

Try as I might, this word meant only Mary Poppins to me!!  My favorite part of the movie is when she flies over London and into the Banks' home at 17 Cherry Tree Lane.   For my interpretation, I envisioned a blue sky with Mary and her umbrella descending over the London rooftops.  

 I drew a pattern for a silhouette of Mary and the chimneytops using clip art for reference.  I cut this out of black fabric with fusible on the back.  Using Kaffe Fassett fabrics,  1" squares were assembled to create the background, shading from dark to light blue.  The silhouettes were fused to the background.  I machine quilted along the outline of the silhouettes and machine quilted the background.  If you look closely you will see the theme word stitched in the background !!

Gail's Supercalafragilistic....

  

Super, above, beauty, fragile, delicate, atoning, educable...all these root words define my 11x14 quilt "A Mother's Love".   I lost my mother this year and wanted to do a quilt depicting the love that is the strongest of all loves.   Teresa Schlabach shared with me a B\W photo of her first birthday last year.   Unbeknownst to Teresa I copied and saved it, knowing it would make a great quilt.   When I searched the definition of our challenge the 3 came together, my mother's death, Teresa's photo, and the MM challenge.  I love it when things happen that way!  The quilted cake has lace from my mother's wedding gown.  Teresa's dress has pleated trim from the same.  My mother saved everything, including a sack of leftover lace and trim, which I will use again! This quilt now belongs to Teresa, our newest Maven.

Jane's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Quilt

What a truly unique prompt! Think about Mary Poppins, umbrellas, fun, happy. I looked up the meaning and found that it originated many years before that movie. The feeling I got was that it was over the top and positive.

I have been studying with Jane Dunnewold since March when I went to her studio in San Antonio for a week. It has really changed the way I look at designs on fabric whether it is color, texture, or meaning.

This is the first time I have studied color theory. Most of the time I had just picked out what looked good to me with very good results. Now I am learning why those colors work well together. I have painted many color wheels. I am trying to complete a research project. I have learned more about dyeing particular colors.

All of this is to say that the colors dance around in my head all the time in a very positive way that is rather “over the top.”

My quilt started with a fabric dyed with Blue 400 in a failed experiment. I screen printed a color wheel on it; then I began to paint it with textile paints from Pro Chemical. I had to use opaque white paint first to block the blue background. I used a stencil brush to add the spots of paint. I wrote the word around the color wheel twice spiraling out. It is not very easy to see the letters. Next I quilted it using a spiral pattern outside the color wheel.

It is really very simple but my way to interpret the longest word ever.

Candace Berry

Photos: Treasure Map, Black Canyon and Sleep with the Angels by Candace Berry

My art journey began with traditional quiltmaking and wearable art. I have exhibited my work in galleries, charity events, and art competitions.My work was juried in Hoffman Challenge and Sulky Challenge.
I love learning new techniques and experimenting with my ideas and designs.
My husband and I live in a wooded area which greatly influences my work. I have a fondness for rusty old things and found objects.
Check out my Facebook page: Candace Berry Fiberartist for more of my artwork.
Thanks for inviting me to join Material Mavens.

Carolyn's "SUPER CALLIE"

When this word was chosen as our theme, I had just finished watching Mary Poppins with Sea Green, the 8 year-old Burmese refugee we sponsor.  I love horses and adored the scene where the horse jumps off the carousel and romps through the flower-filled open space. 

As a child, it was a rare treat to have a carousel in town, and especially to get to ride on one.  I loved picking out the most beautiful horse and riding 'round and 'round.  As a young parent, I have fond memories, as well, of my girls as they rode carousel horses.

So when this word was announced, my immediate thought was to feature a carousel horse and base it on the words "super," meaning above and beyond and "cali," which means beautiful. Thus, "Super Callie" the horse was born.

My horse was drawn using a coloring book rendition.  I used a piece of hand-painted fabric for the sky - one that I painted, by the way, right after our class with fellow Maven, Jane.  Thanks Jane! The “land” at the bottom is a remnant from a Sky Dyes fabric. Various batiks were raw-edge fused to create my colorful "Callie." The pole is from a mini chevron fabric from Michael Miller, the

flowers are Kaffe Fassett prints and the binding is a batik.

I wanted the scene to look very mystical, so I covered the entire
quilt with light beige tulle.  I stitched around the horse's body 
before cutting away the tulle just from the body of the horse to
make it more pronounced.  I used Ricky Tims "Art Studio Colors"   

thread by Superior for the quilting.  Thread painting is a new technique that I am practicing, so I decided to try a small amount in the sky, the grass and around the flowers.  The final touch was the use of decorative thread on Callie's saddle and headdress.    

Another new Material Maven - Teresa Schlabach

Hello!  And thank you so much for the invite into this wonderful group of quilters!  I currently reside in Alma, Arkansas, - a small bedroom community of Fort Smith, Arkansas.  I have been sewing since I was 10 years old and quilting since my early 20's.  I began art quilting about 3 years ago and have finally found my niche - thread painting.  I have been a member of the Belle Point Quilters Guild for a few years.  I have done several shows and art events in the area with great success.

I still work full time.  I am the Executive Director of the Alma Performing Arts Center.  I have been married for 32 years and we have two grown daughters.  My oldest daughter lives and works in Dallas and our youngest daughter is a graduate assistant at the University of Missouri and currently obtaining her Masters degree in musicology.

I am currently in an art group with Jane Hartfield and Gail Riser-Bradney.

An Introduction to our Newest Member, Dee Merrell!

Flowers in the Tomato Garden

X's and O's

I live in Dallas, having moved here from Dripping Springs (Austin) in the fall of 2014. While in Austin I was very active in the AFA –Austin Fiber Artists,  and in the Austin Quilt Guild and the Wimberley Quilt Guild.   Being in  AFA was my first opportunity to exhibit in galleries and museums; being surrounded by a group of artisans exploring fabric dyeing, painting, weaving, quilting, print making, and other fiber  art forms  and participating in community events was all new to me and very exciting. 

Until 2003 I had only done handwork but when a sewing machine dropped into my life, my husband, Greg, showed me how to thread it and change the bobbin  and I learned how to quilt by watching Alex Anderson at 7a.m. every morning.  That was totally worth getting up early.   Two of my favorite early pieces are a combination of handwork and machine.  The second photo I included is a painted canvas that was deconstructed and remade.

Since I learned to sew so late in life -  after a 34 year career as a flight attendant with American, I started taking classes as often as I could, I had so much to learn.   I was living in San Jose, CA, so going to “Empty Spools” at Asilomar, a 40 mile drive from my house, was an amazing experience.  One of the most successful  techniques that I learned very early and  I still  use often was taught by Rosemary Eichorn;  raw edge, non fused, applique.  

I have 3 granddaughters; two in St. Louis and one here in Dallas, which was the reason for relocating.  The 1 yr old, here in Dallas, is my full time job for now.  I seem to be making more baby quilts that usual  and I also have a passion for mission quilts, the smaller lap size for wheel chair bound people.  

I like trying all types of techniques and incorporating those into my work.  Later this year I will be starting a series of liturgical work.

My last name is spelled Merrell.  Unfortunately not the Merrill ilk that we associate with money, but the Merrell that makes shoes… no relation. 

The women whom I know best in this group through workshops from Quilting Adventures are Sara, Carolyn, Alice, and Jane.  I know Judy  through SAQA and our paths keep crossing through quilt shows.  Since many of the other names look familiar I am not sure if we have been in contact through a class or possibly because I have been ‘lurking the blog’.

PS:  Alice posted this at Dee's request!

The Doodle Composite--Already!

This Randy Schormann is one amazing man!  Here it is just one day after our latest Reveal, and Randy has already put together not only the photo composite, but he's written up his usual witty and logical narrative about why he put which quilt where!  We are so fortunate to have Randy as a "adjunct Maven" or "honorary Maven," as he performs this wonderful service for us every time!  Many thanks to Randy!

Now, here's what Randy had to say, in his own words:

Rita and I had a friend and former student visiting from the Czech Republic this week so I didn’t get to see the great reveal until mid-afternoon Friday.  She left this afternoon and instead of yard work I opted to do the composite.  Our friend is a wonderful creative artist/photographer so I was – again – inspired to enjoy your work.

It is never easy to “lay-out” the rows and I’m sure everyone would do them differently but this is how they make sense to me.

Row one: I thought these three quilts said “doodling” in the traditional sense of the word, each with a really clever twist.  Jane, I tweaked your “reflection” concerns [hope you don’t mind] so the word looks more like the close-up.

Row two: Doodle art on the machine is in this row.  Judy, I agree with Alice, “What is behind the zipper?”  And Carol, you gave me the choice, so vertical it is – fits the format and the color of the space and blends nicely with Karen’s leaf in the middle of row three.

Row three: Mother Nature in doodling – a dog, a leaf, then a puffin.  I’ll admit, as a photographer, I was tempted [but notice, I didn’t] to flip the puffin so s/he didn’t swim off the edge.  And the green leaf continues to blend nicely with this row as well.

Row four: My creativity was surprised by the twist of the theme as illustrated with Yankee DOODLE and Cock-a-DOODLE– WONDERFUL!  Who’da-thought, except creative quilters?   And the colors in Carolyn’s quilt – WOW!  The center Material Mavens date panel is a doodle from circa 1795 by the Queen of Prussia.  I think maybe cave painting might really have been made by bored teenagers convened to their living quarters for being unruly.  What do you think?

Row last: Since Gail and Janet and Lois were not able to participate this time, I had room to ignore Alice’s challenge [Whew!] to pick one or the other and I had room to use both ALTERNATE Doodle quilts from Alice and Carolyn.  Now YOU-ALL get to pick. Sara’s quilt and all the great doodling nicely compliment the middle of the row.

Thank you for letting me be a part of this wonderful group and sharing your creative work.

Randy

Sara's Doodling - Doodling around with Thread and Paint

When we got this theme I initially thought about free motion doodling. I talked myself out of it and thought I of a seismograph and the seismic field workers but then this happened! In preparation for my class at Quilting Adventures, I had to prepare an 18 inch square of quilted muslin. I responded to this task using my general overkill approach. I loaded about 2 1/2 yards of muslin onto my quilting machine and spent several days quilting on it in every way I could think out using up almost all of my partially filled bobbins. I cut out my 18 inch quilted sandwich and took it and the rest of the quilt with me to class. The class was taught by Leslie Tucker Jenison using a combination of her techniques and those of Yvonne Porcella. Leslie brought a large variety of paints and surface design tools. She showed us the difference between applying paint to a dry quilt and to a pre-wetted quilt. I was really pleased that I brought the entire piece; I got to experiment and share with my friends. This quilt is a 12 inch piece of my quilted doodling that was painted dry with acrylic paint.

Judy's Quilting Doodle

Since doodling is what I have been doing with quilting, I had to make a quilt that showed some of my favorites. I incorporated the zippers to add interest. One of them opens to reveal the piecing inside. The white stitching is from the bolt of fabric where they pieced it together at the manufacturers which I thought was fun to add to the mix. 

This is the piecing inside the zipper.

Tricia's Puffin Doodle

I thought and thought about what to do for the doodle theme.  Coloring books have become all the rage. I noticed one in a local quilt store and thought they are really just doodles.  The cover of the coloring book had a whale frolicking  in the ocean.  I liked that idea so I began to think about images from Nantucket to use.  I then noticed an article in the Nantucket newpaper about a Puffin that was spotted off the southern shore of Nantucket.  Puffins have only been spotted around Nantucket a few times. A photograph was taken of the puffin by E Vernon Laux.  I used his photograph for my doodle.

I just love Puffins. My mother in law always said a puffin poem when she served pancakes to my husband and his siblings. I fused fabric for the puffin and doodled stitching for puffin and the ocean.

Rita's Doodle: Doodling Among the Dots

Humor! Creativity! Incongruity! I’ve sat through many of Randy’s “Laughter in the Classroom” workshops and my ordered science teaching background still struggles when he tells me they all can be defined to mean the same. Doodles?  Yes, they fit also. I will admit, at first I struggled for an idea.

Then those four words and M. C. Escher and an old habit of mine turned on the light. I’ll let my sister Mavens fill in the Escher piece [after all, we are quiltersJ]. Here’s the “old habit” connection. Throughout my college career [Bachelors in the Life Sciences – teaching career that spanned 36 years] I learned by first taking notes in all my classes. Later, and as soon as possible, I would study by rewriting those notes into course specific notebooks. I began to notice, that when the subject got boring or I lost interest, the expanse of doodles in the margins increased significantly. 

By the way – it’s a habit that continues to this day. Kathy – Thanks for trip down memory lane.  This quilt is made “doodling” [walking that path of memories] with Tulip permanent fabric markers on white polka dotted fabric for the background. The hand is mine – photographed, printed on Timeless Treasures fabric, cut out, and then fused on top of the doodles. 

P.S. From Rita – the new challenge word - due in July

Aristotle said, “The whole is more than the sum of its parts. “ So, here we go again: Humor – Incongruity - Creativity – this time all wrapped up in one word. Or, take the word apart and “go-a-quilting” with its parts and see if you can agree – or disagree with Aristotle [that’s ok, he’s been dead since 322 BC J]. When Mary Poppins sang the word in 1964, it was supposedly the longest word in the English language and officially added to the dictionary in 1986.  The real treat is to have as much fun as did Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.

Here’s my word:

SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS

Don’t panic: Sing it a few times and the humor and the creativity and the incongruity juices will begin to flow. That’s just what the word can mean: Super – above and beyond; Cali – “often defined as ‘beauty’”; Fragilistic – “delicate”; Expiali – “to make amends”; Docious – “able to learn.” Think about it – what better defines the Material Mavens.

Jane Hartfield's Doodle Quilt

Jane Hartfield’s Doodle Quilt

Doodle certainly speaks to your imagination. My first thoughts were about dogs: Labradoodle, Double Doodle, etc. I don’t own those breeds nor do I have photos I have taken of them.

Then life happened and I had a very difficult start to the year that included lots of time on the road. It was hard to even think about our challenge. However, when I finally got home and had time to look around my studio, I remembered a piece of linen I had dyed some time ago.

 It was a rather small piece that began as a “messy monoprint”. That is a fun process without a definitive end product. You paint thickened dye onto thin plastic. I probably used a Walmart bag. Next you lay the fabric on top and roll across it with a paint roller or brayer. When you remove the fabric there are many textural marks on it that would be impossible to make by intention.

On this particular piece I used turquoise and yellow dyes which produced many shades of green. I truly loved the piece. To further define the visual texture, I taped it to sandpaper and used a Sharpie to “doodle” around the tiny shapes and marks. I left it like that a long time. It was too small to use for most of my projects, and not one that I cared to reproduce in a large format.

Then our challenge came up. I took the piece and fused it to Eco Fi felt. Then I added foil using a freezer paper stencil for the letters and Bo Nash bonding powder for the sprinkles and fusible thread for more doodling. By the way, the freezer paper stencil was the wrong thing to use. Wonder Under would have been much easier.

This piece is not quilted.

I find it very difficult to photograph work with foil on it. When I turned off some of the light, I got a better shot. It must have something to do with reflections. If anyone knows more about this, please tell me.  

Carolyn's Cock-a-Doodle- Doo

When I heard that our challenge word was “doodle,” my first thought was "cock-a-doodle-doo".  But, being the avid researcher that I am, I began by doing a google search for the word “doodle.”  Try as I might, I could not get the image of a crowing rooster out of my head.  I found some delightful pictures of hens, but very few roosters, and none that were colorful enough for me. 

I decided that my rooster would be made out of Kaffe Fassett fabrics and that he had to be appear very cocky and proud.  I made several attempts at drawing the rooster and kept making his chest bigger and bigger with his head thrown way back until I was satisfied with his cockiness.  I used Laura Wasilowski’s technique of building a focal piece onto a leftover paper backing (resist paper) that was peeled off and salvaged from a previous fused piece. Using my iron, I lighted attached a fabric outline of his body to this paper backing.  Using a variety of pre-fused Kaffe florals, I carefully and tediously cut out each feather individually, layering them one on top of the other by lightly touching them with the tip of my iron.  I quickly discovered that cotton fabrics proved to be much harder to adhere in this manner than batiks.  After I was satisfied with my rooster, I lifted him carefully off of the salvaged paper background and placed him on a commercial hand-dyed fabric background. Then I added the grass, feet, “sound” streams and some sunrise shadowing with fabric pencils.  I machine stitched each feather and the entire rooster using my walking foot.  The background was free-motion stitched on my new Bernina sit-down long-arm. Aurifil thread was used for all of the stitching.

After I made the rooster, some of my favorite Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey tunes from the late 1940s popped into my head.  I remembered that one was called “The Dipsy Doodle.”  It was actually a dance that young people favored during that era.  I picked up an unfinished machine pieced project I had begun in a class with Sheila Frampton Cooper.  I had not had an inspiration of what to do with it.  I decided to make it into another 12x12 doodle.  I wanted to try my hand at making pebbles and circles on my new long-arm, and did so in the areas you see in the photo.  After that, I used my walking foot to finish the rest of the quilt.  I like to think of the trumpet part of this quilt as an actual trumpet blaring out the big band sound of “The Dipsy Doodle.”  This jive-inspired quilt was made with cotton fabrics stitched with Aurifil thread.  I like it so much that I think I may try this difficult curved piecing technique on a larger quilt in the near future!