Friday, September 26, 2008

Late Sunshine . . . from Fiona in Scotland!

Look what finally graced my mailbox today . . . Five very delicious 'shades of sunshine' quilties from Fiona Brockie in Scotland, UK, just a wee bit late. The one here by itself, to the left, is the one I have choosen to keep for myself (many thanks to Fiona!). Hmmmmm . . . . . since the swap has already been closed/swapped and completed, what to do? I do not want to give up any of the sunshine quilties that were given to me for my hosting, yes selfishly (!) and yet I do not want to send Fiona's all back to her. So instead, I am putting out this call:

Would anyone like to make a shades of sunshine quiltie and trade 1 for 1 with Fiona (via sending to me first & I will send all of them to her)? You would need to make & send a sunshine quiltie to trade with Fiona for one of hers, to ME by October 18th. (09/27/08 -THANKS, we have 4 participants! ) When I receive your quiltie for Fiona, I will immediately send you back one of Fiona’s. Soon after October 18th (if not before) I will send Fiona ALL of the quilties sent in trade for her quilties.

Thanks to Joanie Hoffman, Joellyn Quinn, Sue Lee and Barbara Roberts for signing up already to trade with Fiona! Below you'll see Fiona's shades of sunshine quilties -- Fiona writes that she stamped & quilted Batik fabric that was embellished with hand made silk paper, transparencies & beads. I so am glad to see them, they are just beautiful! (click on them for more detail, please!)


Thursday, September 25, 2008

Shades of the Forest Quilties - Val Cowan, UK


It seemed pretty amazing to me that as soon as I sent the sunshine quiltie swap home (today) the first package for our shades of the forest quilties arrived. Wow! These gorgeous forest quilties are from Val Cowan in the UK, who is a new participant here with us on creative swaps. I am so glad you have joined us, Val! I really love your quilties . . . the colours, the stitching, the quotes, the fibers, the beads and charms . . . just delicious. Click on any picture for more detail.














A close-up or two . . .




















Thanks so much Val.
What a great way to start off this swap! There are a number of places left before I close sign-ups . . . Due 11/29/08 and the details: HERE - shades of the forest Quilties swap!

Shades of Sunshine quilties heading to new homes!

The Shades of Sunshine Quilties were swapped and sent to new homes today . . . I hope you enjoy what I have chosen for you!

I wrote a bit about how I created my own sunshine quilties on my creative lenna blog -and I am so very glad I participated. It was fun!

This swap is completed now with 24 participants, and 130 total quilties made. Participants were from the US (15), Canada (2), UK (3), The Netherlands (2) and Australia (2). I received lots of creative gifts and 19 quilties as hostess gifts, wow - THANK YOU!!

Here is a small selection of what my creative participants came up with. Please follow the "SWAP: Quilties -Shades of Sunshine" Link at the bottom of this post to see them all.
: ^ ) creatively yours, lenna







Monday, September 22, 2008

Shades of Sunshine Quiltie swap . . . winner(s)!

It took me some time to wrap up this quiltie swap even before I start swapping it out, because I had to choose a "most creative" entry. Yikes! You may (or may not) remember that in the call for this swap I wrote . . . . Challenge yourself to try something new with this colorful swap. The most creative set of quilties will be awarded a first prize packet of mixed media & fabric goodies hand-picked from my own stash that is sure to delight! : )

Well, I ended up choosing 2 participants with outstanding creative quilties, and I had quite a few more participants on my list that almost won! I was able to choose two participants this time because I happen to have an *extra* prize on hand. I recently decorated a Daily Window bag (backpack) as a sample for the company. They liked my work so much they asked if they could send another style for me to work on - my answer was yes! When I received the package last week there was not one, but two of the same bags inside! It was a mix up in sending and upon contacting the company they said they would send the correct bag they wanted me to design (an Urban Tote) and -- as far as the other two: "You are welcome to play with them (the 2 Daily Carry-Alls), or share them with another who may enjoy them. They are a fun bag because they can be used for so many different things…an outing with a couple of bottles of wine, a gym bag with a place for your water bottles, a diaper bag, a beach bag."

SO! Long story short, I am first going to award KARA KLEIN with a Daily Carry All Tote that she can art-up as well as use the clear window of the tote to pop-in her ever-changing array of beautiful art pieces! I fell in love with Kara's creative sunshine quilties when she sent them to me back in June. I loved the way she used words and told a story and featured bold geometric shapes to describe what summer means to her. The bold stamping with her first-ever alphabet set really grabs me design wise and also emotionally. Congratulations, Kara! Two of Kara's very creative quilties are below -- click on any photo for better detail.

And secondly, I want to award Kiki Finlayson with a lovely, creative pack of goodies from my own stash for her outstanding creative shades of sunshine quilties. Kiki titled her work Pacific Sunset and used so many different techniques and materials - beading, felting, quilting and more! Click on her name to read a bit more, and view two of her quilties below. Congratulations to both Kara and Kiki!

I will send the prizes out with your quilties . . . . . The physical swapping of the shades of sunshine will start soon -I will keep you posted. We had 24 participants including myself that finished the swap. One overseas package is still in transit and did not make it here on time, I am very sad to say. Quite a few people had to drop out this time too. But there are still a LOT of wonderful, bright, colourful and beautiful quilties here to swap with 24 of us, so I will get to work soon! Thanks so much for your participation. The shades of the forest quilties swap due 11/29/08 still has space as of this date: 9/22/08. If you have not joined yet, you are welcome to join ~ see the sign up PayPal button on the right. Thanks!

Shades of Sunshine Quiltie swap: Lenna Andrews ~ Connecticut



I ended up participating in my own swap - I could not resist the colours! I used ARTchix Studio collage images (Pretty Bird) and an ARTchix word sheet (Her Words) done in paper . . . by sewing & gluing these pieces on. I hope you enjoy! I will be back soon with a wrap up of this swap (deadline was 9/20/08). One of my favorites I created is to the right, and you will find more photos of individual fabric pages on my flickr site -just click on the photo above!

-- And I have added a bit of description on HOW I made these quilties on my creative lenna art blog --

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Vickie Trancho ~ New York


Vickie Trancho from Glen Oaks, NY wrote to me:

"I loved making them. I tried needle felting for the first time and I am hooked (no pun intended :) Thanks for hosting my sweet!"

: ) Your quilties are so delightful, Vickie! Thank you for them and also for the yummy bag of goodies you sent me to play with. I recognize the images on your quilties as coming from my friend Carol Murphy's Altered by Design image sheets! They look wonderful. Thanks for participating in this swap.



Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Vickie Jones ~ South Dakota


Vickie Jones in South Dakota sent in 4 great quilties for our shades of sunshine quiltie swap, very bright and colorful, and all a bit different! Vickie wrote me an email that describes her process a bit . . . . .

"I used some of my hand dyed fabric on either the back or front of the quiltie. I tried using a little thread play to give the flowers a different look. I used pellex or timetex because I initially planned to do more beading and I was afraid the beading would be too heavy for the batting. This was my first attempt to hand dye fabric...one of my friends Darlene (she's in this swap also) gave me a lesson...I plan to do this again and be quite a bit MORE creative!! I had fun! Thank you for hosting the swap and encouraging us to try new things! "


It's my pleasure, Vickie!



Friday, September 19, 2008

Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Lisa Mallette ~ Florida



From Lisa, aka Studio Rose in FL, a lovely set of quilties plus an extra one -thank you so much!


I will let the photos do the talking -they are lovely, aren't they?



Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Linda Garcia ~ New Mexico


Linda Garcia in sunny New Mexico sends us quilties on a 'chili roast adobe' - late summer in New Mexico theme : ) Very HOT! I was going to say very 'cool', but that just did not work!


Thanks very much Linda. I so appreciate the extra quiltie. Click on any photo for more detail.



Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Kiki Finlayson ~ Oregon

Wow! Look at all these luscious shades of sunshine quilties that came in for our swap from Kiki Finlayson in Salem, OR. Kiki made two sets and titled her work Pacific Sunset. She used a variety of fabrics, bits of paper, and did both beading and needle felting! Kiki also made tags describing everything for each quiltie -thank you!




Kiki, I really appreciate the extra quiktie you made for me!

Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Margaux Lashbrook ~ Scotland, UK


Beautiful, bright, and satiny shades of sunshine have arrived from Margaux Lashbrook in Edinburgh, Scotland. There are 4 of these for the swap, and 1 for me. Thank you, Margaux! I love the strips of gold/bronze paint, the hand embroidery, stitching & fabrics.

mmmm!





Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Kate North ~ UK


I am really loving all the different "shades" of sunshine we are receiving for this swap! From Kate in England, we have a number of lovely, rich shades combined with quilting and buttons and stitching all over, oh my! Kate made a wonderful bookmark for me the same way she made her quilts, and then she tucked in extra fabric in for me to play with! Thanks so much, Kate.


Take a closer look at Kate's creations for the swap by clicking on any photo.



Monday, September 15, 2008

Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Joellyn Quinn ~ Wisconsin


Look what was in my mailbox today from Joellyn Quinn in Sun Prarie, Wisconsin . . . beautifully stitched and quilted shades of sunshine quilties. Mmmmmm! Joellyn sent in one set of 4 quilties for our swap and she also snuck a piece of wonderful rust-dyed fabric for me, into her package. Thank you so much! I can't wait to try it out!

Enjoy a few more photos of Joellyn's fabric art below-click on any photo for more detail. I love the free-motion embroidery Joellyn did, wow!

This swap is due in my hands this Saturday, Sept. 20th . . . .


Saturday, September 13, 2008

Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Sharon Schutt ~ Indiana



Oh my! I love these sunny sunflower - shades of sunshine quilties from Sharon Schutt! (tee hee, all those "s").

Really, I do. Sharon made 2 kinds of quilties for our swap and you can read more about them on her blog, Five Shadows.









Bees are included on these quilties too -- Sharon made the bees keep houses for our Row house swap!

Shades of Sunshine Quilties: Mary Kahler ~ Massachusetts


This beautiful quiltie is one of 5 that Mary Kahler has sent in for our swap that's due in my hands just one week from today!

These are Mary's first-ever quilties, which I find hard to believe, and Mry's first creative swap with me. I really like the variety of colours, fabrics and words Mary incorporated. Lovely! Click on any photo for more detail.

Thanks so much for an extra quiltie for me, Mary. I really like the poem you printed & ironed on to the backs . . . .