Forest Quilties: Marianne Baugher, Maryland

Marianne Baugher from Laytonsville, MD sent in 2 sets of "green" forest quilties.

Below is what Marianne e-mailed to me:

Thanks so much for hosting this swap. It has been a long time since I joined an online swap. I let life get in the way of my need to play. My quilties were made using all leftovers from other projects and some wise ol'charms that I have had for years and could never figure out what to do with them. I live in the woods so this project was perfect for me. I layered my materials to represent the layers on the woodland floor. I hope everyone likes them. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of love and happiness.
Marianne Baugher

Thank you, Marianne! I think your quilties are a wonderful addition to our swap. My husband saw me unpack them and was saying how much he liked them!

Note: There are a few more swaps to come in which hopefully I will receive by tomorrow. Two are coming from overseas and left over a week ago, so I may need to allow 1 more day for the mail. I will keep you updated here, thanks.

Forest Quilties: Carol Cooper, Texas

From Carol Cooper in Plano, TX We have 4 beautiful landscaped quilties.
I love the dimension Carol achieved with her trees -bravo!
The colors are lovely, thanks very much for participating, Carol.

Forest Quilties: Anne Hartman, Iowa

We have a set of 4 wonderful quilties from Anne Hartman in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Thank you, Anne!

I especially like the colors in the background and all the leafy vines. This is Anne's 2nd creative swap and I hope to see her back for more. You can read more about her art on her blog: http://annehartman.typepad.com/. She posts her swap pieces and the jewelry she creates there!

Forest Quilties: Lorraine Webber, Rhode Island

This is Lorraine's 1st creative swap . . . please click on any scan for more detail of her beautiful quilties. Earlier this year, Lorraine and her friend (and fellow creative swap participant) Sharon Walworth, took a 5 week on-line/email workshop with me: A mini Art Quilt Book! Lorraine enjoyed the class, and I think Sharon encouraged her to try her hand at a swap once she took the class.

Lorraine enclosed a note with her quilties:

"Hi Lenna,
Here's my first attempt at a swap. Hope they're all right and meet the requirements. (Yes!!) I enjoyed the challenge to my limited creative juices. Thanks for hosting, Lorraine W."

Well, I think I would disagree with you about limited creative juices, Lorraine. Your forest quilties are just great! Thanks for participating.

: ) lenna

Forest Quilties: Linda Garcia, New Mexico

From Linda Garcia, a set of beautiful New Mexico forest quilties . . . Linda writes on the back of each one,
"Remembering the Forest, Santa Fe".
I am so very thankful she made an extra one for me! I love the stamp she used on the back of her quilties: Like water, feel peaceful, Like wood, keep growing, Like fire, be alive, Like earth, experience balance, Like metal, stay strong.








Linda emailed me when she sent her quilties . . .

"Remembering Santa Fe Forest when I took photos of the Aspens a couple of years ago…when the Aspens drop their leaves it looks like a golden carpet, thus the gold tinted tulle. Just to sit and listen to their rustling leaves reminds me of enjoying tossing leaves and jumping into the piles, which I could still enjoy if I didn’t think about all those possible critters now. Ah youth—so innocent. I enjoy it all, seasons talking. The reverse has muslin with torn tissue (paper) on top, a new technique that is so simple. (and beautiful!) I’ve inserted a picture for a preview, taken outdoors. You may choose the one you wish to keep. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving mi amiga
Linda"

This post celebrates Linda Garcia's 12th - yes, 12th creative swap since I started this blog in April, 2007! You should feel so very proud Linda, and a lot more creative because of it!!! : )

Click on Linda's name at the bottom of this post to see ALL the creative swaps she has participated in!

Forest Quilties: Kiki Finlayson, Oregon

This is Kiki's 4th creative swap and she writes from Oregon saying that she appreciates the support I've given the community of women who participate in my swaps, adding how much she thinks it helps in the creative process. Wow! How kind of you to say - thank you, Kiki.

You will need to click on these scans to see some of the details of Kiki's fabric art.

Via email, Kiki told me about how she created her quilties, "I used fairly traditional appliqué, quilting and beading techniques. The one unusual material I used was some dark brown unryu paper, a traditional Japanese paper which is very easy to sew through but still fairly tough. I used a polyester fleece batting (I used only materials already in my stash, a sort of attempt to be green) which I will not use again as I do not like the feel of working with it. It is too thick and stiff. I much prefer the cotton batting I normally use. The picture in my head when I started was lying down in the forest and looking up as I have often done through the trees at the sky. I also tried to be sort of geometric, hence the squares, but that didn't last long, as you can see by the freehand quilting and beading! I had fun making them and look forward to more swaps in the future.
Thanks again for sponsoring these swaps!
Kiki Finlayson"

Forest Quilties: Joellyn Quinn, Wisconsin

This is Joellyn's 4th quiltie swap through creative swaps! She sent in 5 quilties (an extra for me, thank you) on 2 different themes. Joellyn often does a lot of free-motion quilting, which I love. If you click on her name at the bottom of this post, you can see all the quilties she has created for my swaps -very impressive!

Forest Quilties: Vicki Page, Wisconsin

Gosh, these forest quilties from Vicki Page in Wisconsin are amazing! When she sent them, Vicki emailed me saying --

Hi Lenna,

I sent my quilties yesterday there is an extra one for you. I hope you like them I'm playing much more these days in wool and I love the stuff.
Vicki Page

Wow! I really have never seen anything like these Vicki, and they are GREAT! I love the texture that you have achieved. I am so happy you could create an extra one for me -Thanks so much.

Forest Quilties: Sharon Walworth, Rhode Island

I love batik fabrics so I am really taken by Sharon's forest quilties. Sharon is from Rhode Island, and she had an interesting (and successful) approach to creating her quilties. Here is Sharon's email to me:

For this swap, I set myself a goal of working "green" (not just the quiltie color) and I succeeded in making them without purchasing anything! The background on the front came from a quilted vest which wasn't very successful, and the backing is the vest lining. I used scraps of batting, scraps of batiks for the leaves, and threads from my too large collection. I borrowed the design concept from one of my leafy journal quilts of a few years ago, and the leaf shape is from an old thimbleberries pattern(it was originally an 8" leaf, but I have used it in sizes from the original down to 1 wee inch.) Looking forward to your next quilties swap!

Thank you, Sharon. Here are close-ups of the front and back of these marvelous quilties - click on them for even more detail.

Forest Quilties: Vickie Jones, South Dakota

Vickie Jones, from South Dakota, sent in two sets of really interesting and textural Forest Quilties. She used photographs of trees printed onto fabric and large colorful sequins to represent the leaves of the forest trees. Vickie wrote me an email describing her process, when she sent her quilties to me:

I struggled a little, because I was looking for the perfect background and was not finding what I wanted. The fabric I chose ended up being more bold, but think it ended up working fine...I wanted to get the effect of the sunlight shining through the trees. I used some heavy yarn to represent the "aspen" trees, stitched that on the background, added yarn wrapped pipe cleaners for the the bigger trees. I stitched colored capis disks to represent the aspen colored leaves and added a few regular leaves in the mix. The printed saying set the tone. Enjoy, and thank you so much for hosting these challenging swaps!

You are most welcome, Vickie! Thanks so much for an extra shades of the forest quiltie just for me. Here are a few close-ups of Vickie's fabric art:

I love the jewel tones in her quilties. Click on any scan or photo for details.

Forest Quilties: Sharon Schutt, Indiana

Sharon Schutt from Indiana, has sent in a set of leafy and colorful forest quilties for our swap - see the photos here and also on her blog: Five Shadows.


I love her colour choices, and most especially the leafy tags she attached to each quiltie. Very creative! Thanks so much for the extra quiltie for me, Sharon!

: ) 500 Post Give-away *Winners*

I took a very scientific approach to choosing 10 winners for my 500th post to this blog celebration give-away . . .

I made a list of those who commented to my original post . . . cut the list of names into little strips . . . put all of them into one of my winter hats, and drew out 10 names for 10 prizes!!

I have 3 winners for a FREE swap registration:

Nina Owens, Cindy McMath and Cat Dodt Ellis!!

The winner of the book Creating Romantic Purses is: Frieda Oxenham!!

The Collage Pack was won by: Carolyn Outz Hay!!

The Santa Stamp was won by: Lisa Mallette ; )

The Frame Stamp was won by Rena Matus!

The Octagon collaged Box created by me was won by: Kate North!

The Expression magazine with my autographed article was won by: Gunnel Svensson : )))

And . . . the Fabric Collage created by me, especially for this give-away was won by . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barbara Roberts - wow! CONGRATULATIONS to ALL!

~ Thanks to everyone who left a comment to let me know why you enjoy visiting this blog. Your kind words were appreciated very much . . . If I do not have your mailing address already through the swaps I will contact you over the weekend - or feel free to contact me first -happy day!

Forest Quilties - Fabienne Lunel, FRANCE

This is Fabienne's first Creative Swap, and my first participant from France! What lovely fabric work you have created for our swap, Fabienne -thank you for joining us. Fabienne typed up a description that she added to each of her quilties:

Foret d'automne (automn forest)
First, I thought about the colors of the forest during automn: orange, red, brown. yellow and green. Then I imagined the noise you make when you walk in the dead leaves and the wind in these leaves.

That's why I used brown paper and nylon organza in different colors for leaves. The quilting represents the whirl of wind in the forest. I hope you will love this quiltie. It's the first time I trade this kind of work. (please excuse my bad English!)-Fabienne: http://fabiennelblog.blogspot.com/

Fabienne also enclosed a beautiful fabric ATC for me as a hostess gift - Thank you, Fabienne! I treasure this!

Forest Quilties - Andrea Millington,Cornwall, UK

This is Andrea's 3rd Creative swap and we are so glad to have her participating. I have a couple of photos/scans to show you here of her quilties (click on them for a larger photo/scan), but please go and visit Andrea's blog, Indigo Blue, for a really great description on how she made her Forest Quilties. I love that Andrea has added Nature Printing to her quilties, and so appreciate that she created an extra one for me - thanks!!!

Forest Quilties - Janice Perkin, Warrington, UK

Janice is another Creative Swaps participant who is completing her 10th swap with the Forest Quilties swap - wow. Congratulations, Janice! Below are the swaps Janice has participated since I started this blog . . . and she lives in the UK! (more effort for her to send to the USA, I think)

7/31/07 -Garden ATCs
11/5/07 -Mother Goose ATCs
3/22/08 -Tallulah's card/postcard
4/26/08 -White Quilties
5/24/08 -AB Design ATCs
7/19/08 -Brown & Blue Quilties
8/9/08 -Itty Bitty Collage
8/30/08 -Row House Swap
9/20/08 -Sunshine quilties
11/29/08 -Forest Quilties


Janice was so kind . . . She made me an extra piece of hand dyed silk as a hostess gift, thanks so much Janice. I don't think you will mind if I use it in my fabric art!

Janice wrote to me when she sent her quilties:
Hi Lenna - I loved doing these. Hand dyed my fabrics to catch the shades of the forest. Our pine forests always seem to reflect a purple light to me even on bright days. I do like dyeing! Enjoy this dyed silk, Janice.

I really like the quiltie with the feather . . . click on any photo for more detail!

Forest Quilties - Susanne Wiebe, Victoria BC

Wow, I just discovered this is Susanne Wiebe's 10th Creative Swap! Thank you Susanne, for all the wonderful art that you have contributed; you are incredible! I believe Susanne participated in EVERY 'quiltie' swap I have ever hosted, plus fabric ATC swaps, fabric bag swaps and more! She is a very talented and creative participant. Her friend Beverley Teichrob often joins the same swaps as Susanne and so they have the fun of encouraging and enjoying each other's work before sending it off to me in CT, usa! (smile)

In fact, it was Susanne who suggested a 'shades of the forest' theme in a note to me a number of months ago. I was thinking of a greenish-color wave for the next set of quilties, and Susanne's idea completed what I was looking for. Thank you, Susanne!

Susanne's quilties are like the quote she used, printed on fabric and added to her fabric squares: LUSH and GREEN. I know this is Susanne's favorite colour! A collage I created for Susanne, at Beverley's request, can be found on my art blog.

I tried to create something very green and forest like when making this collage for Susanne and after receiving it, she told me she loved her gift from Beverley that I had created for her.

****

The shades of the Forest Quilties are due in my hands in less than 2 weeks of this writing - November 29, 2008. I have received about 1/3 of the swap entries. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest!!!

Forest Quilties - Darlene Kihne, South Dakota

Darlene sent us 5 really cool 'shades of the forest' quilties. I think it is best if I simply quote her description to me in an E-mail -just scroll down to see what she is talking about via my scans!

"I couldn't make up my mind on which photo to use; so I used both. (a smile, from lenna)
The photo underneath was a photo I had taken, printed on 100% silk; and the photo on top, also a photo I had taken, was printed on ExtravOrganza. I had a visitor in our back yard this summer! I used grommets, ribbon, yarn, and beads to tie them together. We had such a gorgeous, colorful, fall this year. Blizzard today! How quickly things change."


Thanks so much, Darlene. I love your creative approach to our forest theme. : ) lenna

Forest Quilties - Cheri Hins, North Dakota

This is Cheri's first 'creative swap' and her first set of quilties. Hard to believe! Cheri made 5 quilties (one of them, for lucky me) that are different from each other, each amazing but all forest-like in theme.

I will add a photo of one below, the theme is so special and cute. The 3 other pictures here are scans. I always see different things in a scan vs a photo . . . . Click on any picture for more details.

Congratulations Cheri - your first fabric pages are just awesome! Read and see more on Cheri's blog: Scary's journey to Artville!

(Cheri's 'handle' is ScaryCheri!)

I love her tags. Cheri wrote me after she finished her first one,

"If you get time, could you give me an honest opinion? I followed your tutorial. I think I should cut the batting a little smaller for the next one. I haven't attached the back yet on this one. I am thinking I might have gone nuts with the embellishments. Do you think it is too busy? I kept finding things in the right color to add, lol. Thanks Lenna."



My reply: "Scary, I don't think you went overboard at all! It looks great and I would not know it was your first fabric quiltie unless you had told me!! : ) lenna "