 |
| I love what Kiki wrote on the back of the envelope! Click on it to see it better. |
Kiki Finlayson from Salem, OR has sent us ATCs featuring the Alice in Green collage sheet, which she has added color to, plus paint & ripped paper to create her ATCs. I think this is a wild sheet and I love seeing how Kiki has transformed it~ thanks for playing with us again, Kiki . . . I see this is your 6th creative swap!
Kiki also used words from the I wonder collage sheet . . .
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.
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.
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!
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!
