Now I can show you!!!

Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

Saturday was the annual reveal of "Challenge" quilts at the Museum Quilt Guild.  It's always a great meeting since we see such amazing creativity on display!!   This year's theme was "Literature". The picture above is my entry, based of course on Where the Wild Things Are, by the most beloved Maurice Sendak. Here is the page from the book.

This is the quilt I was working on when I did the coloring and painting on the fabrics to alter them, but I bet you could have guessed that.  Anywhere you see shading and detail, it was added with a combination of pigma pens, Tsukineko ink, watercolor crayons and wax pastels.                  

The stripes on the first "thing's" upper body were painted on with wax pastels.

The  middle "thing's" head was one of the parts I was most pleased with the result! 

 This quilt will be a gift to my son Lucas.  We must have read this book a thousand times one year.  He would ask for it several times a day and repeatedly at bedtime!  I may buy him a new copy of the book to go with it, since our copy was a gift to my brother when the book was new in 1963!  It's well loved, as a good children's book should be, I guess.

Fearing I would not finish the Wild Things quilt in time, I had also had the idea of a child reading a book when the challenge was first announced.  One of my own favorite books as a little girl was    Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson.  I scanned the book- my very own copy of A Picture for Harold's Room, which cost 50cents when I got it!  Happily I found that skewing it was an easy operation in programs I already had.  The rest of the quilt was made to fit the book once it was printed.




I decided to add a few of the lovely drawings from other Harold books in the background, using  a thread sketching technique.
Harold and his crayon had marvelous adventures!  It's a wonderful lesson for children that the world is what they choose to make of it.  I titled the piece, Create the World You Want.





My "green" tip this time is back to making small changes.  Do you use paper towels and paper napkins?  Ever thought about how much money you throw away?  Most household cleaning can be done with a cloth towel or washcloth which can be washed and used again!  In my house a roll of paper towels easily lasts three months since we only use them for the kind of messes you don't want to toss in your washing machine. (bacon grease, car maintenance, etc)  Cloth napkins are in expensive- often available at thrift stores and garage sales or flea markets!  They can be made from faded or stained tablecloths as well- repurposing something you might otherwise throw away!  They last for years and once you're done with them at the table they can still be used as polishing rags, dust cloths, or even a hankie (they get softer as they age!)  If you must use paper, look for brands made from 100 % recycled paper!

I am grateful for:
Internet radio
Unscheduled days
The good times
Fringe- it's over now, but it was a great show!
Not the same old teams playing the Superbowl this year- should be a good one!