For real this time...

I have been travelling for work, so I apologize for being away from my blog. I was in Orlando at MegaCon, a really neat comic book convention, in which I met a bunch of cool creators and artists, and tried to sell the heck out of the program my company wrote.

This is the paper quilt entry I submitted to Quilting Arts/Cloth Paper Scissors for their "true colors" challenge. It was not accepted for either the magazine or the show in Chicago. I was a bit disappointed, because I used a paper technique I learned from Patricia "Pokey" Bolton herself at last year's show, but in the end, I know what is wrong with the piece. It will go proudly on my wall and be entered into other shows. More pomegranates.

Next up, this month's theme. After checking my schedule for this show in Orlando, I knew I would not have much time at all for myself. So I picked the easiest of themes, with the help of those who voted on my poll. I chose "words", but not just any words... hip hop words.

If you need help defining these lovely words, I would suggest http://www.urbandictionary.com/. However, this site is not child or work friendly, so be warned! (NSFW) My sister works with 6th graders, who have added to her vocabulary, and now mine. I am surprised that 6th graders know what "crunk" is, but I'm apparently out of touch with the younger set.

As for how they were done... I used a technique I learned from Ann Lullie called "The Escape Hatch", where after stitching all around turn right side out using a cut hole in the backing which you then fuse closed. This made great finished edge pieces for me to quilt using hand stitching. The "bling" quilt is done using what I call "rice" embroidery, and "crunk" is done using good old French knots. The words themselves were designed with Microsoft Publisher's word art tool, and fussy cut and fused.