More Zentangles for my doctor

My doctor also requested a set of cards from my doodles. I found a set of 4 cards - Carol Doak`s Keepsake Frame Cards  - that have 3" x 3" openings ready to insert artwork, small quilts, photos, etc. The paper looks handmade. The cards have a tri-fold and double-stick tape, making them easy to use.   

Set of 4 Cards (Carol Doak's Keepsake Frame Cards) with Zentangle-Inspired Art

In this first card, I wanted to get away from the usual, squarish tile for my Zentangle design. I was making an abstract design, but it resembles a 2 or an R.

Abstract
Tangles: Crescent Moon, Florz, Hollibaugh variation, Pebbles, and a quilting scallop design.

In the second card, I was practicing designs from Zentangle 4 by Suzanne McNeil. She has written several books on Zentangles that include many tangles with several ideas and inspiration. Several people said the  "plum leaf variation" tangle made them think of a guitar, hence the name.  

Guitar
Tangles:  Deco Border, Pearlz, Peacock Tail, Plum Leaf variation. Pyramids, and Sugarcane

In this third card, I wanted to tangle a realistic critter. By the time I finished, a moth flittered on the page with large eyes, fat antennae, large front wings, delicate, lacy back wings, a squarish body, and a paisley tail.

Moth

Tangles: Betweed, Ennies, Fescu, Knightsbridge, Nzeppel, Paisley, Pearlz, Queen's Crown, Rain, and Shattuck

The fourth card is a more traditional Zentangle design. I made the string with a circle in the middle, and divided the sides into thirds. I had in mind from the beginning to put a flower in the center amidst various tangles. 

Sunflower

Tangles: Cadent, Flukes, Hollibaugh, Keeko, Onomato, Pebbles, Pokeroot, Shattuck, and a Sunflower

The doctor enjoyed the set of cards. She decided to frame them and hang them on her wall, along with the framed wall-hanging ZIA (Zentangle-inspired art) I had previously made for her. I enjoyed making the cards so much, that I made a second set to use as samples. 

Zentangle-Inspired Art for my doctor

While sitting in the examining room waiting on my doctor, I was doodling in my tangle journal. When the doctor came in, she commented that my doodling was terrific and that I needed to sell it. She said she'd be my first customer!! So my "homework" was to make her a ZIA (Zentangle-inspired art) to hang on her wall.

Wow!! I hadn't really thought about selling my work. I draw because I enjoy the process, it relaxes me, and it's always exciting to see the final result. The result of doodling is really a surprise! Starting with a string and then just picking tangles at random, I rarely know what the end drawing will look like.

This is the ZIA I made for my doctor. It's 8"x10" on illustration board, using a 0.1 Sakura Micron pen. I did a string with my eyes closed. I enjoyed the result from using variations on Scallop tangles that blended into each other at the bottom. This is becoming one of my favorite doodles!

Abstract Butterfly
Tangles: Echoism, Ennies, Flora, Knightsbridge, Oshua, Pearlz, Pokeleaf, Printemps, Scallops, and Terratile

Timeless Treasure and AQG Challenge

The Arizona Quilter's Guild (AQG) and Timeless Treasure Fabric Company issued a challenge to the AQG members. Timeless Treasure donated four batik fabrics to each participant to create a 24" x 24" quilt. Only these four batik fabrics could be used for the front and back of the quilt. Then the quilt was to be embellished as much as possible.  We were given 60 days to complete the quilt. 

The four batik fabrics were a yellow polka dots, a yellow with blue pumpkin seed design, a green vine print, and a blue floral print.  What in the world do I do with these? All four fabric were similar in value, so to me, they just seemed to have no life when put together. I searched and searched for inspiration. Finally, I found a peacock design in a copyright-free book by Dover Publications. 

I used raw-edge applique to create the peacock and fused the fabrics to a piece of white muslin. I painted some of the fabrics with Claudia Helmuth's textile paints to create a greater range of values in the fabrics. To add more depth and color, I added a polka-dotted tulle for embellishment to the tail feathers of the peacock. I then layered the quilt sandwich with Timtex for the batting, as I wanted to cut out the fabric around the legs. Therefore, I needed a very stiff batting to keep the quilt from collapsing when it was hung. After free-motion quilting the quilt,  I cut out the fabric around the legs. I finished the quilt with facing around the cut-out areas and decided to cut around the tail feathers to keep the design, rather than squaring up the quilt. It measures 24" at its maximum height and 24" at its maximum width. 

After finishing the quilting,  I further embellished the peacock with beads (from seed beads to cylinders to bi-cones to ovals to nuggets), hot-fix crystals, sequins, wirelace, and yarns. I wasn't sure I was going to finish everything in time. It was a fun quilt to make, pushing my creativity to the max!  I hand-delivered my quilt, "O' Peacock", to the AQG office the morning of the final day to enter a quilt. Whew! Just made it!

The winners were announced in Spring 2012. Quilts were displayed at AZ Quilters Guild Annual Spring Show in 2012. I was surprised to learn I was the Grand Prized Winner!!! What an honor!!! 

O'Peacock: 24" x 24" cotton, tulle, textile paints, beads,
crystals, sequins, wirelace and yarn.

Paint Chip Challenge

I am a member of the Prickly Piecers quilt guild, a chapter of the Arizona Quilters Guild (AQG). Our program chair issued a paint chip challenge to the members of the Prickly Piecers. We were to find paint chips that started with our initials. For example, if your initials are ABC - then you needed to find paint colors that started with the letter A, the letter B, and the letter C (i.e. Asparagus, Blue, and Cream).  You could only use one color for each initial and add one other color, so four colors total for your quilt.

My initials are LKK. I found many colors for L. But K!!  I could only find 5 paint chips from all the brands of paint in 3 different stores that started with the letter K!! I have 2 K's!! What a dilemma! I finally settled on a sage (Khaki Sage), a purple (Kalamata Olive), and an pinkish shade (Lovelace).  I found a mottled sage fabric, a dark purple floral fabric, and a polka-dotted batik pinkish fabric that matched the colors of my paint chips well.  The polka-dotted batik was the only fabric that matched my "Lovelace" paint chip - after searching about half a dozen local quilt stores for something a "Lovelace" shade!! For my one other fabric that we could add, I found a beautiful stripe that included all three of these shades.

I found a portrait image from a copyright-free Art Nouveau book from Dover Publishers. I love Art Nouveau designs and I enjoy drawing and painting portraits, so I thought this image would make a beautiful quilt. Also, it was a circular design, which I thought would be unique. The sage color would work for the background pieces, the edges of the hair clips, and the whites of the eyes. The dark purple shade would make great tresses of the hair, the eye brows, and the pupils of the eyes. That left the polka-dotted pinkish shade for the flesh of the neck and face. Did she have measles or chickenpox? How was I going to make this fabric work. I ended up cutting around the polka-dots (to avoid measles or chickenpox) and created a mod-podge of the "Lovelace" fabric to create the face and neck.
The striped fabric with all the colors was used to delineate the hair tresses, and for the binding. The quilt is raw-edge appliqued and I free-motion quilted it. I embellished the hair clips with beads, spangles, and feathers from my pet chicken.

I won first place for our guild's paint chip challenge! I entered this quilt "Mystic Woman" in the Annual AQG Spring Quilt Show of 2012, where I won first place in the Small Quilt, Applique Category. I was delighted when I found out.