WHO LET THE DOGS IN?

WHO LET THE DOGS IN?  GOOD QUESTION.

"Who Let The Dogs In?", just happens to be the title of my award winning Houston quilt.  AWARD WINNING sounds good doesn't it?  IT WAS!

WHO LET THE DOGS IN?

When ever I say the name of my quilt I feel an overwhelming desire to bark. 

wuff wuff

As I have become very aware of the divided politics in our country, I thought I would make a totally politically uncorrect political quilt.  Not wanting my friends and viewers to know what my political leanings, (practically fall over) were, I decided to bash both parties.  I made fun of everyone, and it wasn't hard to do either.  Using mock-ups of

pages from an altered book by the same title, I printed the signatures on fabric.  Then, using different folds, pockets, bells and whistles, I bordered the pages and appliqued them onto a black backing.

 I used caricatures  of the candidates and other political figures to make FUNNY or not so FUNNY cards to make the quilt interactive with the viewer.  Whether the
cards were funny or not depended on the politics of said viewer.

 Each signature was folded in a different way.  There were half pages, triangles. and different sized pockets that viewers could pull out to read back and front, under and over.
Scrabble tiles were drilled (my hubby drills a mean hole), and then sewn in place.  I hand stamped the captions and used chipboard capital letters.  Being a girly girl, I painted the chipboard with finger nail polish.

I originally made this quilt to enter in the AQG, Arizona Quilt Guild state show.  My quilt won the blue ribbon. I was honored to also win the Arizona Quilters Hall Of Fame Award.

AQG   blue ribbon and me

Most people at the show loved the quilt, but there were a few that said "that's awful" and rushed on by.  Like real politics, people only saw what they wanted to.

The one thing that surprised me was that when people asked if they could guess my political    bent, most of them guessed wrong.                   

WHO'D OF THUNK?

Redfox              

"FRIEND, GOOD"...FRANKENSTEIN

There are all kinds of quotes about good friends, and one of my favorite quotes is "A GOOD FRIEND IS LIKE A GOOD BRA, CLOSE TO YOUR HEART AND SUPPORTIVE."  I don't know who wrote it, but it's mine now.

A few weeks ago Mom, Betty, and I were doing our weekly shopathron (is that even a word?) at Goodwill.  You know we dearly love Goodwill, almost as much as we love each other.  I happened to mention that there was a vase on the counter that I loved, but it was too much money.  Of coarse it went right in Betty's cart.  She said I had a birthday coming up...

Well we all have birthdays coming up.  Mine is coming up in May of 2019.

Just when we were ready to go home Betty spotted four bright orange pillows that would look wonderful on her sofa and she
literally ran over to them.  She looked them over and said they were too dirty and she didn't want to send them to the cleaners.

OK, she and Mom left. 

This story is beginning to get a little long, so to make a long story short, it went like this....

First thing I noticed was that they were a very good brand...NEWPORT.  After all they don't sell trash at the DUMP.

Second I noticed that they were filled with duck down and that the covers zipped off.

Third thing I noticed was the most important thing, THEY WERE
                               WASHABLE

I looked around to make sure that Betty was really gone and then...

       I BOUGHT ALL FOUR!

I TOOK THEM HOME AND THEY WASHED UP LIKE A DREAM.  HERE THEY ARE ON MY WHITE SOFA.  THEY LOOK SO GOOD ON MY WHITE SOFA.  AND THAT IS THE PROBLEM.  YOU SEE I BOUGHT THEM FOR BETTY.  SEE, I'M NOT AS BAD A BEST FRIEND AS YOU WERE BEGINNING TO THINK I WAS.

BUT THEY REALLY REALLY
 LOOK GOOD ON MY SOFA.  THEY REALLY DO.

TO MAKE THE LONG STORY SHORT, I'M TAKING THEM TO BETTY TOMORROW. REALLY!

I REALLY REALLY LOVE THAT VASE.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.                                             ...REDFOX

      

WHERE MUSES DWELL

I JUST LOOKED AT MY BLOG AND REALIZED THAT I HADN'T WRITTEN SINCE EASTER 2017.  I GUESS IT IS TIME I GET WRITING.

I JUST FINISHED MY QUILT FOR THE CHANDLER ART QUILTS  CALL.  I'LL SHOW THE QUILT , "WHERE MUSES DWELL" AND THEN WE'LL TALK.

 

WHERE MUSES DWELL

THIS QUILT IS YET ANOTHER TAKE ON MY ALTERED BOOK QUILT.  BUT THE 18 LITTLE BINDED QUILTS ARE PRINTED BOOK SIGNATURES THAT ARE NOT INTERACTIVE, BUT ARE APPLIQUED ONTO A BACK QUILT IN A FIXED MANNER. ALSO SOMETHING ELSE IS DIFFERENT, BLACK AND WHITE

 AND RED ARE NOT MY ONLY COLORS... THERE IS BLUE.

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I ALWAYS THOUGHT BLUE WAS AN OLD PEOPLES COLOR.  MY MOTHER-IN-LAW LIKED BLUE.  BUT THIS SUMMER I AM HAVING A LOVE AFFAIR WITH BLUE.  I PAINTED ALL THE POTS IN THE FRONT OF MY HOUSE BLUE AND STARTED WEARING BLUE CLOTHES. (MOM SAID I LOOKED BEAUTIFUL IN BLUE.)  COULD IT BE?...

GOD HELP ME I'M OLD! 

THIS QUILT IS CREATED TO EXPRESS WHERE I FIND THE INSPIRATION FOR MY WORK.  MY INSPIRATION COMES FROM LIFE.

                       LIFE...THE BOOKS I READ, THE OBJECTS I LOVE,THE PICTURES AND THE QUOTES I COLLECT.  ALL
THE THINGS I HAVE IN MY HOME INSPIRE ME AND THE WAY I USE THESE THINGS GIVE THE VIEWER A LITTLE LOOK INTO MY SOUL AND SOME SAY MY CRAZY MIND.

                 I DON'T MIND BEING A LITTLE CRAZY...………………………………………

I WANT THE VIEWER TO LOOK AT MY PIECE  AND ONLY AFTER REALLY LOOKING WILL THEY SEE MY
HIDDEN MESSAGES...NOTE THE REDFOX COMING AND GOING.

I USED ZIPPERS TO TIE THESE TWO BLOCKS TOGETHER AND THEN USED ANOTHER ZIPPER IN THE THIRD BLOCK TO CARRY THE EYE OVER THE FACE OF THE QUILT.




          REAL LACE WAS USED IN THESE BLOCKS AND THEN A DOILY STENCIL AND BLACK PAINT WAS USED TO TIE ALL THE BLOCKS TOGETHER.

I JUST HAD TO GET A FEW OF THE NAUGHTY BITS IN.

THE QUOTE READS...MIND IS EVERYTHING.  MIND PULLS THE UNIVERSE OUT OF A TOP HAT, BOWS TO ITS OWN APPLAUSE AND WALKS OFF THE STAGE GRINNING.

THE BACK QUILT IS CLOSELY QUILTED , THEN PAINTED, HAND STAMPED AND STENCILED.

BE YOUR OWN EXCLAMATION POINT!

                       ...REDFOX