The Milwaukee Art Quilters is a very talented group of artists and I am honored to be a member. Recently we had a showing of a group of our quilts that were made as a tribute to a dear member who passed away in 2011.
Nancy Kimpel was not only a skilled quilter, but her many talents also included knitting, and dyeing of fabric and yarn. She was a great inspiration and encouragement to the group. When she died her dear husband John and close friend, Mary Ellen Heus, decided to divide up her hand dyed fabrics/threads into 40 bags, bring them to a meeting, and challenge members to create a piece of fiber art from the contents of the bag for an exhibit to be called “Inspired by Nancy”. We all clamored for a bag.
The fabrics and hand dyed perle cottons in my bag were lovely and I decided that I didn’t want to add anything to them. They were interesting enough to stand alone. I’d always wanted to play with overlapping geometric shapes in a positive/negative fashion and the patterns in one of the pieces of Nancy’s fabrics gave me a great place to start. So I began drafting and drawing until I got a design I liked, used my Repliqué technique to appliqué the top and then had a lot of fun quilting it all.
I was pleased with the effect of extending the designs from the center into the border with the quilting.
The resulting group of quilts were amazing. If you missed the exhibit at UWW, you can still see the quilts on our blog: http://milwaukeeartquilters.wordpress.com/.
The Saga of Quiltilly, Part 2
As you may remember Quiltilly, one of the Quiltsissies, has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. We will begin with Evelyn’s cryptic response to the ransom note:
“I’m sorry. How high is the ransom? Hummmm. I’ll have to check my stash.”
The kidnappers quickly realized she hadn’t actually read the note and gave her a bit of instruction:
“Click on the first picture above to read the ransom note!”
This was her next unsatisfactory response:
“Sorry I haven’t learned how to download to my computer and could only read about half of the ransom note. I was able to read the tattoo. Sounds like you two are having way too much fun since we left.”
To which the impatient kidnappers replied:
“Can you tap on the picture and then reverse pinch on the screen? Remember we are the kidnappers, do not humor us. Tilly is in good company. No suffering…….yet“
At this point she caught on and sent this message:
“Wow. The kidnappers even have to educate the victims. Okay, will diamonds do? I’ll do anything you say to get my Tilly back.”
To which they messaged back:
“Any unmarked jewels wrapped in a brown paper bag. Just make us happy.”
So the kidnappers and the Quiltsissies had an enjoyable ride back to Wisconsin with time to climb a tree:
And a cultural stop too!
From there began the long portion of the ride back to Wisconsin and the stress and excitement were a bit much for poor, little Quiltilly. This message and photo were sent back to Evelyn:
“Not traveling well. She threw up”
What will happen when Tilly gets to her new home? Will she behave? Be here next week for the continuing adventures of the Quiltsissies!
Pat Lipscomb says
Such a fabulous inspiration from incredibly talented fiber artists! Thanks for sharing. Pat
Judy says
You did a fantastic job with the material that you got. The colors were great. Nancy would be proud!