Graffiti Quilt (one type of artist inspiring another type of artist)

I heard about "graffiti quilts" last August.  The term intrigued and excited me.   When I went on-line to look this up, I was very disappointed that some long-arm quilters were making "thread paintings," but calling them graffiti quilts.  The "graffiti quilts" I was seeing were fancy immaculate quilts, which to my mind, have nothing to do with graffiti.  I think, actual graffiti makes a statement in a bold and raw fashion.  I had a discussion, about this situation with a fellow quilter, who's little group of quilters decided to each make a graffiti quilt, but not with thread painting.  They wanted to do small wall-hangings that had a message in a bold fashion.  I thought they were quite good and not fancy and elegant.  I started my own "graffiti quilt" in November.  

I decided to use some words from a song as a statement in my graffiti quilt.  I mulled it over for a while, then went with Once in a Lifetime, by the Talking Heads.  

My wall-hanging is 15.5" X 22".  I sewed a casing on the back and cut a branch from the bush in our front yard to hang it on, using a ribbon that had previously tied up a stack of fat quarters.  I used what I had on hand to make it.  The words are painted on white muslin with woodless watercolor pencils.  The entire thing is quilt-as-you-go.  The backing, batting, and the two pieces of fabric behind the Roman pillar started out as a piece to practice my stippling on.  I just added everything else to it.  This is my graffiti. 

Pizza Rounds Quilt

In late August, when I was not working at the Home Arts Dept. at The Fair, I was playing around with some of my favorite bright fabrics and some curves.  I started what I call my "Pizza Rounds" quilt.  To me, it is an art quilt.  It hangs in my quilt room, where it adds nicely to the atmosphere.  My quilt room has a lot of atmosphere. 

Our daughter came to visit in the first half of November, and we had so much fun.  We went on a day trip to Twin Falls, where we strolled down Main Avenue, window shopping.  We discovered several interesting places and spoke with a number of engaging people, especially small businesswomen.  

We met a friendly print shop cat, and an adorable creativity shop bulldog.  This little bulldog was the shop greeter at "Altered Purposes".  The shop, Altered Purposes, is amazing.  It has stuff creative of all types, not limited to wood, ribbons, decals, metal, paper craft, paint, inspiration for upcycling, classes, and bunting.  I bought some small drawer handles, that I intend to use on an art quilt.  I also bought some woodless watercolor pencils and a length of plaid grosgrain ribbon, which I used to make my "Ever Was" graffiti quilt.  My daughter asked the owner, who happens to be a woman veteran like my daughter and I, if she had a room upstairs for rent, as she would love to live upstairs and come down every day to play.  My daughter does a bit of sewing and is very creative, and her true creative love is everything Halloween.  

She has inspired me to do some Halloween quilts, bunting, and some small art quilts.  I have taken about a month off from quilting, and now I am trying to clean the Christmas lights and wrapping stuff off my quilt table.  Just this evening, I got a little twitch to do some piecing, so I better get my table cleared off, so I can get going again.