Monthly Quilt- My Cats

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If I had to enshrine anything, it sure is my girls. This is Bastet, Vermithraxis Destroyer of Worlds, and Lillith. I used my Gocco machine to screen the little faces onto my beloved hand dyed fabrics. My girls get only the best! Next time I need to use more contrast on the faces.

The Gocco did not have the sticking problems on the screens like the last time, because I tried the ironing technique mentioned on Flickr.com’s Gocco group. I still may stamp their names onto the fabric near their little noggins, but for now, I’m happy with the cute results.
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Shrine to Nohohon Zoku

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I love Nohohon Zoku (Hidamari No Tami) dolls from Japan. I collect them and put them in my office. I find most of them at the comic book shows my company sends me to. Gives me something to look for while I am there. I have about 10 of them now. This month’s journal shrine quilt is a funny little Nohohon Zoku. I outlined him in grey because I thought black would be too harsh for this little guy. I am particularly proud of the soft pallate and my satin stitching. Not a fan of the leaf quilting I attempted, but, what can one do? The below pic is just some of my Hidamari, including some other “solar” toys on my desk.

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The World is Quiet Here

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For my next Personal Shrines monthly journal quilt, I decided to do one based on my favorite series of books: A Series of Unfortunate Events. I love everything about these books, from the zeitgeist setting, to the dry wit, to the numerous literary allusions in them. The best part is that they are for Children! Someone thought these would be great for kids. I think they would be great for MY (yet to never be born) children, but I can see the furor they would cause in some households.
The main Baudelaire orphans are depicted, as well as the grey city setting from the first book. Is that their house on fire? And what is VFD? It takes 13 books to figure that out.
I collected everything I could from these books. All the freebies, giveaways, shirts, toys, I collected it all. When the movie came out, I collected that junk too. It was all neatly arranged on a set of bookshelves, very much like a personal shrine. What is it about something I enjoy becoming an obsession?

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Monthly Quilt – Little Twin Stars

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Oh my gosh, how can I describe loving Little Twin Stars as a child? Who am I kidding? I love them even now! Kiki and Lala (respectively) are part of who I am when it comes to artwork. I copied Lala’s pink hairstyle onto countless characters of my own as a kid, winning me some coveted ribbons in the 4th grade Art Fair. I still collect what I can from Sanrio that bear Little Twin Stars. In the theme of “shrines”, as a child I lined up all of my LTS merchandise on a special shelf in my room, and still have all of that stuff to this day.

I have these “diaper pins” from ages ago, and they say copyright 1978 on the back, but I know they are not that old. Since April was the “recycling” theme, and because I didn’t have much time to put this one together, I used a piece of stationery I have and adhered it to the fabric using gel medium that I added some iridescent medium to. The result was quite flexible and still sewable.
These monthly “shrine” quilts are so much fun to think of. “Gee, what do I really really love? What have I loved for as long as I can remember?” This has been a neat project to do.
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Defenders of the Night

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I was already an adult when the Disney cartoon “Gargoyles” came out. I love the show. I recorded as many as I could. The last season aired when I had already moved to Baltimore. I collected the toys and merchandise. I was a huge fan.

In fact, my soon to be husband bought me a gift of a Gargoyles toy as his first gift for me. And on our first Valentine’s day, this motif of Goliath, the main character, was made for me. He cut out about 50 or so of these at 2 inches high and taped them from varying lengths from the ceiling for me as a surprise. I still have all of them, still with the strings attached. I still DVR the show from it’s 3:30 am Toon Disney timeslot.

This was an easy choice for a “personal shrine” quilt, as I used to have all of my Gargoyles merchandise collected in one area much like a shrine. The letters of the title were not so easy, even after working with fonts all through March, but I wanted the “flavor” of the show, not a reproduction. I bound the edges with a fused binding as well, and that made the edges easy to do.
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