Up Close with the Latest Altered Flag

I finally got a good photo of one of the gay pride flag quilts that I made recently for the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland and Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio.

I've started my next altered flag that will feature a peace sign. I'm not sure where I'm going with it yet.

And SOLD to the highest bidder!

Last night's AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland benefit was a big success with more than 400 people in attendance. It was the first time that I've ever had a piece sold in a live auction. It was exciting.

I was little nervous in advance and so I arrived fully prepared to buy my own quilt if nobody else bid on it. Fortunately, that wasn't necessary. There were several bids taking the price up to $300. That's the highest going price for any of my work so far.

The couple who bought the quilt are neighbors, both of whom are professional artists. I' flattered that they wanted the piece.

Entitled "With Liberty and Justice for All," the quilt is the latest from my altered flag series. It is a modified pride flag featuring gender symbols coupled in the blue square. I really enjoyed making this piece.

An Artist and Auctioneer for an Evening

Good news from Saturday's benefit for Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio. It was a very successful (and fun) event. Both of the quilts that I made from my altered flag series sold during the silent auction - one for $80 and the other for $200. I had planned to take photos, but I took a camera with a dead battery.

For me, the highlight of the evening, as always, was getting to strut around with my nametag that validated me as an "Artist".

I had another role that evening, as well, as the auctioneer in what we called a Mission Auction. I basically stood at the podium, made people laugh and asked them for money. PPNEO had never tried anything like this before, so we weren't sure what to expect. Much to our surprise and delight, we generated an extra $6,000 for the organization in just a few minutes. Every dollar raised will be used to provide basic healthcare services in our community. I found the whole experience pretty exciting. Something tells me that I'll be doing it again at future benefits!

Headlines of Hope

This quilt is more than a year old, but I wanted to share it. I made this to commemorate the historic election of Barack Obama as President.

I had asked friends and family around the country to send me the front pages of their local papers for this project. I didn't know at the time that the Newseum would have them available online. There are now more than 700 PDFs of front pages available for download at www.newseum.org.

I was not completely happy with the finished quilt, because of the glossy surface of the articles. I used tshirt transfers for the image. I have since learned that I should have used photo transfer paper instead. Oh well, live and learn.

The quilt was presented as a gift to my friend, Merle Gordon who had worked on the campaign with me.

Altered Flag Quilts for Charity

My last few projects have been small wall quilts that were ultimately framed and donated to local charities for their art auctions. This photo shows the latest one in a series of altered flags that I have been creating for a few years now. I love making these!

This particular one, entitled Reproductive Freedom Flag, was donated to Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio (PPNEO) for their upcoming benefit on April 10. You'll have to look at this closely to appreciate the design in the blue part of the flag!

The first one that I made like this was presented as a gift to Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, when she was in Cleveland back in 2007. I made a second one in 2008, which was purchased in a silent auction at a PPNEO event by a fellow volunteer, Ellen Schermer.

One thing is certain: The quality of these flags going forward will be greatly improved, having recently taken a class on precision piecing from Harriet Hargrave!

If you've read my profile, you already know how much I miss my dear friends from the Quilt Tasters group in Denmark. I don't think even I realized quite how much I miss them until recently.

A few weeks ago, I took a quilting vacation -- and by this I do not mean a vacation from quilting. I took a vacation for the sole purpose of quilting. For four days, I shut the doors of my small business and enjoyed day-long quilting workshops with my hero, Harriet Hargrave. She was in the area for the annual quilting event at Lake Farmpark. I took her classes on precision piecing, machine applique and, of course, her speciality of heirloom machine quilting. It was four days of bliss. I cannot believe how much I learned in such a short period. Harriet taught me how to solve problems that I have been having for literally 20 years.

The classes also reminded me how much I love other quilters. I can't do this alone any more. I need some other quilters in my life. I am going to make a concerted effort to meet some local quilters in person, but I am also thrilled to have the opportunity to meet new quilting friends through this blog. Thanks in advance for your time, interest and advice. And please let me return the favor.