"Mayor - No Joke" - Project Quilting Season 9, Project 1

This is the first challenge of Season 9 of

Project Quilting.

I'm so excited to join in this challenge, "Hometown Proud."

My entry:

Susanna Salter

Mayor - No Joke

Susanna Madora Salter was elected mayor of Argonia, Kansas in 1887,

(my hometown)
the first elected woman Mayor of the United States,
and so far as most people knew, the first woman elected to preside over any town in the world.

Hometown Proud!!!!  I think this meets the challenge.

Kim at Persimon Dreams hosts Project Quilting.

She announces a challenge and you have one week to create something quilty.

Prizes can be won and it's a great way to meet new blogging friends.

Challenge 1: Hometown Proud

The Rules:

1. Be inspired by the best of your community - what makes you town special?  We don't care if it's where you live or where you have lived.  This part is open to interpretation but in the description of your quilt, please include the name of the town and why you chose it.

2.  Incomplete or unfinished does not qualify.  Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from inception to completion during the challenge timeline (January 7 through January 14, 2018).  Each piece must stand alone as DONE to count toward prizes.

3.  Please remember that these projects need to be created during the week of the challenge.  (started on or after January 7, finished by January 14).

4.  Your project does not need to be a traditional quilt, but must meet at least one of these requirements:

1. include patchwork
2. inclued applique
3. have 3 layers stitched together by hand or machine

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You may not recognize this picture, but if anyone from my hometown recognizes

 Susanna Salter from my quilt picture, I will be pleased.

I've always admired
Susanna Salter
 and how she overcame a big joke by bullies 
 to become my hometown's most famous.  
(I won't write the whole story here, but it's worth reading)

When the great women's suffrage leader, Susan B Anothony, was introduced to Susanna Salter at the Kansaas Women's Equal Suffrage Association convention in 1887, she slapped Mrs. Salter on the shoulder and exclaimed,
 "Why, you look just like any other woman, don't you?"

Looks can be deceiving.  This woman made an impact on my little town, the USA, and the world.

I even wrote a research paper in college about her 
so when this challenge was announced 
I decided to tackle
 a portrait quilt of her.  

A first for me.

Here are the steps I took to make this quilt a reality:

There are only a few pictures of Susanna Salter on the internet and in books I have.
This one is not copyrighted or the copyright is expired, either way I did research to make sure I could use it.

I cropped it and took out some details to make it a little simpler to make my template pieces.

I pulled white, gray, and black scraps and chose the values I would need.

Which means I can share this post with 

Oh Scrap over at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.

With tracing paper I made templates and then traced the templates onto HeatNBond Lite and fused the pieces to a white background.

Here's a few pictures as she came to life with fabric.

I added a faux piping and border then picked out a bunch of shades of my favorite 
Aurifil 50 wt thread.

I was very nervous to quilt it, but I managed to do it with very little regret.  
There are always things I would change, but I'm very happy with my first attempt at quilting the portrait.

Susanna Salter

Mayor - No Joke

Project Quilting Season 9, Challenge 1 - Hometown Proud

My hometown is Argonia, Kansas where I grew up and we are proud to have a

 museum of the home of Susanna Salter, the first elected woman Mayor in Argonia and the first elected woman Mayor in the United States

Made by Carla in Dodge City, Kansas

http://www.createinthesticks.blogspot.com/

Size:  14" x 16"

Fusible Applique Portrait, Thread Painting, Faux Piping, 
Freemotion quilting on a domestic- by me

It's with pride I will hang this new quilt on my wall and be inspired by this great lady.
(I found my old research paper and will keep it handy to be inspired by her story).

You can see all the other challenge projects and vote for your favorites starting at noon central on

January 14th

by clicking 

HERE
This one is #68



It's been a crazy week, (I became a grandma this week)
but I managed to finish with 12 hours to spare.

Are You Ready For Some Football? - Project Quilting Season 8, Project 3

Are you ready for some football?

I've been working on one all week for Project Quilting.

Kim at Persimon Dreams hosts Project Quilting.

She announces a challenge and you have one week to create something quilty.

Prizes can be won and it's a great way to meet new blogging friends.

This is the third challenge of 6 for Season 8.

Challenge 3:  Tune in to Texture

Inspiration for this challenge was everywhere, but I finally zeroed in on one.  This week has been all about getting ready for the big game here in the USA and football, for me, is always fun.  (Even when I could care less who wins.)

The Rules:

1. Your project must be inspired by a pattern or texture you find "in the wild" this week 

2.  Incomplete or unfinished does not qualify. Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from INCEPTION to COMPLETION during the challenge timeline (January 29 through February 5, 2017). Each piece must stand alone as DONE to count toward prizes. 

3. Please remember that these projects need to be created during the week of the challenge (started on or after January 29, finished by February 5). 

4.  Your project does not need to be a traditional quilt, but must meet at least one of these requirements:

1. Include patchwork.
2. Include appliqué.
3. Have 3 layers stitched together by hand or machine.

5.  Link up a blog post, flickr image, instagram post, or public facebook post  by Sunday, February 5th, 2017, at noon CDT.

I started with a dark brown fabric, a white fabric, lots of shades of my favorite Aurifil 50 wt thread and a picture of a football in which I had cropped down for lots of detailed texture.  My goal was to transform the cottons to look like the leather of a football and try a little photo realism. 

The laces and stripe were cut as fusible appliques with HeatNBond Lite and then the marking of the shadows and lines.

One layer of STITCH n SEW™ Hi Loft sew-in fleece underneath for lots of volume, then the texture of the pig skin began.

Here's the process of all that free motion quilting that made the texture of the football.  Ignore my overdue manicure and TV in the background, this is my first video.  ANOTHER FIRST!!

A little thread painting (new to me)  and a little Deco Foil (I could put this stuff on everything) for the black accent.

More thread painting and more thread painting then the borders were stitched on, sandwiched the quilt with more fleece in the middle to add dimension to the football, and quilted the project with a mixture of free motion, lines, and yes, more thread painting. 

A mitered faux piping was added.  (Another new to me thing).  The intention was to make the quilt look like a matted picture.

It was so fun to build texture and I experienced so much by trying new things on this challenge!

My mission was accomplished.  My first photo realism try is a success.  I would change a few things, but isn't that how we learn and grow?

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Project Quilting Season 8, Challenge 3 - Tuned In to Texture

Made by Carla in Dodge City, Kansas

http://www.createinthesticks.blogspot.com/

Size:  15" x 15"

Fusible Applique, Foiling, Thread Painting, Mitered Faux Piping, 
Freemotion quilting - pebbling (about a million)  by me

Finished and posted a day before it's due, oh yeah. 

Bring on the Super Bowl.

You can see all the other challenge projects and vote for your favorites starting at noon central on

January 8th

by clicking 

HERE

This one is #44. 

 In the process of making this quilt, I watched Ink Masters - Season 6 on Hulu.  Yes, the whole season plus Season 5 too.  Ironically, episode 13 had a flash challenge where super fans of football teams received photo realism tattoos of footballs.  After watching that, I have so much more to learn about art and shading.  Let's keep growing.

 Now you know more about me and what I like to watch.  lol