(Click for larger view-- Be patient, please...
It's a large file, but worth the wait!)

Whole cloth airbrush painting on fabric, Polyfil batting, quilt sandwiched. Almost all hand embroidered/quilted/embellished. Includes beads, buttons, polymer clay faces and mermaids, thimble, scissors.

I painted and began to quilt this piece during our August, 2001 Turtle Art Camp. We had just gotten an Outback and with it, a baby fridge that you can plug into the accessory outlet (cigarette lighter.) Since we already had made a Refrigerator piece for The Kitchen Tarot (#4, The Fridge / Emperor), this one is just for the challenge project which Anne Copeland came up with on Quilt Art, and is not part of the deck.

I asked each student what they would conceptually like to include in the fridge, and it's all there, in that fun-filled airbrush painting demo! Then the piece became one of many things I'd work on throughout the months to follow. It got much more hand quilting and embroidery than I had planned...story of my life! Happily, Jimmy had used it during that same camp to demonstrate his very precise machine zigzag freehand work over my handwriting. I also did a bunch of hand embroidered lettering, and left some writing as only black airbrush line, which is much darker than marker lines.

We have still only used the Baby Fridge once! Waiting to get the expensive adapter (always a hitch!), so we can take it into motel rooms or along on camping trips...Jimmy's fishing trips, that is! Anyhow, with the addition of two polymer mermaids at the last minute, she be done!

Praise the Brie!

-Susan Shie, Jan 15, 2002