In the beginning, there was a coal bucket........

 

We have embarked upon a new adventure.  The Southeast Kansas Art Fest is sponsoring an art project/contest/adventure.

 I think it is best described below:

Artists throughout the four-state region are invited to participate in a historic public art project. This is a unique opportunity to create an original work of art on one of 24 four-foot fiberglass coal buckets. The coal buckets will be installed and on display in Pittsburg’s downtown from May through September, 2013. At the close of the project, a gala will be held to auction the coal buckets off to raise money for area festivals throughout the year.

For those of you that are not familiar with the Southeast Kansas, coal mining has a significant role in the history of the area.

The coal buckets are four feet wide and three feet tall and made of fiberglass.

Thus, the adventure begins. 

First, my sisters and I formed a team, named The Farmer's Daughters.

The Farmer

The Farmer's Daughters - from left, Lorri, Kay and Sherry

Then, Kay labored over the application process.  This involved an actual drawing/sketch.  Fortunately, Kay can draw.  I don't think my stick people would have been very effective.  I believe that over 60 applicants submitted the paperwork.  We were one of 24 chosen.  Yay Kay!

Kay's vision for our coal bucket. 

If you know anything about these farmer's daughters, you know that our art is mainly quilting.  Fabric is our medium.  We have a long family history of quilting.

As the theme is mining memories, our bucket will be decorated with a crazy quilt that shows different attributes that we feel represent Southeast Kansas.  For the non-quilters out there, a crazy quilt is not a description of the mental status of the quilter.  Rather, it is a technique that uses irregular shaped fabrics pieced together that may be asymmetrical in design.  Embellishments (fancy stitching, beads, lace, buttons) are commonly used.

We don't normally adhere our quilts to any type of fiberglass, so this will be a learning project for us.

Each coal bucket has a benefactor.  This benefactor helps pay for the supplies, etc.  For this we are grateful; our special glue/adhesive/magic potion that we will be using arrived last week.

Our benefactor is Dr. Matt Lowe, a local dentist.  I know what you're thinking; what a lucky, lucky man to have hitched his wagon to the star that is The Farmer's Daughters.

Last week was our first opportunity to start work on our design.  So, we started getting our fabrics together.  

We gathered together some of our orphan blocks to use.

 Orphan blocks are blocks left over from other projects.  I was amazed at how many orphans blocks we had between the three of us.  The photo above is just a small sample of the blocks we have.   Of course, we also had to do some retail therapy, and headed to Joplin to pick up some additional fabrics, embellishments, etc.

Now the fun begins!  We split up the list of different blocks to make.  The coal buckets have been delayed, so this gives us the chance to do some sewing.

Next:

The Artists Reception