So. West Nine Patch

So, here it is at last...my South West Nine-Patch, a commissioned, Queen size quilt....just when I swore I would never do a big quilt again. What was I thinking??? It took 29 hours just to piece the top! But on the bright side, I did listen to some good books on tape in the process and I got to use a few beloved fabrics from my massive stash. Working at a quilt store means that I am always using the newest fabrics so my stash rarely gets touched. It was so nice to revisit some old favorites.

I am happy with the results but you are all my witnesses...I never want to do a queen size quilt again. Don't let me!!!

Irises

Almost three years ago I took a workshop with Phil Beaver and we painted on fabric. These Irises came from that painted fabric. As usual I went home and painted a lot more fabric and haven't gotten around to doing anything with it yet....but the Irises have been haunting me. The quilt top was finished and the pieces were all tacked down with glue which was what had me really scared. What would happen when I started quilting?

I finally bit the bullet...mostly because I was procrastinating about beginning a new series and I quilted the piece last week. Amazingly everything stayed pretty much in place and the glue washed out when I needed to reposition a few leaves.

I used 30 weight thread in some places and I love the way it came out. If you click on the photo, you can see the quilting better. What a relief to have this one finished at last.

My texture series

Okay, so I joined the SAQA Visioning Project and I decided that my goal is to work in a series this year. While I pondered the true nature of my series, I decided to return to the series that I began upon my return from Ohio. All of these pieces are done on 8 x 10 wrapped canvas pieces which I bought in advance. Six are on black canvas and 2 are on dark green canvas which I painted that way. They all have at least one object from nature and they use the same color families....and lots of texture. I have used papers, fibers, soy silk, chiffon, velvet, mesh...the list goes on and on. I did some gluing and as much stitching as possible. The stitching was difficult since the canvas is wrapped on wood and the wood got in the way of the needle.






I found this piece of sea weed at the coast.

I used silk coccoons

and bark that was dyed green.

Love the sparkly yarn in these two.

Seed pods and wood that I found on a walk in the woods.

Purple cheese cloth that I dyed myself.

I posted these two a while ago when I began the series. They were the inspiration for the rest of them. ...and I still have four more to do.

Maybe next week....

Lots of Gingkos

I designed this quilt a few years ago using silk pieces from a grab bag and fusing them. Yesterday I was inspired to finish it and quilting gingko leaves seemed to be the thing to do. I used variegated metallic thread and a technique for binding that I learned from Carol Taylor. I am very happy with the results.
I also finished this gingko sampler that I have been working on for Quiltz. If you click on the pictures you should be able to see more detail. Every square uses a different "art Quilt" technique - lots of fun new materials to play with. I printed the names of the techniques onto TAP - a transfer paper that is new on the market...but first I had to figure out how to mirror image the words in photo shop. TA DA! I am getting better at this computer stuff.

The hearts that I showed in earlier posts use the same techniques and materials. I plan to make those blocks into a book.

In the meantime, I have committed to the SAQA Visioning project and my goal is to work in a series this year. It inspired me to return to the collage series that I began when I returned from Ohio....a sort of warm up before I do larger quilts. I will post a few collages next time.

Fast, Skinny and what I have been up to

I have returned at long last to the word of the week and the word for last week was fast. I had marbled this fabric years ago and it just looked like fast moving air or water to me.
Skinny gave me the opportunity to couch yarn and to free hand quilt with metallic thread. Neither of these pieces had me really excited.
My art critique group did an exercise where we began with our own design using values in black, grey and white. Then we did the same layout using colored fabric of the same values. Those are the pink and teal pieces. The purple piece used the same values in the same layout but I placed the values in different positions. The last piece is going to be using the same layout and values to create an out-of-balance piece. It will be a challenge because I definitely like balance in my work.

I just completed a Queen size quilt top in earth tones and as soon as it is quilted, I will post a picture. Stay tuned!