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!

Squared

This is my newest pattern made from 40 strips of Metro fabric. I love this fabric line - stripes, dots, plaids and florentine designs all blending together. I was really pleased with the results. One of these days I will get it quilted!

Passion

Our Friday morning critique group decided to create art pieces that are 12" x 12" around a theme word. This month's word was Passion and a lot of us thought red or purple. Tina Somerset used some of her recently hand dyed fabrics, added folds, stenciling and angelina for glitz. I love the curvy lines that she got from a lasagna noodle!
Rona Barnes did lots of felting. She molded her 3-dimensional shape, appliqued cording that she had made herself and played with circles on her Bernina.
Nancy Pagani made the center of this piece a while ago and found the perfect Asian fabrics to go with it. It has a very calm and watery feel to it.
I designed this piece to have the Dragonfly flying off from the upper right hand corner but blogger has other ideas. I painted canvas a purple color and wrote the word Passion at various angles across it. Then I collected anything that I could find in my studio that was red or purple including the Dragonfly that was left over from another project. I enjoyed working small but it was definitely a challenge.
Elaine Turcke got lots of texture on her flame piece. I love the beading that she did by hand to highlight the outside curves.
Debra Wolfson's piece is still in progress but everything is fused and ready for quilting. She is passionate about water too.

Carolyn Wolf's passion is her garden right now and she took some amazing photographs of her tomatoes. We decided that they were very erotic. She is ready to quilt her piece too.

Our next challenge is due two months from now and the word is Symbiotic. Now that is what I call a challenge!

More hearts

So here we have another bunch of hearts. Top right was done with hot glue sticks and a powder, top left was twisted yarns that were couched. Bottom left is foil on glue and the hearts on the right were down by ironing painted tyvek. That is my favorite piece.

In the meantime, I am still playing with Kumihimo braids and will show a picture eventually!

work in progress

My critique group did an exercise where we looked at a masterpiece and reduced it down to darks, mediums and lights and put those shapes into fabric.
Do you recognize this piece? It was a great learning process for me to see how the artist made the different values flow across his painting.

I am working on squares that will be turned into a fiber book or an art quilt eventually. There will be 16 hearts for one piece and 16 gingkos for another. Each block involves a different product or technique and I will be teaching all of these block in a class next year. The top left hearts are made from Angelina fibers, top right are felted.
On the bottom I did beading on the left and fiber paper on the right. I am still working on the others...more next week!
I just learned Kumihimo which is a process for making braids. It is very addictive and I think that I am in big trouble now.

Rogue Art Quilters at The Key of C

We just put up our latest show at the Key of C coffeehouse here in Ashland. The theme was coffee or music and we all used a piece of fabric called Dimples that came in many colors to tie the quilts together. Tina Somerset took a photo of coffee beans and manipulated it on her computer with the Kaleidoscope Maker program. Then she printed it onto fabric and embellished with beads and beautiful dyed fabrics. Be sure to click on the photos for a close up look.

Her beading is gorgeous.

Suzanne McBride also used photo transfer with a picture of her daughter. The guitar and the woman are very 3-dimensional.

Shirley Snowden made her own coffee beans out of a light weight clay so that she could sew them to her quilt. I thought they were real!

Rona Barnes created her first Crazy quilt using lots of lace and beads and tea dyeing fabric to get that antique look.

I had fun embroidering coffee cups onto felt. Shayna came up with "Mug Shots" and since I love play on words, it was the perfect name.

Elaine Turcke went with the music theme embellishing with hand quilting.

Carolyn Wolf also connected with music and used the opportunity to embellish with home made beads and pieced circles.

Carol Stocking did a wonderful job with her free-hand quilting in the background of her quilt.

The quilts will only be up for a month so tell all your friends to check them out.