No. 22

No. 22

69.5" x 35"

Something has happened. All of this HST series work has led to a narrowing of the direction of the work...I am exploring one element of a complicated topic, relationships. I have been thinking a lot about relationships as we navigate through this ever evolving political dynamic of hate and fear mongering and increasing hostilities and violence to those who are different than us. When this is over (if that is possible), what will be left of our relationships? Do we cut ties to loved ones because of their egregious beliefs? Or do we stay engaged in conversations and find a way towards mutual understanding and forgiveness?  Each piece will explore relationship dynamics in general and will be left open to interpretation.

For example: This first piece in a series about relationships is about closeness, standing face to face. Is this the 'leaning in' for the first kiss? Is it standing face to face and shouting deeply held convictions and standing up for what one believes at a protest? 

I am using half square triangles for the background as a nod to traditional quiltmaking and the comfort that the idea of a quilt brings. I am using color schemes to communicate mood, and color gradients to communicate movement. The motif of a hump symbolizes a motivational/energetic hump to represent the resistance to change. What holds us back or propels us forward? Each piece will capture a moment in time of a constantly changing dynamic. 

Piecing the background. When I selected these cheerful yellows and subdued muted greens, I thought there would be more contrast.  However when pieced into HST's, they look so similar. Maybe that is better? Hard to get the colors right for the online photos, so this will be one of those, looks better in person kind of quilts....

To make the humps, I cut out the broad shapes, and then slice them vertically first. The color strips are 1" wide, so when pieced, they become 1/2" in width, which also maintains the shape of the hump. It doesn't grow or shrink with this sized of an insert. 

Then they are cut in the other direction and a new set of color strips are inserted.

The same process is used with the 'stems'.

Then I turn under the edges and hand baste them to stay in place.

Now that all the pieces are made, I am ready to start quilting the quilt. Here are the thread colors I used for this one. Sometimes I really like to use a lot of thread colors, and no it does not bother me to change the colors. 

You might be surprised that changing the quilting thread really has very little effect on the overall look of the quilt. Here's a close up, and you do have to look closely to see that there are different colors in the quilting threads...

An overall photo of the quilt while I was quilting it. You can see that half of the quilt still has the pins used to baste the quilt sandwich together. The humps have been casually placed, just to see what they look like. They have not been attached to the quilt yet. I choose not to piece the humps into the background (like I did on No. 9), because I have to make a LOT of starts and stops of the quilting lines and subsequent thread tucking. I really like the way it looks for the quilting threads to go UNDER the motifs. This requires the motifs to be appliqued after all the quilting is done. It is more difficult to hold everything while doing the hand applique, but I like the effect better...

After the humps and stems are hand appliqued, I add a layer of hand quilting with embroidery floss. In the photo below, I am marking my stitching lines with 1/4" masking tape. It is reasonably easy to apply in curves, easy to remove if the line is wrong and replace, and I can reuse it multiple times, if I don't have to clip the curves. I like how well this tape shows what the quilting lines will look like when I am finished. I also selected a gradient of embroidery floss colors for the hand quilting. 

And when I see these juicy beautiful colors and texture and lines, I practically swoon and fall in love with the work. Yes, you can laugh at me now! Ha!

Here's a close up for you.

This is also the part where I feel like I have finished the piece! Unfortunately it's similar to a false summit. I still have to apply the binding, then the hanging tube, an identifying label to the back, the photography, and eventually the blog post. I also make a quilt statement with the quilt description and artist statement, so if I want to enter it into a venue, all that information is readily available. Done!

No. 21

No. 21

32" x 23"

What is it about a simple repeating pattern that is just so intrinsically appealing? I also love the organic nature of the little arches. I wanted them to look like individuals and not carbon copies of each other. I think it does that.

I started with making some blocks. Although this is a photo of the blocks for the background, I started with smaller ones to make the pieced HST arches. I wanted to see if I could make them into an arch shape by varying the width of the seam when joining them. It worked! Which meant that I could proceed with the rest of the quilt. I love looking at the blocks when they are chain stitched together!

I worked simultaneously on creating the background.....and....

Making all the arches: The black ones were hand drawn onto freezer paper, cut out (with a seam allowance), and then edges turned under and hand basted. The black ones were significantly easier to make than the orange and pink ones! All those seams of the HST blocks had to be turned under to prepare for appliqueing. 

Once I had all the arches ready for applique, I finished piecing the background, and prepared it for quilting. I remembered some old fabric I had that I thought would be perfect for the backing! It is from my brief stint as a fabric designer.

I love the simplicity of the straight line quilting. Here is my first arch after it has been hand appliqued in place, and the basting stitches have been removed. Ahhh! Satisfying! Now repeat 15 more times!

A view from the side of the finished quilt. 

Great texture! I love how the arch shapes sit on top of the fabric. I did not want to quilt them because that would flatten them. 

The last part was choosing to use a facing instead of a binding. This allowed the design to flow to the edge of the work. It was a good choice for this piece. 

Thanks for stopping by!

No. 20

No. 20

36.5" x 36.5"

This one started from a small watercolor sketch in my notebook. I was surprised when I finished the quilt at how closely it resembled the sketch. 

It is difficult pulling a color palette when using solids. They never seem to look like what I think they are going to look like. For this one I used only fabrics I had in my stash. This meant I had to do some planning and some math. As you will note, each additional row outward gets bigger, which means that for the outer rows, I needed to make sure I had enough fabric. This quilt is small enough that it did not ultimately make much of a difference.  However, when I started it, I loved it so much, I thought about going really big! And, I probably can still do that on another quilt, it just takes more planning to ensure I have enough fabric.  

I really enjoyed working with all the blue combinations for the blocks.

I also enjoyed adding the pops of thin color strips on the design wall, and then slowly filling in with the blue blocks. The process of working with the colors was enjoyable!

Also of note: the building of this type of quilt, starting from a small point and building outward, tends to distort the shape after a few rows.  To adjust for that, I carefully trimmed each row after adding it to the whole using a large cutting mat with a grid on it. The unintended consequence is that while adding each row and handling the quilt top a lot, previous rows will come unstitched. It is really important, right after trimming, to add a small stay stitch across the seam (at the edge). This prevents the unwanted unraveling of my work.

After completing the top, the basting is next.

Then the quilting. I opted to work from the middle outward to machine stitch the pink and orange strips. Then I tucked the thread ends inside the quilt sandwich. This allowed me to remove all the safety pins before doing the hand quilting. 

I really love the combination of machine quilting and hand quilting. Although this example is not the most innovative of artistic choices for this quilt. Quilting adds texture to a quilt, and I like to balance that texture in a way that does not interfere with the design choices of the quilt top. 

Last up with the binding, hanging tube and the quilt label.

I had fun with the hand quilting for this project even though it takes longer. It is nice to add balance to my work by slowing down.

Altered Trading Cards

Altered Trading Cards

I spent yesterday afternoon making altered trading cards (ATCs). They are basically a playing card that has been artistically altered on the back side. I have not had that much fun in ages!! I made more than I was planning. I used up a lot of prototypes and samples from earlier quilts I had made. It was fun to revisit the older works. And, it is really fun to make something so small and that I can finish in ONE day! Completion was great. 

These first 4 came from art journal pages that were never bound into a book. I just cut them to the size of the playing card, and used gel medium to attach them. I think they look fantastic with my little succulent collection, who were quite kind to hold the cards up for a photography session. 

The next set came from WAY back.  These cards have little quilts stitched to them, in a way that forms a pocket for the little Guatemalan worry dolls. The dolls slip inside the pockets, and are not stitched in. I think I like the one with the batiked flower the best, but it might also be because of the hand stitched edging, which was significantly harder than I thought it would be, but worth the effort!

Next was a postcard, made from a leftover paper koi from my HST project, No. 16. It is propped up on my favorite new plant, a Queen Victoria agave. And while I love the plant, and hope it thrives on my deck, I mostly like it because it doesn't freeze. Love it with it's spike tipped leaves holding up the postcard!

Next up, a couple from my Quilt National works.  The first is from the most recent QN piece, Where the Walls have eyes. These little quilts lift up off the surface of the card to reveal an eye inside! I almost cut a circle out of the center....

Here is the 'open' part...

The last two cards, one an ATC, and the other a postcard, are from pieces left over from my first Quilt National work, from 2009, Little Fish in a Big City. No, they are not flat. Yes, they are 3D.

So much play in such a short time! Now I am looking forward to returning to my HST series! The top for No. 20 is finished and now awaiting the quilting! Cheers!

No. 19

No. 19

27" x 33"

It is easy to get caught up in the small details, but it is increasingly vital to look at the whole field. A somewhat vague statement, but applicable to a number of scenarios. It surprises me how much the national political situation infiltrates my work subconsciously.

Design Process and 'Issues':

This one started as a sketch: (Note the orientation is different from the photo above. This one started with a vertical set of blocks).

I wanted to create depth by using different sized HSTs. Then I thought it might be interesting if they were separated by solid colors, one side darker than the other to imply shadows. And then I would quilt in the lines of perspective. 

1. I was unsure of what color values to use. So, I opted to try 4 different blocks in 4 different sets of values to see which combinations looked the best. This one was the winner! The darkest center seemed to create the most depth.

2. After finishing the quilting, the design looked very flat. The quilting lines for perspective did not show up enough. They needed to be bigger, bolder, and wider. So, I got out my handy Pfaff, and started satin stitching. It used up so much thread that I was scared I would run out before I finished. Luckily, I had enough! Yeasss!!

After finishing the black lines, it looked like this. I loved the depth that I could now see.

The individual blocks look great, but combined with each other, it created an unexpected secondary design, and a problem (for me).

 

3. Unfortunately, now I could only see the concentric diamonds in the center. They jumped out so voraciously, it was ALL that I could see. Like big EYES!!

Sorry, that is probably all you can see now too. I decided that it was a worthy experiment. It failed because of my lack of imagination and foresight. And it was okay that it failed miserably. It was worth the journey. It is how you learn, by trying something new, and then doing it, and learning along the way. And then my son walked by the studio and suggested rotating the quilt.

So, I did...

I could see the depth now in a horizontal orientation, and the 2 concentric diamonds that were now stacked vertically....well, they no longer looked like eyeballs staring back at me. 

It is still not my favorite quilt. It does not bother me that it is not my favorite quilt. I have had a number of comments on my FB post that suggest I would like it better if I turned the quilt horizontally...um, I have actually already tried that. Ha ha! And, I have already stitched the hanging tube on the back in this orientation. 

 

I guess if someone wants to purchase it, and turn it back to it's original orientation, I would be happy to change the hanging tube for them. I hope the big eyeballs won't bother them too much! Ha ha!

Here's a few closeups for you.

and another one...