1,2,3,4

1,2,3,4 

7" x 7" 

 About this time last year, I was making plans to attend the opening of the Quilt National '09 exhibit. It was my first time to both attend a Quilt National exhibit at the Dairy Barn, and my first time to have a quilt in the collection. Absolutely thrilling adventure! This year, I am busy making plans for my entry to Quilt National '11. I still have enough time because the entries are not due until September. However, it has been a strange year for making art quilts. It seems like I have had less time for art this year. I am not sure if that is true or not, or if it just feels true. I have been spending a lot of time providing support for my new fabric line, Urban Landscapes. And my children have needed a larger chunk of my time. And so, I have tried to give them more, but it is still difficult to balance everyone's needs. Really?? Yes. Meanwhile, I have had some of these left over fabrics from my Quilt National '09 entry, Little Fish in a Big City. It was fun to sit down and play with them. And it was quick, so very satisfying to finish a small project. I still want to wrap the canvas in some fabric though, so I will have to repost when I finish that part. I am also working on two group quilts, but will post when they are finished. If you get a chance, you can see my quilt, Little Fish in a Big City this summer in Paducah, KY. It will be at the National Quilt Museum June 17, 2010 to August 10, 2010 along with many other wonderful quilts from Quilt National '09. Oh, this little quilt is called, 1, 2, 3, 4. I was thinking about families, and numbers, and how the number of members change as different groups are together and then apart.

Urban Circles

Urban Circles 

49" x 49"

 It is done, but is this really quilted? Technically, quilting is any stitching that hold the layers together (the top, the batting, and the back). I didn't use a normal quilting stitch for this quilt though, I used satin stitch, see close up photo below. I like the way the white lines form a grid and go with the white satin stitch around the circles. It just looks more complete or whole to me. I asked my friend, Connie, if anyone would think I was trying to hide poor piecing skills with the satin stitch. She thought I was nuts. "No one in their right minds would ever satin stitch an entire quilt to hide their piecing skills" she exclaimed. Okay....so I set about with satin stitching all the seams. It looks pretty and crisp, and I admit, I do LOVE it! Wondering how much thread I used?? Almost three 500 m spools of white on the top thread....and that's only counting the quilting lines, not the appliqued circles. It took a total of 6 hours to quilt this way, but I had to borrow Connie's Bernina. My wonderful and faithful Pfaff is just too slow.