Out of the Box

Out of the Box
24" x 60"

Both of my children have difficulties with school.  Public school forces their beautifully rounded spirits into tiny square boxes. They come home each day not just tired, but seemingly deflated.   In contrast, homeschooling gave them the freedom to blossom, learn at their own pace, in their own styles, and the idea of mastery....learning the content before rushing to the next day's already too full agenda.  So this quilt for me, is very personal.  But it is also just such a lovely metaphor for so many other things.  Abstractions can be that, different meanings for different viewers.  I hope this quilt will speak to you.  Above all, the thing I like about it the most, is that it feels very uplifting.  Maybe it's the bright colors?

I am spending this year finishing up old projects and starting new ones.  This quilt started in 2011, and has been waiting for it's turn to be quilted. It was made from some of the batik work I did here.  I decided that I would quilt the background before fusing the dots and the flowers.  All the black background was daunting, mostly because I couldn't decide what to do with it.  The idea of repeating the motif of the building blocks at the bottom was the one idea that stuck.  It was with hesitation that I started though, because I wanted the blocks quilted in different colored threads.   And as you may know, if you quilt by skipping around to different areas of the quilt, you will get big puckered fabric on the back.  It is important to work you way from one side to the other, or from the center out to the edges.  This meant that I had to change thread colors a lot.  And so, for this project, I was extremely grateful that I had a new sewing machine with a needle threader.  It made all the difference in the world (and especially in my attitude!).  Thanks Juki!

The photos above are of the background after quilting. I used 1/4" quilter's tape to mark the path of the floating dots.  As I pulled up the tape, I placed a dot and fused it into place with the iron.  And in case you wanted to know, my favorite fusible is Mistyfuse.  It works great for me and I find the bolts of it very easy to use.

The last part, fusing the flowers on and adding the hand stitched embroidery floss....and then standing around staring at it before moving on to the next one!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Tactile Architecture - Park Place

Park Place

The cat's out of the bag!  My quilt, Park Place has been selected for the exhibit, Tactile Architecture, debuting at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall.  I am excited and happy that it has been selected.  But, even better, it was chosen to be published in the show catalog for the Special Exhibits section.  What a nice honor!! (see lower left).  If you haven't seen the stop motion animated video of this quilt, check out this link.  Wouldn't it be cool if they could set up an ipad next to my quilt and show the little video?

Unfortunately, they got the name wrong in the picture.  They titled it by the name of the quilt that was rejected, Bridge.  Sadly, that awesome little quilt is stacking up quite the notable list of rejections.  I guess it just hasn't found the right venue yet.  Here's a photo of Bridge..It's all about community.