Beach Colors

Beach Colors
71" x 72"

Last week I showed you Neurodiversity.  I may have mentioned that I liked the back better than the front.  Then I heard about a new exhibit by QuiltFestival, and I thought my quilt would be PERFECT for it.  It is called A Celebration of Color!  Yes!!  Unfortunately, the quilt was too big!  Nuts!!  However, I really like this design of squares stacked in colorways separated by thin strips of contrasting colors, so I decided to make another one and enter it.  I cut all the squares of every fabric, but then felt myself being drawn to quite a different and calmer palette.  The result:

I was even thinking of calling it, Sun, Sand, Surf, and Sky but reconsidered using a tongue twister as a name! I loved working on this quilt and it went together quickly, which is fun.  It is machine quilted and I used a different color of thread for every line!  Super crazy, but it looks super good! I love the texture and I love the subtle addition of the thread colors, all randomly chosen.

I also decided to try something for the back of this quilt to make it two-sided (of course!).

Simple, clean, delicious!

The notification of whether or not this one got in will be in February, so now the waiting begins. Meanwhile, I have it hanging in my living room.  I love it so much, I don't really want to let it go, so I truly have some ambivalence about it getting accepted into the new venue.  I might just be shouting "Hurray" if it gets rejected.  Go figure!

Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity
94" x 95"

Neurodiversity is simply a term that means a lot of different kinds of brains.  I think this makes for an interesting world.  It is difficult dealing with people who are different than I am, but I can see value there. I am also of the firm belief that if we seek answers for today's or tomorrow's complicated problems, we just might need that "out of the box" style of thinking. 

I abstracted this idea to color choices in my quilt.  I wanted to show lots of diversity in color combinations.  What I found really interesting is that some of the colors I used were not favorites of mine.  I couldn't imagine how to use them all together in a way that would be appealing to me.  I learned that when pairing up these colors with other colors, suddenly I could see the beauty.  It opened my eyes. And, put all together rather randomly in a small photo, it's a bit overwhelming.  However, the giant size of this quilt, in person, is really quite nice.  I love seeking patterns in all of this chaos!

It's all hand quilted too.  You may remember me talking about this quilt in a previous post? I really enjoyed slowing down to do the work, and the meditative quality of time spent hand stitching.  It was good. 

I also thought for this quilt, it would need a colorful back.  So I took some of the same fabric I used for the front and created a new pattern for the back.  I call it Light Box, though I am not sure why.  Honestly, after I finished it, I actually preferred it to the front!  I am really drawn to the organization of the colors because it has a calmer energy.

If you notice, all around the edges, the squares are cut off.  This is because I always make my backs larger than the fronts.  That way, if the front side shifts at all during quilting, the back is still covered.  I can't tell you how many times I have relearned this lesson in previous quilts! 

Speaking of neurodiversity....one of the things my brain struggles with is putting things into categories.  Is this an art quilt or a modern quilt or a variation of a traditional quilt???  I plan on listing it in one of my gallery pages, so where do you think it should go?

Anyway, I have made another Light Box quilt, and entered it into the new juried show called A Celebration of Color.  The show is judged and will have prizes and opens at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago this April.  I will post about the new quilt next week!