What's Next

What's Next

64.5" x 64.5"

 

This one gave me a perfect distraction and escape this last year while taking care of my mother. It was one of those projects that you could work on for just a few minutes a day, and still feel like you were making progress. I wanted something big and modern for the wall in my studio, and this looks WONDERFUL there!
The sections represent different stages of my life. I am wondering what is next in my life as I navigate a world without my mother. The grief so far has been hard to bear, it just leaks out unexpectedly. However, if I were to guess, when more time has passed, I think my next stage will have some joy, as that is part of who I am.

I usually start with a color palette. This got me into some trouble because I originally started with the idea to change the color palette for each section. I ended up hating what I was making, so I stripped out the inner corner, and decided to stick with the original color palette for the entire quilt. I kinda love the new inner corner now. Perfect! 

I also had to laugh because my color palette matched the color of the flower pin heads!

In the beginning I was cutting individual pieces of fabric and stitching them together.

By the time I got to the very tiny piecing of the outermost section, I decided to change my process and sew long strips together, cut them into chunks, and then sew those chunks together. It was much easier!

I also have to laugh at myself because of my quality check. If my work looks good next to my Unikko mug, then my quality of design must be good enough!!  Ha ha! I call it the Marimekko test!

Yep, it passed this time!

Sewing the last strips on,

A few close ups of the quilting.  

I still need to take a photo of it hanging in my studio.  I hung it as soon as I put the hanging tube on. It looks marvelous with my red Ikea couch!

Garden Girl by the Sea

Garden Girl by the Sea

36" x 36"

I wanted to make a quilt that celebrates the extensive gardening I have been doing. I have also been missing the ocean.  I grew up by the ocean but rarely want to drive far to visit again. Many times I have wished for an ocean front property with a lovely house, but the geologist in me does not really want that. I understand about barrier islands and hurricanes. So, I will put it here in my art, and dream of it instead. Then I remembered that I already had a quilt like that. One that I didn't like anymore, and didn't need anymore, and was stored deep in my closet. So, I pulled it out.

To transform it into my new vision, I had to remove a number of the old elements, which included glued on string, some embellishments, and some applique. The dense satin stitching was not too hard to remove, but it left damage in the fabric. The glue was harder to remove, and very visible. I tried scraping it off, freezing it, and then trying to scrap it off, and a razor (which sadly made little holes in the fabric). So, I gave up for a while.

Then I saw a video about glue basting, and how it washes out! Why didn't I think of that???  So I tried getting the glue wet, and it was so easy to remove! I guess I got lucky with that one, because without it, the project could not proceed forward. I also remembered that if you get fusible applique hot again (at least for mistyfuse), you can peel it off. It worked perfectly after I removed the machine quilting first.

On to the rebuilding, and redesign!

I wanted to add a whale to the ocean part. I love the idea of living close enough to the ocean that I could see a whale. Fortunately, I had just made a quilt with screen printing, and I still had the screen for the whale. It took all of 10 minutes to print one whale AND clean up!  

Then I dyed it, and it was ready for fusible and to add to the quilt. 

I really love how the dye powder looks sprinkled onto the wet surface.  I wish it could have stayed that way after processing.

I also wanted to add a few flowers to cover a previously blank section in the lower right corner. I opted for some pink flowers, and cut the flower centers from an old piece of batiked fabric I made years ago.

I added a garden hose, and then used some hand quilting and hand embroidery with embroidery floss to make the water coming out of it.

The old version of the quilt had a pretty frustrated, possibly angry face. So I changed it to optimism and awe for the re-do.

And the last change was a pair of kittens by the little house. Very sweet!

Now I have it hanging on my wall. I have no plans to send it anywhere. It does provide a lot of joy when I look at it though!