No. 16

No. 16

50.5" x 40"

This one is another quilt addressing the issue of privacy. Literally, this quilt is about windows, specifically, the extensive use of floor to ceiling glass windows in many new modern houses. If you can see out, then others can see in. I love the idea of being able to see out, and bringing nature into a building (which was the original intent of this style of architecture). But I also really value my privacy. This would not be an ideal house for me. Also, because guns, when I see a house like this, all I can think of is, where do you hide from the bullets? I will leave you to imagine the metaphorical meaning of this work, because it is not obvious. (HINT: Think of the word 'windows' and privacy, and you'll be there!). 

I have been dreaming of this one for a long time, like YEARS, but I couldn't see the whole picture. I wanted fish swimming in a house of floor to ceiling glass windows. Then about 9 months ago, I found a commercially printed paper with koi fish. I KNEW that these would be the fish for the quilt. Except that, they were paper, and I wasn't sure how this was going to work??

I got the courage to go ahead and try moving forward on the project by trying to sketch the house. None of my efforts were working. I drove around Austin looking for the perfect 'model' house to sketch. I did not find it, though I suspect it is out there somewhere. Then I decided to look online for some ideas. I found these 3. 

None were perfect, or had the right angles, so I just jumped in and tried making a perspective drawing of a house in my sketchbook. I have never done a perspective drawing before, though I had seen one on social media. I was surprised how easily it all came together. Then I had to upscale the drawings for each room to make a pattern. 

Here is the sketch of the kitchen:

After sketching, I had to decide how to cut this apart and make it into a pattern, and which pieces would be sewn together first? I wanted to minimize the Y seams because those are more challenging. I used colored pencils to outline the shapes that would be sewn together as a group. Then I cut the sketch apart...labeled the pieces, and selected the fabrics for each piece.

This part feels a little daunting. However, a friend reminded me that I have done projects with more pieces, and that helped!

The next step is to trace each piece onto the back of the fabric and then cut them out with a seam allowance. And, it is a little challenging because some of the pieces are small and hard to hold still while tracing around them onto the fabric. One by one, they are stitched together. It would probably have been easier to paper piece this and definitely more accurate, but I find this method to be mentally easier.

After getting the house pieced, and the background, it was time to consider the fish. So, I cut them out and freed them from their backgrounds.

I wasn't sure how many I would need, so I just keep cutting and placing them on the design wall. Ultimately, I decided that this was too many fish!

You can see from this photo that the fish are swimming in FRONT of the house. However, I wanted them placed IN the house, which means they would need to be swimming behind some of the house walls. So, I cut open the seam allowances in the house, where the fish would be, and inserted them in through the new slots. Then I hand stitched the seams to match the size needed for the fish opening. I also needed the fish to stay in place before I got to the quilting part, so I used Mistyfuse on the back side of the fish. Did you know it works great on paper too? Cool! Note: This was a sequence error. It is easier to put Mistyfuse on the fish before cutting them out than afterwards, so trimming the Mistyfuse to the fish body was a bit tedious.

If you look closely, you can see the fish behind the just barely transparent fabric of the door!

Then I started the machine quilting. I was very concerned that the needle holes from the quilting would rip the paper the fish were on. Fortunately it was such a heavy weight of paper that I had no problems! Whew! I did have a very clear vision of how I wanted the quilting lines to look, and it required a lot of stops and starts, which in turn meant a lot of thread tucking.

The other minor parts of the project included some hand applique for the lights in the kitchen, and a bit of satin stitch to define some of the shapes better. This put me on hold for a couple of weeks because I thought I needed some shiny black thread. I did get the thread, but the delivery was SO slow, and my patience for finishing the project was wearing thin. And then the new thread did not perform well in my sample testing, and I ended up using something I already had (which I can not remember now what it was...). That is the way it goes sometimes!

The last little part was the scariest! The fish took a bit of a beating with all the machine quilting from pushing the quilt through the machine so much. I decided to 'fortify' them with a couple of coats of high gloss medium, applied by hand with a small paint brush. I thought about doing it first, but the fish were ironed in place with the Mistyfuse, and I didn't want to try to iron a fish that had medium on the surface. So maybe it all worked out okay? 

I am overall very happy with the way this turned out! It is so satisfying to see an idea become actualized! I entered this quilt into Quilts=Art=Quilts, but it did not get accepted. As happy as it would have been to have my little quilt go out into the world, I am comforted when they get rejected because then I get to look at them a bit longer, and I don't have a lot of shipping expenses. Possibly a warped perspective here, but I am okay with that. I hope you like this one! Thanks for stopping by! 

No. 15

No. 15

49" x  29.5" 

Design.

This one had a number of design temptations.

It was originally designed in my sketchbook to look like this:

It was a white background variation of No. 6:

But after the blocks were stitched, I decide to play with the layout because I had another idea:

I had a hard time deciding which one I liked better, but ultimately went with the second version.

Making it:

I can do the math to get the right sized white pieces to construct this, but, I fail on sewing accurately enough for the math to work. So this time, I decided to measure as I went along. It worked much better!

After constructing all the blue arches/bridges/hurdles I played with putting a large or small white border on top. In my mind I envisioned a really large blank white canvas above the blues.

So I placed some fabric behind the piece and looked at it. Then I tried a smaller border on top. 

After looking at these, I didn't really like either one, so I opted to just truncate the top with the last blue section. It is funny to me that sometimes what I think will look good, does not. 

Quilting closeup:

No. 14

No. 14

43" x 43"

I love the simplicity of this one, in both pattern and color. It is soothing.

Making blocks...these are ready for trimming.

The marimekko test... (always a favorite of mine, if it goes with the unikko mug, it must be good!)

Yep, this works! The project has a green light to proceed now!

Channeling Salvador Dali as the quilt top 'melts' over the edge of the ironing board.  Ha ha! I also love how well it goes with the quilt on the wall!

Photo bomb... I can't decide which one is better? 

AKA: the camouflaged cat...

Happy coincidence? Or am I just drawn to the same colors?

And last, a close up of the quilting.

No. 13

No. 13

42" x 42"

This is the quilt that is made from the other half of the blocks I used to make No. 12. I was curious how it would look with the blocks slightly removed from each other, so I moved them apart on the design wall.

I really like how much lighter the quilt feels. Next up was to make the white sashing for the new arrangement.

And, I am always fascinated by how much a quilt shrinks after sewing the seams! 

And, for the quilting, I opted to use a warm thread color in one direction, and a cool thread color in the other direction. For all the angst of choosing quilting threads, I still maintain, that it does not really matter that much. In this piece you can see the quilting design and the texture, but the thread colors don't really show up. 

And last, a photo of my quilt, in the wild! ha ha!

No. 12

No. 12

30.5" x 31"

No. 12 in the wild

This beautifully painted utility box in my neighborhood seemed the perfect complement to my little quilt! I wish the artist had signed their work. It is a perfect blend of garden themes in the intersection of representative and abstract works!

The idea for this one came from the color palette of No. 11.  I wondered what a quilt would look like with the HSTs made from the color gradients of the background for No. 11. I reduced the selection down to 12 colors in each color path because I wanted to make a smallish quilt. 

Then I started cutting out the squares and arranging them on the design wall. Here is the first layer of brown to greens. 

Now to add the layer of warm fabrics in the other direction on top. Each block will have a different combination of colors, no two will be the same.

As you may have guessed and what has become apparent to me, is that each combination will make 2 identical blocks. So this quilt and No. 13 will be inherently tied together by sharing the same blocks. This will give me an opportunity to try more than one idea with this color palette! So fun!!

Here are the trimmings from all the blocks. I love how colorful they are!

Here's the very first idea arranged the way I thought I would like. Except that it didn't really sing to me. It is lovely, but I was still wondering what else I could do. 

So, I tossed all the blocks to the floor, and picked them up randomly and placed them chaotically...

Also nice, but it doesn't really give me that meadow experience I was hoping for.

Third try was the final outcome where I rotated every other line of blocks so that the colors blend into diamonds. It is appealing and so saturated with color, it jumps off the page!

Next the basting and quilting.

To finish up the quilt, I opted to use the yellow from No. 11 that was not included in this selection of colors. It is a nice bright edge for this quilt and I like the way it refers back to No. 11.

And last, a detail photo!

Next week, I will share with you No. 13 made from the same selection of blocks. It looks VERY different from this one. 

No. 11 Part 3

No. 11

78.5" x 53.5"

Part 3

Taking a negative and turning it into a positive. This was made from the outtakes of No. 9, and has been turned into the central theme of No. 11. Working on this project was so very helpful. I firmly believe that art heals. Gardening also heals and helps manage my depression and anxiety. So when it is too early in the season to work in the garden, this project was a perfect distraction!

Note, while this quilt does not technically have any half square triangles, it was the next in this new series of work. And it was made from parts from a quilt that does have a lot of half square triangles. It feels like it belongs, and so I am keeping it here.

After the background was quilted, I appliqued the flowers and stems by hand, and then I needed to quilt the flowers. I used a cutout freezer paper template (pressed into place), to help design the quilting lines for the flowers. The 1/4" masking tape is a bit difficult to turn such tight curves smoothly, but it gets easier as the curves get bigger. 

Ready to free motion quilt now! (and then repeat the process for the other 3 flowers!).

To finish the edges, I saved the very last color at the ends of the gradients for the binding. My binding was going to be 1/4", so it blends seamlessly with the color strips. 

I also opted to extend the flowers into the binding. I don't know why, it just looked right to me.

Last is the hanging tube, label on the back, and photographing the completed work. We took it up to the top of Mount Bonnell for a "quilts in the wild" photo! I didn't realize it was so windy that day, which made it a big challenging! For your viewing pleasure!