No. 22

No. 22

69.5" x 35"

Something has happened. All of this HST series work has led to a narrowing of the direction of the work...I am exploring one element of a complicated topic, relationships. I have been thinking a lot about relationships as we navigate through this ever evolving political dynamic of hate and fear mongering and increasing hostilities and violence to those who are different than us. When this is over (if that is possible), what will be left of our relationships? Do we cut ties to loved ones because of their egregious beliefs? Or do we stay engaged in conversations and find a way towards mutual understanding and forgiveness?  Each piece will explore relationship dynamics in general and will be left open to interpretation.

For example: This first piece in a series about relationships is about closeness, standing face to face. Is this the 'leaning in' for the first kiss? Is it standing face to face and shouting deeply held convictions and standing up for what one believes at a protest? 

I am using half square triangles for the background as a nod to traditional quiltmaking and the comfort that the idea of a quilt brings. I am using color schemes to communicate mood, and color gradients to communicate movement. The motif of a hump symbolizes a motivational/energetic hump to represent the resistance to change. What holds us back or propels us forward? Each piece will capture a moment in time of a constantly changing dynamic. 

Piecing the background. When I selected these cheerful yellows and subdued muted greens, I thought there would be more contrast.  However when pieced into HST's, they look so similar. Maybe that is better? Hard to get the colors right for the online photos, so this will be one of those, looks better in person kind of quilts....

To make the humps, I cut out the broad shapes, and then slice them vertically first. The color strips are 1" wide, so when pieced, they become 1/2" in width, which also maintains the shape of the hump. It doesn't grow or shrink with this sized of an insert. 

Then they are cut in the other direction and a new set of color strips are inserted.

The same process is used with the 'stems'.

Then I turn under the edges and hand baste them to stay in place.

Now that all the pieces are made, I am ready to start quilting the quilt. Here are the thread colors I used for this one. Sometimes I really like to use a lot of thread colors, and no it does not bother me to change the colors. 

You might be surprised that changing the quilting thread really has very little effect on the overall look of the quilt. Here's a close up, and you do have to look closely to see that there are different colors in the quilting threads...

An overall photo of the quilt while I was quilting it. You can see that half of the quilt still has the pins used to baste the quilt sandwich together. The humps have been casually placed, just to see what they look like. They have not been attached to the quilt yet. I choose not to piece the humps into the background (like I did on No. 9), because I have to make a LOT of starts and stops of the quilting lines and subsequent thread tucking. I really like the way it looks for the quilting threads to go UNDER the motifs. This requires the motifs to be appliqued after all the quilting is done. It is more difficult to hold everything while doing the hand applique, but I like the effect better...

After the humps and stems are hand appliqued, I add a layer of hand quilting with embroidery floss. In the photo below, I am marking my stitching lines with 1/4" masking tape. It is reasonably easy to apply in curves, easy to remove if the line is wrong and replace, and I can reuse it multiple times, if I don't have to clip the curves. I like how well this tape shows what the quilting lines will look like when I am finished. I also selected a gradient of embroidery floss colors for the hand quilting. 

And when I see these juicy beautiful colors and texture and lines, I practically swoon and fall in love with the work. Yes, you can laugh at me now! Ha!

Here's a close up for you.

This is also the part where I feel like I have finished the piece! Unfortunately it's similar to a false summit. I still have to apply the binding, then the hanging tube, an identifying label to the back, the photography, and eventually the blog post. I also make a quilt statement with the quilt description and artist statement, so if I want to enter it into a venue, all that information is readily available. Done!

No. 21

No. 21

32" x 23"

What is it about a simple repeating pattern that is just so intrinsically appealing? I also love the organic nature of the little arches. I wanted them to look like individuals and not carbon copies of each other. I think it does that.

I started with making some blocks. Although this is a photo of the blocks for the background, I started with smaller ones to make the pieced HST arches. I wanted to see if I could make them into an arch shape by varying the width of the seam when joining them. It worked! Which meant that I could proceed with the rest of the quilt. I love looking at the blocks when they are chain stitched together!

I worked simultaneously on creating the background.....and....

Making all the arches: The black ones were hand drawn onto freezer paper, cut out (with a seam allowance), and then edges turned under and hand basted. The black ones were significantly easier to make than the orange and pink ones! All those seams of the HST blocks had to be turned under to prepare for appliqueing. 

Once I had all the arches ready for applique, I finished piecing the background, and prepared it for quilting. I remembered some old fabric I had that I thought would be perfect for the backing! It is from my brief stint as a fabric designer.

I love the simplicity of the straight line quilting. Here is my first arch after it has been hand appliqued in place, and the basting stitches have been removed. Ahhh! Satisfying! Now repeat 15 more times!

A view from the side of the finished quilt. 

Great texture! I love how the arch shapes sit on top of the fabric. I did not want to quilt them because that would flatten them. 

The last part was choosing to use a facing instead of a binding. This allowed the design to flow to the edge of the work. It was a good choice for this piece. 

Thanks for stopping by!