On my design wall – Saturn – 2024.09.14

Posted on September 14, 2024 by TerryAske

There is something new on my design wall – the planet Saturn.

My goal is to create several art quilts based on planets of the Solar System. My first choice was Saturn – with its distinctive bands and amazing ring system, it is the most visually interesting planet in the Solar System.

My internet research tells me that Saturn’s colors are quite subtle. The planet has weather bands of pale colors – yellows, browns, greys, and the rings are shades of grey and light brown. (See additional information here about the true colors of the planets.)

However, I had already been captivated by many colour-enhanced images such as this one from NASA. So I choose to depict Saturn with brighter colors. My version of the planet is orange, yellow and pink bands, and the rings are various shades of purple/violet.

I started my design by determining what portion of the planet and rings I wanted to show, and from what angle. I cut the shapes of the planet and rings from felt and positioned them on this lovely batik that looks like a starry sky..

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Then I cut and positioned the fabrics for the planet. I was happy with the colors, but realized the bands were not curved enough. My planet looked more like a slightly curved disc than a sphere.

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So I found a few guides to drawing a realistic-looking sphere. I drew contour lines on a piece of Duralar (a transparent film that can be drawn on) which I pinned over the planet so I could see what changes I needed to make.

Here is the improved version. At this point, the fabrics are backed with fusible web but they are not yet fused together.

Next were the colors for the rings (excuse the bad photo – this was taken at night)

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I have now fused all the fabrics to the felt pieces. Here they are on my design wall, pinned to the background fabric. The background is 20″ x 44″. The finished size will be 18″ wide, and the height will be between 36″ and 42″.

There are several reasons that I fuse and quilt the fabrics to felt before attaching them to the background:

  • It will give some dimension to the planet and rings.
  • I can quilt the fabrics and felt without having to bury all the thread ends.
  • If I make a mistake while quilting, it’s easier to correct than if the items were already attached to the background.

The next steps are to machine quilt the planet and the rings to the felt, then attach them to the background.

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Thanks for stopping by.

I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.

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Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall | Tagged , | 2 Comments

SAQA annual benefit auction – 2024.09.07

Posted on September 7, 2024 by TerryAske

SAQA’s 2024 Benefit Auction starts this Friday. It will take place online from September 13 through October 6.

Each year, SAQA invites each of its members to create a small 12 x 12 inch piece of art and donate it to the annual SAQA Benefit Auction.  The auction has a dual purpose – to increase the recognition of quilts as art and quilters as artists, and to raise funds to support SAQA’s exhibition programs and education outreach activities.

With 440+ pieces of beautiful artwork available for bidding, there is something for everyone to enjoy! These artworks have been donated by SAQA artists from around the world. You can see them all on the SAQA website here. Think about which you might want to bid on when the auction opens on September 13th. Or just enjoy browsing through hundreds of mini works of art!

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This is my entry for this year – ‘My Signature Colors’. Read about how I made it here.

This is my twelfth SAQA auction quilt! As you can see, I like to mix it up and use a variety of techniques.

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Thanks for stopping by.

I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.

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Posted in Art quilts, Mini quilts, Modern quilts | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Meandering Through the City – 2024.08.30

Posted on August 30, 2024 by TerryAske

In September, I’ll be heading to Edmonton AB for the annual conference of the Fibre Art Network.  As usual, we will have an artwork exchange.  The theme this year is ‘River City’.

The conference organizers described the theme: “This year, the Art Exchange will be ‘river city’ inspired. We hope you will interpret some aspect of the North Saskatchewan River Valley, Edmonton itself as a River City or any river theme. Whether fun or serious, your artwork will be a valued keepsake for another FAN member attending the 2024 conference. It is so much fun to share!”

I was in Edmonton in June for the Quilt Canada conference, and had lots of opportunities to view the North Saskatchewan River and stroll along the River Valley walkways enjoying the beautiful city and scenery. I took lots of photos that could have been inspiration for an art quilt. But what struck me the most about the river was its shape when viewed from above (as on a map) – its graceful curves as it meanders through the city.

I collected a few maps of the city and created my pattern, simplifying at a bit.

Colours – For the river, I selected an intense blue color. A green print for the the park lands and trail areas in the river valley. And a mottled green fabric for the surrounding land (totally ignoring the city streets and highways of Edmonton). It needed a splash of another color, so I used red-violet for the base fabric. I trimmed each fabric piece slightly inside the lines so there would be gaps between the pieces, where a sliver of the red-violet base fabric would show as ‘grout lines’.

For quilting, I edge stitched each fabric. I considered a few options for overall quilting – echo quilting the shape of the river, a grid and (my recent favorite overall quilting design) a tilted grid. The tilted grid appealed to me more than the other options. I positioned 1-inch tape and stitched on either side of it.

I tried something new for the facing. I left the ends of top facing open, so it could be used as a sleeve for a thin dowel (made from a 30″ bamboo campfire skewer)

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Here is the finished piece, titled ‘Meandering Through the City‘. It is 18 x 9.5 inches.

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Thanks for stopping by.

I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Mini quilts | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

‘Ticking All the Boxes’ – 2024.06.30

Posted on June 30, 2024 by TerryAske

I started working on this art quilt in November 2023. I posted this photo on Instagram and said ‘Starting a new project. Not sure exactly where this is going but I like it a lot. Do you say ‘tick box’ or ‘check box’?’ Then I didn’t post anything more because I intended it for an exhibit that prefers entries to be not posted.

The focus of this art quilt was how lists with tick boxes make me ridiculously happy. And if my lists include bright colours, I’m even happier. It wasn’t accepted into the show I originally intended it for, but it was accepted into National Juried Show (NJS) at Quilt Canada 2024. And it won an award!

This is my artist statement: Lists with tick boxes make me ridiculously happy, and marking a task as completed gives me a very satisfied feeling. By using tick boxes, I can see the status of each item at a glance –  completed (ticked), deferred (arrow), deleted (x) or still to be done (blank). 

Here is some information about how I made it. I spent a lot of time arranging and rearranging the boxes on my design wall, perfecting the placement of the shapes and the choice of fabrics. The tilted boxes enhance the happy, playful look. I used check marks in several different shapes and sizes, and of course I used brightly colored fabrics.

My to-do lists are typically hand-written with hand-drawn boxes next to each item. I wanted the squares to look hand-drawn, so I was careful to make the black outlines slightly asymmetrical.

I constructed this piece in several layers.

  1. Background – I pieced the 4 panels of color. The overall size is approximately 27 x 30 inches.
  2. Small squares – each is 4.5 inches square, fused to the background and outlined with thin black bias tape.
  3. Large squares – I drew some boxes and enlarged them to 6.5 inches square. I cut out black fabric strips and fused them to the edges of the colored squares. To prevent the seams in the background from showing through, I backed each square with Thermore ultra-thin batting, then fused the black edges to the background.
  4. Quilting – I machine quilted an overall tilted grid with mint green thread.
  5. Tick marks and other symbols – I fused each tick mark/symbol to black felt, then positioned the symbols on top of the squares and stitched around the thin black felt outline through all the layers.

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Here is the finished quilt.

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Thanks for stopping by.

I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Modern quilts, On my design wall, Quilt shows | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Quilt Canada 2024 Recap – 2024.06.30

Posted on June 30, 2024 by TerryAske

Earlier this month, I spent 4 fun-filled days in Edmonton attending Quilt Canada 2024 at the Edmonton Convention Centre.  Quilt Canada is an annual conference which includes hundreds of quilts (the National Juried Show and numerous additional Concurrent Quilt Shows), a large Merchant Mall, lectures, quilt show tours and workshops. It is attended by thousands of people.

On Wednesday morning, I helped to set up Resist, an exhibit of the Fibre Art Network. This is only a small part of the exhibit. There are 46 artworks in this exhibit, all of which can be seen here. It was a very popular exhibit with the people attending the conference.

On Wednesday evening, I attended the Awards Ceremony, and was happy to cheer as many of my friends won awards. All of the National Juried Show award winning quilts can be seen here. I was thrilled to receive the 3rd place award in the Modern category for my piece Ticking All the Boxes. (Read about the making of this art quilt in my next post.)

I had another entry in the show – here it is next to my friend Judy’s piece.

‘Twisting Tulips’ by Judy Cruickshank and ‘DUET’ by Terry Aske

On the remaining days, I visited the quilts on display (several times) and spent a lot of time at the Resist exhibit. Here is a partial view of the NJS exhibit, courtesy of the Canadian Quilters Association.

I also enjoyed several walks with friends along the Edmonton River Valley walkways enjoying the beautiful city and scenery.

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Thanks for stopping by.

I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Inspiration, Modern quilts, Quilt shows | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

May in the Mediterranean – 2024.06.30

Posted on June 30, 2024 by TerryAske

The last time I posted here was in April – two months ago! I was travelling most of May, and then was very busy in June, so I’m just getting caught up now.

I did post about my Mediterranean travels on Instagram and Facebook, but here’s a recap.

I travelled to Barcelona with my friend Denise. We spent 3 days exploring Barcelona, then we boarded a cruise ship for a 21-day, 15-port cruise. This is the itinerary (it’s not exactly where we went, as Santorini was replaced with Crete). It was a wonderful trip!

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the ports we visited – in no particular order.

I expect my extensive collection of photos will provide inspiration for several art quilts in the future.

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Thanks for stopping by.

I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Inspiration, Travel | 1 Comment

Doors or Gateways – 2024.04.27

Posted on April 27, 2024 by TerryAske

The next Fibre Art Network exhibit is called Doors or Gateways.

The organizers provided these prompts:

  • Have you ever been inspired by a door?  How old is your door, what history has it seen, what is behind your door?
  • A gateway could be a black hole, a tunnel into a universe or to the underworld!  Your imagination is your only limit.
  • Feel free to do one of each, be inspired by doors or gateways.
  • This is a boxed exhibit which is designed to go to small venues such as guilds and libraries. Works must be 8 inches by 10 inches in either orientation.

Here is my artwork – ‘An Ancient Door, or a Gateway to the Past?‘

Artist statement: A small rustic door set deeply into a rough rock wall. An ancient door, or a gateway to the past? 

If you have been following my blog for a few years, this image may look familiar. That’s because I used this photo in 2016 for 2 exhibits. First, for an 8.5 x 11 inch exchange piece – read about it here. Then for the SAQA 2017 trunk show – details here.

As I explained in those posts, I took a lot of photos of doors during a 2013 trip to Croatia. This was by far my favourite – a small rustic door, tucked under a flight of well-worn stone steps, and set deeply into a rough rock wall.

I used the same techniques as in 2016 – I boosted the contrast on my computer then printed the enhanced image on prepared fabric. To emphasize the roughness of the rock wall and the depth of the inset door, I quilted the foreground rock surfaces with one layer of batting.  Then I added a second layer of batting and quilted the grout between the rocks and the surface of the door.  The sections that were quilted through both layers of batting receded and the other sections puffed up, giving the quilt a dimensional trapunto effect.

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Thanks for stopping by.

I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Mini quilts, Quilt shows | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

‘Two Buds and a Blossom’ – 2024.03.18

Posted on March 18, 2024 by TerryAske

I was so pleased with ‘Witch Hazel Magic‘ (previous post), that I decided to do something similar for my entry to the annual textile art exhibit Cherry Blossoms: A Textile Translation which will be on display in April at the Silk Purse Arts Centre in West Vancouver.

I reviewed my photos of cherry blossoms taken last Spring, and found this close-up of a blossom and buds with a nicely blurred background. I enhanced the image with a computer program to boost the colors and add an artistic effect. The photo on the right is the result.

Edited in Prisma app with Bamboo

I cropped it to a square and added a black border (left). I printed the enhanced image on prepared fabric at about 13″ x 13″. I layered it on felt and then quilted it with a variety of 50 wt threads. The background is echo quilted with light green 80 wt.

I turned under the black border leaving just a sliver of black showing. Then I mounted it on a black 12″ x 12″ wrapped canvas. I titled it ‘Two Buds and a Blossom‘.

Here is a detail view and a view to show the canvas.

I was thrilled that it was selected for the exhibit, and also featured on the event poster.

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I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Quilt shows | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

‘Witch Hazel Magic’ – 2024.03.17

Posted on March 17, 2024 by TerryAske

I created this piece in February in response to a SAQA call for entry titled Renewal. This is a regional juried exhibition for Canadian SAQA members. I was thrilled to receive a notification a few days ago that it has been accepted.

One of the prompts was “the cycles of nature: spring growth, forest regeneration, a new moon”. I focused on the concept of spring regrowth and renewal. I wasn’t inspired by cherry blossoms, snowdrops or crocuses – they all seemed too predictable. Then I remembered the witch hazel plants that grow in my neighbourhood. When I see the witch hazel blooming in December or January, it always brings me hope that spring is on the way.

Witch hazel flowers are very small (1-2 inches in diameter) but a close-up look reveals the intricately tangled, ribbon-like petals in a variety of colors.  What these fragrant little flowers lack in size, they make up for in quantity and timing.  They bloom in late winter well before other plants begin leafing out and poking green shoots out of the ground.

Here is one of many recent photos taken in January. I really liked the blurry background in this one (more luck than skill on my part). I enhanced the image with a computer program to boost the colors. The photo on the right is the result.

I printed the enhanced image on prepared fabric. I layered it on felt and then quilted it. The petals are outlined with black 50 wt thread, and the branches with gray. I quilted the background with wavy diagonal lines using lilac 80 wt thread.

I called it ‘Witch Hazel Magic‘. It is 14 x 16 inches.

Here is a close-up view of the quilting.

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I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Inspiration, Quilt shows | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

‘Trimmings’ – 2024.02.18

Posted on February 18, 2024 by TerryAske

This mini quilt is my entry to the annual SAQA Spotlight Auction. The auction will be an online event taking place during the 2024 SAQA Virtual Conference (April 12- 20, 2024). It is an opportunity for all SAQA members to have their work showcased to a world-wide audience. All pieces will be 6 x 8 inches (portrait or landscape orientation). They will be displayed in mats with a 4.5″ x 6.5”opening and placed in clear cellophane sleeves. The edges of the piece (.75″) will be hidden from view in the final presentation.

Here’s how I found inspiration for this little piece.

When I was working in ‘Zesty, Bright and Spicy‘ in December, the trimmings from the circular shapes were piled on my white work table. I decided they were too pretty to be relegated to the recycle bin, so I took a photo and posted it on Instagram. Then I set the trimmings aside.

A week ago I was looking for inspiration for my spotlight entry, and I remembered the trimmings and decided they would make a lovely little mini quilt. I fused the trimmings to black felt, then quilted an overall tilted grid with black thread. Ta-dah! I called it ‘Trimmings‘.

‘Trimmings’ – full size – 6″ x 8″

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Thanks for reading. I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.

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Posted in Art quilts, Inspiration, Mini quilts, Quilt shows | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments