The last two Maple leaves are done. As I expected, I changed my mind several times about the fabrics and colors of each leaf as I constructed them. I really like the plaid and text fabrics I used.
Below are photos of leaf #4 and leaf #5 during construction.
And here’s a photo of all the leaves pinned to my design wall. The lighting isn’t very good, so the colors are not really accurate.
I haven’t yet quilted or trimmed the lower three leaves. I think I’m going to start piecing the low volume background, and I’ll finish the leaves later.
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Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Work continues on the Maple leaf art quilt. I decided I needed another color of the boiled wool that I’m using for the veins and outline of each leaf. I started with light olive and dark olive, and now I’ve added magenta. I also want to have more variety of colors and patterns within each leaf.
Here’s how the third leaf evolved today. The colors are not true in these photos (the wool looks burgundy in this light, but it really is magenta).
Below you can see my design wall with potential colors for the background and the next two leaves. The first leaf is now looking too pale and un-interesting to me, so I may change it later. But first I’ll finish the remaining leaves and piece and quilt the low volume background. Adding the leaves will be one of the last steps, so there’s still time to change my mind.
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Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects. ~ Love Laugh Quilt Monday Making ~ WIP Wednesday @ The Needle & Thread Network
SAQA has a call for entry specifically for Canadian members, called Colour with a U. I’ve been thinking about possible entries, and I finally decided on very large (bigger than real life) Maple leaves.
I printed a collage of leaf photos I have taken over the past couple of years, then traced the leaves into an arrangement inspired by a recent photo I took.
Here’s my sketch. I enlarged it to about 36 x 36 inches – each leaf is 16 to 20 inches wide.
I’m making each leaf separately, fusing fabrics to a background of boiled wool. I had originally planned to use felt, but I couldn’t find any felt in the olive-green color I wanted. After searching several stores for the felt, I found the boiled wool – a slightly lighter shade than I wanted, and a slightly darker shade. I bought some of each, and I’m optimistic that using the 2 shades will add even more interest to the leaves.
Each leaf will be a different color. Here’s the first, which is a variety of yellow and light green fabrics – many from my scrap bags.
Here’s the second leaf, in various shades of green. You can see that I’m drawing each leaf on freezer paper, then drawing the main veins and cutting along those lines to create sections. I’m tracing each section onto fusible web, then positioning the sections slightly apart so the wool shows between them as the veins.
In the photo below, you can see the quilting on the yellow-green leaf. I quilted around each section, then added more quilting lines to denote the thinner veins. After completing the quilting, I trimmed the wool to about 1/4″ from the edges of the fabrics. The green leaf is fused but not yet quilted or trimmed. I’m auditioning background fabrics, but won’t finalize that part until the leaves are completed.
Next I’m going to make an red-orange leaf, an orange-gold leaf, and a red-purple leaf. Or maybe I’ll change my mind about colors as I proceed.
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Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with Can I get a Whoop Whoop? by Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
IAD Anonymous Show – I had 3 fabric art pieces accepted into the annual International Artists Day Anonymous Show at 100 Braid St Studios in New Westminster BC. There were over 250 pieces of artwork, including oil & acrylic paintings, textile art, photography and mixed media pieces. The artwork is all 12 x 12 x 1.5” and all priced at $150. It’s hung so that the name of the artist is hidden until the art is sold. When an artwork is purchased, the art is removed from the display wall and the artist’s name revealed.
The art was on display from October 25 to 27, 2019, starting with a Gala Opening the evening of Friday, October 25th. I attended on the second night and took these photos of the show. You can see the amazing variety of styles and techniques. The gaps in the display grids are where art was removed as it sold.
Because it’s an anonymous show, I couldn’t reveal my 3 pieces until the show was over. I’m pleased to say the 2 pieces below were sold at the show – ‘Still Life in Fruit Bowl’ and ‘WOW Westminster Abstract 2’. The first one may look familiar – I made it a couple of months ago for the Curated Quilts B&W mini challenge. (I temporarily hid this post once it was accepted for the Anonymous show.)
And this is my 3rd piece, which didn’t sell at the show – ‘WOW Westminster Abstract 1’. Ironically, it’s the one I like the best. So it will be hung on my wall.
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click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and
inspirational projects.
Quilting in the Garden – remember the Succulents quilt I made in July and entered in the Alden Lane Nursery Quilting in the Garden quilt show? At the end of September, I visited my friend Heidi who lives near San Francisco, and we attended the quilt show in Livermore. There were more than 250 beautiful quilts hanging among the majestic oak trees, including 3 of my quilts.
Succulents
Converging Corners
Round and Round We Go
Curated Quilts STARS issue – in June, I submitted two mini quilts for the Curated Quilts Star mini challenge. I also submitted a few of my larger star-themed quilts for the Gallery section. ‘Twinkle Stars’ was selected for the mini challenge, and ‘Scrappy Stars’ was included in the Gallery.
I just received my mini quilt and my copy of the STARS issue in the mail. I’m looking forward to reading it cover to cover.
IAD Anonymous Show – I will have 3 pieces in the annual International Artists Day Anonymous Show at 100 Braid St Studios in New Westminster BC. There will be over 250 pieces of artwork, including oil & acrylic paintings, textile art, photography and mixed media pieces. All pieces are 12 x 12 inches and all are priced at $150.
The art will be hung so the names of the artists are hidden. When an artwork is purchased, the art is removed from the display wall and the artist’s name revealed. Here’s a photo from last year’s show.
IAD Anonymous Show 2018
The art will be on display from October 25 to 27, 2019, starting with a Gala Opening the evening of Friday, October 25th. Click here for more information.
Because it’s an anonymous show, I can’t yet reveal my pieces. After the festival is over, I’ll do a blog post about my 3 pieces.
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Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
Later this month, I’ll be heading to Naniamo BC for the annual conference of the Fibre Art Network. As usual we will have an art exchange. All participants are invited to create a journal size quilt (8.5 by 11 inches) inspired by this year’s conference theme, ‘Coastal Networks’.
These prompts were provided for inspiration for the exchange: • The ocean reflecting the sunset? • Life under the sea? • A network of friends?
The second phrase “life under the sea” reminded me of my art quilt “Synchronized Swimming” that I made last year.
Synchronized Swimming by Terry Aske
I thought it would be fun to use the same fabrics and shapes on a smaller scale for my journal piece.
As with the original, I pieced and quilted the background before adding the fish. Then I used paper shapes to audition various positions for the fish.
I fused the fish in place and then quilted around each one.
Synchronized Swimming 2 by Terry Aske
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these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other
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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.
This year there are over 440 pieces that 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 Sepember 13th. Or just enjoy browsing through hundreds of mini works of art!
This is my entry for this year – ‘A Slice of Lime’
This is my seventh auction quilt! Below are the six previous ones. As you can see, I like to mix it up and use a variety of techniques.
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As often happens, my subconscious influences my design choices. I’d been thinking about black & white quilts for the Curated Quilts mini challenge, and I noticed a fruit bowl in a friend’s kitchen. The shape of the fruit bowl intrigued me, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. So when I visited her the next day, I asked if I could take a photo.
Inspiration
I selected a white fabric with silver lines that reminds me of Arborite kitchen countertops of my youth. I built the fruit bowl with black bias tape.
Starting construction of bowl
My original intention was to submit the black fruit bowl on a white countertop as a completed mini quilt. But I couldn’t resist adding some stylized fruit.
Still Life by Terry Aske
I’m not sure if it meets the criteria of mostly black & white with a sense of motion – but isn’t that lemon trying to escape from the bowl? I have submitted it anyway, and even if it isn’t selected, I love it!
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My last post was more than a month ago, when I posted my finished ‘Succulents’ quilt. After that, I started working on a couple of mini quilts but didn’t post about them. At the end of July, I left for a 2-week trip to NYC and England with my sister Anne. We traveled with Craftours from NYC to Birmingham for 2 days at the Festival of Quilts. Then we toured through English towns and countryside, to London for 2 days, then back to NYC.
It was a wonderful trip! Here are a few of my favorite photos from our travels.
You can see LOTS more photos (including many many quilts from the Festival) on my Instagram feed and Anne’s Facebook feed. Look for posts between July 31 and August 11.
When we returned from our trip, I picked up where I left off, with an entry for the next Curated Quilts issue. The theme is Black & White.
This is my first time using the interweave (interleave?) process. I was inspired by these blog posts at threadlines, Quilt Inspiration and This Thing. I selected 4 different black & white fabrics, created 2 blocks and then sliced each block into 1 inch strips. I arranged the strips alternating from each block, then sewed them together.
In retrospect, I believe this technique would work better with more colors. With the limited palette I used, the diagonal line and the circle sort of got lost in the jumble of prints. I quilted diagonal lines with black thread on the bottom left and white thread on the top right to see if that would make the diagonal line more obvious. It did, but now the circle has almost disappeared. I’ll try this technique again in the future with colors.
‘Disappearing Circle’ by Terry Aske
I have a LOT of black & white fabrics, so I keep thinking of various ways I could use them in mini quilts. Here are 2 others I’ve made and submitted., ‘Curves’ and ‘Angular Heart’.
I have at least one more idea I’m planning to submit before the August 31st deadline. Check out all the other entries on the Curated Quilts website. There are already a lot of great submissions, and I’m sure there will be many more added in the next few days.
. . . . .
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these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other
creative and inspirational projects.
The Succulents quilt is finished and I’m quite happy with it. I’ve entered it in the Alden Lane Nursery Quilting in the Garden quilt show.
The finished size is 38 x 42 inches, and each succulent plant is about 26 inches high.
See my previous 2 posts for information about how I constructed it, including stage 1 of the quilting where I quilted around the succulents before I added the backing fabric. Then I spray-basted the backing fabric to the felt, and quilted vertical straight lines through all three layers. You can see that the backing fabric is the chartreuse and white print that I was considering for the front. I finished the edges with a wide chartreuse binding.
All the quilting was done with a walking foot. I quilted with vertical straight lines about 1/2 inch apart. I was concerned about keeping the lines straight, and the challenge of quilting over the bumps created where several bias tapes overlapped. So I quilted from the back, following the vertical fabric design as a guide. (I first used this technique with my map quilt (described here) but I didn’t post about how I quilted it. You can read about that on the Quilts at the Creek blog here.)
I wanted the binding at least 1/2 inch wide (to be as wide or wider than the bias tape outlining the plants) so I cut the binding strips 2.75 inch wide. I stitched the binding to the back, folded it to the front and stitched again through all layers. This is the first time I’ve used clips to hold the binding in place – much better than pins!
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