Hobbit House mini quilt – 2018.08.15

The theme for Curated Quilts magazine’s issue 6 is House.  As usual they are having a mini quilt challenge.   Some of the mini quilts will be included in the magazine.

The image below shows the color palette they would like entrants to use, all or in part, with House as the overall inspiration.  The colors are: “pear green, peacoat blue, poppy red, ocean spray, clay brown, light gray –– descriptors not actual color names, and prints are always welcome.”

 

I was thinking about circles, and in my mind, Circle + House = Hobbit House door.  Here’s my entry.  It’s 11 x 11 inches.

 

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.

Em’s Scrap Bag Moving It Forward Monday
Love Laugh Quilt Monday Making
WIP Wednesday @ The Needle & Thread Network
WIPs on Wednesday at Esther’s Quilt Blog

 

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Want to see some quilts?

If you would like to see some beautiful quilts, and you live in the Vancouver area, mark this event on your calendar.

It will be at the same location as our Showcase in 2016, and it promises to be an outstanding show.

 

Here are two of my quilts that will be on display.   ‘Sailing at Sunset‘ was made a couple of months ago specifically for the VMQG showcase.   ‘Shades of Gray‘ is from 2013, but it’s still one of my favorite modern quilts.

  

 

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If you can’t make it to the VMQG Showcase, check out the SAQA Auction quilts.  This year, there are 443 art quilts that have been donated by SAQA members for the online auction.  Each art quilt is 12″ x 12″.

Auction Header

 

My donation to the auction is ‘Fallen Beauty‘  You can read about how I made it here.

 

 

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.

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Can I get a Whoop Whoop? by Confessions of a Fabric Addict

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Baby quilt is finished – 2018.07.18

The baby quilt is done!

I layered it with batting and fleece backing.  I cut the batting to 1.5 inches wider than the top on each side, and I cut the fleece backing even larger, so there was about 4 inches extra on each side.

 

 

I stitched around the edge of the top through all the layers, then I quilted two lines through the center, one vertical and one horizontal.  This stabilized the layers and divided the quilt into four sections.  I echo-quilted each section with parallel right-angle lines about 1.5 inches apart.

 

 

I trimmed the fleece so it was 2″ wider than the batting on all sides, and folded it over to the front as binding.  I used the mitering technique described in faux blanket binding by red flannel pantry.  I straight-stitched about 1/4″ in from the raw edge of the binding, then zigzag stitched over the raw edge.

 

 

 

The final size is 44 x 44 inches.  It’s soft and cuddly, and bright and colorful – exactly what I wanted!

 

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.

Em’s Scrap Bag Moving It Forward Monday
Love Laugh Quilt Monday Making
WIP Wednesday @ The Needle & Thread Network
WIPs on Wednesday at Esther’s Quilt Blog

Posted in Modern quilts | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Baby quilt top is done – 2018.07.03

I’ve been working on this baby quilt off and on since the beginning of May.  Towards the end of May, I was at this point.

 

Then it sat untouched on my design wall until a few days ago, while I worked on other projects that had firm deadlines.

I spent the last couple of days making more striped blocks, and now the top is totally pieced.  It’s about 42 x 44 inches.  I love the combination of pink, purple, orange and yellow with neutrals, and the scrappy, improv look.

The words are created with a technique taught by Felicity Ronaghan (felicityquilts.com) at a recent Improv Letters Workshop.

I’m going to back it with pink fleece, and I’ll quilt it with straight lines – most likely diagonal lines, like I did with this baby quilt.  My goal is to have it finished so I can show it at the July Vancouver MQG meeting.

 

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.

Em’s Scrap Bag Moving It Forward Monday
Love Laugh Quilt Monday Making
WIP Wednesday @ The Needle & Thread Network
WIPs on Wednesday at Esther’s Quilt Blog

Posted in Modern quilts, On my design wall, WiP Wednesday | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Sailing at Sunset – 2018.06.29

My newest cityscape quilt is finished – and just in time to be registered for the VMQG Modern Quilt Showcase – the deadline to register quilts is tomorrow.

I called it ‘Sailing at Sunset‘.  It’s 13.5 x 26 inches and made entirely from solid fabrics.    (See my previous post for information about how I designed it.)

 

And here it is next to the 6 x 8 inch cityscape mini quilt I made in March for a reader challenge in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine.  I think they look great together!

 

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.

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Can I get a Whoop Whoop? by Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Em’s Scrap Bag Moving It Forward Monday
WIPs on Wednesday at Esther’s Quilt Blog
Midweek Makers @ QuiltFabrication

Posted in Art quilts, Modern quilts, Quilt shows | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Yet another cityscape – 2018.06.23

I haven’t posted anything since Quilt Canada because I’ve been working on a secret project.  It will be a few months before I can post about it, but I can show you some of the colors I used. This little pile of leftover scraps and threads was a great source of inspiration for my next project.

 

I’m working on my entry for the VMQG Modern Mini Showcase Challenge.  It must be made from solid fabrics and have a maximum perimeter of 80 inches.  I’ve been considering various options including improv piecing, circles(!) or an abstracted scene of trees and water.   I had pulled a number of solid fabrics that made me think of the West Coast – mostly cool colors – blues, greens, purples.

But this pile of colorful scraps inspired me to broaden my color palette.  And the return of my most recent cityscape mini quilt from Cloth Paper Scissors, gave me the inspiration I needed – a Vancouver cityscape in solid colors and a modern, abstract style.

When I think of Vancouver, I think of: colorful sunset skies, mountains, city skyline, water, and sailboats.  This is how it evolved on my design wall.  First, I selected my color palette.  Second, I cut out the buildings and fused them to the mountains.  Third, I added sunset clouds to the sky, and a reflection of the skyline in the water.

       

 

And finally, a few sailboats. Right now, they are just paper triangles pinned in place and will most likely include a few bright colors.

Now I have to unpin it from my design wall and start sewing and quilting.

 

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.

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Can I get a Whoop Whoop? by Confessions of a Fabric Addict

 

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

Quilt Canada 2018 recap – 2018.06.06

Last week I spent 4 fun-filled days at Quilt Canada 2018 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.   Four days of workshops, lectures, shopping and over 400 spectacular quilts!

 

On Wednesday morning, I helped my fellow Vancouver MQG members with the set up of the QuiltCon Travelling exhibit of modern quilts, which was very well received.

 

On Wednesday evening, I attended the Awards Ceremony, and was happy to cheer as many of my friends won awards.  The National Juried Show award winning quilts can be seen here.

I was thrilled to receive the Trend-Tex award for my entry ‘Tally to Thirty’.

 

Here are some of the Trend-Tex quilts hanging at the show.  There were 86 entries this year.

 

Here are some of the other concurrent shows, which were all well attended.

 

I attended a great workshop and inspiring lecture by Gloria Loughman from Australia.

On Saturday morning, I presented a lecture about some of my tips and techniques for making Architectural Quilts.

 

On Saturday afternoon, I helped take down a couple of the concurrent shows.  It was fun to be a part of the behind-the-scenes set up and take down.

Now I’m looking forward to Quilt Canada 2019, which will be held in Ottawa, Ontario.

 

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.

Em’s Scrap Bag Moving It Forward Monday
Love Laugh Quilt Monday Making
WIP Wednesday @ The Needle & Thread Network
WIPs on Wednesday at Esther’s Quilt Blog
Midweek Makers @ QuiltFabrication

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Art with Fabric blog hop – 2018.05.22

Welcome to my stop on the Art with Fabric Blog Hop!

I’m participating in the Spring 2018 edition of the Art with Fabric blog hop, organized and hosted by Alida of Tweety Loves Quilting.

Alida has lined up a number of quilter-artists, and has asked each of us to create a quilt or fabric project inspired by “traditional” (i.e. non-textile) art – such as paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture, music, books from all countries and all time periods.

The Spring 2018 blog hop runs from May 21 to 24, with 3 or 4 artists blogging each day about their artwork and inspiration.

Check Alida’s Art with Fabric blog hop page for the complete schedule and links to all the participants’ blogs.  Alida also has links to all the art-inspired quilted pieces from previous blog hops.

I’m glad that Alida included architecture as one of the inspirational sources, because I love to make art quilts inspired by architecture, especially bridges.

My piece is titled Jade Sky at Night and features the Pattullo Bridge, located in New Westminster BC, where I live.   The bridge is a beautiful structure, with its graceful arched shape, intricate angled beams, and distinctive colors.   The Pattullo was designed by supervising engineer Major W.G. Swan, and it opened in 1937.  You can read more about the history of the bridge here and here.

 

Below is a photo I took of the Pattullo Bridge.  Using photo editing software, I cropped the image, then enhanced it by boosting the contrast and using a Neon effect to change the colors.

  

 

I printed the image on fabric, fused the printed image to acrylic felt, and quilted the outlines of the bridge and the clouds.

I mounted the piece onto a 12” x 12” x 1.5” gallery wrapped canvas, using Susan Carlson’s technique described in this blog post https://susancarlson.com/2017/08/26/hang-it-up/ which describes several methods of hanging and displaying quilts.  (The back of Susan’s frame looks much neater than mine – I obviously need more practice with this technique.  But it looks great from the front!)

 

 

This beautiful bridge is slated for demolition and replacement in the next few years, so I plan to take a lot more photos to use as source material for future art quilts.

 

Visit the blogs of today’s other artists to see what artwork they’ve been inspired by:

Shannon: http://imworkingonaproject.blogspot.com/
Bea: http://www.beaquilter.com/

 

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Improv words for baby quilt – 2018.05.21

A couple of weeks ago I attended an Improv Letters Workshop with Felicity Ronaghan (felicityquilts.com).  My plan was to make some words to include in the baby quilt I’m making.

The workshop was great!  Here are some of the letters made by participants.

 

I really liked Felicity’s improv approach for making letters and words.  I made a few more words for the baby quilt.

 

Now I just have to build a quilt around the words using the the wonky crosses and improv stripe blocks on my design wall.

 

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.

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Em’s Scrap Bag Moving It Forward Monday
Love Laugh Quilt Monday Making

 

Also, check out the Spring 2018 edition of the Art with Fabric blog hop, organized and hosted by Alida of Tweety Loves Quilting.  The Spring 2018 blog hop starts today and runs to May 24, with 3 or 4 artists blogging each day about their artwork and inspiration.

 

Posted in Modern quilts, On my design wall | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

New exhibits posted online – 2018.05.16

Several exhibits that I’ve entered work into have recently been posted online.  Click on the links below to see some amazing art quilts and fiber art.

 

The SAQA Benefit Auction – there are already 200 art quilts on the Benefit Auction page and more quilts are being added to the list each day.  Here’s my donation.  I blogged about how I made it here.

 

A new Fibre Art Network exhibit ‘From a Tiny Seed’ – there are 66 pieces in this exhibit, each one is 8.5″ x 11″.  My piece is ‘Beauty on the Sidewalk’.   You can read about my design process here.

 

 

Another new Fibre Art Network exhibit ‘Conversations’ – this exhibit will debut at Quilt Canada in Vancouver BC at the end of this month.  There are 24 pairs of artworks in this exhibit.  My partner was my sister Anne, and our entries are a tribute to our father, titled  ‘Jack: Conversations with Myself’.   You can read about our collaboration here.

 

The Trend-Tex challenge for Quilt Canada 2018 – there are 86 entries, all made from the same 5 fabrics.  These will be auctioned off at Quilt Canada.  My quilt is titled ‘Tally to Thirty‘ and I blogged about it here.

 

 

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.

Em’s Scrap Bag Moving It Forward Monday
WIP Wednesday @ The Needle & Thread Network
WIPs on Wednesday at Esther’s Quilt Blog
Let’s Bee Social! @ SewFreshQuilts
Midweek Makers @ QuiltFabrication

 

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