Yet another cityscape – 2018.06.23

Posted on June 23, 2018 by TerryAske

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

Posted on June 6, 2018 by TerryAske

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

Posted on May 22, 2018 by TerryAske

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

Posted on May 21, 2018 by TerryAske

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

Posted on May 16, 2018 by TerryAske

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

 

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On my design wall – a baby quilt – 2018.05.02

Posted on May 2, 2018 by TerryAske

A week ago, I started sewing blocks for a quilt for my brand new great-niece Evelyn. I planned make improv stripes in pink, purple and low volume prints.  I started making blocks about 13 inches square, thinking that would make a quick quilt.

Here are a couple of possible arrangements I posted on Instagram.

 

 

But looking at the blocks on my design wall, they just didn’t seem bright and colorful enough.  I decided to add some yellow and orange to the mix, and some darker neutrals to add contrast.  Then I decided to add some wonky crosses.  This is where I am now – still just making blocks with no real plan, just sticking them on the design wall.  But I’m much happier with how it’s looking.

 

I won’t finalize the layout until next week, because this Sunday I’m taking an Improv Letters Workshop with Felicity Ronaghan.  I think some improv letters (saying something like ‘Welcome to the World, Evelyn’) will fit in well with the wonky crosses and improv stripes.

 

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

Quilt Canada postcard challenge – 2018.04.24

Posted on April 24, 2018 by TerryAske

Quilt Canada is coming to Vancouver in late May/early June.  In conjunction with the Canadian Quilters’ Association, Cindy at Cindy’s Threadworks is sponsoring a quilted postcard challenge. The postcards will be on display at Quilt Canada and will be available for purchase by donation, with all proceeds going to the BC Children’s Hospital.

The theme is “Inspired by Nature”.  I had planned to use some of the leaf photos I took last October.  But with the May 1 deadline fast approaching, I wasn’t sure I would have time to edit and print them, as well as do the quilting.

Then I remembered that when I made my SAQA auction donation in March, I had to print the leaf image twice, because the first attempt didn’t print the bottom inch (due to operator error!).  But since most of the image was good, I kept it to use in another project – like this one.

I cut the printed fabric down from 13 x 13 inches to 10 x 12 inches.  I fused it to gray acrylic felt, and and free-motion quilted the leaf and the pebbles. Here is the front and the back after the quilting.

  

 

I fused a layer of Decor-Bond to the back to secure the quilting threads and to add stiffness.  Then I fused on the backing fabric.  I cut out three 4 x 6 inch pieces for postcards.  I straight-stitched twice around the edges, and wrote my contact information on the backs.  I started working on these Monday morning, and had them in the mail that afternoon.

    

 

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.

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

 

Posted in Art quilts | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Tally to Thirty – 2018.04.21

Posted on April 21, 2018 by TerryAske

My entry for the Trend-Tex Challenge is finished and has been submitted.

As I said in my last post, I decided to base my design on the theme of 30 years.  I wanted a design that looked modern and interesting, and decided on tally marks.  I’m not fond of the bubblegum pink color in the front fabric, but some extreme fussy cutting minimized that color in my quilt.

For the quilting, I outlined each set of tally marks with a double-stitched line of contrasting colored thread.  Then I quilted the background with straight-line echo quilting. The edges are faced.  It is 16 x 20 inches.  Below you can see the quilt, a detail, and the back.

There are some wonderful entries this year – check out the Instagram hashtag #trendtexchallenge.  There are typically 70 to 80 submissions to this challenge each year (you can see the submissions for the last 3 years here).  This year’s entries will be on display at Quilt Canada 2018  in Vancouver BC, from May 31 – June 2.

 

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 Art quilts, Modern quilts, Quilt shows | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Tally to Thirty – 2018.04.21

Triangles and tally marks – 2018.03.28

Posted on March 28, 2018 by TerryAske

Triangles

Curated Quilts magazine has a new call for entry for mini quilts – the theme is Triangles.  The image below shows the color palette they would like entrants to use, all or in part.

I have made two entries – ‘Improv Triangles’ and ‘Triangles’.   They are each 10.25 inches square.

  

 

You can see all the entries here.  Early in April, they will announce which of the mini quilts will be included in the 4th issue of the magazine.

 

Tally Marks

I’m working on another challenge – the Canadian Quilters’ Association Trend-Tex Challenge.   Here are the five fabrics that must be used.  The theme is ‘Celebrate’ to recognize the 30 years that Trend-Tex has been providing fabrics for the challenge, which is a fund raising activity for the association.

I decided to base my design on the theme of 30 years.  I wanted a design that looked modern and interesting, and decided on tally marks.  I’m not fond of the bubblegum pink color in the front fabric, but some extreme fussy cutting minimized that color in my quilt.

At this point I have fused the tally marks to the background fabric, and started the quilting.  It’s going to finish at about 16 x 20 inches.

All the submitted quilts will be displayed at Quilt Canada 2018  in Vancouver BC, from May 31 – June 2.

 

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.

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, On my design wall, WiP Wednesday | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

SAQA auction donation – 2018.03.21

Posted on March 21, 2018 by TerryAske

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 exhibitions, publications, and education outreach activities.

This is my entry for this year – ‘Fallen Beauty’

My artist statement:  Autumn is a magical time when the leaves explode into vibrant color, then float and drift to the ground.   When walking, I watch for colorful leaves on the sidewalk and capture their beauty with my camera.  Original photo, digitally enhanced and printed on fabric.  Leaf and background are free-motion quilted.  The edges are faced.

 

I used a very similar process as I did for ‘Beauty on the Sidewalk’ earlier this month.  I started with the photo below, taken last fall. I digitally enhanced the photo, printed it on fabric, fused the fabric to felt, and free-motion quilted it.  Here is the original photo, and a view of the quilting from the back before I covered it with the final backing fabric.

  

 

This is my sixth auction quilt!   Below are the five previous ones.  Click on each of the images to see more information about how I made each one.

    

terryaske_happy-purple-tree    aske-_-rainy-day-people-2

aske_modern-circles-3

 

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.

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 | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments