You know it’s almost Spring in Vancouver when thoughts turn to Cherry Blossoms. I’m working on an entry for the textile art exhibit Cherry Blossoms: A Textile Translation which will be at the Silk Purse Gallery in West Vancouver.
I was in the mood for bright colors and a modern look. I wanted to use a hexagon shape for my flowers. Since cherry blossoms are typically 5-petaled, I made a pattern which subdivides 6 triangles into 5 petals and 2 leaves, which I’m using to paper-piece the flowers.
Here’s my pattern, and my version of a bright, modern Cherry Blossom. I’ll make a few more blossoms, then piece them together with triangle and/or hexagon shaped pieces of the background fabric.
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.
I started designing and cutting fabric for ‘Aurora’ last Tuesday.
On Wednesday, I got it completely pieced. It took all day, but I was determined to get it done. I came perilously close to running out of one of the background fabrics, and had to resew some of the angled seams more than once.
On the weekend, I quilted it. I used variegated poly-sheen thread. I have 2 spools – one is neon colors, the other is shades of pink. I’m matchstick quilting as I thought that would add to the impression of vertical streaks of light and color.
This is after 30 minutes of quilting – so, yes, it did take most of the weekend. But I’m so happy with the result.
Here is “Aurora’ finished, and ready to be submitted to the SAQA exhibit Dusk to Dawn – the deadline to enter is today, so I just squeaked in under the wire. The finished size is 27″ x 29″.
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.
My ‘Moonrise’ art quilt is all quilted, and I’m loving the texture the quilting has added. I quilted the sky with straight horizontal lines about 1/4″ apart. The moon and clouds have horizontal quilting 3/4″ apart.
I realized that when I fused the strips for the sky and water, I started from the top and overlapped each strip over the one above it. When I smooth the quilt by running my hand over it in a downward direction, I disturb the raw edges where the strips overlap. If I use this technique again, I will try to remember to overlap each strip over the one below it. With this quilt, I will try to remember to smooth it with an upward motion.
So it’s all complete, except for the finishing – the facings, sleeve and label. But that will get done later, because I’ve started working on a new art quilt. (It’s a good thing I have a two-sided design wall!)
While working on ‘Moonrise’ I found myself getting bored with the color palette, and started wondering whether I could have come up with a more colorful combination for the SAQA exhibit Dusk to Dawn theme. Somehow, that made me think of Northern Lights, also known as Aurora.
I remembered that I have a collection of gradated fabrics in a variety of colors – some of which would be perfect for Northern Lights. I was so excited about this idea that I got out of bed to find the fabrics! The next thing you know, there’s a new project on my design wall!
Yesterday morning, I cut strips of several of the gradated fabrics and arranged them on some dark blue background fabrics. I drew a very rough sketch, but I’m not going to make a full-size pattern. I’m just going to piece it together in an improv way, and see what happens. Here’s my initial fabric selection and placement.
I initially cut the strips 3 inches wide, then I cut some of those in half to add more interest to the design. And I added in a few different fabrics to increase the streaky vertical look. Here’s what it looks like this morning. I’m loving these colors – it’s looking even better than I imagined it would!
I’m hoping to get the piecing all finished today. I have to work quickly, because both of these art quilts need to be ready for submission by January 31.
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.
Progress on Moonrise – since my last post, I layered the quilt, and completed a lot of the quilting.
Layering.
In preparation for layering the quilt, I squared and trimmed the edges, then I machine basted 1/4″ from the edges. This secured the ends of the loosely fused strips.
I used white felt as the middle layer. I will be facing this art quilt, rather than binding it, so I cut the felt and the backing fabric smaller than the top – about 3/4″ on each edge. Because these two layers don’t extend all the way to the edges, there will be a lot less bulk when I fold the edges and the facings to the back.
I spray-basted the three layers, then machine basted the felt/backing 1/8″ from the edge. This basting will be removed after all the quilting is done. You can see both lines of machine-quilting in the photos below.
Quilting.
The fabric strips are pressed to a base of Pellon grid fusible interfacing, a low tack interfacing, which means the fabric can be easily re-positioned. However, that also means the fabric strips are not securely affixed to the interfacing, so I wasn’t sure how well they would stay in place during the quilting. I was pleasantly surprised – I had to re-press them a few times, but none of them fell off.
I quilted the lower half with horizontal wavy lines, spaced about 1/4″ apart. Then I quilted the raw edges of the sky and cloud strips. Now all the strips are secured in place, and I don’t have to be concerned about them coming loose.
I’m going to quilt the sky and clouds with straight horizontal lines about 1/4″ apart. I will probably quilt the moon in the same way, or perhaps with wider spaced lines.
Here’s how it looks at this point.
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.
When I removed the freezer paper from the back of the fabrics, I realized that the shadow of the turned under seam allowance of the white moon was showing through a bit. So I fused a piece of plain white fabric to the back of the moon. Then I zigzag stitched around the clouds, using a very light purple rayon thread at the top of each cloud, and a darker purple thread at the bottom. I also zigzag stitched around the moon reflection in the water.
Then I sewed the two sections together along the horizon seam. Right now, the top is about 30 inches wide by 32 inches high, but I may cut it down a bit. Here’s what it looks like from the front and the back. I’m really happy with how it looks so far.
At this point, the strips are fused loosely to the Pellon interfacing (which you can see in the photo of the back). I’ll have to be careful of the raw edges when I’m quilting it. The next step will be to layer the quilt, then I will begin quilting the lower half with wavy horizontal lines.
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.
The fabric selection for the water and reflection fabrics was simplified by my decision to use only batiks from my stash. That narrowed down my options, which accelerated the decision making.
In the photo below, all the fabrics have been sewn together, except the horizontal center seam. The freezer paper (FP) is still ironed to the back, but the next step will be to peel it off, and sew the horizontal seam.
For the moon, I pressed the seam allowance over the edge of the freezer paper template, then top-stitched it to the sky background. For the clouds and the moon reflection I used the freezer paper (FP) piecing technique which leaves raw edges on the front. I’ve trimmed the raw edges close to the stitching, and after I remove the FP from the back, I will zigzag stitch over the stitched lines and the raw edges.
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.
There’s a new art quilt taking shape on my design wall. I’ve been thinking about this one for a few months, but I had other projects that took priority.
It’s for a new SAQA exhibit Dusk to Dawn. I know I have a very slim chance of being selected – hundreds of SAQA members will be submitting entries, and Dusk to Dawn will consist of approximately 25 artworks. However, I have been planning this art quilt for a few months and it fits the theme, so I’m going to enter it.
Inspired by my entries to the Fibre Art Network’s Botanical Reflections exhibit and my love of circle shapes, I drew the sketch below. I’m thinking of doing a series of sunrise, sunset and moon scenes.
My working title is ‘Moonrise’. It will be about 28 x 28 inches.
I drew the pattern on freezer paper (FP), then cut the sections apart. For each section, I cut a piece of Pellon grid fusible interfacing the size of the FP template plus 1/2″ seam allowance. Then I pressed the FP to the back (non-fusible) of the interfacing (covering the fusible side with parchment paper, to prevent it sticking to the iron or ironing board). Then I placed the section on the ironing board with the FP down and the fusible interfacing up. I cut strips of fabric (about 1.5″ wide) and positioned them on the interfacing, using the grid lines to ensure the strips were straight and parallel. I overlapped the strips by about 1/4″. Once I was satisfied with the arrangement of the strips, I fused them in place.
I selected mostly batiks to minimize future fraying of the raw edges of the strips. I am going to quilt with fairly close horizontal lines, but there will be some raw edges.
I used strips for the clouds and the sky. My initial plan was to use strips for the moon as well. As it turns out, I didn’t have any white batiks for the moon, but I did have a piece of white cotton fabric with silver sparkles that was slightly bigger than the moon section – so I made the moon a solid piece instead of strips.
Below is a photo is the top half with the fabrics fused in place, and some water and reflection fabrics being auditioned. The submission deadline is the end of this month, so I will be cutting and fusing the rest of the fabrics in the next couple of days. Then I will sew the pieces together using my favorite freezer paper (FP) piecing technique, described in this post.
I haven’t decided yet how I will cover the raw edges of the seam allowances – with bias tape or with zigzag stitching.
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.
For this one, I used 3 of the colors in the palette – light gray, blue gray and black. I call it ‘Blue Stairs’. It’s 14 inches square.
I used my favorite freezer paper (FP) piecing technique that I teach in my Circles workshop.
Here’s a brief explanation of the technique, referring to the photos below:
I draw my design on FP and cut the pieces apart on the lines. I press the FP pieces to the back of each fabric, and cut the fabric with a seam allowance.
Then I reassemble the pattern by overlapping the seam allowances. Working from the back, I stitch in the gap between the paper templates.
Then from the front, I trim each seam allowance very close to stitching. This leaves raw edges, which I covered with thin black bias tape.
I’m really enjoying this mini challenge, and I have a few more ideas, but I really need to tear myself away and work on another project that is due by the end of January.
Take a look at all the entries that have been submitted to the Minimal Mini Challenge. I’m sure there will be a lot more added in the next couple of days.
I missed the deadlines for the first two calls for entry by Curated Quilts, but I’m entering the third one – the Minimal Mini Challenge. The deadline for submissions is January 10th.
The color palette is light grey, leaf green, grey, orchid pink, blue grey, and black.
The instructions are to create a square mini quilt, from 10″ x 10″ up to 16″ x 16″, using any or all of the colors, in solids or prints, with a design that explores the concept of minimalism.
I had a bit of a struggle staying with the minimalism idea. I found I wanted to add more design details, and had to keep reminding myself to keep it simple.
For my first entry, I used only 2 of the colors: leaf green and grey. The green looked more like lime green to me, which led me to the concept of ‘Twist of Lime’. For the background I used a solid gray and a printed gray fabric.
I zigzag stitched the edges of the leaf/lime green. I quilted irregularly-spaced vertical straight lines. First I quilted lines approximately 1/2” apart with light gray thread.
Then I filled in with additional vertical lines of light gray, dark gray and lime green. I stitched around the binding twice. It’s 14 x 14 inches square.
I have an idea for another entry (or maybe two), which I will post in a couple of days.
Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
At the beginning of each year, I like to review my goals for the previous year, as well as my accomplishments. Then I think about what I want to accomplish in the coming year.
I’m satisfied with the way things are going, so I’m not making any dramatic changes.
Here are my goals for 2017, and how I am going to carry them over (or not) to 2018:
explore new exhibit opportunities to enter and show my work – I will definitely continue with this in 2018. I’m off to a good start. In January, I plan to submit entries to:
explore new workshop ideas – I didn’t develop any new workshops, but I already have several trunk shows/lectures and workshops booked for 2018 and even 2019. See my schedule here.
create a series of tree quilts, each with different techniques. – No tree quilts were made in 2017, so I’m going to scrap this goal for 2018, and just focus on whatever subject matter captures my interest – which may or may not include trees!
continue to collaborate with my fiber artist sister Anne on one or more fiber art projects – Anne and I worked on a joint project throughout 2017 (blog post coming soon).
de-clutter and re-organize my studio – I started off strong in 2017, with a new scrap organization system (see photo below), a closet re-organization, and paper re-organization But there’s a lot more to be organized, so this will stay on my list for 2018 – and probably forever!
start a bullet journal to replace all the lists I keep making on random pieces of paper – I realized that keeping a bullet journal would turn into a big project that would take time away from quilting design and creation, so I scrapped this idea.
I love my scrap system!
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.
The color palette is light grey, leaf green, grey, orchid pink, blue grey, and black.
