Terry Aske Art Quilt Studio

Off my design wall – 2014.07.23

Posted on July 23, 2014 by TerryAske

This is my second entry to the MQG Michael Miller Petal Pinwheels fabric challenge. You can see my first entry here.

Inspired by these two quilts – Paul’s entry to the Common Threads Indigo Project and Lisa’s Fractured Pi quilt – I decided to try improv wedges.

I had an idea in mind but didn’t draw it out ahead of time. I figured I’d just go for it, and see what happened. I added coordinating solids to each side of each of the 3 challenge prints. Then I cut wedges in random widths. This way, I got 2 sets of wedges from each print fabric. See photos below.

Then I arranged the 6 sets of wedges on my design wall and filled in the gaps with more solids. I used two shades of gray for the binding. It only took a couple of days from start to finish (which is good because the MQG deadline is Friday) and I’m very happy with it. It’s 34 x 32 inches.

Now, back to the portrait quilt (it’s all fused, and I’ve started thread-sketching the details).

Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday. Click on the links below, to see many other creative projects.

Posted in Modern quilts, WiP Wednesday | Tagged modern quilt, quilt challenge, WiP Wednesday | 18 Comments

On my design wall – 2014.07.16

Posted on July 16, 2014 by TerryAske

Last week, I showed my progress on the Kalina part of the fabric portrait of Thomas and Kalina. I mentioned that I thought the lightest fabric might be too light – and many of you agreed. So while I worked on the Thomas part of the portrait, I auditioned a lot of alternative fabrics – many were too dark, some were too light.

Eventually I settled on a fabric that is almost ‘just right’ – it could be considered a tiny bit too dark (depending on the light) but I decided I would rather have a fabric that was a tad too dark, rather than too light. I was concerned about whether I would be able to remove the original fabric, and had considered fusing the new fabric on top of it, if necessary. Luckily, I had pressed the fused fabrics, but only lightly, so I was able to slip a pin under the too light fabric and lift it right off.

Interestingly, I had the same problem with the lightest fabric for Thomas’ face – the first one I selected was also too light. I think I’ve finalized all the fabric selections – but right now, they are just pressed to parchment paper, and the Thomas section is not actually fused to the Kalina section yet. I want to let it sit for a day before I do the final fusing, and start sewing. I’d love to know what you think of it.

(As I said last week, I’m just showing it in black & white until after the wedding – then I’ll post it in all its glorious surrealistic color – want to guess what colors I’ve used?)

Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday. Click on the links below, to see many other creative projects. If you have a blog, link yours up and join the fun.

Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall, Portrait quilts, WiP Wednesday | Tagged art quilt, dog portrait, WiP Wednesday | 10 Comments

On my design wall – 2014.07.10

Posted on July 10, 2014 by TerryAske

I’m working on a new portrait quilt. Tom and Kalina are getting married later in July, and I’m making a quilt portrait for them. The quilt will be based on one of their engagement photos. Kalina said she liked the idea of surrealistic colors, so we talked about what their favorite (and least favorite) colors are. Here are some of the colors I’m considering for the quilt. With surrealistic colors, it’s very important to ensure the values are correct, and it’s difficult (at least I find it is) to judge values when looking at colors. So after arranging the fabric swatches by value as best I can, I take a photo and convert it to black & white, to confirm the fabrics are correctly sorted by value.

Then, I selected fabrics for Kalina. (I’m just going to show the portrait in black & white for now. Kalina knows which photo I’m using, but the actually colors I’ve selected will be a surprise. I’ll post a color version of the finished quilt after the wedding.) Here is what it looks like right now, with Kalina composed in fabric, and the photo of Tom. I’m thinking the lightest fabric I used on Kalina’s face might be too light – any thoughts? I’ll contemplate that while I select fabrics for Tom.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you will see many other creative projects.

Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall, Portrait quilts | Tagged art quilt, portrait quilt | 6 Comments

Weekend finish – 2014.07.06

Posted on July 6, 2014 by TerryAske

I finished my first quilt for the MQG Michael Miller Petal Pinwheels fabric challenge.

As I said in my previous post, I layered the quilt, then sewed the bias tape through all the layers. I quilted each section with straight lines starting from the outside edge of the section and working inward to the center. I decided to sew the binding on before quilting – to make it easier to quilt the sections on the outside edges. I made the binding wider than my normal binding – 1/2 inch wide, the same width as the bias tape (wider than my normal binding).

Here’s the finished quilt.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up to these blogs. Click on the links below, where you will see many other creative projects.

Posted in Friday finishes, Modern quilts | Tagged modern quilt, quilt challenge | 6 Comments

Work in progress – 2014.07.02

Posted on July 2, 2014 by TerryAske

For the MQG Michael Miller Petal Pinwheels fabric challenge I initially made ‘plus’ blocks in a variety of sizes. I ran out of fabric, so decided to wait until I got another bundle at the next VMQG meeting.

By the time I received more fabric, I realized that I wasn’t happy with the blocks I had. I considered several designs with these fabrics, and finally realized that (for me) the 6 fabrics just didn’t work well together. I decided to use my second bundle of fabrics to make 2 separate quilts, each using 3 of the fabrics.

For the first set of 3 fabrics, I added solids in dark gray, very light gray and yellow, plus a bit of peacock blue for added zip. The inspiration for this quilt design is this DIY painting. I used bias tape for the straight lines. In this photo, all the bias tape has been sewn on, except the peacock blue. Next I’m going to bind it (probably with several colors), then I will quilt each section.

I have an idea in mind for the 2nd set of 3 fabrics, but I haven’t started working on it yet. Hopefully I can get it finished before the deadline.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday. Click on the links below, to see many other creative projects.

Posted in Modern quilts, WiP Wednesday | Tagged modern quilt, quilt challenge, WiP Wednesday | 9 Comments

Weekend finish – 2014.06.21

Posted on June 21, 2014 by TerryAske

I finished my Converging Corners quilt.

It started back in March, when I submitted this block lottery idea to my guild – the Vancouver MQG. I loved the bright colors with the solid white background. I made sample blocks to show my guild – I just had to make 4 of them so I could see the effect of the converging corners. At the April meeting, several members brought blocks – there were a total of 22 blocks. We held the block lottery, and I won!

I only used 16 of the blocks because I wanted a square quilt. (I gave the extra 6 blocks to one of my fellow guild members, because she had made 8 blocks for the lottery!) When I pieced the blocks together, I decided to insert skinny black strips at each corner, and I really think it ties all the blocks together. As I explained in this post, I had originally planned to bind it with black, but decided instead on a 1/4 inch black border with scrappy colorful 3/8 inch binding. I’m very happy with how it looks.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up to these blogs. Click on the links below, where you will see many other creative projects.

Posted in Friday finishes, Modern quilts | Tagged modern quilt | 5 Comments

Work in Progess – 2014.06.18

Posted on June 18, 2014 by TerryAske

I’m working on this quilt that I pieced at the VMQG retreat in May.

Because I inserted the skinny black strips at each converging corner, I also wanted a black strip around the outside edge. I considered a black binding, but decided that would be too wide – too much black. Then I thought about a binding with black piping (like this), but the piping is only 1/8 inch wide, which seemed too skinny. I experimented with making the faux piping wider, but that didn’t seem to work well.

In the end, I added a narrow black border. I’ll trim it so that 1/4 inch of the black shows after I add a 3/8 inch scrappy binding. Here’s a mock-up of how it will look. (Adding the black border also means I won’t be sewing the binding on over multiple seams.)

I’m quilting square spirals in each block. Eight spirals done, eight more to go. Here’s what the four center squares look like with the quilting. You can probably see the quilting better on the back of the quilt.

And look what I just noticed – I have two blocks next to each other with the same fabric in the very center! Considering how many times I’ve looked at the quilt, and photos of it, I’m surprised I didn’t notice it before now. Oh well – too late to change it now.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday. Click on the links below, to see many other creative projects.

Posted in Modern quilts, WiP Wednesday | Tagged modern quilt, WiP Wednesday | 10 Comments

CQA Award!

Posted on June 13, 2014 by TerryAske

Quilt Canada 2014 is taking place this week in St. Catherines Ontario, from June 10-14. I’m not attending this year, but I did have four quilts accepted for the National Juried Show.

The awards ceremony was held on Tuesday evening, but the list of winners was only posted on the website yesterday. And, guess what? I won an award! My quilt Shades of Gray won the 2nd place award in the Modern category. I’m thrilled!

I originally blogged about this quilt here and here.

Here are the other quilts I had accepted for the show:

I also have 2 entries in the Trend-Tex challenge.

And I have a piece in one of the concurrent shows, ‘Abstracted’ by Fibre Art Network members.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up to these blogs. Click on the links below, where you will see many other creative projects.

Posted in Modern quilts, Quilt shows | Tagged award, modern quilt, quilt show | 15 Comments

Off my design wall – 2014.06.11

Posted on June 11, 2014 by TerryAske

The sailboat quilt – titled ‘Catching the Wind’ – is finished (except for the sleeve and label, which I will get done soon). I’m really happy with how it turned out, but I’m really looking forward to working on several other projects that have accumulated while I was working on this one.

On my post last week, Heidi Lindsay posted a comment – “The sailboat looks great! I did one that is quite similar, although only 6 x 9 inches, which I’d like to share with you if you send me an email address.”

Here’s Heidi’s sailboat quilt – ‘Keeping the Dream Alive’

“This is ‘Keeping The Dream Alive.’ It’s about 6 x 9 inches, lives in my husband’s cube at work, and I made it after taking a class with Sue Benner at Asilomar. It’s fused, machine quilted, and serged on the edges. Your bigger quilt makes me want to do this is a larger form. I did my quilting before attaching the sailboat.”

Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday. Click on the links below, to see many other creative projects.

Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall, WiP Wednesday | Tagged art quilt, WiP Wednesday | 8 Comments

On my design wall – 2014.06.04

Posted on June 4, 2014 by TerryAske

Sailboat art quilt – all fused, mostly stitched, and looking good. I decided to quilt the background first, then I added the boat and the foreground waves.

Last week, I said I was going to line the hull and sails with black iron-on stabilizer to prevent the background showing through. I found the black stabilizer made the sails look too dingy, but the white stabilizer didn’t completely hide the background from showing through the sails. So I changed my mind and instead lined the sails with a layer of white batting – that seems to have done the trick.

I’ve stitched the mast and sails in place, but still have some detail stitching to do. I also have to add the rigging for the sails.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m linking up with these blogs for WiP Wednesday. Click on the links below, to see many other creative projects.

Posted in Art quilts, On my design wall, WiP Wednesday | Tagged art quilt, WiP Wednesday | 4 Comments

Off my design wall – 2014.07.23

On my design wall – 2014.07.16

On my design wall – 2014.07.10

Weekend finish – 2014.07.06

Work in progress – 2014.07.02

Weekend finish – 2014.06.21

Work in Progess – 2014.06.18

CQA Award!

Off my design wall – 2014.06.11

On my design wall – 2014.06.04

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