I have been a visual artist for many years. However, I had very little exposure to the art of music, until my musically talented sister Harmonious Joan introduced me to the ukulele.
I decided to go for the 24″ x 24″ size option. I took a photo of my ukulele then printed two full-size images and pinned them on my design wall.
My initial fabric pull was more representative of cacophony than harmony, so I removed the very busy print from the mix.
Color harmonies are part of color theory – established color compositions interact with each other based on their relative positions on the color wheel. I used analogous, complementary and monochromatic harmonies in my composition.
The ukuleles, in chartreuse fabrics, are an example of an analogous harmony. They are bordered with red-violet, the complement of chartreuse, to create a high-contrast vibrant effect.
Musical symbols dance subtly across the dark violet monochromatic background.
‘Duet’ by Terry Aske
I called it ‘Duet’ which relates to the two ukuleles, as well as the concept of harmony in both music and color.
P.S. I got nothing new done on the Decluttering front this month. But I did manage to keep my work area fairly organized throughout this project.
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I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
Quilt Canada will include the National Juried Show, the Concurrent Quilt Shows, the Merchant Mall, Demonstration Booth, plus a wide selection of workshops and lectures. Registration opens on March 15 for CQA members, and March 29 for non-members.
If you’ve been browsing the website looking at information about workshops and lectures, you may have noticed my smiling face in the list of teachers and lecturers, also in the list of workshops and lectures.
I will be doing a presentation on Friday, June 17 at 11:00 am.
Here are some topics I will include in my lecture:
my quilting background
progression of my work over 20+ years
design inspirations
favourite techniques
entering juried exhibits
my quilt studio
my favourite organization ideas
first quilts
favourite quilts
most recent quilts
If there are any other topics you would be interested in hearing about, I’d love it if you leave me a comment below.
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I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
Attention art collectors! Square Foot Show is having flash sale THIS WEEKEND to benefit the Ukraine!
Artists are donating their artworks, and all proceeds are going to support the Ukrainian people in their time of devastation. Proceeds will go to World Vision. World Vision is working with refugees on Ukraine’s border in Romania, and working closely with partners in Ukraine. They are engaging closely with the U.N. and other partners to closely monitor the unfolding crisis and its potential humanitarian demands.
The sale is online, and will start on Saturday at noon EST To shop, visit Shop.SquareFootShow.com All pieces are 12″ by 12″ and will be selling for $300.
I am donating this piece, titled ‘Angular Heart‘.
It’s cotton fabric, pieced, quilted and mounted on a 12” x 12” x .5” frame, with black fabric wrapped around the sides to the back.
I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
In my January 16th post, I said that I will post about my decluttering activities at least once a month. I hope that by the end of the year, I will have accomplished a lot.
I have done a lot of decluttering in the past month, but mostly in other parts of my home other than my studio. I’m happy to say that in my studio, I have maintained the decluttering I did in January. I’m much better at putting things away after each project.
Lesson to be learned – I just spent an hour searching through the cupboards and drawers in my studio looking for a small quilt I finished in January. Eventually I found it in a stack of shipping envelopes. I’m pretty sure that happened when I was decluttering! So the lesson is to be careful when moving things around during a decluttering session.
That reminded me of a big project I did last year and did not post about. If I recall, it all started because I was looking for a quilt and couldn’t find it. I had been thinking about this project for some time, but had been putting it off because I know it would take a long time. I started in March 2021 and I think it took a couple of months to complete.
The project was to organize where all my quilts were stored – and make a record! – so I could find them easily in the future.
I pulled all my quilts out of their various storage places, and sorted them by size. There were about 90 of them. It took me a few days to do this, but I’m really happy with the result. I sorted them into 3 categories – small, medium and large.
Small-sized – 15″ x 15″ or smaller – these are in a green cloth bag. There are 33 of these, and room for more in the bag.
small quilts – 33 piled on green bag
small quilts in the green bag – room for lots more
Medium-sized – 16″ to 20″ wide – I stored these in a 22″ x 50″ cloth garment bag and stored these under the bed. (The garment bag is lying on a large piece of cardboard, so I can easily slide it on the carpet. There are 27 quilts in the bag. It’s pretty full, so if I add more, I will have to start another bag.
medium quilts piled on top of bed
medium quilts in garment bag under bed
Large-sized – wider than 20″ – I rolled these on pool noodles, about 5-8 quilts per roll, tied with cloth strips (selvedges). There are 5 pool noodles with a total of 30 quilts. These are stored on a closet shelf. I numbered each roll.
large quilts rolled on pool noodles
large quilt rolls stored in closet
It was a big job to separate the quilts and store them. What took even more time was recording which group each quilt was stored in. Fortunately I already had an inventory spreadsheet listing all my quilts. (I’m a bit of a spreadsheet geek).
It has the following columns, and I use the Filter feature to sort the list in various ways.
date made (yyyy.mm)
name or description of the quilt
binder (I file paperwork, sketches, notes in page protectors and file those in binders)
size (width, height and square inches)
stored (this new column tells me where to look for the quilt)
location (if a quilt is at a show, has been donated or sold)
A few months later, I consider this a very successful project. When I need to locate a quilt, I find it on my spreadsheet, which tells me exactly where to find the physical quilt.
I hope this gives you some ideas of how to organize and inventory your quilts. If you have any suggestions for organizing finished quilts, please leave a comment below
I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
On February 12, I pulled some strips of variegated green fabrics from my stash and sewed them together to create a background for my quilt. I drew a quick sketch of my concept – a grid of strips and squares. I knew I had to work fast, because the entry deadline was February 15.
I pulled out my pink, green and yellow scraps and started building a grid. I backed each scrap with fusible web, then cut them to size.
I decided the strips should be skinnier. They were already backed with fusible web, so were easy to cut to 1/4′ widths.
When I finished positioning the green strips, I added the brightly coloured squares and rectangles. Once satisfied with the layout, I fused everything in place. Then I quilted an irregular grid with variegated green thread. I really like how the thread disappears and reappears against the background. I finished the edges with facings.
I called it ‘Variegated Spring’. It is 12.5 by 20 inches.
I got it finished in time to take photos and submit my entry by the Feb 15 deadline. Check back in a few days, and I’ll tell you if it is accepted into the exhibit.
I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
I have cleared the clutter off all my working surfaces – Sewing Machine Area, Cutting Table and Ironing Area. See my post of 2022.01.08 for all the Before photos and the After photos of my Sewing Machine Area.
Here are the photos of the decluttering of my Cutting Table. This took about 20 minutes to clear off and put everything where it belongs. (In the background you can see my scrap organization system which I described in a blog post of 2017.02.23.)
Here is a close up of the little stick-on pen holders I added last year. I was constantly losing track of my scissors, pens, pencils, etc. under the fabric and patterns on the table. These worked really well to solve that problem.
The declutter of my Ironing Area took about 30 minutes. I still need to remove some of the stuff at the back of the counter, but will leave that for a later date.
This photo is another problem area I found – under the cutting table. I’ve been hoarding containers rather than using them! I will also leave that for a later date.
I’ve decided to make decluttering a monthly project. In past years, when I’ve signed up for a 21-day or 30-day declutter challenge, I have not had time to get to the hidden clutter – under the table, in the cupboards, etc. This year, I’m going post at least once a month about my decluttering activities. I hope that by the end of the year, I will have accomplished a lot.
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I’ll be linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
Last October, SAQA announced a call for a new virtual online gallery: Street Art. “Born in controversy and the dark of night, this exhibition invites you to explore and create your own version of a now vibrant and respected art form: Street Art.”
I submitted ‘The Writing is on the Wall’ and I’m thrilled to say it was accepted.
The Street Art online gallery (thumbnails below) can be seen here on the SAQA website. You can click on any square image to launch the slideshow. Be sure to click See Details under each image to find out more about each piece, including additional images and artist statements.
“The selected pieces offer a great variety of artistic expressions from graffiti to tags, from frescos to optical illusion, political and controversial pieces, and even some stencil paintings.“
I’m not necessarily following Karen’s daily topics, and I certainly don’t have time to work on this every day. But it will give me some focus to keep working on my decluttering. I also hope to pick up organization tips from other participants.
I decided to focus first on my main problem – letting clutter accumulate on all my surfaces, and not putting things away. Here are my “before” photos of my work areas.
Yesterday I tackled the sewing machine area. I followed Karen’s suggestion to set my timer for 15 minutes, and started putting the clutter away. I really focused on putting things away where they belonged, rather than just moving them to another cluttered area. After 20 minutes my sewing machine area was clear.
Check back in a few days as I tackle my other cluttered surfaces.
The next challenge that caught my eye was the current Curated Quilts mini challenge. The colour palette is shades of red and pink, the theme is Energize.
I gathered together all my red and pink fabrics and bias tape.
Then I created a pattern of wildly curving stripes, similar to ‘Curves Gone Wild’. This time I may have pushed the edge of the envelope with extreme curves. That last pink bias curve required a lot of pressing, spraying and pinning to get it to keep its shape.
Here is the finished quilt. It is 12 x 12 inches. The title is ‘Heat Waves’.
I see that I forgot to post a final photo of my ‘Curves Gone Wild’ quilt. (I posted it on Instagram on November 1, then forgot to post it here).
Here it is. I quilted curvy lines with my walking foot, stitching very slowly, so I could move the quilt back and forth as it moved under the needle. Finished size is 32” x 16”.
‘Curves Gone Wild’ by Terry Aske
Then, because I was one of the organizers of this exhibition by the Fibre Art Network titled “ON THE BIAS”, I got swept up in monitoring all the entries being submitted and didn’t have time to make anything new for a while.
