Color Journals: Orange for Patti

Orange! I was a little surprised that somebody else picked orange, but happily so, since it gave me the chance to work in my favorite color. Patti asked us to make a page that would inspire her to work in different directions, so I decided to create a hard-line geometric page. I had been doodling on my triangle graph paper trying to get the look of ribbons woven through one another over the isometric grid; I realized that elongated hexagons in Y-shapes would do it.

The next challenge was to scale the design so it would work on an 8 x 10" page, so I used PowerPoint to draft the two shapes, scaled so the tiny triangle was 0.5" high and 0.58" wide. I basted three colors of oranges (light, medium, coppery dark) in sets of three, then sewed the Ys together. I didn't wrap or sew the white triangles until I had determined how many I would need to fill the space. I originally intended to embellish the Y intersections, but once I finished the hand quilting (not masterfully done, but let's call it a "wabi sabi" aesthetic...) it was done. I like that the small scale of the piecing remains central.

Orange journal page for Patti.

Color Journals: Daydreaming in blue for Gerry

Due to my vacation schedule, I haven't been able to attend my journal art meeting since April. I finally made it this Tuesday, with three projects that have been backlogged. I hope the delay wasn't too disruptive to the group. I'll put up separate posts for each.

My assignment for May was to make a page in blue plus a neutral for Gerry, who also selected a theme of Daydreaming. Traveling is what I daydream about, so I worked through the basic techniques in my newest book purchase Art Quilt Maps, to build a background layer of cottons, sheers, and a few interesting upholstery bits. I added some very faint neutral paint (I can't believe there's a color called "Metallic Taupe" -- reminds me of National Lampoon's Vacation), then started building a river, roads, fields, and houses. I used a nice combination of machine and hand stitching, glued on a few embellishments, and finally had some success with the sparkly Angelina fiber. I'll let the photos say the rest.

Inspiration and technique. I love this book.

Daydreaming -- full view

Daydreaming close-up. I thought this looked kind of like a cul-de-sac, but without the compass rose it was more like a big grey lollipop. I loved how the tiny squares -- cut from a Stonehenge print -- looked like houses on a development plan.  I wasn't replicating a specific map of any particular place, so I don't know what the rectangular bit is "supposed" to be; it's all rather abstract.

Daydreaming close-up. I love the gridded grey sheer on the right. I can envision using this on a bunch of other map projects. The hand stitched Xs were for some dimension and interest. I glued some brass caps onto this segment of the "houses."

I love how these circles above the river came out. Hand stitching and glued brass embellishments. I stitched down each wale of the white corduroy rectangle in the upper right corner.

Coming soon: Patti's orange page!

Happy Retirement!

Last month my father finally retired, so the family got together for a (mostly) surprise party last weekend. I'm so glad that he now has the time to putter around doing whatever he wants with his time. In honor of his retirement, my mom asked me to make him a Pittsburgh Pirates t-shirt quilt, so I did a little figurin' and measurin' and slicin' and stitchin', and this is what I came up with. This black city fabric has been hanging around forever, and I'm happy I still had it for this project; the gold also has a much fainter city map print. The borders around the t-shirts were very simple, but I liked the skyline effect that showed up. The quilt was a big hit at his party. Some of the shiftier guests -- aunts and uncles and the like -- were eyeing it up as they headed for their cars (just kidding!). Congratulations and thanks for all of your years of hard work, Dad!

Dad's Pirates quilt

Back of Dad's Pirates quilt, inspected by Stella

Label of Dad's Pirates quilt

Seahorses...in hexagons!

An original design BY ME, using the cutest little fussy cut seahorses. I used the swiss-cheese leftovers from the same print as the blue segments, and a coordinate for the striped pinwheels. I had planned to leave the top and bottom edges hex-shaped, but the shape looked weird on this baby-size quilt, so I filled in the pink in the middle, but I left the corners angled. The quilting is a simple meander with pink variegated Sulky.

Hexagonal seahorses!

Now I don't have to think about what to do with this cute panel -- it was the perfect size for the back of this cute little quilt!

VT Quilt Festival

My family had a fantastic weekend kicking around Burlington for the VT Quilt Festival. Thursday started out with a real bang, when we learned that Linus won the Best Young Quilter award for his American Banner project!!

Linus! Look, his name is already on the festival website!

They even showed a photo of his quilt on the screen during the awards ceremony.

It was exciting to see the ribbon hanging on his quilt when we walked past it.

The show was, as expected, a feast for the eyes. In no particular order, I'm posting the photos that I took. There were hundreds more beautiful quilts, but these are the ones that pulled the camera out of my bag for whatever momentary reason.

Escher. No surprise why this one caught my eye. Mary Knapp came to speak at our Greater Hartford Annual Gathering last fall, so I saw this a few months ago.

This project was inspired by the look of a small marbling project. Easy to see why it won the Best Construction award.

Exquisite.

This was just a spectacular full-spectrum feast for the eyes. Every 1.5" square was made from four pieces (QSTs).

Hexagons. And bees. 'nuff said.

More hexagons. Interesting piecing.

Really captivating composition.

I loved the simplicity of this one.

There were surprise "ants" quilted into this watermelon project. I love these colors, and I love love love that she added the black "seeds."

Not really visible in the picture, but every block of this quilt featured one fabric with text of some kind. These little personal-concept projects tickle my fancy. Plus, I also like text fabrics.

Let X=X. Beautiful graphic forms.

Detail from an amazing huge quilt featuring cut-out areas. Remarkable details.

I loved the arrangement of this series as a single installation.

Gorgeous geometric design.

Striking series hung together.

Just wonderful. The full quilt featured hundreds of dog names from literature, songs, and history. Even The Far Side made it ("Blah blah blah Ginger")!

Pretty pretty pretty. From up close, I kind of hated the separate fabrics, but a great example of how the project is so much more than the individual ingredients.

Pretty Lotus

Two days of sewing at the shop and my Lotus quilt is together. I love love love these colors--warm corals and salmon pinks, with coppery and ochre accents. Not the super-bright oranges that I typically choose, but a much more "grown-up" version (and still orange, after all). I used a complete mishmash of fabrics in this little lap quilt: some large prints, some small ones; a variety of lights, mediums, and darks; and at least six different designers.

Lotus quilt (Jaybird Designs), ready to finish

I'll square off the sides of this one (and piece the cut-offs into the back), and I might add a border if I have enough of the coppery brown triangle fabric left. I am also wondering if I have enough cut-off triangles to make a border that wraps the whole way around the quilt. I suppose I could cut a few more if there aren't quite enough in the leftover stack.

Due to the timing of both of our summer vacations, I have missed two journal meetings in a row, so I'm now two months behind on those projects. The June meeting is next Tuesday, and I don't want to have three full projects to complete before July, so I took some time today to get a decent start on the May and June pages. I won't post any details about those pages until I pass them on at the July meeting, but at least I'm encouraged that I'll be all caught up by then.

Lotus class

I spent this fine sunny spring day teaching a class on the Lotus pattern at Lisa's Clover Hill Quilts. Five students, five beautiful quilts underway! This is a great pattern -- extremely easy to sew, and so much potential for different and unique looks with only minor tweaking in the color choices. Thanks to everyone for a fun day!

A few photos of the initial blocks that everybody made:

Debbie's first block -- delicious chocolate-covered cherries!!

Linda is going to have a tropical treat when she finishes her quilt (probably tonight!)

Liz decided to work in a smaller scale, using just one color for all of the small triangles. One of the great things about the ruler is that it makes it simple to scale up to larger pieces or down to smaller pieces with very little effort. All the math is built right in.

Liz's first blocks. I like the way the single-color triangles creates circles.

Sara had some lovely Asian fabrics with rich vibrant colors.

Sue joined us a little late, but still managed to finish three blocks before we wrapped up.

One thing I particularly appreciate about this pattern is that even the scraps are cut off in ready-to-use condition. I have a small stack of half triangles and a hundred or so perfect equilateral triangles ready to assemble.

My Lotus scraps.

I didn't get much of the sewing done, but all the pieces are cut and ready to go. This will be a good take-on-Tuesday project to keep me busy on the next open sew.

Lotus pieces