Update- WIP

About ready for machine work

Las Vegas

My company sent me to Las Vegas last week for our annual conference. During the trip I spent my time looking out the window watching the world below. It’s a fascinating pastime if you are a quilter.

You see so many patchwork patterns in the landscape below. Circles and rectangles, colors and shades; such a unique perspective. It continually amazes me how pioneer quilters were able to come up with those same patterns without the advantage of flight. I wonder if they saw those pattens from the top of a hill or mountain.

After arriving I walked around Las Vegas in my spare time. So much energy is generated there, both positive and negative. But what color and visuals! Iwish I could capture that energy in a quilt.

In the casino hotel I was staying in I was fascinated by the tile patterns on the floors. Like wholecloth mandalas they gleamed up at me. I enjoyed just walking over the patterns tracing them with my feet. I’m sure some of the people around me wondered if I was drunk or what, as I tried to commit some of those patterns to memory walking round and round them.

The view from my windows was gorgeous. Besides the lights of the strip I could see the mountains around the city. First thing every morning I would get up, draw back the drapes, and drink in the view of those mountains. The play of light and shadows on their profiles was a fun study.

I didn’t get to visit any quilt shops while I was there which was disappointing. But there was so much to look at, that really that’s okay. It seems to me a person needs to visit places to excite their imagination. What about you?

What Fabrics Do You Use For Landscape Quilts?

People ask me what my criteria is for fabric for my landscapes. There aren’t a lot of rules. If you wish to make a realistic portrayal I do have some suggestions:

 First: Look around you. What are the colors you find in nature? If you look closely, you will find almost every color occuring in nature, plus all the manmade objects offer even more colors.

 Second: Some prints just do not translate into anything you find in nature. But, you have to be careful here. I might cut a small shape from something you would swear could not be in a realistic landscape or seascape.

 Third: What you do need are many shades(values) of a color and it helps if you find many different textures within that color range.

 Fourth: Quite often realistic portrayals of natural objects do not work in my pieces. The lighting, the shading, the sizing might be all wrong.

I work intuitively, striving for a painterly effect. Fabrics that can give me brushstrokes of color make me deliriously happy. Mottled fabrics, handdyed fabrics, these give me good effects. Sometimes clear colors are what is needed.

 You have to remember you are going to cut some pieces that later you will decide are not right and remove. You also have to remember you can subtly or sharply change the fabric: thread, fabric markers, paint are all used for that purpose. Twisting and folding fabrics help with texture.

 Look at the work of landscape quilters you admire, really look at their work. One of the people whose work  I admire who used odd combos of fabric was Joan Colvin. I might use part of a flower for a rock, part of some sealife might be just right for foliage. When I am working I am looking for lighting and mood. I get these by the values of my color selections.

 Bright summer day, bright vivid clear colors. Overcast cloudy day, muddy grayed muted colors. You are really trying to fool the eye into thinking it is seeing what you wish it to see.

 So, if you are interested in realistic portrayals of the landscape, pull out your fabrics and practice making a little magic. If you are interested in non-realistic portrayals, the sky is the limit. No matter which you choose, the most important fabric is your sense of fun.

 

What Is It About Fabric

that ignites so much emotion inside me and causes images to dance before my eyes? Fabric is inanimate but to me is almost like a living breathing organism.

 Nothing has more hypnotic power over me than mounds of beautiful glowing fabric. I stroke the folds of cloth and waves of pure pleasure cascade through me. In my mind’s eye, visions of what this bit of cloth could become flit back and forth in front of me much like a dragonfly flits from here to there on a warm summer’s evening.

 Certain colors evoke images of summer or the tropics. Shades of white are cold like winter or pure like a child’s heart. Red is drama, sometimes danger. No matter what image the color brings to mind, the irresistable charm draws me in, whispering of quilts to be dreamed, designed, and constructed.

 I can look up at the sky and my mind will conjure up a piece of fabric laying on one of my shelves that looks just like the sky at that moment. By the same token I can be walking along a country path and as my gaze lights upon some fallen leaves I’m wondering if I have those shades of fabric in my stash or not.

 Fabric can be twisted, cut, shredded or even woven into the quilts of my dreams. It can be altered or not, whatever the situation demands to reach the desired conclusion. Fabric is the friend of thread which enhances the lines or blurs them.

 No wonder then, a perfect day is one of handling fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright ©2009

Why?

write a blog at all? About anything? Simply put, because we human beings like to communicate.

I reach out to other quilters and creators through my blog. This is an experiment in part. I want to find others to communicate with about this terrific art I’m involved in: quilting. The other part is simply to record what is going on in my quilting world.

Don’t think I need only admiration for these posts. I like conversing even disagreeing about quilts, my quilts or anyone else’s. I think the more we communicate among ourselves the more creative we become. We grow as a consequence of others forcing us to think (through conversation) about our ideas.

This doesn’t mean I think we should blog rather than expand our creativity through doing the art we love. Or sketching, photography, enjoying nature and life. Rather I see the blogging as a further expansion of creativeness. This sharing leads to amazing ideas taking root and growing within us.

When I converse with someone about quilting, ideas that have been buried in my consiousness resurface and I become excited about making something. Or some problem that has been plaguing me comes up and sometimes it helps me to resolve it or come to terms with the fact that I can’t resolve it.

So when you see a quilters blog, it is fun to stop in and read what they have to say. Some blogs won’t interest you at all, others will capture your attention completely. Either way, it is an interesting journey.

Making Aquasphere

I posted some pictures of Aquasphere yesterday. This was a week-long quilt project made for my nephew’s new baby boy.

Aquasphere was made made using handdyes, and commercial fabric. It is completely machine pieced, appliqued and quilted.

When my nephew told me his wife was expecting a son I knew it was a call for a quilt. This nephew and I are very close. When I lived on South Padre Island, he and I used to look forward to his family’s annual visits and getting to play on the sand and in the water. I knew I wanted to make a quilt causing him to remember his childhood and that was how Aquasphere was born.

I had made some seashells and starfish years before from my drawings for a project that were leftovers. When I got them out and looked at them, they were just what I wanted. I made a watery sphere out of some of my handdyed blue. I picked out that area of the fabric because splotches on it  looked a little like the North America- South America continent shapes.

Coral was easy, just freeform cutting out of fabrics I liked. The seaweed is also tremendously easy and fun. I cut long 1″ wide strips of fabric, down the center of the fabric I stitch long basting stitches, then pull up some of the stitching and satin stitch over the basting stitches. Then just use your scissors to slash up to the satin stitches wherever you want to and you’ve got super easy seaweed. 

I fussy cut the flowers from some tropical fabric and added them to the top by fusing onto the sphere. Then I had to have fish, turtles, and a crab, some are fused, some are not.

When I had everything arranged the way I liked it was time to get out the fancy threads and start machine stitching them in place. It was so much fun to think about my nephew when he was a boy all during this process.

Next I added borders and then machine quilted. The blue border has very small stipple quilting, the yellow green border has kind of a shark’s tooth quilting, the striped border has a curly vine quilting , the black background has a large meandering, the sphere has small stipple, individual appliques are quilted as seemed appropriate.

I am satisfied with the quilt. It was quick and fun. Now when baby Tucker lays on this quilt I hope his daddy remembers an aunt and sunshine and laughter.

Aquasphere

This is a baby quilt I made for my nephew’s new son. It is a still life of the marine world. I love the sphere, it looked like earth with its “continental” splotches.

Work In Progress Notes

As you can see, I have lots more work to do. The frustrating thing about getting back into quilting is how little time I have anymore. Plus, I have two other pieces I have to finish before I get to complete this one, one of those pieces is king-sized. But, there is enough there to show me where I’m going at least.

The yellow tree in foreground will have more branches and leaves. None of the trees will be as formal( straight) as they are now, though I am not trying to do twisted tortured trees. This piece is really about the magnificent color autumn gives to us.

There will be lots more foliage and a small stand of perhaps sumac in the foreground. Thread will be doing a lot of the work, making some areas stand out and some blend. You can’t ell from the picture but there are hundreds and hundreds of pieces in this. The leaves on the trees will be finished with threadwork.

I really like the sky fabric. It’s a piece of my handdyed and the light play is right. There are a lot of handdyes in this as well as commercial cotton. The tree on the far right has foliage that started out as coral from a piece of Michael Miller or Kaufman fabric.

Taking these photos even though they aren’t very good are so helpful because it distances you from the work and lets you see the problems.

 Would love input from anyone because I like talking quilt.

WIP Autumn’s Glory Days

WIP Autumn's Glory Days Detail

Work in Progress on Autumn’s Glory Days

WIP Autumn’s Glory Days 2

Photos taken hurriedly by grandson this morning, uploaded . Colors a little off in photo. Can see the work ahead, will be more in this than there is now. Photos make it difficult to tell but I shaded water with pigma pens.

Work in Progress Photos

WIP Autumn's Glory Days Detail

WIP Autumn's Glory Days 2

Work in Progress on Autumn's Glory Days

Will try to get some better shots, my grandson used his camera and took these in a hurry for me. But, even with these I can see the work I need to do.