Having Fun

I thought it might be fun this week to switch to some brighter, richer colors, (a final farewell to the vibrancy of summer) and let myself be inspired by the weavings that one might find in Mexico or Guatemala...


Using stripes of solid shot cottons, along with some striped shot cotton, plaids and a madras fabric, I pieced the tops.


Then using 12wt. Premium Sulky® 100% Blendable Cotton Threads, I did the same closely, but unevenly spaced rows of meandering straight stitch that I used on my last piece ...


I really had a lot of fun with these two little quilts... probably because I use to weave before I quilted, and I got a real kick out of the one art form inspiring the other. More of these quilts are in the works.


Color Weave no.1


and Color Weave no.2

are currently available for sale in my shop.

(P.S. Lest you are thinking that I have abandoned my hand stitching, rest assured that is not the case! I am currently working on the hand quilted layer on Work Quilt no.4 as well as working on another Yukata cloth table runner similar to the one shown here. More about those, coming soon!

Remnants

Pinned up on my studio wall, I have some photo images of really heavily patched and stitched antique boro.


The patches in those boro pieces are all raw edged, and seem to completely cover whatever had been the original base fabric.


I like that nothing went wasted, and everything was important enough to be patched.

... Years ago when I was a teenager, a woman commented on my heavily patched and mended jeans, (they made my mother cringe and I know she used much restraint not to steal them from me in the middle of the night and set them on fire). The woman told me that to patch something was to show love. I never forgot that. (And I appreciated that this kind stranger understood me.... I wasn't accustomed to that.)


Anyway... looking at the boro images, and then glancing over at the ever growing pile of small bits of fabric scraps and off-kilter shaped pieces of batting left over from previous projects and now just sitting on my shelf, got me to thinking it was time to use it all up.


So I'm starting a little series of "Remnants", which I will be posting in my shop as they are completed.



More to come soon. xo

Inspired by Color

A few months ago I was contacted by the lovely Sonu Mathew, who is a Senior Interior Designer for Benjamin Moore & Co. She also is the host of Benjamin Moore's Living in Color with Sonu, a wonderful blog full of color inspiration. Sonu wanted to know if my little Abstract No.5, (pictured below) which I created about a year and a half ago as part of a small series, could be included in a future post featuring quilts as color inspiration. (Absolutely!)


Today the post ran and I am really delighted to find my work included in a post also featuring the work of Jan Myers-Newberry and Denyse Schmidt, both genuine rock stars in the quilt world! (Geez Louise, I sound like a silly groupie !)

Please be sure to check out Sonu's great blog and quilt inspired post here.

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A big Thank You for all the great comments in regards to my current work in progress, (see post below) and the struggle to overcome the critical voice of the perfectionist, (something apparently many of us share). This piece is so personal to me, (not in terms of private, but in terms of a journey) and I am truly grateful for everyones encouragement and support. I will be sure to share the final results once I finish. xo

Layer by Layer

Remember the shot cotton quilt I was working on from a few posts back? Well, what I didn't explain in that post was how I am approaching its construction...

Because my muse for this piece is old work quilts, (which I am not trying to duplicate, only be inspired by) I thought it'd make sense to build the quilt up in various layers...


I first started off with 9 12.5" x 12.5" base squares of fabric and appliqued various patches on each one. (These squares were to represent the various patched fabrics that would have been recycled into a work quilt.) Then I sewed them all together for the quilt top and did the first layer of quilting, (which is what I showed in the first post.)

Now I've moved onto the 2nd layer. This finds me sewing on more patches, (such as the ones in both of these photos) some overlapping patches from layer #1 and some overlapping the seams joining the base squares. (This is to represent the patching that would have been done after the work quilt got used and worn even more.)


Along with the shot cottons, I'm also starting to incorporate bits of really lovely woven cottons that have an aged look to them. (The white thread will be removed, as it was just used as a preliminary basting stitch until I could machine applique the patches in place. The brown threads will also get trimmed off.)

More long rows of quilting come next, (this time in a zig-zag stitch I think, just to add some interest).

After that I move onto layer #3... probably more of the same, just slowly building it up until either I have the look I want, or I have made a complete mess... hoping it's the first! More to come later!

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There's a new quilt blog recently started called Modify Tradition. It's about the journey of marrying the look of a modern quilt with the techniques used in traditional quilt making. Discussion is encouraged and I am finding the posts and the conversation very entertaining. Check it out, it deserves a look!

Stones, Shells and Hemingway... Inspiration to Sew By

"Let him think I am more man than I am and I will be so."
- Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea


With this new piece, I happily revisited a previous theme which I first began exploring a year ago... Mid Century inspired table runners/wall hangings, (which I also refer to as "functional art quilts" as these pieces work both as beautiful, functional table runners and decorative accent pieces, as well as a beautiful piece of art to hang.)


My muses for previous pieces, (see here, here and here) included old utilitarian quilts and Frank Lloyd Wright.


For this piece however, my inspiration came from stones, shells and the mental image of Ernest Hemingway. The stones and shells, gathered on my recent visit to the sea side, were a visual influence for my color and pattern choices,


where Hemingway provided the muse for creating a piece with a masculine feel... I wanted something that would look at home in a study, draped over an old and well used wooden table that had been oiled to a deep, rich shine.

"Hemingway" - A Mid-Century Inspired Functional Art Quilt is currently available in my shop.

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P.S. I was delighted to learn from the comments on my last post that so many of you are familiar with and like Tsatsiki! What a pleasant surprise!

Design Inspiration

The sun came out today for a bit and I was able to get some slightly better photos of my new work, (thanks everyone for the very kind responses in the previous post!)

Also thought I would share what I wrote about the thinking and inspiration behind the work:

"Form and function are one"
- Frank Lloyd Wright


Lately, I have been increasingly drawn to and attracted to, mid century design. Especially architecture. I decided that I wanted to start a new series of art quilts that were both beautiful and functional. Objects, that if placed in a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, would look like they belonged.


When I was a kid, my parents took my sister and me to see Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater", (picture above). I was so enthralled by what I was seeing, both on the exterior and the interior. All the rules were broken, and everything made perfect sense. One thing that's been on my "bucket list" for a long time is to take a trip from coast to coast, stopping along the way to visit as many of Frank's structures as I can! Wouldn't that be wonderful!?!

Glorious Color!

Outside it was gray and overcast again, but inside I focused on glorious color!

A bowl of thread on my sewing table


A pile of paint chips on my cutting table. They provide wonderful inspiration for new color combinations, and the best part is they're free!


My latest embroidered mini art quilt, photographed against a vibrant piece of yellow paper.

Show me your colorful inspirations! If anyone has recently posted something bright and colorful on their blog, feel free to add a link to it in the comments section!