Blogger's Quilt Festival, Spring 2013

I became aware of the Blogger's Quilt Festival through Nina-Marie's blog this week, and have decided to enter my latest quilt, Autumn Glory in the Art Quilt category. I've blogged about creating this quilt before- so if you seen and read all this before, bear with me!

I've lived in the desert southwest my entire life- a landscape that is more known for wide open spaces and lots of browns. I had the opportunity to take a trip to northwestern Michigan with my son and his fiancee last fall, and I found myself enthralled with a lush, green landscape very different from what I'm used to.  We hiked through woods that enveloped me with verdant greens (and the very beginning of fall colors), where the view above me was entwined branches with only bits of blue sky peeking through.  I loved it, and took hundreds of pictures.  So far, I've made three quilts inspired by this trip, and more are in my head.  A Walk in the Woods: Autumn Glory is the third in this series.

I do not want to create a realistic quilt of the woods I experienced, but rather give a sense of the tall, upright trees juxtaposed with the beautiful autumn colors.  This is actually two quilts: I constructed the pieced portion with hand dyed and commercial fabrics, then quilted and embroidered it using both hand and machine embroidery.  Then I constructed the wholecloth "matte", using a commercial cotton that I stenciled with Shiva paintstiks to depict the leaves.  I created the stencils myself, using actual leaves that I collected on the trip.  This "matte" was heavily quilted, then the pieced quilt stitched to it.

I feel like I am finally starting to find my voice with this quilt.  I love improvisational piecing, and prefer to use my own hand dyed fabric as much as possible.  I also like the 'calm' lots of negative space in a quilt provides.  I hope the viewer can get the same sense of peace amidst the grandeur of the trees that I experienced in those woods.

The blur that was March. . .

I haven't vanished from the planet, or given up my art- life just managed to take over this past month.  I'm still getting used to having a three year old in my home again.  She is a delight, but has more energy that all four of the adults in the home.  Calling her the Energizer Bunny would be an understatement.

I have been steadily plugging away on the second piece in the Walk in the Woods series- all I have left is a label and sleeve, and that has to be done by Saturday when it is delivered to a gallery in Salt Lake to be part of the Surface Design show.  I am happy with how it has developed.

I finished the edge with zigzag and rat tail cord- kind of like with yarn, but I like the smooth finish the rat tail cord has.  I don't think I've ever gone through so much thread with a quilt, but it was worth it.

So now I have two weeks to complete the next piece for my Tangled Textiles group- Remnants.  I think I am going to use the remnants from some previous quilts.  The color palette certainly appeals, it is so evocative of spring.  

I'm thinking this quilt is going to have lots of negative space.  I really like the clean look of the modern quilts with that design esthetic.  We'll see what I can come up with.

Possessed

That word pretty much describes how I am feeling about the second Walk in the Woods piece- I can't focus on anything else, even though I have at least one other looming deadline.  But this quilt is just demanding to be birthed before I can move onto the next.

I got the hand embroidery all done.  Here's the top of the strip set section.  I used a different machine embroidery stitch on this one than I did on the first Walk in the Woods.

I can't believe it took me so long to figure out how to do French knots- now I'm doing them by the dozen.  Look closely, you can see them on the bottom of the strip set  with more seed stitching.

This was taken with the quilt laying on my sewing table, so the perspective is off.  I won't attach the strip set until I finish the quilting on the red background.  It is taking time, but I love the way the pebbling makes the leaves pop.

 

Yikes, the lighting is really off in that photo- the background actually is a deep, dark red.  But you can see all that quilting!

I'm hoping to get the pebbling done this weekend, and maybe even start quilting the rest it.  Once that is done, finishing the entire piece shouldn't take that much longer.

In the meantime, I will continue to be. . . possessed!

I'm linking this post to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday blog.  Take a look at what all the other artists are doing!

More Progress!

I got a lot done on Walk in the Woods 2 this weekend.  The machine embroidery is done, and I've started the hand embroidery.

The lighting on this photo is lousy, but I can't seem to get it right.  Next time I'll have to hang this on the design wall to photograph.

And, I started quilting on the background matte.  It will be a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it in the end.  I love how the pebbling makes the leaf shapes pop.

 

I'm away on a business trip for two nights, but I'll have the hand embroidery to keep me busy in the hotel room.  I'm taking an extra long weekend next week- I'm hoping to get a lot of this quilting knocked out!

I hope your week is a creative one!

Weaver's Guild Show

Last Friday, DJ and I met his sister and went to the Weaver's Guild show in Salt Lake.  I wanted to see my piece along with all the others that were entered!

The show is at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, a multi-purpose venue.  The gallery itself is in a nice, well-lit room.  I thought the guild did a very nice job of setting up the show.

Nice to see my piece hung, with the award information right there!

I loved the silk dress that was right next to it.

 

Hand dyed silk, of course- and it was gorgeous.

Being a weaver's guild, there was no lack of useful and utilitarian items.

I loved this rug made from Pendleton wool yardage selvedges.

This bobbin lace was exquisite.  I learned that my sister-in-law had tried to learn bobbin lace from the maker of this piece.

Loved the scarves!

This piece was done by another Surface Design member, Diane Hauerter.

And I thought this copper weaving was stunning.

All in all, I thought the show was well done, and I'm honored to have won an award.

I also managed to spend some time in the studio.  I had some charm squares, and put them together with white sateen to come up with this small modern quilt.  It will probably end up with Shannon- she likes the fabrics much more than I do!  

 

It reminded me of why I like improvisational piecing- but at least I know I can still piece with precision!  Now I just need to get it quilted- we'll see which I find less stressful to do, this one or Walk in the Woods 2.  But there's no doubt I'll be quilting on something this weekend!

Hope your week is a creative one--

Insanity

is what my hands were thinking for the last couple of days.  I got the piecing done on the next Walk in the Woods, and decided I wanted to keep the uneven edges.  So I spent several hours turning under and basting all those raw edges.

You can get a peek of my latest Tangled Textiles challenge piece in the upper left corner- but you will have to visit the Tangled Textiles blog tomorrow to see it, and all the other creations from the group.

 I'm already thinking about what background matte color will work best with this piece.  Thank goodness for PSE!  I figured it would be easier to audition background colors on the computer.  I'd originally thought a deep, dark red would work--

 

but I'm not sure about it.  So I tried a dull green--

 

and a dull olive green--

and a brighter gold--

 I even tried a grayed blue--

 In the end, I think I've tentatively decided that this dark brown works the best- it makes all the colors pop, rather than sapping some of them.  Two and a half yards of cotton are stewing in a dye bucket right now, to be washed out shortly. We'll see if I still feel that way when I can see it all in person, rather than on a computer screen.

Which color background do you think works best?