Approaching Storm

This quilt resulted from the September Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. The image for it appeared in my head on the eve of the deadline as I was just falling asleep-not a good way to get a decent night’s sleep. I finished it two weeks later and posted it on the FFFC blog. After some suggestions from the blog and a friend, I redid it slightly, just adding more layers of fabric on top of the already stitched quilt. Most of the fabrics are raw edged appliqued with the tree and the woman being fused. The quilt measures 39″ x 25″.

I wanted the quilt to give an atmosphere of menace and dread. This was certainly inspired by our visit from Irene (no damage fortunately) and by the political and economic turmoil these days.

Yellow Jacket

There were 5 pieces of this yellow decorator fabric in the Schumacher box, some with grommets in the middle of the piece. I planned carefully to get the front and back to have the same flowers lined up at the bottom. The grommets were cut out and appliqued flowers covered the holes in the front and the inside. There are two on the front just above the row of flowers (if you can find them in the detail). I also bought some blue fake suede fabric and used it for the inside back and front and some piping. There was no way I could get the fronts to match-I used just about every scrap of the fabric as it was! That’s me modeling it, but now I can’t wait until the weather cools down to wear it!

Birds and Blooms in Fabric

A box load of free (including postage!) Schumacher decorator fabrics and a play day at our art quilt group were the inspirations for this quilt. I picked several pieces that had either birds or flowers on them, fussy cut rectangles including the motifs and added some small squares out of sample fabric that came with one of the larger pieces. I did not piece the rectangles together thinking that would make for too much bulk. So the raw edges are covered by the red and green ribbons. I machine quilted around motifs and in the background of most of the blocks-none of which shows up in the photo. Two small blocks have hand stitching on them, and several have machine decorative stitches. To make life easier with all the stops and starts, I just quilted through the top and batting, then added a backing afterwards.Then I quilted several straight lines following the red ribbon.

After looking at it for a day,I felt it needed something to break up the straight lines, so I cut out motifs from extra fabric and appliqued them to create a “curved line”.

Since the narrow border was determined by the crib size batting I had used, I ended up making the binding match the fabric on the border to make it look larger. The quilt measures 45″ x 34″.

Some metallic quilting might have added to the quilt-but not now! Its done, I’m happy with the result and am moving on to the next project-a jacket using 5 panels of the same decorator fabric.

Floating Flowers

Floating Flowers

This quilt was started in a play day with our local art quilt group. I had brought several of the silk fabrics that my friend gave me and fussy cut around the flowers and leaves. Nothing seem to work so when I got home, I added the purple rectangles and rearranged everything. The background is a silk velvet. Only the flowers and leaves are quilted since I didn’t want to quilt the silk velvet.Adding the twisted ribbon helped my eye circle around the piece. I finished it by stretching it over stretcher strips.
If you want to see a larger image, click on the photo.

Round Robin Quilt-The Geisha

Starting background fabric

Finished quilt

Detail of the haiku

After hearing a talk by a traditional round robin quilt, our art quilt group, Capital Region Textile Artists (NY), decided to try an art quilt round robin. Instead of each person adding a new border, we each started with a piece of background fabric and added techniques. The second person added some fabric shapes-the Japanese lady and the fans in my case. The third person added something with paint or markers. My quilt just got some small areas of paint to square off the Geisha fabric. The fourth person added stitching or quilting. Its hard to see, but some grey fabric strips on the left side were added and stitched down. The fifth person was to add embellishments-on mine, she added some yarn with beads tied onto it and stitched down.

We showed the quilts each month with the owner of the background fabric sent out of the room. No one saw their quilt until the Great Reveal in November. It was amazing how each month’s addition changed the quilts. It was also a challenge to try to figure out what to do with something that you had not started. The quilts ended up in various finished stages, but we were all pleased with how they turned out.

Mine was probably the least finished. I could see the grey fabric and the beaded yarn looking like a willow tree. So I tried to connect that part with the geisha fabric by writing a “haiku” that would combine them.

Under the dying willow tree
The geisha stands forlorn
Her fans a distant memory

I satin stitched with copper thread around the three appliques. Then I quilted the the piece with leaves on stems. I added some more of the beaded yarn to visually connect the tree with the geisha and fans.

I never would have come up with this quilt by myself and am delighted with how someone else was able to work with the hand-dyed fabric (from Laura Wasilowski) and still have the fabric be a star attraction.

Squares Squared

The Fast Friday Fabric Challenges are being a great source of inspiration for me this fall. The challenge in November was to do a quilt using one shape. In 2003 when I was a Bernina Fashion Show Designer, a company sent me a bag of small, square, silk samples. Of course I save it and when this challenge came along, I thought of using the squares immediately.

I used timtex for the “batting” because I wanted a flat look. After spray basting the black fabric to the front on the timtex, I drew lines on the timtex and with a metallic thread in the bobbin stitched on the lines. This gave me the grid to set up the squares. Each square was fused with the color ranging from light to dark. A second layer of squares was fused to the intersections of the first layer, and a third layer added to intersections of the second layer. I thought that square beads would finish off the piece and by great luck found exactly what I wanted at Joann’s-on sale to boot. It definitely looks better in real life-get more of the shine of the silk. Do click on the photo to get a better view of the quilt.

I may do two more similar pieces varying the grid for the second piece and making total chaos in the third. Stay tuned.

Ocean Beauty

Ocean Beauty

The Fast Friday Fabric Challenge for October was to use a haiku as a point of inspiration for a quilt, and to emphasize the stitching on the quilt. We didn’t have to create an original haiku, but I found my self thinking in 5, 7, 5 syllable lines constantly. So I wrote this one to use:
Beneath clear blue seas
Diving on a brief visit
Among the colorful fish.

I knew I had the fish fabric in my stash;finding the ocean fabric was serendipity. The coral is made from many batik fabrics. The fan corals were heavily stitched before putting on the backing. The coral and the ocean were then heavily quilted The fish were just outlined so they would stand out and then brushed with some gel glitter. Black sea urchins were stitched on the sand at the bottom, and real shells were added there too.

Seeing the coral and fish while diving is not nearly this colorful unless you have a light or a camera with a filter. But being under the water where you can just stay a brief time is a visit to a fascinating world.