Small Quilts

The Memorial Art Gallery is interested in having some quilts available in their gift shop during their Wild By Design exhibit from mid-January through mid-March. I'll be meeting with the shop manager after New Year's and plan to take in some of the smaller quilts I've made in the last year.

This opportunity is also good incentive to finish some tops that have been awaiting quilting. This piece is 15" x 16" and was inspired by some sketches of cattails that I did both on paper and with fabric. Now that it's completed, though, it's name might have to be "Lollipops"....

Each "lollipop" has been quilted with 12 wt thread and can be seen if you double click.




The next two pieces are new versions of "Jet Trails," both done in 12" squares.

They need to be quilted and then they may go to the gift shop. Or, I might hold one for the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association) 2008 Trunk Show.
Inspector Suki continues to spend the winter evenings at rest on any convenient lap. She likes to anchor herself to the nearest bare skin and is not happy when her human pillow wants to move. She is a constant source of entertainment.

Show & Tell Xmas Party

Tonight was the annual Xmas gathering of the Show & Tell quilters group.

Too many presents for the table-- they had to be stacked under and around it.

And, No, the group is not looking out of the window for Santa...






There were several quilts shown for Show and Tell, and we all wanted to get closer to see what new quilt Carol Taylor had just finished....
Carol has completed this piece with a terrific new design/motif.

The edges of all the leaves, as well as all the veins in each leaf, have been satin stitched.

The colors of the sateen fabrics are gorgeous and not well represented by my camera.

And the piece has lots of Carol's wonderful machine quilting.

Jet Trails

In early 2005 I was walking down a hill near our house in late afternoon and watching the western sky. I noticed an interesting pattern of jet trails and attempted to sketch it when I got home.

I also used EQ5 to attempt to recreate the lines and shapes of the pattern I saw, but didn't like working with the very straight lines generated by the program.



In the fall of 2006 I decided to see if I could generate some interesting patterns from this motif. These are 3-inch thumbnail sketches done with markers.













Then I sewed black and white fabric sketches that are about 12 inches square.
















In the spring of 2007 I made this first "jet trails" composition. It's about 12 x 13 inches, and is made of hand-dyed cotton fabric. It needs to be quilted yet, and is tentatively titled "Southwest Jet Trails" because I used some of my favorite colors.

This is the 2nd piece and is titled simply "Jet Trails." It's 24w X 27h and is made of all hand-dyed fabrics.

It has been selected for the "2008 Form Not Function - Quilt Art at the Carnegie" exhibit in New Albany, IN, and will be on display January 11 - March 8, 2008.

Jet Trails detail

Fungus and Jawbone

After touring the Memorial Art Gallery, I chose O'Keeffe's Fungus and Jawbone to use as my inspiration to create a small art quilt for the MAG's show and sale in January.

I was attracted to the neutral colors and spare, simple shapes.








I started by making patchwork fabrics with close color values.....













....And started adding in more shapes and colors.



But I didn't think the composition was looking very interesting.











So my "slashing" rotary cutter came out :-)

and more patchwork fabrics were added.












But maybe the composition would be more balanced with a little orange fabric added.....













And this is the final version -- quilted and bound and ready to be delivered.

I like the orange squares, which add the touch of color I wanted without creating more linear elements. (Cutting and sewing the squares into the existing fabric was a fun challenge!)

RAFA meeting - more pictures

Thanks to Pat Pauly for sending her pictures of more of the quilts we saw during the Show & Tell at our December RAFA meeting.

Nancy Hicks showed us her quilt made with all striped fabrics.







Several RAFA members are participating in the Memorial Art Gallery's quilt show and sale in January. Each artist chose a piece from the MAG's permanent collection as inspiration for a small art quilt.

Anne Fischer with her completed quilt.







Donna Patrick is looking at another small quilt that Anne made from fabrics she created during this summer's workshop with Jeanne Beck.











Jeanne Beck showed a sample piece made with burned fabrics that she is developing. (And Pat's orange kitty stayed for the whole meeting on the back of Linda's chair.)









Jeanne also talked about her latest work and the process of deciding how much red to add to the surface. (See her blog for more detail: http://www.exploringthesurface.blogspot.com/.)









Pat Berardi with her piece for the MAG exhibit.













And Marcia with her piece for the MAG exhibit.

RAFA meeting

Our RAFA (Rochester Area Fiber Artists) group's 2nd annual Xmas gathering was hosted again this year by Pat Pauly in her wonderful new addition.









There was much discussion about our current exhibit at the Rochester Arts Council, possible future exhibits, and possible workshop opportunities.










Show and Tell is always the highlight of the meetings, and Pat Pauly started out by showing us the top she completed from the Fall Migration program (with the help of a little red from my stash!).

Unfortunately, my camera battery died at this point so I wasn't able to get pictures of the rest of the terrific pieces that were shown -- nor of the all the goodies that people brought for the potluck lunch -- delish!!

Another Sewing Day

Marcia and Barb scheduled another sewing day to work on their projects for the Memorial Art Gallery's show and sale, which is coming up in January. Barb is creating a second composition using dyed silk fabric and based on the Gallery's display of Tiffany glass.







Barb made the cuts in her fabrics based on one of the sketches she did to represent the flowing lines in the glass pieces.











This picture of Barb's silks doesn't do them justice. The shimmering colors in the fabrics seem to have a life of their own.

Barb has the piecing completed on her Sunset composition. It's pinned and ready for quilting.

Another Clean-up Day

We carried the planters from the deck in the tractor's bucket to the desired disposal spot in the garden.

After pulling the existing plants for the mulch pile, the soil is prepared for distribution.

We put the potting soil from the flower boxes around the perennial herb garden. Here Marcia works on adding more to the sage and the planting spots for next year's parsley.












Suki, the inspector, was present to insure the project was completed to her satisfaction. She had climbed to the top of the pergola and here searches for a path to descend from her perch some 10 feet above ground. Somehow she manages to go both up and down without assistance. It's no wonder she returns from her adventures with scratches and fur filled with seeds and stickers. She is an amazing acrobat!








The oval gardens near the horse barn are cleaned and readied for next year's planting of straw flowers and other varieties of flowers for drying. The green sprouts visable are the beginning signs of the larkspur started for spring and summer.

Thanksgiving Day

We often have deer who join the horses in the fenced pasture. This group stayed for at least 30 minutes this morning before moving on. As this is hunting season, they tend to keep on the move as they try to elude the guns.








We continue to process the sweet pepper crop. Here chopped peppers are sorted by color to include in various recipes and are packaged for the freezer. We finally did have a killing frost that ended our particularly long growing season this year. Global warming or climate cycles?








Our first dusting of snow appeared today. Each season brings its visual charms and early winter is no exception. We just finished our mulch application to all the plantings around the front and back of the house. This dark layer adds nicely to the contrast with greenery and snow. We are fortunate to live in a latitude that presents such variety in color as the calendar rolls along.