Back to the Drawing Board

Well, it's that time of year again. Time to nestle into the studio and get into the designing mode. The deadline was bumped up a month so I have to start a little sooner this season. In the mean time, I am still waiting for the final strike-offs for the spring line. This is the first time I've have simultaneous lines to juggle... a bit tricky for a girl with tunnel vision.

But it occurred to me that I haven't shown you the finished Illinois Album quilt which had its debut at Art Quilt Tahoe. So here are a few details for my fabric fondling friends.

Here it is in full view. It is a continuation of the "totem" series. The shapes are all representations of natural objects in my Midwestern environment. The characters are arranged symmetrically which affects the movement and rhythm of the composition.

A detail of the border shows the black quilted leaves. Different brands of black thread are not all the same black, which I think is more interesting for a tone-on-tone design.

I often like to use blocks of embroidery stitches for quilting which creates a different texture that continuous line quilting. In this case, you will see blocks of satin stitch in the top wing. The feather stitched vine with leaves are also quilting motifs.

These pods also utilize another embroidery stitch that I have found useful in many quilts. This little sequential radiating stitch creates a glowing center inside each unit.

In the center of the quilt you may notice that the simple satin stitch changes width according to the shape it is applied to. Hopefully, this variety will make a machine stitch look more organic and less mechanical. The trick is finding the right stitch for the job. This quilt was made on my Bernina 730 which has obviously become a very loyal and obedient friend.

The back side was made with my Night Life fabric from the FreeSpirit collection called Prairie Gothic
from a few years ago. I think it nicely carries the nature theme all the way through the piece.

OK, back to the drawing board!!

Art Quilt Tahoe

I have just returned from one of my favorite teaching venues, Art Quilt Tahoe. In recent years it has been held at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center on the south end of the lake. This year the weather was unusually warn for the first few days. The sun was shining and the water was a beautiful clear turquoise blue.

The classroom was bright and roomy as the students jumped into their plant studies. By the second day they were finally fondling fabric and their compositions began to take form.

Here are a few samples of the quilt tops that evolved over the four days of class. I have grouped these by color and adjusted the scale to fit this blog format.  Every project was unique even though some people worked with the same subject. Above is Leslie Bixel's Borage Plant and Carole Rouin's Lotus interpretation.

This is one of the most satisfying aspects of teaching... to see the subjects filtered through each individual head, heart and hands. For example, look how Sara Roche's Lotus above is so different than Carole's.  I love Jo Kellar's version of the Red Hot Pokers in her garden.

On the last day of class the weather began to change and the conversation shifted. Everyone was anticipating the snow and a safe trip home. As you may have learned reading this blog, I love exciting weather and quite look forward to the drama it creates. As predicted, it began to snow late in the afternoon of the last day of class. Being the final teaching job of the year, I was delighted for such a lovely introduction to the holiday season.

This is how it looked as I packed my suitcase for the trip home the next morning. Beautiful!!!! The sky show was astounding all the way to Reno airport.

When I arrived home, it was much warmer, but our blooming Christmas cactus was yet another indication that the holiday season is on its way!

International Quilt Market

I'm back from the International Quilt Market in Houston. This year I was in the Dragon Threads booth to promote Patchwork Sassaman Style and did some book signing at the beautiful new Westminster booth, too. I didn't get far beyond the booth this year but, of course, made time to visit the quilts on display.

I was so surprised that Fairfield, my favorite batting company, had my Willow quilt on display! It was great to see "my baby" again. I could get close enough to examine the stitches that I made so many years ago.

But the real treat was to see my friend Pat Holly's entries in the quilt show. Her work is achingly beautiful!! Here is Imagining India in silk and lame... it just glowed. Check out the details...

And details are what Pat's work is famous for. There are tiny little blanket stitches around even the tiniest appliqued shape. Amazing!

OK, now that we are feeling overwhelmed, take a look at her next piece...

This is a miniature quilt is called Tiny Tigers. I love that it mimics the shape of the big quilt but is only about 10" wide. These vibrant treasures have got me itching to stitch! I think I'll pull out my little collection of silks and see where they take me.