And now for something completely different...

In the spring of 2005 Lynita and I finished our collaboration on this wall hanging for her home in Orland Park. It took us three sessions to get the fabric palate right, and during those sessions we hammered out the design. She wanted this piece to have depth with the illusion of fabrics advancing and retreating, and I think this piece has that element. Click on the quilt to see some of the fabric detail. This piece is different from anything else I've done, and I like the result. Recently Lynita and I spoke, and she says she is still thrilled with it. 56" x 76"

Let the Celebrating End!

It's been a full week of celebrating, starting with John turning 70 Monday and ending with my 60th birthday today. Sewing has been on the back burner. I did get out this piece I did in a "Convergence" quilt class in Madison, WI, almost 2 years ago to begin quilting it. So far the quilting is a mixture of straight lines with a walking foot and free motion work. Click on the picture for some of the details. I think I will stipple the borders - great way to practice free-motion work. Because I didn't choose these fabrics and probably won't hang this piece, I feel free to take some risks and try some thread work.

It's nice to have birthdays, but it's also nice to have them over with and get back to normal!

A Simple Baby Quilt

 One of the things I love about my quilt blog is that it's been a diary/record of what I have done. I know I should have been more diligent about keeping track of my work. Yesterday I was transferring a huge file of photos from my old laptop to a flash drive (lesson learned after losing all of my pictures from Turkey) and came across this quilt that I should have blogged about in March 2007. Cathy and I have been friends for over 50 years. Her daughters have married, and both have had 2 children. This quilt is for Cathy's only grandson Bradley. At the time I had just moved into my new quilting studio and was agog with projects and my college roommate's death. This quilt for Bradley is a simple one - horizontal stripes of varying widths of fabric - and simply quilted. This quilt may be simple, but the visual payoff is a big one. 44" x 60"

Speaking of big payoffs, today is my husband John's 70th birthday. Huge in so many ways! His hands are barely visible at the top of Bradley's quilt.

That Damned Elusive Free-Motion Quilting

I'm impressed by quilters who are able to do free-motion quilting. I've taken classes in free-motion quilting. I've practiced this technique without much success and have never felt confident or comfortable with it. And so I always resort to the safety of my walking foot when it's time to quilt.

Almost a year ago I met my quilting Doppelganger at a Fiber Arts show in Glencoe. Wayne is left-handed, has the same Husqvarna sewing machine, is drawn to geometric designs and modern fabrics, keeps a blog of his work, and quilts with the same passion I do. In our e-friendship we've discovered some amazing similarities. We have successfully incorporated his wife Wendy and my husband John into our friendship and have tried when we are with them to keep quilt talk and spousal eye-rolling to a minimum. One of the things Wayne does very very well is free-motion quilting.

Friday we got together for the first time as quilters and did our own workshop. Wayne coached me on the technique. And this bag is the result. I won't claim that I've mastered the technique, but the two sides of this oversized bag are a great start. I thank Wayne for helping me with the breakthrough of this technique!

Out of Africa

 This ethnic wall hanging is finished. There were several inspirations for this work. First, there was the central fabric, a wonderful gradated piece with its range from gold to deep brown. Second, there was that fabulous pile of scraps that formed the border. Third, as I was beginning to put this piece together, I stumbled across the book Simply Stunning Woven Quilts (thanks to Rachel from my Art Quilt group) and did the woven circle, which anchors the whole thing. The final inspiration came from the walls at the Salt Creek Wine Bar in Brookfield - they are a marvelous textured deep red with brown undertones. The whole time I was working on this piece, I envisioned it hanging at this bar. John and I are having our 60th and 70th birthday party there, and Out of Africa will be hung there in their wine-tasting room. It's my present to Tom and Linda. 29" x 36"

Still in process

 
This piece is getting done ever so slowly. This wall quilt is being machine-quilted from the outside in. I still have yet to decide where to attach to woven piece in the center, and I keep turning it to find the best position. One blog reader, Josie Ray, felt strongly about this piece being horizontal because it is a landscape of sorts. But the quilt spoke to me and said it needed to be vertical. And so it is.

We spent almost a week driving around - literally - Lake Michigan with one stop at the base of Lake Superior. Delightful weather, scenery, and travelling companion. But I can't wait to get back to this piece tomorrow.

Weaving in Circles and a WIP

 

In the quilting world a UFO is an unfinished project. A WIP is a work in process. This is a work that is in process. In the center is a circular weaving piece. It's temporarily tacked to a piece of fabric of graduated color - it reminds me of an African landscape (yeah, as if I've been to Africa - I don't know where this is coming from). The inner border are bits from the recent scrap quilt. And the top and bottom border fabrics are both strong possibilities for this quilt - I like them both a lot. Thread work will be the only other key design element, except I'm not very good at it.

I'm not sure about this piece and have felt stuck all day. Perhaps seeing this picture will help me make some decisions about this WIP. Maybe this should be a vertical piece...

Roman Coins, Scrap Style

This scrap quilt, using the Roman Coins design, is terrific (she modestly says). I love each one of these scraps, and using browns as the sashing, outer border, and backing really makes a strong design statement. The result is dark and dramatic and rather masculine. Nephew Chris Thompson is the intended recipient of this, but only if he likes it. The last quilt I made him was 8 years ago when he graduated from high school and was on his way to the University of Michigan. If this quilt doesn't appeal to him, then I'll be happy to hold on to it!

Click on the picture to see the details of some of these wonderful scraps.70" x 92"
Note: September 29, 2009 - This quilt has actually gone to Michelle M, just because... Chris T is again on the back burner.

Scraps and Auditions

It seems like I just blogged about this, but - again - my scrap basket overflows. So it's time for another scrap quilt. This time I found strips of fabrics and cut them into 6" lengths. There are 6 vertical strips, each 60" long. I thought I'd set these strips on muslin or something light. But the Thursday night girls suggested black or something dark. And I began to see all the browns in my stash. The result of these 2 "audition" photos is that I like the darker brown background so much more than the lighter brown or neutral background.

Let's see. Do I know anyone using browns as a decor theme? Hmmm, nephew Chris Thompson. He's just moved, his life is a bit unorganized at this point. This scrap quilt will be perfect for him.

An Indian Log Cabin

 
Poets use words to express their emotion. Quilters use fabric, color, and design. Returning home from India, my head was full of colors - the colors we saw in the flowers, the saris, the landscape, the food. As I was assembling fabrics I wanted to use, I knew that gold had to be at the heart of this design. And I had some smaller pieces that just needed to be used. So I went to one of my favorite blocks, the log cabin. This quilt is the result.

Originally I was going to keep this quilt and back it with a piece of stamped fabric I got in Jaipur. But as I was assembling the 48 blocks of this quilt, Jeff Cylkowski made a visit to my studio. He was a child when we lived next door to his family in the mid-1980'a, and was a 3rd grader when his mom Linda died. Jeff went to high school in Pennsylvania and Indiana and then went to the West Coast to skateboard and breakdance. He also began doing graffiti. With the realization that he needed to formalize his art education, he moved to the East Coast and got a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and has been doing interesting things ever since. He is spending this summer in Philadelphia where he wrote a grant for the Asian Arts Initiative and curating a multi-media arts exhibit.

I am used to people liking my work, but Jeff saw this quilt and used his art vocabulary about this quilt - depth, opticality, movement, impressionism. At his sister Michelle's wedding in 2006 Jeff and I talked about exchanging art. Since then I have made his sister not only a wedding quilt but recently a quilt for her baby Camille. So Jeff has been on my list. And now I knew what to make for him - something similar to this quilt.

And that's when things began to take shape. Not only did this quilt not belong in my house, there was no way I could duplicate this quilt, partly because of the emotion that went into this but also because I used up the end bits of several terrific fabircs. This quilt became Jeff's quilt.

It's finished and ready to ship to Jeff when he returns to Brooklyn. It contains not only some of the emotions from when I returned from India, it also holds memories of Jeff's childhood and his family.