OK, I've finally started painting some fabric! I've been trying out two different kinds of paints by Jacquard (Dynaflo and Textile Color) and two different kinds of PFD (prepared for dying) cotton (pimatex and lawn). Above is one of a half-dozen attempts at a subtly mottled green--for a quilt that would be like the pastel landscape I did this summer at Arrowmont (see my post below from the summer). And next is one of four tries at getting fabric that I could cut up into "stones." While I'm not satisfied yet with my results, I'm enjoying the process, and feel that it's worth continuing to work on.

First Show

I am happy to let you all know that I have a quilt ("Out of the Blue and Into the Black") that was juried into the SAQA show, Prime, Primary, Primordial. This show will travel to The Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza and World Quilt - New England in September. It felt really weird to ship it off this morning to someone I have never met that will turn around and ship it off..... until hopefully it will come back home. Hope FedEx and SAQA take good care of my baby.

Arrowmont

I thought you might like to see the projects I worked on during my week at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. My goal was to try out various media, while learning more about color and composition. The first (and only) exercise we were given was to work with complementary colors, making five pieces, going from one color to its complement. These collages are each about 6x8". I used the exercise as a way to try out the different media I'd brought with me, from which I decided to focus on watercolor and soft pastels.


Here's my pastel project: each of these is a 9x12 piece of pastel paper, so the whole thing is 60x45". The idea is one I've been thinking of for a quilt for a while--midwestern landscape in late winter/early spring.Here's what I worked on with watercolor (biggest stone is about 2.5 inches), this too from a quilt idea (left over from Design Camp 2006). I watercolored streaks of brown/gray/tan, etc. on big sheets of paper, made a stencil with stone shapes, and cut out appealing looking "stones."
Next I tried doing monotype prints. My intent was to get more "fabric" for stones, but the results were interesting enough to me in themselves that I haven't cut them up. These are each about 14x17".

Thoughts from the workshop: Working on these projects showed me that I really should consider dyeing and/or painting my own fabric—something I've resisted in the past, feeling like I had enough to learn just with the rest of quilting. I could see from the watercolor and pastel "fabrics" I created for these works on paper how much easier it would be to get the kind of subtly variegated fabric I want for some projects if I made it myself. And now that I've got a little experience mixing colors, the prospect is not so scary. So the end result of the workshop will be to apply what I learned to fabric and quilting, rather than to go further in these media (though water color is very nice. . .) I had to smile the first evening when I got to my assigned room at Arrowmont and saw that it was labelled with a sign that read "Sit 'N Stitch"!

I've added a list of five schools of arts/crafts (like Arrowmont) to the blog. They all have print catalogs as well as web sites, so if this kind of thing interests you, you can get on their mailing lists. They all have textile/quilting workshops included in their offerings.

The Post Card

Many of you have seen The Post Card quilt "in the making".
I am happy to share the exciting news that it has won a first place ribbon at the NQA show in Columbus, Ohio.

Loss

This is the quilt that I began at Design Camp 2005, and finished a couple of weeks ago, the final step of the faced binding put on with Mary Beth's help. The quilt is about 51x57". The colored panel is actually somewhat darker at the bottom than at the top (photo problem); the black panel is machine quilted with interlocking rows of a large, irregular zig-zag pattern. The colored panel is tied, with ties on the back and invisible on the front. The two panels were quilted separately and then joined. Here's a close-up of the colored panel:

As many of you know, this piece comes out of the experience of the death of my son, Jeremy, and was designed together with my husband, David. I will always be grateful to Bill and Weeks and the Design Camp experience for making it possible for me to even imagine myself making a work of this kind, and to all of you who have been such a help and comfort to me in the process.

Black and White From Nancy Crow's Workshop

Well, it is finally completed ---- except for the quilting which I (and Penny) have been discussing without coming to a conclusion. I feel that I want to do the quilting myself and Penny is going to teach me both hand quilting and machine quilting techniques as soon as I'm done with this post.

The exercise was to piece black and white strips together in various widths and then create a composition focusing on lines and shapes. I am pleased with the design and that it lies fairly flat and is a fairly even rectangle given all the seams.

The question now is quilting --- design? hand or machine? thread -- color, weight? So I'm asking all you experienced quilters to let me know what you would recommend.

Thanks for your help.

Louise

Lineage is finished

I am finally finished with this quilt for my niece's baby (due 6/27). Some of you saw the original drawing at the retreat, some of the piecing at the international show when I was looking for a background fabric and some even when it was pieced but not quilted.




My big idea for this quilt was how each of us is made up of genes and characteristics of our families. The lineage from grandparent to parent to baby. I believe that the design does in fact portray the idea, but I am not happy with the color work.

The lesson learned is to complete a maquette before starting the piece. I left the background color decision for later, and I think that is what spoiled the color work for me. The subtlety of color in the blocks gets faded out with the strong pink of the background. My original thought for the background was green or even turquoise (awful), which then when to pale yellow (too pale) and finally the brighter pink.

I am happy with my decision to satin stitch very narrowly between the blocks, following the lines of the piecing. Not sure if you can make that out in the photo.

All in all, I am happy to be finished with this project as pink is not one of my favorite colors.

What are your ideas for a name? Is "Lineage" to boring? Let me know.

Thanks
Janis