Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Can't Resist Some More - Blame it on my New Camera!

This is a detail of the center panel of the front quilt of the last post with the Green batiks. Its working title is Disappearing 9 Patch (D9P) Orientals.

D9P Orientals center block

One of its corners

D9P Orientals, corner detail

Monday, February 9, 2009

New Camera -- Just Can't Resist Posting



Well this is a work in progress, it's not even quilted yet, just pieced, it's the reverse side (the back) of a Disappearing 9 Patch (DS9). The name has presented itself though given this particular coloring. I call it "Remembering Andes Candies"!


 

Please ignore the underlying teal work, I just couldn't wait to get started.

Friday, February 6, 2009

A Couple of Very Oldie but Goodies


These two quilts are much older; early enough in my learning to quilt that they each have a poly/cotton blend in them: since I don't wash these that never mattered. This first one, Banners on Point (the gray is the poly/cotton) is the first setting on point that I'd done, was interesting. There's also a mistake or fudging in here as I ran out of one color and had to use a close substitute. I reminded myself that in the weaving of Persian rugs it is said that one mistake is always made deliberately as only G_d is perfect. 


In this one called Rhythmic Stripes, I really like the appearance of movement or rhythm created by the juxtaposition of the direction of the stripes. Funny how things work out, this one is badly sewn, but I think quite effective in its coloration and movement; yields something of a bright and happy effect.



And Now for Something Completely Different, Nissei Africans


Perhaps by now one’s thinking: Well, she shows pretty cool work, but I wonder, can she work in colors schemes other than blues? 

This Quilt is called Nissei Africans because the front is so Japanese in spirit and fabrics. The back however, is entirely different and presented earthy, African feeling fabrics to me. The quilting was machine stitched as outline quilting on the front panels with no regard to how it would appear on the back.



So, here’s the completely different quilt (resulting from an amazing quilting class) which changed my life and certainly the nature of my quilt work, likely now and forever. Importantly, it showed me a technique with which to transition from beautiful but traditional quilt patterns to Art Quilts, unique and one of a kind designs informed by my own lifetime of art and design studies.





Thursday, February 5, 2009

Teal Graphic (after class with Mary Ellen Hopkins)

This is another older but rather fun quilt; I like its high graphic quality. The fact of it being made with a high loft batting (thicker filling, "pouffier", as it were) helps it look 3-dimensional, that effect is bolstered by the particular way I quilted it. Though this is a traditional quilting pattern, the Artist who taught it used a less than traditional manner of assembling it. It went together surprisingly quickly & more easily than it would appear, quite fun.


Funny observation, I didn't realize it until after I'd made this quilt, but each of the five (5) fabrics in it is a botanical print, every single one! To me, it's a funny coincidence as I'm an amateur plant collector, whose collection at times has numbered more than 150 plants (in a Brooklyn studio apartment, no small feat). Even how I chose to quilt the border (the teal/white background print), sort of reminds me of a garden trellis, so it seemed entirely appropriate. 


Then again, nature has always been a huge source of design & color inspiration for artists going back through time. An example that comes to mind are 'toile de jouie', the traditional monochromatic French fabrics featuring pastoral scenes, dating back to the Industrial Revolution which allowed for the first mass production of printed fabrics ('toile' for short).

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Photo Credits & Blue Thousand Islands

Here's an older quilt which I finally finished last Spring. Happily I got new photographs taken which I feel show it VERY well. 


Unless stated otherwise, all photos here are courtesy of my friend & fellow artist Sage Reynolds, Copyright 2008, with thanks and affection.

Some close ups.

More detail.


This was the first of my quilts to have a colored back (other than say, unbleached muslin as would be the traditional back for a quilt). At the time, it seemed a BIG leap, I was very concerned between two slightly different shades of blue, this hydrangea blue as I called it. 


One slightly more blue purple than the other; of course, a subtlety that only I would see, never mind that it was on the BACK of the quilt.



Minutia I need not have worried about; lesson learned.