New Work

Finally I have something new to show after my last disaster and I must say that I like this one. I have combined my wiggly strips and my snow-dyed fabrics. I also used dye grabber sheets and Dupioni silk. It's 28 W x 38 L.

Details
I knew I wanted to quilt the wiggly strips and adjoining Dupioni silk in wiggly lines to emphasize those shapes , but I wasn't sure what to do with the snow-dyed fabric. I decided to go with the flow of the lines in the fabric. I'm not %100 sure of the name but I'm leaning toward "Spring Thaw". Can you think of a better one?

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Can This Quilt Be Saved?

I was hoping to enter the show at the Whistler Gallery in Lowell this year. It is a wonderful art gallery that exhibits art quilts once a year during the Lowell Quilt Festival. I was so pleased to get juried in two years ago and even more delighted to win a juror's award. Somehow I missed the deadline last year, but thought that I would use the quilts that were not accepted into Visions this year. I was so disappointed when the prospectus said that it had a theme this year (I should have remembered that they do a theme every other year) and that the theme was to make a quilt inspired my a famous painting, sculpture or mural. I was a little surprised that a prestigious gallery would have such a theme, especially after the recent thread on the Quiltart discussion on copyright.

I have this Van Gogh print in my home and have always loved the colors. It looks great in my family room and I though it would be fun to make an abstraction of it. I never intended to copy it. I fiddled around with hand dyed fabric that I had and made some false starts and used up a lot of fabric dong it. So I spent one weekend dyeing new fabric and two weeks of lots and lots of piecing and quilting and came up with this.

Detail
Detail.

I knew it wasn't right. I had doubts about it from the beginning, but kept thinking it would get better as I went along. I made a lot of corrections and then thought that it would be helped by mega quilting. The quilting did not make it look any better, even though I liked the quilting. It was like putting lipstick on a pig.

I held it up in front of my small quilt group on Friday to deafening silence. No one knew what to say. Ouch! Then came murmurs of: It needs a focal point, it has no depth, maybe some beads, maybe some couching, cut it up and sew it back together, etc., etc. etc. At that point I just felt like throwing it in the garbage or putting it through the shredder (wouldn't fit).

But I came home and put it on my design wall and have been looking at it for two days.

So I am putting on my suit of armor and asking for advice. Should I just cut my losses and run? Is there anyway it is fixable? Remember that it is heavily quilted. I am open to any and all suggestions, including giving it to the dog. (don't have a dog, but you know what I mean.)

Wordless Wednesday

Heat Wave

This had been a good week for me as far as getting recognition for my work. I was asked for permission to be featured on the Quilt Inspiration blog with this quilt, Heat Wave. The blog showcases quilts with a different theme each week and this week it was star quilts using batiks.

This quilt is an oldie, made in 1996, and probably the last quilt I made using a pattern. The New York Beauties were made using Karen Stone patterns and the setting was taken from a Judy Mathieson book of Mariner Compasses. It was paper pieced and very labor intensive, but I had so much fun making it and I learned a lot about color. It is still one of my favorite quilts and it hangs in my studio. It was juried into the AQS show in Paducah (no prize) but won a First Place and Judge's Recognition Award at the Vermont Quilt Festival.

Please go to the blog and see the other wonderful star quilts featured.

Big Surprise

If you've read my blog before you will have read about some of the things that I do as a member of Woman's Club. At our February meeting we have an Arts and Crafts competition with members displaying their talent in many different fields. If you do just about any kind of art or craft there is a place for you, from photography, painting, jewelry, stationery, basketry, all kinds of sewing, etc., etc., etc. If you win a blue ribbon at the local level, it goes on to District, which is what we had today.
I had four blue ribbon items go on to District, two photographs, a silk evening bag and this quilt, City Lights. Again, if you read my blog, you've seen it before. It was made for my quilt group's Gray Plus One challenge. Well, today I got a third for one of the photographs, a first for the evening bag and a first for my quilt. I was very pleased, so you can imagine my great surprise when they later announced Best of Show and it was for my quilt!
There was beautiful work there today in many, many categories. I found out later from a Judge's Clerk that there were four items in the running......an exquisite First Communion dress with lovey lace and hand beading, an amulet with tiny, tiny counted cross stitch, a beautiful Nantucket basket, and my quilt. Apparently they were impressed with the fact that it was an original design using all my hand dyed fabrics, the use of metallic thread for the quilting, the tiny sizes of the pieces and good stitching. I also should tell you that my quilt was right under a spotlight, so that the metallic thread really sparkled. What can I say.......I'm a happy quilter!

Wordless Wednesday

Easter Sunday

I'm just catching my breath and able to blog about my Easter Sunday. I spent it at my niece's darling little house. You've heard me talk about her before. She has such a flair for entertaining, she could be Martha Stewart. All pictures are clickable for a bigger view

This greeted us at her front door.

And this was the window box on her front porch.

The centerpiece on the dining room table. Note the pastel M & M's in the candle holders.

Have you ever seen Deviled Eggs that look like these? Of course they were made by Lauren.

The buffet table before the delicious food was set out.

Even the flatware was wrapped up to look like green leaves.

It looks like we all got the the pearl memo. L to R, My niece, Lauren, me, and my sister, Ruth.

TAFA

I was very flattered and honored to be invited by Rachel Biel to join her TAFA blog. To quote her, "My concept is to bring together the world of contemporary and cultural textiles and fiber art under one umbrella to network with each other and to access larger markets for us all."

I got the invitation a while ago and somehow it got lost in my inbox, meaning to get back to it. I went to the site and was impressed with the other artists there and decided to take the plunge. My profile is up now, but not complete. I have to set up a Flickers slide show and a Facebook Fan Page. I am so busy working on my Van Gogh quilt right now so that will have to wait until next week.

Please check out the site here and see what you think.