Week in Review 2013 - 07/19

I know I was in the studio for the full three days I commit to each week, but it sure doesn't look like it if you were to judge that statement against my plan for the week and what I had available to photograph for my blog. It is so easy to become defensive or to rationalize. Sometimes weeks just go like that. 

1) Companion Oysters (Deadline 9/01/2013)

a) Finish cutting and placing the pieces - Done!

b) Stitch the pieces to the background muslin - All the pieces have been prepared (edges requiring turning and glue basted) but I haven't started the sewing them in place.

c) Add a layer of batting behind the oysters for a trapunto effect - No...

Background for Express Your Love II on my design wall.

2) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. - Worked on.

This is where most of my efforts went this week. Leah has started a second incarnation of Express Your Love called, Express Your Love II. This time the background is pieced. I have twenty-eight of the thirty 6.5" background pieces finished as well as the 8 mini blocks. I discovered when I laid out the quilt on my design wall, that another 4 mini blocks would be required. I also need to add the solid muslin on the left hand side to which the pieced goddess will eventually be added.

Detail from the background of Express Your Love II.
I will be making four more mini log cabins in the gray
fabric to fill in the gaps.

I  started the free motion motif, Little Tongues. It wasn't calling to me, so I didn't do enough to photograph. 

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon." - Not Yet

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

When presented with Leah's latest project to piece Express Your Love II it was easy for me to select a palette. I chose black and white with shades of gray to contrast against jewel toned fabrics. Why? Because this is my signature palette that I have gained confidence with since my very first black and white piece, First Snow, made in January 2000. This lead to my Shifting Value series. One of the advantages of working in a series is by repeating much of what you have done before, the kinks have been worked out, so that problem solving is kept to a minimum. By changing only one, two or a few aspects it is easy to tell how that change influences a piece. Working in a series is much like how a scientific experiment is conducted. It is important to keep the constants, constant and only alter one variable at a time.

First Snow
January 2000
27" x 27"
The piece that launched the Shifting Value Series.

1) Companion Oysters (Deadline 9/01/2013)

a) Stitch the pieces to the background muslin

b) Add a layer of batting behind the oysters for a trapunto effect

2) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

a) Finish making the blocks for Express Your Love II

b) Retry the FMQ motif, Little Tongues, but not as a random pattern, but in rows instead.

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon."

I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Week in Review 2013 - July 12

Botswana Bounty
30" H x 30" W

Both Botswana Bounty and Thinking in Green have been selected for State of the Art, an exhibition of fiber art at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Art in Cedarburg, WI. I will be attending the artists reception on July, 21 from noon to 3 p.m. If you are in the vicinity, do take in the exhibition and be sure to  seek me out at the reception.


This week brought a change of focus from free motion machine quilting to piecing. I struggled against the change of routine, but soon found myself back in the groove of assembly line piecing. That isn't all I did, of course. Here is how the week played out:

1) Oyster Bay (deadline 8/20/2013) - Done!

a) Make and attach the label. - Done!

b) Add Oyster Bay to my website. - Done!

2) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

It was Leah Day who brought the change of focus to my week. She has begun a second Express Your Love piece. This time instead of a whole cloth quilt where the design is created exclusively with free motion quilting, it is a pieced quilt. Step one is to create the background of the quilt from thirty 6.5" log cabin blocks, eight 3.5" centers of log cabin blocks, several solid squares and a star block. That is quite a time consuming project. I did make a good start. The eight 3.5" blocks are basically done.

One of eight 3.5" blocks for Express Your Love II

Next I created the star block...

The star block for Express Your Love II.
This is paper pieced which helps with matching seams
and keeping the points sharp.

I had fun selecting the fabric for this. I think of it more as a sun block than a star block. The gray and black fabrics will also be used in the background log cabin blocks. My plan is for all the design elements to be pieced in tinted jewel tones, so that the design will really pop.

Collection of pieced elements for
Express Your Love II

The very first quilt I ever made was an Eleanor Burns Log Cabin in a Day. That was more than 25 years ago. To this day, whenever I piece numerous blocks of the Log Cabin ilk, I turn to Eleanor's assembly line method. What the picture doesn't show is that those individual mini blocks, or partial blocks have been assembly line pieced onto a single strip of fabric. The next step is to cut them apart and iron the seams. 

3) Companion Oysters (Deadline 9/01/2013)

a) Create the acetate overlay for aligning piecing - Done!

The layers from back to front are: my work table, muslin 4" wider
and longer than the final quilt, in some instances the quilt top fabric,
freezer paper templates and finally a plastic sheeting placement guide.

I am assembling Companion Oysters using an amalgam of techniques I have experimented with in the past. The full quilt will finish at approximately 36" square and the oyster shell is 31" H  by 19" W. Inset piecing it would be a nightmare. I have never enjoyed needle turn appliqué. I could fuse the fabric with either Misty Fuse or Steam a Seam 2, but that gets expensive at this size. Also, it adds one more layer, albeit a thin one to the quilt. I don't want to use dabs of glue adhere the fabric because the raw edges invariably fray. My plan is to pre turn the edges and glue just the turned back edges. So far it is working quite nicely. 

b) Cut and place the pieces - Partially Done.

Freezer paper templates laid over the the paper carton for
Companion Oysters. If you compare this with the picture
above you can see that I am assembling the quilt from the
outside in. I find it easier not reverse my templates. This means
I iron them to the right side of the fabric. It makes the unveiling
of the piece quite fun. At this point I just have to trust my
instinct that I have chosen the right fabrics. Of course should I need to
swap out a fabric, nothing is stitched down and I have saved the template.

4) Pictorial Painting - A Craftsy.com class taught by Annette Kennedy.

a) Quilt "Canyon." - Done!

Finally, I took time out to quilt Canyon. 

One thing is certain, Leah Day is going to keep me busy next week. However, I also don't want to loose sight of my determination to finish Companion Oysters in time to enter it in one of the many opportunities coming up in at the beginning of September. Here is my plan for the week ending July 19, 2013

1) Companion Oysters (Deadline 9/01/2013)

a) Finish cutting and placing the pieces

b) Stitch the pieces to the background muslin

c) Add a layer of batting behind the oysters for a trapunto effect

2) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon."

I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Weekly Report 2013 - 07/05

Oyster Bay is finished except for the label!

 Tips, Techniques and Thoughts

Today I am seeking your thoughts versus sharing one of mine. It seems all Calls for Entry for exhibitions of quilt art require one full view of the artwork and one detail of the artwork. The purpose of the detail image is to allow the curator or juror a better look at the techniques used in the artwork. It is recommended that the detail view also read like a stand alone artwork. My photographer aka my husband has provided me with 5 possible detail shots of Oyster Bay. Please let me know which of these details you feel best accomplishes the goals of a Call for Entry and why you chose this one. The contestants are:

#1 Detail of the two oyster shells resting on the sand

#2 Detail of the two oyster shells cropped along the lower edge,
but showing some ocean and sea foam

#3 Detail of the single oyster shell showing sand and sea foam

#4 Detail of the single oyster shell and sand

#5 Detail of the sea foam and water

You've probably surmised that despite it being a short work week in the USA I managed to focus on Oyster Bay. Here is what I accomplished this week.

1) “Oyster Bay” (deadline 8/20/2013)

a) Face the quilt. - Done!

b) Make and attach the sleeves. - Done!

c) Make and attach the label. - Step one has been accomplished. I always include a finished picture of my quilt on the label. I have the picture.

d) Add Oyster Bay to my website. - The pictures have been taken. 

2) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

The assignment from Leah was to practice Universe Spiral. This design is a tweak on McTavishing. The difference between McTavishing and Universe Spiral is that McTavishing begins with a gentle wiggly line that is echoed, as does Universe Spiral, but Universe Spiral adds a circle at the end of the line that is filled with an "*". Since I am on tear with my beach series, I further tweaked Universe Spiral by swapping out the "*" and inserting various sized circles within the circle to emulate sea foam. I chose to practice on some fabric that suggests the sea. I have chosen to call my variation Ocean Currents.

Ocean Currents Sample - Front Side

It has been a while since I shared the back side of any of my work. One thing that has become obvious from my focus on practicing free motion quilting is that the number of bird nests and hesitation spots on the back are greatly reduced.

Ocean Currents Sample - Back Side

An advantage of sharing the flip side with you on the blog is that the actual pattern for Ocean Currents is much more easily seen. 

3) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the lesson that demos how to quilt the Canyon piece. - Done!

b) Quilt "Canyon." - Just contemplated.

4) Unplanned Bonus - I started designing my next artwork based on cropping a section of Oyster Bay using Photoshop Elements and changing it to grayscale and then rotating it 90 degrees. 

The germ of an idea for my next Beach Series quilt

There is nothing like starting a new quilt to fire me up. I can't wait to get to work on Monday and start creating. Here are my known plans for what I would like to accomplish:

1) “Oyster Bay” (deadline 8/20/2013)

a) Make and attach the label.

b) Add Oyster Bay to my website.

2) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

3) Companion Oysters (Deadline 9/01/2013)

a) Create the acetate overlay for aligning piecing

b) Cut and place the pieces

4) Pictorial Painting

a) Quilt "Canyon."

I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Weekly Report 2013 - 06/28

Oyster Bay is 24" H x 36" W. If you click on the image
you can see an enlarged version. 

This just might be a first. I started quilting Oyster Bay on Monday and finished quilting it on Thursday. It is a midsize artwork at 24" H x 36". Still I don't think I could have done such a complex pattern of FMQ if I hadn't been been developing my FMQ with Leah Day for 18 months now. That isn't all I did this past week. Here is how the week played out:

1) “Oyster Bay” (deadline 8/20/2013)

I opted for gentle undulating lines to suggest current
and wave action in the ocean section of Oyster Bay.

I used Lava Rock filled in with foam for the beach. This
combines the undulating lines in the ocean with the sea foam.
It is also suggests those little clumps of sea foam that are left
behind after a wave recedes.

a) Quilt Oyster Bay - Done!

b) Bonus - Squared up the quilt in preparation for facing.

Practice piece exploring the possibility of using the
Basic Maze motif to simulate rain.

2) Leah Day

a) Express Your Love - attach second sleeve. - Done! Express Your Love is done!!

b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. - Done!

This week's quilting motif is titled Basic Maze. It looks like marks on a ruler. It reminded me of rain. So, I put together two scraps of fabric to imply a landscape and practiced Basic Maze. I thought with the addition of some trees and smaller vegetation this could make a good  Fabric Postcard. 

3) Signature experimentation

a) Design a new signature motif. - Done!

This will be my "art" signature unless I design something
I like better. I like the simplicity of this with just a hint of
flourish. It doesn't overwhelm, but nor is it hidden.

I spent some time experimenting with my monogram and date to use as a signature on the front of my quilts. I settled on the one I used in Oyster Bay. I have always labeled my quilts and will continue to do so. However, a signature is a stronger way of sending each artwork off with a flourish. Why sign your work? This article says it all!

4) Pictorial Painting - This WIP still hangs on my design wall. Some day.

a) Watch the lesson that demos how to quilt the Canyon piece.

b) Quilt "Canyon."

Next week is a short week due to the July 4th holiday. My plan is to clear the decks so that I can begin the next exhibition quilt the following week.

1) “Oyster Bay” (deadline 8/20/2013)

a) Face the quilt.

b) Make and attach the sleeves.

c) Make and attach the label.

d) Add Oyster Bay to my website.

2) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

3) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the lesson that demos how to quilt the Canyon piece.

b) Quilt "Canyon."

I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Week in Review 2013 - 06/21

Experiments with threads, Derwent Inktense
pencils and paint.

It was a gutsy move for me when I shared that I had entered "Tangled Up in Blue" before I knew whether I was getting a thumbs up or thumbs down. I knew I had a strong piece, with Adoration, but so much depends on what else is submitted and how Adoration would play with the other work selected. I am delighted to say I got the thumbs up. Adoration can be seen at The Brush Art Gallery, in Lowell, MA from August 8 through September 7. If Lowell is doable for you, I recommend going during the Lowell Quilt Festival and saturating yourself with all the exhibitions in town that weekend.

I have made it my mission to get my work out there. In order to achieve this I have been submitting my work to a different call for entry, either public or private ones, every week this year. It has paid off. My work can be seen in 12 upcoming exhibitions, mostly in the USA, but one takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa in September. Most are posted on my website under events.

It isn't easy coming up with all that work to submit to galleries and exhibitions. That is why I pledged to work 120 days a week in my studio during the fiscal year October 1, 2012 - September 30, 2013. It only took a couple of weeks to get into the rhythm. Now I can't imagine working any other way. Here is what I managed to accomplish during the week ending June 21, 2013.

1) Adoration

a) Attach the label - Done!

b) Add to my website - Done! Here is the proof. 

2) “Oyster Bay” (deadline 8/20/2013)

a) Experiment with ways to add the purple staining and lines seen on the inside of an oyster shell. - Done

Finally an experiment that works. I decide to
go with Setacolor paints blended with a
floating gel medium.

Here is how the painted oyster shell looks. Thanks to
Annette Kennedy's class I am able to blend the color
I need and fade the color in a gentle gradation using
floating medium.

b) Attach the oyster shells to the quilt. - Done!

Detail from Oyster Bay

Oyster Bay as it looks today.

c) Add a few more ridges of foam to balance the white of oyster shells in the composition. - Done!

This is why you save those scraps. I thought I would
have just one row of  foam, but when the composition
screamed out for more white I was very grateful to
have these left over scraps!

3) Leah Day

a) Express Your Love

         i) Hand stitch the facing in place. - Done!

        ii) Attach the label. - Done!
       iii) Create and attach the sleeves. Both are created and one is attached.

b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

Sampler of Lava Rocks infused with sea foam.

This week's motif from Leah is called Lava Rocks. Naturally, I couldn't resist adding my own twist. I thought two things, one that Lava Rocks as is would make a nice tree fungus and two, if I added sea foam to the cobblestone shaped gap that is being echoed I could use Lava Rocks with Sea Foam for my beach background in Oyster Bay. In order to see how it would quilt out  I selected a fabric that I might use for tree bark. I have deemed the experiment successful and will use it in Oyster Bay next week.

4) Signature experimentation - Never got any further than Leah's assignment. 

a) Design a new signature motif.

5) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the lesson that demos how to quilt the Canyon piece.

b) Quilt "Canyon."

I am on such a roll with Oyster Bay, that I assume that is where I will focus next week. Still, it is nice to have a couple of other ideas lined up should I need a change. Here are my plans for the week ending June 28, 2013:

1) “Oyster Bay” (deadline 8/20/2013)

a) Quilt Oyster Bay

2) Leah Day

a) Express Your Love - attach second sleeve.

b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

3) Signature experimentation

a) Design a new signature motif.

4) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the lesson that demos how to quilt the Canyon piece.

b) Quilt "Canyon."

I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Week in Review 2013 - 06/14

"Tree Serenade" - 48" H x 40" W

I am a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA,) an international organization whose mission is to bring attention to art quilts as an art medium. This mission has helped shaped my own mission in recent years. I still enter calls for entry for art quilt shows, but now I am just as likely to enter calls for art, when fiber is listed amongst the accepted categories or is not specifically excluded. That is why I chose to the enter the “Michigan Fine Arts Competition” held at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center in Birmingham, MI. My piece, “Tree Serenade” made from recycled practice pieces I made while doing Leah Day’s 2012 assignments, will be in the exhibition. If you will be in the area between June 28 and August 23, 2013, please drop by and then share your experience with me.

I managed to complete both of the major non-studio obligations I referred to last week and still find time to make it into my studio for 2.5 days this week. Here are my studio accomplishments.

1) Adoration – Done!

a) Attach the label – Done!

b) Add to my website – Done! Adoration is now on the opening page of my website. If you click the image you will go directly to Adoration’s page.

2) “Oyster Shards” (deadline 8/20/2013)

a) Create the oyster shell template – Done!

These oyster shells were made off quilt to be appliquéd on later.
They range from 8" - 12" long and 4" - 6" wide. 

b) Make an oyster shell to be appliqued to the background. – Done! I made three!!! However, I am thinking of tweaking them just a tad more to add blue/purple rings of concentric ridges in the pearlescent portion. I will be testing several thread options to see what looks best.

A closer look at one of the oyster shells.  The pearlescent center
is created by layering the same tulle used in the sea foam from last
week, but only a single layer. The rims were fused in place with
Steam a Seam. This held the tulle in place during the quilting process.
Once they were quilted I cut them out so that they can be appliquéd to the quilt.

3) Leah Day

a) Express Your Love

         i) Cut facing strips. – Done!

         ii) Stitch facing strips to the quilt. – Done!

         iii) Hand stitch the facing in place. – Begun.

         iv) Attach the label. – Pinned in place.

b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. – Done!

"Foundation Puzzle" using a thread of variegated peacock colors.
Leah does this by spiraling from the outside in and then travel
stitching her way back out along the spiral. I prefer to leave a
wider channel when I spiral in and use the channel to spiral back
out again.

c) Bonus Project – I finished my sampler from last week using Carol Ann Waugh’s rattail finishing technique. This is a fast and effective way to finish a quilt, especially smaller pieces. Carol Ann Waugh, like Leah Day, is a Craftsy.com teacher.

Doesn't the rattail finishing technique work well on this piece?

4) Signature experimentation – Not this week.

a) Design a new signature motif.

5) Pictorial Painting – Not this week.

a) Watch the lesson that demos how to quilt the Canyon piece.

b) Quilt "Canyon."

Here is where I plan to focus my energy next week:

1) “Oyster Shards” (deadline 8/20/2013)

a) Find a way to add concentric, believable ridges to the pearlescent portion of the oyster shells. Possibilities include various threads and paint.

b) Create a quilt sandwich with the pieced background fabric, batting and backing.

c) Baste the sandwich.

d) Add the oyster shells.

2) Leah Day

a) Express Your Love

      i) Hand stitch the facing in place.

     ii) Attach the label.

b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

3) Signature experimentation

a) Design a new signature motif.

4) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the lesson that demos how to quilt the Canyon piece.

b) Quilt "Canyon."

I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.