Last month I got to spend two and half days with members of the North Suburban Needle Arts Guild when I conducted my class, Design Your Own Nature Quilt. Because this group includes many non-quilters there was quite a mix of skill levels in the class. About half had never made an art quilt and several had never made a quilt of any sort! But, they all bravely dove in and they achieved EXCELLENT results.
In this class, each student brings their own inspiration photo, which means we’ve got 15 DIFFERENT projects going all the time. It keeps me on my toes, but I love it. They learn so much in this class!
I wish I had thought to photograph their inspiration photos, rather than just their resulting quilts. (These photos were showing on my computer when photographed. The quality is sometimes low, but you’ll get the idea.)
Gretchen was inspired by a photo of water lilies. She changed the nearly black water to a dark plum, which worked beautifully. She’ll use fusible web to add the skinny little grasses, and she’ll stiffen some of the leaves to make them 3D. It will be great!
Ronna also worked with water lilies, and also switched to purple water. This complementary color really adds drama and contrast. And check out how effective those black shadows are. Nice!
Val’s lily pads are coming along nicely. She’ll add some shadows to add dimension. Check out her water grasses and their reflection near the top. She spent a lot of time on them and I think they’re very effective.
This photo doesn’t do Barbara’s work justice. Her photo had three delicate flowers against a complex shadow. She had to work at providing contrast with value. Her later progress showed that she was moving in the right direction.
Nancy cut loose in a really wonderful way. She started working with solids, but needed some dappled light. As we searched her print fabrics she realized that she had quite a big selection of them, so she switched gears. This brought a lot of energy to her scene. She’ll add some thread-painted grasses in the foreground.
I’ve heard it said that “God is in the details,” and I believe it. In addition to the HUGE scenery we saw on our trip to the American southwest, we also appreciated many smaller details. Like the trees leafing out in a remote canyon. The petroglyphs that are over 1000 years old. Each motif is…
My quilt, Mr. and Mrs., is finally complete. Here’s a detail shot. This quilt is about my parents. There were married 66 years. My dad was a hard-working farmer and my mom did the book work and cared for four children. Although not prone to romantic gestures, they were devoted to one another. Their complementary roles resulted…
After completing the flowers in my poppy project, it was time to audition fabrics for stems and buds. I also played around with how to best achieve the back lighting on the stems. My plan was to use a white paint pen, in a sort of dotted (fuzzy) effect. That seems to be the right…
Nothing like a major hurricane to interrupt blog posting! By late Wednesday, October 5th, Matthew was predicted to be a category 4 and was heading straight for Melbourne, FL, where I live! We finally decided to evacuate, and began to pack. You don’t need a lot when you flee a hurricane: your personal items, medications…
After painting fabric and seeing how much it stiffened the fabric, I knew I wanted to learn about painting with dyes instead. In anticipation I got a good tutorial book and asked for dyes for my just-around-the-corner birthday. Living in Florida, I KNEW I wanted to dye inside, something that very few people do. I…
I really enjoyed my visit to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival 2023, held in Hampton, VA. The winning quilts were, of course, wonderful. You can see them all here. Here are a couple of my favorites: Toroweap Overlook, by Sandra L Mollon. This won Best Wall Quilt. It’s amazing! Age is Relative, by Sandy Curran, which…
