Archive for January 2012

Croton Quilt: Additional Leaves

Although croton leaves are very colorful, I’ve never really seen fuschia in them.  But that’s not slowing me down.  I’m definitely taking liberties with the colors. Click any image for a larger view I’m really liking the way this piece is coming together.  I’m continuing to think about alternate vein colors.  Maybe lime green for […]

Croton Quilt: Getting Started

After a false start on my croton quilt, I selected new fabrics and was ready to go again.  I love these hand dyes.  And I think the addition of commercial prints makes the mix even better. Click any image for a larger view After deciding on dark blue as the background color, it was time […]

Selecting a Background Color

This is the photo I’m using as inspiration for my next quilt.  These vibrant colors really excite me. But, I wasn’t too keen on the green/black background.  To audition options, I used my computer to isolate the foreground elements and tried a variety of background colors.  First, dark green. Well, it matches my photo.  And it coordinates […]

Zentangles

Do you know about Zentangles?  They’re basically doodles within contained spaces.  You draw some large shapes, fill them in with small motifs, subdivide, and continue. I tried my hand at one the other day.  First, I drew a lovely shape (which ended up being a complete waste of effort.)  Then, I had fun subdividing and […]

Size Matters (with prints, that is)

I recently started work on a fairly large quilt with colorful Croton leaves. I auditioned fabrics that would help me achieve the striped effect of the heavily veined leaves. Click any image for a larger view Perfect, aren’t they? Then, I drew one very large leaf onto muslin and cut it out as a base […]

The Power of Stitching

I belong to a wonderful fiber art group, and we had our monthly meeting yesterday.  More like a “gathering,” really, with lots of show and tell, great ideas, some quilt critique, and lots of chatter.  Great for inspiration and creativity! Bev O’Connell showed us some stitched flowers which were inspired by “Zentangle” drawings.  (More on […]

New Books for a New Year

I’m a sucker for books about art, design, color, and art quilting.  For Christmas, I received two that I think will be fantastic.  Adventures in Designis by Joen Wolfrom, and it’s written for quilters.  She wrote an earlier book, Visual Dance, which really taught me a lot.  I think this one will be similar, which […]