“Be inspired by your photo, not controlled by it.” This is our class motto in Design Your Own Nature Quilt. The quilts in this post are good examples of that. Barbara had this great starting photo. She noticed the vertical striations and decided to abstract them a little and to exaggerate them. Isn’t that more…
Two students brought photos of sunflowers as their inspirations. This was Jo-Ann’s. She needed to make a long skinny piece to fit a particular backing so she was NOT controlled by her photo. She edited it very successfully. Here it is before stems are added. Isn’t it vibrant and lively? After her first wonderful piece,…
There are two types of texture in art: real, and visual. Visual texture is achieved with value and pattern changes and is one of the things I teach in class. Two students brought in mushroom photos to use as their inspirations. Their photos had a lot of visual texture and these two worked hard at…
I had a fabulous time teaching “Design Your Own Nature Quilt” in western North Carolina recently. The students were talented, excited to learn, and willing to experiment. As a result, they produced some amazing quilts in our two days together. After learning some design concepts in the morning, the fabric was flying in the afternoon…
Gee, this quilt has been fun to make! After completing the foreground, it was time to address the background – again, with many hand dyed fabrics. First, I auditioned possible fabrics. I really wanted to use the darkest one, but I was worried that it would created too much contrast. Still, I kept it in…
I’ve been really anxious to use my recently dyed fabrics. In a very uncharacteristic move I actually started on a quilt using them BEFORE completing the last thing. Shocking! I started with some sketches, and picked this one to use. Because I’ve been doing a few quilts sized 36″ x 24″, I decided to alter…
My quilt, Splash, is finally complete. It had a long intermission while I purchased a working sewing machine. But, now it’s finished and I’m very happy! This piece is made largely from fabrics I hand painted. That involved a bit of a learning curve, as did the stitching of the stiffer-than-usual fabrics which resulted. I did quite…
SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates) is having an online auction of small quilts right now! This screen shot gives you an idea of the caliber of these 12″ x 12″ pieces. There are over 100 to choose from! You’ll definitely want to check them out. Here’s my 12″ x 12″ piece, called Crotons with Attitude. The…
I needed to depict a traffic jam for my hurricane (evacuation) quilt. Thankfully, I had a reference photo. So, I made a colorful replica. I thought it needed to be thick/padded to go with the texture of the raw-edged spirals. However, the bright colors of the vehicles disappeared a little against the bright floral background. I corrected…
Who says Florida doesn’t have seasons? We have hurricane season, don’t we? One year ago, Hurricane Irma had just skirted Florida on its way northward. Due to the power of the storm and the projected path, the governor of Florida issued an order for mandatory coastal evacuations, and urged people in many other areas to…