After studying my photo of a Christmas cactus, I decided to try abstracting it with one repeated shape. Maybe something like these “spike” shapes. Yes, I thought they worked well. My original idea was to fill the entire space with this shape, just changing the color for background grass, brick, etc. But, when I tried…
Once again, my Christmas cactus was beautiful this year. (Here in Florida it lives outside year round.) I began to imagine what an abstracted version might look like in fabric. Can’t you envision some bright, spiky red shapes? I was especially enamored with the cascading blossoms on the right side. Just to jump start some…
Last month I taught three classes for Road at Home, a large quilt show type online event. The first was the ever popular Double Reverse Appliqué. We had fun and the students did excellent work! First I’ll show you Cindy’s apple, because she was my college roommate! How cool is that? She lives in Minnesota…
The supply list for my class, Design Your Own Nature Quilt, includes artistic couraage, and the ladies in Venice, FL brought it in spades! During our two day class they didn’t even whimper. 😉 But, they DID make some extraordinary quilts. Let’s start with Helen, who was taking her first ever quilt class. (These images…
I’m really happy with my latest quilt, Water Dance. I wanted a lot of energy in the piece, and I think I achieved it. The detail shot shows how I added double black stitching for emphasis. I use this technique quite a bit and I think it’s effective. I always do it in a rather loose…
You probably know about English paper piecing. It’s a way to use hand stitching to create very precise patterns. Each piece of fabric is first stitched around paper or cardboard. Later, the shapes are stitched to one another and, finally, the paper is removed. (Check out You Tube for a PLETHORA of different ways to…
After a disappointing attempt at making a quilt featuring my large-scaled hand dyed fabrics, I dramatically down sized and tried again. This time I switched the color proportions, using turquoise as my primary color and fuchsia as the accent. I still found it hard to incorporate the leaf fabric. Maybe because it had a lighter…
As I mentioned in an earlier post, a specialty fabric or two can be the primary inspiration for an entire quilt. And that’s what I wanted to try. This is sort of what I had in mind. I had intentionally dyed some large scale fabrics in order to try my hand at this. Plus, I…
Dying specialty fabrics is a lot of fun. Having said that, I don’t think I’m that good at it. And I DEFINITELY am challenged when it comes to using them. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. During my recent dye session I tried to create some specialty fabrics that could either be used together or…
My piece, Diversity, was juried into a regional SAQA exhibit called Imagination: 1 x 4. As you might guess, all the pieces are 1 foot wide and 4 feet tall. There’s a virtual artists’ reception on January 9th, at 2 PM, and you’re invited. You’ll get to see the art and the juror will be speaking so I…