Saturday, March 16, 2024
Friday, March 15, 2024
Sunday, March 3, 2024
Andrea's Fall Quilt
Friday, March 1, 2024
Karen's Fall
Bare Tree 111
The tree is constructed with many different strips of brown batik which I heavily stitched in place.
Tricia's Fall Scalloping
Fall Scalloping
Last month I used a tree and leaves for my ancestry so I struggled with a new idea for fall. As I usually do when I'm stuck, I ask a family member for suggestions on the theme word. My daughter's first reaction was we always go scalloping in the fall. On Nantucket Family Scalloping opens on October 1st.
Scalloping on Nantucket is a treasured tradition for families but also the commercial fisherman. These are the sweetest and tiniest bay scallops. The bay scalloping industry is dying everywhere. Nantucket has put a huge investment into saving and keeping the industry. This past year the investment has been paying off. The amount of scallops that are being harvested and seed that is in the harbor has increased. We have reason to be hopeful for the continuation of the bay scallop in Nantucket Habor.
Now to my journal quilt. I find it difficult to portray people and especially faces in my work. The first weekend in December our friend Nick and his family came to Nantucket for the Christmas Stroll. (so technically not fall). I had mentioned to Nick that Nantucketers very often go scalloping on Thanksgiving morning to have a scallop dish for Thanksgiving. It was the first weekend in December and Nick said lets go! He put on our wet suit and went out to Jackson Point. My quilt is from a picture of Nick coming in with a basket of scallops. Even after a hot shower he was cold for a long time! We enjoyed a delicious scallop dinner that night.
I printed the photograph on fabric, free motion stitched the grasses, created the basket from wire and filled with real tiny scallops shells that I have collected over the years. The scallops rake was made from tulle, metal and a dowel. It is 10"wide x 13"high
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Nedra's Fall - Vermont Gems
Vermont Gems
Raw edge applique, hand painted, commercial cottons, machine quilted
12' X 12"
I moved to Vermont in 1979 and was thrilled to experience many "firsts" there. Some of these included seeing many feet of snow, below zero temperature, snow skiing, sugar on snow parties, snow shoveling and of course Fall Leaf Peeping!! The colorful leaves looked like gems on the branches to me after having seen little more than brown leaves in Louisiana.
I choose to spotlight the leaves and their glorious hues in this piece. I hand painted most of the fabric. I did use one commercial batik for the sweet gum leaves but dabbled a bit of paint on those. The leaves are machine stitched onto the background. The larger ones that extend beyond the edges are double sided and 3 dimensional. I used a commercial fabric for the background and scattered them over it to look like they were on the ground in the woods.
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Tricia's Ancestry
In thinking about our word "Ancestry", I kept going back to the image of a favorite photograph that I have from my grandparent's backyard. We would travel to our grandparents' house for holidays. Someone would photograph the grandchildren in the tree in the back yard. I am the girl with dark jumper sitting in the middle but at the back.
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Andrea's Ancestry Quilt
Sunday, August 27, 2023
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Alice's Luminosity Quilt: St. Louis Arch at Night
A friend from Missouri posted on Facebook a photo of the St. Louis arch taken by a professional photographer. I immediately thought of basing my luminosity quilt on this photo. I contacted the photographer (Larry the Photographer) for permission to use his image in this way, and he graciously agreed. My first attempts disappointed me, primarily because the fabrics I brought from Texas to Michigan, where we are for the summer, just didn't all work. They were solids, and though lovely ombres, they came off looking too flat.
Friday, June 30, 2023
Tricia's Luminosity
I used raw edge applique, fusibles and free motion quilting.
Nedra's Luminous - Grahams' Giraffe
When my kids visited us in Georgia this past April vacation Graham, my 8 yr old. grandson, slept in my "studio". He knew I made quilts, but it was the first time he got to see my workspace and design wall. Many of my favorite MM quilts are pinned to the top of the design wall. He called me in the room and asked what they were for and if I could tell him about them. I explained our blog and themes and he asked what was our next theme. I said luminous; he smiled and his eyes sparkled!! "Could we help you make this one", he asked eagerly!!
I was touched as this was the first time he expressed so much interest in my work, even though I've made him and his sisters several quilts over the years!! I of course took him up on it!! He and his twin sister Noelle spent the next 2 hours with me planning what to do. "It needs a moon", he said. I agreed that was a great idea and asked what else we should do. "Well we could have a giraffe too"!!! (These kids know their Grandma I thought.). I let them pick the fabric we would use and draw the giraffe and moon . I helped them cut out the figures which we fused to the background. I let them stitch down the pieces on the machine, with my help guiding the fabric. We added the spots on the giraffe with pearlescent paint and glitter to it and the moon. for more shimmer. Graham then decided we needed grass since the giraffe was "kind of above the ground". (Very good design sense I thought!) I gave him some inktense pencils to add blades of grass. That was as far as we got since we had plans for a dolphin-watching boat ride later. We didn't find more time to complete it as they were busy and left a day later.
After they left, I added the acacia tree and embellished the blades of grass as they were quite light and not very visible. I machine quilted the background and added a few beads as a finishing touch.
It was very exciting to work on this together!! Without their ideas and enthusiasm I don't think I would have made a quilt for this theme!!
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Andrea's Luminous Quilt
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Judy's Flower Rabbit
22" x 26"
Flour/Flower. I have a funny picture from the beginning of the pandemic that I thought I might make into a quilt. The store shelves were totally empty of flour because everyone started baking, but someone who helped us get a laugh had put some pots of Flowers on those shelves.I just didn’t get that one going, but I have been working hard to collage a rabbit. It turns out the year of the rabbit just might be my year of a series of rabbit collages. This is one of 3 that I have been working on. When I completed it, I realized that it fit the theme perfectly. It’s spring, it’s floral, and it’s a rabbit which covers this year and this season.
The background fabric is an ombre so it goes from light to dark and there are more dots in the dark area. I used the middle of the fabric, which is the lightest part, as the backing. The fabric is Moda “Ombre confetti metallic” by Vanessa Christenson of V and Co. On the selvage it says, “Spread Kindness Like Confetti”. I believe that wholeheartedly.
Carolyn's Flower -Dancing Flowers
Of course, being the gardener that I have always been, I just HAD to do flowers for this theme. I am not a cook or a baker so for me, this was the right and only choice!
I tried to use just one flower, but it looked lonely blowing in the wind. I ended up adding a second flower and 5 leaves floating by. The quilt is fused with scraps of Kaffe Collective fabrics that I have used in previous quilts, as is the binding. I tried a wavy stitch for the polka dot background. In my mind, it imitates swirls of wind. We just had a super windstorm full of West Texas sand, so wind was on my radar.
I am recuperating from 3 + months of health issues, so this was my first time "back in the saddle". It feels good!!!
Andrea's Flour/Flower Quilt
Nedra's Flower/Flour-Pillsbury Flour
As soon as I read this joke, I knew what I would do for this challenge !!
On the first day of a marriage retreat the instructor talked about the importance of knowing what matters to each other. For example he said, pointing to my husband David, "do you know your wife's favorite flower?" David grinned and answered with confidence, "Pillsbury, All Purpose".
Here is my sixties homage to the Pillsbury dough boy and some of the goodies enjoyed by a lover of this kind of flour!!! The flour bag, plate, bread, cookies, and dough boy are hand sketched. I made a stencil for the word pillsbury and painted the circle and dots with fabric paint. The red banner and wheat are fused. The bread, cookies (painted separately and fused onto plate) and plate are colored in with Inktense pencils. The dough boy is made with two layers of very thin batting fused and stitched on and then shaded with Inktense pencils. The chocolate chips and crumbs are embellished with a few beads. Lovin' From the Oven is written with pencil and filled in with Inktense pencils. The piece is machined quilted. To complete the look I used a bias stripe and tiny ricrac in complementary colors. I had sooooo much fun working on this challenge!!
Karen's Flower- Poppies
Tricia’s Flower- Wisteria Tree
A year and a half ago I took a Merrill Comeau mixed media class at Snow Farm in western Mass. I started to work on a piece from a photograph of a Wisteria plant. In our last house we had a 50 year old Wisteria tree which was so beautiful in the spring. I decided to finish my piece for our flower theme.
I used raw edge appliqué, free motion stitching and French knots. I loved Merrill’s class. It helped me to free up my use of fabric.