Presentation accomplished

     For the last couple of months, I have been prepping for a presentation to my guild on art quilts. I collected a lot of information, gathered up my examples and tried to make it coher. I wrote handouts, made samples, and did an auditioning demo. It took a half hour to set up and take down and lasted about 1 1/2 hrs. I felt a huge load lift after it was done. I don't think people realize how much work and effort go into a meaty presentation. I had spent time organizing categories on index cards, gathering stuff, editing and then writing the handout. I wrote a bullet point script for myself and made use of our camera and projector as well as images from my laptop.  I wish more of the guild would have come, but those who did seemed real interested. My point was that if you are a quilter, you can make art quilts because you have all the technical skills and just need to tap conscious inspiration and use a  design process to work it all the way through the end. Then sew.
     For the design demo, I moved a lot of fabric around my inspiration piece, the discharged leaf wreath and we talked about all the fabrics, sizes, and decisions. The only photo I have is all the fabrics pinned up on the wall for discussion.

Winter/windmills sewn together

      The blocks from the Winter/Windmill in the Cultural Fusion book were sewn together. What fun! I do not think I will put on a border. It is lap size. Wish I would have had more of the Marimekko fabric. I want to make another!

     I also finally made my portable design walls. I had to buy a whole 4 x 8 sheet of insulation board- the foil faced, cut it in half in the parking lot in order to fit it in the car. I cut a 3 x 4, 2 x 3, and some small left overs. I still have part of the sheet. I covered it with fleece on the large one, and felt on the smaller. I attached it with clear duct which it difficult to cut and handle. I hope it stays attached. The walls are light, rigid and pins go straight into it. Now I can work on some more denim applique quilts.

4' x 4' with fleece

Back with clear duct tape

Trying it out

   I love to try new ideas. I have to force myself to just do trials so I don't just jump into projects and decide I don't like it when I am too far into it. In between all the machine quilting, I tried two ideas. I had ordered some thin paper from Missouri Star Quilt Company to try as foundation paper for string piecing. The papers are 10" and nice and thin. They had free shipping, so 250 sheets for $9.95 seemed like a good idea. I sewed four of them to see what I thought. I don't like all the waste when trimming.  I can't figure out how to use those random half sewn pieces. When trimming, the paper was not a true 10", maybe because it got distorted sewing? I used my square ruler and cut it 10". After looking at them on the design wall, I am not sure I like it. I think maybe because I usually work with small scraps. Maybe I need to cut the papers down to 8"? It wasn't speaking to me. Comment if you have any thoughts.

   The other idea was from Missouri Star Quilt Company's new video, Silly Goose, which is so simple you could laugh. I sewed six squares, but I made mine 6" white, with 3" squares for the corners using scraps. Before I cut off the triangles, I sewed a second seam to hold them together, and I got bonus half square triangles that I can use in my crumb quilts. I really like this, but I am not crazy about so much white. How about a subtle print or blender?

Six 6" blocks on the design wall to see the Silly Goose pattern

The bonus squares from the edges, sewn before cutting, about 2 1/2"

Further Denim Lily Developments

   I have continued to work on the Denim Lily Quilt that I showed earlier. After sewing it all down with invisible thread, I used a variety of Isacord color thread. I tried using Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin, but it did not work very well. Using a neutral Isacord worked much better. I trimmed all the seams carefully but of course, did cut into the hand dye fabric in a couple of places. I will have to repair that with fusible I suppose. I think I have all the color quilting on there I need or want but will give it a couple of days on the design wall before I add the border or binding. I can add a denim border or just bind it. Not sure. Although I love, love denim, this project was difficult removing freezer paper and the ravels of the denim edges. I think it needs to be rethought on my part if I am to do it again. Once again, I based it on buying Hollis Chatelain's pattern for the instructions, design is my own. Pieced, zig zagged on the 401, quilted on the 301.

Quilt the size of a fat quarter

What is on the Wall?

I have a lot of different projects going and the wall is getting crowded.

In process, scraps sewn on heaving interfacing by sandwiching water soluble interfacing over the scraps before free motion quilting, then dissolving the interfacing after sewing. I have some spots to touch up where there are gaps. I am undecided whether to finish this with a facing or mount it in a shadow box. It is about 12" x 12"

These colors did not turn out well photographed- please come back sun! This is Aurora Aura that I started in a workshop with Karla Alexander in September 2011. I have to sew all the columns together and choose border colors. This uses the stack the deck method.

This is Acadia, making this as a baby quilt for a friend. I don't know whether I like the color arrangement yet so I am pausing to think about it. Again, the colors are not great on such gray days and a flash wipes them out. Will show progress.

These are two samples of Liberated Stars from Gwen Marston's book. I don't know why these are so hard for me to make. I am undecided if I will make a quilt of these as I find the stars very confusing to make.