Time Travel Tuesday

This one is from November 2009.  Our neighbors across the street were preparing for their daughter's wedding. These colors were really off!  The wall was actually green.

It's a wall hanging of 9 separate quilts.  The inspiration came from an art piece that they listed on their registry.

Instead of the raised designs in the metal, there were designs in the batik fabrics.  Unfortunately, I didn't get shots which show the quilting.  It was a simple, 2 line design which restated an element in the batik.

The quilting followed the squiggly vertical double line in this quilt.

For this quilt, the quilting lines formed one large leaf from a fern frond.

The rods were painted wood dowels.  First black, then mottled with brown to make it look more textured.
Ribbons were the vertical supports.  Each quilt had a rod pocket which was split open in the middle.  I wanted it to be able to be hung with 1 nail and to balance well so that it wouldn't be crooked.

It was fun browsing through a few older photos today.  I'd forgotten about this one!

Our thought and prayers are with my mother-in-law as she's overcoming pancreatitis in the hospital.  It started suddenly and swiftly.  Wish we could jump across state lines instantly and be there during those restricted visiting hours.  For now, two of her sons have been there most of the week.  My husband will fly there soon and stay 10 days. 

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Gilded

My second art quilt from this workbook is a gilded pear.  The technique is to convert a photograph into simple shaded areas and fill each area with fabric.  I didn't really like starting from the workbook's design, but I understand the reason behind it.

Now that it's finished and bound, I like it better.  : )
I held it next to my squash quilt made a few days ago and realized, much to my surprise, that I'd remembered the specified dimensions wrong.  This one is 9 by 14 instead of 9 by 12.  Oh well!  It's a good thing there aren't any quilt police stopping by any time soon.

I quilted a simple pattern of wavy line for the background and added lots of strange stitching to the pear.  I think the quilting, along with the warm, bright colors forces the eye to concentrate on the pear.

Next, I'm off to use this technique from an original photograph.  The biggest challenge will be to Keep It Simple, Sista!  I'd love to jump off the cliff and try something extreme before I'm ready. For instance, a close up shot of my oldest grinning while wearing the band uniform and shako(hat).  I love the photo and it would make a great quilt portrait.  Quite a leap from fruits and veggies!

My customer picked up her Grinch quilt today and was delighted with the quilting.  She's eager to get the binding on quickly and enjoy her first quilt.  I was thrilled to see her reaction!  So I have a day or so to get my pumpkin tablerunner quilted (I need the right thread) and then I'll start on another customer quilt.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Almost Still Life

Almost Still Life

I'm fighting some nasty cough and decided it was best to stay home this morning and drink hot tea.   That gave me a chance to sew on the binding for my little art quilt entitled, "Almost Still Life."

I purchased a used book, Art Quilt Workbook by Jane Davila & Elin Waterston.  When those used books are labelled as "good" condition, that may indicate that the previous owner scribbled in it.  Thankfully, that person only made it halfway through chapter two.  The rest of the book is clean.

binding detail

 I chose a decorative stitch that sort of looks like lizard footprints.  I like the footprints suggestion of motion in an otherwise still scene.

Detail of the bumpy gourd

It took several colors of thread, some solids, some variegated, to suggest the bumpy texture and mottled colors in this gourd.  I think I could have added three times as much thread, but decided not to flatten out the quilt here.


My current flavor of hot tea is Vanilla Madagascar.  No honey, just hot tea.  It soothes a sore throat just by being hot.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars