Alzheimer’s ~ Chance to do your part

Idea Tree was made over a year ago, mainly to teach myself beading in order to complete Geode.

Just 7 by 10 inches, it’s small enough for the Alzheimer’s Quilt auction.  So that’s where it’s gone, and is waiting to go into an auction!  Please pop over to their website where you can look at a better photo, plus pix of all the other little quilts others have made.

Check out the current auction for a chance to get in on this great way to own a piece of original fibre art AND do something about the ever-increasing tragedy of Alzheimer’s.

The auction runs every month, so quilters, take a look and see if you have something small to send.  If not, challenge yourself to make something!

And needless to say once Idea Tree is in the auction I’ll be posting again, in utterly shameless self promotion!

Grommet Glory

A dynamic member of the Quilt Guild, Susan Teece of Bent Pin Creations is spearheading a project to create a new Guild banner to reflect the varied techniques the members are exploring.  She gave everyone who signed up a focus fabric to be used in a recognizable amount.

I volunteered to do the letter O, and here’s my block. The focus fabric is at the top.

A visit to Susan’s website shows her exciting use of holes.  Because this block has to be pieced and sandwiched with batting and backing, it wasn’t feasible to make a hole all the way through, but those grommets gone wild I told you about here are brought to play their part.  I had accepted the challenge before the Sewing Show and only thought of using a grommet when I actually set out to create the block, it wasn’t an aha moment while I was at the show.

Cool New Toy

For some reason I love holes, so at the Victoria Sewing Show I was delighted to find Luveta Nickels from Grommets Gone Wild, a range of coloured and metallic-look grommets that are easy to use and don’t need extra tools.  Above is my first attempt, just on a piece of scrap fabric.  These can be used for shower curtains, purses, art quilts, and embellishing clothing.

People often say they’re like a kid in a candy store at sewing shows.  This time I felt more like a deer caught in the headlights ~ it’s hard to choose colours for notions, grommets, threads, beads, etc. without a specific project in mind or swatches.  I chose blue and clear grommets but have been thinking ever since about the hot green, pink, and purple ones.

The second grommet has already gone into a mini art quilt block, to be revealed here soon!

Geode

Here in all its glory is what I consider my magnum opus, to date at least.  Geode is approximately 54 inches in each direction and heavily embellished with beads, as seen here.

It’s on display at Satin Moon until Saturday.

I was inspired by this quote from Catherine Asaro’s book The Veiled Web, describing traditional Moroccan homes:  “The houses were like geodes, those rocks that appeared featureless and unadorned on the outside but when opened revealed a sparkling beauty of crystals inside.”

As I worked on completing it, it dawned on me that this is very much a metaphor for how I prefer to live, which was why the original title of this blog was Chameleon’s Nest.  I’m just not a person that wants to blurt it all out all over Facebook!

This piece is constructed of traditional strip piecing which has been slashed and reassembled.  This was the first art quilt technique I learned in a workshop with John Willard in 1998.  He doesn’t have much of a presence online, but this posting by the London Ontario Quilt Guild has lots of information about his work.

Quilted by Andrea Hamilton of Sydney, B.C.  I can’t say enough nice things about Andrea because my quilting skill is not up to the level of my design, and she definitely made all the difference!

Strictly speaking I believe it’s a house quilt, although not the traditional house block obviously.

 

Dragonfly

Last night my fibre arts group met and I took this to show everyone.  This is a mola made following Cathy Miller’s method, with a little wrinkle I thought up myself that saves you from the torture of sewing the binding on.  It also has the too-beautiful-to-cut fabric as the backing as well as forming the dragonfly image.

Some of the beads were made in Laine Canivet’s workshop, others were made earlier, and some were purchased.  I learned that it’s best to use black beading thread when attaching embellishments to a black background!

We discussed how to continue our Round Robin/challenge into next year or perhaps start a new one.  Since the weather has been snowy we were a smaller group than usual so no firm conclusions have been arrived at.  We need to balance the group work with personal control over the pieces we are working on.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to do this or ideas for creative challenges we could consider?  It’s always interesting to share different concepts.

Shading

Today I was aiming for shaded effects and more control over the pen.  When it has thoroughly dried I might post a page from my sketchbook.  I really have to think hard about shading because my brain thinks more in terms of outlines, shapes of things, and of course quilting reinforces that.

I used way less ink on the pen at any one time and that is making it better.  But I find it scratchy and not flowing.  In contrast, here is a doodle I did on kraft paper the other night.  It’s about 12 by 14 inches so this is part of it, since the whole piece won’t fit on my scanner.  Will try more with brushes in Melly’s challenge I think!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night while watching Bride and Prejudice, which was fine entertainment, I got around to beading my Dragonfly mola, using mostly hand made beads.

Of course as soon as I stitched on the wire beads I knew I needed black silamide, but since it’s a small piece I kept going to see how it would turn out.  Now I’ve been to Bead World so it will not take long to redo those three beads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And no trip to Bead World would be complete without a) extra inspirational shopping

b) boasting about Geode, my large beaded art quilt, currently on display at Satin Moon!

Bead workshop

I had a relaxing, fun afternoon at the Victoria Quilt Guild’s Fall Frolic making beads with Laine Canivet.

We started making beads from ripped up painted paper towels and discussed how different paper towels vary in texture.

Next we made beads from melted plastic, I love how shiny they are!  Although I don’t possess a heat gun, and I already have enough supplies and equipment to last me for a good long time.

The last part of the afternoon was spent making beads out of — beads, who would thunk it?

This is cool because I got to play with coloured wire (which I’ve had for ages and not used very much) and because Laine encouraged us to use a mixture of beads, not all the same.  I did match the colour of the wire to the colour of the beads just for this afternoon, but there’s no reason you have to do that.  And it’s something I can do while watching a movie or chatting on speakerphone.

Here’s a picture that gives an idea of size (the grid is one-inch squares) and shows all the beads I made.  Laine encouraged us to use colours we normally would not, but I confess I ignored that bit of the instructions.  I don’t have one favourite colour.  The colours I use least are probably brown and white, but I do still use them.

Idea Tree

This is a scan of my completed small beaded piece, Idea Tree.  It was fun to do and I learned new techniques, beading and doing a back to front finish instead of sewing on binding or doing a pillowslip finish.

The fabric started out as plain muslin that I worked on in the first workshop I took with Melly Testa, and layers were monoprinted onto it using soy wax resist and green and yellow thickened dyes.  I used a lot of this yardage in a very large bold piece called Commotion.

This offcut almost went into the scrap quilt I’m slowly making using up smaller surface designed, hand-dyed, and mottled fabrics.  This is a back burner project because there is no block design.

Then thinking about another larger piece of sunprinted fabric I would like to hand quilt and make into a wall hanging I decided I should practice the back to front finish on a small test piece first.  The wall hanging cannot be started until the beading on Geode is finished.

Improved T-Shirt

No doubt if I were to design fabric, some of it would look much like this.

A simple concept, bright colours, and a little tasteful embellishment. This much-loved T was shedding seed beads here and there, so I’ve added a few flower beads in matching colours. These came from Eileen Neill, who was at the Westshore Symphony of Quilts last week, and was one of the stores people recommended going to!

The neat thing about this style is that I can add more beads on as the whim takes me, yet it is still wearable no matter where I leave off. Given my challenges with finishing projects, that’s a Good Thing (as Martha would say).

The T was bought at Steinmart (a store I really miss!) and came with extra seed beads in a little baggie. I might dig them out since the flower beads are red, yellow, and blue, but not green.

Eileen also sold me some really cool black and gold sequins. I will have to think of something to put them on.

If it looks wrong, it must be right

This is the challenge piece I’m working on. Its current state is the top photo — the strip on the right is auditioning and not sewn on yet, nor is the ExtravOrganza. In fact I flipped that strip around and now it looks better because the light green continues the motion in the dark piece to the left of it.

Everything is hand dyed except for the dark green/blue around the top and sides. Interestingly this framing of the top and sides is the same as in Ballerina, and even the impression of sideways motion coming from the right of the piece is similar. Wow, a series!

The reason for the title is this is the first piece I’ve made with curved seams, which has been a learning experience. I finally put the on-line instructions up on my computer screen and reviewed them carefully before sewing each piece. The instructions are at:
www.equilters.com/library/techniques/sewing_curves.html

Soon I will be reaching the point where the top is finished, and since Susan wants to take photos at the next FAD meeting I will need to decide whether to layer and quilt it and have it completed by the 19th or leave it as is and then pick it up after the 19th. Probably I should stick to my motto and complete it.