Running Late for the Train

Remembering something from Nancy Crow's workshops, I took pictures of the process of making this quilt. I am glad I came up with a design I liked, because this quilt has come a long way. I can see now as I looked back over the stages I went through, I needed a focus. I started with the horizontal blue and white, since I tend to start with vertical pieces, then try to add horizontal later. The red log cabin block seems to grab my eye as I look at it.
I have decided to come up with more creative names too. Since art quilters are encouraged to work in a series, the names tend to become numbers. I related that to music where a composer will use the name, sonata No. 1 in G. But I began to forget which quilt is which when I used names like that, so I have started to use names that come to me as I am working on a quilt. Yesterday I looked through a book of poems and found phrases that I liked that might be used as a name for a quilt.

first quilt of 2010

I started this quilt in December, but finished it recently. I used a cross hatch typed of quilting, and now feel I am not liking how that looks, at least on my quilts. After spending last week dyeing fabric, reorganizing fabric, going through quilting magazines, I feel ready for the new year! I started a quilt this week, and am quilting it now, but it reminds me of how I am thinking more about how I machine quilt. I have read what others think, and respect what they say, but want to come up with my own theory for myself. Also, I think lately I have stuck with the same colors! So finally the sun is out and it makes you look at the world a little differently.

I was so involved with how to get my quilts hung, that I wasn't prepared for the feeling of seeing a group of them all displayed together! I have 7 quilts in the gallery at the Wellness Center at Northwest Community Hospital, Arlingon Heights, IL. It was hard to hang them using the system set up for other kinds of art work, but I did get it to work, and then I realized I had not seen any of my quilts all together like this before.

Leftovers

I know this is a terrible photo, but I don't have a good place to take a picture! So I will show you anyway, with apologies.

I have spent the week getting pictures of all my quilts off the computer and putting them in a book with names and dimensions so I have a way to see them all. I have a couple of gallery shows coming up in the spring, and I thought this would help me figure out what quilt to put where. I am sure there is a more high tech way of doing this, but this works for me. And I like having something to hold and page through. I have one more quilt to take a picture of, and one more to finish. I also hung 7 quilts at the Wellness Center at the Northwest Community Hospital (Arlington Heights, IL) as part of a gallery program I am in. They will be on display until April 4th. I will post a picture of that too.