More Structures

I almost forgot I had finished this quilt, but need to put a label on it; this is #8 in the series, and is 36"H x 32" W. The top quilt is #9, and is about the same size. As I was sewing the facing on this morning I was thinking about machine quilting: why do people do it the way they do? When I first went to a workshop I was told I did not do enough quilting. I was shown another quilter's 1/4 inch apart perfect machine quilting as an example of what to do. Since then I have tried many things, but I think it all boils down to what you like to do, and what looks good to you when you are done. For now,I like sewing close together; it flattens the quilt, and does not make your eye focus on each shape. It is not a distraction. But I have not read many thoughts on quilting, and why a person does it a certain way.

Recently I have subscribed to a blog called textures shapes and colors, by Leslie Avon Miller, who does contemporary collage paintings. She has some wonderful abstract paintings on her blog, and recently showed a video about a Philadelphia artist, Mary Nomecos, who described her painting process. She was asked how she selects certain colors in her paintings, and said it was intuitive, and she has several paintings she is working on at the same time. She spends a lot of time looking at them, really seeing them, to decide what will be next. I find too, that it takes a lot of looking: I take pictures as I go along, as another way of seeing what I am doing. I also see a lot more after the quilts are done! It is really hard to "see" what is going on in your work as you are doing it, and often you need to let it sit for awhile, and come back to it.

small works

I recently decided to make some small quilts, and try some different things: here are two of them. One is 24 x 18, the other 24 x 26, so they are a good size for trying different designs and quilting. I would like to do more with machine quilting and doing more minimal lines. I had trouble with the curved lines and the fabric getting more puffy than I would like. But with a small quilt, you can go on to something else, and try again!

Structure 5

I have a few quilts in a pile in different stages of being done. One I have to wait for more thread to be sent so I can finish the quilting, another has the quilting done, but not the facing, another, just the top is done! I have experimented a little with the quilting on some. I really do like sewing close together, which really flattens out the fabric like a canvas. This quilt is 28" x 33" W. I have decided to try a suggestion from another blogger, and write about each quilt after it is done. It helped me see the T-shapes in this quilt-the challenge was in sewing it together after I had it up on my design wall. I like a good sewing challenge!

Structure 4

This quilt is smaller than the last few: 36"H x 40"W, so finishing it went a lot faster. I also decided to shorten the name of this series, even though Structure is commonly used! I keep trying to add too many shapes and colors, and then I am not happy with it. when I subtract what I don't need, and find something interesting to focus on, it works for me.

New Work

I worked for 2 weeks, I made several quilts, some small, some larger, but I didn't like any of them. I folded them and put them away. I kept thinking about what I was trying to do with this series, which is to go back to a basic shape, to make the focus straightforward, and show the beauty of a few colors. In this quilt I used a gray and white as a background. Something unusual catches your eye, but there is sense of harmony.

Anatomy of a Structure:II

I sometimes wonder how I get to the end result? Art is really a process: trying different fabric shapes and colors, and making decisions: what helps me in what I am trying to say in this quilt? I know the process, but never know what the end result will be. I don't have a picture in my mind of the final quilt, but work on each step, one at a time. I like the 'solidness' of this quilt, its sparseness, I think it makes a big statement-it is 45"H x 75" wide! And it took a whole week to quilt. Now I am ready for #3, three shapes have been on my design wall for a week.

New Work

This quilt is big: 38" H x 57" W, and yet to be named. I found myself loving the way the long, thin quilting lines look on a quilt, yet on a quilt this size it takes a long time to do! It became the perfect thing to do during the busyness of Christmas and New Years. To me they look like pencil lines: not perfect, done by hand. This quilt came from wanting to use big shapes, and since there are fewer colors each shape becomes important. It feels like the ships at Lake Superior! massive, structural. I just finished another one, so I had better think of a name soon!