Finished QAWM

I used up some of the strips to make a border, and the quilt is about 60x70. I used the rest of the strips to make the binding. I did the best I could without many light colors! I do have some more fabric left in my stash to try something else.

What was Left and Street after Street

This quilt was made in January, but I just realized I forgot to put up a picture of it. As I look at it, I remember the roundabout way it came to be. I had originally laid background pieces up on the design wall, in different shades of gold/bronze shades. But as you can see, nothing came of that! I did make a block using some of the shades, adding just a few other colors, and black and white. I like the colors against the golds, and the yellow and black. I went back to a method of sewing strips together, then cutting them up and reconfiguring them.

What was Left, the top quilt, came after thinking I was going to work in 4 colors, using 3 shades of each. That became frustrating, and I gave up, and decided to do what felt right! I put up a few pieces of fabric, in large pieces, which just felt good to me. I may have gone to far, as this is quite stark, but to me it has reminded me of the way I want to work right now. I feel a need to show shapes and colors in big sizes and make them relate through the lines that join them.

QAWM finished

I couldn't get the whole quilt in the photo. It is about 55" x 65". Last week I changed the layout of the quilt each time I walked past my design wall. Friday I settled on a vertical orientation. I cut some of the half pieces in half too. I feel I had such limitations on value, that making blocks seemed to be too busy. And even this seems pretty wild! But that is what happens when you are using up what you have. I may try to add some type of border, and I need a backing fabric. It has been fun seeing what everyone has come up with.

QAWM

I have made about 14 blocks for my project, and see that I don't have any really light fabric, so I will go along with what I have. The plan is to cut the blocks in half, and this is the first layout I came up with. I am only using a few different colors of hand-dyed fabric. I can see that I will have to move things around more if I use this layout.

In Search of Sun

In this quilt I challenged myself to use yellow. Maybe it was an unconscious reaction to the lack of sun in Chicago (7 days of no sun!), but it was a realization that I want to learn to work with other colors. It started out lighter, but needing a contrast, I used a beautiful dark blue I had recently dyed.

I am taking part in Melody's quilt project. (Fibermania) As I went through my small stash of fabric I realized that if I used all the greens and purples/reds, I would clear out half a drawer, and have used up a lot of fabric that had just been sitting around. I am adding light greens and shades of purple from my hand-dyed fabric. It has been such a good feeling to clear out that fabric. But as I read Mel's start to her quilt, I am reminded that every quilt seems to have the same set of ups and downs until the end! At first you are excited about your idea, then you run into frustration, then you solve that and feel good, and so it goes. I have found that if I just go along with it, things work out somehow, and frustration leads to some type of solution.
I have not used many fabrics lately that are not hand-dyed, but I found I have a lot of Kaffe Fassett and batik. I will post later pictures of the beginning of my quilt.

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.