I am as cold as everyone else here in Central New York. The sun is shinning today and that helps- but I am still cold. This last week has not been very productive. I seem to be in a sort and clean mode. Granted the studio needs it, and I limit myself to only an hour a day, but it still seems to slow me down a bit.
Progress Report: Foundations XI I am doing the free motion stitching on this work now. This work is also based on a photo of a cut in a rock wall. I am drawing to all the little nooks and the high texture of rock. I have added lots of yarn to the surface to add to the texture on this surface too.
Lighting I found these fabrics when I was doing the cleaning thing. I though they worked together but some how they top needed a bit of punch. So I started the slender cut troughs. The blue green fabric started to look like lighting to me so I have decided to push that idea forward. I have been working on these narrow cuts for over a year now, but still do not feel like I have the control I really want with them. I will keep trying.
New Work I though I might try a new approach to my foundations work. I backed wool fabric with felt( see the orange felt on the upper right) and I am also including paper on the surface of this one. The map of Canada is an old National Geographic map and the paper is very tough. The ” What If” factor is alive and well in my studio.
Daily’s As this shot shows I am still busy with the Daily’s. I am finding that I look forward to doing them in the evenings. It is the only hand work I have at the moment so I am actually a few squares ahead of myself. But I am planning a trip in the spring so being a head will be covered then.
It is thawing here and the sound of dripping water from melting snow has been going on all day. The street is running water and directing it toward the storm drains. I find it is cheering as though Spring may in fact come. The fact that I herd song birds this morning helps with that feeling too. I have worked in the studio a lot this week.
Blooming Bacteria 24″ X 38″ $320.00
Progress Report : BloomingBacteria This quilt is based on an image from an electron miscrope of bacteria- that is were the name came from. It has taken me a long time to complete as I had to make each one of the black button whole circles by hand with a small crochet hook. I know I started it last fall when I was taking my grand son to Physical Therapy. I then stitched the units down to the surface. The free motion work in the red is called pebble quilting and it really unified the quilt. I did reflecting quilting around the outside of the circles. This quilt also has a background that is curved pieced . The red is a hand dyed piece that I received from a fellow quilter. It was only a fat quarter and I used every bit of it that I could in this work.
Foundations IX Spring Moss 19.5 ” X 26 “ $ 180.00
Foundations IX Spring Moss This work in the foundations series, was influenced by that spring desire I felt last week too. It is also loosely based on a shot I took of some Granite a few years ago. Like most of the works I have been doing in this series there are lots of raw edges and a tron fabrics here. The dark green is Dupni Silk. It frays so much that I saved all the threads and applied them to the surface as well. I continue to use the silk paper I created last fall. I am looking forward to warm weather when I can go out doors and create more- it is too messy do inside in my dry studio. I used lots of different colored thread when I was doing the free motion work on this work. Some apple green, yellow green, yellow and pink to get the effect I wanted for this piece.
Foundations X When I could see that I would soon finish with Foundations IX- I started thinking about the next one in this series. I was trying to make the top section of this work lighter than the bottom, but still have shadows near the top. I am not happy with the solid unit on the bottom right- but I have enough to begin work. I want to bring in more of the rusty coloring into this work.
Foundations XI I pinned up this new top this morning. I have been experimenting with long stitches in yarn on nylon netting. I was trying to create another texture that I could use in my work. The four pieces are on the surface and may or may not stay as I go along. This is a pure experiment, but then not knowing how something will work out never stopped me before. I will keep you posted.
Scrap Happy I am working on the scarp box and I decided to start a quilt using what I have. This is a good thing too as this morning I had a call from our local public TV station and they want a quilt for their auction. This shot shows the red and earth toned centered blocks as they look when they are assembeled.
Daily’s I am reaching the end of this style of block. There are only three left that have the half red circle and two lines. So next week there will be a new layout.
Yesterday I forgot to add to the post the info about the Rochester Contemporary Art Center the info about the wed sight and how you can be a part of this even if you are interested. The add :
Valentines’ day was always one of my favorite holidays, I am a romantic I guess. I never really had any big crushes on anyone as a child- but it was decorating the shoe box or the big envelope that all the exchanged Valentines came in that I enjoyed the most. When I was teaching I always had the kids spend a day making a Valentine creature- the only shape they could cut was a heart. Now the heart could be long and slender , short and fat- just what worked. We used the scarp box of construction paper so there was lots of colors to choose from. I loved the green heart frogs, black bats and other animals that the kids produced. This year I had some wonderful Mylar red paper so I started playing and made Valentines with it. I great fun and I put them in the mail yesterday. It really cheered me up as all the snow is getting to me a bit.
I did four entries for the 6″X 6″ fund raiser that the Rochester …….. does every year. I think it is a great concept/fund raiser were they accept small( 6″ X 6″) works from everyone who wants to particiat. The gallery t then sells them all for $20 each. I enjoy making my little petroglyphics stencils and stitching them to the backgrounds. I made four.
Rounding Up Green 34.5″ X 38.5″ $ 465.00
Progress Report: Rounding Up Green This quilt was nearly completed last week. I was working on the facings last Thursday. I created the blue fabric a few years ago with a silk screen print.
This close up shows some of the dyed fabric and on the far left there is some commerically embrodiered fabric that was in my stash. I also used a bit of the fabric that I experimented with when I was preparing to dye. I really like the wildness of these “rags” and always find a good use for them in my work.
Tropical Palms 16″ X 23″ $130.00
Tropical Palms This quilt went together really quickly. I realized with this one that I am ready for spring as there is lots of fabric out on the cutting table that is in the pastel range- with a big emphasis on pinks. I had a very enjoyable time drawing the palm trees on this project. It did make me feel warmer too. The purple hand dyed fabric in this work is bye Judy Roberts. She does wonderful stuff in my option. I used the print fabric as my starting point for the quilting pattern. The biggest area needed a bigger tree so I improvised and mad the leaves of the tree with that section. The other quilting- all in a horizontal waving pattern- is meant to represent the rolling sands that I remember from a trip were I saw palm trees. I was tempted to add texture to the stump of the tree- but after doing a drawing first I decided that an addition like that would be distracting. Using my sketchbook is never lost effort and it really dose help clarify what needs to happen some times.
Spring Iris’s This is another one of my
Spring Iris’s 17″ X 21″ $125.00
responces to all the cold and snow. The big print that dominates this work was a piece of decorator fabric. I really liked the beautiful color work in the flowers and tried to emphasis that with my quilting. I also tried to spread out the limited bit of fabric that I had across the surface of the work to add to the movement of ones eye around the piece. There is some of the pink and purple fabric that I printed a few weeks ago in this work. After I did a few drawing in my sketchbook I free motion drew around the flowers and again with the same types of lines. I added some flowers using the same style in different areas of the quilt to make sure there was enough quilting to keep the work stable. I also did free motion work around the leaves and tried to push the garden idea even further with this action. Then as I did the clean up of the materials form this project I found another piece of the florial print so there is a place to begin another quilt with this theme.
Foundations IX 25″ X 32.5″ $285.00
Foundations IX This quilt was nearly complete last week too. I just wanted more green it the work so I held it back until I had made that addition. I added treads I had pulled from some green silk and some green silk paper to get that additional color on the surface. The works in this series are highly textured and all the wadding and overlapping of the fabrics makes some areas very thick and others very thin, but I sure like the effect I am getting with this technique. The machine drawing adds to the texture and colors of the surface too. I am still using some of the fabric that Marty and I discharged last spring on these works too. The dark fabric with the light areas is one of those pieces.
Foundations X I pulled fabric for the next work in this series and this is my current selection. I may add some additional material and or subtract material- this is just a beginning pallet.
Daily’s They are still being produced. I only have a little more than a weeks worth of this layout left and I will need a new starting place for the next batch of works. It all goes together so quickly when one does a little bit at a time.
It is a snowed like crazy yesterday and I just could not stay in doors. I had a good time waking in the deep snow. The going was slow as there was about 10 inches of new snow on the ground and it was falling very thick and fast. I walked a block from home and looked back- I could not see the house. I did enjoy the way the fire plug and several small pine trees seemed to be wearing pointed snow hats. I helped push a gal out of her driveway and the snow plow did pass by before I got home form my short walk. It is getting difficult to find joy in this long winter. But I console myself by remembering that this too will pass. The QuEGs group meant on Tuesday. There were only four of us but it was still a good time. Sally is doing some amazing stuff with her embroidery machine. She programed and stitched all of these bags herself. She said she wanted to test thread and needles. There was also a Diva meeting on Tuesday evening and again it was very stimulating. There is so much variety going on in the group it is hard to keep up. Cheri is exploring painting on canvas and really starting to make it her own thing now I think. She not only adds hand dyed fabric on top in a collage like process she is also doing lots of hand stitching on top too.
Lori is doing a wonderful job mixing machine work with hand embroidery on silk. This piece will be a real WOW when it is done. There are two folks exploring book making processes at the moment. Liese is working on a book with individual hand made fabric pages- she is not sure how it will go together at this point. Several pages are sun prints. One is marbaleized, and some are collaged. It is an engineering problem now. The other book worker is Alice. She is using an accordion book format for her works. One book is titled “We Love the Sky” and sun rise to moon rise are represented in her book as one continuing diorama . This image is of rain and storm followed by the rainbow. Her second work is titled ” We Love the Woods” and it too is in the diorama layout. I love how she mixes her painted parts with commercal fabrics and images. I find her trees really strong. Sandy is busy doing wonderful hooking projects. She has two works that are both landscapes that work as a set or stand alone. Her mix of sliced wool and yarn do wonderful things together is powerful. The work in small but this style works for her busy life at the moment. Anne went to a work shop in Vermont with Cynthia Corbin called Emerging Styles. She came home with a wonderful pile of great started projects. She discovered how important light is to her way of creating and that has pushed her into a new direction. I can hardly wait to see how this develops. Noel likes to use silk in her work and although this is an older piece it shows her wonderful handling of this some what difficult material. She does not fuse the silk to any thing either and that allows her to distort the material in the manner this shows. Ruth is still working away on her African symbols project. She is ready to begin quilting on this work now. I think it is very strong graphically. Needless to say I am all excited by all these wonderful works and ready to charge forward. I am so very fortuniate to belong to two powerful groups of creative folks.
Golden Path 29″ X 30″ $ 305.00
Progress Report: Golden Path This quilt really seemed to come together without much in put by me. I had all the stripped sections left over from another project and they were in the bottom of a box. When I came across the red, gold, and blue fabric last week it just seemed to pull the other fabrics with it. The big gold and white chunks of fabric are from the printing day I did a few weeks ago. I looked at the surface of this quilt a long time before I started quilting it. I decided to emphasize the square shapes in the center using a Greek Key pattern. I started quilting in the center making first one key and then another connected to the first using variegated yellow thread. I then stared outside the second squared area and built a second set of units. I continued to build until I had about a dozen keys and by then I had worked for an hour on the project. So I stopped. Before I began work the next day I looked critically at the work. It needed a bit of punch so I added a row of gold thread in an outline pattern all the way around all the created units. Thus the name – Golden Path- as it just leads one around the center units. I then switched back to the yellow and repeated the same procedure as the day before. I then added as second out line of gold and retuned to the yellow keys to the out side of the quilt. I am pleased with the results.
Rounding Up Green I am quilting away on this quilt now. I am using the same idea as I applied to Golden Path only I am using spirals. I create one and then from it I spiral out and create a smaller one next to the first and keep building the pattern out from the center of the work. I will not add a row of gold thread however. It is working without that addition.
Maya’s Tee Shirt Quilt I continue to work away on Maya’s quilt. I now have three rows completed. It is getting bit difficult to handle on the pin wall. I still have two rows to construct and then it will be time to start a back.
Scarp Happy I have been working on putting together scraps for about a mouth now. I decided to give myself a break for that and build a top out of the work. I cut the pieces into long 2.5″ widths and then added those pieces to 4.5″ centers. There are blocks with an Egyptian print center and blocks with a red print center . I am now ready to start creating rows for the top of this quilt.
New work-purple and pink I think the cold and whiteness of the weather is effecting my leaning toward spring colors at the moment. This one is just starting to come together. I am going to try to work in the 18″ X 24 ” format again. This is my first return to that format.
New work spring
I pulled out the fabric for this project yesterday during the storm in the morning. Again I think this is my attempt to think about spring instead of the cold all around me.
New work Foundations IX
This is a close up of the new work on the next Foundations piece. It too will be on a smaller format. All the green thread is unraveled silk thread from a woven section of fabric. The solid green and blue are silk papers.
Daily’s I do my Daily’s when I watch the news in the evening. I have been following that practice for a while now and my attitude about the news is much more mellow.
The Chinese New Year begins tomorrow. It is the year of the Horse. Folks born in this year are said to be popular, cheerful, skillful with money and good with their hands. It sounds like a good combination to me. One of the few traditions that I am aware of is that oranges are a good fruit to consume tomorrow because you eat the whole thing and that will bring you luck. Eating something green is said to help with money items too. I enjoy learning about different cultures in relationship to days of the year.
There was a FAB meeting at my house today and we did metal embossing. We all ended up creating valentines and had a good time at it.
Lace Roses 21″ X 26.5″ $ 195.00
Progress Report: Lacy Roses I seem to be running on a real high this week. I started this piece on Friday and it is done already. I did all the cutting of the fabric with my scissors instead of using the rotary cutter. Sometimes the distortions were huge- and then filling in those areas proved to be a bit of a challenge to me. The starting fabric is the red print that I created with fabric and a paper doily. I was a bit surprised when I printed this as I did not expect it to be as delicate as it is. I enjoyed the free motion quilting of the rose like shapes with the addition of leaves and spirals on the surface too. I used a variegated thread for the whole top.
Foundations VIII I am enjoying this collage like process of assembling quilts on buckram. As usual I did start with a sketch , but quickly pulled away form the drawing as I started placing the fabrics on the surface. The challenge I presented myself with of working in the smaller format does change my approach as I can do the tacking down of the parts much more quickly. ( check the image form last week) I again used silk paper on the surface as well as pulled threads and yarn bits. I like how the raw edges play across the surface too.
Maya’s Tee Shirt Quilt
I just keep putting in time on this project. It is moving along. I always forget how long it takes to created a queen sized top between the times I work on one to the next. I think it will be a very bright quilt when it is done and one that makes me smile.
New work Green I had so much fun creating the print fabric last week that I though I really should do a piece using some of the fabric that I printed. So this is the second thing I started this week. I pulled out the stack and this blue fabric from two summers ago and the green wipe up rag fell on the floor. I decided that I would use these two to get me going on a new work. The blue fabric was printed using a silk screen and the blue Elmer’s school glue. It is water soluble and as I printed with the water based paint the lines deterioated. That made for a changing image that I really enjoyed. It was fun as always fitting the pieces and color balance together too.
New Work- Gold I so enjoyed the challenge of the green and blue top,that I pulled out some other fabric and built a pallet for the next top. The red blue and gold piece of fabric is one I created with Ethel last spring using a wonderful technique were one sews fabric to thick batting with water soluble thread, paints the raised surface with wax and then adds dye. The dye sinks into the valleys were the wax does not go and dyes the fabric and when you clean up the fabric this is the result. I hope we do it again some time.
Daily’s I am working away on the Daily’s. The half circle plus the double line serve as great new challenges for me on this project. It sure is fun.
It is cold here in the north east and that has kept me indoors more than normal. I really enjoy the ice crystals on the storm door and I tried to take a photo- but they are not at all satisfactory. So I will use the old fashion method and just keep the selected sections of the patterns in my memory. Staying inside means I worked a lot in the studio however.
Charlotte’s Shadow III 19 ” X 30″ NFS
Progress Report: Charlotte’s Shadow III This is the last of the quilts made with Charlotte’s fabrics. I even used her stuff on the backs. These quilts are not for sale as I intend to give them as gifts to the three gals who were her sweet mates at Quilting By the Lake for many years. I feel I got better and better at doing free motion flowers by the time I reached this third piece too. One does hope that is what happens at any rate. I did start out copying the printed image and then progressed to creating my own flowers and leaves to fill the rest of the quilt. I did take creative linces and created some of my own flowers near the end too- mostly due to the space limitations and I did not want to compete with the images too much. I also did lots of swirl and free curves in the quilting to cross over areas and pull things together. The whole process was pleasant and I enjoyed myself.
III Foundations VII- Fragments
Foundations VII-Fragments 38″ X 40″ $535.00
I am happy with how this quilt looks. The full shot does not show how it flows for me but the color patterns are very visable. This quilt has yarn, silk paper, organza and nylon netting on the top of a base built with cottons, parts of a wool jacket, a section of one of my husbands shirts and some very old taffeta. I really enjoyed mixing all these fabrics to get the colors and textures I was seeking with this piece. The back has been dry brush painted to seal the threads created by all the free motion work. I did the free motions work with nylon threads and cotton ones to get the colors I wanted in this area too. The more I practice sewing with the free motion the easier it becomes. I am espically happy with the ability I am building sewing down the yarn without trapping it under organza first. It means that I must move very slowly- but it is worth the effort.
I also did some used some colored pencils in different areas of this top to add more texture and detail to some sections. There is a little paint on the surface too. This new direction makes me I feel like I can employ any tool to create the texture and colors I want with these work. Very Freeing!
Maya’s Tee Shirt Quilt I am starting to build the units for this quilt. Yellow – for Yellow Jackets- is the main color. I have various patterns and shades. Then for interest I have inserted narrow bits of black patterned fabric at random locations. The process is very slow- but I think it will be worth the effort.
Stenciling with Shaving Cream I spent a few hours on Monday afternoon using my stencils to create some new images on fabric. I created these and several other screens in October. I like to do the printing of them in the winter when things slow down a bit at this time of year. I am espically pleased with the white print on the dark fabric of these thisel inspired images. I mix ink with shaving cream and push the mixture through the thermo fax with a credit card. I like the slender lines of branches in the gold on the white fabric on the left too. That image is older- but I always find it very useful in my stash. I will print a second color on top of some of the images in a day or two.
New Work I decided to do another collage quilt. I started out with a drawing based on a photo of fungus growing on a rock wall. Then is the source of the colors. I also decided to work smaller this time and the work is only 18″ X 24″. The fabric is somewhat pinned to the burckrum and I will start free motion work to tack it down tomorrow. The fungus will be added at a later date.
Daily’s I was surprised to realize that I was at the end of my fifth mouth of creating Daily’s. Well perhaps it is more accurate to say my fifth set of thirty blocks. I finished the last red circle with a black L last eve and the next series is a half red circle and two black strips. New challenges await me.
Tonight is the full moon, but last evenings moon light was beautiful too. The light was so silvery white through the sky light that I had to go to the window and look out. Most of the snow had melted, but there was still one drift in the back yard. The tree limbs cast beautiful blue gray shadows across the snow and my mind catalogued the colors and patterns for a new work. This morning I did a sketch of the idea so I would not lose the feeling. I can hardly wait until I have time to begin this new project.
Pomegranate 33″ X 46″ $535.00
Progress Report: Pomegranate I am quite pleased with how this quilt ended up. All the shadow quilting around the fruit did have a pull on the seams- but I minimized it as much as possible by sewing in one direction all the way around and then doing the next pass in the opposite direction. All this action made for very slow work. I also added a spike every now and then to the pattern so there were some strait sewing lines too. I also tried a little experiment with the paint on this project. To give the fruit a little more “punch” I painted clear fingernail polish over some of the red seeds. I really like the transparency of the paint on this piece. It adds to the interest of this work for me. The paint is fabric paint.
I’d Reconsider 16″ X 25.5″ $145.00
I’d Reconsider I spent a lot of time looking at this quilt before I started quilting on it. Titles are always a difficult thing for me. I had been calling this work Sunshine and Rust- but looking carefully at the surface-working out the quilt pattern- I noticed the eye shapes in the printed fabric. I decided to use those shapes as a starting place for the quilting. The shape was so easy to quilt and just seemed to flow across the surface of the work. Then when I started altering the size of the eyes to fill in the space it was even an easier process for me. It took on a life of its own and I went with that feeling. When it was all done the title of Sunshine and Rust seemed to be a major miss fit. “I’d Reconsider” seems to work a lot better for me. I have learned that I will not title a work until it is totally finished from this point forward.
Charlotte’s Shadow II I am to the quilting stage of this work now too. It is going to be more in the nature of the fabric that is the main material for this series. I have started adding leaves and finishing flowers on the top at this point. I will keep working away in this type of style until I have completed the work.
Charlotte’s Shadow III This is the third and final quilt in this series. As this shot shows I have only begun to pin some parts to the wall. I will shuffle them a bit before I begin to put it together.
Foundations VII- Fragments I am still quilting away on this work. It was pinned to the pin wall and when I came into the room before I turned on the lights yesterday morning I looked at the piece. With all the color washed to darks and lights by the laque of light I suddenly saw a section of the quilt that was not working at all. I had created a whole in the upper left hand side by surrounding a section with darks. When I turned the light on it was still there. My eye is still drawn to that flaw so I will begin the correction today. That is one really paint/college like quality of this construction method. I will build over the area that I find offensive a with layers of organza so I can keep the texture. This shot shows how I am building texture with yarn in one of the areas of this quilt.
Tee Shirt I have a new commission piece. It is a tee shirt quilt. All the images have been mounted on inner facing so they will remain square when they are seamed together. Sewing on double knit fabric is always tricky. I am now ready to lay them out and add the sassing to them so they are uniform in size- like building a log cabin block. That step will make assembly easy and simple.
Quilt Daily’s I believe the daily’s are getting more complex with time.
The New Year is starting off cold in this part of the country- A feeling that makes me want to hibernate. But I have just stay indoors and worked away instead. Last week I said that I was going to choose a word to be my guide for this year. The word I selected is “EXPLOIT”. I intend to fully “exploit” my materials, stash and potential for new directions. Like so many others I have a lot of gadgets and stuff that I have saved for just the write project- but I will not be doing that anymore. I plan to go ahead and use them now- with out fear or worry. That is not to say everything will be a big success, but that idea is an illusion anyway, I have given myself permission to “exploit” what I have and enjoy every bit of it. Saying that I was asked by a friend were do my ideas come from? After careful thought I decided there are many sources for me.
First Pay attention to what interests you. When one is interested in something they look at it and think about it more then other items. When I was teaching middle school every September when the students all had their new sketchbooks I would ask them to make a list of all the things that they liked in the front. My lists change and grow from sketchbook to sketchbook as my interests change. Together my students and I would use the list as a starting off place for new projects when we needed it. I still use this practice.
I love to travel and pictures from my adventures can be starting points for work. Like the quilt above.
I also doodle and that can be the beginning of work for me. I used this doodle as a starting place for a stamp that I created and printed this week. It is not a quilt yet, but I think the graphic is good and I am sure I will use it in the furture. I find myself searching out items that I have interests in and the list helps me remember. Pomergranates are one of the things on my list. So when I saw this shampoo bottle it caught my eye. I then purchased the fruit when I saw it again the grocery and I did a little sketch to make myself more filmier with it before I cut a series of stencils of this subject. I am enjoying using the stamped fabric that I created using this idea. So those are three sources of ideas for me. I will try to pay attention over the next few weeks and mouths and note were the ideas come from and point them out.
Progress Report : Pomegranate I This work is still at the quilting step. I have learned that I do best if I only work for about an hour before I stop and go to something else. That way I do not hurry and mess up. I am nearing the end, but I am not there yet.
Charlottes Shadow 2 I had just pinned this to the wall last week. I am building away on the top now. The quilt is taking shape. I use the tape measure to help me keep my sizes what I have in mind when I am working. I want all the pieces in this series to be the same size and this method really helps me do that.
Sun Shine and Rust I really love the print fabric that is in this top. That is the real starting place for this work. I also wanted to work with a sunny color this week when the sky was so gray and it was so cold. This project did help me feel more cheerful.
Foundations VII I still have not settled on a title for this piece, but I am enjoying the process. There is so much wonderful texture here and the free motion work is so very calming to me now that I have done so much. This close up shows the use of waded green organza, wool fabric and wool yarn. There is also a little bit of colored pencil drawing in the lower left hand corner here. I am exploiting all my knowledge and talents on this work!
Happy New Year. I am having a difficult time wrapping my mind around the idea that it is 2014. Time seems to be flying along. I am going to try to choose a word of the year for myself. I want a unifying idea to hold/guide myself along through 2014. I read about his idea somewhere and I like the concept- now to decide on a word to be the guide. I am still toying with several, but I will have a final selection by next week.
Like most folks in the north east I am dealing with snow and cold at the moment. I am fine for the most part, but I feel for the birds and beasts out there. I see lots of crows, but not many other animals.
Progress Report: Charlottes Shadow 1 This quilt came together quickly for me. One of my quilting friends died last year and at Quilting by the Lake there was a show of her work that two of her dear friends put up. They had also emptied her studio and they gave me some of her fabric. This quilt grew out of that gift. I only added the white and the hand dyed pink to the fabrics to create this quilt. My plan is to create two more little quilts using more of her fabrics and then passing the works back to the gals who were her roommates. I am going to keep using the big florial material as my starting point. I did hand work in the center of the flowers. Then I did free motion quilting around the flowers and learned a lot doing this. All the circular motion sure distorted the seam lines. I have done shadow quilting before. But I had always gone to the edge of the quilt after two rounds so there were some on grain quilting lines. I did not realize how important those strait lines were to the stability of the quilt until now. The next quilt will be different as there is not more of the second pale florial print fabric left.
Charlottes Shadow 2 I am enjoying this process and I like this little challenge of using colors that someone else has selected. It is a good way for me to honor the memory of Charlotte.
Foundations VII I am still doing free motions work on this piece. All the base units are down now and I am building the textures with yarn, torn satin, and various shades of nylon netting. I like all the shading this allows me to add to the surface, sort of like cross hatching when one is using a pencil on a drawing.
Pomegranate I am continuing to work on this piece too. I will apply the lesson I learned about doing strait quilting lines as a part of the design on this one. So far I have only out lined the fruits and done one row of shadow quilting on this work. I am always surprised by how long it takes me to work in a circle as I have to keep stopping and turning the quilt- but I think it is worth the effort.
Daily’s I am finding that it is difficult for me not to see the red circle as a flower center or a sun. Hopefully that will diminish with the work over the course of the thirty squares.
Progress Report: Foundations XI I am doing the free motion stitching on this work now. This work is also based on a photo of a cut in a rock wall. I am drawing to all the little nooks and the high texture of rock. I have added lots of yarn to the surface to add to the texture on this surface too.
was doing the cleaning thing. I though they worked together but some how they top needed a bit of punch. So I started the slender cut troughs. The blue green fabric started to look like lighting to me so I have decided to push that idea forward. I have been working on these narrow cuts for over a year now, but still do not feel like I have the control I really want with them. I will keep trying. 
Daily’s As this shot shows I am still busy with the Daily’s. I am finding that I look forward to doing them in the evenings. It is the only hand work I have at the moment so I am actually a few squares ahead of myself. But I am planning a trip in the spring so being a head will be covered then.
