How’s this for a bright and bold baby quilt.  A baby art quilt as my good friend described it. This is just a detail…..a full photos below.

My very special niece Alli is having a baby boy very soon and this is for her…..and baby, of course.  There aren’t many people I’d go to the time of creating this improvisational style quilt….but she’s one of them. I hope they’ll all enjoy the little patches and pieces of color and print. Some of them I dug out of the bottom of my stash and others are new and trendy ones!

Here’s the whole quilt.  I made it in 14″ blocks, figuring it out as I went. I    especially like the curves …….I’ve been wanting to try this style  for a while      (hopefully you’ll see more of them to come…….why is it that there’s never enough time for all the things I want to do…whine, whine……I’m sure you’ve felt the same way)

I stitched around each block with a small stitch when it was completed  because with all those little pieces and seams, I didn’t want to be resewing a   gazillion times as I sewed the blocks together. I didn’t square up the blocks….just used the curved technique I used creating the blocks to sew the blocks into rows and the rows together.

A little closer look……I especially liked seeing and using those kids fabrics that I’ve had forever in my stash…..some probably 15 years old. Old friends! You’ll notice a lot of sports fabrics…..we are definitely a sports family and my niece was a fabulous college basketball player so there are plenty of basketballs. I did add footballs and helmets for her husband Nick as he’s a mega-fan!

If you’re interested in a good reference for this type of work, create your own free-form quilts by Rayna Gillman is a great way to learn a few techniques and get started.

Enjoy looking……!

Here’s a look at what I was doing this spring…..new works based on the theme “Textured Waters.”  An interesting theme as it seemed to suggest water colors, and I rarely work in blue. That means it was a good stretch for me! As you may know, I prefer a pretty dark, dusty palette of a variety of shades.

The show is at the Bainbridge Arts & Crafts Center on Bainbridge Island, Washington. If you’re visiting the Seattle area, stop in and see my work. Be sure and tell them I sent you!

The piece above, Currents, is primarily in my favorite shades (the blues are still to come!) It’s a textile collage using many African hand dyed fabrics plus a little of this and that from my stash.  I’ve also added textile paint to some of the shades and finished it off with a few lines of hand stitching. Here’s a closer look so you can see those details

Here comes the blue color! This piece, Low Tide,  I also created from African hand dyed fabric….definitely my new favorite  fabrics. Even though I design fabric for the US market……there’s something so exciting and fresh about these gorgeous fabrics from Africa.

The piece of fabric itself did most of the work…..I enhanced it with raw edges, layering, machine and hand stitching. It has an irregular outer edge which also gives it a very handmade look. I like the contrast between the programmed machine stitching and the raveling raw edges.

Tide Pools gets a little extra glitz from the metallic stitching in the background and a sprinkling of small beads called lentil beads….because they’re shaped like lentils! Very soft colors that add a nice effect.  In this piece, as in many of my textile collages, movement is a very important part of the design. The water current here is rushing toward this small group of rocks in swirls of shallow water.

Here’s a closer look. I created the look of water on the rocks by layering hand-dyed sheer fabrics over other fabrics and shapes to add depth and shading. One of my favorite techniques!

One more…..this one, The Perfect Storm, is from my Paintbox Series….probably my favorite style to work in. Again, my goal was to show motion and depth along with creating a composition using a limited palette of blues.

I’ve used sheer fabrics here for layering and creating depth as well as hand painted cheesecloth to add interest. As you can see, it’s all about where I place the circles to create the composition. I love working in this series!

Enjoy….for more of my textile art, check out the gallery section. I’m not good about updating with new work but hopefully you get the idea!

I know I’m really dating myself naming one of my collages after that ’60′s classic by Iron Butterfly…….but, I was invited to take part in a group exhibit with a theme of butterflies so this was my solution. I’m just not a butterfly-kind-of girl….so I needed to come up with an idea. Voila….the album cover of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida became my inspiration.

I used a variety of fabrics….including one fabulous hand-dyed piece from which all of the oranges, purples, and pinks were cut. Perfect ’60′s colors, don’t you think. I also embellished it with a lot of gold and pink metal leafing….to add a focal point since the whole thing was pretty much an in-you-face-kind of thing. Without the metallic it was pretty blah…. The metallic thread helped but it still needed a little more pizazz.  I’m thinking it will probably go to my grandson’s room when it’s done hanging.

Funny thing….when researching Iron Butterfly, looking for the image of the album cover, I read that the song was the longest recorded at that time…..17 minutes. It brought back memories of my college days when In-A-Gadda-da-Vida seemed to be playing everywhere, all the time. In fact, I can remember it blaring at noon hour in my sorority house. We’d go upstairs for lunch and when we came back downstairs it was likely still playing……Just a little blast from the past!

I kind of like this collage because it’s a departure from my usual look. It’s a good idea to shake up the comfortable style  sometimes……

One of my latest additions to my Paintbox series…..meet Splash   aka Paintbox 17. The first piece in the series was inspired by an arial view I saw of dye pots in Africa. The rest is history. I’ve been working off and on in this style for about four  years. Of course, I do other styles  of fiber collage as well, but I really like working in this abstract style.

  Here’s a closer look. You can see I use all kinds of fabric from silk to mystery fabrics from the local Ben Franklin!  The fabric is the lower right corner in this photo was dyed in Africa….but I bought it in Scotland! Go figure. I’m always on the hunt for the unusual but I use plenty of typical quilt shop cottons as well. I love the mix….

Speaking of the mix….I did one all silk collage in this series…and the results were interesting. Since I loved to add the luster of silk, I reasoned, why not do one with all silk. Wouldn’t it be even better? Wrong….at least for me.  Without the contrast of other fabrics it just didn’t seem to pop. I added lots of hand stitching to save its life and that made it Ok….but I learned something. More is not always better….in silk as well as food. Unfortunately that’s not true for money…!

Here’s the all silk piece…..”Dancing on the Silk Road”…..the luster level is all the same which seems to make it look flatter and duller. Maybe it’s just me…but I’ll stick with mixing up the types of textiles that I use.

Keeping you up to date…..I will be selling my artwork at Spokane’s Inland Crafts, an annual sale and exhibition of fine, contemporary crafts. It’s really a lovely juried show with artists from around the Northwest……and I’m happy to be part of it all.

The photo above is of First Blush, a fiber collage that’s about 70″ x 60″. Definitely one of my largest pieces. That’s the good part…

The flip side is that I’m frantically creating art here in my studio, which at this point is kind of a Santa’s workshop kind of thing. I’ll have, of course, my hanging textile art, but I’ll also have some smaller pieces as well…….you know…Glitter Trees (which you can see on a previous posts) treasure boxes etc. etc. These are the things that take a waaayyy lot of time for what they seem to be. Good thing I like doing them.  After all….I know that everyone isn’t going to come in to my booth and pay hundreds of dollars for one of my fiber art pieces BUT they may spend $50 on a little treausre!

It’s all part of my goal of spending more time on my art…..less time on other parts of my work in the textile world. Wearing a lot of hats requires a lot of time. Translation: lots of late nights!!

So….if you’re near the Spokane WA  area on November 11-13, I hope you’ll visit me at Inland Crafts at the Spokane Convention Center. I’ll be the one with polka dot floor rug!

On another note….can you believe I’ve blogged two nights in a row!! Wow. I’m so impressed with myself. Don’t expect me to keep this up however……I need to get back to making Glitter Trees….

Pins are an essential part of my process when I’m creating one of my textile collage pieces.  People often ask me how close or how many I use…..so here’s an example.

My process is simple…..I call it  “painting with fabric” in which I use pieces of prints, solids, hand-dyes or anything else that strikes my fancy. I create a blended look by using pieces of different fabric, layered and overlapped to get the look I want. No fusing for this girl. I don’t like the way it flattens out the fabric. After I get all the pieces in place, I use a gazillion pins to secure it….then take it to my sewing machine.

I stich around each piece  with monofilament, taking out the pins as I go. I know, I know….it sounds like quite a process. I guess it is but I love the look I get doing it this way.

Here’s an in progress look at the piece. I’m just about to start stiching. It doesn’t have a title yet….sometimes that’s the hardest part for me. Stay tuned……I’ll put up a finished shot when I get it all done. Give me a few days!

No, I’m not on a great vacation.  I just finished a fiber collage that was inspired by a photo I took on a visit to Paris.  It goes without saying, that it’s an amazing place for inspiration. I love the beauty of the elegant mixed with the patina of age. Who can resist it!

Creating fiber collage is my passion….it’s what I call painting with fabric. My background is in painting, and that’s how I use my fabrics ….like paints. I layer and blend them to creat an impressionistic effect. Anyway, that’s how I work a good deal of the time. Sometimes I work abstractly and then the impressionistic approach is out the window!

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Meet Convergence……part of my Paintbox Series. I’m really pleased with the rich, elegant look of this piece.

I’ve used my usual varied mix of fabric….hand-dyed cotton, commercial cotton, Burmese silk, dupioni silk, hand-painted fabric, and pieces of sheer curtain from my local Ben Franklin store….which is an absolute wealth of unexpected fabric treasures! In the focal point area, I’ve topped it off with a few heavy looking beads and a couple of funky buttons.

Which reminds me of an interesting change in my point of view. I used to call my self a Pure Cotton Snob. If it wasn’t the finest cotton fabric from  a favorite quilt store, I wouldn’t use it. Gone are those days. Now…..I’ll put anything in my quilts. If it holds together like fabric and looks good, I’ll stitch it in.  It’s been very freeing…..and much more exciting. In other words, when it comes to fabric, anything goes in my collage quilts.

That’s the fun thing about collage style quilts….anything works. Just cut out a piece, put it in place and sew it down. If I decide it doesn’t work, I just put another piece over it. Easy…..and fun.  If you haven’t used some of these mysterious fabrics,  you might think about giving them a try. They can add an exciting, unpredictable quality to your work…..and the hunt for them is great fun.

Here’s a detail look at Convergence……hopefully you can see some of those jazzy fabrics.

It’s not exactly new……but I haven’t shown it online as I planned to enter it into this year’s Quilt National competition.

But, alas, I got my official rejection notice…..didn’t make the big show….so now I can show it other places. It was definitely a long shot that I might get it in the show….but…..I’m always challenged by the long shot!

It’s title is Crossfire….and I’m pleased with the movement that it creates. It was one of those quilts that I wondered about the whole time I was working on the design, but when it was done, I was happy with it.

 It doesn’t always work that way. Usually I have a good feeling about a piece from the beginning of it ends up being one of my favorites.

 As far as not being accepted into QN…..I know I’m in good company! It’s kind of the mother-of-all quilt shows….and being accepted is a huge honor. Oh well, I’ll try again in two years.

Very exciting….. I was pleased and honored to receive both a Juror’s Award and a Judge’s Award at the recent Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters show in Seattle.

And, needless to say,  totally surprised. Now you could be thinking that “everyone says that”…..and you might be right, but in my case, it couldn’t be more true. My raw-edged technique is not always wildly popular with judges. For that reason, I primarily enter shows that are more “art shows” than “quilt shows” at this point.

The APNQ show is kind of my local show, living in Washington State as I do, so I enter it even though it is a quilt show…..and a great one at that. Lots of variety in the categories with everything from hand applique to art quilts.

Sooooo….. you can see why it was truly a surprise. One of the most thrilling things about it was that I received the Judge’s Award from Yvonne Porcella, one of the three judges. She has been one of my own personal “rock stars” of contemporary quilting for as long as I can remember. Her appreciation of my quilt was really an honor.

By the way…. the show included lots of wonderful quilts. I’d call  this year’s show a “stitching show”….as many of the winners were expertly and heavily quilted.

Here’s my quilt….and the ribbons!