Catching up

I am trying to catch up with some half finished quilts. Here is the one I made for EB's masterclass of October:

A combination of hand painted and commercial fabric with intense quilting. Size is 17"x24", title: Dreamy.

Gates completed

And this is how the completed quilt looks like:

I cropped it a bit, so the size is now 16,5"x16,5". Title is 'Christo's Gates'.

Gates continued

After the background was done, I collected a number of orange squares and placed them on the background. As you see, the squares become smaller in the distance.

Time to add the trees.

Not completely happy with the result. Either I had to add more trees, or cut off part of the top. I opted for the second option. This is how the design looks now:

Size is about 18"x18". Time to remove all the small parts from the background and to start quilting.

Gates

I started working at the gates for EB's masterclass. This is what I have done till now:

A variety of hand dyed fabrics. Now to sort out my oranges for the gates.

Masterclass

EB gave us 3 pictures to chose from, not to make a straightforward copy but as a starting point. I picked this picture of the Gates in NY done by Christo and Marie-Claude:

My sketching skills are limited. To be honest I only use them as a guide. This is what I did:

I am going to create an orange pathway where the orange squares will be getting smaller and smaller. In front of that there will be an abstract or fantasy tree. The drawing shows a triangular tree, but most likely I will use a different shape. This is EB's comment:

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I like the way you've abstracted the photo of the Christo orange flag exhibit in Central Park, NYC, a few years ago - I was lucky enough to visit it at the time.
I do like the idea of the squares going off into the distance...I'm not quite sure, though, of the connection between them and the fantasy trees?  A design is usually stronger if everything is connected in some way...Perhaps the abstracted trees could be indicated by squares also - but in shades of grey rather than orange?  maybe they could be rectangles too instead of squares.  In that way the "gates" (as Christo called them) and the trees would be related by shape.  He deliberately chose February for this exhibit so that the orange would really stand out against the wintry grey - and sometimes white (with snow) of the natural landscape of the park.
You are very good at strong simply designs...so I think you could make this stronger too by simplifying and unifying it.

--

Years ago my online dyeing group did swaps with colorwheels and gradations. I do not keep them anymore as references, but I still use these samples whenever I need a wide range of shades/values. They will come in handy for this quilt :-).

OEQC

This weekend the annual OEQC was open in Maastricht the Netherlands. One of my online groups Stitched-Art-Textiles was present with a guest collection. In total we had 80 quilts there. During the 4 days of the show there were approximately 5000 visitors. Here are some pictures to give you an impression of the show. I took the pictures before opening hours, that is the reason you do not see any people on them.

Snow and Ice dyeing

This month I am talking about snow and ice dyeing on the And then we set it on fire blog. If you want to read about it, here is the link: http://andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com/.

Poppies

Another poppies quilt is completed. I admit the picture is not the best. In reality it is a rectangular quilt 17"x24". By now I have made so many poppy quilts, that finding a title is becoming very difficult. I guess I have to start numbering them.

Fabrics used are a combination of hand dyed/painted ones and commercial batiks.

Colors and mood continued

After I had painted the fabric for the gingko leaf I cut out the shape and positioned it onto a background fabric. My original color was a dark grey:

This is EB's comment:

- Absolutely dreamy!!    I think that totally sums it up...something as simple as this will look good with some hand stitching - maybe just sort of random all over dots or small stitches - which will reward the viewer for coming in closer...if you're not already stuck down..you might try the purple against a very soft mellow yellow sky....might have an even lighter dreamier feel to it.  The grey is really quite somber - though that could be my monitor....    

beautiful simple idea...

You can make a design complicated, but quite often a simple one is more effective :-). As EB suggested I tried the leaf on different backgrounds. Here is one a light yellow/brown batik:

And here with a green batik:

They are indeed more dreamy. I think the green one is my favorite.

Colors and mood

This month the theme for EB's masterclass is mood and the color that expresses that mood the best. As mood I choose dreamy and this is the fabric I painted for it:

The colors are a mixture of Lumiere blue and Setacolor red. Cannot say exactly which ones as I do not have them with me right now. And this is the design I am going to use the fabric in:

Yes, a gingko leaf. I admit I have never seen a purple one, but why not. After all, there is artistic freedom :-) Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

Poppies

During the years I have made a number of poppy quilts. In September I used the poppies again for EB's masterclass. This triggered a need to make again poppy quilts :-). Here is the one I am working on now. First picture shows the beginning of the lay out in grey scale, to see if there is enough contrast in the values used.

And this picture shows how the design looks now. I can start quilting.

soft and hard edges

The theme for EB's masterclass this month was soft and hard edges. If you read my blog you have seen the sketches I made for it and the first lay out of the fabrics. Here are the final results:

The size of the poppies quilt is 17"x24" and the title is Lost Poppies. It is likely that I will continue with this theme as there are now 2 people who advised me to continue playing with this idea. And you all know that I love working in series :-).

Here is the other one:

Size is 12"x24" and it fits nicely in my circle themes. I do not have a title yet for this one, suggestions are welcome :-).

SAQA auction

It is some time ago since I last posted this quilt, but do you remember it? Well today SAQA auction starts. 

If you want to bid on it, please read the following text as the auction is a bit different than previous years. You can either bid on my quilt during the Diamond Day bidding window, or you have to go to Houston :-).

It's finally time to bid! SAQA's Benefit Auction starts TODAY at 2:00pm EDT. Even if you are a veteran bidder, please review the information below to make sure you are aware of new changes for this year.

For example, on the main auction pages, sold quilts will be marked by a red border. You can click through to view more details about the purchaser.

Other Notes: 

• SAQA uses Eastern Daylight Time for bidding purposes. The current time will display on the bidding form
• All quilts are available for $1000 during the Diamond Day bidding window (Friday 2:00pm - Monday 1:30pm)
• At 2:00pm on Monday, only Section 1 quilts will be available for bidding
• Sold quilts will be marked by a red border around the thumbnail image
• Buyer details (if provided) will be included on the quilt detail page (displayed when you click on a thumbnail) 

How the Auction Works »

more soft and hard edges

This week I continued working on the poppy design. The top picture shows my first lay out.

I like it, but the soft/hard edges do not really show. The background fabric is covered with 2 layers of tulle, but still not the effect I need. So I made another layout. This time with a commercial green fabric as background and 1 layer of tule. And indeed the edges dissolve much more. I will have to make some small addition corrections, but it is time to start quilting.

Soft and hard edges

This month the theme for EB's masterclass is soft versus hard edges. For this theme I made the following 2 sketches:

Sketching is not my favorite part, so I added my fabric ideas with it as well :-). For the seed pods I intend to use different values of green/brown fabric. The seed pods in the background will be covered with sheer fabric to make them more softer. The circles I intend to make with only black/white fabric. I have rather a big stash of these :-). There will be small black circles on the black background and small white circles on the white background. The circles which are the focus will have black fabric on white background and white fabric on black background.

Here are EB's comments:

- Seed pods are such a wonderful shape - and poppies in particular are lovely.  It's because there is a great contrast between the star/flower shape on top and the soft round belly beneath.

I think you'll be able to lose some of the "belly" portion in the background with careful use of values so that the "star" on top really stands out.

and:

- I like your idea of gradually making the edges softer, less distinct, until they melt away into the background using layers of organza...I think it will work very well.  You could expand some of the circles so that they begin to overlap in places and some of the edges gradually disappear into the background.  It's definitely a good idea to begin with a simple concept and see how far you can push the device within the constraints of the simple idea - well chosen!  

Now my problem will be do I make one or do I make both quilts. As it is Friday, I am linking this post to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday

Abstracted nature is completed

For Voyage - one of my online quilt groups - the theme this year was abstracted nature. My 4 quilts are all based on plants. Okay, I admit, plants with a twist :-). For this quilt my inspiration was cattails, not the animal type, but the type you find in the water. In Dutch we call them cigars. The fun part with the abstract is, that you do not have to follow the rules of reality. In this case I used rectangular red/pink fabric for the seed pods.

All fabrics used are my own hand dyed or snow dyed ones plus some strips of Ugandan barkcloth. Size is 17"x24". All the abstracted nature quilts will be on show in Minneapolis and Prague in 2016 and Maastricht in 2017.

Old work

We all have work that for some reason we are not satisfied with. I have a couple of canvasses with little quilts on it which I made a couple of years and knew that they needed more. Here is a picture of one of them:

Yesterday I decided to apply some paint on to it. I used a combination of 3 different Golden fluid acrylics and now it looks like this:

Not certain if it is completed now, but it looks better :-).

TAFA contest

Every month TAFA has a photo contest. For July the theme is Window to the World and one of my quilts is in it. Click on this link to go to the page. Voting closes in about 10 hours.

Peas in a pod

For Voyage the theme this year is abstracted nature. The fun part of this theme is that the abstract gives you all the space to be bold and change whatever you want. In this case my peas are different shades of blue, a color I have never seen for peas in real life :-).

All the fabrics I used are my own hand dyed / hand painted ones. Size is 17"x24".

Tequila

For Stitched, one of my online groups, I picked the theme beverages for this year. Here is my first quilt:

It may not look like a beverage, but it is based upon a microscopic photo of tequila. I used a combination of hand dyed and commercial scraps on top of a black background. Size is 12"x24".

Wordless Wednesday

layers is finished

And this is how the finished layers quilt looks like:

Fabrics used are a combination of my own hand dyed ones and commercial ones. Size is 12"x24"and the title is Cornucopia. Thanks Sheila for suggesting this name!

Seaside

For Sky is the Limit the theme for June was Seaside. Last year we had a similar one: Life at the beach so the risk was present that those 2 quilts would look a lot a like. Not something I wanted and I think I managed to create a fresh view of the theme. I opted to go for a more abstract view of a seaside:

Fabrics used are my own hand dyed ones, with the exception of the sailing boat, that is a commercial one. Size is 12"x12". And as it is Friday I am linking this post to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday. Check out what other artists have done this week.

layers

It looks like I am neglecting my blog, but there are sometimes periods in which I do not have much to show. Showing a picture in which I am auditioning fabric for a project is a bit boring :-). Anyway for EB's masterclass this month the theme is layers. I tried different sketches, but fell back on to my favorite circles. To keep it consistent to all my other circle quilts, this one will be 12"x24" when it is finished. At the moment my layout looks like this:

The circles are a combination of hand dyed and commercial fabric. Background is a charcoal hand dyed fabric.

Another layout was this:

I printed the photo and drew the circles using a sharpie. EB's comment was that it looked like an armadillo :-)). If I make it like this, this name will be stuck to it forever.

Opposites

For Sky is the Limit the April theme was Opposites and yes I know April has long gone :-). And I admit the theme sounded easy, but it took a long time before I had found a design which I liked. This is the one I settled on:

It started with a solid black background on which I used a multicolored thread. White on white fabric is what I used for the squares and for the circles I used a number of colored circles. Both the squares as well as the circles were quilted with matching, plain thread.  In this quilt I could combine the following opposites: black/white, solid/patterned, multicolored/plain, squares/circles, big/small and black/white versus color.
As it is Friday I am linking this post to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday. Check out the link to see what other artists did this week.

Ugandan landscape

This is how the landscape turned out after I made some changes in the fabric:

The tree on the right and the mountain range are the areas where I made the changes. The size is 20"x14,5" and as it is based on a picture taken in Uganda, the title is 'Ugandan landscape'.

Landscape

The theme for |EB's masterclass this month is landscape.  Going through my photo's this is the one I decided to start with. It is a picture taken at Mweya - Queen Elisabeth Park in Uganda. There are a couple of other ones I might use as inspiration later, but this one is on for now.

The sketch I made is this one:

For me is sketch is a simple starting point. What I create does not always look like the sketch :-). After several tries out, this is how it looks now:

I am still not certain about the fabrics I used for the mountains. They still look rather heavy. Anyway the rest is ready for the glue stick. For the tree trunks I used original Ugandan bark cloth, the rest is a mixture of my own hand dyed and commercial fabrics.
And as it is Friday, I am linking this post to Nina-Marie's blog. Check out the link and see what other artists have done this week.

Wordless Wednesday

Color

The theme for April in EB's masterclass was color. And if you think that this quilt looks familiair, you are correct :-). I used the same design as in January, only not in greyscale, but in vibrant colors this time. The first picture shows the grey scale:

And the next ones show the proces of creating the colored version:

Not really happy with this. It felt too flat and booring. While I was trying this out, I still had the idea of a leaf in my mind. I discovered that it went much better when I started thinking of it as an abstract composition. I added more different colors in it and mixed them. This is what it turned into:

And this is EB's comment:

- Rich, harmonious color, strong diagonal structure holding the arrangement of circles together, good range of values..and beautiful lines!  In fact I think it is those little skinny lines that make this piece so elegant..and the colors make it look like a rich brocade.  I like  the little hints of orange that you introduced, just a tiny bit, but enough to give a little spark.  and the variety of different purples just adds to the richness.  Using all the same purple or all the same yellow would have made it very flat.  Lovely!-