Published

A couple of months ago I received an email stating that my quilts would be incorporated in a book. Apparently I had send in some, but I could not recall which ones, or for which book it was. On FB I read that a lot of people had the same problem :-). Or is it a sign of old age? :-). Anyway, today I heard that the book has arrived at my US address and now I know which quilts are in it. If you want to see them, or if you want to see a lot of eye candy. This is the book I am talking about: 1000 Quilt Inspirations by Sandra Sider. Here is a picture of the cover:

Exhibit finished

The exhibit in the NEC Birmingham UK has finished. As Voyage we had a special exhibit there with our 2013 quilts. I was not able to go there, but Elaine - one of the other Voyage members - was so kind to send us all pictures of our quilts. Here are mine:

quilting

The last week has been filled with quilting. And with this I mean a lot of quilting :-).  The 3-yard piece has been quilted for about 50%:

The other part will be done the coming week. And the one for EB's masterclass is completely quilted:

Now it is a matter of removing the paper and adding the black line.

Wordless Wednesday

Lines

The theme for EB's masterclass this month is lines. If you have been reading my blog for a long period, you know that I have a number of quilts with this theme. I made some sketches of which this one was the best:

The basic idea I liked, but the combination of these squiggly lines did not really thrilled me. But as you know, something you just have to give an idea a bit more time :-). And that is what I did. This morning I knew what I wanted to do with it. It had to be more simple and much bolder. This is the fabric sample I made:

The sample is small, about 15"x 6,5", but I can see this in big size like 40"x 15"or 20". This is EB's comment: 
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wow that's really strong, bold and definitely linear!

it would look very good horizontally too...

it has a very modern feel to it, clean and classic.

I think it works very well...at first the impact hits you but then you begin to let your eyes explore all the ins and outs..

It's well balanced, it's striking and interesting.

The only thing I'd check, student 3, is the value pattern.  How strong is this if you desaturate?  could it lose impact in a very low light situation?  I like the way the grey is darker than the red in places, and lighter in others  - if you do this one again you could exaggerate that effect.

Otherwise it looks great!

I'd be careful with the quilting pattern and give it some thought....print out a few pictures and draw possible quilting designs on top of them....the quilting will be very obvious so it will be important to get it right.

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I admit that I had not desaturate the picture before I send it to EB and she is correct. Here is the b/w version of the picture:

The red and grey are too close in value. Something I have to keep in mind when I dye the fabric.

Wordless Wednesday

Green Cascade quilt

A small quilt I can create within 2-3 days. If the size is bigger, it will take longer, but this quilt holds the record :-). I posted about this ice cube dyed fabric in this post of October 11, 2013 and about the quilting in this post of Augst 16, 2014. And after that I needed time to think about what I wanted to do with the quilt.

I knew that I wanted it to be more textural, but the cord I had dyed with the fabric was not usable. The centre of the cord was cotton fiber, but it was covered with a polyester net. I found other 100% cotton cord and dyed this. The scary part was to punch holes through the quilt. Originally the fabric was approximately 40" long and the widt of the fabric but as you can see the final result is much smaller. The cords pulled up the fabric creating this rippling which I love.

As I want to see this on a bigger scale I snow dyed a 3 yard piece of fabric in a different color scheme. Here is a picture of half the fabric:

 I did this last month and at the moment the quilt is waiting to be quilted. Hopefully this will not take as long as the green one :-)

I am back

I have not fallen of the earth, but had some computer/blogger issues which I could not handle where I was. Now I am back again, so blogging can continue :-). Here is a picture of a 3-yard piece of raw silk I dyed recently:

My notes are still in one of my suitcases, so I cannot tell you which colors I used or whether it was snow or ice dyed.