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.

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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 :-).

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.

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 :-).

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

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!

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.

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.

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!-

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.

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.