Size is not everything

For Sky-is-the-Limit the present theme is Size is not everything. Rather a difficult one. My first idea was not decent enough to create something with :-), so I had to pick another idea. I played safe and went with one of my favorite ideas: flowers. Whether a flower is big or tiny, to me they are all beautiful. All fabrics used are either hand dyed or hand painted ones. This is the result:



Snowy owl is finished

Snowy owl is finished! The advantage of having a couple of days off is that you can continue working on it. I started this quilt in May. The background blue and brown was dyed and fused together. The snowy owl was painted with textile paint. My intention was to have only the outline of the shadow of the owl and the tree in which it is sitting visible. Because of the dark colors it was difficult to quilt it using artificial light. But I got the effect I wanted. Total size of this quilt is 41"x41" (105x105 cm).

Here are 2 pictures, a full one:



















Because the snowy owl was painted it meant that every wrong stitch would remain visible. I really had to be careful when I machinequilted it. And a detail one:











                                               

And yes, I have to iron the quilt to get rid of the folding lines, and I have to remove the white cat's hair. Catrien managed to sleep on it in spite of my attempts to keep her away from it.

block

When you are working on big projects, the disadvantage is that there are not many things to show. A daily update is most of the time not very interesting. So in between I work on smaller projects. One of them is the challenge for the Sky is the Limit group which is due on January 1. I will show more of this one after Christmas. Another project is the monthly color blocks. I am 6 months behind I discovered but as this project will not be swapped, not much harm is done. Here is the block for July. As you can see the color was red. All fabric is handdyed.

 

more than 1 project

As always I am working on more than 1 project, so this time no progress on the canal houses but something else. Early this summer I made 4 tops which stil needed to be quilted. All of them are big, around 36"x36" (1 square metre) and this week I started quilting one of them. With this size of quilts I am so glad that I have a longarm :-).
Here is a detail of the quilting:



 

And as the quilting is done in practically the same color as the fabric, here is another picture taken from the back:

canal houses

The last couple of days I have been working on the canal houses. Here are two pictures of two sets of houses:

Actually I have done more than the pictures shown. All houses are stitched together and squared. Size of this quilt will be 32"x94" (80x235 cm) when it is completed. Next step will be to add the binding and all the embellishments.No idea where I am going to hang this. It is the biggest quilt I ever made.

grey weather

The last couple of days the weather here was foggy and grey. Not very cheerful and not the season I like. To compensate I looked for red items in my house and found the following combined in this collage:

canal houses



 The last couple of weeks I have been busy quilting the canal houses. Here are some detail pictures of what I did.

 My choice of quilting design depends on the pattern of the fabric or what the fabric is used for. For example I have stitched bricks or wavy lines representing water.

 Sometimes - as in this sample of water - the pattern of the fabric decided how it had to be quilted:

The canal houses is a big project. At the moment I still have to quilt 3 houses. The next step will be to stitch all the different panels together into one huge quilt.

atc's

Don't pay any attention to the date of the collage, because it is not correct. Here are some atc's I made recently for swaps on AFA. For the rest I am busy finishing of a number of quilt tops. Can't really say that I have UFO's, but I am working on more than 10 quilts at the same time. Will show some detail pictures of the quilting later.

Hot

Hot does not refer to the weather, but is the title of this quiltlet. I made it for the first challenge of the Sky-is-the-Limit group. The fabric started out as a black Kona with a gelprint using different Lumiere metallic paints. Second step was to quilt with red thread flames through it and the word hot. This did not show well enough to my liking so I added lots and lots of yellow/orange/red seedbeads to it following some of the quilting lines. I like the effect, but beading is such a time consuming technique that I doubt whether I will use this technique very often. Size is 12"x12".
The next challenge has been announced, but so far I have not yet come up with a useable idea.

I am back

Okay, I admit it looked like I had fallen of the earth, but I have been having serious computer issues. First my main computer needed a good maintenance which ended up with a complete re-install. After that has been done, I lost internet connection. Not for a few minutes, but for more than a week. So glad that I had at least connection on my Ipad. I could read emails, but posting on a blog was a different matter as all my photo's and editing programs are on the pc.

and 2 more

The SAQA auction is held in 3 parts. In the last part I managed to buy 2 more art quilts. This one is made by Pamela Klebaum and is called 'Convergence':

 And this one is made by Janett Rice and is called 'Just Because':

new in my collection

 Every year SAQA holds an auction of small art quilts and when possible I try to buy pieces I like.Not always successful as I am not the only one who wants to buy. This time I managed to get these two quilts.

The top one is made by Meta Heemskerk and is called 'Different':

 And the second one is made by Ruth Olsen and is called 'Shades of Autumn':

Sales this year have been lower than in previous years, so if you want to buy an ar tquilt for a reasonable price have a look at either the auction pages or the SAQA store. The third round of the auction has not yet started so with a bit of luck I might be able to show you another quilt soon :-)

Festival of Quilts

Yes, I know this festival is over, but today I found out that the quilt I had send in this year is featured in Bonnie McCaffery vidcast no 62. Here is the link to Bonnie's blog My quilt is shown in part 1. Sorry that I cannot give a direct link, but neither my Ipad nor my laptop are cooperating.

atc's

Here is a small collection of atc's I made the last month. Some of the backgrounds are made with gesso, acrylic paints, stamps or gesso, inks and salt/sand. With added collaged papers or postage stamps.

And this is a collection of photo atc's. One of the swaps I am participating in, is about interesting mailboxes.

gel printing

Sometimes it is a good idea to clean your working area LOL I discovered more pieces of fabric which I have not yet blogged about. These 3 are black Kona around 14"x"14". The gel was covered with golden Lumiere textile paint and some sand/salt to create interesting patterns:

One of these pieces might be my starting point for the challenge Hot with the Sky's the Limit group.

and more soy wax

I promise that I will not show you all the fabrics I created, but here are some more pictures. As fabrics I used silk, bamboo, pdf cotton and linen.

 On this red piece the added white is textile paint.

soy wax

In June I took a workshop from Jane Dunnewold on using soy wax and I just realised that I had not yet shown pictures of this. Oops, sorry. During these days we worked with soy wax and procion mx dyes using different techniques. Here are some of my results:

Yes, I realise that I should have ironed these fabrics before I took the pictures :-)

green

Recently Joen Wolfrom started a blog all about color.  In yesterday's post she talks about the color green. I followed her idea and took pictures of green things in my house. Well, I have to say it did not surprise me that I did not find many. Green is not my favorite color. Okay, I have lots of potted plants but I did not want to take pictures of only plants. With some searching I managed to come up with these ten pictures. Excercises like this really make you focus on the subject. This time it was the color green. In the past I did the same excercise with for instance lines. When you do something like this you really start seeing your subject everywhere. Why don't you try this too? It is fun to do.

Feeding the ducks

In May I made a number of tops. I stopped at that point as it would be easier (read this as less weight and less volume) to take the tops home with me, compared to complete quilt sandwiches. Okay, holiday is over so it is time to start the quilting on them. I started with Feeding the ducks. The complete top is quilted. Now I (only) have to finish off all the loose thread ends. You can see on this picture that there are a lot of them.

project 2011

So many things going on in my life that I completely forgot to show you the block for June. Yes, the color for this month was blue :-). It is not a surprise that this is another funky log cabin block and that the size is 9"x9". All fabrics used are either handdyed or handpainted. And some additional yarn is stiched on the block.

SAQA auction

A couple of years in a row I wanted to participate in the SAQA auction, but every time something happend which prevented this. This year however I was in time to donate a quilt. If you click on this link you see my quilt. The auction starts on September 12, but my piece is in the group which is available for auction between September 19 till and including September 24.

Meet me in the park

Two more tops made for Pamela's class. Each is around 20"x25" or something like that. I have not measured them as they are not yet completely finished. If you look closely you will see that both the man and the woman were originally one piece. I cut two rectangulars out of it and started working from each of them independantly using different fabrics than in the original one.

Some small changes still have to be made because certain areas need improvement. And after that of course they have to be quilted.

On the lake

This quilt has a title fitting for the weather :-). It was 100 degrees F (38 degrees C) here yesterday. The idea behind this quilt was to show the relationship between two people and I found my inspiration in a picture of a young couple in a boat. Again only batiks have been used. Size is approximately 20"x23". Quilting I will add later when I am home again.

Award

This quilt of mine was part of the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta 2011 show. The mail returned it to me yesterday. Not only the quilt was in the box, but also the ribbon for the Best Machine Quilting Award. And even better: there was a check with it as well!!

Brenda

Another top is finished. This time the theme was to make a portrait. My inspiration came from a picture of a girl I knew called Brenda:
For this top I used some pfd fabric as I needed a white background for the hair, all the other fabrics are batiks. Size is 23"x29". Maybe I trim this down a bit after quilting.

and more tops

Pamela Allen is giving another online class. This time based on figures and faces. Because I was working on my bird themed quilts I am weeks behind, but this is what I made for the first lesson:
Size: ? no idea, I have not measured it after I cropped it, but it started out as a 20"x20" piece. All fabrics used are batiks. Title will probably be Feeding the duck.

owls

One of the tops I am working on, is based on owls. For this piece I dyed - and overdyed - the background fabric to get the deep blue color I wanted. On this background I fused a black fabric cut out in the shape of an horned owl sitting on a branch:

Interesting, but it needed more. Another owl, this time the snowy owl. I enlarged a picture of one and painted the surface white with black spots, just like they are in real life. My first one was a bit too small and this one ended up on a canvas:

With the second - larger - owl I had more success. It had the proper size. This I fused on the top and now the quilt top looks like this:

At the moment it is still in this state. I will work on the quilting later one.

atc's

This weekend AFA (www.atcsforall.com) had another a-thon. The theme this time was use a postage stamp in your work. All other techniques and materials were your choice. During an a-thon you create atc's, post them on the forum and trade them. Here are some of the atc's I made:

canvas

This time a combination of painting and quilting. The small quiltlet (9"x9") is attached to a painted canvas. I used a traditional 9 patch block, cut it in 4 parts and restitched the blocks. This became the background for some fused raw edge appliqued poppies. I have to admit that I really like this combination of quilting and canvases. No doubt I will make more of these in the coming times.

May block

Right now I am working on so many projects at the same time, that I almost forgot to show you a picture of the block for May:
As you can see, the color for this month is purple and I made - again - a variation of the log cabin block.

Swallows of San Juan

San Juan Capistrano is a town in California famous for the festival which celebrates the return of the swallows every spring. Hearing this story inspired me to make another one of my bird themed quilts. I started with dyeing the background fabric using intense blue. On this background I painted a part of the ruined misson using different colors of Lumiere and Setacolor paint:
Next step was to add the swallows. They are cut out of a black dyed piece of fabric and attached to the top using fusible interfacing:

Next step will be to quilt it, but that will have to wait for the moment. Like my other bird themed quilt, the size of this one will be 39"x39" when finished.