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.

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".

Autumn Circles

The title of this quilt does not match the season, but the colors do :-). For this circle quilt I used a discharged commercial fabric as background with a strip of Ugandan bark cloth on top of it. The circles are made from my own hand dyed fabrics.

As all my circle quilts, the size is 12"x24" and as it is Friday, I am linking this post to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday. Don't forget to check what the other artists did this week.

Duck!

Duck!, no not for Donald, but beware the circles are falling :-). Here is my latest quilt in the circles series. With every quilt I make I come to the conclusion that there are still other ideas I want to use. And people who know me, know that this means that I have started a new circle quilt even before this one was completed.

I have to admit that I have no idea how many will follow :-). As usual I used my hand dyed fabric for this one and I am linking this to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday too. Check out the link to see what other artists have done this week.

Overlapping circles

For my latest circle quilt I decided to work with commercial batiks. Usually a quilt has 3 layers, but this one has 6: backing fabric, batting and 4 layers on top. In each of the top layers I cut out circles in different sizes and in different places. By positioning the fabrics on top of each other, you get a see-through to the other layers. Here is how the end result looks like:

 And a detail shot:

As you can see for quilting design I followed the design of the fabric. Binding is done with a sheer yellow. Slippery to work with, but I like the transparant effect it gives.
And as it is Friday I am linking this post to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

I have discovered that working in series can be quite addictive :-). For Stitched I have to create 4 quilts by the end of the year and I have to admit that they are done already. Guess I will have more than 4 by the end of the year .
For this quilt I started with a hand dyed piece of fabric which I made a couple of years ago in one of Carol Soderlund´s classes.  I cut circles out of freezer paper in such a way that only slight areas would be open. With a stencil brush I applied the paint onto the fabric. Let it dry, repositioned the circles and repeated the process. For quilting I followed the circles and  filled up the open spaces. Sofar the only downside I can find with working in themes that it difficult to find suitable titles. Of course I could just number them, but that is a bit boring. For now the title for this piece is Overlapping Circles. Maybe I change that if I find a more interesting title. Size of this quilt is 12"x24" (30x60 cm).

I am linking this to Nina Marie´s Off the Wall Friday. Check out this link to see other interesting work.

Within the Circle

Here is another circle quilt. For Stitched I have to make 4 quilts with this theme by the end of the year, but I am having so much fun that this is number 3 :-).

Most black fabrics discharge to a light brown/yellow when you use bleach, but now and than you find a fabric which discharges to white. This is one of those. I bought it a couple of years ago from Whaleys-Bradford. It is their H200 cotton black (lawn).
For the quilting I used a red thread. After that I stitched the circles on it. The circles are made from commercial felt. I was not happy how the stitching lines on the felt looked, so I covered them with a blanket stitch using a red pearl cotton. Size is 12"x24" (30x60 cm). Title of this one is 'Within the Circle'.

Circles never end

For Stitched my theme this year is circles and yes I know the total number of quilts for this year is 4, I have completed my second one already :-). When I was working on my Onion quilt, I had another idea as well. Of course I could have waited till April to start with it, but I have time available at the moment, so why not start straight away. This quilt started out as one piece of snow dyed fabric. Added batting and a backing fabric and stitched the outlines. Turned everything around and cut an opening in the backing fabric close to the top. I cut a number of circles out of freezer paper and started playing around to found a interesting design. After that I stitched around the circles and removed the paper. The quilting I did on the rest of the quilt was just straight lines.
The next part was the scary part. I cut out the central part of the circles. If I had made a mistake I could have thrown the quilt away, but luckily everything went okay. Of course the color of the batting was white and this would show a bit, I used a pink marker to give the batting some color. With floss I hand stitched around the circles. The straight lines needed more quilting so I added lots of circles on it as you can see on the detail picture.
Years ago I found a capiz shell lamp in a garage sale. I did not have any use for the lamp, but I wanted the shells :-). These shells I added to the open spaces and this is how the quilt looks now:

 And a detail:

The quilting I did on this piece gave me lots and lots of thread ends. I could have connected the circles, but this would have give another look and that was not what I wanted. Size is 12"x24" (30x60 cm) and the title is Circles never end.

Life is like an onion

I am a member of several international online groups because I like working in a small scale and having a theme. Recently I became a member of Stitched. With this group each member picks her theme and makes 4 quilts this year in the size of 12"x24". My theme for this year is circles. This may sound a bit boring, but you will see that interesting quilts can be made with a theme like this.

My first quilt for this group started with a visit to the super market. I needed a big onion. Okay, I admit, I love onion soup, but this one I needed for stamping. I sliced the onion in 2 parts and let it dry for a couple of days so that the separate rings show better. In the mean time I prepared the fabric. The centre of the quilt is made from a piece of snow dyed fabric with a big black border around it. 

When the onion had dried enough I applied a thin layer of decoulorant plus on top (gold and bronze) and placed my stamp on the fabric.

This proces I repeated till I had a pleasing arrangement of 'circles'. After the decoulorant had dried I ironed it - a very smelly process -, but I was happy with the result. The circles I quilted with a gold metallic thread following the rings as much as possible. The other part of the quilt I quilted with a wavy grid using blue and black thread. This is how the completed quilt looks like:

 And a detail shot:

And yes I should have used a lint roller to remove the cat hair :-)
For the title I found inspiration in a quote by Carl Sandburg: 'Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time and sometimes you weep.