February 22, 2013

QuiltCon

Three quilts entered.
Two quilts accepted !
One quilt wins an award ! ! !

Rhythm & Blues won 3rd Place in the Use of Negative Space category sponsored by Michael Miller Fabrics!  I can't begin to tell you how excited I am.

I've seen lots of pictures on Instgram and there are some amazing quilts in the show. I don't really have a lot of quilt show credentials under my belt so this is all rather new and most definitely an honor considering all the great talent out there.   : )


If only I was in Austin right now to see them in person.  : (  

I didn't even know which quilt won what award until just now when the winners were finally posted online. For a complete listing of the winners go here.

I made 2 new quilts to enter in QuilCon. Both were based on concepts that had been in my sketchbook for ages. Seemed like a great opportunity to finally bring those concepts to life.


The first quilt was "Rhythm & Blues".
The inspiration for this quilt initially came from studying the design elements in woven interior decorating fabrics. I was interested in the interweave of colors that occur within the strong horizontal format of the weave. As the idea progressed, I became more intrigued with the vertical movement that could be created as different colored groups of lines interact with each other. The quilt morphed into a graphic representation of the sound bars that move up and down on digital recording equipment and "Rhythm & Blues" was born. I have plans to explore other versions of this basic design later this year.



I quilted it with horizontal lines. A single line in the white bars, double lines in most of the blues and triple lines in the darkest blue. It made for a lot of starting and stopping, which is an area where my skills need improvement.




The second quilt I made was "Mondrian Unleashed".
"Mondrian Unleashed" was inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian, an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement of the early 1900's. He simplified compositions into vertical and horizontal lines and used primary colors plus black and white. I was intrigued by his compositions and the limited placement of color and initially planned to reproduce this structure using print fabrics in place of solid colors. As the concept evolved though, I broke free of the rigid horizontal and vertical structure in favor of diagonal lines. The placement of color within the spaces created by the intersection of lines falls in a way that intentionally leads your eye through the quilt.  I have other color options I'd like to explore with this one as well.




I quilted random diagonal lines all over the surface that echo the randomness of the quilt design.





The third quilt I entered was "Zebras in My Garden" made using my Facets pattern. While this quilt wasn't accepted, it's actually my favorite in many ways simply because of the use of color and Kaffe prints.



Making these quilts was a great learning experience. One of the main things I realized about my personal quilt journey is that the design process is what I love the most. Guess that's why I have so many sketches and so many "yet to be made" quilts. I really enjoy the compositional aspect of designing and working with color. And while it was a lot of fun to work with mostly solids, I realize my first love is prints and riots of color. I'll still design and use solids frequently because there are just so many delicious colors available, but I'll never give up on prints . . . especially Kaffe.

I encourage all of you to go out on a limb and enter a competition this year. If you aren't accepted into one show it certainly doesn't mean you won't be accepted into a different show. Sometimes it just means finding the right fit for your work. Be confident in your ideas, improve the skills that need work and let the rest of the world see what you do.

I hope QuiltCon is a grand success. I can't imagine that it won't be. 
To all of you lucky enough to go, I'm quite jealous but hope you had a blast!!

February 20, 2013

WPI Wednesday

Do Wednesdays come up way to quickly for anyone besides me? I want to post every Wednesday but before I know it, it's Thursday. I really am getting lots of quilty things started and some of them even get finished. They just don't make it into blog posts. Got to work on that.

I 'm sharing my latest bee block for the Mid Century Modern Bee group this week. Cindy requested a winged square block based on this tutorial. It's been a fun block to make. Since the block reminded me of a butterfly, I pulled out my only butterfly fabric. A fun fat quarter of Jane Sassman fabric from awhile ago. There have already been several blocks made that include orange so I went with yellow instead. Orange would look really good too. Hope Cindy likes it.




For me, the hardest part of making a bee block is deciding which fabrics to use. I think choosing fabric for just a single block is harder than for a whole quilt. At least with a whole quilt you can spread the love of all your fabrics around by using lots and lots of them. But a single block . . . it's just hard to settle on which fabrics to use. Probably why it takes me till the end of the month to get my block done. Anyone else have that problem?



Emerald Green paint chips



I've also been seeking as many emerald green fabrics as I can find for a new pattern I'm planning. Green has always been one of my favorite colors. However my green stash leans more toward the yellow end so finding emeralds has given me an excuse to go fabric shopping.  : ) Not sure I've found all the right greens yet. The second and third from the left are definitely in question. Maybe too dark, maybe too olive. Wish there were a few more emerald choices in the modern style.


Emerald Fabric Swatches
Stay tuned for what I hope will be a nice take on the Pantone year of Emerald Green.

And to all you lucky quilters going to QuiltCon  . . . I'm so jealous. Have FUN!!!