Out Of Line

The latest assignment for my art quilt group, the Out of Line Quilters, was to make quilter's trading cards to exchange.  A fine challenge, but I had already exchanged trading cards with half the group during our guild exchange.  Not only that, but I had enough cards leftover from the first exchange for those in the art quilt group who didn't already have one.  I'm usually one to follow the rules, but I just couldn't bring myself to make more trading cards, so I decided to truly be an Out of Line Quilter and I made everyone bookmarks instead.

Labels

Do you label your quilts?  I know all the reasons why we should label our quilts, but I rarely do unless it's required for some reason.  I guess I'm just lazy that way.  These quilts needed labels because they are going to be displayed at the Glenn Curtiss Museum with some other select quilts from the Out of Line Quilters.  Quilts will be on display at the museum from September 13 - November 4.   

Snakes!

The latest assignment for my art quilt group was to make a quilt using a "living being" as inspiration.  I wanted to use a creature with stripes of color and even though I am terrified of snakes, that is what came to mind for this project.  I recalled the old saying, "Red touches yellow, kills a fellow.  Red touches black, friend of Jack." and decided to use that as my inspiration.  Notice the quilt has two poisonous "snakes" to support my irrational belief that there are more deadly snakes than friendly snakes.  Actually, I believe that there are no friendly snakes, but maybe working on this quilt has been good therapy for me because I like it even if snakes are the subject matter!

(If you look closely you will notice that this quilt isn't quite finished.  I had planned to use black binding, but had second thoughts after the quilting was done.  I think green might be better, but I need to make a trip to the quilt shop for more fabric.  That's what happens when you wait until the last minute.  Will I do my next project in a more timely fashion?  Probably not.) 

May 1st Is WHEN?

Ah...procrastination at its best!  I've known this project for my art quilt group was coming due for months, but after I settled on an idea for the quilt and pulled the fabrics I promptly put it aside "for another day".  Friday evening I looked at the calendar and did a double take.  I thought I had another week left in April, but in all reality April is over and my art quilt group meets this Wednesday for the big reveal of our latest challenge quilt.  I've often thought that I do some of my best work under pressure, but this might be cutting it just a little too close...even for me!

The Quilt Brought To You By The Letter M

The latest assignment for my art quilt group was to create a quilt using a letter of the alphabet as inspiration.  A couple of different ideas came to mind, but I finally settled on free piecing a letter M for each person in our immediate family.  I enlisted the help of my four granddaughters when it came to selecting the fabrics and was I ever surprised when all of the colors they chose blended together!  I honestly thought I would end up with a wild rainbow of colors to fit together in one quilt.  Another surprise came when I was trying to figure out how to space eleven M's evenly in this quilt...as it turns out there will be twelve M's in our family with the birth of our sixth grandchild in August, so I was able to add another M for the new grandbaby.  I guess you could say that this challenge quilt really was a family project!

Scarlet Ribbons

The assignment for the latest Out of Line Quilters project was to create a monochromatic quilt using a color that starts with the same letter as your first name.  I love red, so the color scarlet immediately came to mind and shortly after that I thought of the song, Scarlet Ribbons, and decided to use that as the title for my quilt.  My quilt is very simple in design and construction, but I met all the requirements and most importantly, I'm pleased with the end result!

You can see Anya's quilt from this challenge at  http://hillscreekquilter.blogspot.com/2012/11/challenge-defined.html  and Madalene's challenge quilt can be seen at  http://workingwall.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-challenging-evening.html. 

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

The assignment for the latest Out of Line Quilters project?  Use a photo inspiration and any amount of yellow to make an art quilt.  Easy!  Maybe.  The idea for this quilt did come easy.  Being the Wizard of Oz fan that I am, when I heard yellow, I immediately thought of the yellow brick road.  The hard part came with how to put it all together and finish it.  As I said earlier this week, I'm not a big fan of fusible web, but with this quilt I really had no other choice than to do a lot of fusing.  Once the top was complete I had to decide on how to quilt it and that's where my real struggle came.  I had it stuck in my mind that this quilt needed pebble quilting, but I've never even tried to do pebble quilting and with a deadline looming, I had no time to learn or practice.  It was then that it hit me...I already had the stones in the quilt; what I needed was to quilt the paths taken!  Follow the Yellow Brick Road!

Just In Time!

I just received two packages of Shades SoftFuse from Two Star Design as part of the $1000 Promise rewards from the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  It arrived just in time for me to use it on the latest assignment for my art quilt group.  I've never been crazy about using fusible web on quilts, but for some quilts (especially art quilts) there really is no other alternative.  This is a work in progress, but so far I have been very happy with how the SoftFuse is performing and it really is soft and not stiff like a lot other brands of fusible web are.  Now if I can only get this project finished before the August 1st deadline!

The First Dandelion

 The First Dandelion 

Simple and fresh and fair from winter's close emerging, 

As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been, 

Forth from its sunny nook of shelter'd grass--innocent, golden, calm as the dawn, 

The spring's first dandelion shows its trustful face. 

 ~ Walt Whitman 

My "The First Dandelion" quilt is the result of my art quilt group's third challenge.  We were to make a quilt using scraps and a significant amount of a solid that represented spring.  I definitely think I met the challenge, but let me tell you...this quilt was not without challenges!  My first two attempts were so bad that they went directly to the garbage, but thankfully the third time was the charm and I ended up with an acceptable piece.

Our next challenge is to make a quilt using any amount of yellow and use a photo for inspiration.  Hmmm...I wonder if I could snap a quick photo of a dandelion in the snow and use this quilt for the upcoming challenge?  Or would that be cheating?

Quilt Failure

At our last art quilt group meeting we were talking about quilting failures when Madalene made the comment, "If you don't fail once in awhile, you are playing it too safe."  Brilliant words to say the least!  I have had struggles with some of our challenges, but no real failures.  Maybe I have been playing it too safe?  I think Madalene will be proud of me with this challenge, because I have had not one, but two complete quilt failures!  Now I have a whole new challenge because most of my allotted scraps have been cut into teeny tiny bits and I only have a few useable pieces left.  I sure hope I can make Plan C work!

Next Challenge

My art quilt group has another challenge due next month and I have no one to blame but myself if I have a difficult time with this one, because it was my turn to issue the challenge.  I decided that we would select a few scraps from each others scrap baskets, add one solid and make a quilt using the theme of "spring".  No special techniques just a simple theme using scraps.  Easy enough, right?  Hmmm...maybe not as easy as what I first thought!

Balancing Act

Back in October when a few friends and I decided to form an art quilt group I really didn't think about how I would fit it into my already busy schedule, I just knew it was something that I wanted to do!  Then the challenges started and I realized just how much time could be spent planning and making each quilt.  How in the world was I going to manage to do all the things that I have to do along with all of the things that I want to do?  The answer was KISS...which stands for Keep It Simple Stupid!  I do agree that it's good to push our limits every now and then, but simple is good sometimes too especially if it helps keep everything in a harmonious balance!  Would Gail Garber even recognize her free form flying geese technique in this simple little quilt?  I don't know, but I do know that I met the challenge requirements and kept my sanity at the same time, so it's all good!

Another Challenge

Back in October a few of my quilty friends and I got together and challenged each other to make a small art quilt with fabrics outside of our quilting comfort zone.  Even though we all grumbled our way through the project we also decided that it was quite a bit of fun and that we should try another challenge.  AND what a challenge it is!  We are to make a small quilt using Gail Garber's technique for free form flying geese.  If you aren't familiar with Gail's work click HERE and then you will see why I nearly passed out when I heard about our next challenge.  I am a simple girl who makes simple quilts and Gail's quilts are far from simple!  Yes, indeed...this is going to be a challenge! 

Mission Accomplished!

Remember the challenge to use these fabrics in a little art quilt that I accepted back at the end of October?  (If not, you can read about it HERE.) Even then I was questioning what kind of trouble I had gotten myself  into, but honestly I really didn't think this this little quilt would bring as much trouble as it did.  The real challenge for me wasn't the fabric selection, but it was all about the inspiration that just wouldn't come...until a skunk looking for a home for the winter found its way into our basement.  To make a long story short, for two very long weeks in November my house smelled very much of skunk and flower garden air fresheners.  Once my sense of humor returned, my quilty friend, Nancy, suggested that I commemorate the event with an art quilt.  Yes, the fabrics seemed to work with the theme, but how should I go about making a skunk
art quilt?  It was then that the old Pepe Le Pew cartoons came to mind...remember the waves of green stink that followed him everywhere he went?  That became my inspiration along with the floral scent that I used to try and cover up the skunky odor.  Now to decide on a name...  should it be, "OMG What's That Smell?" or "No Amount Of Air Freshener Is Ever Going To Cover Up This Stink!"?

Hmm...

It's funny how one thing leads to another and then all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of something that maybe you wish you hadn't gotten into!  A few of my quilty friends and I were talking recently about stretching our quilting creativity and before any of us fully realized what we were getting ourselves into we had come up with a challenge...we would draw names out of a hat and then select a few fabrics outside of that quilters' comfort zone for them to make an art quilt with.  As you can see, the quilty friend who had my name took it easy on me, so I don't think I'll have much of a problem coming up with an art quilt using these fabrics.  Not everyone in the group was quite so lucky though!  Hop over to Hills Creek Quilter and see what my batik loving friend, Anya, has to work with!