Photo inspiration

My small weekly quilt group has a challenge every year and we exhibit our results at a local library.  The challenge for this year is to use a photograph , preferably taken by you, and use it for inspiration for a small (about 18" x 24") quilt.  It can be used in any way: copy it realistically, use the colors, do a photo transfer, abstract it, etc.  

I took this picture in Istanbul at the Grand Bazaar.  I was bowled over by the colors and knew that some day it would be a quilt.  Now I have the perfect opportunity.

I definitely plan to abstract it, leaving out most of the extraneous objects, and mainly use the colors.  I almost always use my hand dyed fabrics, but looking through my small stash of solids, some left over from Brown Planet, I came up with this palette.  Pretty good, don't you think? One hand dyed snuck in there.  Can you tell?

I also took a great picture of a minaret.  I may or may not superimpose that on top.

I have a very busy week ahead, so I don't think I'll get much done, but at least it's simmering away in my brain. This isn't due until September, but I like to get things done ahead of time, if possible.

A Very Good Week

It's been a very good week for me, art-wise.  First I finished piecing Brown Planet, as I blogged about in my last post.  Then I was accepted into two shows.

This is Emerald City, 46" x 45", which you've seen before, part of my Configuration series. It will be taking its maiden voyage to Fort Collins, Colorado at the 30th Annual Art Quilt Exhibition at Lincoln Center. The show runs from July 3-September 5. This one's a little too far for me to travel to the opening, but maybe some of you who live nearby will be able to.  I know there were some very big names in the show last year. I am honored to be included this year.

My little City Lights, 18" x 24", part of the same series, has been to a few places and now will travel to Lowell, MA to be part of the Whistler Inspired Art Quilts 2012 at the Whistler House Museum of Art, August 8-September 1.  That is only about 3 hours from my home, so I hope I can attend the opening. This gallery has been good to me. I've been juried into shows twice before and I sold one piece and won a cash award for the other.

Lastly, if you live anywhere near Greenwich, CT, run don't walk to  Paperworks:Material as Medium at the Flinn Gallery in the Greenwich Library. My quilt group took a field trip to this beautiful upscale town to see the exhibit and, of course, have lunch.  I foolishly left my camera at home, so you'll have to trust me when I say that the show was amazing.

I ended the week last night with a charity wine tasting event.  Today I'm doing a little reorganizing in my studio to prep for my next project.  Stay tuned.

Hooray!

For those of you that have been following this collaboration quilt, you can all breathe a big sigh of relief with me.  If you are new to my blog, you can read about it here. After many, many hours of cutting, recutting, piecing, ripping out, repiecing, etc., it is finally finished!

I decided to piece the left hand side of the background in larger pieces to mimic the big pieces in the right side of the hemisphere. I was a little nervous abut piecing the semi-circle into the background, but I've done a lot of curved piecing in my day and this was a big gentle curve.  Even so, I did a ton of pinning and clipping and sewed very slowly and carefully.  I was hoping to enter it into Houston as a two person quilt, but I missed that deadline, so I will try for another show that will accept a two-person quilt and try for Houston next year.

Now for the quilting.  But first I am going to cut it (gasp!) into three unequal sections and quilt each one separately and make it a triptych. I want to do a lot of fancy quilting on it and since it now measures 91" x 43" there is no way that I can do it justice on my Bernina.  I don't know how other people shove a big quilt thru their small machines, but I know that I can't. I won't start the quilting right away.  I need to take a break from it and I have another quilt (much smaller, thankfully) that needs to be started and that has a deadline.

Now I can put away the extra table that I brought into my studio and put away all those brown and neutral fabrics.

Be sure to click on the picture for a bigger view.  Comments are always welcome and appreciated.

Simple Pleasures

An ice-cold strawberry/blueberry smoothie on a hot day

Recipe

 6 oz. can unsweetened pineapple juice

1 very ripe banana , the riper the better

About 1 c. fruit, fresh or frozen

About 1/2 small container of yogurt (I use plain Greek nonfat, but any kind will do.)

Puree in blender

Makes two glasses

In the Pink

I don't pass this house very often, since it's not on my regular route, but when I passed it today, I just had to take a picture.  I've been in this area for over 40 years and for as long as I can remember this house has had pink shutters.  I think the pink roses are a new addition.  Isn't it charming?  It has extensive grounds on the side and back with several outbuildings.  But it makes me wonder who would put pink shutters on a house. 

Then a few miles away on another road is this little shop with pink shutters and trim, although a much brighter pink.

And how abut these pink trees in pots on the side of the shop? 

That got me to thinking about this quilt that I made for an online Black and White and Pink Challenge.

I wrote all over it with free motion satin stitch with as many sayings that contained the word "pink" that I could think of.

I also sandwiched pink buttons, paper clips, sequins etc. under the tule before quilting it with pink (of course) thread.

Be sure to click on the pictures for a bigger view.  Comments are always welcome and appreciated.

'Shrooms

We had a spectacular weekend here with dry, sunny weather and then two days of warm drizzle with occasional dowpours.  These four inch tall mushrooms greeted me at the mailbox this morning.  They weren't there yesterday.   The green leaves are young Scaevola plants.  They will spread to cover the whole ground area and will sport beautiful blue fan shaped flowers.

I pulled out the mushrooms.

Beauty in Unexpected Places

You might think that these beautiful flowers are at a park or private garden, but surprise, surprise....

They are at the local ShopRite Plaza.  New landscapers did it all over a couple of years ago and it is such a treat to see. Right now the Meadow Sage in two shades of purple and bright red Knock Out roses are blooming in their full glory.  The brilliant Stella Doro daylilies are just starting to show some color and later in the summer the purple cone flowers will be the stars. These pictures only show a small portion of the gardens.

They do an excellent job of keeping flowers maintained with dead heading and cutting back in the fall. I hope that other shoppers get as much pleasure from it as I do. And, yes, I did tell the manager of ShopRite.

 Be sure to click on the pictures for a bigger view.

Simple Pleasures

Pretty pink supermarket tulips on my kitchen countertop.

Strips and Stripes

 Today I cut many strips

and sewed them into units of stripes 

 .

and had a pile of snips left over.

This is for the background of Brown Planet.  I have to do a lot more.

Auction Quilt

Today I put the finishing touches on my 12' x 12" SAQA auction quilt, "Fractured".  You can read all about the auction and see some of the quilts here.  The deadline for receiving them is June 1, so this will go in the mail tomorrow.

Please click for a bigger view.

Detail of the quilting and piecing.