My 10-year Project, 2010 - 2020

 

Wow!  This post marks the completion of a 10-year quilt project!

Ten (10!) years ago I started a series of quilts, my own personal challenge project.  I was feeling the need of having some small, relaxing, just for fun projects in the midst of working on quilt repairs for clients.

I had been given a stash of decorator samples by an interior designer who was cleaning out her studio.  I decided to use them for my play space.  I set myself these rules:

The World Turns Upside Down - Part 1

 

This is my newest art quilt - I didn't start out to make a topical quilt.  I was just playing with some gorgeous swatches.

I have mentioned on this blog before how much I love challenge quilts.  This challenge is another one from the Just Wanna Quilt facebook group.  I looked at these luscious colors, and decided I need some of that brightness and beauty in these hard times.  We each got 2 packets of swatches from Free Spirit Fabrics, and the instructions were “make whatever you want”. 

My plan was to make two little quilt tops exactly the same, rotate one, and cut holes in the top one for reverse appliqué to let the other colors show through.

The World Turns Upside Down - Part 2

 

This is a challenge project from the Just Wanna Quilt Facebook group.  We each got 2 packets of swatches from Free Spirit Fabrics, and the instructions were “make whatever you want”.  I looked at these luscious colors, and decided I need some of that brightness and beauty in these hard times.   

Casting around for ideas, I remembered a set of three little pieces I'd made back in the '80s that I'd also made with 2" multicolored squares. 

Eye Contact

An exhibit called Eye Contact: Creating A Connection has recently opened at the Virginia Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg, VA.  The exhibit runs through September 15, 2020. 

I love everything about this show.  For one thing, I always love a challenge quilt show.  I find all the different, creative ways the challenge topic is expressed to be endlessly fascinating.  I also love this particular show because I have a quilt in it, and I had such a deep experience in making the quilt. 

The quilts are small - 23" wide x 5" high - and the only instruction to the artists was that the subject be "two human eyes looking at the viewer".

Here's my quilt:

I'm Loving Visible Mending

So, my jeans which are a little big on me and thereby super comfy (I'm a fan of baggy clothes), split at one knee.  I keep a stash of the good bits of discarded jeans for just these times.  Usually I make a basic rectangle patch and stitch it on.  But I've been bitten by the visible mending bug now, so a basic rectangle just won't do!

I thought about how it was kind of like a blinking eye with my kneecap poking out, and boom, decided to mend it with an appliquéd eye.  I enlarged the eye I used for my Eye Contact project for the Sacred Threads show.  I used a variety of denim colors, and here's the result.  I am, as I'm learning to say from my internet friends across the pond, chuffed. 

Here's the Eye Contact quilt I made last spring.

 

 

There's now a catalog of the exhibit.  I highly recommend it.  I always love a good challenge project with all the myriad variations on the theme.  This collection does not disappoint.  So many varied techniques and interpretations!

Cleopatra's Fan

My entry in this year's Fine Art of Fiber show is another in my series of quilts called Something From Nothing.  This is my own little challenge project, made with decorator fabric samples and other "found object" fabrics and trims.  You can find photos of the whole collection on my website.

What follows are the steps I took to create this quilt.

Something From Nothing

Several years ago, I was contacted by an interior decorator who was clearing out her studio.  She wondered if I'd like her old fabric samples.  "Sure!" I said, never one to turn down a gift of cool fabric.  I drove over to her place, and discovered that she had enough to fill my trunk.  Wow.  

I brought it all home, sorted it out, gave what I didn't think I'd ever use to a grade school art room, and piled the rest into a big plastic storage bin.  

And there it sat for a few more years, until my kids grew up and there began to be more time for art.  What with parenting and repairing quilts, I hadn't done much play for the sake of play for quite a while.