Nature's Spire

This piece has finally made it off my design wall to completion.

It was inspired by some wooden shingles at a friend's condo in the Colorado mountains.

As it grew, it changed in orientation and sat on my design wall for many weeks.  I finally used some quilting with a double needle to finish it.  I am quite pleased with the result and have already started a second piece in the same genre.

Blog Surfing Results

Spent some time yesterday surfing a bit...through blogs, not water. Thought I would share a few of my discoveries.

WeAllSew - This is not a new blog to me but this post was really interesting. A product called Fuse & Fleece by OESD that can be used for making things like coasters. I am sure that there are a myriad of quilters out there with random small blocks etc that could easily create some Christmas gift coasters with this. While it will be a bit before I can explore it, I can visualize a few uses.

Art From The Heart - In a totally different vein, here is a blog created about the killings in Tucson almost a year ago. To quote from their purpose, Art from the Heart is an online exhibit, complete with process descriptions, of art designed to bring attention to the growing problems of hatred and violence in the United States, as well as the need for peace and nonviolence on the planet. It has been maintained throughout 2011 and is a glimpse into art with a social responsibility theme.

The Art-O-Mat - Lisa Quitanna just wrote a blog piece on this idea. I had found it mentioned last week on someone else's blog (sorry I have forgotten whose) and looked for the company's blog. They have been in business for years. It is a creative use of old cigarette machines. I suspect that one doesn't earn much but I have read that artists do get referrals from their contributions. Wondering if Fuse & Fleece would be helpful in creating the small pieces.

Gratitude

It's the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S.A. We celebrated the holiday quietly, content with connecting with both of our children, taking a walk, and having a quiet dinner. My heart fills with gratitude for all that I have been blessed with. I feel this gratitude every day, not just on Thanksgiving. In celebration of the event, I went looking for some great quotes on gratitude.

Here are a few that I found:

When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears. - Anthony Robbins

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. - William Arthur Ward

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy. - Brother David Steindl-Rast

I am grateful for what I am and have.
My thanksgiving is perpetual...
O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches.
No run on my bank can drain it
for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.

Henry David Thoreau

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog!

Exploring Curves and Gradations

I spent some time last weekend at the Museum of Modern Art enjoying their beautiful collection. It was my second visit this fall so I decided to choose a personal theme or 'filter' for observing the art works. I have found that this approach to browsing through a gallery that I am able to visit more than once is a good exercise. It encourages me to examine works that I might not spend much time on otherwise as perhaps the subject or the color is not of interest to me.

So, for this visit to the museum, I focused on how artists used curves and gradations in their work.

Here is a work by George de Chirico entitled The Serenity of the Scholar. (I apologize for the angle of the photo).

 This caught my eye because of the effective use of gradations in the pose of the hand on the cylinder...

 and in the glasses resting on the table.

Upside Down Ada by Alex Kata, painted in 1965, has some wonderful curves in it.

Upside Down Ada

 Notice the hair - both for the curves and the gradations....

and, of course, the curves that create those rivoting eyes.

It would be impossible to visit the museum and study curves without one of the most famous paintings housed at the museum - Van Gogh's Starry Night.

Exciting Exhibit

I spent my weekend in New York trying to get in as much inspirational museum and gallery visiting as possible. One delightful discovery was the Gary Snyder Gallery at 529 West 20th Street in Manhattan.  The gallery is in the same building as the Uncommon Threads exhibit at the Kathryn Markel Fine Arts Gallery which was also a must see on my list.

Gary is a fellow aikido instructor whose career off-the-mat is as an art collector. The new space is wonderful and the perfect place to view Richard Van Buren's works. The exhibition highlights Van Buren's works in thermoplastic and his first exhibitio in a New York gallery in almost ten years.

Eighteen sculptures are on view and are stunning. There is a magical, other-word quality to them as you wantder the gallery. A twenty-four foot floor piece dominanates while other works extend out from the walls. The colors are delicate, subtle, and mesmerizing. Van Buren adds touches of natural materials such as sea shells as he plays with combinations of organic and inorganic materials.

This really is a must-see exhibit. Hope you can view it!

Completed!

This was such a fun project! The request was simple - a baby quilt for someone who is a marine biologist. I wanted it to be simple and an opportunity to work on skills. I designed the whole piece and had a great time coming up with colors for the fish.

I used wool batting for the first time. I had read in a recent Quilting Arts article that wool batting is easier to work with if you are not on a long arm. I found it much lighter and easier to move around for free motion quilting. 

As I wanted to keep a fair amount of loft in the quilt, I used a very simple quilting pattern of wavy lines for the ocean section. I also decided to leave the border unquilted. The dark green plant actually has a fair amount of contrast as it is quilted somewhat heavily with a light colored thread.

All in all I was totally delighted with my design and ease with which I could applique and quilt it. Hope the baby likes it too!

Close up of some fish.

A Fun Project

I had a request for a baby quilt with a marine biology theme. It came at just the right moment so I decided to use the opportunity to fine tune some of my applique skills. I was able to quickly come up with a design that I thought would be cute and not take too long.

Of course, now well into the project, I appreciate that nothing designed from scratch is quick. Sure glad that I wasn't aiming for an intricate design or the baby might be 10 before I finish!

Here are some views of my process:

A basic ocean background and plan for fish, plants, etc:

 Marine life begins to appear:

 All set with a border (which is really green) and ready to applique in and then embellish and quilt: