It is time for the quarterly reveal day for the online art quilt group, The Endeavourers.  This time our theme was “Patterns in Nature.” It took me a while to come up with an idea.  I finally remembered that some of nature’s patterns are hidden to our eyes, but visible to birds and insects.  What looks like a plain, solid-yellow flower to us, may have patterns that emphasize the plant’s center.  With modern technology, we can see a simulation of what they see. So that called for a double image — ordinary daylight on the front, and black light on the back.  My inspirati ..read more

I am part of an online art quilt group that completes quarterly challenges. This time our theme was “Circles and Squares.” I spent about two months wondering what on earth I would make for that, and then I remembered photos I had taken at a classic car collection, and I happily set to work. Dashboard of a classic car. I took some liberties with the shapes in the photo, to fit the theme better. Classic Dash. Couching and stitching on the applique shapes. Close-up of some of the stitching. I was undecided about adding in the numbers and needles in the gauges, but in the end I decided to ..read more

I am part of an online art quilt group, The Endeavourers.  We have quarterly design themes, and it is always fun to see how each person interprets the theme.  This quarter the theme was “Collage.”  I love collage, and I would say all the art quilts I have made for this group have some collage elements — for example, painted areas, three-dimensional pieces, and non-fabric embellishments.  So I wanted to push a little further in all those directions, and as always, I wanted to experiment with some new-to-me techniques. But where to start?  I decided to stick with the eas ..read more

Our online art quilt group, The Endeavourers, picked “maps” as this quarter’s theme. I love looking at maps and I had a lot of ideas for this one, but I finally settled on recreating this old map of London from 1572. Its details make me feel like I could jump in and start strolling the streets down to London Bridge. London map from 1572. I chose to focus on just a small part of it where I particularly liked the shapes. The small section I used for inspiration.   1572 Map of London, recreated in 2023. To make it, I made large panels of scraps, and cut the shapes out. For the city sha ..read more

The quarterly challenge for this online art quilt group was “Portrait.” As usual, I had lots of ideas, but as the deadline approached, I chose the least complicated of them. I had taken an online workshop from Melanie Rivers in intuitive portrait making.  In the class Melanie directs you in the placement of ovals and lines to make a proportional face — I have taken the class three times and each time my results looked totally different, and I have liked all of them.  I thought this one would be interesting to translate into fabric: Watercolor sketch from a workshop. For the front I ..read more

It’s time once again for the quarterly reveal day for the online art quilt group, The Endeavourers. This time the theme was “Boustrophedon,” and I had an idea what that word means. It is from the Greek, and it means to write each line in a reversed direction from the one before. (Bous means ox, and strophé means turn, so it is like an ox plowing a field.) So the first line goes left to right, and the second right to left. Because after all, your hand is already on that side of the page, why waste the motion of lifting it all the way across to the left again just to start the next line? How ine ..read more

Once a quarter I make an art quilt for an online group, The Endeavourers.  This time the theme was “Opposites Attract.” I had a very hard time coming up with anything, but finally I remembered the fun of having “Opposite Day” when my kids were little — eating dinner for breakfast (starting with dessert), wearing pajamas during the day, saying “yes” for “no,” etc. etc. So what, for me, would be the opposite of my normal quilting process? “Normal” “Opposite” printed quilting fabrics my handwoven fabrics batting on the inside of the quilt sandwich batting on the outside of the quilt s ..read more

I read a lot of books about defining one’s artistic style, and I just came across a very helpful guide, Joen Wolfrom’s Adventures in Design: Ultimate Visual Guide. This book specifically addresses design in quilts, rather than in all kinds of art. My other art books tend to place art styles into just three large areas — realistic, abstract, and non-objective — but Wolfrom lists more specific categories within those areas. Looking at my own quilts within her framework is helping me to assess them and to think about how to improve my designs. I’m going to go over her style categories, adding a f ..read more

I am part of an online art quilt group that does quarterly challenges, The Endeavourers.  For our twelfth project, the theme was “The Sea.” I had a lot of ideas, but then I got distracted by a huge donation of fabric, and as time was running out, I chose the least ambitious of them, a simple underwater scene. I am not a diver myself, preferring to view underwater features from the safety of an aquarium or a soothing streaming video, so I can fully take in the wonders without also having to concentrate on my breathing. I have been to at least five aquariums around the US, but my best phot ..read more

Over the past few months real life has snapped its fingers to get my attention — my husband has had two minor knee surgeries, we had a big party to celebrate owning this farm for 60 years, and my parents have moved into assisted living.  All that makes me value the mental break of sewing time even more than usual. Wild animal baby quilt. I like the way the patterns on the animals are decorative rather than realistic. The fabric for this baby quilt was all donated to me by my friend in Dallas — and she even took the finished top, chose a backing, and quilted it on her long arm! (Otherw ..read more