Pennsylvania Transformation

I actually found time amid all the paperwork and phone calls and e-mails and moving preparations to finish the challenge or at least finish it enough so I could photograph it. I have always loved that time when I suddenly notice the first quiet snowflakes falling. It seems a magical, meditative time to me and this is an attempt to capture that first moment of imminent transformation.

This is 10x16"--or would be if the three panels were joined. You can click on the above photo to enlarge it, but you may not be able to see the three snowflakes on the the middle panel.

The three panels are stuck to my working wall right now because they don't have sleeves yet, but I am trying to solve the problem of how to hang them without a rod or wire or dowel showing in the space between. Something like coat hanger wire may not be obtrusive but I will have to wait until I get the sleeves on to try it out.  I am also thinking plexiglass in some form. Any suggestions?

Can't wait to see what the rest of you have been working on!

I'm going right to the fabric store and try mixing fabrics to make different colors.  Wonder why it didn't work.  Penny

I wanted green !!

I thought I had a wonderful, clever idea ... when you mix blue and yellow, you get green. So I planned to do just that and play with all the different shades of green ... I cut yellow and blue organza in wawy stripes and arranged them on a piece of white cotton. Do you see any green in this picture ???

 Well - I don't see any green, too ... Lesson learnt: if you layer different colors of organza, you'll get some pretty nice different shades - of the colors you used. But not necessarily the color you were looking for ;-))

Even when there's no green in there, I still liked the piece - so I quilted it with a wide free-motion zig-zag and bound it. Maybe I put something onto it - what do you think?

Wow!! I work sooooo slowly...Part of the problem was that I'd scrapped my ideas a week ago when I realized I had very little time. I'd hoped to do a quilt-as-you-go piece, inspired by Ann Brauer's work. (Article about her in latest Quilting Arts; her studio/shop is about 45 minutes from where I live.) Then...I really had no time to work last week, except one evening, when I created this as a jumping off point:

Thought I might just slash and re-piece until I came up with something I liked. But I didn't get to a place that I liked. Got as far as what's posted below, and decided that was too busy.

So...I cut up what was left of the original piece and made it into a leaf. Then added the rest. The background is a piece from a class with Jan Myers-Newbury.

I still have some work to do at the top. And then it needs to be quilted. Hope to get to that this week!


As usual, it's been a learning opportunity! :)  I hope to develop a main idea next time and let that inform my work.

I really enjoyed making this quilt (see the picture below.  I lost the dialogue that went with it somehow).   I had lots of handdyes left over from a research project and had seen a quilt many years ago at a quilt show in Maine  that was my inspiration.  Now I'd like to make more leaves, sans the rectangles, in a bunch of crazy color  combinations a la Andy Warhol.  If I could only get someone to cook and clean for me, I could do nothing but sew and design.  What I need is a retreat or  maybe a transformation.

Oops.  The photo didn't make my previous post.  Here is my green leaf.

Start From Where You Are

Green - in the chaos of our lives. I think this started simmering unconsciously when I commented to Carol at our Rosalie Dace workshop that It's Not All Black and White (something Rosalie was saying) might make a good quilt name. I like my B & W stash. As I wrote down thoughts about green and then tossed my original ideas for the challenge, as usual, I noted that I see green as signifying newness, a beginning. I have also been recently reading a number of life guidance books about personal change and growth, especially when facing choices. Thus my title.These are all commercial fabrics, some "artier" than others. I got to practice making a thin line insert and an even thinner one, both vertical black, and I did 2 couched lines of green yarn. I also did my first faced finish. Yea! The weakest point is most of the green quilting lines don't show strongly unless you are very close. And it was the cool, neon green Mexican thread I bought from a well-known quilt instructor that was the problem, not my machine. I will use it only in hand-sewing from now on. And the piece looks great in my studio/former bedroom's black & white bathroom. Happy Daz! I'm trying to post this early as a draft.
I do have a word for our next challenge - transformation.