Quilty Art

This weekend's project is to finish the quilt back for the black and white quilt. This is how it's going to play out. Dead center is a 36 HST block that measures 6" square. I'm thinking this is going to be my signature block and I do this on all quilts from here on out. What do you think?

It's set between two lengths of the green sashing used on the quilt front, bordered by 2 bands of black and then flanked with two wide widths of the backing fabric. I'm liking it. (This comes from white gloving at the guild show and seeing that there's more to quilt backs than just plain fabric.)

Instead of sewing for the past two nights, I've been 'paper quilting' some wall art for my studio. I've made a few framed 'collages' using handmade, textured paper (though normally they are torn and a lot more textural). I decided to model these after the next two quilt projects I'd like to do. The top one is called 'Strip Tease'. It's a paper take on a strip quilt.

The bottom is called "1st Convergence". It is my interpretation of a convergence quilt. It took a long time to strip together the papers, cut and restrip, cut and restrip. The worst was when I decided to throw in the diagonal cuts going both ways, then it became a puzzle to put back together on the textured, crystally background paper.

They measure 16 x 20 and are on the wall in front of my quilting table. I'll try to get a better photo in good light and post it this weekend. I'm pleased with how they turned out. Oh, and in case you're wondering what is on them, (I'm big on signatures, see above), I put a metal concho tied with either rough twine or leather on every collage, the two used on these are a brass finish, one is a circle, the other a heart, and they are tied with twine.

And, the biggest accomplishment of the day? I made my plane reservations for Hawaii in July and the Quilt Festival in Houston in October. Hooray!

So Many Fabrics, So LittleTime

I'm telecommuting today, wishing I were a student on Spring Break so I could be up in my sewing room playing with my latest fabric (Okay, I know, if I were a student on Spring Break, I most certainly wouldn't be playing in my sewing room...I'd be baking in the sun on the beach, sucking down Coronas with Margarita chasers).

In order to make myself even more miserable, I've laid out the fat quarters I bought at the quilt shop last night. As I'm waiting for work files to download I shuffle them around to see which should lay out next to each other when I turn them into an arty strip quilt. If it's not Moda (any and all), I seem to gravitate toward anything blue. This is the Indigo line from Timeless Treasures with a couple of their Contemporary fats thrown in for good measure (not to mention they were excellent coordinating prints).

Of course, I need to finish Jenifer's black and white quilt, which is currently on hold until I can get her to the fabric store to select the backing and borders. I have red, but now she wants it to be lime green--she's 25....it's her quilt, she wants it more 'fresh' than 'classic'. Whatever. I like lime green, so I think she may be on to something.

Back to work (and fabic shuffling).