Pleiades!

Sometimes, when you find the right fabric, it's easy to create.  I ordered two constellation fabrics from eQuilter.com, and even though I only needed a small cut of each, their customer service was fantastic.  Of course, I prefer to patronize my local quilt shops, but once in a while you need something extra and this is definitely it.  The rest of the blues came from my stash, 'cause why not collect fabric to use for dark starry nights?  The scale of the print was too large to use "as is" so I cut up the constellation and pieced it back together with the stars closer together in order to make the final constellation smaller.  The finished width of this section is 7", and it will be seen through an open doorway.

Feeling Grounded...

These are the squares that will represent the "ground" in the landscape I'm working on.  I have rearranged them, added some, subtracted others, and hand-colored a few.  It's time to stitch them all together while I'm feeling grounded and before I start second-guessing myself (although I might just move one or two of them around again.)  As a unit, I think they're looking earthy and unified.  They'll tone down a little more after quilting.  The photo doesn't quite do it justice, but sometimes my smart phone is just too smart for its own good and registers highlights that the human eye doesn't see.

Final Version

Here's an early version and the final one side by side so you can see where I started and where I'm headed... do they look different to you?  Some people might tune in to details that have changed, others might see the big picture and tell me I could have stopped rearranging them ages ago!

Early Version

Final Version

Pleiades Door - Sky & Ground

The extra blues and browns arrived!  Over the past several weeks, I've cut a bunch of squares for the sky and ground and have been spending hours arranging and rearranging them, squinting, and taking thumbnail shots in order to evaluate the overall value and color.  It's still a work in progress, but I think they're pretty close!  We have 22 different blues in the sky, and around 50 different browns and greens for the ground.  Might still need to cut three or four more and replace a few of the lighter greens so that they blend better.  (The mountains and tree will come back later.)  This morning I'll start planning the final constellation and finish a full size pattern for the door.  

 

New Project!

 Very excited to be starting a new project.  This one is a commission and needs to be washable, so it'll be mostly pieced, with a bit of applique for the mountains and the tree.  My client provided the design, which turns out to be reminiscent of Magritte, one of my favorite artists!  This sketch is still a bit of a work in progress, depending on how we decide to do the lighter sky. The dark sky in the sketch currently includes a photo of the Pleiades, but I'll be using fabric with stars for the final one. 

While I wait for the blue and brown fabrics that I've ordered to arrive, I'm practicing piecing a smaller version of the doorway so that I get it right when I do the larger piece.  I'm using David Sirota's paper-piecing technique, which is just perfect and sooooo much easier than if I'd done it the traditional way.  I wasn't sure if I'd remember how to do it, since the workshop I took with David was a few years ago, but it all came right back as soon as I tried it!  Of course, none of these are the final fabric choices, they're just what I had in my scrap bin...and as you can see the proportions aren't those of the final pattern either.  I don't usually like to take the time to do mock-ups or studies in advance, but sometimes a little extra planning goes a long way.

Pigeon's Blood Pitcher

Described as ruby with a tint of orange, pigeon's blood is the official term for this color and is used to describe both glassware and gemstones.  Based on a photo of a pitcher in my mother's kitchen window, this is part of my new series exploring the play of light through glass.  I've always loved this pitcher, and I hope I've done it justice.  

Detail

 

Small Ripples in Blue & White

 This 8 1/2" x 11" sample is a taste of my next big project.  And by big, of course I don't mean large, just time consuming.  There are around 55 fussed and stitched pieces here, and it's one section of a larger design based on a photo from back in 2014 when we went to Washington, DC for a family vacation.  Of course we visited as many art museums as possible, but when I got home, the image that most stayed with me was this reflection...even back then I knew it was destined to become a quilt. 

This is based on reflections in the fountain in the plaza of the Hirshhorn Museum, which features modern and contemporary art.  The museum windows encircle the plaza and reflect into the pool in the center, creating a wonderful moving grid of white and blue. The project promises to be much more abstract than my usual work.

These prints are the beginning of a pattern for the larger piece.  Can you figure out which section my little sample is based on?