Remembering the Days Before Snow . . .

"Autumn in New York"

I love finding geometry in nature.  There’s a tree in our neighborhood that produces spherical pods each fall; it always reminds me of an illustration from a Dr. Seuss story.  I have seen paintings where the artist used round daubs of paint to represent leaves, and I wanted to achieve that same effect in fabric.

So I began cutting out circles from scraps of fusible-backed hand-dyed fabrics -- it’s a very meditative process, I discovered.  I fused them onto a beautiful piece of fabric from Caryl Fallert’s Gradations line for Benartex, and I quilted the whole piece with Madeira and Sulky 40-weight rayon thread.

The entire effect is reminiscent of our view of the Helderberg Mountains as we drive to the apple orchards each October for cider doughnuts (gosh, this is making me hungry!).

This piece will be on display, along with other works from the members of ARTAA (my fiber art group) at an upcoming show titled “Under Cover” at the Spring Street Gallery in Saratoga Springs, NY.  Please stay tuned for more information about the show in future posts.

Have a most creative week!

Diane

A January "Anything But White" Sale!

Quilt artist Frieda Anderson is offering a terrific special during the month of January: With every order of $20 or more, she’s including 48 (yup – 48!) 5” pre-cut hand-dyed fabric squares.


 And just look at the colors!  The fabric shown at the top of the photo is the one-yard piece of Lime/Purple that I ordered, and these are just half of the squares she sent along as my gift!  And she tied it all together with a gorgeous strip of more fabric, shown at left.  I’m in Hand-Dyed Heaven!  Visit her web site and take advantage of this fantastic, colorful offer.

And a very Happy Birthday to my “twin sister” Marilyn Rock – be sure to take a peek at her blog for more visual delights.  Have a wonderful day, Marilyn!


Diane

"It Was a Very Good Year"

I seem to be quoting Old Blue Eyes a lot lately . . .

My thanks to all of you who took the time to leave some great advice on my pre-Christmas blog post.  You reminded me of the important things to remember during the holiday season: letting go a bit, focusing on family and friends, remembering to breathe in and out.  Sometimes we just need to hear someone else tell us what we know to be true.

It really has been a very good year, and it was made even better by some recent exciting news: one of my quilts, "Dizzy," was accepted by Lark Books to be included in their upcoming publication, "500 Art Quilts," due out in the spring of 2010.  What a thrill!  I am so honored to have this little art quilt selected by juror Karey Bresenhan for inclusion in this collection.

Thanks you all for sharing in my joyful news -- and here's to a most creative 2010.

Diane

You CAN Teach An Old Dog . . .

Obviously, I’m learning many new things as I travel through my corporate commission experience.  Here’s a picture of one of the color boards that was given to me so I could coordinate the quilt colors with the furnishings of the nursing home.  As many of you most likely already know, colors of home decorating fabrics are difficult to find in the quilting world.  Even when I had decided to use Kaufman’s Kona cotton, with over 250 colors available, I found I couldn’t match some of the shades in the upholstery fabrics or in the Formica© countertops as well as I had hoped.  I did my best, and the directors were pleased with the choices I made, but it was time-consuming and more difficult than I had imagined, especially since I was working with those itty bitty squares of color in the catalogs.

And then, because of the long period of time between my presentation and my receipt of the check for the second installment, I discovered that Kaufman had discontinued one of the colors (your groan goes here).  A bit of scrambling ensued, and I located it through eQuilter, bless them. 

So here are the fabrics, all washed and ironed; I plan to starch them as I use them to make the cutting and piecing process more accurate (I've read that, if you starch fabric and then store it for too long, you run the risk of the fabric attracting silverfish – has anyone had that problem?  Please let me know!). 

As always, thanks for taking this journey along with me – it’s a lot more fun with company.

Diane