The Blogger's Quilt Festival Is On!

"Autumn In New York"  17" by 14"  ©2009  Diane Evans

It’s that time of year when Amy of Amy’s Creative Side begins her Blogger’s Quilt Festival.  This event is always so much fun – we all have the chance to view each other's favorite pieces and to share the stories behind our creations.

This time around, I'm sharing a special favorite; it's entitled "Autumn In New York," and it makes me happy to think of this art quilt because it's in the collection of a very special family.

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 hand-dyed fabrics, and I discovered it was a very meditative process (I was much better at this than when I tried sitting still and chanting "ohm" . . .).  I fused the circles to 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 (this is making me hungry . . .).

Hope you enjoy the Festival, and, thank you, Amy, for providing us an opportunity to attend this virtual quilt show and enjoy each others' work!

Diane

More "Sketchbook Delight" . . .

I am continually captivated by the inspiration that has poured forth from Alisa Burke's online class, "Sketchbook Delight."  Here's a peek inside my journal:

More fantasy flowers emerged after an evening of play . . .

The watercolor page above was inspired by a haunting ballad titled "When October Goes."  Its origin was a set of unfinished lyrics written by renowned lyricist Johnny Mercer and given to Barry Manilow after Mercer's death.  Mercer's widow hoped that Manilow could develop these lyrics into a complete song, and he did so in 1984.

Alisa also posted a wonderful tutorial on her blog, showing us how to create butterflies using pages from old books as the foundation.  My dear friend and talented artist, Joanna Monroe, had given me a stack of pages from a very old math book (what else??), and if you look very closely, you can see polynomial equations peeking out from behind these creatures . . .

And maybe, just maybe, spring is finally here . . .


Diane