This Months Round Robin

Here is this months round robin. I actually like it and think this has potential to turn out as a decent piece. It still has 5 or 6 people to go through before it is finished so we will see what happens.


















I am still behind on my art commitments so I really feel I took the easy way out on this one. I had an Asian print fabric in my stash and just cut out this bird and fused it to the quilt...... Not exactly anything innovative or spectacular but I think it works. Maybe I will be caught up with things in a couple of weeks.

Convergence Reveal

Here is my 'convergence' quilt for my Fiberactions challenge group. Make sure and check out everyone's great quilts on the Fiberactions blog.

To say this was a challenge is an understatement. Over the last couple of months we have been in the process of designing a second home and going through the contracting phase of building it in NC which is about 2 hours from where we live in GA. My time for art has really been limited.

This was my third attempt. The first attempt was about 3 weeks ago. I saw the date looming ahead of me and in a panic cut up about 6 different fabrics into 1 1/2" squares. I thought I would make some cool converging design and have an opportunity to practice my piecing which I have said several times that I am not very good at. Look at this

really ugly pile of fabrics....what was I thinking. I hated the colors and everything about it!

Next in even more of a panic I saw Ricky Timms book on Convergence quilts on my book shelf and thought I could at least do a simple one. I picked 2 really cool fabrics and did a curved convergence design that I really liked after the first convergence. I thought of stopping there and finishing the piece that would have been about 30" x 20" (wish I would have taken a picture). Since I had not other ideas for a convergence quilt, I decided that I should try to slice it and dice in some other way so I could meet the challenge deadline.

After more cutting and sewing I then decided it was too ordinary and decided to do some extensive thread painting on the top before quilting. I used 2 layers of stabilizer which was not enough and the top became so wonky that in total despair I cut it in pieces, arranged them on a piece of black felt and went for a bike ride with my daughter and granddaughter ! This was on Tuesday of this week....

I got up early on Wednesday, now in full blown panic mode, and went down to my studio. I looked at my now ruined quilt and started to look through my fabrics for the third time. I found a stack of my hand-painted skies. I love to paint fabric and the sky is one of my favorite subjects. I selected 5 different ones and after a couple of hours of playing with the arrangement I fused them in place. I did an overall cloud pattern for the quilting and with 2 trips abound the edges with a zigzag stitch I was done. If felt like I had just lost 20 pounds (wish I could really lose 20 LBS!!). This was really a great lesson for me since I tend to over think most things and am not know for someone who does things in a hurry. The funny thing is that I really like this quilt and it was done in a day.

Paula Nadelstern

One of the benefits of belonging to a large quilt guild is quality of the speakers they are able to get. This months speaker at the East Cobb Quilt Guild was Paula Nadelstern.

If you are unfamiliar with her work you can check out her website here. She is famous for her incredible kaleidoscope quilts. Paula gave her lecture called 'The Kaleidoscope as Design Inspiration'. I must say that she was one of the best speakers I have heard in a long time. We have had some 'famous names' in the past that may be great quilters but not so great speakers. Paula lives in the Bronx in the same block where she has lived her whole life. She showed slides of her apartment and the small space she works in. This really made me appreciate all of the space I have. She was also funny and engaging and gave real insight on how she creates her award winning quilts. If you ever have an opportunity to hear Paula don't miss it. I only wish I could have taken one of the 4 classes that she taught. I was lucky enough to win the box of note cards pictured on the left featuring 4 of Paula's quilts.

Round Robin...What I did

Here is what I finally did to last months round robin piece. I lifted the thread-work on the left and then added hair using 2 different black fabrics. I did some heavy thread painting and then added highlights with a silver Shiva paintstick. Finally I stitched the thread-work back in place.