Convergance for Louise

 

My quilt mother, Louise, is now 84 years old and has advanced dementia, so cannot do quilting any more. In February this year I went to Stellenbosch and my sister in law and I had to pack up her sewing room, which was more like a shop! All the fabrics used in this quilt are from her stash, she especially loved to work with green, purple and black. I quilted straight lines in the 'corners' and feathers in the centre in the form of a +, to soften the lines a bit and tie in with the flowery Kaffe Fasset fabric. All the other quilts of the quarter are so beautiful and inspiring! Thank you.

Bark Beetles

 

Several years ago when we rented a gîte in Burgundy, we were handed a key ring attached to a lump of wood, which had marks made by bark beetles etched into it. A vertical "mother gallery" is made in the wood by the female beetle, where she deposits her eggs in niches. When the larvae hatch, they make tunnels out from this gallery, making distinctive linear marks, before pupating and emerging from holes they make in the bark. I used the patterns to make lino blocks, and printed them on fabric. The bark print was made using a collagraph plate I made using gauze stuck to cardboard. As you can see, the bark beetle have gone mad on the back of my quilt too!

                       

 

LINES

 As most of you all know I love to work with curves, so this is what I drew up and incorporated both curves and the pink squares to offset the curves.  Within the blue leaves I used straight lines and the stems I kept as just thin lines.  When I outlined the leaves I didn't use any of the colour blue that I used for the leaves but just used the outline onto the squares.  The background quilting around the leaves and squares is very fine quilting as I needed to fill that area.  I wish I had thought to quilt the spaces with curved lines right through to the edges after attaching the grey curved pieces and only then put in the pink squares and leaves afterwards over those quilted lines which would have worked better. 

 

POSTED ON BEHALF OF ROSEMARY

 I used the green stems of the flowers as lines and quilted each one with either curved or zig-zag lines.  Within the pink flowers, all of which are different pinks, I also quilted lines from the centre to the tips of each petal.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF BREN

My piece is inspired by an image I found online but I can't seem to find an artist's name in order to credit the creator!  However, the background lines are all machine quilted and the lines for the flower are hand embroidery.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's contributions.

Welcome to the group Daniel. We look forward to seeing your quilting. New ideas are always good. From Rosemary

WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBER

 We have another new member joining us which is very exciting so I would like to introduce Danel Muller who produces very lovely art quilts, so a very, very warm welcome to you Danel, and we are so excited to have you join us on our blog.  We trust you will enjoy every moment of this quilt journey with us all and we look forward to to having you join with us and having fun creating beautiful works, which I am sure everyone on our blog enjoy creating.

Ancient Shells: Ammonites

    I enjoyed this challenge. I decided to use a subject that I have used twice before for this group. One day last winter we had a lot of snow, so I was able to try snow dying for the first time. I had some successful pieces, including some old cotton sheet and silk organza that were just right for this quilt. I cut a lino block in the shape of the ammonite, using it to print on the cotton, then overlayed it with the dyed organza. I struggled to hand quilted the shells, finding it difficult to pass the needle through the fabric. It wasn't until I lost my needle and had to use a new one when doing the seed stitch background, that I realised that the problem must have been a  blunt needle!

  The other two quilts that I made for the group are the following:

 

Festival of Quilts!

 Do any of you ever get across to the uk for the Festival of Quilts, which is held in Birmingham at the end of July/beginning of August every year?

I’ve just spent 4 days there investigating the stalls and what they’re selling, helping a friend on her stall, admiring the 800 or so quilts that were entered for judging and on the final day I was stewarding.  It’s a huge show and well worth a visit.  I’ve spent lots of time there chatting to people from Iceland, Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, Australia and America.  The huge diversity of nationalities never fails to amaze me.

WELCOME

 A very big welcome to our group Erla.  So glad you are joining us on a fun and friendly group of art quilters.  I am sure you will enjoy getting involved in all that we do and I am sure all join in with me to welcome a new member into our group.     Patricia 

 Good morning all

Thank you for the invitation, Hilary, much appreciated! I have browsed through some of the work and themes on this website and it all looks very interesting and original :-) Well done to all of you! Patricia introduced me to her 'fish' while we were working together on the Centurion Group quilt for the most recent National Quilt Festival that was held in Port Elizabeth in South Africa. 

I have joined this group to explore and expand my artistic boundaries with the hope of getting better at competition standard pieces. Having fun is a bonus. I am excited about the upcoming theme for end of October! Regards, Erla Cilliers.

SHELLS POSTED ON BEHALF OF BREN

 I painted the background fabric and made shell stamps using foam sheets.  I printed the shells onto the background then free motion quilted it.  Finally, I handstitched running stitches around some of the shells.

I'm really looking forward to the next theme - interesting!