New Work, May 2012

This is a post about what I have completed since the first of the year.  I usually have several pieces going at any moment, and I tend to wait until I have a few pieces to quilt before I switch the machine over.  Even if I practice before I start on a quilt, I find that my stitching gets better if I do several in succession. My intent was to enter them in the Crab Festival Art Show, but here I sit with no way to deliver them, or pick them up on Sunday, so they will wait for another day to be shown in public, but I will show them here. I broke my ankle a month ago, and although I expected to be on the mend by now, that is not the case, and I am still not able to drive.

Crab
14" x 12 1/2"

This quilt actually came after the one that follows.  I ended up with more of the border squares after I had tried out some different layouts, and I had one more of the crab prints from a print session last Fall.  The quilting on this one is very simple, but I like it.

The King
20" x 15"

This is the first of these King Crab quilts that I started.  I tried a few different settings for the border squares before I finally settled on this.  I wanted to have room for quilting on the border.  You can see the quilting in the close-up picture that follows.

Three Kings
34 1/2" x 19 1/2"

I wish that I had used a heavier thread.  This was done with trilobal polyester variegated thread, which I love.  I am trying to be more bold with my machine quilting.  This light weight thread is great for texture, but I would have liked to have seen a bolder line here. I just ordered a set of Sulky Blendables-30 wt.  It was spendy, but now I know I have all the colors.  I have a problem remembering what I have when I order thread!

Three Kings closeup

There are two red quilts in this batch of work.  I was just having too much fun with the rich reds, and I probably overcut as I often do when i am working on a strip piece.  The idea was to put cross strips in as I built the strip pieced fabric.

Reeds
23 3/4" x 16 1/2"

Reeds-fish closeup

Reeds-border closeup

I am still stuck in the red zone with this next piece but it is the accent fabric.  On this piece the goal  was to build the stripped fabric around the prints-very improvisationally.  There were a few times that the plan shifted-to get it all sewn together.

The River
24 1/2 x 34"

This last quilt is probably my favorite in this grouping.  This piece started with two fairly large pieces of stripped fabric.  I then cut panels from each, offsetting the strips in opposite directions to get the zigzag effect in the background.  This piece hung on my wall, with freezer paper depicting the circles for a long time.  The fish were not tightly packed enough on the original piece of fabric, so I added some fish. You can see before and after in this post: http://sallysartquilts.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html.

Streamside
34 3/4 x 13 1/2

It took me a long time to get the color of the ink correct that day.  For some reason, I thought that I had used more blue ink, so I had to do alot of printing to use up all the ink I had out!  I was pleased with the addition of more fish.  

Streamside closeup

I faced both of the red quilts, rather than applying borders as I normally do.  It is a good option that I have never before utilized.  Sometimes you want that extra bit of color that the binding can provide, but as these pieces show, sometimes you don't. 

Streamside back

All of these quilts started with prints that I did from my own handcarved stamps on fabric that I dyed.  I love handdyed fabric, but I also love the combinations you can achieve from commercial prints-texture, texture, texture!