Four in Art- Rising Above the Blues

This final quarter in our Colour theme for our Four in Art group this year, the sub theme was "I've got the Blues" I guess this could be interpreted in a musical way or in the direction I have chosen, which springs more naturally to mind for me, working as I do in the Mental Health field. I've called my interpretation Rising Above the Blues.

Also it seems I had a few blues left in my stash of fabrics...

I wanted to let the blues sink down to have the lighter shades rise to the top; the nesting tessellating blues subtly meshing and becoming distinct, which alludes to the thoughts and feelings that structure our moods, blue or otherwise.

Initially I was going to quilt it using an orange peel design but decided in the end to have the quilting denser at the bottom with the darker colours, lightening with the mood and colour and thinning out to give the idea of a more settled calmer mood with wavy organic lines. The bottom rows have six rows of quilting each, gradually decreasing to just one in the top row

The binding is a Carolyn Friedlander cross hatched charcoal and for the back I used good old Ikea Nummer print. After washing the texture really is highlighted.

Is it really an "art quilt" I ask myself? What is an art quilt anyway? Maybe a quilted something trying to convey an idea is sufficient?

I have been particularly busy at work this quarter so I'm glad I started early and did manage to finish in time, but the photos certainly leave something to be desired; so I shall update these in the very near future (not in the dark tonight!) to provide a better idea of this quilt.

Be sure to check out the other interpretations of this theme over at The Four in Art blog, publishing sometime on 1 November (depending on time zone) and on each of our individual blogs:

Betty at a Flickr site 
Catherine  at Knotted Cotton
Elizabeth at opquilt.com
Janine at Rainbowhare
Nancy at  Patchwork Breeze
Rachel at The Life of Riley
Simone at Quiltalicious
Susan at PatchworknPlay
Camilla at Faffling

Four in Art- Third Quarter- Purple Passion

Father and Son

This theme really had me stumped for a while! Purple really isn't my colour, but then I realised that I've used it quite extensively in each of the previous two Four in Art projects. It's not a colour I choose to wear or have around much in my home, but maybe I have a secret hankering if I've voluntarily chosen to use it in those other projects?!

My first thoughts were to do a zoomed in Passion Fruit similar to this clip art image I found, which I thought I could have fun with, practicing my paper piecing! But after drawing up something I got a bit daunted and as well, decided it was too literal an image for the theme.

The other idea that had sprung immediately to mind was something ecclesiastically purple, to do with Passiontide. The particular shade of purple for this season in the church calendar is the one I think of when I think of purple. This is often synonymous with Holy Week and represents Easter and Jesus' death and resurrection, particularly as celebrated in Anglican  and Catholic churches.
I wanted to do a pared down ecclesiastical cross with linen; which would also have symbolic importance at Easter, as Jesus' body was wrapped in linen cloths, as he was as a newborn, according to the Gospels.

I love the look of a natural linen and the way it tones down and complements purple which is naturally more "shouty". These shot cotton purples are rich and subtly textured. (Albeit hard to photograph!)


 

I'm not sure which orientation it should have, perhaps I should add two hanging sleeves so I can switch according to whim?

  

This one almost captures the iridescence of the shot cotton.

It looks quite monastic in this stairwell archway.

 A bit different again with my daughter's mobile creation.

The simple design form holds meaning if you want to see that aspect, but if that isn't significant to the viewer, I like that the form is pleasingly pared down and simple. The two forms are related but distinct, rather like Father and Son. I considered adding a third trinitarian cross, but this looked too blatantly symbolic for me and I liked the balance of the two halves.

I quilted each cross complementarily rather than identically and finished with a simple linen facing and I'm thinking that perhaps I'll block it before I add the hanging sleeve(s)? I've never blocked anything before and don't mind the slightly softened edges but think it might benefit from a little more shaping?

This quarter I'm happier with the result and pleased that I started super early though apart from unpicking some quilting I wasn't happy with on one of the blocks, I didn't have any major revisions to do. 

The size measures 18x37.5cm or approx 7"x15" and uses linen and cotton with cotton/bamboo batting.

Do check out all the other entries for our group at Four in Art from 1st August (according to the time somewhere in the US!)

Or check out everyone's blogs here:
Betty         https://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2
Camilla     http://faffling.blogspot.co.nz/
Catherine    http://www.knottedcotton.com
Elizabeth    https://occasionalpiece.wordpress.com/
Janine         http://www.rainbowhare.com
Nancy        http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.co.uk/
Rachel        http://www.rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com
Simone       http://quiltalicious.blogspot.com 
Susan         http://patchworknplay.blogspot.com

Let's Get Acquainted

Welcome to my stop on the Let's Get Acquainted New Blogger Blog Hop! Hopefully you're enjoying becoming acquainted with some other new bloggers, as I am! You can find the whole list here, or by clicking on the button in my sidebar to the right.

I struggle now to remember how it was exactly that I started quilting. I've sewed since high school, making some of my own clothes, not very well, though there was always the odd project that was good enough to inspire me to make something else; and there have been years when I haven't done anything, but when I had little kids (they're teenagers now) I enjoyed sewing a few clothes for them.

A recent finish- a Baby Cross Quilt

My mum isn't a huge sewer- really sewist is a much better word isn't it! But she has definitely sparked my interest in sewing, shown me how to follow a pattern and given me those little skills and pieces of knowledge one tends to take for granted. She has made me some lovely things over the years.  One of the most ambitious must have been my school graduation dress, an 80's confection in soft silk with ruffles and a boned bodice! And Mum and Dad gave me the sewing machine I still sew on for my 21st. Read all about that here. There's also a link to a post about the perspex extension table Dad made for my machine.

I think the quilting passion started when, for some reason out of the blue, I decided to make a quilt for my Grandmother's 90th, either that or it was when my son needed a new duvet cover and I spotted a log cabin design I liked and it turned into a quilt instead. No photos of that one, my son has it away at Uni. Actually I think he's close in the line up for a new quilt, since both of our styles have changed since then. But there's something special about those early projects, even though I don't love either of them now. In the mosaic below there's a gratuitous shot of that first quilt for my Granny...

Another significant early project, in terms of inspiration, were these very simple cushions, I saw this fabulous Marimekko fabric and just bought a little of each. They were hard to cut into I remember, but an example of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts I think! Besides, I could never have chosen just one or two! We've had these on our sofa for over ten years now I'd guess, but I still love them.

I have an American friend in NZ where we lived then and I think she has more sense of the quilting heritage, which in turn influenced me and we used to get together to sew from time to time, which was great. We also went to a weekend workshop, with different speakers and classes. That was really inspiring and although we were feeling our way into something that seemed like there more older women doing it, there was an undercurrent of freshness and some new fabrics that were the beginnings of the Modern Quilting movement. It felt like the edge of something new.

L-R Top to Bottom: HST Quilt, Improv in Pyjamas ; Gum Tree Quilt, My First Ever Quilt -for my Granny, Close up of Gum Tree Quilt, StripQuilt for my Sister, Baby Crosses, Mum's Quilt and Sophie's Vintage whole cloth Quilt

But quilting has really grown for me as a hobby in the last few years and especially since I started my blog last year. Since I've been in Australia I've loved the chance to sew regularly with my friend Liz. We were chatting at an MTB event both our sons were involved in and both said we wanted to make time to do more creative things in our life, so agreed to meet on Fridays whenever possible to carve out time for that. It's been gold. Once the machine's out at the end of our dining table;  and the cutting board and piles of fabric are erupting further along, they tend to sit there and it's easier to do a little. We do have a long table fortunately, so it can get shoved to the end half and there's still room for the family to eat! I love to sew while people are around and about, but I think the ideal solution is a room close to the action, where the door can also be shut!

L-R Camera Case, Liberty Zip Pouch, Table Mats, Table Runner, Zip Pouch, Computer Sleeve

Blogging for me is the other part of carving out a creative space; really a kind of accountability to myself for making something and a way of contributing to this amazing online world where I gain so much inspiration. If you like you can read more about my reasons for blogging and how it got its name here.

I'm off to read some of the other posts now and discover something about others' inspiration!

Camilla

Travelling and not much Sewing

Well it's been a whole month! In that time I've been to NZ to visit family and friends. Love those people and that place!

Brick Bay north of Auckland

 I enjoyed the cool wet Autumn weather in Christchurch -yes really!

Then a brief trip further South to visit our our son at University in our hometown of Dunedin

Dunedin has some stunning beaches:

Photo credit- this was taken by our daughter!

Good to have two of the siblings together again. The youngest was on a school trip. A music one to Europe mind you, so almost worth missing NZ for!

My husband, me and our eldest

Looking back inland across the estuary

Colour palette inspiration

Local wildlife

The view from our son's college room across the chapel roof

And as if that wasn't enough, we've just returned from Mt Gambier in SE South Australia for Generations in Jazz a fantastic high school jazz festival. We stayed a bit away in the sleepy riverside town of Nelson. We didn't have much time for exploring after all that music, but what we did left us looking forward to returning at some stage.

Boathouses on the Glenelg River at Nelson

With all the travelling I haven't had much time for sewing at all in the last month.

I took the baby cross quilt (as opposed to a cross baby quilt!) I've been making, to Mt Gambier to finish off. I rushed to complete the quilting on the morning we left so I could bind it during the 5 hour car trip -it didn't take me that long!




 Before we went to NZ I had nearly finished the quilting, when I ran out of the variegated thread I'd been using only two rows from the end. None in stock at any shop... so they ordered it for me and it was waiting when I got back from NZ.

Taken at Nelson Ocean Beach, where the river doesn't quite meet the sea any more!

I'm really happy with how this quilt has turned out. I used Katie's tutorial which made it all really quick and easy and the colour palette worked out well. Hopefully the recipient likes it for her wee boy.

Apart from finishing off this quilt I've managed a few bee blocks and that's it.

This is for Kathy for May's Simply Solids block.

Kathy asked for I'm a Ginger Monkey's Scrap Vomit B Block. I already changed some of my initial colours, but overall I'd say this has been a learning experience! I'm not so keen on the colours and I think it's a value problem in the background/corner squares, (do you think so?); but in the end I decided not to remake it again as when it's part of a larger very mixed colour selection it'll be OK and at least the central diamond is defined.

I've also joined another bee for Do.Good Stitches, which is a charity bee making quilts for needy people. I'm part of the "Cherish" Australian based circle. This month we were asked to make two black and white 4x4 blocks. So I cut those out before I went to NZ but didn't manage to sew them together until I got back last week.

I'm looking forward to a sewing day with Liz this Friday, but overall things aren't very speedy at the moment on the sewing front. Slow bloggers of the world unite!

WiP Wednesday

My Work in Progress is a quilt for a new baby boy.

It's coming together quite quickly.

I managed to sew the pieces together today and tomorrow hope to make the back and baste it all ready to quilt.

I used Katie's tutorial here: so good to have all the cutting and fabric requirements maths already worked out! It made it so quick- does feel like cheating; but then again, why re-invent the wheel?!

What are you working on?

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced