Creative Life Sampler

Beauty in Mishap Usually, I try to finish up projects to start the new year with a fresh slate, but I have several things in the works right now. I find myself in the position of working against a self-imposed deadline! (That can be a joy drain for sure.) And while these "works in progress" (WIPs) get juggled with end of the year activities and holiday celebrations, one of the things put on the back burner is keeping up-to-date with social media. So, I'm putting a pause on all this activity, as the clock ticks off the last hours of 2025, to present my final finish of 2025: Beauty in Mishap . This continues my improvisation with random scraps to create what I hope are interesting compositions. Lately, I'm really enjoying the theme of "contrast." Juxtaposing thin lines and large shapes, or open spaces with more populated areas of random forms and connecting lines, opens up opportunities to enhance the surface with quilting that reinforces the design.   The bo...

Midnight & Noon- sides "A" & "B" The two sides of this quilt could stand separately, but I think they are stronger together. The navy background top, (side "A"), was finished first. Since it has a vertical, portrait, orientation, I deliberately approached the composition of the second top with a different vision. For side "B," I chose to do the reverse, making the shapes dark with a light background and a horizontal orientation. When the two sides were complete they evoked very different feelings.  The forms on side "A" take on a sculptural quality. This side brings to mind walking down the street on a cool night and seeing a streetlight up ahead which spotlights an object. Within that cone of light the form is illuminated but the environment around it falls away into the darkness. We instinctively know that there's more there than we can see.  In contrast, side "B" looks more like a landscape with structures. Its ...

Midnight and Noon, 2025, side "A" The focus of my work lately has been on creating more dynamic compositions. Of course, this is rather a broad, open ended challenge. It might be easier if I were drawing from reality, we are so familiar with arranging images these days. But, I have chosen to strip out the details of known objects and work with shapes. Even narrowing down what will be in the composition, the question still stands; "Where do you get the shapes?" "What is the starting point?"  I use the scraps from earlier projects to construct shapes for two reasons. First, I enjoy the challenge of creating new forms that I haven't seen before but that still reference their origins, the work that came before. Second, using every bit of fabric is a quilting tradition. It is mindful of resources, minimizes waste, and honors the history of this art form. Midnight and Noon is a double sided quilt, hand appliquéd and hand quilted. I designed the cream on na...

  Balance of Light & Dark In this composition the image area has been roughly divided in half vertically. The dark contours on the right have been repeated in the light color and reoriented on the left, creating a tension between light and dark shapes. The quilting for this piece, continues my experimentation with textures to enhance the project’s design. Gentle arches and a subtle, directional flow in the background quilting provides some motion across the surface. For a contrast, the traditional treatment of echo quilting the shapes gives them a more solid, steady feeling, even as they are stacked and precariously rest on thin lines. So, we have a balance between light and dark, solid shapes and graceful line, movement and stability. Here is a detail of the quilting from the opposite side: Seeing the seed and running stitches in multiple colors against the solid fabric from the backside gives food for thought on possibilities for future projects.  Stay tuned to see mor...

Moment of Transformation Ah, the things you can make with leftovers! The starting point for this piece was the remaining cut away scraps from my last, much larger quilt:  Embers . It was done with a combination of appliqué and reverse appliqué. First the fabric scraps were laid out on the burgundy length of fabric: Appliqué stage After these contours were needle turned under and appliquéd in place, the piece was put on top of a second length of a lighter color. This lighter color would become the background:   The beginnings of reverse appliqué I have taken to using a thin crepe tape to experiment and think through the placement of lines I want to highlight, as can be seen in the lower left area of this photo. This has been so helpful as the tape can be moved around until the right shapes are found without damage to the fabric. Needless to say, now I have scraps in both the burgundy and "creamsickle" (reads more like peach to me.) But they must be put aside for now. I've ...

"Embers" was completed back in January and I'm just now getting around to sharing it! Better late than never, right? 😬 This project began in October 2024, as I was getting ready to take a trip east for the Schweinfurth exhibit in Auburn NY. ( https://creativelifesampler.blogspot.com/2024/11/qaq-2025-opening.html ) I coupled some black scraps  with a wonderful, glowing inspiration fabric in this improvised composition.  It reminded me of walking through piles of leaves in the crisp, cool temperatures we were anticipating and vibrant fall foliage against dark, wet branches. I brought it along as a portable appliqué project. ("Always be productive,"- that's my motto.)    The  appliqué  work  continued  through Thanksgiving and moved into the quilting stage as temperatures dropped and winter settled on us. It was turning out to be a dry season for  Southern California . Then we rolled into January 2025 when the wildfires ignited chaos in our are...

  Unrestrained Energy This is my last finish of 2024.  The inspiration for this quilt was a wonderful spotted fabric I acquired a couple of years ago from a guild member who was getting rid of her stash. I don't know that it would have caught my attention in another environment but in the context of her collection it called to me. I really appreciated her color sense and quality fabric choices. This small fabric cut inspired me to incorporate it in an improvised composition. It began in a modest way, with the cut away scraps in a cream solid. We were going on an extended vacation and I wanted to take some work to keep busy. There were so many scraps that I split them between two patterned fabrics and basted them in place so I could stitch them down at liesure. The two resulting quilts are quite different from one another. The first of the two completed was Shifting Contour : (See this link for the original post :  https://creativelifesampler.blogspot.com/2024/10/a-follow-...

  Blue Improvised Silhouette I worked on this piece over the summer and finished it time to enter it in a juried show at the end of August. It didn't get in, . . . oh well. This is a good time to reveal this quilt. Its icy palette of blue and aqua is really appropriate for the winter season.   This year I've focused most of my creative energy on improvisational appliqu é. The remnant cut away blue scraps from an earlier  appliqu é project were rearranged on a solid white for this composition. I wanted to see if I could change the nature of the white fabric through dense stitching which would add a second color. The silhouette of the blue was rotated and outlined so white shapes emerge against the compressed subtle aqua texture. My hope was that the blue contour would appear to hover over the white contour and they would both pull forward visually to float over the delicately tinted background. View of this quilt back      

  And a Spot of Red Haven't had the time to post this quilt before, so here it is now,- "And a Spot of Red." Hand appliquéd and hand quilted, it measures 82 x 61 inches; much larger than I've worked in a long time.  In 2023 I found myself expanding my horizons, exploring opportunities to show my work at unfamiliar venues. This open attitude led to new encounters and new inspiration for me. Really that shouldn't be a surprise, but sometimes I'm amazed at how often I need to be reminded that exposing ourselves to different experiences and influences helps us grow and feeds our creative impulses. And it's so exciting when that happens. During one of these adventures, I was at a show and fell into a conversation with a fellow quilter, sharing perspectives, exchanging ideas. At one point she casually offered "You need to work bigger!" That was the encouragement I needed to finally get to work on an idea I'd been contemplating. I pulled out the sc...

  This is my latest finish! I continue to experiment with the segmented shapes of a letter for composition ideas. This time I drew inspiration from this batik: I liked the colors and the washy quality of this fabric. The lighter pink was pulled out for a greater contrast and a solid brown added to extend the design. Choosing the orientation was difficult for this piece. It seemed to have a heavy edge and a lighter edge because of the brown extension: The orientation on the left feels grounded with the brown on the bottom. It also emphasizes the pink shapes over the dark shapes. Ultimately, I decided that the orientation on the right shows off the dark shapes more and I challenged myself to hand quilt textures to unify the composition. What really had called to me was the pattern of "X's" in the batik. They vary in intensity and thickness so, in some areas, they fade into the background and an interesting pattern of crosses emerges. "X" became the theme for my ha...

Appliqué Improv. #3 Just finished another improvisational quilt, the third piece created with cut away shapes from earlier appliqué and reverse appliqué projects. In this case the khaki shapes were arranged on this lovely batik fabric of greens, golds, and purples and a matching purple was chosen to extend the design horizontally. The batik shapes have become the focus here and echo hand quilting has been used to emphasize the motion of the shapes. In contrast, the solid purple on the right has been simply treated with straight lines. Extensive seed stitching has been done in the khaki background and it continues to the left over a strip of the same purple.  It's interesting to see how this heavy stitching has changed that purple stripe. Seems like something to explore further: how can the visual impact of a color be altered by hand stitching alone?

Appliqu é  Improv. 2 The experimenting with improvisation continues! This is the second time I have used the cutouts from an earlier appliquéd piece as a starting point for a new project. In this case, I pulled out the olive green from my scrap box and arranged them on a length of patterned fabric from my stash to create new shapes. Once the green shapes were sewn in place the fabric underneath was cut away to reduce bulk. This gave me shapes in the patterned fabric to play with, and the piece just evolved. The bottom cream fabric is a sateen cotton which has a bit of shimmer to it and helps show off the hand quilting. Really enjoying this process of creating. It's quite a contrast to my ordinary method of planning the design out completely before taking the first stitch. Somehow working back and forth between these two creative processes gives me a sense of balance. It also satisfies the itch to use every scrap of material, . . . win, win.

Literal Use of Negative Spaces  Finally time to share this latest project.  This is an improvisational piece, - the first time I have done this with appliqu é . The patterned shapes are the cut-outs from my last reverse appliqu é  project. I liked the Ghana batik so much that I was inspired to use these shapes in a new quilt, rather than just toss them into my scrap box. So the first project's negative spaces, (an art term for space between and around solid objects), became the solid shapes in this one. The hand quilting is a combination of a repetition of the batik fabric's pattern, the seed stitch, and echo quilting.  I enjoyed this process so much that I went rummaging through the scrap box for cutout shapes from other projects and I've already started on a new quilt. The top is complete and ready to sandwich for the quilting stage, so stay tuned! 

  I find I have been very neglectful of blogging lately! Really didn't realize how off schedule I was until I logged in to write this up-date.  My new project has been consuming a lot of time and attention. After finishing the last wall hanging with fabric from Ghana, I found that I was loathe to put the scraps in my scrap box. So I decided to do a little appliqué improv work with the leftovers. This also became an opportunity to use up some of my fabric stash.  Well, one thing led to another and this piece kept growing. It's much larger than I usually work and once the top was complete I started to see some cool options for hand quilting. Now the quilting is about half way through and I'm looking forward to the reveal. I have to say, I'm really excited by this unplanned, almost organic method of creating. The few improv projects I've done in the past certainly laid a foundation to explore applying it in a different way. But somehow, this feels like new vistas have ...

  Ghana Batik Study #1 My design exploration continues to expand with this newly completed piece. The solid shapes are echo quilted by hand. In the pale grey background, I have repeated the fabric pattern with embroidery floss. This gives it texture and interest. For several years, I have held on to this piece of hand batiked fabric that a family member brought back from a trip to Ghana. It never felt like it fit in a traditional quilt. It was really waiting to be part of something really dynamic. So as I've continued to play with the spaces and shapes that have evolved from working with the letter "Q," this fabric was in the back of my mind. It has a wonderful flow that seems to enhance the motion of this particular design. The uncut fabric- so much going on here! I like this fabric so much that I can't throw the cut pieces in my scrap box. They are calling for an improv piece. So I best get started on the next adventure, . . .  

Thing 1 & Thing 2 This is the first time that I have worked on two pieces at the same time and, now that the last stitch has been sewn, this pair of quilts can be displayed side by side. When I bring a new piece to show and tell at a guild meeting, I have found it a bit challenging to clearly describe the difference between appliqué and reverse appliqué, and the advantages for each one. So I thought maybe starting with the same color for this pair would be a handy visual aid for any future trunk shows/lectures, (hint, hint.)    The best way to explain these two techniques is to focus on the darkest green and the part it plays in each piece. On the left, the dark green is the shape on a cream colored background, meaning the dark green shapes were sewn onto the lighter background. On the right, the dark green switches to play the part of the background, so shapes were cut out of the dark green to reveal the lighter color underneath.   Just having a great time playi...

Appliqué versus Reverse Appliqué Thought I'd share a sneak peek at what I've been busy with lately.  I chose an earthy green as the starting point in this experiment and worked on both of these designs at the same time. The darkest green was placed on top of a slightly lighter green in each instance.  The one on the left is appliquéd, meaning that dark green shapes were cut out and sewn on to the background color. The piece on the right is reverse appliqué. The dark green is the background, but it is still placed on top of the lighter color. The difference is that holes are cut into the background in the desired shape and then tacked down, revealing the color underneath.  When they are put side by side, it shows the development of the two appliqué techniques. You can also see the interesting effect that was shared in my last post; the image becomes "blurry" as several outlines of increasingly lighter green are added to the shapes in each piece.  It may have been unpl...

Lately I've been working on two small wall hangings at the same time: one in appliqu é, the other in reverse appliqu é. Both quilt tops have been finished up and the quilting phase has begun. I'm not ready for a big reveal just yet, but I wanted to share this really interesting phenomenon which is especially noticeable when photographed in black & white.  This is the  appliqué top. The dark shapes have been applied to a lighter background in step 1. Step 1 For step 2, the background color in the first photo has been cut away to create an outlined shape on a slightly lighter background. The goal here was to have a gradation that would give the feeling of a gradual indentation, as if someone had carved the dark shapes into a surface, . . .  Step 2 but look at what happened when yet another outline was created around the dark shapes! Step 3 At a distance, the shapes appear blurred, instead of giving the impression of a crisply carved surface. This was something I did not...

This wall hanging was started on January 2 and finished on January 31, - one month in the making. I'm getting faster at pulling these projects together, which is gratifying.    My original layout was designed with a landscape orientation:   The choice to bind the piece in the darker color changed the overall look and, when I shifted it to a portrait layout, it seemed to work better.  But let's continue to rotate the quilt: These options are intriguing, . . . are they possible settings for future projects? I'm also kinda diggin' the backside of this piece: Maybe it's time to design a whole cloth quilt for my "Q is for Quilt" series. (A whole cloth quilt is made of a single length of solid color fabric and often includes trapunto, or stuffed work, - extra batting which adds more texture and dimension to the surface.) Feels like this is a "pick a path" moment.  I'm interested in your feedback, so share a comment at the end of this post or on my ...

Just finished my last quilt of the year! This is the second time I have chosen to use the "color of the year" as a starting point for a word quilt that captures the feeling of the year, - or at least how I feel about the year.  By January of 2021 I knew what I wanted to say. It was right after the inauguration, always a momentous occasion for our country and, regardless of one's political leanings, generally regarded as a time of new beginnings. The word "Refresh" seemed to speak to the moment.  (Here's the link to see that quilt:  https://creativelifesampler.blogspot.com/2021/03/project-using-2021-pantone-colors.html ) 2022 was a different experience, on so many levels. First, Pantone chose periwinkle as their color of the year (COTY). It turns out that periwinkle is in the eye of the beholder and I simply couldn't find the right fabric for the project. I finally went with Kona COTY 2022: Cosmos- a bright almost magenta color. At least I had my inspira...