SOLD!

"Come With Me to the Kasbah" has been displayed at Good Good's Gallery in Saugatuck, Michigan since last fall. Fifteen minutes after I had stopped in there to say "hi" to the staff this afternoon that piece sold. Woo Hoo! They think I brought good luck ... especially in this economy. Think I may stop in more often if that's the case.
To read about the creation of this piece go here.

"Come With Me to the Kasbah"

My journey with this quilt began with a collection of seven blocks featuring spirals that were made for me by Thursday Bee members of the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild. The resulting combination of them with my block and fabrics reminds me of being in a North African kasbah at night ... the exotic confusion of lights, the wares displayed in the souks and the many twists and turns of the alleyways. The spiral is one of the oldest symbols and much used in North Africa.

48"x 63"

Here's the back where a great deal of hand-stitching of the strips of fabric over every seam plus four vertical ones supporting the length was done. The colored blocks are the bee exchange ones.
And here's a detail shot of the edge finishing on the front of the quilt.
... and on the back. It's the usual double fold binding technique. I allowed for a 1/2" width on the front and a 2" width on the back for added support to ensure that the edges wouldn't curl either to the front or back when it hangs.
I appreciate all of you who have followed the process of my designing this quilt and a big "thank you" to all who left comments. It is one of the most complex quilts I've ever done because it started with that diverse collection of blocks rather than what I would've chosen from scratch. Here are the links for the steps taken to get it completed.

• "My Blocks In the Bee Exchange"
• "Spirals on the Wall"
• "Designing A Compositon"
• "Design Wall Work"
• "Refining and Expanding"
• "Progressing"
• "Just Sewing and Considering"
• "Repeating Lines"
• "By George, I'm Getting There"
• "Seams For Prequilted Blocks"
• "Division of Space"
• "Can't Believe What I Did"
• "Finding Balance"
• "Make It Work"
• "Emphasis In A Composition"
• "Reading A Quilt"
• "Seams Details and Embellishments"

Books about designing that are in my reference library are:

• Design Basics (2nd editon) by David A. Lauer - ISBN 0-03-063911-5
• Design For You (2nd edition) by Beitler & Lockhart - SBN 471-06337-1
• Art and Visual Perception - A Psychology of the Creative Eye (new version) by Rudolph Arnheim - ISBN 0-520-02613-6

I just delivered this quilt to it's first show, "2008 Festival of Quilts", the 10th biennial show in the Farragut Folklife Museum. The show runs fron March 27 th thru the 30th.

Moon Dance

This is my final entry in this year's SMQ Guild show. It was awarded 1st Place in the "Wall Hanging/Mixed Techniques and Quilted" category. It also received the Surface Embellishment Award.

Moon Dance - 38"x 42"

The background was constructed several years ago. It's made up of four small sections using Ricky Tims "Harmonic Convergence" technique. I posted about my Shiva Oil Paint Stick rubbing techniques on it here last fall when I began to work on it for this show.

Initially, this was my plan for the center. My friend, Judy, had given me several pieces of African fabrics. One of them had a marvelous single warriors head printed with metallic gold. I had in mind for him to wear the macrame neck piece I had created back in the 70's. It's made with trade beads I had purchased in Morocco.However, it ended up as his headdress in reference to east African tribes who used zebra manes for that purpose.I sculpted the warriors face with layers of of batting. The nose, lips, and hair in the middle are machine quilted on the first layer placed down the center. His eyes and facial contours plus the rest of the hair are quilted on the second layer. When this quilted piece was appliqued to the quilt it became even more sculpted.

It's embellished with beads and buttons and African themed doodads I've been collecting over the years. Antique black glass beads are scattered like stars over the dark fabric areas of the background. There are hand-made ceramic buttons layered with beads to create shields.
Yarn was couched over the seams of the pieced background. Long ends were left with the intention of burying them in the batting. I liked the look of them hanging loose on the surface and ended up adding even more, plus gold metallic ones as well using the same thread that I machine-quilted the background.A heavy gold metallic yarn is couched to the outside edge of the binding as well as outlining the warrior's neck piece. I wanted to soften that outside edge since this piece is about moonlight as well as to give strength and to define the shape of his neck piece.

Beware Of The Cats

Another quilt from the African series.

Beware Of The Cats -37"x40" - 2004

This piece began as just a demonstration to share Ricky Tims harmonic conversion technique. I selected interesting fabrics just to see where they would take me. I had no idea it would be into this fantasy jungle.

The great aspect about this technique is that the strip sets can be combined any number of ways besides Ricky's prescribed formula. When I saw the tree trunks appear in this one I played with the arrangement to get the canopy of tree tops and a shadowed floor.

The large pieces of the fabric printed with animals ended up at the bottom. What little of that fabric was left got all the animals, birds, and circles cut out and hand-appliqued to the piece. I also added "natives" cut from a different fabric. The green aura around those figures fit right into the green and purple print.
If you look closely, you'll see the cats sneaking upon the beasts and the natives. Life is full of concealed and veiled surprises.
This piece is machine-quilted following the printed pattern on the back. The decorative threads were wound on the bobbin. A variegated rayon thread is used for the flowers and fronds and a heavy multi-colored metalic for the cats.

I added a hint of color to the flowers and fronds in the black border with oil stick pastels. Most of it is rubbed into (or off) and heat set into the fabric.

Exhibitions: 2004 Dogwood Arts Quilt Show (3rd place)
Knoxville, Tennessee

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Faces on the Wall

Here is where my lady, "Waiting In New Orleans" hangs. I call it our wall of faces.
There are a lot of other things displayed as well, but the majority contains faces either in a composition or a sculpture. One of the faces is my first African piece.

Mask - 10"x12"- 1999

It began as an experiment in David Walker's class at Arrowmont that year. Attaching a border to quilts made in his reverse applique technique is a challenge.I thought there had to be a way to construct the mat/border and center of a piece all in one step.

This piece has five layers ... two exposed in the border and two in the center plus a backing. I drew the separate areas of the piece including the narrow inner border and the stitching lines on freezer paper. At this point each small section is designated a fabric role (as in fabric A is #1, fabric B is #2, etc. to #4.). The paper is ironed on the top layer and it's all pinned basted together.

For this applique technique all the lines are machine top-stitched, then areas are cut away down to different levels to expose a desired fabric. The freezer paper is left in place until it's time to cut in that spot.

Black chenille yarn is couched over the seams of the center section and on each side of the inner border. The inner border is one straight cut through the top three layers and then brushed to make fabric chenille. A tan variegated 6-ply floss is couched with a variegated thread over the seams in the border.

The mask is hand appliqued and decorated with beads and brass washers. The binding incorporates pieces that were trimmed away from the center.

David's reverse applique technique in his work is amazing. Complex compositions are made much more easily than in any other way. At first, I felt "blind". There's no moving things around on a design board. I developed a great appreciation for, and trust in serendipity that week in March of 1999.

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Toonga (Adventure)

Toonga - 37"x40" - 2002

Description:
Toonga (an African word for adventure) is the second piece in my African series. The fragmented images symbolize my perceptions of Africa ... from a jungle safari to structural and native patterns. I'm also fascinated by the way a herd of huge elephants move so quietly that their presence isn't known until you see them ... plus there is the camouflage of foliage and shadows. You hardly notice them at all in this composition.

Technique:
Machine quilted, machine pieced, hand applique. Yarns are couched to the surface with machine zig zag stitches. The center panel is pieced using Ricky Tims "harmonic convergence" contruction technique.

Materials:
cotton fabric, cotton and polyester threads, beads, yarn, cotton batting

Exhibitions:
2002 Dogwood Arts Quilt Show - Knoxville, TN
awarded Third Place
2006 Festival of Quilts - Farragut, TN

Detail Photos: