A place to share my art, my quilting and my experiences creating with my favorite furry friends at my feet.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Visiting Past Works

This is the first "art quilt" that I ever created. It is titled "My Symphony" and was completed in 2008. I call this my first art quilt because it was my first original design and contains a lot of symbolism for me. I used commercial cottons and machine quilted it.

It was completed for my guild's show, "A Symphony of Quilts" challenge. I had never entered a challenge before, and had never appliqued. Applique to me was a very bad, bad word. A friend sad "do raw edge, you can do that, it's easy." So I tried and this was the result.

Raw edge applique was not as difficult as I had thought. Since that time I have studied more about the "right" way to do it. I have learned more about fusibles, the importance of tight weave fabrics and good scissors. Today, most of quilts use raw edge applique and I am liking the results. New methods can be scary, but by trying new things, new ideas emerge and new quilts are created that I might never have attempted.

This is a quilt that I have not looked at in a long time. I was reminded of it when a Quilt Show member commented on it recently. It was great looking at it in a new light with more experience behind me.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

I ran out of time to post last week. My husband was ill and I played role of nurse for most of the week. It does not look like I will be getting my Text on Textiles piece completed for the deadline. I am close and I like how it is going, but with all that happened last week I don't see it happening. I am still job seeking. The hardest part is not knowing when they will start interviewing for the positions. In the past I have interviewed May - September. That is a huge window, I just wish I knew. I am ready to travel on a moments notice if/when something happens.