A Winter Snow Story, and some 12 x 12 quilts

    1. It snowed, snowed, and rained. There was more snow and the tree branches held the snow. Again, more snow, bigger snow, more layers. Finally, the biggest snowdrops of all. I re-read Rayna Gillman's book, but this quilt should not reflect on her. These are my first strips, a story which I sewed while listening to NPR. I painted snowdrops on the trees with Jacquard Super Opague White 220 OP. French knots may have been more appropriate. Black fleece doubles as batting and backing. I quilted in the ditch and on some of the branches. Snuggly, but how to show the snow cone tops on all the bushes.

   2.  The birds in the front of the house were making such a mess, like a copy of a Pollack painting;  so we moved the feeder to the back yard. It was not easy for the feathered ones to find their way west. I quilted an arrow. This was definitely a journal quilt...a memory of a special event. I could still paint some shading or use netting to shadow a side of the bird feeder. Beeds are the seeds flying everywhere.

 
     3. Trying to use up my stash, I had earlier tried a blue quilt that almost made me give up quilting. Jo Diggs uses dots so much better. I learned that it is probably good to join pop or graphic fabrics with each other and realistic prints together, but not to mix the two. I read that one should think about what one likes in a quilt to know what to do to yours. I like hand stitching, but it didn't save this piece.

     4. and 5.  Then there are the two quilts that really needed help. Winter Palette with padded paints needs a brush as well as a photographer; and Erika's 8th soft birthday card needs a redo. But both are ok and were part of the process. You win some and lose some. Click to enlarge photos.

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Monkey Sees, Monkey Does: a new small quilt plus

    Are you going back to school this busy September;  or are you always learning new things. I try to take some new workshop usually, so I got busy with what Sue Martell and Jo Diggs taught me. The last time I saw Betsy, she asked if I had started making Maine landscapes (I reported on hers August 18) and I took her hint to do a Jo Diggs workshop. Jo Diggs is a master applique landscape fabric artist.

    So I loosely cut out the fabric Sue encouraged me to buy in her sister's shop, and all but copied one of Sue's on the drive to NYC. All I did was layer fabric over muslin and started at the top, adding shapes on, to pin the shapes down. I whipstitched the seam allowances under the main shapes with silk thread that Jo says lies flatter. There are sky, rock, water, tree, plant and sand fabrics available; but you can paint your own white or muslin fabrics with fabric paints so that the fabrics remain soft. I like applique in that you can do it on a car ride or in front of tv news and you don't need a sewing machine. I feel romantic toward hand stitching...all of those little stitches.

     However, when I returned home, I became a monster. I couldn't bear to go slowly...so much to do! Whereas Jo Diggs puts mats around her landscapes, I wanted fabric borders and had to get out a sewing machine to add a twig fabric from The City Quilter. I dug in my bias tape drawer for white and cream. I didn't want machine stitches to show so I used Stitch Witchery on the inner frame and a sewing machine and backside whipstitch on the white outer frame. I messed up a bit (fusible dirtying my borders, messing up my iron) trying to go so fast, but the fabric picture is ok as a memory of trip to Maine on our 50th...not so perfect as Sue's or Jo's,  but one step in learning a new technique.

photo I took of a Jo Diggs landscape...note the reflections 

    

Making Landscapes to enjoy: Martell and Rasmussen

Sue Martell 

    The World Quilt Show New England X is this weekend in Manchester NH. I had so much fun that I spent two days there.

     It is always a pleasure to visit the cheerful vendors at the Quilt Essentials booth. Betsy Dorr, the owner usually knits and quilts and her sister Sue Martell inspires me with her piles of totally hand-appliqued landscape quilts. Sue is quick to point to the printed fabrics she uses; books on the topic, and the cloth support onto which she collages her fabric segments of "grass," "sky," "water," and "rocks." She repeatedly suggests I get to know Jo Diggs, a respected teacher and landscape artist. I no more got home from the show this year than I found in my e-mail a note from The New England Quilt Museum listing a Saturday morning workshop with Jo Diggs. I signed up! The Commons, a gallery in Eastport ME, carries Martell's landscapes.

Winter's Approach by Sue Rasmussen

   

    Ever helpful Sue Martel pointed down the hall to a beautiful landscape created by Sue Rasmussen, professional quilter from Simi Valley CA. "Winter's Approach" is entirely machine quilted. She used a printed fabric for the sky filled with branches and a shibori type fabric for the mountains. She pieces beautifully and I have been getting to know this artist by her work "on-line."If I had known I would blog about the quilt I would have taken a better photo. If you link to See How We Sew, you can see detailed photos, as well as  read about Sue, her book and her upcoming TV appearance. You will also want to visit Sue's website by clicking on this link.

      I believe both of these artists like the clean edge and the soft hand of a pieced or appliqued image.  I eagerly await my workshop with Jo Diggs mid-September at the New England Quilt Museum. Click on photos to enlarge.