Fabric Fun in Michigan!

Well, I haven't gotten as much sewing done here at the cabin in Michigan as I'd hoped.  The first couple of days were dark and rainy, and the lighting isn't very good, so scratch that.  But I did drop in at Delphine's, the wonderful quilt shop in town (https://www.delphinesquiltshop.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/DelphinesQuiltShop/).  One of my favorite things to do is to head to the back of the store, where you can find sale fabrics, very affordable fat quarters, and an overflowing bin of scraps.  Since I love scrappy quilts,  I always stuff a small ($5) bag or a large ($10) one with scraps.

Blue water!  Orange dots!  Pink ladybugs!  Moths (well, the colors are pretty!).

The prints are always the luck-of-the-draw, depending on what classes they've been having.  Lots of times there are squares or strips that had come out just a little shy (e.g., 2-1/4"), easy to quickly trim to a usable size.  It's fun to see fabrics that we don't find at home, and to bring some home lots of different ones without overflowing your stash.  The larger pieces I keep whole to go into bins sorted by color.  

I'm also always on the lookout for neutrals, since they can be used no matter what I'm making.  Any of the scraps (all smaller than a fat quarter) I press and cut into strips or squares as soon as I get them home.  For neutrals, even fat quarters get cut up.  I have a small cabinet (getting too small!) with separate drawers for different sizes of pre-cut pieces.  I'm a puzzle junkie, and figuring out how to get the most usable pieces out of a wonky scrap of fabric is kind of a fun challenge (for me -- I know some of you would rather have a root canal!).  The squares below are 1-1/2", 2", and 2-1/2".

Sorry this is dark, the light was poor but I guess not poor enough to set off the flash!

Of course, there are always bits from odd-sized scraps that can't be used in a quilt.  I saved these for a long time, intending to make pet beds for local animal shelters.  But then I read that the shelters don't really want these, because the scrappy filling gets all wadded up when the bed is washed.  So these leftovers are now intended as the filling for an ottoman!  I found a couple of tutorials on the web, but haven't started anything yet.  But the bin almost can't be closed, so I guess the time is coming!  Nonetheless, when I'm sewing away from home and have to store the bits and pieces in a baggie, it's labelled "DOG" -- who wants to waste time writing "OTTOMAN"?

Cheers, all!  Hope you're having a lovely summer!

Crosstown Arts Quilt Show, Part 1

Memphis, TN (not so far from Paducah, KY!) boasted an amazing quilt show at Crosstown Concourse, an equally amazing location in midtown Memphis that is worth a visit in itself.  The building is a former Sears warehouse/fulfillment center that has been converted into a multi-use complex that maintains much of the building's history and includes retail, apartments and condos, a charter high school, and Crosstown Arts, a nonprofit mecca for artists in many media and those who appreciate the arts.

In June and July Crosstown Arts hosted its first annual quilt show, "Stitched".  With family in Memphis, I was dying to go, but had to wait until nearly the end.  What a blast!  The show included a curated show of art quilts, a display of quilts made by local quilters with specific parameters required, and a film with interviews of quilters in both groups.

At the top of the winding staircase on the second floor at Crosstown, a visitor is greeted by a wall of squares and half-square triangles and invited to create a quilt.  What a great opportunity for people to discover how quilts come together and to enjoy creating a "quilt" without even knowing how to sew!

The show featured 29 quilts  in the Art Quilts galleries and another 200+ from the local-ish quilters.  Not all quilts are included.  I've divided the photos into three posts, since the number of photos would make the posts unmanageable.  The descriptions of the art quilts are from the program, in the words of the quilters.   Full acknowledgments to the quilters and to Crosstown Arts.  

Art Quilts, Part 1

Composition IX, Deidre Adams (Littleton, Colorado)

" ...my effort to find a quiet place within while paying homage to forces greater than myself.  What we have learned about our world through science is balanced by the mysteries of the unknown and the sense of wonder at what we have yet to discover."

46" x 48", commercial fabrics and acrylic paint

Round and Round It Goes, Paula Kovarik (Memphis, Tennessee)

[This is an astounding piece of art.  The quilter provided little description, perhaps because it is beyond words]

Repurposed table cloth free-motioned quilted, 54" diameter

Above and below, close-ups of Round and Round

We, Elly van Steenbeek (Veenendaal, the Netherlands)

"Two parts

Different

But also common

Connected

One piece together

After so many years

WE"

Altered cotton with rust and tea...monoprinted, hand-stitched, machine-stitched and quilted.

Close-up of We

My Mended World, Judy Martin (Ontario, Canada)

"Made with community assistance as part of the Manitoulin Circle Project."

Hand-pieced, machine-pieced, hand quilted, hand embroidery.

Close-up of My Mended World

Waking Up, Judy Rush (Bexley, Ohio)

"Waking Up is an exploration of how seemingly disparate parts come together and somehow make sense.  The pieces are sewn onto a background one by one, encouraged to interact with one another.  The stitching acts to blend shapes and colors as well as to hold all the pieces together."

(This reminds me of an African village, with small plots of gardens near the huts.)

November 2, 2012 - February 4, 2013, Toot Reid (Tacoma, Washington)

"I want to convey the depth and subtlety of life.  How parts of our lives fit together to make a whole."

Note that the quilt is constructed and hung in four separate pieces.

Generated Topology,  Kathy Weaver (Highland Park, Illinois)

"In Generated Topology, there is a world full of magnified, fantastic organisms.  Using this exaggerated scale I invite viewers to imagine themselves as emotive nanorobots exploring alien environments."

Satin, airbrushed, hand-quilted.  42" x 48"

Close-up of Generated Topology

Sine Me Up, Kent Williams (Madison, Wisconsin)

"I call this quilt "Sine Me Up" because the piecing arranges itself into a series of overlapping sine curves.  Putting it together required a lot of measuring -- down to eighths of an inch."

Look closely.  Note that there are no curves in the actual sewing.  The curves are a trick of vision.

Close-up of Sine Me Up

Translucency and Kaleidoscope, Judith Larzelere (Westerly, Rhode Island)

"After 33 years of using the tools of color theory and intensely saturated colors, I embarked on an exploration of translucency and delicate, ephemeral hints of tone."

The depth of shading in this quilt changes according to the viewer's distance. The close-up below shows how the quilter achieved the on-point squares.

Close-up of Translucency and Kaleidoscope

To be continued...