Quill art quilt

 Quill, 10" x 9", handmade by Pam Geisel, July 2024

This small art quilt was made for the Village Artisan’s Lobby Show “Birds of a Feather.” One of the Village Artisans members raises guinea fowl and shared some of the feathers that the birds have shed.

The feather is lightly attached to the quilt, which has free motion quilting on it.

I also added some small polished rocks and metal feather charms that hang off the bottom of the quilt.

The show is up at Village Artisans, 100 Corry St. in Yellow Springs, through September 10 during regular gallery hours, M-Th 11-5, Fr-Sa 11-6, and Su 12-5.

Custom t-shirt quilts this year

 

I've been busy making t-shirt quilts, and these two were a little out of the ordinary. The one above doesn't actually use t-shirts, they're baseball jerseys. There were fewer shirts than I usually put in a t-shirt quilt but since the images on the jerseys were a little larger than most t-shirt images, it ended up working out. The image above shows the front of the quilt (left) and the back of the quilt. The front has the front of each shirt and the back has the back of each shirt, which I though was really cool. Because they are sports shirts, I like to use green for the sashing between. I considered using green for the outside borders but I had a brown fabric that was like the color of the dirt in the infield. I also added four white square “plates” around the outside. Frankly, I think I knocked this one out of the park.

Aside from being extra long (so long it was too big for where I usually take photos of the t-shirt quilts), the t-shirt quilt on the left is a little unusual because it wasn't for just one person, it included shirts from several immediate and extended family members. So several people can snuggle up under it together. I thought this was a good idea for someone who wants a t-shirt quilt but doesn't have enough shirts from one person, or for a parent who has a few special shirts from more than one child.

If you want a closer look at either t-shirt quilt, just click on it.

"Women's Work" on Exhibit in Artist as Quiltmaker XX

My piece Women's Work is in the Artist as Quiltmaker 20th Biennial Contemporary Quilt Exhibition at the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts in Oberlin, Ohio from May 11-July 7 with a reception and awards ceremony on Saturday, June 22, from 1-3 pm. The gallery is located at the New Union Center for the Arts, 39 South Main Street in Oberlin, Ohio and is open T–Sa 11am–5pm and Su 1-5pm.

Hourglass Quilt Block Cards - Project Quilting

 

Hourglass quilt square cards, 4" x 6", made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 15, Challenge 4: Hourglass

Recap for "Hourglass":

You must use an hourglass SHAPE in your project, but you do not have to use the exact hourglass BLOCK.

It's a busy week; between work and a custom quilt, and an upcoming workshop, I knew it was going to have to be a small project. I was interested in how the Hourglass quilt block would work with a striped fabric and the only stripe from my stash that spoke to me this week was a rainbow stripe. 

I used the Scrapish.com Hourglass tutorial which is very easy and yields two complete squares, although that meant one of the stripes was going horizontal (which was what I was envisioning) and the other has the stripes going vertical (and also lining up) which I think helps reinforce the concept of an hourglass. I used the rainbow dot fabric because I thought it was fun: it was a complement to the colors in the stripe but a contrast in the shapes.

For this week I made four quilt block square cards. Usually the quilt squares that I make for my cards are either Pinwheel variations, Nine Patch, or occasionally Four Patch, but I think I will make more of the Hourglass squares using stripes.

Be sure to check out the other creative interpretations on the Hourglass block at the Project Quilting page.

More about Hourglass Quilt Square Cards

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

Read more about Project Quilting

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Hourglass page.

In the Garden of My Heart - Project Quilting

 

"The Garden of My Heart" 16" x 9", made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 15, Challenge 3: Inside Out

Recap for "Inside Out": 

Some part of your project must thematically or literally be inside out.

As I was thinking about this challenge, I remembered my art quilt "Life is Like a Box of Chocolates," where I took a quilt that was already quilted and cut it into 5" squares and machine raw-edge appliqued those squares to the background in a different arrangement leaving the batting visible on the sides. I also remembered that I had a piece that I'd started for Project Quilting's 2015 "Focus Through the Prism" challenges that was pieced and quilted but didn't work out the way I wanted to, so I cut it up and made some quilted postcards for later Project Quilting Challenges including two Modern Art Postcards and two 3D Flying Geese pieces that ended up being framed.

I was down to just a few pieces but I was able to cut out five hearts (sorry, it's hard to see the hearts that I traced on to cut around).

So this is two ways this piece is "Inside Out" because the hearts were previously quilted with batting, the batting shows around the edges and because the heart is an organ that's supposed to be on the inside.

To keep with the inside out theme, some of the pink fabrics piece for the background show the wrong side of the fabric (a technique I utilized back in season 2 with "Sometimes I Dream of Flying" because I didn't have enough green options...and a side note, I once bought a commercially made sundress partially because it had the wrong side of the fabric facing out). I also created the quilt backwards by quilting and binding with a facing before I started adding the flower hearts on the stems.

Here you can see the batting at the edge of the heart.

There's a yellow/green/blue variegated ribbon sewn on top of the stems and also framing the piece. Green heart-shaped are used for the leaves, and there are also two pink heart-shaped buttons on two of the flowers, and four smaller red heart-shaped buttons in the four corners.

More about In the Garden of My Heart

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

Read more about Project Quilting

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Inside Out page.

Lavender Haze - Project Quilting

"Lavender Haze" art is 5" x 7", frame is 7" x 9", made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 15, Challenge 2: Sky Color

Recap for "Sky Color":

Take inspiration from the colors of the sky, but exclude or use less than 10% of the usual blue.

I've made many quilts with skies, including some that weren't blue. On piece that I made for a Project Quilting Off Season Challenge was even titled "Red Sky at Night."

Pretty much all week here in southwestern Ohio, the sky has been gray. And while I don't have anything against the color gray, I prefer my skies to have more colors. I had several things that kept me from even really thinking about this challenge until the end of the week and no sudden inspirations until I looked into my kitchen cabinet and saw this mug.

Last summer we went on vacation to the west coast, and one of the places we stayed was Orca's Island which is on the western edge of Washington State, practically in Canada. We were fortunate to be there for their Solstice Parade which was very cool. Another cool thing was the Orca's Island Pottery where they have an amazing tree house and lots of pottery. My husband bought a mug. Our two friends who we were with each bought a mug. Bowing to peer pressure, I also selected a mug, the one shown, and I just love the colors. When I saw it in my cupboard, I realized they are sky colors, so I used this for my inspiration for this week, although I flipped the purples so the darks were at the top. I also eliminated the blue and focused more on the pink tones.

I call these small framed pieces Fabric Mosaics, and I haven't made one since 2019. I take small pieces of fabric, arrange them, fuse them down, cover with a piece of sheer tulle, then quilt everything in place.

In this one I added a few pieces of colored sheer fabrics beneath the larger piece and also added a round shell and some extra tulle on top. I hand stitched around the "moon" with some white embroidery floss.

I also couched a piece of yarn on top of the tulle and added some small pink pre-embroidered flowers with seed beads in the center.

More about Lavender Haze

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

Read more about Project Quilting

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Sky Colors page.

Rainbow Pinwheel Birdhouse - Project Quilting

 

"Rainbow Pinwheel Birdhouse" 8" x 10", made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 15, Challenge 1: Bird House

Recap for "Bird House":

Use the inspiration of a bird’s house for your project.

It's time again for Project Quilting...this is the 15th year! A little recap by the numbers:

• 729 quilts I've made to date
• 268 (almost 40%) of these are art quilts
• 80 (just over 10%) have been made for Project Quilting
• 9 of these quilts have had a bird on them (including 3 PQ quilts: "Sometimes I Dream of Flying," "Louie," and "Tweet Dreams")
• 1 framed fabric mosaic (not a PQ piece) had a bird's nest on it ("Home Tweet Home")

And for PQ 4.4 "Wish Upon a Star" I made a birdhouse ("Make a Little Birdhouse in Your Soul." After making that piece I made 15 more birdhouses!

I wasn't sure if I wanted to make another bird house for this challenge so I considered lots of other bird's houses but nothing was really speaking to me until I came across a photo of a quilt that was made of brightly colored pinwheels.

Now the Pinwheel block is probably my favorite block and I love the other patterns that develop when pinwheels are placed next to each other. But what I saw in this photo was that a birdhouse could be made using a pinwheel block for the bottom with the pointy part made from part of a pinwheel block above it.

I embellished it with multi-colored zig zag band for the roofline and colorful buttons that were shaped as both stars and hearts.

And the backing fabric? Birds of course!

A dozen other birdhouses. More about these are on my blog.

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

Read more about Project Quilting

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Bird House page.