DragonFlight - Project Quilting

 

"DragonFight" 6" x 6", made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 14, Challenge 6: Conquer a Fear

Recap for "Conquer a Fear":

Your project must involve conquering something that scares you.

OK, so I'm not scared of dragonflies. I'm not really fond of bugs in general, so I thought I'd start with baby steps and focus on an insect that I'm OK being around, and maybe when I encounter the insects that I don't like as much, I'll be able to see the similarities it has to a dragonfly.

I used the same gray sheer fabric for the dragonfly's wings that I used for the bee's wings in "Bee Kind" and the prism in "Breaking Light."

The background is a lovely batik that has greens and purples in it. I thought it looked like flowers in a garden that are out of focus because they're in the background. I also couched a piece of purply yarn along the bottom to add even more visual (and literal) texture.

It's wrapped around a canvas frame.

More about DragonFight

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Conquer a Fear page.

Kaleidoscope Table Runner and Placemats - Project Quilting

 

"Kaleidoscope Table Runner" 36" x 16", made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 14, Challenge 5: Sew Not a Square

Recap for "Sew Not a Square":

You may use no square shapes in your project.

If you look at the quilts on my website, at least half of them are square. But quilts lend themselves to the share shape. The designs are called "quilt squares" even. But I do sometimes make non-square quilts, including a few 3D art quilts, but something that lends itself well to rectangles are table runners. 

I had two large scale print fabric in my stash that told me they wanted to be made into a table runner, so I did. There was also enough fabric to make four placemats, which are also not square.

"Kaleidoscope Placemats" 12" x 16" each, also made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 14, Challenge 5: Sew Not a Square

I was glad the fabric told me what it wanted to be as I don't use a lot of large scale prints in my art quilts and the fabric was really cool.

And the prints on the fabric are also not squares.

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Sew Not Square page.

Bending Light - Project Quilting

"Bending Light" 6" x 6", made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 14, Challenge 3: 54-40 or Fight

Recap for "54-40 or Fight":

Be inspired by and use the traditional 54-40 or Fight block.

This is the 54-40 or Fight block. It's kind of cool for a traditional block and depending on where you put your darks and lights it can look quite different. 

I played around with some ideas using the whole block but I was mostly inspired by just a small part of it. 

If you imagine the block as a tic-tac-toe board, then I chose just the middle part in the bottom row, which made me think of a prism, even though most prisms are triangles whose sides are all the same length and this triangle is taller than it is wide.

My angles of refraction might also be off, but this isn't science, it's art inspired by science. The physics behind light is cool!

The rainbow is pieced and then appliqued to the black background. The prism is made with two pieces of sheer fabric, one that has sparkles on it and the top one is a thicker gray sheer.

The white line is a white yarn and around the prism are two black yarns, one of which has some green sparkles in it.

It's wrapped around a canvas frame.

More about Breaking Light

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the 54-40 or Fight page.

R is for Rabbit Baby Quilt - Project Quilting

"R is for Rabbit" 32" x 32", made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 14, Challenge 2: Pink Tint

Recap for "Pink Tint":

Some shade of pink must dominate this week's project.

I've had this adorable pink fabric with funny rabbits on it for several months and I knew it was going to become a baby quilt. 

I paired it with four patches made in pastel colors of pinks, yellows, blues, and purples. The binding is the blue and blue checkerboard fabric, and although it's hard to see, I used a variegated pastel pink-yellow-blue thread for the quilting.

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting, go here.

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

Holiday Bazaar this Saturday

There's a new holiday event in Yellow Springs

Holiday Bazaar

Saturday, November 26, 9 am-5 pm
Mills Park Hotel
321 Xenia Ave., Yellow Springs, OH 45387

This event will have over 40 vendors and 5 food trucks both inside and outside. I'll be inside.

I Will Paint Rainbows All Over Your Blues

"I Will Paint Rainbows All Over Your Blues," 21" x 24", made by Pam Geisel, June 2022

There are so many layers in this quilt:

- The bottom layer is the deep purple batik, most of which is visible under the umbrella

- Next are deep teal strips of fabric sewn as raw edge machine applique with rainbow colored yarn couched on top

- There are thick rainbow colored ribbon couched to the purple batik between the teal strips

The letter blocks have another four layers: a square, a diamond, the letter, then a square sheer are all quilted down with a rainbow variegated thread. 

The letters are arranged in a staggered layout so the top of the diamond point is between the letters in the rows above and below it.

The silhouette of the person dancing in the rain is a piece of very dark hand-dyed purple fabric. It kind of reads as black but it's a very rich purple. 

There are also bright blue bugle beads hand sewn as raindrops.

The quote is from a John Sebastian song, "Rainbows All Over Your Blues" (used with permission).

More about I'll Paint Rainbows All Over Your Blues

Granny Squares/VOTE art quilt series

 "Women's Work," "Peace Wheel," and "Half the Sky," each is 30" x 36" and are the Granny Square/VOTE series handmade by Pam Geisel. (Larger photos of each are at the bottom of the post.)

Each of these quilts features hand crocheted granny squares arranged and applique quilted on a vintage white curtain panel. The curtain panels are then quilted to a colored fabric.

Each granny square is a mini quilt with a layer of batting and sheer fabric behind the granny square and held together with hand stitching that create either a letter or a symbol with different colors of embroidery floss.

Each quilt has the word "VOTE' incorporated somewhere on the quilt and they are embellished with buttons and beads.

The last letter of “Work” is intentionally unfinished, with the embroidery floss left hanging.

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More about Women's Work

The original rhymed couplet is "Man may work from sun to sun, But woman's work is never done." I certainly know a lot of men who work very hard and their work is also never ending, but I believe women’s work won’t be done until ALL women have the same rights as men. In this quilt the VOTE is larger hand embroidered letters in the four corners.

More about Peace Wheel

After I made Women's Work I still had many of the hand crocheted granny squares left and I immediately came up with two more ideas that I wanted to play with. Peace Wheel doesn't have letters but it does have symbols that when arranged together form a peace sign in rainbow colors. In this quilt the VOTE is white yarn couched at the top of the quilt in script letters.

More about Half the Sky

I've always liked this quote as it implies and equality and not a competition. In this quilt the VOTE is made with blue glass bugle beads and is placed just under the word "THE."