"Cosmic Connectivity" on Exhibit with "Best of 2013" Traveling Show

"Cosmic Connectivity" detail

My art quilt "Cosmic Connectivity" is in the Ohio Designer Craftsman's "Best of 2013" show. The traveling exhibit will be at the following locations:

Ohio Craft Museum
1665 W Fifth Ave., Columbus, Ohio 
May 5-June 23
Opening reception: Sun., May 5, 1-4 pm 

Southern Ohio Museum
825 Gallia St., Portsmouth, Ohio
July 12-September 20
 
Springfield Museum of Art
107 Cliff Park Rd. Springfield, Ohio October 5-December 1 (possibly longer)

The Blue Collection

"The Blue Collection," designed by Maggie Walker, hand applique by Barbara Pate, assembled and quilted by Pam Geisel, completed April 2013, approx. 60" x 60"

My friend Susan's sister Barbara started this quilt but was unable to finish it, so Susan asked me to complete it. I don't know when Barbara started it, but the pattern, which was created by Maggie Walker, was originally a block-of-the-month quilt and is copyright 1997.

Fortunately for me, Barbara did about 85 percent of the hand applique, including all of the pots, plates, and bowls. This technique is one that I'm not that good at, and I don't really enjoy doing it. I've had a lot of practice doing squares and rectangles (for sleeves and labels) but complicated curved pieces are more that I can handle. I did applique about half of the small leaves, the vines in the outer border, and a few other random pieces, and even those took a lot of time.

The middle part was mostly pieced but I did assemble three of the borders and about half of the blue and white checker board sashing.

I did dense free motion stipple quilting on the yellow background to compress the fabric in that area and make the pots and fruit stand out, and most of the pots have some free motion quilting on them.

The backing fabric has blue and white teacups on it! As always, click on any of the photos to see a larger version.

Industrial Dayton - Day 1

"Dayton Landmark Quilts Redux: Industrial Dayton C" (number three of three) to be made by Pam Geisel, 17" x 42", April 2013; reference photo on the left taken by Ronnie Doyal.

A few years ago the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network made several slice quilts from photos of Dayton landmarks. We enjoyed the project so much we decided it was time for a "redux." The photo above on the left was the piece that I was assigned. It's the right most slice of a three part quilt.

This time we were also given an outline drawing. Ronnie, the photographer, used a photo editing program to assign outlines to the buildings then printed it out the actual size that we would need. This one will be 17" wide and 42" high. 

Last time we did this, there were some issues because people went to different copy shops to have their photos enlarged and some of them weren't the correct height. The height is important so that all the quilts will line up when they are hung together.

Having the outlines given to me saved me the step of having to trace the outlines to work from.

If you're familiar with the Dayton area, Ronnie took this photo from the pavilion at the lookout at Woodland Cemetery. The red box shows the part that the three quilts will be made from. The mist behind the buildings (on the left side of my slice) are from the fountains at Riverscape.

Last time I traced my outlines on a back ground fabric and built the quilt on top of that. This time I traced the outlines onto a piece of lightweight fusible innerfacing (with the sticky side up). Because the innerfacing is so thin, it was easy to see the outlines when I was tracing. That also makes it difficult to photograph.

Since you need room for the binding and also extra space if the images shift during the quilting process, I extended all of my shapes 1" beyond the edge of my printed outlines.

Tomorrow...picking fabric and getting started.

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To read about all of the steps in making this quilt, click here.

Industrial Dayton - Day 2

"Dayton Landmark Quilts Redux: Industrial Dayton C" (number three of three) made by Pam Geisel, 17" x 42", April 2013; reference photo on the left taken by Ronnie Doyal. 

It might not look like I got a lot done but I spent several hours going through my fabric stash to choose the fabrics I wanted to use for this quilt. I like to use batik fabrics for a few reasons:

- They are usually a fairly solid color but have some pattern (texture) to them so they don't read as a flat color.

- They are a higher thread count and less likely to fray on the edges. This technique is raw edge applique so the edges remain exposed.

- They have color all the way through so I don't have to worry about light "outlines" on the edge of the pieces.

I fused the tree and sky pieces directly to the fusible innerfacing.

Tomorrow...starting the buildings on the right side.

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To read about all of the steps in making this quilt, click here.

 

Industrial Dayton - Day 3

"Dayton Landmark Quilts Redux: Industrial Dayton C" (number three of three) made by Pam Geisel, 17" x 42", April 2013; reference photo on the left taken by Ronnie Doyal.  

I worked on the buildings on the right side of the photo, including the top of the church. 

I used fusible web on the back of the fabrics, making sure to trace the shapes from the back side of my outline reference so they are the reverse on the back of the fabric. I usually use a light box to trace the shapes onto the fusible web.

I like to work in small sections so I don't get the fused pieces mixed up.

Tomorrow...the buildings on the left side.

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To read about all of the steps in making this quilt, click here.

 

Industrial Dayton - Day 4

"Dayton Landmark Quilts Redux: Industrial Dayton C" (number three of three) made by Pam Geisel, 17" x 42", April 2013; reference photo on the left taken by Ronnie Doyal.  

I was able to finish most of the buildings at the bottom of the quilt, and the top of the building on the left.

Where the fabrics meet I like to make them a little larger so the fabric will overlap the piece beneath it so there isn't a gap. The black windows were fused on top of the brick colored fabric. It's also important to mark on the fusible web which part of the shape is the top.

Tomorrow...finish the buildings, make the graffiti, and figure out how to make the mist/spray.

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To read about all of the steps in making this quilt, click here.

 

Industrial Dayton - Day 5

"Dayton Landmark Quilts Redux: Industrial Dayton C" (number three of three) made by Pam Geisel, 17" x 42", April 2013; reference photo on the left taken by Ronnie Doyal.

I finished the buildings, the graffiti, and started on the mist/spray.

For the graffiti, I chose a white fabric that had a fairly large weave to it. I used some fabric markers drew the image onto the fabric. Because it had a large weave there was a little bit of bleeding, but I was OK with that because I was trying to imitate the look of spray paint.

For the spray from the fountains I used some roving that I pulled apart and covered with netting. I tucked the netting behind the buildings to help hold it down. Because the netting will melt if you get it too hot, I wasn't able to fuse the buildings on top of it, I had to pin in in place, which can be seen around the smoke stacks.

Tomorrow...quilting!

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To read about all of the steps in making this quilt, click here.

 

Industrial Dayton - Day 6

 

 "Dayton Landmark Quilts Redux: Industrial Dayton C" (number three of three) made by Pam Geisel, 17" x 42", April 2013; reference photo on the left taken by Ronnie Doyal.  

It doesn't look much different from yesterday's photos but I spent 6 hours and got most of it quilted.

Here's a detail shot of the quilting in the middle. The fused pieces on the buildings were quilted on their edges to hold them down. The background has free motion quilting which also holds down the netting. (As always, you can click on the photo to see a larger view of it.)

And a view of the quilting from the back. The thread was chosen to match the fabric on the front, so some of them really show up on the pale green backing fabric.

After I quilted the netting down at the top of the treeline, I trimmed the netting away from the sky. I put some fray check along the edge as extra insurance.

Tomorrow...finishing!

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To read about all of the steps in making this quilt, click here.

 

Industrial Dayton - Finished!

"Dayton Landmark Quilts Redux: Industrial Dayton C" (number three of three) made by Pam Geisel, 17" x 42", April 2013; reference photo on the left taken by Ronnie Doyal. 

I finished the quilting then did the binding. Because we don't want any visual interruptions when the quilts hang together, we were asked to "face" the quilts. I used my favorite binding technique although I faced the two sides first, then I laid my outline reference on top of the quilt to figure out where the bottom needed to be. Then I faced the bottom. I measured up from the bottom exactly 42" then added the facing to the top. Then I signed the back. Finished!

The quilts will all be on display soon, I'll be sure to post dates one I know them. Below are some detail photos of my quilt. As always, you can click on the photos to see larger versions.

Detail photo of the sky, treeline and mist.

Detail photo of the middle of the quilt.

Detail photo of the bottom of the quilt.

Detail photo of the spray from the fountains.

Detail photo of the church bell tower.

 Detail photo of the graffiti.

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To read about all of the steps in making this quilt, click here.

Contest Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest to win the book "The Giving Quilt" by Jennifer Chiaverini plus the quilt pins. I wish I could send a book and pins to everyone who entered!

I used a random number generator to choose the winners and something odd happened. There were nine entries and the first number picked was Number 1, and the second number picked was Number 9! So congrats to the first and last entries, Sheri Cain and PatsPassion!