Nine Ball - Project Quilting

"Nine Ball," 20" x 20", made for Project Quilting, Focus Through the Prism, Challenge 6: Nine Patch, Oct. 2015 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

This is my sixth entry in the Project Quilting "Focus Through the Prism" challenge. To play along you need to purchase a ROYGBIV hand-dyed bundle of fabric from Cherrywood Fabrics and then at the beginning of the month a traditional quilting block is selected. Participants get to chose which of the seven focus fabrics they want to emphasize for the month, but other fabrics can be added.

All quilts will be made 20" x 20" with the intention of displaying them together in the future.

October's block is "Nine Patch."

I wanted my design to be similar to the other quilts I've made for the Focus Through the Prism challenges: "Monkey Tail",  "A Second Self", "Cabin Sweet Cabin", "Positively Pinwheels!" and "Chasing Geese."

You might notice that the general layout for all of the ones I've done for this series are a Nine Patch block with the center block being black. For this challenge it was a matter of deciding whether to make the eight outside blocks all Nine Patches or just some of them. I decided to just do the four corners, so the Nine Patch would be more obvious, and it would give me larger areas for my focal color of green.

All that was left were three decisions to make: what colors to put where within the Nine Patch blocks, what to do with the yarn shape, and what to name it.

I played around with several different color combinations within the four Nine Patch blocks, but nothing really stood out, so I decided to move on to the "What to name it" question. I thought about phrases with the word "Nine" in them and when I thought of the pool game "Nine Ball" I realized that my focal color was green, the same color as the cloth on a pool table.

I did some research to find out what colors the balls are for the game Nine Ball and decided that would be the colors I'd use in my Nine Patches. I did have to make one small change, the 7 ball is usually burgundy and not only did I not want to introduce a new color at this point, I wanted to use all of the colors from the Focus Through the Prism set so I used my artistic license and changed it to the only color not represented, the blue color (I used the indigo for the blue ball).

There are a few places that this quilt deviates from the others in the series. It's the only one that represents something else instead of just being abstract. It's the only one with black outside of the center square and borders, but I didn't want it too far out so they are the squares that touches the center black square. And it's the only one with a significantly lighter color. In order to make the striped 9 ball (in the center of the Nine Patches), instead of using white, because I thought it would stand out too much, I used a lighter yellow. It's subtle.

I pieced four Nine Patch blocks, which was a little tricky because the final blocks were 5" finished size, so the smaller squares are 1.667" which is not a measurement on my ruler. I estimated between the lines and it came out just about right. I pieced the Nine Patch blocks with the green squares then pieced them together around by 5" black center. I fused fabric in similar colors on top of the pieced fabrics and I used the same border fabric and couched a piece of black yarn, this time representing a pool cue and pool ball. Then I quilted black quilting lines that echoed the yarn at 1/4" apart.

I used a knife-edge facing to bind the quilt.

More about Nine Ball and my Focus Through the Prism series

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting's Focus Through the Prism, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Nine Patch link up.

My Quilt "Gypsy Moon" on the set of The Art Show

If you live in the Dayton, Ohio area, you can see one of my quilts without leaving the comfort of your living room. My art quilt "Gypsy Moon" has been lent to the producers of The Art Show to use on their set. You can see it in the upper left part of the photo, and it really pops off the wall. This is for Season 4 which is taping now and I believe will start airing this week.

The Art Show is a weekly program broadcast on ThinkTV16 on Sunday afternoons at 5pm. The show features local artists, as well as regional and national arts highlights. In this photo host Rodney Veal (in the yellow chair) is interviewing artist Matt Kish; his episode will air on January 24.

The photo was taken by Bill Franz, who is spending his retirement as a volunteer photographer, doing photo projects for the Humane Society and for almost two dozen other organizations. You can check out his blog "Dayton Artists at Work" and his Facebook page "Dayton at Work and Play."

The FINAL Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour: meet my guest artists

This weekend is the 15th and Final Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour. On Sat., Oct. 17 and Sun. Oct. 18, from 10 am-6 pm you can visit 26 artists at eight locations. This is my eigth year participating as a host, and this year I have three guest artists. Let's have a look at what they do.

Alice Young-Basora creates unique jewelry using beads of stone, glass, and handmade paper, vintage buttons, and recycled fabrics and painted canvas. Each handmade bead is unique, as is each painted canvas flower, yielding completely different pieces of jewelry art. When using hand-painted canvas, fabric, paper and beads, she uses up-cycled materials when possible.

Geno Luketic creates both functional and sculptural pottery. Wood firing allows the nature of the material be apparent in the finished work as he does not want to hide the clay beneath harsh uniform glazes or sharp structured forms.

Krissie Mastin’s art is a journey. She scours the Midwest for leftover articles from the past. Once her stash is sufficient, she pounds, melts, hammers, transfers, patinates, and shines to reinvent beauty from the leftover and forgotten. Most of her designs include basic metalworking techniques incorporated with found objects, recycled metals and oddities unknown to create inspirational pieces that have meaning to their wearer.

The tour is a driving tour. Visit the Yellow Springs Artist Studio Tour website for more information about the other hosts and guest artists and to download a tour map. Maps can also be picked up at the Winds Cafe, Young's Dairy, the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce, and at the artists studios the days of the tour. All studios will have red balloons and signs. 

Autumn Table Runner, Just in Time for Fall!

 

"Autumn Island Batik Table Runner," 36" x 9" handmade by Pam Geisel, Oct. 2015

Here's a little project I finished recently, using some of the Island Batik fabrics that I got last Spring. This table runner uses 17 different fabrics and each piece is approximately 1" x 3".

Here's the table runner on my dining room table. The backing is a yellow green and the binding a darker green.

And here's a close up of the detail in the fabric.