"Standing Tall" for New Beginnings Blog Hop!

"Standing Tall," 17" x 42.6", made by Pam Geisel, Jan. 2017

Welcome to the "Happy Harvest" collection in the Island Batik Ambassador's "New Beginnings" Blog Hop!

We were challenged to use at least 8 of the fabrics in the collection and create a piece that was at least 24" x 24". Bonus points if it fit the theme of "New Beginnings." (Just kidding, there aren't any points given.)

Here are seven of the eight fabrics that I used. Since I wasn't sure which fabrics would be in the final piece, I took the photo of the fabrics after I was finished, and I used up all of the background fabric in the quilt so it's not in the photo. (I also used another piece for the backing fabric so it's not in the photo, either.)

I let the fabrics tell me what they wanted to be, and they wanted to something in a forest. So it doesn't exactly fit into the "New Beginnings" theme.

I also fudged the size some. Once I decide to make a quilt of a giant redwood tree, I realized the quilt needed to be at least twice as high as it was wide. The fabrics we got for this collection were half yards (18" x 44") so I again let the fabrics talk to me and made the quilt the size of a half yard of fabric. (I figure if you do the math the square area of a quilt that is 24" x 24" is 576" and mine is 722.5" so even though it's not as wide as it's supposed to be, it is larger in square area.) (For the non-quilters who are wondering why if I started with a piece that was 18" x 44" how I ended up with a final piece that is 17 x 42.5", you loose some size when quilting and when doing the knife-edge binding.)

I started with the tree's trunk and fused three of the brown fabrics. Then I fussy-cut around the pine needles and fused them to make the branches. I added some highlights using the mint green background from the fabric that had the deer on it.

For the forest I again fussy cut around the pine trees in both the darker and lighter green fabrics and added a middle layer from the mint green background with the deer on it (you can see part of the deer's horns in the bottom right of the photo above.)

I machine free-motion quilted along the raw edges, in the green branches, and in the background. I used a knife-edge binding and then couched on some chunky varigated green yarn that has the same colors as the fabrics. I did that after the binding so it would be the same distance from all edges, although it doesn't go across the bottom.

As always, you can click on any of the photos to see the images lager.

More about Standing Tall

Morning Glories for Georgia

"Morning Glories for Georgia," 24 x 30, handmade by Pam Geisel, November 2016

I made this art quilt to honor American artist Georgia O'Keeffe who is best known for her large scale paintings of flowers, New Mexico landscapes, and New York skyscrapers. By the mid-1920s, she began creating large-scale paintings of natural forms at close range, at a time when no one else was doing this. She learned about cropping from her husband Alfred Stiglitz' photography and used it to with her flower paintings because she want to make sure people really saw the flower. She even wrote of her desire to glorify flowers, “I’ll paint it big, and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it. I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.”

The hardest part of making this quilt was deciding what flower to use. I looked at her paintings of flowers. And I looked at photographs of flowers. And I took my own photographs of flowers to look at. I considered Jack-in-the-Pulpits because there is a quilt square that goes by that name, but I didn’t like the colors in them.

It wasn't until I looked through my stash of hand-dyed fabric that I decided to focus on Morning Glories. (when in doubt, let the fabric tell you what it wants to be). Much like Georgia's paintings of morning glories, I included two flowers in my piece, but I did come up with my own composition.

When I drew the outline of the morning glories I did intentionally avoid any sharp edges trying to keep the shapes as organic as possible. And I focused on keeping Georgia’s intention of glorifying the humble flower.

It is machine raw-edged pieced with machine quilting along the raw edges and also in the petals and background. I couched three pieces of hand-spun yarn for the stamens. It has a knife-edge binding.

As always you can click on the photos to see them larger.

More about Morning Glories for Georgia

PS. This is my 400th blog post!

Solo Art Quilt Exhibit at the Yellow Springs Brewery

Left to right: Red Rubber Ball, Positively Pinwheels, A Second Self, Nine Ball, Monkey Tail, Chasing Geese, and Cabin Sweet Cabin

I am very excited to have my own solo show at the Yellow Springs Brewery! It will be the first time that all of my "Focus Through the Prism" quilts (above) have been show together locally.

Top left: String Theory; bottom left: Ten Stars on Sticks; right: Journey

It is also the first time that "Journey" (the red and black one above, right) will be shown (not including during the Open Studios event that was held at my studio).

Left: Branches; top right: The View From My Hammock; bottom right: Mermaid Haiku

The exhibit runs from Jan. 10 through Feb. 5 and is free and open to the public Mon.-Fri. from 3-10 pm, Sat. from 1-10 pm, and Sun. from 1-8 pm. The Yellow Springs Brewery is located at 305 N. Walnut St. in Yellow Springs.

There will be an art party on Sun., Jan. 15 from 2-4 pm.

Hope - Project Quilting

"Hope," art is 2.5" x 4" in a 5" x 7" frame, made by Pam Geisel for Project Quilting, Season 8, Challenge 1: Eight is Great, Jan. 2017 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

Challenge recap for "Eight is Great":

Since this is the eighth year for Project Quilting, your inspiration for this challenge is eight.

I had a lot of ideas for this project, so many that I had difficulty deciding which one to do. So I decided to look through my fabric stash and let it tell me. I dug into my hand-dyed fabrics and they wanted to be an flower with eight petals. I was also inspired by the local weather.

This is the view out my studio window today. Which is why I named this piece "Hope."

It is raw-edge applique with micro stippling in the green background with a variegated thread.

More about Hope

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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 Eight is Great challenge link up.

Blog Hop: Island Batik Ambassador's "New Beginnings" Kick Off

The Island Batik Ambassador's are hosting a blog hop. Each day over the next couple of weeks, we’ll feature a new fabric collection and link to at least one Ambassador blog to see what she made with these wonderful fabrics. Be sure to follow along every day as we have lots of goodies to give away!

Here’s the schedule with the dates and collection names:

M 1/9 - Coastal Mist Collection
Stone Cottage Designs

T 1/10 - Dotalicious Collection
Adele Mogavero
Vicki's Crafts and Quilting
Pamela Quilts
Inch Worm Fabrics

W 1/11 - Drizzle Collection
Adventurers in Applique and Quilting

Th 1/12 - Fifi and Fido and Happy Hounds Collections
Mary Macks Blog
Quilting Affection

F 1/13 - Fresh Catch Collection
BejeweledQuilts by Barb

M 1/16 - Glowing Embers Collection
PurrfectSpots

T 1/17 - Lake Life Collection
FreeMotion by the River

W 1/18 - River's Edge Collection
Ark Angel Creations
Archipelago Quilting

F 1/20 - Blushing Blooms Collection
Desert Bloom Quilting

M 1/23 - Gone Fishin' Collection
Maria Michael Designs

W 1/25 - Surf and Sand Collection
The Patchwork Pearl
BeaQuilter

Th 1/26 - Twilight Blush Collection
Kissed Quilts

F 1/27 - Happy Harvest Collection
Me!

M 1/30 - Jolly Holly Collection
Kauffman Designs

T 1/31 - Frost Collection
MooseStashQuilting

W 2/1 - Merry and Bright Collection
Patchwork Breeze