Project Quilting Season 10

It's time for Project Quilting's tenth season! It's a three month on-line event that challenges participants to create a quilt in one week, with a week off in between. You can participate in as few or as many as you like. Participants are entered into random prize drawings and at the end of the season there are grand prizes awarded. The more challenges you enter, the better your chances.

I've participated in every year in some form or another (and I was the overall grand prize winner of Season 2). Some of my favorite quilts that I've made were Project Quilting challenges.

The schedule for 2019 is:
Challenge 1: January 6
Challenge 2: January 20
Challenge 3: February 3
Challenge 4: February 17
Challenge 5: March 3
Challenge 6: March 17

Each challenge is posted at noon CDT and due exactly one week later at noon CDT.

Here's a post with some tips about how to participate.

The challenge will be posted on the "Persimon Dreams" Project Quilting blog and you can also find links about past seasons there.

Custom Quilts made in 2018

It's my annual look back on the custom quilts I made during the year that I haven't shared yet (some were gifts).

Click on the photos to see larger views.

Bellbrook T-shirt quilt, 48" x 80"

Beavercreek T-shirt quilt, 46" x 76"

Christmas Quilt Fabric Mosaic, 11" x 14" framed

"Louie", 24" x 14"

Quilts printed on mugs

We ordered three mugs from Pam-Geisel.pixels.com and are very happy with the way they came out. Shown above are "Four Patch Bridge at Sunset," "Be Still My Beaded Hearts," and "Early Morning Nine Patch." The colors are so rich, which is good because the bridge and barn quilt have a lot of contrast in their colors.

I picked these three because they are the only ones that will fill up the image area without cropping or without a color printed in the extra area (although that color can be white). On the website you can see the item in 3D to see all sides of the mug (you can also do this with other items including tote bags). Although the 3D image showed the image wrapping under the handle, it does not, although I'm still pleased with the results.

They are microwave and dishwasher safe and come in two sizes. You can check out all the options at Pam-Geisel.pixels.com. Shipping was $6 for one and $12 for three, so it's more than the t-shirts but these are heavier and breakable.

"Life is Like a Box of Chocolates" in the OOVAR Exhibit in Columbus

"Life is Like a Box of Chocolates," 53" x 53", made by Pam Geisel, 2014

My art quilt "Life is Like a Box of Chocolates" is on exhibit with the 12th Annual Ohio Online Visual Artist Registry Juried Exhibition. The exhibit runs through Jan. 12, 2019 at the Carnegie Gallery on the second floor of the Columbus Metropolitan Main Library located at 96 S. Grant St. in Columbus, Ohio. There will be a closing reception on Sat. Jan. 12 from 2-4 pm.

This year's theme is "My Treasures are Within" which comes from the inscription on the front of the main library.

Quilts printed on t-shirts

Now that my images are loaded on to Pam-Geisel.pixels.com, we decided to do a test run. We ordered five t-shirts and are very happy with the results. Above is me in my "High Line in New York City" on a gray shirt next to the same quilt.

The shirts are a good quality and are soft. And while you can feel the printing, it doesn't feel like it's been painted on like some images on t-shirts do. Above is "Saturn Orbiting" on a navy colored shirt. Because the background is so close to the color of the quilt the image is a little subtle but it's a nice effect. The original quilt is small (7" x 7") so it's larger than the original so you can see the actual stitches from the quilting.

This is "Three Pines" on a charcoal colored shirt. This original was also small (6" x 6") and the trees were outlined with yarn. Even on the shirt it looks like the yarn is three dimensional.

This is "Time Lapse Moon Rise" on a silver colored shirt. All four are the men's athletic cut. There are more color choices in the men's regular fit. There are also v-necks, hooded sweatshirts, long sleeve shirts, tank tops, baseball shirts, women's shirts (my experience is to get a size larger than you usually do), kids and toddler shirts, and onesies. You can check out all the options at Pam-Geisel.pixels.com.

Shipping for the first shirt was $5 and free after that, so we got all five shirts shipped for $5.

You can click on any image to see it larger.

Prints, T-shirts, Mugs, & Much, Much More!

"Early Morning Nine Patch," "Be Still My Beaded Hearts," and "Four Patch Bridge at Sunset" printed on mugs.

You can now order my images as:

Stationary : greeting cards & spiral notebooks

Apparel : t-shirts for all ages, tank tops, & onesies

Home Decor : mugs, pillows, fleece blankets, duvet covers, towels, & shower curtains

Lifestyle : yoga mats, tote bags, & pouches

Tech : phone cases & portable battery chargers

Prints : framed, canvas, metal, wood, posters, & tapestries

All items are at: Pam-Geisel.pixels.com

Not all images work for all items:
T-Shirts : Vertical & squares are best

Mugs : Horizontals are best. For most of the abstract images I cropped them to fill up the whole image area but you can change that if you want the whole image to show.

Tech & Yoga Mats : Horizontal -or- Vertical images are best (YOU CAN change the orientation)

Duvet Covers : square & vertical images work best (most images will have some background color under the pillows and where the cover drapes over the side of the bed

YOU CAN select different background colors! ...AND crop images differently! ...AND add a message inside the Greeting Cards!

"Beach Time" and "In Search of the Yellow Submarine" printed on shower curtains.

All items are at: Pam-Geisel.pixels.com

Celestial Winter: Wall Hanging, Post Cards, and Ornaments

I recently did a favor for a friend and to show her thanks, she gave me some fabric. There was one piece in the bunch, a fat quarter titled "Celestial Winter" by Jason Yenter from In The Beginning Fabrics that I was immediately drawn to.

Now I like to tell people that I let the fabric tell me what it wants to be. Sometimes fabrics just tell me that they want to be place mats or table runners. Other times it's more specific. Back when I was making "Early Morning Nine Patch" I was trying to decide what fabric to use for the barn when I realized that the title on the selvage edge was "Barn Red" so that time it was literally speaking to me.

This time Celestial Winter was speaking to me and it said "Use me."

"But I have to work on stuff for the upcoming Open Studios," I replied.

Celestial Winter loudly repeated "USE ME."

"I really don't have the time," I replied.

But it would not let me ignore it.

So I did. I made a wall hanging, ten postcards, and five tree ornaments. In one week. (I had to work quickly because I still had things I needed to finish for the Open Studios that was less than two weeks away).

Here is the fabric before I cut into it. (This is not the actual piece that I had, this is the preview that In The Beginning Fabrics has on their website). I ironed fusible adhesive (Heat-n-Bond lite) on the back of the whole fat quarter then cut the shapes out. This is called fussy cutting and it doesn't get much fussier than this, can you see how close together the images are? In some places I had about 1/16" of an inch of black left around the shapes. I wanted a little bit of black around them so when I fused them to a back background it would look seamless.

I fused six main pieces to a black fabric from my stash (one that I used for "Lavender Diamonds").

I also fused some groupings of stars on most of the pieces. Four around each round shape and two with the deer and the owl.

I pieced the six rectangles with green sashing and borders then sandwiched the quilt top with a cotton batting and backing.

I stitched around the fused pieces with black thread on the black edge that I left when fussy cutting.  It was pretty hard to see when sewing down but I took it slowly and did it. Because it was already sandwiched, this is also the quilting.

I also quilted stitch-in-the-ditch around the edges where the black was pieced with the green.

Then I folded the front around to the back for a binding. I added sleeves and a label.

I love how it looks like the fabric is glowing from within.

Because I already had fusible adhesive on the back of the fabric, I took used the other large images, some which were cut off because they were at the edge of the fabric, to make some postcards.

I used the same black fabric for the backgrounds and added the red and blue stripes which were not a part of the original fabric. Then I fused them to a thick innerfacing and satin stitched around the edges with a black thread.

There were also nine colorful trees. They were too small to be postcards so I fused them to a green fabric, then fused them to some innerfacing (the kind I use for postcards) then satin stitched around the edges with a green thread. Because there were nine trees, four of these are double sided.

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

Yellow Springs Open Studios this weekend

This weekend is the Yellow Springs Open Studios event. There are 29 artists at 17 locations. This year I'll be a guest at Libby Rudolf's studio, located at 3950 Grinnell Rd. just outside of Yellow Springs.

The event is Sat. & Sun., Oct. 20 & 21, from 10am-5 pm. Click here for an interactive map of studio locations (artists are organized alphabetically by FIRST name). Printed brochures will also be available at the studios, and also in downtown Yellow Springs.

Black & White Safari in B&W+1

My Black & White Safari Baby Quilt in the Village Artisan's community lobby show "B&W+1" on view through Nov. 13 with an artist reception THIS FRIDAY during the Yellow Springs Art Stroll from 6-9 pm.

New Placemats & Table Runners

I recently made some placemats and table runners (the shibori table runner can also be hung on the wall). They are currently in my Etsy shop (where you can also see more photos of them), and I'll have them at the Yellow Springs Open Studios on Oct 20 & 21. After that any that are left will go to Village Artisans.

Mini Millefiori Moonlight

"Mini Millefiori Moonlight," 10" x 8", made by Pam Geisel, October 2018

I know that not everyone has the funds and space for my larger art quilts so I made a smaller version of Millefiori Moonlight which is only 10" x 8".

I used the layout as the original and the same fabrics including the background fabrics and the "Roman Glass" by Kaffe Fassett.

It also has the same couched yarn. I put three smaller beads where the original had larger buttons.

Working in a Block Series featured in Art Quilting Studio Magazine

The series of seven art quilts that I made for the Project Quilting "Focus Through the Prism" challenge are featured in Art Quilting Studio's Magazine's Autumn 2018 issue.

The article that I wrote gives a brief description on the though process I went through when making these pieces and some of the techniques I used.

The quilts in this series are: Red Rubber Ball, Positively Pinwheels!, A Second Self, Nine Ball, Monkey Tail, Chasing Geese, and Cabin Sweet Cabin.

Art Quilting Studio, which used to be published only two times a year, is now published quarterly! It is packed full of new quilting techniques and innovative design ideas.

It is one of many publications put out by Stampington & Company. I've heard it's available at some Joann stores. You can find a store near you where it's sold or order it directly from the Stampington website.

Millefiori Moonlight

"Millefiori Moonlight," 39 x 28, handmade by Pam Geisel, Sept. 2018

My initial inspiration for this quilt was the colorful sunsets we’ve been having due to the wildfires out west. I knew I wanted to make a quilt that was primarily dark cool colors (blues and purples) with some pops of warm colors (yellows, oranges, and reds).

First I got out all the blues and purple fabrics (commercial cottons and batiks) and pulled out the ones I thought would work. I didn't use all of the ones in this photo, but I did use most of them. I pieced the background with half square triangles and with the blues and a few blue/purple fabrics for the sky (getting a little lighter where the moon would be), the dark purples for the bottom mountain range, and the plums for the middle mountain range.

Top left photo - background for the purple cloud and the Roman Glass fabric; top right photo -background for the red cloud with the Roman Glass fabric; bottom left photo - background for the bottom orange cloud with the Roman Glass fabric; and the bottom right photo - background for the middle orange cloud with the swirls cut from the center fabric and the Roman Glass fabric.

As I was selecting fabrics to use, I was also inspired by some fabrics called "Roman Glass" by Kaffe Fassett for Westminister Fabrics that had color circles on top of other colored circles, but I thought they were too dense for my needs so I cut the circles out and fused to other fabrics to create the clouds. I also fused nine of these circles to the moon.

With the piecing and raw edge applique done, it was time to quilt! I used navy blue and purple threads to quilt lines that echoed the clouds and mountain ranges with the lines being 1/4" apart and mostly running horizontal.

There is no quilting on the moon and since the quilting around the moon is so dense. it puffed up away from the background. I stuffed a few extra pieces of batting behind the moon to help it stay puffed. I also couched yarn around the mountain ranges, the clouds, and the moon.

I hand sewed six buttons (as pairs) in the lower right corner to help balance the moon in the upper left corner. I also added some glass beads to the moon. I finished the quilt with a knife-edge binding.

The layered fabric circles reminded me of millefiori which is an Italian glasswork technique with multicolored patterns which are viewable only from the cut ends of the glass cane, and this also gave me the name for the quilt. Now that I think about it, the Kaffe Fassett fabric was called Roman Glass so I think we're on the same wavelength.

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

More about Millefiori Moonlight.

Art on the Lawn, Sat. Aug. 11 in Yellow Springs

Me at Art on the Lawn last year.

Art on the Lawn is this Saturday, Aug 11 from 10 am-5 pm at Mills Lawn, 200 S. Walnut St. in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I'll be there under the shade of the trees with my art. There will be around 100 artists, plus some food vendors and live musicians. The show is sponsored by Village Artisans, where I am a member.

Black & White African Safari Baby Quilt

"Black & White African Safari" baby quilt, 34" x 34", handmade by Pam Geisel

In October, Village Artisans is having a community lobby show with the theme B&W+1 (black and white plus one color). In August, the Quiltsy Team (a group of on-line quilters on Etsy) is having a challenge called "Black & White & Spread All Over" in which we were to make something that was, you guessed it, black and white plus one color! Two birds! One stone!

I have several black & white fabrics in my stash so I chose one that had black and white drawings of African safari animals including giraffes, zebras, elephants, and cheetahs. I decided that my plus one color would be red.

I pieced them with alternating black or red squares, with the red squares in the center. I also added a thin red inner border around the squares.

I added a black outer border then quilted "x"s through the squares using red thread. The backing and binding are a black & white zebra print.

You can see the other Quiltsy Team pieces on their Pinterest page. The exhibit at Village Artisans (in Yellow Springs) will be Oct. 4-Nov. 13 with an artist reception on Oct. 19 from 6-9 pm.

More about Black & White African Safari Quilt

Using Hand Dyed Fabrics featured in Art Quilting Studio Magazine

Two of my art quilts, "Daybreak is Your Midnight" and "Early Morning Nine Patch" are featured in Art Quilting Studio's Magazine's Summer 2018 issue.

The article that I wrote gives a brief description on how I made both of these pieces which use hand dyed fabrics and also has lists some places where you can buy hand dyed fabrics on-line.

Art Quilting Studio, which used to be published only two times a year, is now published quarterly! It is packed full of new quilting techniques and innovative design ideas.

It is one of many publications put out by Stampington & Company. I've heard it's available at some Joann stores. You can find a store near you where it's sold or order it directly from the Stampington website.

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Another way I like to use hand dyed fabrics is when I make bookmarks which can be found on my Etsy page.