The View From My Hammock - Quilt of the Week

 

The View From My Hammock," 20" x 27.5", made by Pam Geisel

We're almost half way through 2021 and things are opening back up and getting back to "normal." I came up with the idea for a Quilt of the Week to give me something to post on Social Media, since art shows and exhibits went away because of the pandemic, but I currently have two pieces out in exhibits, a group and a solo exhibit planned, and at least one art event on my schedule for the rest of the year, so I have more to promote but I'll continue with the Quilt of the Week.

This week's quilt, The View From My Hammock, was made from a photo I took in our backyard from (spoiler alert) my hammock. It's a layered applique created the way that the last two Quilt of the Week pieces (Time Lapse Moon Rise and High Line in New York City) were made, only those were made up mostly of square pieces for the sky and this one just wasn't working with square pieces so I switched to organic shapes.

The main thing I learned when making this was that making clouds is difficult. If you look at photos of clouds there are so many different shapes, textures, and colors and that even real clouds don't look real. For these clouds I added gray to the bottom of them to look like the shadows you see from the ground. I also incorporated lacey and sheer fabrics to provide them with visual texture.

Because this is the Quilt of the Week, it is 10% off the original price of $580 through 6/6/21 if you purchase directly from me. Details can be found here.

Layered Raw-Edge Appliqued Landscape Quilts featured in Art Quilting Studio Magazine

Two of my art quilts, "High Line in New York City" and "Time Lapse Moon Rise" are featured in Art Quilting Studio's Magazine's Summer 2021 issue.

The article that I wrote gives a brief description on how I made both of these landscape quilts using a layered raw-edge applique technique.

Art Quilting Studio is published quarterly and 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.

High Line in New York City - Quilt of the Week

High Line in New York City, 30" x 29", handmade by Pam Geisel

I'd read about the High Line, a 1.45-mile-long linear urban park in Manhattan built on an elevated section of the New York Central Railroad that is no longer used for trains, and thought it was pretty cool. I contacted a friend who lived in New York City and asked if she'd take some photos of the High Line and send them to me so I could make an art quilt.

She did and you can read about the process of making this quilt here.

The next year (exactly 6 years ago, Facebook reminded me a few days ago) we were able to make a trip to New York City. We had a great meal with our friend and also went to the High Line, where we started at one end and walked all the way to the other end, but never saw the view that I used for the art quilt. Perhaps we didn't notice it because we were facing the wrong way so we walked back to the other direction and still didn't find it.

Then we noticed there was a spur near the Chelsey Market and when we walked down to the little dead end, there's the view! It was interesting making art from a photo that I had not taken as I imagined the path went between the railroad tracks and the railing but it's actually on the other side of the bushes to the right of the railing, where most of the people are in this photo. (The bushes were larger in the photo that my friend took so you couldn't see the people there).

We really enjoyed visiting the High Line and will definitely go back when we return to New York City.

Because this is the Quilt of the Week, it is 10% off the original price of $970 through 5/30/21 if you purchase directly from me. Details can be found here.

Time Lapse Moon Rise - Quilt of the Week

 

Time Lapse Moon Rise, 20" x 31", handmade by Pam Geisel

I made this quilt for the Fly Me to the Moon traveling exhibit, 2016-2019 and it was included in the "Fly Me to the Moon: an Art Quilt Journey" by Susanne Miller Jones.

Because the earth is rotating while the moon "rises" it changes position in the sky,  rising at an angle. Depending on what time of day the moon rises, it will appear different colors.

All of the quilts in the exhibit had to be 20" x 31" in a portrait orientation so in order to fill up the space I decided to have a reflection of the moon in water.

I was able to see all the quilts together when they were at the Indianapolis Quilt Guild show in 2017.

The blog post I wrote when I made the quilt shows some photos of my process.

Because this is the Quilt of the Week, it is 10% off the original price of $800 through 5/23/21 if you purchase directly from me. Details can be found here.

Art and Social Justice II exhibit at the Ellington-White Gallery in Fayetteville, NC

My art quilt "Be a Spark" has been included in the national juried competition "Art and Social Justice II" at the Ellington-White Gallery in Fayetteville, NC. The exhibit runs through June 26.

Red Rubber Ball - Quilt of the Week

 

Red Rubber Ball, 20" x 20", handmade by Pam Geisel

The traditional block for the final Focus Through the Prism quilt was the Snowball block. Again I went with the nine patch arrangement and since red was the only color that was left, it made sense to me to make the snowballs into red rubber balls. 

If you've been reading all of these Quilt of the Week's for the Focus Through the Prism series, one of the reasons that I had red left was because it was actually the color I used for the very first challenge quilt but it ended up not working and I had to start over, only I used most all of the red and I had to reorder another piece, so it ended up getting used last.

All of the seven quilts in the Focus Through the Prism series:

- Use all of the seven colors but have one main color (with smaller pieces of fabric almost the same color to give it some visual texture)

- Have a black border with brown stars

- Have bits of the focus color on the black square in the middle, on the border, and on top of the other colors

- Have a piece of black yarn couched on top

- Have curved quilting lines 1/4" apart that echo the shape of the yarn

In this piece the focus color is RED and the yarn represents A BOUNCING BALL.

My series was featured in Art Quilting Studio Magazine's Autumn 2018 issue on working in a series and they were also included with several quilts that other people made for the Focus Through the Prism challenge including the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in 2016. Above is Red Rubber Ball with some of the other red quilts.

Because this is the Quilt of the Week, it is 10% off the original price of $300 and as a special deal, all of the Focus Through the Prism quilts are 10% off through 5/16/21 if you purchase directly from me. Details can be found here. 

New Bookmarks!

I have new bookmarks available in my Etsy shop.

Nine Ball - Quilt of the Week

 Nine Ball, 20" x 20", handmade by Pam Geisel

The traditional block for the sixth Focus Through the Prism quilt was the Nine Patch block. Both Positively Pinwheels, and to an extent Chasing Geese were already arranged in a Nine Patch fashion so technically this is a double nine patch. The four outside blocks are also little nine patches.

One thing about working in a series is the farther along you go, the fewer decisions you have to make because you've already made most of them. By this point I only had two colors left so I only had to decide what colors to put where within the Nine Patch blocks, what to do with the yarn shape, and what to name it.

The "What to name it" question was key for the theme of this quilt. 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). You might notice that the striped 9 ball (in the center of the Nine Patches), is made with two colors.

All of the seven quilts in the Focus Through the Prism series:

- Use all of the seven colors but have one main color (with smaller pieces of fabric almost the same color to give it some visual texture)

- Have a black border with brown stars

- Have bits of the focus color on the black square in the middle, on the border, and on top of the other colors

- Have a piece of black yarn couched on top

- Have curved quilting lines 1/4" apart that echo the shape of the yarn

In this piece the focus color is GREEN and the yarn represents A POOL CUE AND BALL.

My series was featured in Art Quilting Studio Magazine's Autumn 2018 issue on working in a series and they were also included with several quilts that other people made for the Focus Through the Prism challenge including the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in 2016. Above is Nine Ball with some of the other green quilts.

Because this is the Quilt of the Week, it is 10% off the original price of $300 and as a special deal, all of the Focus Through the Prism quilts are 10% off through 5/16/21 if you purchase directly from me. Details can be found here.