A Second Self - Quilt of the Week

A Second Self, 20" x 20", handmade by Pam Geisel

Last week's Quilt of the Week was the first of the Focus Through the Prism quilts and it set the style for all the quilts that we still to come. Like the Monkey's Wrench quilt block, the block for this quilt, the Friendship Star, has a square in the middle that I could have made black (like last week's) but I felt the square in the center should be the same color as the adjacent triangles to form the star. But I was able to arrange the stars into a four-patch and make one of the corner blocks of each square black so when they were assembled the black center square would appear.

I chose the yellow fabric for this one because stars are often yellow in artwork.

So 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 YELLOW and the yarn represents A CELTIC FRIENDSHIP SYMBOL (simplified).

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 A Second Self with some of the other yellow 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.

Project Quilting's Focus Through the Prism: All Seven

Here are all seven of my art quilts that I made for Project Quilting's "Focus Through the Prism" challenge. (Click on the image to see larger.)

To participate you needed to purchase a ROYGBIV hand-dyed bundle of fabric from Cherrywood Fabrics and then at the beginning of the month a traditional quilting block was posted. Participants chose which of the seven focus fabrics they want to emphasize for the month, but other fabrics could be added. All quilts are 20" x 20" and the hope is to exhibit them together in the future.

I decided to make a series for my seven, since we were already constrained my size and color palette. I made mine in a nine-patch format around a solid black center square, with 2.5" borders of black with gold stars. Along with being the most prevalent color, the focus color has triangle shapes fused onto the center black square, on the borders, and on the other colors.

The backgrounds are pieced with the Cherrywood Fabric then smaller pieces of other fabrics that are almost the same color are fused on top of it.

Each piece has a pieces of black yarn arranged in an intentional fashion and couched down. The quilting lines echo the yarn 1/4" away with black thread. All are faced so there is no visible binding.

Here are my seven, with links to the blog post about each one:

Title : Monkey Tail
Month : May
Traditional Square : Monkey Wrench (aka Churn Dash)
Focus Color : Blue
Yarn Represents : A monkey's tail
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/05/monkey-tail-project-quilting.html

Title : A Second Self
Month : June
Traditional Square : Friendship Star
Focus Color : Yellow
Yarn Represents : Celtic friendship symbol (simplified)
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-second-self-project-quilting.html

Title : Cabin Sweet Cabin
Month : July
Traditional Square : Log Cabin
Focus Color : Purple
Yarn Represents : Smoke rising from a chimney
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/07/cabin-sweet-cabin-project-quilting.html

Title : Positively Pinwheels
Month : August
Traditional Square : Pinwheel
Focus Color : Orange
Yarn Represents : Wind blowing
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/08/positively-pinwheels-project-quilting.html

Title : Chasing Geese
Month : September
Traditional Square : Flying Geese
Focus Color : Indigo
Yarn Represents : A bird in flight
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/09/chasing-geese-project-quilting.html

Title : Nine Ball
Month : October
Traditional Square : Nine Patch
Focus Color : Green
Yarn Represents : A pool stick and cue ball
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/10/nine-ball-project-quilting.html

Title : Red Rubber Ball
Month : November
Traditional Square : Snow Ball
Focus Color : Red
Yarn Represents : A bouncing ball
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/11/red-rubber-ball-project-quilting.html




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

Photos from the "Five in Fiber" Exhibit at the Troy-Hayner Center

In case you can't make it to see the exhibit in person, here are photos from the “Five in Fiber” art quilt exhibit at the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center.

There are over 60 art quilts made by A. Sue DeSantis, Ronnie Doyal, Pam Geisel, Carroll Schleppi, and Lisa Quintana.

The Troy-Hayner Cultural Center is located at 301 W. Main St. in Troy and is open Mon. evenings 7-9p, Tues.-Thurs. 9a-9p, Fri. & Sat. 9a-5p, and Sun. 1-5p.

The exhibit runs through Oct. 4. Some of the quilts are downstairs but most of them are upstairs in the gallery room and in the hallway.

There will be a presentation by four of the exhibitors on the Dayton Landmark quilts on Sun. Sept. 27 at 2 pm.

If you've never been to the Troy-Hayner, it is a beautiful building (that used to be a private house).  The photo above is the front porch.

For more information visit www.troyhayner.org or call (937) 339-0457.

The quilts I have in the show are:

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates
Sunflowers at Ellis Pond
My Soul in a Blackberry Pie
Early Morning Nine Patch
Lavender Diamonds
A Second Self
Cabin Sweet Cabin
Monkey Tail
Inside of a Dog
Take Me Out to the Ball Game (interior and exterior)

A Second Self - Project Quilting

"A Second Self," 20" x 20", made for Project Quilting, Focus Through the Prism, Challenge 2: Friendship Star, June 2015 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

This is my second 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.

June's block is "Friendship Star."

I like to work in series. This hasn't really been possible with Project Quilting thus far because it helps to know what's coming up when you start the first project. But since the "Focus Through the Prism" quilts were already all going to be the same size and use the same fabrics, I thought this would be a good opportunity to create a Project Quilting series and have all of my quilts (hopefully seven when I'm finished) look like they belong together.

So I based my design for "A Second Self" off the layout of my first "Focus Through The Prism" challenge quilt, "Monkey Tail."

First (left) I used one large block with black in the center, like I did for "Monkey Tail." But the Monkey Wrench block was a little more complex than the Friendship Star block and I didn't like how the center of the Friendship Star was changed to black.

Second (center) I shrunk down the square so there were four of them and made the corner blocks that met in the center all black. I liked that, but not the asymmetry of the stars.

Third (right) and final, I flipped the upper right and lower left stars so they mirrored the other stars. I liked the symmetry and also the way the blue/purple and blue/green triangles met (next to the black squares).

Construction was just like in "Monkey Tail." I used the Cherrywood Fabric to piece the background then I used fused smaller fabric pieces that were just a shade darker or lighter in color. I used the same border fabric and couched a piece of black yarn, this time in a shape similar to the Celtic symbol for friendship. Then I quilted black quilting lines that echoed the yarn at 1/4" apart.

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

For the title, I was inspired by the Isabel Norton quote "In my friend, I find a second self."

More about A Second Self 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 Friendship Star link up.