Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing with Moon Quilts

 

"Time Lapse Moon Rise" (above) is the art quilt that I made to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the moon landing. It is still travelling as a part of the "Fly Me to the Moon" exhibit and was also included in the "Fly Me to the Moon: An Art Quilt Journey" book. 

But it seems that I like to use the moon in my quilts as I've included it in at least five other quilts. Usually I like to use it as a full moon, but there is one that has a sliver of a moon. Some of the moons could also be suns, if that's how you want to look at them.

 Millefiori Moonlight

This moon (or sun) on this quilt doesn't have any quilting on it so it puffs out away from the quilt. I did add some extra batting behind it to give it even more shape.

Quilt Encounters of the Thread Kind

One of my more recent quilts, this one uses hand dyed fabrics and the fabric for the moon has some light purples in it.

Sheep Dreams Counting Sheep

This moon, and the counterpoint circle of light green fabric behind the sheep in the lower right corner both have yarn couched around their edges.

Mr. Moonlight

This piece was made from a silk necktie that was cut apart and sewn back together in a square. I usually make neckties into purses but the image on this one was so interesting I beaded it and wrapped it around a frame so it could be hung.

Gypsy Moon

The moon, and the swoosh above it, are a peach-colored taffeta. This quilt uses several non-cotton fabrics including silks, velvets, and shiny denim. 

Quilt Encounters of the Thread Kind - my 600th Quilt AND and Art Panel

 

"Quilt Encounters of the Thread Kind" 16" x 21", handmade by Pam Geisel, 2019

I'm a member of Village Artisans, an artist co-op in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Several years ago some community members created art panels that hung on the outside of our building at 100 Corry St. Unfortunately time and weather caused some of the panels to warp and split and we decided it was time to create some new panels.

I knew my 600th quilt was coming up and I decided that I wanted to make a panel (24" x 48") and also a quilt with the same image. I actually had a lot of ideas and was having difficulty narrowing it down but I also wanted to use paint that I already had on hand. Eventually I settled on a UFO and camping idea.

Luckily when I went to use the paint, most of it was still good (a little surprising considering the paint was 18 years old! Way to go Do It Best High Gloss Enamel!). I had originally planned on the body of the UFO being red but the red paint can was rusted shut but fortunately for me I also had a can of purple and hadn't planned on using it, but it was still good.

I wanted to use the shapes on my panel as solid colors (instead of blending them while painting) so it would translate better when I made the quilted image, which I also made a little wider, proportionally.

Once the panel was finished, I made the quilt. I used hand dyed fabric which I fused then sewed down the edges when quilting and I added some quilting around the moon and coming out of the UFO.

I used my favorite knife-edge binding but I liked the look of the ground floating in the blue so I left part of the background showing at the bottom and on the sides.

There's an inside joke among quilters: UFOs are what we call our Un-Finished Objects (projects). 

The Art Panels

Here are some photos of all the panels. To see more photos of the other panels, visit the Village Artisan's blog.

The 14 panels on the building.

L-R: Rosie Huart, mine, Sue Brezine, and Cynthia McDonald

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

More about Quilt Encounters of the Thread Kind.