Yellow Springs Americana Series: Picnic at Ellis Pond

"Picnic at Ellis Pond," 18.5" x 28", made by Pam Geisel, July 2013

All of the quilts in this series were made the same way. Using InDesign, I drew the outlines for the shapes then printed them out actual size (I had to tile print them onto 9 sheets of paper then tape them back together).

"Picnic at Ellis Pond" in progress

I placed the printed layout under a piece of fusible interfacing, which is thin enough to still see the outlines, and built the quilt top by putting the fabric pieces on top of the interfacing.

Once the pieces are all in place they are fused to the interfacing. The quilts are all machine quilted, sometimes with a foot and sometimes with free motion, although it can sometimes be difficult doing free motion quilting on a quilt that has a lot of fused pieces of fabric as the needle will drag and not do what you want it to.

All of the quilts are faced for their binding so the binding isn’t visible, and I “signed” them all with the sewing machine.

I knew I wanted one of the quilts to be a picnic scene but wasn’t sure where it should be. I went out with my camera to several places around Yellow Springs including the picnic area at John Bryan State Park but the images from John Bryan could have been anywhere.

Reference photo

I ended up at Ellis Pond and thought the combination of the pond and the weeping willow trees made it more distinct, although I did make some adjustments to the layout.

"Picnic at Ellis Pond" detail

The picnic basket features one of the few commercial prints used in this series, most of the fabrics are hand dyed or batiks, but I already had the fabric and it was the right size so I went with it. The backing fabric is also the basket weave.

"Picnic at Ellis Pond" detail

I’d bought the water fabric awhile ago with the intent of using it for water at some point.

The quilt under the basket is fused but the edges were folded over to give it some dimension against the grass.

This is all machine raw edge appliqué.

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Yellow Springs Americana Series: Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm

"Sunflowersat Whitehall Farm," 17.5" x 28", made by Pam Geisel, July 2013

Just north of Yellow Springs on State Route 68 there’s a field that for the last several years has had sunflowers planted in it. There have been a few near accidents because so many people stop to take photos because it’s such an awe-inspiring sight.

Part of the property has a wire fence but I decided to use my artistic license and add the wooden fence so I had somewhere to lean the bicycle.

"Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm" detail

The sunflowers are made from three different commercial sunflower prints that vary in size. I added the brown batik fabric to the center of all the sunflowers to unify them. I also added over a hundred light purple seed beads to represent the centers of the last rows of sunflowers.

I found the perfect hand-dyed fabric that had yellow and green blended together to use for the background behind the sunflower stems.

"Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm" detail

The chain on the bicycle is black cord that is couched down and the spokes are stitched thread.

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Yellow Springs Americana Series: Lazy Summer Afternoon

"Lazy SummerAfternoon," 18.75" x 28", made by Pam Geisel, July 2013

This is not our front porch. I love our front porch but it’s different than this one. We did used to have a red porch swing, but we don’t anymore.

While I was working on this quilt, my husband was putting new siding on our house. He went with a tongue-and groove cedar that he stained, I went with yellow clapboards. He installed two new windows while I only had to make one.

"Lazy Summer Afternoon" detail

The clapboards on the house were made by folding over the bottom edge but laying them down starting at the top. Getting the angle of the clapboards and the window were a little tricky.

The railing is pieced, everything else is raw edge appliqué. The “chains” that the swing hangs from are black cord that is couched down.

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Yellow Springs Americana Series: My Soul in a Blackberry Pie

"My Soul in a Blackberry Pie," 18.75" x 28", made by Pam Geisel, July 2013

For this quilt the picket fence and most of the window elements were machine pieced.

The pie, rocks, bushes, and chair are raw edge appliqué so those pieces were made by drawing the reverse of the images onto a paper-backed fusible web, fusing it to the fabric, cutting it out, then layering the pieces on the quilt.

"My Soul in a Blackberry Pie," detail

My husband makes fantastic pies so I used a photo of one of his pies as a reference. He likes to make the lattice crust tops so I made mine the same way by cutting out the fabric strips and weaving them together. I quilted berry shapes on the purple fabric.

While I didn't do this intentionally, I noticed that most of the quilts in this series play with perspective, having one object in the foreground (the pie) and other objects in the background (the chair). By making the pie larger than the chair, I indicate to the view that it is closer to them (close enough to touch...don't you want to?)

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Yellow Springs Americana Series: Kings Yard Farmers Market

"Kings Yard Farmers Market," 18.5" x 28", made by Pam Geisel, July 2013

We are fortunate to have three Farmers Markets in Yellow Springs, two on Saturday morning and one on Thursday afternoon. I knew I wanted to make a quilt of the market, but wasn’t sure how I’d make it into a vertical format like the other quilts in this series.

I went to the market and took lots of photos and decided that the focus should be inside one of the canopies with the other canopies in the background.

Reference photo

I cropped the photo, changed the lettuce to a photo of apples and pumpkins that I had taken last fall, changed the honey to a collection of different color tomatoes (also taken last fall), added a canopy, and changed the trucks in the background to crates of produce.

"Kings Yard Farmers Market" detail

This is all machine raw edge appliqué so there were a lot of raw edges to be quilted down, including all the tomatoes. 

The fabric I used for the barrels holding the apples is the same fabric I used for the center of the sunflowers in "Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm" and in the center of the flowers on "Picnic at Ellis Pond."

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Yellow Springs Americana Series: Patio at the Winds Cafe

"Patio at the Winds Cafe," 18.5" x 28", by Pam Geisel, July 2013

Since I made this series of quilts to be hung in a group show at the Winds Cafe in Yellow Springs, I wanted to create a quilt that featured them.

Reference photo

This summer the Winds installed a new patio dining area. I love to eat at restaurants that have outdoor dining areas and was especially drawn to this area because of the lights they have.

I wanted this quilt to be a scene set in the evening so I could light the lights. I also loved the architecture that was included in this photo: the exterior stairs on the left and the building on the right that support the lights and the canopies.

This is all machine raw edge appliqué. The wires supporting the lights are the same black cord I used to hang the front porch swing in “Lazy Summer Afternoon” and for the bicycle chain in “Sunflowers at Whitehall Farm.”

For the fence in front of the table first I tried a piece of blue cord because I thought it would tie in with the blue of the canopies but I thought it felt too confining so I switched to a purply cord that picked up the colors of the fabric at the bottom of the quilt (the brick walkway).

"Patio at the Winds Cafe" detail

The lights were made by cutting small yellow circles and fusing them to the background then I cut larger circles from a yellow sheer fabric and stitched them to the circles. Then I hand pieced some large, iridescent sequins that helped cover the stitched and give the lights a “glow.”

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Adventures in Design art quilts

Adventures in Design series, made by Pam Geisel June 2013 

My art quilt group, the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network, has been holding Study Group meetings once a month where we explore design principles while working through the book “Adventures in Design” by Joen Wolfrom.

Because my background is in graphic design and I am already familiar with most of these concepts I thought it would be fun to take the title of this book literally and make a series of quilts that explore design principles.

This series covers these design elements: Line, Color, Letters/Words, Proportion and Scale, Texture, and Shape. Over the next few days I will focus on each quilt and the concept it covers.

My quilts are on display along with quilts made by other members of the study group from July 1 through Aug. 31 in the Epiphany Gallery at South Park United Methodist Church, 140 Stonemill Road in Dayton, Ohio. The quilts can be viewed Mon.-Thurs. from 9 am-2 pm and on Sunday before and after the service.

Tomorrow...Adventures in Design: Line

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Adventures in Design: Line

“Lines of Text,” 9” x 7.5”, made by Pam Geisel June 2013

The first design element we worked with was “Line.”

In her book “Adventures in Design,” Joen Wolfrom says that Line is “the element that provides the simplest, most effective way to make your design possible.” It can define a shape, direction, or movement.

One of the assignments in the book was to take photos of images that illustrate vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines. We had tickets to a Cincinnati Reds game so we went down early and I took photos of downtown that I thought emphasized this concept.

I was especially interested in this photo: the vertical lines of the fountain spray and in the buildings in the background, plus the diagonal lines of the tiles in the foreground of the fountain.

I decided I wanted a literal interpretation of the design element so I played with the concept “Lines of Text” and cut fabric that had words on it to use as the diagonal lines made by the tile.

Along with raw edge appliqué, a technique I used in this quilt was couching white yarn to the background to make the water spray.

Since this was the first quilt of the series, it determined the fabrics that I’d use for the background for all the other quilts, and it turns out I had just enough of to make all six. I also decided I’d use the fabric with words on it in all of the quilts.

Tomorrow...Adventures in Design: Color 

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Adventures in Design: Color

“Colorful Language,” 9” x 7.5”, made by Pam Geisel June 2013

The design element for this quilt is the most visible concept: color. Color can create mood, evoke feelings, and create visual drama.

For our assignment we were given a set of color chips and told to select a color we consider to be ugly. I chose Olive Green. Then we were told to pick colors that would go with the ugly color and make a quilt with it.

When I got home and looked at my fabric, I had several olive green pieces that I really liked so to me there was a big difference between a flat color on a color chip and the rich color of a textured or batik fabric. Not to mention I have a lot of olive green clothing, especially pants and shorts so the color must not be that ugly to me.

There are a lot of phrases with the word color but not a whole lot that don’t actually have to do with color so for my literal interpretation I went with a sanitized version of “Colorful Language,” although two of my words are also verbs (“SHOOT a photo” and “DARN a sock”).

To make this quilt I printed the words in reverse, traced onto fusible web, fused to back of the fabric bubble (the darker color) and cut out the letters, much like reverse raw edge appliqué. I placed these fabric bubbles over lighter color fabric.

For font geeks: “Shoot” is AR Christy, “Darn is Showcard Gothic, and “Geez” is Matisse ITC.

Tomorrow...Adventures in Design: Letters/Words

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Adventures in Design: Letters/Words

“Love Letter,”  9” x 7.5”, made by Pam Geisel June 2013

The design element for this piece is the use of letters or words as graphic elements. The use of text as a graphic element is more noticeable in graphic design but has been become more popular in fiber arts.

Our assignment was to choose a letter and print it out in several different fonts, then play around with it: stretch it, rotate it, whatever. I wanted to represent the capital letter ‘E’ without actually using an ‘E’ so I played around with upside-down ‘3’s and ampersands. (Fun fact: the ampersand symbol originated as the letters ‘e’ and ‘t’ squished together.)

The literal interpretation I went with is a love letter. (See if you can find the letters ‘L’, ‘O’, and ‘V’ in the envelope; the ampersand can also be read as the letter ‘E’.)

For this quilt I made a fabric envelope and appliquéd it to the quilt top.

For font geeks: the ampersand is Adobe Caslon Pro.

Tomorrow...Adventures in Design:  Proportion and Scale(s)

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Adventures in Design: Proportion and Scale(s)

“Fishy, Fishy” 9” x 7.5”, made by Pam Geisel June 2013

Proportion and Scale are the design elements for the next piece. In her book “Adventures in Design” Joen Wolfrom defines Proportion as “how shapes interact with each other within a design” and Scale as “a composition and its total design.” It is also a good way to let the viewer know that something is nearer or farther away, and also what is most important.

Our assignment was proportion is a slightly different sense. Instead of the proportion of shapes, we were given a photo and instructed to make a quilt using the same colors in the photo in the same proportion. 

Luckily for me the colors I’ve been using all along were in the photo I was given. (OK, there's a bit more dark blue in my quilt than in the photo, but it was a place to start.)

For my literal interpretation I decided to use two fish for my subject matter. One is larger with larger scales and a larger eye, and a smaller fish with smaller scales and a smaller eye, although in this design the smaller fish could also just be a smaller fish. Of course literally scales are part of a fish.

Some techniques I used include couched thread for the seaweed and hand-attached mussel shell “coins” for the fish scales.

Tomorrow...Adventures in Design: Texture

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Adventures in Design: Texture

“Every Fiber of Her Being,” 9” x 7.5”, made by Pam Geisel June 2013

The next design element, Texture, adds “extra spice and visual richness to a design” states Joen Wolfrom in her book “Adventures in Design.”

Unlike most 2-D graphic design where texture is indicated, in fabric texture is already literal. For this piece I added some crocheted yarn for the shawl and soft, fuzzy yarn for the hair.

The other part of our assignment was to use a geometric shape placed on top of the color wheel to determine the colors to be used in this quilt, although neutral colors can also be added.

I used a triangle (a triadic color plan) and got blue-violet (the background), green (her dress), and orange (her hair).

As a fiber artist I’ve always loved the phrase “With every fiber of my being” so I decided to do a literal interpretation of that phrase.

Is this a self portrait? Well, I’m a pale woman who wears glasses. My hair is blonde (and currently shorter than here) but not only didn’t I have any yarn that was close in color to my hair, it also wouldn’t have met the color criteria for this quilt. Plus the orange/red hair goes better with the colors in the other quilts in this series.

I couched the yarn on this quilt and I also couched the crocheted doily with the same color thread, which worked better than I thought it would. The glasses and face are hand-stitched.

Tomorrow...Adventures in Design:  Shape

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Adventures in Design: Shape

“Bent Out of Shape,” 9” x 7.5”, made by Pam Geisel June 2013

The final design element is Shape.

Our assignment was to first doodle some organic shapes in a piece of paper. Then we divided another piece of paper into rectangles, a geometric shape. Then we drew one of the simple organic shapes inside the rectangles, expanding and stretching it to fit as needed.

I started off with a leaf shape, although once I ‘bent it out of shape’ it looks more like a tear drop to me. I emphasized the shape by making by highlighting half of the leaf with a lighter color. I really like how the four pointed ends come together creating a focal point.

More about this quilt and the Adventure in Design series