Wild Roses (Sketch)

Wild Roses Sketch, half the size of image in the next entry below, pinned a bunch of fabric on top of it working out color fixes that I incorporated into the below composition. Haven't decided how I would attach those pieces on top, because I like them.

My idea is to keep the pinned on fabric and just raw-edge quilt it down, just as it is. I like the bits of color, but it would never make sense to take it apart and sew it in. It is more sensable to just sew it on top of what is already there. Now it has had time to marinade I feel like I can finish it!

Big Wild Roses

Wild Roses Big, made it, first picture piecing I drafted myself, not that thrilled with it when I got it done, so I hung it up hoping I would like it again someday. It is about twice as big as the 05 sktech

I may go a head and put it into a quilt after all (see 05)

My First Quilt

My First Quilt: I started after a saw an exhibit in San Fransciso in 1988 at the San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum about quilts that were made from different types of fabric. They were called improvisational quilts. Wild colors were used, the corners didn't match, some women didn't even use templates! None of the quilts I saw were traditional by any stretch. My Artist eye saw abstract compositions and fantastic art, a voice in my head said "you can do that". Everything about them sang to me. Soon afterwards I got aquainted with the the local fabric stores in San Francisco and started collecting fabric. I had to make a quilt that was improvisational. Forget that I didn't know anything about proper quilting, I knew how to sew and I had a sewing machine. I've never been one for following directions.

Thankfully, Mom bought the exhibit catalog, I've since adopted it into my collection and still never tire of pulling it out and reliving that day those quilts caught a hold of me.

African American Improvisational quilting has influenced my work ever since, but I am afraid I will probably never be free enough to be truely improvisational. The latest sensation to come around is Gee's Bend and I just LOVED that exhibit too.
Gee's Bend

Here is a picture of the top when I revealed it in 1990, not exactly improvisational, but I did design my own pattern and each block is slightly different shades of the same pallet. The light areas of the blocks are just that, different colors that I tried to arrange in an interesting way. I started quilting it, but haven't pulled it out since the mid-nineties. I still have it tucked safely away. I like order too much to not make each block exactly the same and arrange the colors symetrically


Everything was stiched down onto a foundation piece of fabric, there isn't any batting because it is already so heavy. Each block is carefully quilted with matching thread. It is about a queen size top.

New Timon

New Timon is a quilt of an image of my orange tabby Timon. It is all hand pieced using English Paper Piecing. It will be approximately 48" x 72"

2/24-
New Timon is making good progress


One section ready to be sewn together

Inspector Timon checking on my progress

My work area while taking the fabric and basting it to the paper foundations

This is while I was cutting the fabric to fit the colors in the image, I started it in 2002


This is the second quilt I've made of Timon using this technique...

Here is the first one, and the first one I ever made. I've learned so much more since then:
The new image is less abstract, his eyes are open, and is easier to tell it is a cat. My stitches are better, my colors were more planned out ahead of time. I am more organized as to how I am assembling it.

"Taking the Train with Timon" 41" x 49" (2001)