Third Inspiration

First, one more piece for my quilt. Sorry to say that is all the stitching I have gotten done  lately.  I do like it but it is not much progress.

Second, I wanted to thank some friends who have helped to make the Dino Hats for the Maine Children's Home for Little Wanderers.  My good friend Beth offered to make 10 hats and she even mailed them to me when she was done!




Here is a picture of Shirlene, our Relief Society President as she made her first hat.  She has taken hat pieces home to make more.






























And here are our two Sister Missionaries as they cut out hat pieces.  Ah, I remember the days when I was that young.




Last, and really the primary reason I am writing this post, is a third inspiration for my next quilt.  I found it on Marion's Art. 

Isn't it wonderful?  It is called Manhattan Sunset by  Barbel Lehrke.  Really that is all I know about it except that Marion took a picture of it at an art show.  I tried finding out more about Barbel but haven't been successful.  If you know more about her work, please share with me.  Anyway, I chose it because it uses components and a motif to create a focal point.  That is my goal for my new quilt.

So, lets talk about the quilt for a minute.

1.  Orange and blue is one of my favorite color combination.  It is almost always exciting.

2.  I love the light blue in the middle and lower left.  I have often been told you need something at that bottom left so your eye doesn't just slide off the art piece.  That light blue does it for me.  I  look at it and then look around the rest of the piece to see if that light shade is anywhere else in the piece. And it is but in small enough quantities that I didn't notice them at first.  That subtle motif in the left corner also helps to stop the eye.  So very clever!

3.  And check out the motif.  Not only does it vary in color and prominence, it also varies in its shape.  Those motifs are similar but not identical.  So far in my  piece I have stuck to the identical shape while varying the size and ratios.  I think I am gonna be a bit bolder now in my double F variations.

4.  I really love the very dark used in the quilt.  I wish I could get a better picture but I think it looks like black rather than a darker blue, don't you?

5.  I can recognize the surface design of the mottled red and blue dyed areas but I am unsure of the more complex red and black areas.  Pieced?  Commercial Fabric?  Surface technique of some type?  Can't tell for sure but I love them. They are a nice contrast to the neighboring open spaces.

6.  And the focal point?  I think it is those crazy very orange components surrounded by the dark complex areas surrounded by the more open areas.

Yep.  I like this quilt.